Washington Legislature Adjourns With No Action On Medical Marijuana, Gas Tax

The floor of the Washington Senate on the last night of the 60-day sessionCredit Austin Jenkins / Northwest News Network

The floor of the Washington Senate on the last night of the 60-day session
Credit Austin Jenkins / Northwest News Network

 

By Austin Jenkins, NW News Network

The Washington legislature adjourned its 60-day session just before midnight Thursday night.

In the final hours, lawmakers passed a bipartisan update to the state’s two-year budget. They also sent the governor a bill to give military veterans in-state tuition to attend college. And reauthorized a fee that pays for homeless housing.

But it’s what lawmakers did not do this legislative session that may stand out most for voters.

No gas tax increase

One major item lawmakers could not agree on — a gas tax increase to fund road projects and transit. It’s something Governor Jay Inslee has pushed for since taking office.

As the legislative session wound down, the blame game was just winding up.

“It’s obvious to me that over the last month the leadership in the House and the leadership in the Democratic side of the Senate were not interested in getting a revenue package out of the session,” said Republican Curtis King, co-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee.

Not so, responded Democrat Judy Clibborn, chairs of the House Transportation Committee. She blamed the Senate majority for not producing a gas tax package that could pass out of its own chamber.

“I am frustrated as anybody,” said Clibborn. “We worked very hard to get this done. It’s been a year-and-a-half to two years for me.”

A $40 million penalty?

Item number two on the did-not-pass list: a requirement that school districts use a federally-approved student test for any teacher evaluation. Why does this matter? U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has told Governor Inslee without this requirement Washington could lose its federal No Child Left Behind waiver. And with it control of $40 million in federal funds to help struggling students.

House Democratic Leader Pat Sullivan called the testing mandate flawed and said he’s prepared to pay the penalty.

“So be it,” he said. “If Arne Duncan wants to withhold 20 percent of funds from our poorest schools then I guess that’s his prerogative.”

Out in the Capitol Rotunda, State Schools Superintendent Randy Dorn was incensed at the bill’s demise.

“Adults not doing what’s right for kids,” he said.

Dorn blames the state’s teachers union for killing the bill.

Separate pot markets

Item number three on the did-not-pass list: a plan to roll Washington’s medical marijuana market into the state’s new, recreational pot marketplace. Republican State Senator Ann Rivers, one of the lead proponents of this merger, says Washington’s current unregulated medical marijuana industry is an invitation for federal intervention.

“We’re not showing a good faith effort to get it under control so the feds have nothing to judge us by.”

But Democrat Roger Goodman in the Washington House believes it was premature to change the medical marijuana system and it would have hurt patients. He wants to wait a year and isn’t worried about the feds sweeping in.

“They’re watching closely, we’re listening carefully,” says Goodman. “I think the chances of federal intervention are limited particularly as we show to them and continue to communicate with them that we’re working on it in advance of the next legislative session.”

So what else died in the Washington legislature this year? Dueling proposals on the minimum wage. A tax on e-cigarettes. And a ban on gay conversion therapy.

But the past 60-days in Olympia also featured some surprising bipartisan breakthroughs. A big one: undocumented students won access to state financial aid to attend college. But there’s no guarantee they’ll get that money because the program is already underfunded.

Much of this session was about the fall elections ahead. Control of the Washington Senate looks like it’s up for grabs for the first time in a decade.

Talks Set In Beijing On West Coast Shellfish Ban

Geoduck clams harvested from Puget Sound, along with most shellfish from the West Coast of the U.S., have not been allowed into China. But an upcoming meeting in Beijing between U.S. and Chinese officials could ease that ban. | credit: Katie Campbell | rollover image for more
Geoduck clams harvested from Puget Sound, along with most shellfish from the West Coast of the U.S., have not been allowed into China. But an upcoming meeting in Beijing between U.S. and Chinese officials could ease that ban. | credit: Katie Campbell | rollover image for more

 

Ashley Ahearn, KUOW

SEATTLE — There are signs of a thaw in the icy trade relations between the United States and China over a Chinese ban on imported shellfish from the West Coast of the U.S.

Chinese officials have agreed to meet next week with U.S. counterparts to discuss China’s import ban on shellfish harvested from Alaska, Washington, Oregon and part of California.

