Western Front - 2004 November 5

              ISSUE 14
Volume 131
DANCE UNITY
Western students keep the
beat with local pop bands.
Accent, Page 6
YOUNG AT HOME
With so many issues effecting them,
more young people should vote.
Opinions, Page 10
LOVE OF B-BALL
Western students crowd
Carver Gym for Viking Jam.
Sports, Page 8
Western Washington University, Bellingham, Washington — The Western Front FRIDAY
Nov. 5,2004
Protest moves to the streets
; ; ; - - H Chris Taylor/The Western Front
Protesters outside The Bellingham Herald building respond to Bellingham police officers monitoring the scene. The
protest began on Western's campus and moved downtown, where protesters lay in the street.
By Salina Greig
The Western Front
Hundreds of Western students, staff
and community members gathered in the
Performing Arts Center plaza Thursday
following the re-election of President
George W. Bush. The rally for peace ended
when it caused a commotion on North State
Street.
Bellingham police officers responded to
approximately 300 people blocking traffic in
front ofThe Bellingham Herald building and
arrested one person, according to an official
police statement by Lt. Craige Ambrose.
The Beyond the Ballot Committee
planned the rally in protest of the war in
Iraq, the Israel-Palestine conflict, corporate
globalization and other social issues,
according to a flier the group released.
Several people, including Fairhaven
adjunct professor Shirley Osterhaus, spoke
at the PAC rally on issues such as human
rights, social justice and peace.
"There's so much work we have to do,
not in a spirit of revenge or in response to
violence," Osterhaus said. "Justice work is
riot easy. We must draw upon our energy,
values and our spiritual reserve."
After approximately 45 minutes of
speeches, most of the people at the rally
marched to the downtown Federal Building,
where they participated in a sit-in.
Gabrielle Roesch, a Western senior and
Beyond, the Ballot member, said she was at
the rally to attack not Republicans but neo-conservatives,
a minority group that she
SEE Protest, PAGE 4
Voters snuff
Initiative 884
By Marissa Harshman
The Western Front
Despite the millions of dollars organizations
raised to encourage citizens to pass the
Education Trust Fund Initiative, state voters
said "no" to the proposed sales-tax increase.
The initiative would have increased the
statewide sales tax by 1 percent. The money
the tax increase generated would have
gone toward education improvements for
kindergarten through 12th grade and higher
education, said Buff Schoenfeld, executive
assistant to Western President Karen Morse.
"We're obviously very disappointed," said
Natalie Reber, communications director for
Citizens for the Education Trust Fund.
The initiative failed with 60.65 percent
opposition vote, or 1,290,3 84 people opposing
it.
"I don't think people were voting against
education but against a sales-tax increase,"
Schoenfeld said. "We're still trying to digest
the situation.".;\--?••.".
; ^Citizens for the Education' Trust Fund,
a Seattle-based organizatibn, spent $32.1
million in advertising and ^promotion for
the initiative, said Jamie Daniels, campaign
director for Citizens for a Sound Economy.
Citizens for a Sound Economy, a national
organization with a branch in Washington,
spent $42,000 to encourage voters to oppose
the sales-tax increase, she said.
"We created a strong grass-roots
movement," Daniels said. "And I think we
did a really good job."
If the initiative had passed, higher education
would have received 40 percent of the money,
or $400 million each year, Schoenfeld said.
Daniels said her organization opposed the
initiative because the tax increase would have
devastated the economy and hurt low-income
SEE Education, PAGE 3
EMS levy failure leaves City
Council searching for funds
By Laura McVicker
The Western Front
After the failure of the emergency-medical-
services levy, Bellingham City
Council members are assessing the funding
cuts needed to offset the costs of the new
Bellingham Medic One, councilman Terry
Bornemann said.
The levy failed by a vote of 11,160 to
8,962, -according to the Whatcom County
auditor's Web site. The levy, which would
have charged Bellingham property owners of
a $200,000 home $70 more in property taxes a
year, would have paid for Bellingham Medic
One, Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson
said.
The existing countywide Whafcom Medic
One ends service in 2006 and Bellingham
Medic One begins service in January 2005.
"There's going to be major changes,"
Asmundson said. "There's going to be cuts
that hurt."
Bornemann said the council will begin
deciding in upcoming meetings which
programs the city will cut to make up for an
approximate $1.5 million that was expected
to come from the levy.
Bornemann said the Arne Hanna Aquatic
Center or branches of the Fairhaven library,
for example, may undergo cutbacks,
but he said the council will decide those
consequences in future meetings.
Lynn Carpenter, former finance director
for the city and a member of the political
action Committee of Public Safety, said the
SEE EMS, PAGE 3
Western's future development
on waterfront still uncertain
By Michael Murray
The Western Front
Western's possible involvement With
the waterfront development project is still
unclear, but the second campus open forum
to discuss Western's presence there took
place Thursday.
"We have no idea if Western is going to
do anything (on the waterfront), or what
we would do if we went down there,"
Western President Karen Morse said at the
forum, which took place in the Science,
Mathematics, & Technology Education
building.
The Port of Bellingham and Georgia-
Pacific discussed an agreement on June 23,
for the acquisition of 137 acres of G-P's
waterfront property and approximately 100
acres of undeveloped property outside the
Photo courtesy of the Waterfront Futures
Web site
Aerial view of the proposed develop­ment
on Bellingham's waterfront
city in exchange for the port taking on the
decontamination of the G-P property.
SEE Waterfront, PAGE 4
For news tips, call (360).650-3162 or e-mail The Western Front at thewesternfronteditor@yahoo.com www.westernfrontonline.com Please recycle