Inclusivity or Indoctrination?
One Mother’s Journey Through Gender Stereotyping Policies in PT Schools
Being an “old school” liberal, I had thought that the new ideology and its theories being taught in the schools — like Gender Identity — were just about respecting each other. Like most of our community, I tried to be inclusive by listening, learning, only...
City and YMCA Brace for Court Battle
Over Julie Jaman’s 2022 Lifetime Pool Ban
On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 12th, attorneys for Port Townsend resident Julie Jaman filed a lawsuit on her behalf. The Center for American Liberty (CAL) registered the official complaint and demand for a jury trial in the Western District Court of...
Jefferson School-Based Health Centers:
What Rights Do Parents Have?
The Leader's April 12 front-page headline “Blue Heron Middle School awarded grant for mental health" caught my attention, reminding me of a recent conversation with a high school teacher revealing that close to half of his students are in counseling for mental health...
Jefferson County Beacon Launches Local News, Globally Funded
Welcome to The Jefferson County Beacon, which describes itself as "a worker-directed nonprofit news outlet managed by a board of your friends and neighbors." But who has actually financed this new “local” initiative? A little digging reveals that it is...
Lawsuit Looms Over City Mishandling of YMCA Pool Discrimination
The day they thought would never come arrived on Tuesday, March 19th, 2024, when the City of Port Townsend and the Olympic Peninsula YMCA received an unwelcome bit of news from a litigation team at the Center for American Liberty, representing longtime Port Townsend...
Concealed Public Records Reveal Affordable Pool Options
Administrators and elected officials in Port Townsend’s city hall are painfully familiar with charges of subverted public processes, and rightfully so. Sims Way poplars, the golf course, streateries, the pool — each of these controversial projects followed...
How the Golf Course Saved the Prairie
(and the Olympics Got Their Goats)
The Kah Tai Valley, between the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Port Townsend Bay, once consisted of open prairies and estuaries. Development quickly transformed this landscape; however, due to benign neglect of a small area within Port Townsend Golf Course, a colorful...
Everybody Knows
Except Public Health
Public comment to Jefferson County Board of Health at their January 18, 2024 meeting (slightly expanded for publication): What do you know? When covid hit, Public Health said they knew it was caused by wet market bats, and censored anyone who disagreed. But now the...
Port Townsend Is In Trouble
Insufficient revenues. Increasing expenditures. Stagnant economy. Port Townsend is heading over its financial cliff fast. Don a green eye shade and take a flinty-eyed look at the city budget just approved for 2024. There's red ink everywhere. The vapid verbiage of...
$10.5 Million Cost Overruns and Delays
Projected for PT Aquatic Center
— A PROFESSIONAL ANALYSIS —
Gaping holes in the construction estimate for the proposed $37.1 million Port Townsend aquatic center translate into millions of dollars in future costs overruns, according to Mark Grant of Grant Steel Buildings and Concrete Systems, Inc. (see his bio below). Mr....
The Pursuit of Affordable Housing in Port Townsend
“There are two ways of being happy: We may either diminish our wants or augment our means — either will do — the result is the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest. If you are idle or sick or poor, however...
Aquatic Center Looms as Far Worse Fiasco
than Cherry Street Project
What a mess. The $108 million Port Townsend Aquatic Center as proposed to City Council would default in its first year. To calm skeptical taxpayers, numbers are being juggled, massaged and manipulated. Millions of dollars magically disappear from cost entries in order...
Would 0.3% TBD Tax Be Used Just to Fix Roads?
To Be Determined
Like many, I was surprised to learn on July 26 from a brief front-page Leader blurb that city council was stepping up to fix Port Townsend's crumbling roads by forming its own Transportation Benefit District (TBD) and meeting August 1 to fast-track funding by placing...
The $108,941,000 Pool
Could Default Its First Year
Eye popping numbers. Red ink from the start. The city's financial analysis shows that the proposed aquatic center would not be able to pay its debt service for its first four years. That analysis is built upon a fantasy of low interest rates and a Jefferson County...
Vulnerable People Need Protection –
The Opposite Is Happening
Recently uncovered public records include a draft September 2022 City of Port Townsend Newsletter article, where Mayor David Faber wrote about his emotions while hearing elder people at the August 1 city council meeting “repeatedly call trans persons ‘pedophiles’ and...
Mayor David Faber’s Social Media Round-up:
The Joke’s On Who?
In August 2022, incendiary events in Port Townsend brought social media posts by then 39-year-old Mayor David Faber to national attention. Internet writers began discussing tweets like this: And this one, publicizing his ultra-low Rice Purity Test score (17/100) to...
REALITY CHECK:
PT Aquatic Center
Grossly Underestimates Operating Costs
Lowballing costs. The feasibility study for the proposed Port Townsend aquatic center appears to grossly underestimate likely operating costs. Annual deficits may be far worse than being reported to the public. Even greater subsidies -- and higher taxes -- may be...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– SEPTEMBER 2023 –
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that...
City’s Disregarded Consultant
Sees Bright Future for Golf Course
Self-sufficient, profitable, a benefit to the community. That can be the future of the Port Townsend golf course, says the city's consultant in a May 24, 2023 report that has started receiving serious consideration only within the past week or so. The city's...
Aquatic Center Feasibility Study – It Gets Worse
The closer you look, the more problematic a new Port Townsend aquatic center appears. Operating costs would greatly exceed initial projections, according to the feasibility study prepared to boost the city's promotion of a new aquatic/fitness center. The estimated...
Drowning in Red Ink:
Mountain View Pool and Proposed Aquatic Center
Unsustainable. Without massive city subsidies, the Mountain View pool would be closed. No one knows how much larger the subsidies must be to sustain a much larger new aquatic center. All we have are predictions based on projections which are based on assumptions. In...
Mountain View Pool – By the Numbers
How many people use the Mountain View pool and who are they? With numbers like $53 million being batted around — the projected cost of building a brand new aquatic center — more than anecdotal information is called for. To answer those questions we now have 18 months...
Manufacturing Consent to Override Public Will, Destroy a Community Legacy, Inflate City Debt
This laid back Victorian seaport and artist colony has long been funkily charming, attracting visitors from around the world to enjoy architecture, birding, boating, weekend getaways and the impressive array of weekend-long festivals. Some are so enchanted they...
Aquatic Center Beats Out Streets and Core Services for Increased Tax Dollars in Task Force Report
Unsustainable. Higher taxes lie ahead for Port Townsend residents and businesses. But it won't be basic, critical city services that get the biggest chunk of increased revenues if the recommendations of the City's Financial Sustainability Task Force are followed. The...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– JULY 2023 –
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that...
Fort Worden PDA To Go Broke,
Lose Executive Director in Next 90 Days
Dave Timmons has had enough. The former Port Townsend City Manager (at left above, speaking to the city council at their June 12 meeting) came out of retirement in 2020 in response to requests he step in to save a collapsing Fort Worden Public Development Authority...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– JUNE 2023 –
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that...
City Finances “Falling Off Cliff” as Cherry Street Project Enters Seventh Year
Unsustainable. In less than five years, Port Townsend will burn through its reserves and be unable to maintain its current level of services. Its finances will “fall off a cliff.” Those exact words were used by city staff in its presentation to the joint session of...
Jefferson Healthcare’s Trans Mission —
Suicide Risk as Emotional Blackmail
“The transgender rights movement has gone well beyond seeking equal rights. It seeks to liberate women without their consent from the legal protections associated with birth sex and even from the recording of birth sex… I have changed my mind with regard to certain...
Washington State Board of Health
Wades Into the Misinformation War
Years have gone by since the Covid outbreak of 2020, many meetings have been held, studies have been done, mountains of data have been compiled. What problem would you guess the Washington State Board of Health (WSBOH) would focus on, would ask for help in the form of...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– MAY 2023 –
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that...
Artificial Intelligence Challenge for the PT Poet Laureate
At their March 27 meeting, the Port Townsend City Council unanimously approved the PT Arts Commission's proposal for an expert selection panel appointing a Poet Laureate to serve throughout 2024 "as ambassador of Port Townsend’s active creative community, promoting...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– APRIL 2023 –
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that...
News Briefs & Quick Takes – Ebb & Flow
Ebb and flow happen everywhere - in natural tidal rhythms, in social structures, and in the cycles of individual lives. Staying at high tide all the time is unsustainable. These past 3 years, deadly lockdowns and incessant propaganda campaigns have propelled the world...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– MARCH 2023 –
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that...
War of the Worms:
Destructive Wrigglers Invade Discovery Bay Garden
Editors Note: Long-time gardener and Discovery Bay resident Bonnie Broders contacted the Free Press in an effort to alert others in the county to a devastating worm infestation that she believes came from packaged organic potting soil purchased locally. She says that...
