The first Indian Education Parent Committee Meeting of 2014 will be held January 15th in the Totem Middle School library. Dinner will be at 5pm and the meeting will start at 5:30pm
All parents of Native children in grades K-12th are encouraged to attend!
Some items to be discussed:
– Liaison/Advocate updates
– Current/upcoming youth programs
– Totem Middle School report, Principal Tarra Patrick
– Upcoming Events
– Information on the upcoming IEPC Board Elections that will be held at the next IEPC meeting on April 23, 2014.
Four disasters in the past six months have demonstrated the risks of crude-oil trains, which carry 11 percent of the nation’s oil, up 40-fold in five years.
MINNEAPOLIS — Oil-train explosions like the one last week near Casselton, N.D., or the one in Canada late Tuesday have revived longstanding worries that older railroad tank cars aren’t sturdy enough.
Four derailments in the past six months have demonstrated the risks of crude-oil trains, which carry 11 percent of the nation’s oil, up 40-fold in five years, according to the Association of American Railroads.
“There is an increased interest … to look at tank cars and whether we can do more to remove the risk,” said Thomas Simpson, president of the Railway Supply Institute, a trade group for tank-car builders and owners.
North Dakota, lacking sufficient pipelines, sends more than two-thirds of its crude down the tracks, typically on 100-car unit trains. Many travel on BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific tracks through Minnesota. Minnesota’s 20 ethanol plants also rely heavily on tank cars because current pipelines are unsuitable for that fuel.
Yet most of the nation’s 94,000 rail tankers carrying oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids don’t meet puncture-resistance and other standards that apply to new tank cars. Railcar and shipping-industry officials say it could take a decade and cost billions to retrofit up to 64,000 older tankers that carry flammable liquids.
Federal regulators are considering whether to require it.
“It is a challenge, but it is doable,” said Larry Mann, a Washington-based rail-safety attorney.
In 2011, railroads and shippers voluntarily established tougher standards for new tank cars, and more than 14,000 are on the rails today. That’s about 15 percent of the tankers carrying oil, ethanol and other flammable liquids. Most of the remainder are older models with a record of tank failures in accidents since 1991, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The safety of railcars, among other things, is playing a role in the continuing debate about the proposal to build more oil terminals in Washington state.
Railroad groups said in November they support upgrading the old tanker fleet, but the cost would fall on shippers because they own or lease the tank cars. Oil and ethanol shippers haven’t warmed to that idea, and say railroads need to do more to prevent derailments.
“The ethanol industry takes safety very seriously, but we don’t re-engineer vehicles already on the road with new, expensive suspension systems to combat any potential damage from hitting a pothole on the interstate. No, we fix the pothole. The same should be true with rail transportation,” Bob Dinneen, chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Association, an ethanol-trade group, said via email.
The American Petroleum Institute, an oil-industry trade group, told regulators in December that the retrofits only would be costly and take years, and would add weight to trains. It urged regulators to study the costs and benefits before imposing a regulation and to order railroads to improve tracks and take other steps to reduce derailments.
BNSF Railway, whose train crashed Dec. 30 in North Dakota, declined to comment for this article. Canadian Pacific, a crude-oil hauler whose U.S. headquarters is in Minneapolis, said it is always working with federal regulators and others to promote safety, but would not comment in detail.
Bruce Crummy / The Associated Press, 2013 A train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in Casselton, N.D., on Dec. 30 and sent a great fireball and plumes of black smoke skyward. The fire continued to burn the next day.
Logistics of retrofitting
Even if federal regulators order tank-car upgrades or other measures, the new rules likely wouldn’t take effect for at least a year. “It is just a complicated issue that has taken time,” said Gordon Delcambre Jr., a spokesman for the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is considering new regulations.
Train-car repair shops probably would need 10 years to retrofit every tank car. “There’s a finite number of facilities that can do the work,” said Simpson, of the Railway Supply Institute, which supports improving older tank cars, but questions whether all proposed modifications are feasible.
Some tank cars might be retired or shifted to carry nonflammable products. So the potential cost of upgrading the nation’s tanker fleet could range from $1.7 billion to more than $5 billion.
After the recent oil-train wrecks, more people are demanding action in the United States and Canada.
