In the Media

A familiar face to followers of the Western Washington University women’s basketball team will make regular appearances in the Blaine High School gym this winter.

Former Western guard Gracie Castaneda has been hired as the new head coach of the Blaine girls basketball program.

At Western, Castaneda spent six years in the program and was a key senior this past season during the Vikings’ incredible postseason run that ended in a loss in the Division II national title game.

Castaneda, originally from Arlington, will take over a Borderites squad that posted a 9-10 record last season and made it to the second round of the district tournament before being knocked out.

The head coaching job at Blaine wasn’t on Castaneda’s radar until Western women’s basketball head coach Carmen Dolfo reached out to her.

“I’m excited to get to know the girls and build relationships with them,” Castaneda said. “From a coaching standpoint, I’m excited to figure out what their strengths are, what we can work on and how I can do that and bring out the best in all of them individually and together as a team. That’s something I’m really looking forward to learning how to do. I’m excited to be challenged in that way.”

June 2022 was cooler and wetter in Whatcom County than last year, according to National Weather Service Seattle unofficial records.

The National Weather Service’s outlook discussion for July, issued June 30, “indicates enhanced probabilities of below-normal temperatures for coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest.” Here’s what June 2022 looked like, as recorded at Whatcom County’s Bellingham International Airport:

▪ June had 3.11 inches of rain — more than an inch higher than the area saw in any of the previous four Junes, dating back to 2018.

▪ The month’s highest recorded temperature of 85 degrees was 14 degrees cooler than June 2021’s warmest temperature (99).

Navigating a special education plan or getting a child the support services they need can be complicated. So how do you communicate and advocate for your kid if you’re deaf, blind or don’t speak English? 

Families say finding interpreters in a timely manner who can both speak their language — whether that’s Amharic or American Sign Language — and also understand education jargon can be challenging and frustrating. 

A new, comprehensive Washington state law that passed this spring will make it easier for students and families facing language barriers to access free, high-quality interpretation and support services. It also supports a training and credentialing program for interpreters working in educational settings, much like existing programs for medical and social services interpreters. Advocates say the legislation will have far-reaching effects, including increased family and student engagement, which leads to higher rates of academic achievement and graduation and overall self-esteem. 

Seattle was recently named one of the nation’s most creative cities based on the percentage of people who are makers or creators, whether for a living or for fun.

The Emerald City ranked seventh in the poll by online art gallery Singulart. The findings were based on the percentage of people working or training to work in a creative industry and the percentage who enjoy creative hobbies, including photography, performing, sewing, writing, making music, designing, decorating, gardening, crafting and upcycling.

Among the Top 10 cities, Seattle had a notably high percentage of crafters.

We asked Seattle area readers to share their creations and were rewarded with pictures of sculpted bird baths, mosaic garden art, pottery, hand-sewn clothing, a re-imagined Seattle flag, murals of the sea and much more.

Mary Johnston, of Kenmore, also shared her creativity with us.

She had studied art as a student at Western Washington University and taught art for a while before pursing interior design, she said in a recent phone interview.

She wants her upcycled garden art to simply bring joy to observers.

A few years ago, she had a longing to return to her earlier artistic passions. She saw an old vessel sink that was being given away on a buy-nothing group and she kept looking at it, thinking it wanted to be part of a bird bath.

But she couldn’t find the base she wanted and she didn’t know how to weld. She was talking to another person she met in the upcycling community, whose partner was a welder.

“He taught me and I was absolutely thrilled with the way my birdbath came out,” she said.

Jacquelyn High-Edward has spent her legal career dedicated to ensuring equal access to justice, something she’ll be tasked with on a larger scale now that she is a Spokane County Superior Court judge.

High-Edward, 49, was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee to fill the vacancy left by Judge Maryann Moreno’s retirement at the end of June. She was sworn in Friday morning.

A lifelong Spokanite, High-Edward attended North Central High School before earning a degree in political science from Western Washington University.

After college, she worked at a technology company in its human resources department. She had always been interested in law, so when the company downsized, High-Edward took a chance and went back to school.

