Way Back Machine

In January 2024, I attempted to find pro bono legal counsel using my connections from when I was part of a statewide network that established Growth Mangement legal precedent before the WA Growth Management Hearings Board and Washington Supreme Court between 1994 and 1996. I was told by the Seattle law firm that represented us back then that the pool of pro bono GMA attorneys no longer exists, so I gave up on that remedy for returning democracy to Blaine.

I was also a plaintiff in the 1990s before the WA Shoreline Hearings Board and WA Court of Appeals where we won our case to protect Lake Whatcom, which cost us $50,000 out of pocket. Later, our GMA litigation forced me into bankruptcy. That's all in the public record under Whatcom Falls Neighborhood Association of which I was president, Watershed Defense Fund (the 501-c-3 we set up to fund litigation), and Whatcom Environmental Council of which I was the unpaid executive director.

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In 1995, six months after the Oklahoma City bombing by Christian Patriots, Paul de Armond and I gathered evidence on Christian Patriots in Whatcom and Snohomish counties that led to a 1996 FBI undercover operation resulting in seven convictions in 1997 in U.S. District Court in Seattle for making bombs. Christian Patriots is what they call themselves; racism is their religion.

I was interviewed in 2022 for an upcoming six-part PBS documentary in which I talk about this. My two minutes of fame.

Special Agent Mike German, the FBI undercover operative, left the bureau after 9/11 when they defunded his program focused on domestic terrorists to focus on foreign terrorists. German went on national radio saying that's nuts.

Paul wrote an article about the Christian Patriots that was used by the U.S. Department of Justice and got him invited by the U.S. State Department to participate in an international conference on terrorism in D.C. Paul was the intellectual and the liaison to the FBI. I did field research, attending Christian Patriot meetings. At one meeting, I overheard two ringleaders say the Militia of Montana (a Christian Patriot subset) was coming to Washington to shake things up. MOM was already on the FBI radar due to shootouts in Montana.

Paul took this intelligence to the FBI which started the undercover as a result.

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In 2017, with the help of Northwest Justice (Legal Aid of Washington), Bay View Plaza Tenants Association of which I was secretary stopped Diamond Management and corrupt USDA officials from illegally evicting 30 low-income Blaine seniors in violation of the contract between them to maintain the complex as subsidized housing until October 2032. Our 2019 victory in U.S. District Court was presented to the Washington Legislature, which responded by purchasing seven complexes like ours in danger of being lost to unlawful privatization around Washington state.

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I met some fine upstanding people I would not have otherwise, people who encouraged me to go to graduate school at age 50. As a result, I did research that got me invited to be a contributing editor of Fourth World Journal, the academic publication of the Center for World Indigenous Studies in Olympia.

CWIS is a think tank started by leaders from the National Congress of American Indians and Assembly of First Nations (Canada). They published my report on the Anti-Indian Movement in Whatcom County 2013-2017.