Blaine Confidential

1) Blaine City Council fast-tracks land use rezones for self-dealing Blaine officials. 2) Blaine open government activists challenge self-dealing by Blaine public officials. 3) Blaine Police Department intimidates and defames Blaine open government activists.

In the January 21, 2026 Northern Light article  Ferndale officer issues clarification on Blaine investigation report  by Pat Grubb, Ferndale Police Officer Richard Hart implied that Donna McGaffic "and associates"--who had complained about government misconduct by Mayor Mary Lou Steward and Chief of Police Rodger Funk--was involved in unspecified "criminal conduct" despite her not being charged with any crime. This defamatory article was published on Kari Mar's watch as the new publisher of The Northern Light.  Richard Hart, along with Rodger Funk, are both currently being investigated by the Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission (CJTC) for allegedly violating the equal protection rights of Donna McGaffic and three other Blaine open government activists. None of them have been charged with any crime, but The Northern Light chose to portray them as "deliberately disruptive to the effective governance of the city of Blaine." On November 4, 2025...

Kari Mar wants to know what stories The Northern Light is missing. For starters, they aren't missing anything; they are covering up essential news. She wants to know which questions aren't being asked, and what local issues deserve deeper reporting. So here's my answer. The Northern Light needs to hold Blaine City Manager Mike Harmon to the same standard they require of letters to the editor: provide documentation. When I noted the millions it would cost Blaine utility customers to annex Birch Point, The Northern Light required me to provide city and county documents supporting my claim. Then they cross-examined me for ten minutes by phone before publishing my LTE. Contrast that with unverified claims by Harmon and Blaine Community Development Services director Alex Wenger that The Northern Light routinely published without question, even when Harmon made wildly false claims about public records requests in order to defame his and Mayor Steward's political opponents--th...