China banned shellfish imports from most of the West Coast in December over concerns about contamination. The move has cost the shellfish industry in Washington hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Representatives from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will be in Beijing March 21 to discuss China’s remaining concerns about shellfish imports. China instituted the ban when officials found high levels of arsenic and a naturally occurring biotoxin in two samples of geoduck.

The shellfish with high levels of biotoxin came from Ketchikan, Alaska.

The shellfish contaminated with arsenic were harvested near a site in Tacoma where a copper smelter operated along southern Puget Sound.

The smelter was in operation for 100 years and shellfish beds nearby were closed until 2007.

The state Department of Health did some follow-up testing on geoduck from the area and says the shellfish are safe to eat.

Ancient artifacts could be latest issue for Bertha

WSDOT announced Thursday the manufacturer of the drill, Japan's Hitachi-Zosen, has come up with a tentative plan to dig a shaft to the machine stalled 120-feet below the surface to determine the cause of the problems that halted drilling in December. (WSDOT image)
WSDOT announced Thursday the manufacturer of the drill, Japan’s Hitachi-Zosen, has come up with a tentative plan to dig a shaft to the machine stalled 120-feet below the surface to determine the cause of the problems that halted drilling in December. (WSDOT image)

 

By Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com

Ancient artifacts could be in the path of new drilling to reach the broken Seattle tunnel machine known as “Bertha,” says an expert with the Washington Department of Transportation.

WSDOT announced Thursday the manufacturer of the drill, Japan’s Hitachi-Zosen, has come up with a tentative plan to dig a shaft to the machine stalled 120-feet below the surface to determine the cause of the problems that halted drilling in December.

Workers started boring a series of 4-inch wide probes Thursday to determine if archaeological work is needed.

It’s a part of the tunnel project’s environmental review process, and because of changes in WSDOT’s digging depths, they must complete additional cultural resources survey work.

“This work is being coordinated with the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) and tribal governments that are consulting on the project,” said WSDOT in a news release.

The shaft will be dug through an area filled in years ago along the Seattle waterfront that predates settlement of the city and could contain historical artifacts, says WSDOT cultural resources manager Steve Archer.

The drilling is expected to take about a week and shouldn’t delay the project even if artifacts of cultural significance are discovered, Publicola reports.

WSDOT Deputy Administrator Matt Preedy says contractors hope to announce a plan next week for the 120-foot shaft. The big question is whether crews will be able to simply replace damaged seals that protect the massive bearing that helps turn the machine’s cutter head or whether it will require workers to pull the cutter head itself out to the surface from its current location.

While Hitachi has been considering three different sized shafts, Preedy says the company is favoring the smaller of the three options, which would be faster and less expensive than the other options.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said ‘Indian artifacts’. WSDOT says the purpose of the soil testing is to look for anything of archaeological significance, which includes several possibilities, native artifacts among them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

Clarks Creek may provide clues to Puget Sound restoration

 

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries

PUYALLUP – The Puyallup Tribe of Indians working to decrease sediment in Clarks Creek, an important salmon tributary to the Puyallup River.

“Clarks Creek is important because it supports several different species of salmon, some listed under the federal Endangered Species Act,” said Char Naylor, water quality program manager for the tribe. Clarks Creek also supports the highest salmon spawning densities in the Puyallup watershed as well as the most significant number and variety of spawning salmon within a city limits in the watershed.

“Its also important because it can be an example of how we can restore hundreds of small urban streams in Puget Sound,” Naylor said. The problems facing the Clarks Creek watershed are endemic to most Puget Sound lowland streams. The principal non-point pollutants causing degradation are excessive sediment, nuisance weed growth, nutrient enrichment and excessive bacteria loading.

“If we can tackle these issues in Clarks Creek, we can show other Puget Sound communities how to heal their streams,” Naylor said.

The tribe is leading a regional effort to clean up the creek by reducing the amount of sediment flowing into it. Too much sediment in a stream drives down salmon productivity because it impacts the fish’s ability to find clean spawning gravel in which to spawn or rear. The goal of the project is to reduce sediment loads by half and nutrient and bacteria by a third by lowering flows and stabilizing banks to reducing channel erosion.

The tribe recently finished a two-year study of sediment sources throughout Clarks Creek. The study found that if 23 major sources of sediment were repaired, over 50 percent of the creek’s sediment problem would go away. Yet by doing just the top eight bank stabilization projects, a huge amount of sediment can be removed from the stream very cost-effectively.