Doctor to Health Officer Berry and BOH:
Harmful Narrative is Failing to Serve the Public
Editors Note: The following letter was sent by Dr. Rob Rennebohm to Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry and the Jefferson County Board of Health on February 4, 2023. ---------------------------------------- On November 16, 2022, I sent an email to Dr. Berry, Dr....
A 48.7% Tax Increase? Where’s the Fire?
The shell game Over recent decades, municipalities have been shedding responsibility for various community services by creating what have been dubbed ‘junior' or ‘special' taxing districts. Rationales range from increased service demands to vague descriptions of...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– FEBRUARY 2023 –
In the spirit of offering Letters to the Editor as a traditional platform for lively, wide-ranging conversations in the public square, we invite you to write about whatever is on your mind. Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that...
A Tale of Three Counties:
JeffCo Has Most Vax Uptake,
Highest Covid Case Rate in State
Out of 39 Washington counties, Jefferson County rang in the new year with the dubious distinction of being the only “red alert” spot for Covid cases in the state. We’ve reported extensively on the disinformation from Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry, our health...
Open House on Open Spaces – What’s Missing?
I was among the three hundred plus citizens who packed the meeting room at Fort Worden Commons for what the city described as Open House #1, City of Port Townsend Golf Course plus Mountain View Commons Planning Effort. This meeting marked the midpoint of a roughly...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– JANUARY 2023 –
Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that readers who want to speak to other important issues, events and concerns that our small crew can’t cover don’t have a place for that. We introduced this feature for readers who want to bring up...
Streatery Roundup:
The End (For Now) of a Failed Agenda
— Updated with Tent Removal Photos —
December 31st is the deadline for removal of all streateries remaining in Port Townsend. As year-end approaches for the expiration of the streatery temporary use permits — which despite public outcry, the City Council extended yet again last May — five rarely-used...
Letters Forum: Off Topic!
– Mid-December 2022 –
Because we require comments under articles to be “on topic”, we found that readers who want to speak to other important issues, events and concerns that our small crew can’t cover don’t have a place for that. Last month we introduced this new feature to make a place...
Masks Again? Seriously?!?
It's like deja vu all over again. On Dec. 9, NYC's health commissar advised that everyone (including 2-year-olds!) "should wear a mask at all times when in an indoor public setting." Then our state's public health leaders followed in lockstep....
Local Health Authorities Ignore Physician’s Concerns About Brain and Heart Damage Linked to COVID Vaccines
Dr. Michael Mörz, a pathologist in Germany, has recently published an article entitled, Multifocal Necrotizing Encephalitis and Myocarditis after BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccination against COVID-19. The article is a case report of autopsy findings in a 76-year-old man who had...
Celebrate Perversity!
Mayor’s Law Partner Condones Assault, Disorderly Conduct
Meet Alexander Zachary French. Alex French, 25, was arraigned in Jefferson County District Court on Monday, November 21st, for assault in the 4th degree committed on the evening of August 15th. That summer evening, across from City Hall, a press conference organized...
Streatery for the Holidays: Alchemical Magic!
The photo above shows the skeletal remains of a streatery tent in front of Alchemy Steak & Seafood (aka Alchemy Bistro and Wine Bar), where according to their website “A New Culinary Adventure Begins." The photograph accompanied an email to the Port Townsend City...
Introducing Our New Letters Forum: Off Topic!
We invite you to participate in a new feature! We took on relaunching the Free Press in 2021 with a commitment to creating a space for uncensored conversation, discourse that other local media does not permit. Throughout that time, readers have asked, Do you have a...
PUD “Slowly Moving” from Jab Mandates?
Not So Fast!
Jefferson County PUD leadership, including the General Manager, legal counsel and two-thirds of the elected commissioners (the Fab Four) have not gone so far as The Atlantic's Prof. Emily Oster in asking for "pandemic amnesty," but they share her interest in ignoring...
Port Townsend’s Fentanyl Forest: In Photos
The approach to Port Townsend's gateway runs past the city's Fentanyl Forest, where addicts survive night to night, fix to fix, saying they have no drug problems unless they don't have enough to stay high. This is where campers rousted from Kah Tai Park go. Those...
Berry’s VAERS Conspiracy Theory:
Bloody Lies with a Hateful Twist
— Part Four —
Part One of this series addressed our health officer's disinformation about the CDC's cover-up of alarming safety signals from their v-safe database. While v-safe was developed specifically for the Covid roll-out — a digital app designed for registered vax recipients...
Bats in the Berry Belfry:
Vax Efficacy Disinformation
— Part Three —
BERRY: nothing but hope for vaccine efficacy "The biggest thing that we can do to protect ourselves and our community as we move into the fall is to get vaccinated, both with our Covid boosters and get our flu shot. That's how we protect ourselves, our neighbors and...
Vax Trial Fraud Disinfo:
Another Berry Trick-or-Treat
— Part Two —
BERRY on pharma fraud during vaccine trials: "[I have been] asked if there have been any valid concerns raised about Pfizer clinical trials, about poor design or data falsification... And the answer is no, actually." (2-14-22 BOCC meeting) FACT CHECK: Last February,...
Disinformation Trick-or-Treats:
Be Afraid, Be Berry Afraid!
— Part One —
“Jefferson doesn’t have the level of population immunity that others do, because it did such a good job controlling the virus before.” — Dr. Allison Berry _______________________________ Public Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry has presided over a pandemic response...
Will Washington State Mandate Covid Shots for School Kids?
Summer is over. The rains have begun. I am back at my desk. While we were enjoying the fine weather, our federal and state governments have continued with their plans to protect us from Covid. Let’s play a little good news/bad news and find out what they have been up...
Where’s the Emergency?
Only in Jefferson County
Jefferson County will be alone in its own private State of Emergency if commissioners approve its 13th temporary Covid-19 response policy emergency declaration at their October 24 board meeting. Meanwhile, Washington State and all its other counties (including...
Should OlyCap Chairman Greg Brotherton Be Awarding Millions in Taxpayer Funds to OlyCap?
Greg Brotherton as county commissioner has steered millions of dollars to an organization he heads as its chairman. That organization is OlyCap. Brotherton has violated state laws prohibiting such conflicts of interest because he has voted for and actively lobbied the...
“This Is Not Over” – Sorting Truth from Deception in YMCA Blame Game
"This is not over," Julie Jaman told the Port Townsend City Council on October 3, 2022. At that meeting Katie Daviscourt, a reporter with Rebel News, confronted Mayor David Faber with his own words about having sex with dead chickens and a dog, and declaring that, "As...
Will a Smart Meter Harm Your Health?
“I cannot sleep… and I am feeling so fatigued and muddle-brained that I can barely think straight and even have trouble standing up straight. I have literally done nothing since [the Smart meters] have been put in and feel achy all over and disoriented, slightly...
$1.5 Million Judgment Against
Art Frank for Misconduct
Weighs on Campaign, Prosecutor
[Updated with comment from Sheriff Nole]
Unlawful arrest, malicious prosecution, making false statements, misleading the prosecutor. A California Federal District Court jury ruled that Art Frank and another Glendale, California police officer unlawfully arrested and caused the malicious prosecution of Edmond...
Both Sides Now: Who Bears Responsibility for YMCA Protest Fallout?
The Port Townsend City Council heard my policing concerns in this Public Comment at their September 6 meeting: In past public comments, I regularly asked about police staffing. My underlying concern was ensuring sufficient police if ever Antifa-like gangs threatened...
Jeffco Anti-Racist Literacy Training Pushes Vaccines, Sidesteps Open Bidding Rules, Wastes $14,999
Jefferson County Commissioners raised a host of disturbing issues by paying $14,999 for 20 county employees to attend an “Anti-Racist Literacy Workshop”. The contract between USAWA Consulting LLC and Jefferson County specifies the training will be customized “to...
Olympic Pride Doesn’t Want You To See What They’re Promoting to Children
Covering its tracks, lawyering up. Olympic Pride got a lawyer to demand that Port Townsend Free Press remove photos showing its interactions with children. The lawyer said it was about copyright. But the same images have also been removed from Olympic Pride's own...
Smart Meters Coming
to a Neighborhood Near You!
“By anyone’s assessment, traditional electromechanical [analog] meters are an amazing piece of engineering work. Refined over a hundred years, the design of a standard residential electricity meter became an impressive combination of economy, accuracy, durability and...
