Blaine Confidential

Letter to city regarding the Wenger family: The July 30 letter to you from the newly formed Whatcom Environmental Council offering their expertise on the City of Blaine comprehensive plan update neglects to mention they have a conflict-of-interest meddling in our city, namely that one of their board members, Barry Wenger, is related to Alex Wenger, director of Blaine Community Development Services. Alex Wenger, as you all know full well, is responsible for facilitating self-dealing and other corrupt practices by his department and by all counts should be in jail. Even his (father?) can't change that. Nice try, though. Conflicts of interest, of course, are pervasive at Blaine City Hall, with Councilman Mike Hill taking home the prize for self-dealing by voting on land use zoning amendments that financially benefit himself. In case the city attorney hasn't informed you, that is illegal in Washington State. Lucky for you, Patrick Grubb—publisher of The Northern Light—is covering

Fascism in America, Part 2 , is now available. I wrote part 1 of Fascism in America ten years ago.

British Petroleum (BP) Cherry Point refinery was recently awarded a federal grant to make sustainable aviation fuel.  In June, a federal judge ordered Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF)--owned by Warren Buffet--to pay the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community $400 million after finding that "the company intentionally trespassed when it repeatedly ran 100-car trains carrying crude oil across the tribe's reservation." Buffet's bomb trains were carrying Bakken crude from North Dakota after his friend Barack Obama opened up millions of acres of federal land to fracking.  

Dear Mr. Grubb, I sent the following today to Grace McCarthy, editor of The Northern Light . As publisher of The Northern Light , I thought you should know. I brought this official corruption to the attention of Grace several times since January to no avail. "I read today's Northern Light article on building heights. A good question for TNL is why do you never quote public comments sent by email to the city? They are listed under WRITTEN COMMENT on the council agenda which is sent out free. These letters are part of the public record, and often clarify choices obscured by the myopic view of our elected and appointed officials. Restricting your coverage to oral comments keeps the public in the dark about critical issues ignored by Community Development Services and exposed by citizens." As an example of written citizen comments, I encourage you to read my current letter to the city titled betrayal of public trust , with names, dates and official misconduct that amounted to

Reading the letter to the city from Richard Sturgill at Drayton Harbor Maritime, it appears that the delay and discord over the Plover ferry restoration and operation was caused by city manager Mike Harmon who changed the deal midway and coerced DHM. Harmon has a record of mistreating and intimidating Blaine citizens, DHM being the latest. 

Since January, The Northern Light has been aware of ethical and criminal misconduct by Blaine Community Development Services in conjunction with developers. This misconduct includes self-dealing and conflicts of interest by developers, including Councilman Hill. The evidence is on the city website, so even someone just out of journalism school could cover the story. Add to that the fact that we drew this corruption to the attention of The Northern Light numerous times. This compels me to ask what relationship does The Northern Light  publisher Patrick Grubb have with these crooks? Why is his paper covering up this scandal? In so doing, The Northern Light has done immense harm to our community and democracy. For those of us who believe in the rule of law, The Northern Light 's behavior is unacceptable.

Today's letter to Blaine Planning Commission : Having written dozens of emails to you, the city council, and Community Development Services (CDS) without response, I can only assume that the intentional betrayal of public trust by the City of Blaine does not concern you. If it did, you would not be colluding with CDS director Alex Wenger on Central Business District (CBD) rezoning of parking and building heights in violation of the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) regarding public participation, consideration of alternatives, and consideration of cumulative environmental effects. You are well aware by my many communications that the CBD rezoning process has been corrupt from the outset, when on June 6, 2023, the Downtown Advisory Committee--under CDS instruction--morphed from an advisory group to a voting body that recommended changes to development regulations that financially benefit members of the committee. This self-dealing conflict of interest involving Alex Wenger, deve

My 7/31, 2024, letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and WA Department of Ecology: The Washington Department of Ecology's false claim that enforcement of the State Environmental Policy Act by DOE is "discretionary" defines environmental injustice under the Clean Water Act. Far beyond arbitrary and capricious, DOEs institutionalized failure to enforce SEPA and the Clean Water Act is a recipe for corruption by local governments, as we have seen in the City of Blaine.  This failure to enforce the Clean Water Act also impairs the treaty rights of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians whose property rights under federal law include restoration of salmon runs such as those that swim through Drayton Harbor into Dakota and California creeks. Additionally, there is a commercial oyster farm in Drayton Harbor that leases Washington State tidelands and employes 35 people, as well as Lummi Nation tribal shellfish harvesting. Alex Wenger, the Blaine SEPA official who