In July, 47 people died in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, in the first disaster involving a North Dakota oil train. Four months later, in Aliceville, Ala., another oil train exploded and burned, but nobody was hurt. In 2009, a deadly ethanol-train derailment and fire in Cherry Valley, Ill., prompted the NTSB to issue specific recommendations to upgrade the nation’s tanker fleet.
Mann, who represents unions and others on rail-safety issues, said all the recent oil-train explosions involved tank cars built before 2011, a model known in the industry as the DOT-111.
In Coon Rapids, Minn., which is crossed by two rail lines, city leaders in December petitioned federal regulators to get started on the tank-car upgrades. The city’s resolution stemmed from a National League of Cities conference last year in which cities, especially Chicago suburbs, discussed railcar safety.
“The concern is the integrity of the tank cars — are they inspected and structurally sound?” said Coon Rapids City Manager Steve Gatlin.
The older DOT-111 cars have a steel shell that is too thin to resist punctures in accidents, and the ends of the car are vulnerable to ruptures. Valves used for unloading and other exposed fittings on the tops of the tankers can also break during rollovers, the NTSB said.
Tank cars built since Oct. 1, 2011, are required to comply with tougher standards, including shells with thicker steel.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has called for retrofitting the nation’s tanker fleet. In Minnesota, Rep. Tim Walz, a member of the House Transportation Committee, said he hopes the committee will examine the issue.
“It was incredibly lucky that no one was harmed in the accident in Casselton,” Walz said in an email. “It is clear there is still more we can and should do to enhance safety when shipping hazardous materials to market.”
Emergency measures
A Web-based petition last fall by the progressive group Credo Action collected 58,000 supporters of banning the “dangerous DOT-111 tanker cars in our communities.”
“They are basically bombs running through the middle of cities,” said Elijah Zarlin, of the San Francisco-based group. “Each one of these accidents … shows that this isn’t just a potential threat, it is an actual, real threat.”
Railroad towns are re-examining emergency plans. Last summer, the Minnesota hazmat teams got extra training on crude oil.
Soon after the Quebec disaster, Canadian and U.S. regulators ordered rail carriers not to leave trains unattended, a key factor in that accident. Regulators in both countries also have told North Dakota shippers to accurately classify their crude oil’s hazard level, which partly hinges on the amount of potentially explosive dissolved gas it contains.
U.S. agencies announced a “Bakken blitz” to test crude-oil shipments in August. Based on preliminary results of that effort, regulators warned shippers last week that light crude from that region may be more flammable than heavy oil. But regulators stopped short of saying that Bakken crude poses a special danger and said sample testing is still under way.
Mark Winfield, an associate professor at York University in Toronto, has called on Canadian authorities to begin a judicial inquiry into regulatory lapses before the Lac-Mégantic disaster. Among the questions to arise after the disaster is whether Bakken oil is more explosive.
“It is hard to believe that nobody on the inside, among the regulators, didn’t realize there was a potential problem here,” Winfield said.
In Perham, Minn., which is also on the BNSF line and has witnessed two minor derailments in the past 21 years, Mayor Tim Meehl questions whether regulators can limit the number of oil tankers going through towns or make rail cars safer.
“I guess we just pray it doesn’t happen in our town,” he said. “It’s a very scary situation.”
Material from the Chicago Tribune is included in this report.
Tulalip rapper ‘Komplex Kai’ is set to perform with a live band at the Tulalip Resort Casino’s Canoes Cabaret Room on Jan. 15. — image credit: Courtesy photo.
TULALIP — Kisar Jones-Fryberg’s musical alter ego has been largely dormant since the passing of his aunt in 2010, but on Wednesday, Jan. 15, “Komplex Kai” will take another step toward his revival at the Tulalip Resort Casino’s Canoes Cabaret Room, where he’s slated to perform a free show with a half-dozen-member live band from 10 p.m. to midnight.
“I started producing albums when I was 15, but I was already writing lyrics and putting them to beats when I was 10 or 11,” said Kai, a Tulalip rap artist who’s produced six albums over the course of the past decade. “I’m an MC, but my work is drawn from a Native perspective. I’m guided by Native traditions, but they’ve been modernized, because between the resettlement and the segregation of our people, we lost so much.”
