2/24 Cougar, WA lege bills, quakes, Goldeneye, BirdNote, Nookachamps Cr, fed unemployment, BC water, BPA, DEI pullback, first 100 days

Cougar [Rich Beausoleil]

 
Cougar Puma concolor
Sleek and graceful, cougars are solitary and secretive animals rarely seen in the wild. Also known as mountain lions or pumas, cougars are known for their strength, agility, and awesome ability to jump. Cougars are the largest members of the cat family in Washington. Adult males average approximately 140 pounds but in rare cases may weigh 180 pounds and measure 7-8 feet long from nose to tip of tail. Adult males stand about 30 inches tall at the shoulder. Adult female cougars rarely exceed 110 pounds. (WDFW)

Today's top story in Salish Current: New walk-on ferry routes across Puget Sound ready to sail — if funded

Bills that didn’t survive the WA Legislature’s first major deadline
A slew of measures are done for the year. More will be on the chopping block next week. Jacquelyn Jimenez Romero and Jake Goldstein-Street report (Washington State Standard)

Shaking felt across southwest B.C. after 4.7-magnitude earthquake hits coast
No major damage, no tsunami threat after shaking on Friday. Rhianna Schmunk reports. (CBC)   B.C. earthquake triggers concerns over sporadic alerts from national warning system. Chuck Chiang reports. (Canadian Press)

‘Really fed up’: B.C. ranchers say fracking-induced earthquakes hurt cattle
Fifteen recent earthquakes in five days, linked to fracking, are having serious implications for ranchers — including livestock stress, premature births and water shortages. Sarah Cox reports. (The Narwhal)  How the pursuit of oil and gas — by fracking — causes earthquakes Sarah Cox reports. (The Narwhal)

Goldeneye energy storage facility clears a hurdle
The state Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council determined Wednesday that the proposal by Goldeneye Energy Storage to build a facility on land zoned for agriculture just east of Sedro-Woolley is consistent and compliant with local land use provisions. The next hurdle for the project involves how it complies with the State Environmental Policy Act, and whether an environmental impact statement will be required. Vince Richardson reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

BirdNote celebrates 20 years of fun, joyful daily radio episodes
Twenty years ago this week, on Feb. 21, 2005, a very catchy theme song began airing daily on KPLU 88.5 FM, heralding a sound-rich yet brief lesson about birds. That radio station that went on to become KNKX, and BirdNote extended its reach dramatically. Bellamy Paithorp reports. (KNKX)

Project underway to restore the east fork of Nookachamps Creek
A Skagit County-led project to restore 17 acres along the east fork of Nookachamps Creek is well underway. The area being restored is part of a 396-acre wetland mitigation bank sponsored by Clear Valley Environmental Farm LLC. Emma Fletcher-Frazer reports. (Skagit Valley Herald)

Hundreds of federal workers apply for unemployment in Washington state amid Trump's purge
Amid a surge of federal firings nationwide, 362 federal workers have applied for unemployment in Washington state between Jan. 20, when President Trump took office, and Tuesday, according to a report released on Friday by Washington’s Employment Security Department. Scott Greenstone reports. (KUOW)  National Park Service restores some jobs of fired employees, pledges to hire 7,700 seasonal workers (Associated Press)

Trump wants B.C.’s water: Plausible or one big pipe dream?
The U.S. president has made inaccurate comments in the past that California’s drought could be solved by turning on a Canadian “faucet.” Alec Lazenby reports. (Vancouver Sun)

Dams, power lines and statistics: What the Bonneville Power Administration is and does
The Bonneville Power Administration was born out of the New Deal, an era of large-scale public works projects that created infrastructure and jobs as the U.S. recovered from the Great Depression. It started to market electricity from the Bonneville and Grand Coulee hydroelectric dams in the 1930s and ’40s. Today, a third of all power consumed in the Pacific Northwest comes from BPA, which owns 75% of the region’s electrical transmission lines. Courtney Sherwood reports. (OPB)

Which US companies are pulling back on diversity initiatives?
Pepsi, Goldman Sachs, Google, Target, Meta Platforms, Amazon, McDonald's, Walmart, Ford, Lowe's, Harley-Davidson, Brown Foreman (Jack Daniels), John Deere, Tractor Supply. (Associated Press)

The First 100 Days

• Musk gives federal workers 48 hours to say what they did last week (Associated Press)
• Key federal agencies refuse to comply with Musk’s latest demand in his cost-cutting crusade (Associated Press)
  
• Experienced workers, not just rookies, get cut as Trump slashes probationary employees (Associated Press)
  
• National Park Service restores some jobs of fired employees, pledges to hire 7,700 seasonal workers (Associated Press)
  
• Judge largely blocks Trump's executive orders ending federal support for DEI programs (Associated Press)
  
• Judge upholds ban on DOGE accessing sensitive Treasury information, for now (Associated Press)
  
• AP sues Trump White House for denying access over 'Gulf of Mexico' row (NPR)
  
• Which US companies are pulling back on diversity initiatives? (Associated Press)
  
• Trump administration plans mass firing at office that funds homelessness programs (NPR)
  
• The Trump administration is putting USAID staffers on leave worldwide and firing at least 1,600 (Associated Press)
  
• Ex-Secret Service agent and conservative media personality Dan Bongino picked as FBI deputy director (Associated Press)
  

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Here's your tug weather—
West Entrance U.S. Waters Strait Of Juan De Fuca-  209 AM PST Mon Feb 24 2025    
SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST THIS MORNING  GALE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM PST THIS MORNING THROUGH  LATE TONIGHT    
TODAY  E wind 10 to 15 kt, rising to 20 to 25 kt with gusts up  to 35 kt. Seas 5 to 7 ft, building to 7 to 10 ft this afternoon.  Wave Detail: E 6 ft at 6 seconds and W 9 ft at 13 seconds. Rain  late this morning and afternoon. Patchy fog late this morning and  afternoon.  
TONIGHT  E wind 25 to 30 kt, veering to W after midnight. Seas  8 to 11 ft. Wave Detail: E 7 ft at 7 seconds, S 2 ft at  13 seconds and W 9 ft at 14 seconds. Patchy fog in the evening.  Rain.

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