BIZ BRIEFS P.03 + WEEK THAT WAS P.04 + INDEX P.05 c a s c a d i a REPORTING FROM THE HEART OF CASCADIA WHATCOM*SKAGIT*SURROUNDING AREAS 12-02-2020 • ISSUE: 49 • V.15 SPRING FLING Shelter in place with FishBoy P.09 THISWEEK Contact FOOD Cascadia Weekly: 360.647.8200 mail TOC LETTERS STAFF Advertising 6 Sales Manager: Calvin Schoneck ext 1 B-BOARD sales@ cascadiaweekly.com Fresh from his role as a host for Whatcom Literacy Council’s annual Trivia Bee fundraiser, Ken Jennings has accepted an Editorial offer to temporarily take over hosting duties for Jeopardy! FILM after the Nov. 8 death of longtime host Alex Trebek. The Editor & Publisher: Tim Johnson Seattle-based Jennings first gained fame in 2004, when he ext 3 won 74 consecutive games of the television quiz show. New editor@ Jeopardy! episodes with Jennings at the helm will begin cascadiaweekly.com airing Jan. 11. MUSIC Arts & Entertainment Editor: Amy Kepferle ext 2 ART calendar@ cascadiaweekly.com Music Editor: Carey Ross music@ STAGE cascadiaweekly.com Intern: Wren Healy Production GET OUT Art Director: Jesse Kinsman jesse@ kinsmancreative.com WORDS Design: WEB-ONLY PDF Bill Kamphausen DEAR READERS—In a bill@ 4 moment of constricted kamphausendesign.com WHO PAYS THE COST? is a block that has to be overcome by constant arts and entertainment Advertising Design: I’m awaiting the day when every residential educational organizational activity.” coverage, and as a means Roman Komarov structure will have its own solar cell array. How- I feel he’s putting it mildly. to reduce costs and health roman@ CURRENTS risks to our production cascadiaweekly.com ever, apparently large electric companies can re- —Frank Sterle Jr., White Rock, B.C. and distribution staff, Cascadia Weekly will Send all advertising materials to strict independent use of solar panels. produce a print version every other week at [email protected] Interviewed by the online National Observer , SMOKE AND NOISE least through Phase 2 of the governor’s Safe VIEWS renowned linguist and cognitive scientist Noam Over the past four years, I have resisted re- Start program. We will continue to produce Distribution Chomsky emphasized humankind’s immense im- sponding to Washington, D.C. shenanigans with new articles each week and will post those 2 Distribution Manager: 2 mediate need to revert to renewable energies— a childhood epithet: “It takes one to know one.” online at www.cascadiaweekly.com. Erik Burge We’ll continue to produce a small PDF such notably, that offered by our sun. While many of those times deserved the childish MAIL MAIL distribution@ as this in alternate weeks to provide the cascadiaweekly.com In Tucson, Arizona, for example, “the sun is sentiment, somehow it did not quite fit. special features many of our readers request. Whatcom: Erik Burge, shining… most of the year, [but] take a look and This past month I slowly began to understand Look for our next print issue on the streets Stephanie Simms Weds., Dec. 9. see how many solar panels you see. Our house that the perpetrator of those shenanigans was 12.02.20 For those who wish to support Cas- Skagit: Linda Brown, in the suburbs is the only one that has them [in the problem. Donald Trump has been yelling cadia Weekly, see the information at Barb Murdoch the vicinity],” Chomsky said. “People are com- “fraud” so much that not only has the word be- .15 www.cascadiaweekly.com/support. Thank you plaining that they have a thousand-dollar elec- come powerless in describing the actions of oth- 49 Letters # for your generosity at a difficult moment for SEND LETTERS TO LETTERS@ tric bill per month over the summer for air con- ers, its real meaning has taken on a life. the publishing industry. CASCADIAWEEKLY.COM ditioning but won’t put up a solar panel; and, in Yes, a life. Namely Donald Trump—he is the BIZ BRIEFS P.03 + WEEK THAT WAS P.04 + INDEX P.05 c a s c a d i a fact, the Tucson electric company makes it hard fraud extraordinaire. REPORTING FROM THE HEART OF CASCADIA WHATCOM*SKAGIT*SURROUNDING AREAS 12-02-2020 • ISSUE: 49 • V.15 ©2020 CASCADIA WEEKLY (ISSN 1931-3292) is published each Wednesday by to do. For example, our solar panel has some of Politics used to have the image of decisions Cascadia Newspaper Company LLC. Direct all correspondence to: Cascadia the panels missing because you’re not allowed being made in smoky back rooms. Our President Weekly PO Box 2833 Bellingham WA 98227-2833 | Phone/Fax: 360.647.8200 [email protected] to produce too much electricity…. People have over the past month or so is the source of the Though Cascadia Weekly is distributed free, please take just one copy. Cascadia Weekly may be distributed only by authorized distributors. Any person removing