Whatcom County

When employees at PeaceHealth hospitals around the state need a prescription filled for themselves or a family member, they can get them filled at PeaceHealth pharmacies for lower costs. It’s one of the benefits of the health care organization's insurance plan for its employees.But in Bellingham, Washington, PeaceHealth workers can’t use that benefit. There isn’t a physical PeaceHealth pharmacy in the city.

This week, Bellingham’s City Council voted to dissolve its Immigration Advisory Board. The city has now created a new work group to support its compliance with the Keep Washington Working Act.

In a big, open room in the basement of Bellingham’s old city hall, little cupboards line the walls holding spray paint, different kinds of tape, cans of WD-40, and at least four different handheld drills. Wearing round-framed glasses and an explorer’s hat, museum preparator David Miller stands over the work table, messy with progress. He is sculpting fake dinosaur bones. They will be hidden in a box and covered with sand for children to posture as paleontologists, uncovering the creatures of prehistoric past.

A workgroup in Bellingham will help to make the Immigration Advisory Board, or IAB, work better. The move comes after the city council talked about suspending the next advisory board meetings. Now, a community group is organizing on top of it all.

Rain, flooding, storms – all pretty standard for Western Washington, but sometimes weather patterns spare some areas that have flooded before. That was the case at the beginning of December, when Western Washington got so much rain that it caused flooding from the Stillaguamish River to the town of Rosburg.

Washington Rep. Steve Tharinger of the 24th district became intimately acquainted with levee setbacks when he discovered the levee protecting his house on the lower Dungeness River was not only not protecting his house, but harming the ecosystem too.“I sold my house and the five acres in a barn we had, so that we'd have more room to move that levee back and give the river more room,” Tharinger said.

Homeowners in Whatcom County have been waiting nearly two years for relief from flooding that devastated communities in northwest Washington and parts of Canada — and now, they have to wait even longer.Federal funding was supposed to come this week for 12 homeowners whose houses were destroyed during the November 2021 flooding. However, it’s been delayed, again.

Residents on Blue Canyon Road near Lake Whatcom have been issued a Level 2 evacuation warning as crews fight a roughly 30-acre fire that likely started due to lighting Monday evening.

Scenic State Route 20 which runs through North Cascades National Park is now reopened. The highway had been closed between Newhalem and Rainy Pass in Whatcom County, as it is the main access point for firefighters working the Sourdough Fire. Mark Enty, public information officer with Northwest Incident Management Team 10, said crews are still working in the area and drivers should be extra cautious.

Air and ground crews continue to fight the Sourdough fire burning in Whatcom County, which had grown to 1,440 acres as of Monday. The fire is burning in a remote area where the terrain is rugged and steep, which is why crews are attacking the fire from the sky, said Mark Enty, public information officer for Northwest Incident Management Team 10.