Clementine Adams Interview
Reveals Shortcomings
in Local YMCA Child Protection Rules
Clementine "Clem" Adams finally spoke. And when he did, he revealed shortcomings in local YMCA child safety rules, the policies designed to prevent the sort of conduct that has led to lawsuits against the Y for child sexual abuse and numerous cases of sexual assaults...
The Dark Underbelly of the Trans Movement:
What is Olympic Pride Promoting?
— UPDATED —
"The modern trans movement does not appear to be a natural outgrowth of the feminist or even gay, lesbian, and bisexual acceptance movement. It is my strong belief that something else altogether is going on here.” — Toby Rogers ———————————— “Pride" messaging began as...
YMCA Accused of Expelling Family for Objecting to Child Porn and Sexual Misconduct Against Women and Girls
A Port Angeles man claims he and his wife were banned from the Port Angeles YMCA because he objected to the sharing of child porn in the weight room and young men sexually harassing women and girls. He offered to pay to upgrade the Y's security system so they could...
City Officials Lead Hate Campaign
Against Women
Until a few short weeks ago, I’d never heard the slur “TERF”. Until the story of Julie Jaman’s ban from the YMCA pool broke, I had no idea that so much trans-activist venom and vitriol had infected our community. Or that people we have invested with positions of power...
Came to Listen, Sickened by Mob Violence and Hypocrisy
Monday, August 15. I hadn't initially planned to go to City Hall at all that evening — I had obligations at home and mixed feelings about both sides in this conflict — but the issue was looming large in the community, and I wanted to witness the further unfolding of...
Reporting from the Frontlines of the Woke Battlefield
How to share an evening from hell. This is my dilemma, as I attempt to regain balance after witnessing what I’d previously considered fellow human beings descend into hate-filled and menacing nihilists who felt such righteousness of cause, any questioning of method or...
Women Seeking Civil Rights Stand Up to Mob Hatred and Intimidation in Port Townsend
An angry white crowd screaming at a Black woman pleading for civil rights. Threatening her. Intimidating her. Senior women linking arms to protect a rape survivor trying to speak. A lesbian being shouted down by a mostly male mob decked out in Pride colors. A man with...
Mayor Deflects Backlash Over Men in Women’s Showers at YMCA, Virtue Signals About Trans Rights Instead
"Wow! Why are trans rights and trans feelings more important than any woman's? Why are women and children not worthy of protection?" – Comment from Port Townsend Free Press Facebook post ------------------------ Dozens of citizens filled Port Townsend City Council...
Mountain View Pool No Longer Safe
for Many Women and Girls
A heterosexual male is authorized by the YMCA to enter the women's showers and dressing area at the Mountain View pool while women and girls are naked. Clementine Adams, who also goes by "Clem," though he wears a woman's bathing suit on the job at the pool, is...
Council Watch August 1 – Road Repair vs Calming
Mayor David Faber opened the Port Townsend City Council's August 1 meeting by moving public comments to the top of the agenda in consideration of the many members of the public present intending to comment. Nearly an hour of comments concerned YMCA management of...
Censored: Men’s Eyes in Women’s Shower Room
Editors Note: In the Free Press's ongoing efforts to expose censorship by local media, we are publishing a letter to the editor written to The Leader by long-time Port Townsend resident Julie Jaman. The letter, printed in full below, was submitted on July 28th...
Mountain View Pool Punishes Woman For Her Gender Expression and Identity
– Part One –
An 80-year old woman who expressed extreme discomfort and fear about a male in the women's shower area of the Mountain View Pool was permanently banned from using the facility. For 35 years the Mountain View pool—a City of Port Townsend facility now operated in...
Readers Roundtable with Candidates:
BRIAN PRUIETT
for State House
Readers Roundtable with Candidates: For this year's primary races, our readers are invited to ask candidates questions and add comments in an interactive exchange below. Here's your chance to probe local office-seekers in a relaxed public forum where you'll even get...
First Responders Show “Unprecedented” Support for Sheriff Nole’s Re-election;
Frank Responds
Jefferson County's Sheriff deputies, its captain and all its sergeants, all of the correctional staff and the firefighters have endorsed the re-election of Sheriff Joe Nole. "I've never seen this much support over an election before," says JCSO Sergeant Brandon...
Readers Roundtable with Candidates:
MATTHEW RAINWATER
for State Representative
Readers Roundtable with Candidates: For this year's primary races, our readers are invited to ask candidates questions and add comments in an interactive exchange below. Here's your chance to probe local office-seekers in a relaxed public forum where you'll even get...
Readers Roundtable with Candidates:
SUE FORDE
for State Representative
Readers Roundtable with Candidates: For this year's primary races, our readers are invited to ask candidates questions and add comments in an interactive exchange below. Here's your chance to probe local office-seekers in a relaxed public forum where you'll even get...
Readers Roundtable with Candidates:
MARCIA KELBON
for Jefferson County Commissioner
Readers Roundtable with Candidates: For this year's primary races, our readers are invited to ask candidates questions and add comments in an interactive exchange below. Here's your chance to probe local office-seekers in a relaxed public forum where you'll even get...
Jefferson Healthcare’s Pie in the Sky?
This article is the first in a series that will shine light on the inner workings at our local hospital system. Administrators at Jefferson Healthcare would have us believe that all is well within their institution, particularly as they return to the taxpayers, hat in...
Council Watch July 5 – “I Can’t Drive 25”
The Port Townsend City Council's July 5 meeting centered around a potentially wide-reaching project to calm speeds by replacing double-lane streets with single-lane two-way "edge lane roads", following a revealing Public Works experiment performed on Blaine Street....
Tragic Toll of Suicides and Fatal Overdoses in Jefferson County
Suicide and substance abuse touch all our lives. These horrors and tragedies surround us. In my eight years in this town, I have personally known one young man who hanged himself, and I'm friends with people whose relatives have taken their lives in what should have...
Jeffco High Schoolers Depressed, Hopeless, Suicidal:
2021 Healthy Youth Survey Results Released
Twenty-five percent of Jefferson County high schoolers made a plan to kill themselves in the last year. About 30 tenth and twelfth graders tried to kill themselves. These and other alarming reports of severe mental health problems among the county's high schoolers...
FDA Monopoly to Local Doctor: Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Collect $140
Tomorrow, June 27, 2022, Clallam naturopathic physician and author Rick Marschall is due to report for 8 months in jail at the Federal Detention Center in Sheridan, Oregon, after being entrapped in an FDA sting operation. His crime: selling garlic extracts to help...
Update: Does Jefferson Healthcare’s MyChart Send Patient Data to Facebook?
----------------------------------------- UPDATE and CORRECTION: After talking this afternoon with Amy Yaley (JHC Director of Marketing and Communications), it appears likely that your medical data is NOT being sent to Facebook through Jefferson Healthcare's MyChart...
Public Health Sacrificing Kids for the Greater “Good”
Last June Jefferson County Emergency Management popped up vax clinics at the Saturday Farmers Market, in those pre-booster days excitedly advertising "Johnson & Johnson vaccine available today! One and Done!" Not seeing any takers, I tried talking with one of the...
Council Watch – June 6, 2022
The Port Townsend City Council opened its June 6 meeting by hearing new police hire Officer Chase Stanton take his Oath of Office. In public comments, Julie Jaman spoke to the Gateway and Boatyard Expansion Project being hornswoggled by the project mantra "the poplars...
Diving Deep into County Health Claims
In early December 2021, I submitted a Public Records Request to Jefferson County seeking concrete data on how many COVID-19 cases were in the fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated and unvaccinated categories. In April, I received a redacted spreadsheet containing...
Things That Took Less Than Five Years to Build
Above is a glowing view of San Francisco's gorgeous Golden Gate Bridge, constructed in under 5 years from 1/5/1933 to 5/28/1937. What other architectural wonders took less than 5 years to build? A Free Press reader sent us the following list. (Note: The Cherry Street...
Uptown Streateries: A Reality Check
In a letter to the Port Townsend City Council on May 2, 2022, I wrote: “There is apparently a vision to eliminate or at least reduce use of the 'personal automobile' in our commercial districts... Those of you and others you know who are sold on this vision of a...
Poplars Stakeholder Committee:
Hand-picked, with a Documented Bias
The following is an update from the Poplars Alliance, sent May 7th to the City's Engage PT, Port and PUD electeds, The Leader, and the Port Townsend Free Press —————————————— Dear Engage PT and Elected officials, Thank you for the opportunity to comment. It appears...
Unhappy Birthday: Cherry Street Project Turns Five Years Old
Port Townsend's most ambitious, costliest "affordable" housing project. Barged from Victoria, B.C. the Carmel House, the building at the center of the Cherry Street Project, sits empty and blighted above PT's golf course. The 2022 work plan for the City of Port...