This complex dichotomy between the history of his people’s culture and the world in which he now lives drives much of Kai’s output, as does his desire to leave behind a worthy legacy.
“Every album is something that my great-grandkids will be able to look back on and say that I did,” said Kai, who has four children already, with one more on the way. “I don’t want to downplay the importance of our traditions, but by the same token, my culture is rooted in the present day, and what it means to be Native here and now. This is my way of expressing my own existence in 2014, and it doesn’t make me any less Native or Tulalip.”
Kai recalled an exchange with an older man, who had asserted that he shouldn’t be proud of having grown up on a reservation, and explained his own mixed feelings in response.
“He pointed out that our people had been placed in reservations as prisons, and I understand that, but that’s still where we come from,” Kai said. “You can’t downplay or dismiss where we’ve come from, or what we’ve lived. It’s where tradition meets experience. I’ve got to be proud of where I’m from.”
To that end, the Komplex Kai band will be playing a mix of original songs and covers, following an 8-10 p.m. comedy show in the Canoes Cabaret Room, and those who are interested in checking out his music need look no further than Facebook and iTunes under “Komplex Kai” to find all of his albums and songs online.
“My grandma was my first manager,” Kai said. “I wasn’t even going to pursue music as a career, but now, I’m all for positivity and creating opportunity.”
The Quinault Indian Nation is cooperating with the U.S. Corps of Engineers, which has placed more than 800 tons of rock since 8 a.m. this morning, creating a secondary seawall in preparation for heavy rains and high winds, with gusts anticipated as high as 65-70 m.p.h. over the weekend. The seawall has already been breached in several locations, jeopardizing homes on the Reservation. Swells of 20-35 feet are anticipated. Dump trucks have lined up to dump their loads all day, building a four foot berm so far, all along the sea wall, and work is expected to continue through the night, according to John Preston, Quinault Tribal Emergency Services Coordinator.
“Our first priority is the safety of our people, their property and our natural resources. We will do all in our power to support this project and see that this work gets done,” said Fawn Sharp, Quinault Tribal President.
SEATTLE — A Tulalip man has been upgraded to serious condition after being hit by a car on Tuesday night. Joseph Harvey, 35, remains in intensive care at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, according to his family and hospital officials. His condition was considered critical until Friday.
Harvey is a tribal member and attended Arlington High School.
He was struck about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday along 35th Avenue NE, just west of I-5, on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.
Police say they don’t expect to seek criminal charges against the driver.
Emergency responders initially reported that Harvey was riding a bicycle at the time of the crash. Detectives did not find a bicycle and believe he was walking, not riding, according to investigators.
The Washington Emergency Operations Center is advising that there is a Gail Warning in effect from now until 0900 and a Flood Watch from now until Saturday evening. Stay safe everyone.
EVERETT — Three Everett police officers are suing the city alleging that they were denied promotions based on their race and subjected to a hostile work environment when they complained about being passed over.
One officer, retired Sgt. Richard Wolfington, alleges that he was forced to quit in February after 20 years with the department. He claims that he was repeatedly skipped over for promotions in favor of white officers. Wolfington is Native American.
He also alleges that Capt. David Fudge retaliated against him when Wolfington complained that Fudge was violating department policies. He said the mistreatment caused his health issues.
Two other officers, Sgt. Manuel Garcia and Sherman Mah, also allege that their civil rights were violated when they weren’t promoted.
“Everett’s police department is in charge of upholding the law, not breaking it,” Bellevue attorney Victoria Vreeland said. “City leaders were informed about these repeated civil rights violations and retaliation, but did nothing to correct it.”
Garcia was the first Hispanic and bilingual officer in the department. He started in 1988 and has been a sergeant since 2002. Mah has been with Everett since 1995. He has sought promotions for 15 years and has been skipped over multiple times, according to the lawsuit. He claims he wasn’t promoted because he is Asian-American.
All three officers allege that the city ignored and failed to investigate their complaints.
Police Chief Kathy Atwood and Fudge also are named in the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Seattle.
Attorneys for the complaining officers initially filed a claim for damages with the city on Oct. 10. The documents say each officer could seek $1 million or more.