The tribe is putting together plans to restore two those major sources of sediment in the creek. The tribal projects would stabilize the banks of two Clarks Creek tributaries. “We would literally be changing the shapes of their banks and channels, adding gravel and planting vegetation along their banks,” Naylor said.

Other sorts of projects suggested by the study include stormwater retrofits, low impact development, and stormwater detention ponds.

Most of the creek’s sediment actually start with the river it flows into. “The Puyallup River is diked through most of its lower reach,” Naylor said. “This caused the river bed itself to drop, which means the creeks flowing into it also drop.” This down-cutting action puts more sediment into the creek than would be there otherwise.

Clarks Creek is just 4 miles long and flows through suburban neighborhoods of the city of Puyallup before joining the Puyallup River. Because it is largely spring-fed, the creek has a consistent level of water throughout the year, making it great rearing habitat for juvenile salmon. The Puyallup Tribe also operates a chinook hatchery on the creek.

“We have already begun working on implementing several of the identified sediment projects to restore the watershed almost before the ink was dry on the report,,” Naylor said. “It is satisfying to have changed the status quo, the way things have been done in this watershed over the last several decades.”

VAWA advocate closes operation after DOJ questions funding

Diane Millich, Southern Ute, shared her story of surviving domestic violence, at the signing of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act on March 7, 2013. Photo from National Congress of American Indians
Diane Millich, Southern Ute, shared her story of surviving domestic violence, at the signing of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act on March 7, 2013. Photo from National Congress of American Indians

By indianz.com
A survivor of domestic violence has shut down her operation due to a loss of federal funds from the Department of Justice.

Diane Millich, a member of the Southern Ute Tribe of of Colorado, made national news a year ago at the signing of S.47, a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act that recognizes tribal jurisdiction over non-Indian offenders. She shared her story of surviving abuse and a near-fatal shooting at the hands of her non-Indian former husband.

“Today is about women like Diane. I’m so grateful Diane shared her story. That takes great courage,” President Barack Obama said at the signing ceremony.

Millich created a non-profit called Our Sister’s Keeper Coalition to help other survivors. But DOJ’s Office on Violence Against Women cut off all federal funds in 2012 and the group shut its doors in September, The Durango Herald reports.

“We were serving a lot of women,” Dedra White, the group’s former director and Millich’s sister, told the paper. “A lot.”

According to DOJ’s Office of Inspector General, Our Sister’s Keeper Coalition received $570,000 in federal funds between 2007 and 2011. Of that amount, auditors found problems with about $200,000 in spending that were considered “unsupported” and “unallowable.”

“We found that, OSKC did not comply with essential grant conditions in the areas of internal controls, grant drawdowns, grant expenditures, budget management and control, grant reporting, and grant goals and accomplishments,” the March 5 report stated. “Most significantly, OSKC commingled the OVW grant funds with funding from other sources, did not consistently identify funding sources for expenditures, made drawdowns in excess of grant expenditures, charged unallowable and unsupported costs to the grant, did not submit accurate or timely grant reports, and did not meet grant goals and objectives.”

Millich did not talk to the paper about the audit.

Get the Story:
Sister’s Keeper under criticism for funds use (The Durango Herald 3/12) DOJ Office of Inspector General Report:
udit of the Office on Violence Against Women Grants Awarded to Our Sister’s Keeper Coalition, Durango, Colorado (Redacted Version), Audit Report GR-60-14-004 (March 5, 2014)

Treasury issues tax guidance on per cap payments

Guidance Provides Significant Clarity, Incorporates Feedback from Tribal Nations

By US Treasury Media Release

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued interim guidance this week regarding per capita distributions made to members of Indian tribes from funds held in trust by the Secretary of the Interior.  In response to feedback from tribal nations, the guidance clarifies that, generally, these per capita payments will not be subject to federal income tax.

Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark J. Mazur will be speaking about the per capita guidance, tax-exempt bond options available to tribes, and other tribal tax initiatives during the National Congress of American Indians 2014 Executive Council Winter Session tomorrow.

“Today’s notice provides uniform, clear guidance regarding the tax treatment of per capita distributions of tribal trust assets,” said Assistant Secretary Mazur.  “This announcement and our ongoing tribal consultation process underscore the Administration’s commitment to understanding and addressing the issues facing the Native American community.”