Council Backs Off From Downtown Streateries, Contrary to Leader Misreporting
PT Free Press is expediting publication of this council report in hopes of minimizing community confusion arising from inaccurate Leader reporting that PT City Council OK's long-term streateries program. The opposite actually took place, as can be seen by viewing the...
Who is City Council Serving
in Their Push for Streateries?
“I don’t really see the need for streateries in our code. Many of the restaurants already have courtyards or some kind of space outside. We’ve spent a bunch of energy putting together public spaces where people can take take-out food and sit next to the water. I...
Out and About in the Time of Lockdowns
I was never locked down. I designated myself an "essential worker" and continued my office IT job as always, as did all my coworkers. I continued shopping at the Food Co-op, where no one wore masks during those early months and few if any got sick (borne out by food...
Will Washington State Board of Health
Listen to the People or the Politicians?
Two weeks ago I gathered with a few friends in what will remain an undisclosed location in Port Townsend to watch, via Zoom, the Washington State Board of Health (SBOH) vote on whether the COVID-19 vaccine should be added to the list of shots required for public...
Mayor Faber (Almost) Opens Up on the Cherry Street Project Failure
"I wouldn't change a thing about what we did." Mayor David Faber said that about the Cherry Street Project at a December city council meeting. The topic of that meeting was whether Port Townsend should purchase 14.4 acres on the edge of town, the Evans Vista project,...
Public Streets and Public Process Subverted
The streatery pictured above is in the lot off Tyler Street, behind the Mount Baker Block building. The city gave a no-cost temporary lease to the Cellar Door in February 2021. City officials told the owner they would likely allow the streatery to remain after Covid...
Segregated Port Townsend
A community divided by class and social status. In the 19th century there were two distinct Port Townsends. In Uptown and Morgan Hill, the prim and proper wives of captains, bankers and customs officers never had to rub elbows with the roughnecks and Chinese along the...
Strangulation by Streateries?
Political players at the City of Port Townsend have made no secret of their desire to eliminate vehicular traffic in the city’s primary business districts in favor of a more walkable, bike-able, maybe even pedestrian-only commercial hub. When John Mauro was hired as...
Masks: The Great Face-Covering Psyop
“i get to have a face. you do not.” —————————————— Spring of 2020. Mere months before the Leader began censoring all perspectives that did not align with health department messaging, I wrote a concerned, fact-based letter to the editor challenging the mask campaign we...
Public Discourse and
the Totalitarians Next Door
Author’s note: This article uses the term public discourse to describe a specific type of communication used to gain understanding about matters of shared public concern. Public discourse is a process that involves dialog among trusted parties to discover the best...
PT Police Struggling Below Half Strength
and Costing “A Lot More”
Anti-Police Politicians Now Desperate for More Law Enforcement. Realizing that a shrunken Port Townsend Police Department can't protect the city, City Council approved an agreement with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office to rent deputies and their equipment. The...
Website Under Reconstruction
Dear Port Townsend Free Press readers: As you know, the censorship window has been closing on all forms of free speech and alternative views for some time now. You may not know that the Free Press website mysteriously crashed on Thursday, March 17th. Anyone who...
Faber’s Folly/Howard’s Hovel:
Cherry St. Project Worse Than It Looks
Lipstick on a pig. The side of the Carmel House the public sees from Cherry Street shows new plywood sheeting where windows were broken out during the extensive vandalism on January 3, 2022. It looks like maybe the city is somewhat taking care of its largest, most...
Parents Appeal to PT Schools:
Are Students Facing Mask Segregation?
Last November, a group of concerned parents of Port Townsend School District (PTSD) students garnered nearly 600 signatures on a petition demanding that there be no Covid-19 vax mandates for school attendance. In an introductory letter, the parents made clear that...
Slur Trek 2: The Wrath of Mann
Senior Leader columnist Bill Mann is at it again, unleashing his second wave of trash-talk against so-called "anti-vaxxers", calling them "stupid", "idiots", "foolish", "deniers", "clueless", etc., etc., etc. In a bizarre reversal of reality, Mann blames lockdown...
County Commissioners Corrupt KPTZ,
Advance Left-Wing Fascism
Public radio compromised by government money. Wanting more news coverage from what they perceive as a non-threatening, if not friendly media outlet, Jefferson County Commissioners gave $10,000 to KPTZ to hire a producer/reporter to cover county business. You read that...
PUD Mandates Spark Higher Costs
Amid Integrity Crisis
In the realm of policymaking, global to local, predicted costs of measures taken today often bear little resemblance to the reality that unfolds. In the case of Jefferson County Public Utility District (PUD), poor policy choices have resulted in additional costs to...
The Arrest of Rachelle Merle: Case Dismissed
Arrested for refusing to wear a mask. The charge was trespassing, but it was really about a woman's refusal to wear a mask while shopping in the Port Townsend Food Co-op. With the end of the statewide masking mandate approaching, we've been asked, "What happened to...
Changing the Narrative: Homeschooling
Homeschooling is being chosen by more and more parents both nationwide and locally since the beginning of the Covid lockdowns in 2020. Faced with shuttered schools and small businesses, many parents found both time and incentive to explore schooling their children at...
The Sound of Silence at the Board of Health
Let me relate a poignant personal awakening I experienced after delivering the following public comment to the Jefferson County Board of Health at its February 17 meeting: My comment is about recent statements made by Health Officer Berry. I appreciated her telling...
“Masks Are Never Completely Going Away”
"I'm going to continue to mask, I'm going to continue to distance. It's just not safe out there.” Public Comment, 2-14-22 BOCC meeting ------------------------------------ What will it take to break the mass delusional psychosis perpetrated on the public? For...
Truck Wars 2: The Empire Strikes Back
While the Empire’s police were busy confiscating fuel from Freedom Convoy truckers in Ottawa (photo above), last Saturday's mini-convoy from Port Angeles to Port Townsend indeed came to pass. About 50 folks in 25 vehicles (plus more on overpasses and streets), joined...
Time to Join the Worldwide Freedom Convoy
The Clallam County lawsuit against Health Officer Allison Berry's restaurant/bar vaccine mandate orders was settled February 2, but these unfounded and discriminatory mandates will "continue for at least several weeks."...
Can The Port Townsend School Board Protect Our Children?
Three months have passed in my efforts to make a change locally. As I mentioned in a previous article, I was concerned with Washington State mandating Covid-19 shots for any child attending public school. California had mandated this policy so Washington couldn’t be...
Have You Had the Omicold?
"By the time weekly boosters are mandated, symptoms will be reduced to a mildly ticklish nose & a vague feeling of being conned.” comment below a YouTube video —————————— I’ve just recovered from the Omicron variant of Covid. Because common Covid tests do not...
Safest Counties Now Are
Those With Least Restrictions
Get Out of Clallam and Jefferson Counties if you're worried about OMG! Omicron! Counties with the least restrictions seem to be doing the best during the Omicron "surge." Clallam County, struggling under Dr. Allison Berry's exclusion of the unvaccinated from dining...
“Incredibly Expensive” Affordable Housing Project Follows Cherry Street Debacle
Did They Learn Anything? With the trashed-out Cherry Street Project nowhere near housing its first human occupant, Port Townsend City Council has gone big, very big. Last month they approved the purchase of 14.4 acres next to the first traffic circle at the entrance...
Cherry Street Project Vandalized
"Mom! They're throwing a refrigerator out a window!" Teenagers easily gained entrance to the derelict Carmel House and trashed it. Almost every window has been broken. Furniture, light fixtures, random kitchen utensils, a door and, yes, a refrigerator were hurled...
TOP TEN
2021 Spin Doctor
Disinformation Statements
“The welfare of the people, in particular, has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.” — Albert Camus ------------------------------------ What a year 2021 was for health...
Money Talks, Lombardy Poplars Fall
In early October 2021 the Leader reported that the Lombardy poplars along Sims Way were to be cut down. Subsequently we have learned that a three-pronged project is underway moving at precipitous speed. It was initiated in August 2021, receiving approval from the Port...
PUD Crews Lost by Vax Mandate
— Power Outages are a Looming Concern —
“Kevin, at the end of the day, I believe that this mandate was the wrong choice for the PUD and our community and wholly unnecessary. Ultimately it was your decision that put your work force in a compromising position, boxed in a corner and forced to make a choice...
Two More Deaths from Heart Failure Following Pfizer Vax
Two surviving spouses have come forward to describe their beloved mates’ deaths following Pfizer injections. Our last reporting on heart damage from the shots focused on the increasing incidence in young people. Those mounting injuries and deaths are underscored by...