The city plans to fight the lawsuit, spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said Wednesday in a prepared statement.
“The city investigated the plaintiffs’ allegations and determined they were without merit,” she said.
The Everett Police Department conducts employee evaluations and promotions based on officers who are the most capable and effective leaders, she said.
“It is important to underscore that the Everett Police Department’s core values include integrity, professionalism and honor, and the department is dedicated to providing a supportive, nondiscriminatory work environment,” she said.
Garcia alleges that he has repeatedly reported to his superiors derogatory remarks made about his race. In the initial claim, Garcia alleged he was told by supervisors not to attend National Night Out events in a neighborhood where “rich people” live, but to instead stick to an event sponsored by a Hispanic community group.
Garcia in 2010 ranked first on the eligibility roster for a lieutenant position. He said he was passed over for a white officer who was ranked third on the list.
In 2011, he was promoted to lieutenant and placed on a standard six-month probation. He alleges that Fudge “treated him more harshly and put extreme pressure and unreasonable expectations on him which Fudge did not place on Caucasian lieutenants on probation or otherwise,” Vreeland wrote in the lawsuit.
Garcia reported to his chain of command that he believed he was being unfairly targeted. He claims neither the city nor the police department investigated his complaints of unfair and unequal treatment.
At the end of the probationary period, Fudge recommended that Garcia be demoted back to sergeant. The lawsuit says that Atwood was aware of Garcia’s work history, good performance and “long-time work dedicated to improving the Everett (Police Department’s) relationship with the minority community.”
Garcia is well-known in Everett as the face of the annual Casino Road Futbol Academy. The camp offers soccer lessons and mentoring to hundreds of children primarily from low-income or minority families, especially from south Everett. Before coming to the U.S., Garcia played professional soccer in Mexico.
Atwood approved the demotion without any further investigation, according to the lawsuit. Garcia claims that he is the only officer in at least the last 20 years to be demoted immediately after the expiration of the probationary period. He alleges white officers have been given extensions or transferred to different supervisors.
Wolfington and Mah also allege that promotions were given to white officers who ranked lower than them on the eligibility list. They also say that they weren’t appointed to acting positions to gain experience for higher levels.
In one instance, Wolfington alleges that another sergeant was promoted to acting lieutenant over him even though the other officer hadn’t sought the promotion and wasn’t on the eligibility register, according to the lawsuit.
Wolfington claims that Fudge retaliated against him when he reported that the captain was engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate female officer. Wolfington said he complained about Fudge treating him and Garcia more harshly. He said the city ignored his complaints.
Wolfington said he “forced to call in sick numerous times” because of ongoing mistreatment. He said he was disciplined for his increased use of sick leave.
WASHINGTON, DC – In response to the news that President Obama included the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma in his Promise Zones initiative, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) President Brian Cladoosby issued the following statement:
“It will be exciting to see how the already innovative Choctaw Nation utilizes the Promise Zones resources to achieve even greater successes in tribal job creation, education, and resource development. I want to congratulate the Choctaw on their inclusion in the initiative and thank President Obama for making Indian Country a priority in this new program.
President Obama’s Promise Zones initiative gives a clear roadmap for how the administration plans to support and invest in communities across the country. The goals of the program are in line with the goals tribal leaders have set forth for decades: investing in tribal economic development and growth is beneficial for the surrounding communities and the rest of the country.
Indian Country faces many challenges but also has great potential for success. Investing in tribal lands through this program is just the first step towards realizing that potential.”
From Darryl Madden, Director of FEMA Ready Campaign
For many, the New Year is a time for setting goals and making new resolutions for the year to come. If you are anything like me, each year you find yourself resolving to achieve a healthier lifestyle – eating right, exercising more, losing a few pounds.
Setting personal health goals in the New Year is great, but improving overall well-being involves taking actions to be prepared. Knowing what to do in an emergency is vital to the health and safety of you and your loved ones.
This year, the Ready Campaign is challenging you to be Prepared in 2014. Start the New Year by connecting with family and friends on the importance of preparedness. Not only can the information shared potentially save a life, connecting with those you love has an added benefit. People who have strong social connections tend to be healthier and more resilient.