The Department of the Interior is responsible for holding in trust certain funds on behalf of federally recognized Indian tribes.  Under the Per Capita Act of 1983, tribes are authorized to make per capita distributions from these trust accounts directly to tribal members subject to the approval of the Department of Interior.  In September 2012, Treasury and the IRS released guidance on per capita distributions from specific settlements, and have since received requests to address the tax treatment of per capita payments more broadly.

While developing this guidance, Treasury convened listening sessions and other consultations to facilitate a government-to-government dialogue between the federal government and tribes, and to understand key tribal concerns.

Treasury and IRS are issuing this notice as interim guidance to allow Indian tribes time to review and provide feedback by September 17, 2014.  Based on these comments, we will consider revisions before issuing a final notice.

For the Per Capita Distributions notice, click here.

Promised land: Chicago’s Native Americans wait on federal money pledged for social services

By Caroline Cataldo, Medill Reports Chicago

Dorene Wiese operates under the assumption that when she sees a community need, she fills it.

As director of the American Indian Association of Illinois, Wiese runs a youth tutoring program, a GED prep course, a museum and a college from the basement of a Rogers Park church. The children and adults who enter the doors are enrolled members of one of 566 Native American tribes — including Navajo, Lakota, Crow and Blackfoot — recognized by the U.S. government. Wiese, like the majority of Chicago’s Native Americans, belongs to the Ojibwe tribe (Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, and Canada).

Wiese says problems of poverty, identity and cultural preservation for natives living in Chicago are no different than the difficulties seen on reservations. But, she explains, there is one major difference:

“When you don’t have a job on the reservation, you live with your extended family members,” Wiese says. “When you don’t have a job on Chicago, you are homeless, you live on the streets.”

In February, the federal government admitted neglecting to honor treaties to pay for native social service agencies for decades, leaving a $3 billion debt. As of this year, the government has pledged to honor its commitment going forward. Distributed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to cover education, health care and other social service programs, “contract support costs” historically were funneled to organizations on reservations. This year, the bureau asked for $231 million to pay for running these social service agencies..

But, even as an exclusively native, non-profit in an urban, off-reservation setting, the American Indian Association of Illinois, like others, does not see a penny. Calls to the bureau to explain funding discrepancies were not returned.

This lack of explanation is the problem, advocates say.

As a prominent member of the Chicago Native American community, Wiese wonders why, as enrolled tribal members, organizations like hers doesn’t benefit from this money. In fact, 99 percent of these social service dollars only serve 22 percent of Native Americans — who live on reservations. However, 78 percent of Native Americans in the U.S. live off reservation land, according to the 2010 Census.

“I’ve asked some of the best Indian legal minds in the country about what a tribe is if not the membership, and how is it the tribes do not have to serve their off-reservation citizens?” Wiese says.

No one seems to have an answer.

John Laukaitis, an education professor at North Park University, has spent the past few decades studying urban Native American education. He says, like most of the issues surrounding native populations on and off reservations today, this disparity must be understood through a progression of history.

In the early 1950s, the U.S. government began offering Native Americans living on reservations incentives to move to urban centers like Chicago, Laukaitis said. They were told jobs would be waiting for them, allowing them ways to escape the crushing poverty of reservation life. In Chicago, at least, the reality was much different than advertised. Jobs were few and far between. Many would return to the Bureau of Indian Affairs looking for the help they were promised.

They were on their own.

Living off-reservation, Laukaitis said, Native Americans in cities no longer fell under federal trust treaties that required the U.S. government to pay for tribal education and health care. Around this time there was also a “resurgence of individualism and individual self-determination,” he said.

“There was a collective belief in America at that time everyone could make it on his or her own,” Laukaitis says. “There was an animosity toward anyone who wanted to continue this federal trust status.”

But, unlike many immigrant groups trying to find their way out of poverty in Chicago in the 1950s and ’60s, Laukaitis said it is unfair to think of service contracts as a government handout.

“A guarantee of education, a guarantee of health care, a guarantee of all of these services are from a treaty, and historically they were the exchange of land and peace,” Laukaitis said. “So it is really not the same to look at the trust status and the money going toward reservations as welfare.”

The problems facing Native Americans in Chicago today come from this rocky foundation. As less than 1 percent of the population in the area, Laukaitis said Native Americans have little to no political voice in the city, as well as on the reservation.

The American Indian Association of Illinois is one of the few exclusively native cultural centers in the city, catering to the needs of Chicago’s first people, and it is run primarily from donations. When money is low, which Wiese says is pretty typical, the burden falls on her to buy food, pens, paper and crayons to keep the center running.