Another Fairgrounds Tragedy
A year ago, Jammi Lee Oxford killed herself. On December 17, 2020 she took her life at Morro Bay, California, in the same spot where her mother had committed suicide before her. Jammi had been living in a Chrysler minivan at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. She fled...
Local Challenge to Proof-of-Vaccine Mandate Supported by Federal Rulings
This Clallam County legal challenge received skewed coverage in local media, clearly intended to diminish its credibility. Based on unsubstantiated assertions about the lawsuit’s basis, and guesses from an uninvolved third party, the Peninsula Daily News discounted...
Postcard from Commissioner Dean:
Misinformed or Misinformer?
A common feature at the weekly Monday morning Board of County Commissioner (BOCC) meetings in these Covid times is a number of public comments aimed at the disconnect between public health policies dictated by local authorities and the data coming from...
Young Heart Damaged by Pfizer Vax
– Health Department Lies and Disinformation –
Part Two
"In the very rare occasions where myocarditis occurs as a result of the vaccine, it is most commonly mild and generally resolves without treatment.” – Jefferson County Public Health "The blood test for heart injury with the vaccine myocarditis elevations is ten to a...
Christmas for Children Program Reaching More Kids Than Ever
451 children. 213 families. 75 volunteers. 35 businesses. Originating with the efforts of a Chimacum schools bus driver broken-hearted for kids who received no Christmas gifts, Jefferson County's Christmas for Children now brings joy to more kids and families than...
New Majority on City Council Should Kill the Cherry Street Project
Port Townsend's most costly public housing project sits empty. Four and a half years after being floated here from Victoria, B.C., the 1950s building, known as "The Cherry Street project" or "The Carmel House" continues to deteriorate. The doors have never been...
Young Heart Damaged by Pfizer Vax
– PT woman, 27, now has heart of an 80-year-old –
Part One
One day after Laura—a healthy, athletic 27-year-old Port Townsend woman—received her second Covid mRNA injection, she began having significant adverse reactions. Pressured to take the experimental injection for employment, within days of the shot her body aches and...
IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
Covid Cancel Culture
As the Covid crisis has unfolded in Jefferson County over the last two years, a slick, relentless, well-orchestrated fear narrative has created the greatest divide many of us have ever seen in our diverse, once-tolerant community. And with the arrival of experimental...
County Commissioners To Make Housing Even More Unaffordable
What housing crisis? County Commissioners plan to make it even harder to afford housing in Jefferson County. They intend to increase the property tax levy at the same time that gas, food and all other costs are spiking. Homeowners already struggling to make ends meet...
Suffer the Little Children
At the October 4th meeting of the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners, Department of Emergency Management Director Willie Bence provided the following update: “We’re unlikely to do any more large clinics for the Pfizer booster dose population. Our next...
Travels Outside Washington State
Should Shake Faith in Mandates
A crisis of faith. Anybody who has recently traveled outside Washington State has good reason to seriously doubt the necessity for the lockdowns and mandates decreed by Governor Inslee and our public health officer. Other states are much freer. Some never locked down....
Walkouts Worldwide Wake Up PT
Worldwide Walkouts swept America on November 3 from Berkeley to Miami, from New York City to Honolulu, from Las Vegas to Chicago, and even the sidewalks by the Ferry Dock of benighted Port Townsend. What's this all about? People have been battered during the epidemic...
The Truth That Must Not Be Spoken
Do you know of local people who have been injured by (or died from) the Covid injections? You’re surely not hearing about vaccine injuries or deaths from any other local media. Obituaries about previously healthy residents who died following their jabs never mention...
County Kills Housing in Order to Save It
After declaring a housing emergency in Jefferson County, public officials have now taken action to make the situation worse. On October 4 the Board of County Commissioners declared a new emergency establishing a moratorium on processing housing...
County Health Officials Manipulate Data
to Stigmatize Unvaxxed
When officials urge the public to “follow the science,” one would think that the appropriate data would be supplied. One would think that asking questions would be allowed. Regrettably, this is far from the case in Jefferson County. Jefferson County Public Health...
Will local school boards say “NO”
to draconian mandates?
On Thursday, October 7th, I attended the Port Townsend High School board meeting. Earlier in the week the Governor of California proclaimed that his state will require children to get the Covid-19 shot to attend school in person. I believe a similar mandate for...
New Laws Sweep Away Barriers to Churches Helping the Homeless
Local laws can no longer stop religious organizations from hosting the homeless on their property. Tent encampments, tiny homes, safe parking programs, RV living and church buildings used as dormitories and apartments cannot be prohibited by municipal codes or county...
Creating a State of Emergency
Within a State of Emergency
Prompted by concerns about Jefferson PUD moving last week toward firing uninjected workers, I made the following public comment to the Jefferson Board of County Commissioners at their October 11 meeting: News roundup: The Seattle Times reports "a chronic crew shortage...
Will Jefferson PUD Mandate Covid Shots,
Lose Employees, Jeopardize Our Utility?
“To be told the DOT requires us to be vaccinated was a huge, confusing shock. By what authority does DOT dictate our medical policy?” – Randy Calkins, PUD Water Distribution Manager, Sewer Manager A letter to Jefferson Public Utility District employees from...
Health Enforcers Catch Misinformation Fever
The Jefferson County Board of Health on September 16 unanimously adopted a resolution "declaring health misinformation a public health crisis." They urge all "to use reliable sources of data that follows the preponderance of evidence" because "there are some people in...
Vax Mandate Protests – Just Exactly Why the Insults?
[This piece was submitted to the Leader and rejected by them. Writer Brett Nunn explains, "I first offered it to the Leader hoping to reach a certain audience and start a civil conversation. The editor wrote back "it's not experimental and it's FDA approved.”]...
The Leader Promotes Hate Speech,
Censors Thoughtful Community Voices
County residents picket the Leader building holding signs with messages like “Censorship means being over the target” and “The Leader Lies" ———————— HAVE YOU BEEN CENSORED? Click to see this special message! ———————— For nearly a year, the Leader, the Peninsula Daily...
Turning the page
Like you, we want Port Townsend Free Press to continue! The Port Townsend Free Press has been a precious window into the unreported corners of our fair (and sometimes not so fair) City of Dreams, as well as an outlet for voices not well served by local media and...
Long Live the Free Press! A New Team Steps Up
The specter of totalitarianism has revived the Port Townsend Free Press. A new team is stepping up to keep this exercise of First Amendment rights and free thinking alive. The Jefferson County Board of Health has declared that "misinformation" is a public health...
Adios and Thanks
It is time to close out this endeavor. I want to thank all our contributors and readers over the past almost four years. Together we brought new voices into the public dialogue, and reported facts the public has a right to know. We made some mistakes. We learned a lot...
Fairgrounds “Wild West” Spurs Neighbors To Demand Action
This letter from neighbors around the Fairgrounds to the Board of County Commissioners speaks for itself. Recall that OlyCap's effort to regulate and control the camp was frustrated by the City of Port Townsend, which insisted on imposing prohibitively costly and...
Cherry Street Project Costs Soar In Bayside Housing Proposal
Bayside Housing wants $1.8 million from Jefferson County to complete and expand the Cherry Street Project. $1.6 million more than has already been spent would go into finishing the 70-year old Carmel Building, which has been sitting vacant and open to the elements for...
Eviction Moratorium and New Regulations Reducing the Supply of Rental Properties
Governor Inslee's eviction moratorium is having the unintended consequence of keeping rentals off the market. That's according to Christina Nelson, property manager for Townsend Bay Property Management, Inc., which manages over 175 rental properties--"doors"--in...
New Wrinkle in Jefferson County’s “Fourth” COVID Death
A Jefferson County woman in her mid-60s tragically died in Seattle "after a prolonged hospitalization for respiratory failure due to COVID pneumonia" contracted out-of-state the week following her second experimental gene therapy ("vaccine") shot. The woman also...
Port Townsend and the Food Co-op Use Police to Suppress Dissent
Internal communications between the Port Townsend City Manager, police and the Food Co-op reveal a coordinated effort to use police to suppress dissent. The communications, uncovered through a public records request submitted by Rachelle Merle and shared with Port...
The Politics of Alarmism
Why are we constantly being hammered with climate alarmism, Covid alarmism and racial alarmism? The journalist and social commentator H. L. Mencken explained it decades ago: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to...
The Food Co-op on Trial
The Food Co-op insists it is not pressing charges against Rachelle Merle. It is soley the prosecutor who's pushing this, they have asserted in correspondence with Co-op members. But, this doesn't get the Co-op out of the dock. What will be its position when its...
