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BLAINE COMP PLAN UGA

February 18 letter to Whatcom County: Blaine Community Development Services is the posterchild for Growth Management fraud. (See  Blaine Case Study  in the September 2025 issue of  Whatcom Watch .)  The City of Blaine never held a single Growth Management orientation for the community to participate in setting priorities for civic center redevelopment, Critical Aquifer Recharge Area and wetlands protection, or the proposed expansion of the city at Birch Point. Instead, the city met behind closed doors with developers to come up with their vision, and after they passed ordinances enacting the developers vision, they sold it to the public.  Part of that sales job was by Ocean Farms LLC, the Birch Point developer who pushed for expanding the Blaine city limits at Birch Point so he could develop under the city's environmental standards, which are significantly lower than those of Whatcom County. Ocean Farms LLC paid for the public relations campaign to influence Bla...
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FERNDALE POLICE MISCONDUCT

February 16 letter to Ferndale City Council: Using the police to attack their political opponents is one thing Mayor Mary Lou Steward and President Donald Trump have in common. They are both pathological liars involved in criminal misconduct, but it is their intolerance for  open government  and the rule of law--as well as their willingness to use police intimidation--that sets them apart from honest politicians. Ferndale Police Department's involvement (see attached) in helping Blaine Chief of Police Rodger Funk  defame , and use  police misconduct  to intimidate, four Blaine open government activists holding Mayor Steward accountable is now being investigated by the WA Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC). Blaine Chief of Police Rodger Funk, Ferndale Police Officer Richard Hart, and Blaine Police Officer Zachary Taxdahl apparently cooked the books on the so-called investigation of citizens opposing financial conflicts of interest by Blaine officials (se...
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TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Thursday was the two-year anniversary of Mayor Steward's ambush of Donna Newman (aka McGaffic), who had exposed corrupt dealings between the city council and developer Skip Jansen. One year ago, I wrote Blaine City Council about this corruption perpetrated by the mayor in an email titled   truth and consequences .  The 2/12/24 ambush by Mayor Steward and Councilman Hill--where they started shouting at Ms. Newman, provoking her to shout back--was planned in advance so that the mayor could have the police remove her. The Northern Light then reported that Ms. Newman had misbehaved, ignoring the official corruption.  The preconceived ambush then served as pretext for the mayor to ban oral public comment at city council meetings. The ban continues to this day. 
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PLIGHT OF NORTHERN LIGHT

The takeover of the City of Blaine by the real estate industry, and the destruction it has caused to the rule of law in the Drayton Harbor/Birch Bay watersheds, could not have happened without the active support of The Northern Light. Under new ownership, The Northern Light is now at a crossroads; will it continue to cater to the real estate industry and defame citizens holding city hall accountable, or will the reporters who helped create this civic nightmare be replaced? So far under the new ownership, nothing has changed.
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ENDING EVIL

Covering up crimes at city hall and pollution by crooked developers has been the main purpose of The Northern Light staff 2023-26. For that to change under the new owner--Kari Mar-- Northern Light reporters Patrick Grubb, Grace McCarthy, and Nolan Baker must go. Their dishonest reporting has destroyed democracy in Blaine, and enabled environmental destruction of the Drayton Harbor and Birch Bay watersheds. 
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TWO STRIKES AGAINST KARI MAR

As noted in TNL MISLEADING READERS , and in LTE REJECTED BY KARI MAR , The Northern Light under the new owner, Kari Mar, continues to defame open government activists and to cover up crimes by Blaine officials. We hope this is due to her ignorance of Blaine, as someone who does not live here, but she needs to start doing her homework if she wants us to trust her.  So far, it's two strikes against Kari Mar.
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LTE REJECTED BY KARI MAR

The new owner of The Northern Light, Kari Mar, rejected this letter to the editor: Editor , The January 21  letter to the editor  by former Blaine City Councilman Rhyan Lopez thanks our "outstanding city manager" who routinely defamed Water Planning Matters. Lopez then thanks Blaine Police Department for it's "integrity" even as three Blaine police officers, including Chief Rodger Funk, face investigations by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission for violating the   equal protection rights of the mayor's opponents.  Topping off his career on council, Lopez on October 13, presided over the town hall where convicted violent felon David Brudvik threatened to murder four people for holding the city manager, mayor, and chief of police accountable. While Lopez cut off his opponents at the two-minute mark, he gave Brudvik and other friends of the mayor several minutes extra to speak, most notably the Brudvik death threats issued after...
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