I know the hardest part of keeping a resolution is sustaining it after those first few weeks of the year, but you don’t have to do it all at once.
First, start by simply having the conversation: who to call, where to meet and what to pack in an emergency.
Build your family’s emergency supply kit by picking up recommended emergency items over the first month or two of the year.
Create a preparedness checklist. This should include things such as emergency phone numbers and copies of important documents, and information on how to register for programs such as the American Red Cross Safe and Well website.
Set reminders throughout the year to talk about and update your family emergency communication plan. If you have children, include them in conversations and planning activities. The Ready Campaign has age-appropriate tools and resources you can use to introduce disaster preparedness to them. And you can learn more about talking with kids after disasters so you’re ready to help them through tough situations.
Have pets? Make sure they are a part of your planning process. Create a pet go-bag to help keep them safe during an emergency. Find helpful tips from FEMA on how to plan for your furry friends
Older adults often have special needs in a disaster and may depend on medications or other special requirements. If older adults are a part of your social connection, be sure to include them in your preparedness planning efforts.
Emergencies can and will happen, but being ready can minimize the impact they have on the overall well-being of you and your family.
This year, make disaster preparedness part of your New Year’s resolution. On January 1st 2014, join the Resolve To Be Ready Thunderclap to promote a message of preparedness to your social connections on New Year’s Day. Don’t forget to use the hashtag #Prepared2014 whenever you discuss family preparedness on Twitter.
A multinational banking giant is backing away from a proposal to build the West Coast’s biggest coal export project near Bellingham, Washington.
New York-based Goldman Sachs has sold its stock back to the companies proposing to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal. If built it would transfer 48 million tons of Wyoming coal each year from trains to ocean-going vessels bound for Asia.
Before the stock transfer, Goldman Sachs had a 49 percent stake in the Gateway Pacific project. The company proposing the project is SSA Marine. Its parent company is Carrix, Inc.
SSA Marine President Bob Watters said in a statement that after Goldman Sachs sold back its stock, a Mexican businessman named Fernando Chico Pardo made an investment in SSA’s parent company that gives him a 49 percent ownership.
Coal-export opponents said the departure of Goldman Sachs as an investor is the latest sign that Wall Street no longer sees a profitable future in mining, shipping and burning coal – considered the dirtiest sources of energy and one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases that contribute to global climate change.
“Goldman Sachs’ stepping away from coal export is yet another sign from Wall Street that coal export is a losing investment,” said anti-coal activist Crina Hoyer, the executive director of Bellingham-based RE Sources for Sustainable Communities.
SSA Marine and Carrix, Inc., sought to cast the departure of Goldman Sachs in a more positive light. According to their press release, Chico Pardo and the project’s original investors had stepped in with a “substantial capital injection” and remained committed to the coal export project.
Overall, the push to export Montana and Wyoming coal through the Pacific Northwest’s has struggled. Of the six coal export terminal originally proposed in Washington and Oregon, three have been dropped. In addition to the Gateway Pacific terminal on the northern shore of Puget Sound, the two other terminals still being considered are proposed for ports on the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon.
Seattle-based SSA Marine wants to build a terminal within the Cherry Point Aquatic Reserve. It would ship millions of tons of coal from Montana and Wyoming to Asia. The company says it would create thousands of jobs and generate millions in tax and other revenues.
Players: SSA Marine, Peabody Energy, Gateway Pacific, Korea East-West Power
Full Capacity: To be reached in 2026
Export Plans: 48 million tons/year
Train: 18 trains/day (9 full and 9 empty)
Train Cars: 1,370/day
Vessels: 487/year
What’s Next: Environmental review of the project is expected to take two years. In July 2013, Washington Department of Ecology, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Whatcom County, Wash. announced they will consider climate change, human health and the environment. They will also look at the entire route from Western mines to coal-burning plants in Asia. The public’s input was a factor in the decision for a broad review. Government agencies took in public comments from close to 125,000 people from September, 2012 to January, 2013. As part of the public-input process, 9,000 people attended seven meetings in Washington in 2012. The government agencies are required to solicit public input before they issue an environmental impact statement and from there, approve development permits. A summary of the public comment can be found here.