Victory: My Lawsuit Against Jefferson County
First Amendment violations have been corrected. Policies have been changed so that Jefferson County's on-line public forum complies with Constitutional protections of freedom of expression. Last year I sued Jefferson County for violating my First Amendment rights by...
Happy Fourth Birthday, Cherry Street Project!
Four years and $2.3 million in the rearview mirror. And still not one square foot of "affordable" housing out of the Cherry Street Project. The Jefferson County Republican Party commemorated the project's fourth anniversary, "and the benefits of one-party rule by...
The Arrest of Rachelle Merle
The Food Co-op On Trial
Calling police to arrest one of its co-owners for trespassing has put the The Food Co-op on trial. On April 5, 2021, Rachelle Merle, one of the Co-op's member-owners, refused to wear a mask while shopping in the store. The store's manager told her she would have to...
Jefferson County’s “Third” Covid Death
Front-page health coverage by The Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader returns this week with news that, "The third fatality to coronavirus in the county late last week happened at Jefferson Healthcare - the first coronavirus death at the facility. The patient...
Our Fifth Column in the Fight Against Homelessness: Churches
"Wow. You people at New Life Church go all out," said Mike Johnson, who runs Port Townsend's homeless shelter. "That's what Jesus does for us. We just want to spread it around," replied Melannie Jackson, Executive Pastor of New Life Church as she delivered the days'...
Petty Tyrants Coming To A Location Near You
For years I have been making the Port Townsend to Coupeville ferry crossing often on a weekly basis. I call it the last great adventure on the west coast available to all. Wind, fog and tides often conspire to make the trip unpredictable. Yes, it can be an adventure,...
Signs of Life: Buskers on the Block
Hooray for the the Port Townsend Main Street Program! Live music downtown is back! "Buskers on the Block" music series will bring musicians to play instruments and sing on PT's streets. The series is part of PT Main Street's "Love Where You Live Campaign." The music...
Calls to PT Police Up 38%
Calls to police are up 38%. Mental health incidents are up 27%. "Simmer on that for a second," City Manager John Mauro told City Council at its April 5, 2021, business meeting. But not a question was raised, not a word of concern was uttered from any of the...
Death by Injection?
Why half of America—including healthcare professionals—are refusing the experimental Covid-19 shots
Part Two
“Gene based vaccines have never been used on humans before. So what we’re witnessing now are human experiments… Auto-immune disease can be triggered by these gene-based vaccines… all have rather severe side effects… You have to be very, very careful that the vaccine...
Death by Injection?
Why half of America—including healthcare professionals—are refusing experimental Covid-19 shots
Part One
In late February, I received an email from a Port Townsend friend about her 85-year-old aunt’s rapid decline following her first shot of Pfizer's experimental mRNA vaccine. "My mom and I have been taking care of my aunt. When she got the shot [on February 15],...
Weekly Rallies for Freedom Come to Port Townsend
The Great Reopening! Get Off Your Knees! The cries of the Worldwide Rally for Freedom were heard in Port Townsend on Saturday, March 20, 2021. About 40 people gathered on the plaza at Tyler and Water Streets without masks, but with musical instruments and songs and...
Mad Max of Wall Street, Illegal Slots and Bayside Housing’s Gary Keister
Police raids, asset seizures, SEC cease and desist orders. Illegal slot machines masquerading as charity fundraising. A take down by the Mad Max of Wall Street. Yet another corporate adventure for the "acting" managing director of Bayside Housing and Services, the...
Bayside Housing: The Whistleblower Complaint to the Attorney General
Three former employees tried taking concerns about irregularities and ethical issues to the trustees and officers of Bayside Housing and Services. They were unsuccessful. Now one of them has taken their concerns to the Washington Attorney General. Port Townsend Free...
Cherry Street Handover: Red Flags About Bayside Housing
Should taxpayers have concerns about handing over the failed Cherry Street Project and another $300,000 to Bayside Housing? So far taxpayers are out about $2.33 million dollars on what is now widely recognized as a boondoggle and symbol of government incompetence and...
My First Amendment Lawsuit Against Jefferson County: Update
Banned for encouraging people to never forget 9/11. Sanctioned for mentioning Jefferson County’s terrible meth problem, chronic unemployment, shrinking job base and high poverty rate. That’s what I’ve learned about how Jefferson County operates the public forum of...
Double-Masking, “Pandemic Denialism,” and Belief in the Ignorance of Experts
Annette Huenke through a public records request discovered that Jefferson Healthcare's Covid testing protocols may run samples through so many amplifications that the result may be a false positive or otherwise meaningless. We were pleased to publish the results of...
Of Covid Testing, “Misinformation” and Censorship
"Locke...is concerned about a Jefferson County group that may be spreading misinformation concerning the accuracy of the tests, claiming incorrectly that up to 90 percent of COVID-19 tests provide false positives.” [Peninsula Daily News, 2/7/21] "Public naysaying on...
The Importance Of Knowing The Ct Value At Which SARS-CoV-2 PCR Tests Are Positive
As a pediatrician and pediatric rheumatologist who has published peer-reviewed articles on COVID-19, I would like to comment on the importance of knowing the Ct value at which a SARS-CoV-2 PCR test becomes positive. [The Jefferson County Health Department is not...
Stonewalling and Deflection on Critical COVID Test Data: We Have the Right to Answers
The public has a right to know whether they can trust the COVID test results being used to destroy businesses and jobs, to curtail educational, community and religious activities and to exacerbate many of our already serious social ills, including substance abuse,...
Stephen Schumacher & Dr. Thomas Locke: Point, Counterpoint on COVID Testing, False Positives and Dissent
Several months ago Stephen Schumacher wrote to Dr. Thomas Locke, Jefferson County's Health Officer, regarding questions and concerns he had about protocols being used in tests for COVID-19. He did not receive a response. After Port Townsend Free Press published...
Masks Don’t Stop Viruses and Could Harm You: The Latest Research
Amid calls to double-down on mask requirements with "100 days of masking", the real news is the latest research confirming the ineffectiveness and dangers of masking against viruses. On Nov. 18 was unveiled the first-and-only real-world, randomized, controlled trial...
Jefferson County’s Noncompliance with Planning Laws is Causing Our Affordable Housing Crisis
The currently adopted Jefferson County Comprehensive Plan has the following important statement: "Even with Jefferson County’s current low growth rate, the shortage of attainable housing is not reconciled. The condition of average housing prices being beyond what...
Is Jefferson County Health Department Overstating COVID Case Numbers?
Huge breaking news! Jefferson Healthcare's response to a Public Records Request just revealed jaw-dropping information: It is using a PCR assay with an absurdly high cycle threshold of 45, calling into question ALL of Jefferson County's reported COVID-19 cases! To...
Jefferson County Still May Have No Deaths From COVID
"Second person in Jefferson County dies from COVID-19" trumpets the January 13 Leader's front-page headline. https://www.ptleader.com/stories/update-second-person-in-jefferson-county-dies-from-covid-19,73202 She was "an 80-year-old woman who was being treated in a...
Adios, Hasta Las Vista for Now…Again
Port Townsend Free Press is going quiet for several months. The editor, Jim Scarantino, as in 2019, has to get to work on business responsibilities here and on the East Coast. Due to the COVID lockdowns, there's a significant backlog needing attention. Plus, he's...
Jefferson County Sheriff’s Foundation Steps Up to Help
A community partnership between retired law enforcement officers and civilians has been educating seniors and property owners about scams and crime prevention, bringing cheer to those needing a little love, and helping active-duty deputies do their jobs safely. The...
Evergreen Fitness is Open for Business
"Let's do this!" says Michelle West, owner of Evergreen Fitness in the Glen Cove area south of Port Townsend. "Starting 5:30 a.m. Monday January 11, we are open." Under the guidelines for fitness establishments announced by Governor Inslee on January 5, Evergreen...
Zoning Changes Threaten Hadlock Sewer Project
I am the chair of the landowners committee pushing for construction of the Port Hadlock sewer. I am very worried the county is getting set to undermine everything we’ve hoped for and the financial commitment we’re ready to make to build the sewer. We are seeing the...
Are Your Children Getting The Education You Paid For?
When the Port Townsend School District reopened the doors in September 2020 my family opted out of in-classroom learning. We opted back in at the beginning of November. My youngest was happy to return to Blue Heron Middle School even if it was for only two days a...
COVID News: Merry Anti-Madness Music, and Not So Merry Vaccine News
R&R hall-of-famers Van Morrison and Eric Clapton team up for another rollicking blast against senseless lockdown mania with "Stand and Deliver"!!! You can can stream on major services or buy your own copy at:...