CASCADIA WEEKLY to come to understand that they’ve just got to smoke. Much on the order of laying a smoke- papers in bulk from our distribution points risks prosecution SUBMISSIONS: Cascadia Weekly welcomes freelance submissions. Send material [reform their habitual non-renewable energy screen of false labels against others so that no 2 to either the News Editor or A&E Editor. Manuscripts will be returned if you consumption], and fast; and it doesn’t harm one will notice the crap that he is perpetrating. include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. To be considered for calendar list- ings, notice of events must be received in writing no later than noon Wednesday SPRING FLING Shelter in place them, it improves their lives. For example, it Unfortunately, those in the Republican Party with FishBoy P.09 the week prior to publication. Photographs should be clearly labeled and will be COVER: Illustration by returned if accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelope. even saves money,” Chomsky said. who could blow that smoke away are refusing Angel Boligan “But just the psychological barrier that says to do so. Some, like our own Doug Ericksen, we have to keep to the common beliefs [favoring prefer to operate as if the President were tell- fossil fuels] and that [doing otherwise] is some- ing the truth. how a radical thing that we have to be scared of, —James E. Weaver, Bellingham PARTNERSHIPS, NOT COURTS, water needed for farms will be far less SOLVE WATER ISSUES certain than today. Salmon are part of what makes What- Farms cannot exist with such uncer- GIVING THANKS com County such a beautiful place to tainty and will begin going out of busi- MEALS FOR live. Farms play a large role in protecting ness—their land likely bought up for THE MANY salmon, however, both farms and salmon development. Our community will be for- Several are in peril. ever changed in irreparable ways. local busi- The Lummi Nation and Whatcom farm- The Department of Ecology needs to nesses worked FOOD ers signed an agreement called the Por- take a step back. Governor Jay Inslee and overtime this tage Bay Partnership Jan. 5, 2017. The Ecology Director Laura Watson need to Thanksgiving to provide meals for agreement ended threats of legal action allow and support cooperative processes BUSINESS folks who would otherwise have 6 against farmers for water quality con- like the Portage Bay Partnership to re- to go without. Among them were cerns and pledged farmers and the tribes solve the remaining issues. the Community Food Co-op, Ca- BRIEFS B-BOARD would work together to improve farm op- Adjudication, as the court process is 12.02.20 lypso Kitchen, Clara’s Canning, and erations and address all sources of water called, will turn the issue over to lawyers. BY CAREY ROSS Brandywine Kitchen, who teamed contamination. The goal was to reopen This process forces each stakeholder into up with Misha Collins and Random the Portage Bay shellfish beds and pro- their own corners, halting the good work Acts to fill hungry bellies. FILM vide lasting solutions to water quality in now underway and the partnerships that RESTAURANT NEWS the Nooksack basin. would best resolve water use. IL GRANAIO PAYING IT FORWARD Just over two years later, the state De- —Rich Appel, Mount Vernon mainstay, Il Granaio Mount Vernon’s Shambala partment of Health reopened the shell- Whatcom dairy farmer and president of Italian Restaurant, has a new owner. The Bakery is giving customers the MUSIC fish beds for most of the year due to im- Whatcom Family Farmers beloved eatery, about to celebrate two opportunity to donate $5 to proving water quality. Farm-destroying decades of bringing hearty Italian fare purchase a Soup-er Supper for litigation was stopped. Local communi- HELP STRUGGLING to the Skagit Valley, will continue to be someone in need. The fiver buys ties and the county expanded their work BUSINESSES family-owned—it’ll just be a different a takeout meal of hearty soup, a ART in reducing contamination from stormwa- I am very proud to live in Belling- family going forward. Stop by and wel- wholegrain roll, SunButter and ter runoff and septic systems. Significant ham and to see how much we all love come them to the neighborhood. juice for anyone who wants a hot contamination from Canada had been en- our towns here in Whatcom County. Our meal. Slap down five bucks, leave STAGE tering our local streams and affecting the towns thrive on the character and offer- TAPROOM TRANSFORMATION an encouraging note, bask in the shellfish beds, but we recently learned ings of small businesses and those they Never ones to let an opportunity go karmic glow. the contamination has been reduced due employ.