BELLINGHAM, Wash. - The process for putting a new rail shipping terminal on the Washington coast isn't exactly clipping along like a fast-moving train. It could take years to do the environmental studies and more years to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal now proposed for Whatcom County. In the meantime, citizens' groups are trying to keep the issue top-of-mind for residents of the area.

The League of Women Voters (LWV) of Bellingham/Whatcom County and League of Women Voters of Snohomish County have taken on the challenge. Members have organized meetings, hosted a radio talk show about the terminal project and are planning a postcard campaign.

Bellingham/Whatcom County LWV co-president Jayne Freudenberger says they want the public to have the same opportunities to weigh in as SSA Marine, the terminal developer, has had.

"SSA has been working with the county, as most applicants do, to get their permits up. People think, 'Well, shoot, they've had the ear of the county and the planning department for three years now!' What we want to do is make sure that the citizens have a chance to speak."

With hearing dates, studies, announcements and deadlines - and often months between them - it's easy for people to miss something, says Michelle Valentine, president of Snohomish County LWV. To help them sort it all out, she says, the Bellingham-Whatcom League is posting information online as it becomes available.

"This will stimulate people to understand the complexities of the issue, as well as get them feeling more prepared to show up for a public hearing or to make a comment in writing."

Valentine points out that the League is nonpartisan but does take stands on some issues.

SSA Marine also has a website where it compiles information in favor of the port expansion, touting the potential jobs and tax revenues.

A vessel traffic study is now under way. Freudenberger says it should be included in the environmental impact scoping process for the project.

"We think the train impacts need to be studied across the state, not just impacts at the site itself. We think the water, the Salish Sea, is particularly important because we're going to have about 500 new trips by vessels coming into this place. There are a lot of issues besides just the site."

League of Women Voters members took part in discussions for a new terminal in the late 1990s, long before the push to increase coal shipments through the Northwest. The project raised concerns about potential damage to marine life and wasn't built.

LWV information is available at http://lwvbellinghamwhatcom.org. The SSA site is http://gatewaypacificterminal.com.




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Pennsylvania is among the states where massive protests and tent encampments opposing the war in Gaza are growing.

Elez Beresin-Scher, a sociology student at Bryn Mawr College, is at the Free Gaza encampment on campus. She explained there are about 44 tents full of students who have been sleeping there since Saturday night.

She spoke to Sonali Kolhatkar on the TV and radio show Yes! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali.

"We are here because our college has $5 million of its endowment invested in Israeli technology," Beresin-Scher pointed out. "We know that this money is complicit in the genocide of Palestinians; over 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered by the State of Israel."

Beresin-Scher added they are calling on the college and the university president's office to divest Israeli holdings and endorse a cease-fire resolution passed by 89% of the student body about a month ago. She added they will be at the encampment indefinitely until their two demands are met.

Pro-Israel groups argued the war is justified given the massacre perpetrated by Hamas, which kicked off the most recent violence. Beresin-Scher noted they are taking a significant risk but they believe genocide is occurring in Palestine and they want to see it end.

"We're recognizing that Palestinian students have been murdered, or are not able to continue their education because every university in Gaza has been bombed, has been destroyed," Beresin-Scher emphasized. "That's the perspective that we're coming from."

Beresin-Scher has been a member of Jewish Voice for Peace since her freshman year, and said it is upsetting to hear the encampments are being portrayed as anti-Semitic. She noted it is something she has never encountered as someone who has organized with Students for Justice in Palestine.

This story was produced based on original reporting by Sonali Kolhatkar for Yes! Media.

Massive protests and tent encampments opposing the war in Gaza are growing at universities across California, with classes canceled at the University of California-Los Angeles Wednesday, after tensions boiled over into violence there.

Police arrested 25 students at California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt Tuesday.

An organizer named Rithik from the Students for Gaza encampment at San Francisco State University recently spoke to Sonali Kolhatkar for her TV and radio show Yes! Presents: Rising Up with Sonali.

"Students everywhere are appalled at the current genocide occurring in Gaza that is being perpetrated by Israel and backed by the United States," Rithik stated. "We understand that our taxpayer money is not going towards our own education, but rather to fund this genocide and wars of aggression across the world."

At San Francisco State, students are demanding the California State University System divest any holdings in companies selling arms to Israel, assurances the student protesters will not be sanctioned by the school, and for the university president to make a statement opposing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and declaring the war a genocide.

Pro-Israel groups argued the war is justified given the massacre perpetrated by Hamas, which kicked off the most recent violence. They also worry Jewish students will feel intimidated on campus. However, a Jewish student named Jacob at San Francisco State said it has not been his experience.

"I don't think we've ever felt that any of the actions being taken in the name of anti-Zionism and anti-colonialism are antisemitic," Jacob asserted. "Never felt unsafe, never felt unwelcome in these spaces. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism."

San Francisco State President Lynn Mahoney has emphasized the university's support for peaceful protest and said the university has already taken steps to divest.

This story was produced based on original reporting by Sonali Kolhatkar for Yes! Media.


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A new report showed turnover among California chief election officials reached 57% in 2022, a record high. It then declined this year to 40%.

Researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles partnered with the Bipartisan Policy Center to analyze the data from 18,000 jurisdictions nationwide.

Rachel Orey, senior associate director of the Elections Project for the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the jobs of election workers have become significantly harder in recent years.

"Today, election officials must manage everything from cybersecurity risks posed by foreign adversaries to people who are doubting the outcome of elections, to information technology, legal disputes, political pressures," Orey outlined.

The turnover rate is defined as the percentage of jurisdictions in a state where the chief local election official changed within the prior four years. It has been an issue in California for decades. The turnover rate stood at 41% back in 2004. But things got much worse after 2020, when election officials became targets of threats and harassment, often spurred by former President Donald Trump's evidence-free claims about a rigged election.

Orey noted she expects this year's presidential election to go smoothly, because dozens of states, including California, have done a lot to "beef up" the elections workforce.

"Sixty-five percent of local election officials have experience running a presidential election," Orey pointed out. "Where there are new officials, we find that they have an average of eight years of experience in an election office. So all in all, we see that election officials are well-prepared to administer the 2024 presidential election."

The report recommended better funding for elections offices, higher salaries and more training in order to attract and retain a highly skilled election workforce.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Carnegie Corporation of New York.


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