The Power of Christmas
Unimaginable horrors taught my grandfather the power of Christmas. Vincenzo Scarantino was 18 years old in 1915 when police swept through his remote Sicilian village rounding up conscripts to throw against Austrian fortifications. He spent the rest of his youth in...
Fairgrounds Police Log
Drugs, violence, crime, overdoses, chronic alcoholism, medical emergencies...and madness. Port Townsend police generated over 250 pages of reports on calls to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds from March through October 2020. The incidents range from calls to help one...
Fort Worden PDA Out of Money, Must Privatize to Survive
“We really don’t have a future if we try to remain status quo,” David Timmons, Acting Executive Director of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority told its Board of Directors at their December 9, 2020, special meeting. The PDA will run out of money in several...
A Grim Existence at the Fairgrounds
Mud and cold rain. Life in an always damp tent or unheated RV. Puddles for a front porch. No place to hide from the wind, or escape the sounds of fighting, incoherent muttering, screaming and partying in the growing squatters camp at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds....
Trickle Up Poverty in Jefferson County
We have all heard of Trickle Down Economics. But, there is another concept called "Trickle Up Poverty." In Trickle Down Economics the concept is that the rich and/or the government basically spend or invest their money. That in turn allows development to occur where...
The Violence That Cost Port Townsend A Man Who Saves Lives
Violence ended the career of Port Townsend Police Officer Mark DuMond. After sustaining severe head injuries preventing an assault that could have killed a Jefferson Healthcare nurse he was never able to resume his full duties. DuMond knew the man who injured him. All...
Squatters Camp Grows at Fairgrounds: Photo Essay
The homeless/transient camp at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds has doubled in size since this summer. I am adding the descriptor "squatters camp" because that is what this is. The occupants of the tents and RVs, whatever the reasons for their circumstances, are...
Good News on the COVID Front–If You Want to Hear It
In April of 2020, a professor of medicine at Stanford University led a study to determine what percentage of the population had actually been exposed to COVID 19. He was testing for seroprevalence, or evidence of COVID antibodies in a person’s blood. He was able to...
The Four Keys to Unlocking Affordable Housing
"There wasn’t a county in the U.S. where a minimum wage worker clocking in 40 hours a week could afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment in 2019.” That’s according to a report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. This seems to be a sad reality. Right here in...
COVID Hospitalizations Reach Record; Death Rate Nears Zero [Updated]
[Update: In the 24 hours since this story was published, the death rate in Washington for COVID infections has dropped another 5.6%.] The number of people currently hospitalized for COVID in Washington is higher than its has ever been, and so is the number of people...
My Sincerest Condolences on the Death of Your Turkey
In case you weren’t paying attention, on November 16 we began the eighth extension of Governor Jay Inslee’s extra-legal Wujan Flu dictates first initiated way back on March 23rd. The Legislature has let the Governor do what he wants. In Jefferson County all progress...
Why I’m Suing Jefferson County
Rights not asserted are rights lost. If we acquiesce in abuses of governmental power, we become complicit in those actions. And then one day we wake up and wonder, "Where did America go?" I am suing Jefferson County because it is violating my First Amendment rights to...
Support Our Local Gyms
Our local gyms are struggling. If you want them around when the Governor lifts his lock down order, you need to support them now. The Port Townsend Athletic Club has been closed since March. It is in such dire straits the owner has established a Go Fund Me campaign....
Fairgrounds Neighbor’s Plea to County Commissioners about Dangers from the Homeless Encampment
"Will it be necessary for us to form armed nightly patrols?" Charles Hough, who lives about 200 yards from the homeless encampment at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, has asked the Board of County Commissioners to act before someone is hurt by the dangerous people...
Criminal Investigators Called into Fort Worden PDA Mess
The following is an mail shared with us anonymously that has been sent from the co-chairs of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority to the Mayor of Port Townsend. Due its anonymous origins it went into our spam box and we did not discover it until this evening....
Democrats Urge Inslee to Reopen Restaurants; Local Delegation Silent
A group of Democrat legislators has urged Governor Inslee to reverse his recent order again closing restaurants and bars to indoor service. In a November 16, 2020 letter to the Governor they criticized his order for lacking a scientific justification and imposing...
Fort Worden’s Promised Financial Oversight Never Happened
Promises to the State Auditor that an audit committee would provide enhanced financial oversight were broken. The Fort Worden Public Development Authority's audit committee was not formally created until earlier this year, and it has rarely met. Even after revelations...
Jefferson County’s Minimum Lot Size Stands in the Way of Affordable Housing
We have a housing crisis. Our Board of County Commissioners declared an Affordable Housing Emergency three years ago. But we have seen no movement on addressing one of the primary causes of our affordable housing shortage: minimum lot size regulations. Jefferson...
Confirmed: Jefferson County Has More Registered Than Eligible Voters
The findings of watchdog group Judicial Watch can be confirmed. They reported that Jefferson County was one of 353 counties across the nation with more registered than eligible voters. With their data in hand and having received a lengthy statement from Jefferson...
Fort Worden Glamping A Soggy Mess
Someone left the cake out in the rain. Fort Worden's $2 million glamping project is a soggy mess. I walked the hillside where the glamping project was supposed to have 19 luxury tents completed by June. The clouds were spitting rain and the wind cut like a knife. I...
There Will Be No Healing
I’m not conceding this election AT ALL. Unless you can show me evidence of President Dewey and President Gore, you will understand that the media does not choose our president for us. They called those elections, too. They both flipped. But that’s not what I want to...
Unmasking False Climate Alarmism
In a June 30, 2020 article in The American Thinker Charles Battig points out that Planet of the Humans, the recent film produced by Michael Moore, shows how the reality of needing to provide 24/7 reliable electricity to consumers requires that fossil fuels remain the...
The Cost of Monopolized Politics
Democrats rule supreme and Jefferson County is paying the price for their almost two decades of monopoly power. Just look at the city and county elected officials in every office. Only one is not a Democrat. All the various boards of the county and city are appointed...
Thanksgiving at Tri-Area Center Will Be Drive-Up
Thanksgiving will not be stopped by COVID. The Tri-Area Community Meals Team will have hot meals available for pickup. Count on the same wonderful turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, cranberry sauce and roll they been serving up every year to people...
Jefferson County Has More Registered Than Eligible Voters: Study [Updated][Updated]
Jefferson County has 11% more voter registrations than it does eligible voters. That's according to a study conducted by Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C. watchdog group known for suing states with dodgy voter rolls. The study revealed that 353 counties across the...
Joe D’Amico’s $100 Million Lawsuit Against Jefferson County and David Stanko
$100 million, that is the amount of the claims by Joe D'Amico and two of his companies against Jefferson County and former Sheriff David Stanko. This is by far the largest claim filed by D'Amico in his running court battles with Jefferson County spanning almost two...
Fort Worden PDA Finances Plagued With Problems From Beginning
Its financial reports have never been reliable, according to all the audits conducted of the Fort Worden Public Development Authority by the State Auditor. Every audit since the FWPDA opened its doors has found inaccuracies, omissions and failures to comply with...
Fort Worden Hit By Cherry Street Project Disease
Fort Worden is in big trouble. The public development authority that runs the commercial operations at the state park is teetering on the brink of financial collapse. This should not have come as a surprise to the people charged with the fiduciary duty of overseeing...
America on Course for Greater Conflict
This election will not heal wounds or build bridges. The half of the country that does not want socialism and refuses to surrender its fundamental rights will be subjected to increasing oppression and restrictions by the ascendant Democrats nationally and on the state...
Election Fraud: A Vivid Memory from South Philadelphia
Election fraud in Philadelphia could determine who is the next President. That's what we're hearing from analysts war gaming the Electoral College and concluding that the White House could go to the person who wins the Keystone State's 20 electoral votes. Donald Trump...
Jefferson County’s New Activists
2020 saw young conservatives emerging as activists in Jefferson County. They had not previously been involved in politics of any kind. They are fearless, motivated and already making a mark on their community. They have deep roots here, all of them having grown up in...
Aiding and Abetting Biden Crimes
As voters, are we complicit to a crime if a candidate has become compromised beyond a shadow of a doubt, yet we continue to support his campaign in an effort to secure his ascension to higher office? Pulitzer Prize winning author David Mamet states in his book, The...
Transient/Homeless Village Grows at Fairgrounds
It looks like a scene from Seattle. A transient/homeless village of at least 35 tents, RVs and vehicles has taken over the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. "I've been here 12 years," says Terry Berge, the Fairgrounds campground host. "I've never had a a year like this....
Racist, Heal Thyself
The Board of Health needs to look in the mirror. They have declared "systemic racism" a public health emergency. Do they realize that they are that system? The Board of Health is a composite of Port Townsend's political and economic elite. Only one of of its members...