The harsh reality is Wiese’s programs are struggling to survive. The Native Scholars after-school tutoring program can only operate one day a week. Medicine Shield College, which helps adults earn college degrees, is struggling to meet the criteria that will allow it to go on.

Urban-dwelling Native Americans, in fact, are the poorest people in America, Wiese said. And no one is being held accountable for their welfare in the city.

“We don’t want to take anything away from the reservations,” Wiese said. “But something has got to change for us, too.”

TCC convention speaker blasts governments’ treatment of Natives

By Jeff Richardson, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

FAIRBANKS — A colonial attitude and lack of tribal sovereignty are contributing to an “unconscionable” record for Alaska Native justice, the head of the Indian Law and Order Commission told a Fairbanks audience on Tuesday.

Attendees watch on a television in the hallway as Keynote speaker Troy A. Eid, Chairman of the Indian Law and Order Commission, speaks at the Tanana Chiefs Conference Annual Delegate and Full Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at the Westmark Hotel.
Attendees watch on a television in the hallway as Keynote speaker Troy A. Eid, Chairman of the Indian Law and Order Commission, speaks at the Tanana Chiefs Conference Annual Delegate and Full Board of Directors Meeting Tuesday, March 11, 2014 at the Westmark Hotel.

In a fiery speech at the Tanana Chiefs Conference convention, Troy Eid blasted the state and federal governments for treating Alaska Natives like second-class citizens. The result, he said, has been an ineffective and unequal system for the state’s indigenous people.

“You are not stakeholders,” Eid told TCC delegates at the Westmark Hotel. “You are members of sovereign governments.”

Eid received a standing ovation following his remarks, which were the keynote speech for a conference with the theme “The time is now.” Eid’s independent commission was created in 2010 to review the justice system for American Indians and Alaska Natives and report its findings to President Obama and Congress.

The report, which was released last November, gave a dismal review of Alaska’s system. 

Eid, a former U.S Attorney for Colorado, called the status of Alaska Natives a “civil rights crisis.” A fourth of Alaska Native youth suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, he said, the same rate as military veterans returning from Afghanistan. Suicide rates in Alaska rival those in Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world.

Alaska has domestic violence rates 10 times higher than the national average, and 12 times higher against women, Eid said.

He said lawmakers in Juneau and Washington could help change that.

The first step, he said, is to stop excluding Alaska Natives from federal legislation that protects Native Americans in other parts of the country. Eid dismissed the argument that the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act requires that Alaska Natives be treated differently than their counterparts in the Lower 48.

“They’re laws Congress made and Congress can revisit it. … It’s not as if these are immutable, unchangeable laws,” he said.

Eid also criticized the state for battling against tribes who want local courts and police, saying that local efforts to combat crime often prove more effective. Tribal courts are now limited to family issues, such as child custody and adoption.

“It is time for the state of Alaska to stop fighting against Alaska Natives,” he said.

Following the remarks, Fort Yukon Chief Steve Ginnis asked delegates to consider a resolution that would ask the federal government to treat Alaska Natives under the same civil rights legislation as other Native Americans.

President Jerry Isaac echoed the comments.

“It’s undoubtedly a long struggle with the tribes in Alaska to be recognized in a place that they deserve,” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who spoke by videoconference with TCC delegates, was asked if she would pledge to support such a resolution. She said ANCSA has set up a system which creates a special distinction for Alaska Natives, and that identical legislation for Alaskans and those in the Lower 48 isn’t always possible.

However, Congress needs to make sure the end result shouldn’t be unequal treatment for Alaskans, she said.

“We need to be sure that Alaska Natives are treated justly and fairly, as are all Natives,” Murkowski said.

Spring Nettle harvesting at Tulalip

Tulalip News Facebook, March 12, 2014

TULALIP, WA – Inez Bill, coordinator of Rediscovery programs at the Hibulb Cultural Center and Natural History Preserve, took a few helpers to harvest early spring Nettle on Bluff Road in Tulalip.

She was joined by Tulalip tribal members Derek Houle and Lauw-YA Spencer. Lauw-YA, a summer youth worker in the Rediscovery program in 2012, discovered she loves to be in the forest helping to gather cultural items.

Nettles are rich in vitamins A, C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium and Inez uses them in recipes such as the famous “Hibulb bread” and even in a Fettuccini pasta dish, using nettles which she calls “nesto” instead of pesto.