Western Front - 2002 April 23

              Special C-oi.e . - :
Wil
Pittsburgh-bound
Former Viking football star Erik
Totten signed by the Steelers.
See Story, Page 11.
APR % * 2002
House of cats
Bellingham woman spends 23
years saving unwanted pets.
See Story, Page 8.
ravr T'ST'OI The Western Front Western Washington University Volume 121 Issue 6 Bellingham, Washington
Bobbie Egan/ The Western Front
Ramzi Dana of Edmonds wails into a loudspeaker "stop the killing, stop the crime, Israel out of Palestine." Dana was
one of nearly 700 protesters to march Saturday from Westlake Center to Capitol Hill protesting U.S. foreign policy with
Israel. Approximately 12 Western students from the Western Antiwar Movement attended the march in Seattle.
Students protest war in Seattle
By Bobbie Egan
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western students joined
approximately 700 activists on
Saturday, marching through
downtown Seattle in opposition
to U.S. foreign policy in the
Middle East. Protesters trans­formed
two miles of city streets
into a sea of red, green, black
and white Palestinian flags.
What began as a peaceful
protest turned tense when police
charged a crowd of protesters
early Saturday evening. The
protesters were blocking the
intersection of Broadway and
East Thomas streets.
Seattle police used their bicy­cles
to push demonstrators off
roads and onto the sidewalk.
Western graduate student
Jean Fallow was one of 15 peo­ple
from the Western Antiwar
Movement to attend the rally.
Fallow organized WAM last
fall in response to the U.S. pro­posal
to bomb Afghanistan.
Fallow said the "Reclaim the
Street" rally, held after the
march ended, started festive
and peaceful.
"Then, all of the sudden, 20
bicycle police zoomed around the
corner and charged right
through a banner, into the
crowd," Fallow said. "They
couldn't see who was on the
other side of the banner. Their
intent was to ride into people. It
was shocking."
According to the Seattle Post-
Intelligencer, police made 19
arrests throughout the day. All
arrests were misdemeanors for
pedestrian interference, proper­ty
damage or obstructing justice.
All protesters were released on
Monday.
Seattle police reported no
injuries during the rally.
Fallow said she saw police
tackle three men in front of her,
See PROTEST, Page 4
Locals dance to save Blanchard Mountain
By Sarah Loehndorf
THE WESTERN FRONT
tAMH
A six-foot turquoise dancing
salmon and a crowd of several
hundred gathered Friday at the
Majestic to raise money to save
salmon at the annual Jammin'
for Salmon festival.
The crowd listened as Dana
Lyons, a local singer, announced
that the Senate ruled against
drilling in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge.
He praised the decision,
which he said was due largely to
the people in Bellingham who
petitioned the government and
fought to save the Arctic from
being drilled.
"We saved the Arctic wilder­ness,"
Dana Lyons said. "We
stopped the Bush administra­tion
and we can stop them in
other things."
For the past four years, the
Bellingham-based environmen­tal
organization called the
Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
has sponsored Jammin' for
Salmon to help raise money for
local campaigns.
Proceeds from this year's
Jammin' for Salmon went to the
Blanchard Mountain Campaign,
which will fund a study NWEA
is conducting on the value of
Blanchard Mountain.
"We do forest conservation
work and salmon live in the for­est,"
said Chris Dillard, conser­vation
associate at NWEA. "We
view our work as benefiting
salmon."
Photo courtesy of Michael Lemmon
The Barbed Wire Cutters perform for concerned residents
who attended Friday's Jammin' for Salmon at the Majestic.
Blanchard Mountain has
become a heated topic of local
discussion lately because its' old
growth forests are in danger of
being logged for the valuable
timber.
The mountain is a popular
See SALMON, Page 4
Court orders
teen held in
murder case
By Leanne Josephson
THE WESTERN FRONT
A Bellingham High School
sophomore was ordered held
without bail Monday in connec­tion
with the murder of an 8-
year-old boy.
Authorities said Ryan E.
Alexander is being held for
investigation in the kidnapping
and aggravated first-degree
murder of Michael Busby Jr., a
second-grader whose -body was
found Friday near the Pacific
Concrete Industries plant.
Alexander, 16, told
Bellingham police detectives he
ordered Busby to remove his
shirt, then bound his hands,
feet and mouth with duct tape
and strangled him by pressing a
stick against his neck while he
was lying on the ground.
Alexander said he harmed
Busby, his Jaeger Street neigh­bor,
because the boy was "bug­ging
him." He said he wanted to
"get even with Michael."
Alexander said he used a
razor blade to make the deep
cuts found on the back of
Busby's legs and on the front of
See MURDER, Page 4
Local activists
support new
veggie burger
By Derek Sheppard and
Mike Baab
THE WESTERN FRONT
Local members of an animal
rights group held signs that con­vinced
Bellingham resident Jim
McLaughlin to step into Burger
King for the first time since
Gerald Ford was president.
On Monday, McLaughlin saw
the demonstrators from People
for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals on the corner of
Samish Way and Bill
MacDonald Parkway holding
signs promoting Burger King's
vegetarian option, the BK
Veggie.
"I saw the sign and said, 'God,
I gotta support these people,'"
he said.
Western graduate student
and PETA demonstrator Dayna
Mooney said she does not con­done
all the actions of the
Burger King corporation, but
she is happy that a fast-food
chain is offering a vegetarian
alternative.
"I'm not promoting Burger
See BURGERS, Page 4
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