SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE NEWSLETTER
Supporting nonprofit journalism
After receiving our first grant for investigative journalism, we’re excited at Cascadia Magazine about the potential to create an online magazine for the region that features journalism, arts and environmental coverage, and essays, fiction, and poetry from across the Pacific Northwest. Though traditional journalism and publishing is in crisis, we’re convinced that one way forward is to create a nonprofit publication that’s dedicated to publishing great writing about issues that matter.
Canada is taking some interesting steps in this direction The Narwhal reports on how the government is considering changes, including modifying federal rules that permit nonprofit news organizations to allow their donors to take tax credits– as well creating a government fund to promote journalism.
Cascadia Magazine and Cascadia Daily will look to grants and foundations for a portion of our funding, but we can’t do it without the support of our readers. By becoming a monthly recurring donor, you’ll help us create a sustainable funding source so we can bring you the high-quality content you appreciate. Please visit our donate page to learn more.
Vancouver’s modular housing success story
Dan Fumano, writing for the Vancouver Sun, looks at the completion of 606 units of modular housing designed to make a dent in homelessness across Vancouver. After the BC government pumped $66 million into the project, some homeless service agencies are now reporting dips in homeless counts. The units at 10 sites across the city are built on surplus city land, managed by nonprofits, and though inexpensive, are surprisingly sharp looking (I had the opportunity to see some of them on a recent trip to Vancouver). More on the projects here.
Oregon may pass major pesticide restrictions
Sightline Institute reports on a raft of bills in the Oregon legislature that would increase restrictions on dangerous pesticides, including limits on aerial spraying of forests and a ban on chlorpyrifos. The Statesman-Review has more on the bills and arguments made for protecting bee populations.
A wedding at a Tacoma immigration detention center
Lilly Fowler at Crosscut has a great story on a wedding the federal Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. Sudheer Rao Moturi, who came to the US from India as a toddler, has had a few run-ins with the law, but has generally got his life back together. But since he was detained by immigration authorities, he’s been separated from his fiance, Susan Friedman, for two years–but the couple were finally allowed to wed in a touching small ceremony.
Nullifying the Warm Springs Treaty of 1865
The 1865 Huntington Treaty between the US government and Warm Springs Tribes has long been considered fraudulent and rejected as illegal by the courts, and there’s a movement growing in Oregon’s congressional delegation to formally nullify the treaty. In other Indigenous news, The Globe and Mail reports on a controversial effort in the Kwantlen First Nation to scale back the power of heredity leadership in favor of democratically elected band councils. And a new city of Seattle gallery in the King Street train station building is debuting a collection of multi-disciplinary art by Coast Salish Indigenous artists, KUOW reports.
Paintings of angry white men in Vancouver
CBC reports on a new series of paintings, “Angry White Men,” by painter David Haugton, now on display at Vancouver’s The Visual Space Gallery. It’s a collection of disturbing and unflinching look at white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and guns activists. The retired physician-turned-painter won’t sell any of the works but hopes they’ll eventually teach museum goers about the creeping alt-right movement across the world: “I’m not going to sell any of these, no one in their right mind would buy one of these and put them above the fireplace or give it to their Aunt Mable,” he says.
“Ambition,” poetry by Tess Gallagher
Over at the New Yorker, read longtime Port Angeles, WA resident Tess Gallagher’s lovely poem “Ambition,” about a sublime encounter with nature on a fishing trip in the Salish Sea:
“. . . Not even death could touch
any mind of us. It was all beauty and
mystery, the kind that picks you up
effortlessly and darts through you
for just those moments
you aren’t even there.”
Read the full poem here.
That’s today’s assortment of news, arts, culture & poetry from all across the Pacific Northwest. Have a great evening. –Andrew Engelson
Photo credit: Vancouver modular housing by Alison Bate