Western Front - 1999 November 5

              s FRIDAY, November 5,1999 The Western Front
Western Washington University Volume 110 Issue 12 Bellingham, Washington
University police subpoena Front's editor
Police seek videotape of Miller Hall break-in, made by Animal Liberation Front
.'-': Chris Fuller/The Western Front
Western's Assistant Police Chief Dave Doughty serves
Front editor Erin Becker with a subpoena Wednesday.
By Kristen Hawley
THE WESTERN FRONT
Western Front Editor Erin
Becker was subpoenaed
Wednesday to appear at a court
hearing Nov. 10.
University Assistant Police
Chief Dave Doughty served the
subpoena to Becker and gave her
the option of turning over the
video tape at that time. Becker
accepted the subpoena and kept
the tape. She said she promised
KIKO-TV Seattle, who sent the
tape to The Front, that she would
not give it to anyone.
"We cannot hand over the tape
because we need to protect our­selves
as professional journalists
and protect our credibility as a
newspaper," Becker said. "We
need to protect our freedom to
simply gather information and
use our information so that we
don't have to worry about any
information we've gathered being
turned over to the police."
The Front's attorney,
Washington State Assistant
Attorney General Wendy Bohlke,
will attempt to get the subpoena
quashed, which means Becker
will not have to give police the
tape. The subpoena was
processed by Whatcom County
Prosecutor Dave McEachran.
The Front received the original
videotape of the break-in from
KTRO after obtaining permission
to use the tape from the ALF.
Every time the ALF raids a labo­ratory,
it videotapes the break-in
and sends the tape to the local
media.
University Police Chief James
Shaw said the tape would help
the police find the people respon­sible
for the break-in.
"We want to review the tape to
see if it's consistent with the other
tapes (made by the ALF)," Shaw
said. 'Tt might help us to catch the
people responsible for the crime."
Becker said any personal urge
she might have to assist the police
investigation is overruled by her
obligation to uphold professional
journalistic standards.
"On a personal level, I'd have to
say (I'd hand over the tape), but
on a professional level, I have to
say no," Becker said. "This is just
our day-to-day gathering of infor-mation
and reporting, but if we
See TAPE, page 5
Misty morning campus
Matt Anderson/The Western Front
Western students stroll through the morning fog on their way to classes.
State, local election results in
By Sarah Crowley
THE WESTERN FRONT
The votes have been tallied
and the results are in.
Initiative 695 for reduced
'license; tabs passed with ,57.6
percent of the votes, although
the majority in Whatcom
County voted no. Initiative 696
for commercial fishing restric­tions
was voted down by 59.9
percent of the votes.
Senate Joint Resolution
8206, which proposed to permit
the state to guarantee payment
of voter-approved general-obligation
debt of school dis­tricts,
passed with 59.9 per­cent
of the votes, and Senate
Joint Resolution 8208, which
proposed to amend the state
constitution to permit the
Emergency Reserve Fund to be
invested as the Legislature
See ELECTION, page 6
Washington state
General Election
Results
1-695 Yes 5 7 6 2 %
No 42.38%
1 - 6 9 6 Yes 40.28%
No 59.72%
SJR8206 Yes 59.84%
No 40.16%
SJR8208 Yes 47.44%
No 52.56%
Election results will be
finalized Nov. 17,1999
Courtesy of www.access.wa.gov
Health concerns
arise about Lake
Whatcom fish
By Sarah Crowley
THE WESTERN FRONT
The murky depths of Lake
Whatcom may be harboring more
than just sludge and slime.
Harry Skinner, who ran
unsuccessfully for Whatcom
County Council, proposed a fish
alert for Lake Whatcom to the
council last week.
A fish alert would require the
Whatcom County Health Board
and health department to inform
the general public about the dan­gers
of eating fish caught in the
lake. The alert would continue
until contamination dropped to a
safe level, as defined by the
Washington State Department of
Ecology.
See FISH, page 6
Western safe in a quake, experts say
By Shannon Ager
THE WESTERN FRONT
It began as a vision — almost
as a bad dream. While standing
in front of a large lecture class,
David Engebretson, Western
geology professor, envisioned the
ground begin­ning
to shake,
the ceiling lights
breaking and the
walls beginning
to crumble. He
had no idea what
he would tell a
roomful of stu­dents
if this were
reality.
'1 really want­ed
to have an
earthquake awareness on cam­pus,"
Engebretson said. "I went to
the campus security, and I asked
the head of campus safety what
he would do if there were an
David
Engebretson
earthquake. He said, Td bow my
head and hope something didn't
hit it."'
The unsettling feeling that
response gave Engebretson com­pelled
him to set up an earth-,
quake awareness committee to
focus on earthquake preparation.
The committee submitted a
proposal for a quarter of amiUion.
dollars from the state for an
analysis of Western's campus and
its buildings, and the state fund­ed
it, Engebretson said.
Called the Seismic Resistance
Survey, the analysis came out in
December 1992 and showed rat­ings
for each campus building. It
also estimated the cost for con­struction
to make them safer dur­ing
earthquakes.
The analysis took about one
year, and was done by Dames &
Moore, an engineering firm. The
company used a document called
_ See QUAKE, page 6
Iiam HbuseDojde/The Wfestem Front
Students pass by Haggard Hall.
IN THIS ISSUE
Western women's crew
Western's women's crew
team acquired five new row­ers
this season. The team
braves rain, wind and snow
to practice at 5 a.m. twice
per week at Lake Whatcom.
See story, page 10.
Doodles art exhibit
An exhibit
featuring com­munity
mem­ber's
doodles
is at the
Viking Union
Satellite
Gallery in the
Whatcom Museum of
History and Art.
See story, page 9.
FRONT ONLINE
http: / / westernfront.wwu.edu