She graduated from the Gonzaga University School of Law in 2005. She also has a master’s degree in criminal justice from Washington State University.

The fast-changing coronavirus has kicked off summer in the U.S. with lots of infections but relatively few deaths compared to its prior incarnations.

COVID-19 is still killing hundreds of Americans each day, but is not nearly as dangerous as it was last fall and winter.

“It’s going to be a good summer and we deserve this break,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle.

With more Americans shielded from severe illness through vaccination and infection, COVID-19 has transformed — for now at least — into an unpleasant, inconvenient nuisance for many.

“It feels cautiously good right now,” said Dr. Dan Kaul, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. “For the first time that I can remember, pretty much since it started, we don’t have any (COVID-19) patients in the ICU.”

As the nation marks July Fourth, the average number of daily deaths from COVID-19 in the United States is hovering around 360. Last year, during a similar summer lull, it was around 228 in early July. That remains the lowest threshold in U.S. daily deaths since March 2020, when the virus first began its U.S. spread.

Train riders, rejoice. Amtrak Cascades announced July 1 it will restart train service to all stops north of Seattle, including Bellingham and Vancouver, British Columbia, in September. The reopening date of the 18-stop, 467-mile route was previously slated for December.  

Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the U.S.-Canada border to close to all non-essential travel in May 2020, the Cascades route has only operated from Seattle to Eugene, Oregon. The current route only serves 12 of its 18 original stops, as Amtrak urges potential passengers to use its bus services to travel north of Seattle. 

Starting in September, trains will once again pull into stations in Edmonds, Everett, Stanwood, Mount Vernon, Bellingham and Vancouver, B.C.  

Whatcom County remained in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “medium” community COVID-19 risk level for a fourth straight week, while infection and hospitalizations rates in one region within the county would earn “high” rankings, where masking is recommended for everyone.

Despite a drop in the county’s COVID-related hospitalization rate last week, the CDC gave Whatcom the “medium” community level rating when new data was released Thursday, June 30, based on Whatcom’s infection rate moving back above 200 cases per 100,000 residents. That means masking is recommended for those who are at high risk of serious complications from COVID and those who could expose those at high risk. It marked the fifth time in the past six weeks that Whatcom has received the “medium” ranking.

Whatcom County’s weekly COVID-19 infection rate last week dropped below 200 for the first time since late April, and the state reduced the number of COVID-related deaths in the county by four.

Whatcom County now has had a total of 43,069 COVID cases during the pandemic, according to the latest report Friday, July 1, by the Washington State Department of Health COVID-19 Data Dashboard, including 37,707 confirmed cases and 5,362 probable cases, resulting from a positive antigen test not confirmed by a molecular test. The county’s 466 reported cases last week were up from the 435 reported by the state a week earlier.

But Whatcom’s weekly COVID-19 infection rate dropped to 191 new cases per 100,000 residents for the most recently completed epidemiological data from June 16 to June 22. That was down from the county’s rate of 208 one week earlier (June 9-15) and the lowest rate Whatcom County has seen since it stood at 183 for April 20-26.

St. Joseph’s hospital in Bellingham reported it was treating 14 COVID-related patients on Tuesday, July 5. Over the past week, the hospital’s daily snapshot has averaged 14.6 COVID-related patients per day, which is up from 10.4 one week earlier (June 21-27) and represents 5.8% of the hospital’s 252 inpatient beds.

Washington State Patrol on Friday launched a missing Indigenous person alert system, hoping to address the crisis of missing Indigenous people, often women.

The bill creating the first-in-the-nation alert system was signed into law in March by Gov. Jay Inslee.

According to the Government Accountability Office, the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. is unknown because of reporting problems, distrust of law enforcement and jurisdictional conflicts. However, according to research by the National Congress of American Indians, Native American women face murder rates almost three times those of white women — and up to 10 times the national average in certain locations.

The alert system adds a new designation of “Missing Indigenous Persons” to the existing alert systems in place, similar to Amber alerts for children and silver alerts for missing seniors.