An Undeniable, Unavoidable Stark Choice Faces Voters
After weeks of listening to the talking points from the mouths of our national leaders on the left, I sent this message to the Senators and Congressman representing Jefferson County, Washington at the federal level. “Instead of congratulations for running a...
To Catch a Thief–$100 Reward
Who is this sign thief? She was photographed just after she stole a Trump sign. The location was Irondale Road at the bottom of a driveway, close to where 7th Street turns off. The sign had been standing along the road near the bottom of a drive for a single wide that...
Local Democrats Help Explain Iran’s Support for Biden
Iran is actively supporting Joe Biden's run for the White House. Both the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence have confirmed that Iran is attempting to interfere in the election to favor Biden's candidacy. The latest covert actions to surface were fake...
Accomplished Developer Will Donate Time and Services for Cherry Street Project
A man with more than $100 million in commercial and residential development experience wants to help the city fix the Cherry Street Project mess and get affordable housing built. "It is clear that what is occurring now is a financial disaster," says Bert Loomis of...
Cherry Street Project Handover “Not a Done Deal”
Bayside Housing has not yet committed to taking on the failed Cherry Street Project. "First, let me tell you this is not a done deal," says Gary Keister. He is serving as the acting managing director of Bayside Housing. It has been without a permanent managing...
Board of Health Ignores County’s Suicide Crisis
Jefferson County has a suicide rate far above the state average. Port Townsend's suicide rate is staggering. The Jefferson County Board of Health has spent more time on climate change, nuclear disarmament and wordsmithing a resolution on "systemic racism' than it has...
COVID News Looks Good, But Business Destruction Could Pose Long Term Obstacle to Complete Recovery
Only 4.5% of Washington's emergency room hospitalizations were COVID related for the seven-day period ending October 14. As of October 14, only 18 people statewide with COVID-like symptoms were on ventilators. You won't get much detail on the state of the COVID...
Sue Forde on the Issues
Sue Forde is running to represent the 24th Legislative District in the Washington House of Representatives. Forde (R) is challenging the incumbent Michael Chapman (D). We recently reported how Chapman's campaign is funded almost entirely, more than 95%, by lobbyists...
Don’t Nuke Library Books, Thank You!
A plea from librarians not to overreact to COVID is now included with Jefferson County library books. It seems some nervous bibliophiles are going to extreme measures to sanitize library books. Like Jay Inslee's lockdown, their cure could be doing more damage than it...
Who is John Mauro, Port Townsend’s City Manager?
Something was off. The email exchange, the tit-for-tat, was not what I would have expected from a man reported to have managed almost a quarter of a billion dollar budget and been a high level executive with a large staff. That's what had been reported about John...
Chapman Funded Almost Completely by Lobbyists, PACs From Outside District
Over 95% of Michael Chapman's campaign funds come from lobbyists and PACs representing groups and business from outside his district, according to his latest filings with the Public Disclosure Commission. Of his $103,000 campaign war chest for reelection to the House...
Latest Cherry Street Giveaway Hits Taxpayers Harder
$2,329,961 to remodel and finish 8 modest, low rent apartments in an old building. So far. At least another $1 million will be required before the first tenant moves into the Cherry Street Project that's been sitting empty and decaying on a Port Townsend hillside...
PTHS Principal Tells City Council to Keep Police in Her School
A school shooting might have occurred at Port Townsend High School if it weren't for the school's police officer. That was one of the reasons why PTHS principal Carrie Ehrhardt urged City Council to keep a School Resource Officer stationed with her students and...
Black Lives Matter Sought to Humiliate Sheriff, Police Chief
Confess that you are racists. Take out a newspaper ad to proclaim your guilt, demanded Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County of the Sheriff and Port Townsend Police Chief. Port Townsend Free Press has obtained emails between Cameron Jones, who has identified himself...
CDC Releases COVID Survival Rates and It’s Very Good News
You're not going to die. Seriously, the chances of dying from COVID-19 are remote and not much worse than the flu. On September 10, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its updated "Infection Fatality Ratio." It calculates the survival rate...
Jay Inslee Makes Death Harder
Families' ability to mourn and remember, to honor and celebrate lost lives is being crippled by the Governor's arbitrary rules on funerals. Funerals of more than 30 attendees, regardless of where they are held, inside or out, are prohibited. You can assemble hundreds...
Good News On the Pandemic Front
It's not a pandemic pandemic. This has not been the mother of all biological nightmares. Right off the bat the projections of millions dead were regularly revised downward, though Joe Biden keeps saying things like 200 million Americans will be dead from COVID by the...
Port Townsend’s Hatred and Intolerance Problem
Diversity not welcomed. Dissent and free speech punished. Different cultures, values, and faiths oppressed and marginalized. You've got to watch what you say and nod your head at the right time. Or else. That is what Port Townsend is becoming. This truth came to light...
Growing Up in a Rainbow Neighborhood Taught Me The Antidote to Systemic Racism
It took growing up around people of every race and nationality to recognize systemic racism. I can now say I've found it, right here in Port Townsend. I am 67 and have been in business here for over 30 years. My family lived in a completely integrated working poor,...
Lines Form in Battle for Future of Fairgrounds
The homeless and their activists on one side, homeowners and concerned parents on the other, and the Jefferson County Fairgrounds caught in the middle. Lines are forming in a struggle for the future of this piece of open land in the heart of Port Townsend. The...
Life and the Future in Port Townsend for a Family with a “Non-Essential Business”–Part II
It has been five months since our family business was declared non-essential. I struggle to remember all that has happened, and at the same time know that we should never forget. I think this all started with a viral outbreak from China. Then came a quarantine...
Massive Back the Blue Rally in Port Townsend
About 400 cars, trucks, and motorcycles. A line 6 miles long that took an hour to drive to the end of Water Street and turn around. A massive Back the Blue Rally organized by the wives of law enforcement officers stretched from Chimacum through Port Townsend on...
Port Townsend Antifa, Easy as 1-2-3
Start your own Antifa group. Easy peasy. As our Concerned Citizen of Port Townsend has learned, like making bombs, the instructions are available on the Internet. For those slow to recognize sarcasm, this is sarcasm. But it shows us what the people burning our cities,...
Black Lives Matter Leaders Generated Police Calls for Help, Investigation and Arrests
Leaders of the local group telling our community how the police should do their job have no training or experience in law enforcement and criminal justice. But they have been frequent subjects of police calls for assistance and the subjects of arrests. I have obtained...
A Tale of Three Cities: Poulsbo, Sequim and Port Townsend
Poulsbo, Sequim and Port Townsend. Many differences and many similarities exist between these cities. Let’s start with similarities. Population, from the 2018 U.S. Census: Poulsbo 10,927 people. Sequim, 7,481 and Port Townsend, 9,704. Retail sales for 2018: Poulsbo...
Black Lives Matter Organizer Harassed Hispanic Man Because His Skin Color Wasn’t Dark Enough
Is ejecting a man from a yoga class because of the color of his skin color a racist act? It looks like one of the lead organizers of Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County kicked a Hispanic man out of the yoga class he leads at Fort Worden because the Hispanic man's...
Officer Chauvin, I Am So Sorry For Believing That You Murdered George Floyd
Update as of 4/20/21: The jury has rendered its verdict. In our legal system, unless a court finds reversible error or there is a gross miscarriage of justice, that verdict should be accepted. Officer Chauvin, I am sorry for rushing to judgment. Like the rest of...
Bumping Along Port Townsend’s Busted Up Streets
WHAM! GRIND! SCRAPE!! Grrrrrr. I had scooted across 19th Street, going north on Landes after leaving the Safeway. When I got to the other side my front tires dropped, the road came up, and I was scraping the bottom of my car across the blacktop. I disembarked to...
Burn Everything Down
On Friday, July 24th the citizens and businesses of Seattle were told by their police chief Carmen Best that because of Seattle City Council decisions, they would be without law enforcement protection if a peaceful protest/riot occurred in their neighborhood. “City...
The Real Epidemic in Port Townsend: Addiction
Fortunately COVID-19 has not killed anyone in Jefferson County, but addiction sure has. We don't really need the CDC to validate those numbers. But they have: more young people have died of drug overdoses and suicides since this pandemic began than of COVID-19. For...
Heartbroken Law Enforcement Officer Speaks to Port Townsend and Jefferson County
The following letter was hand-delivered late last week to the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. The writer indicates it was also delivered to Port Townsend's Chief of Police. We obtained this letter from a member of the law enforcement community. Good morning, I...
Land Regulations Holding Back Jobs, Affordable Housing
Most everyone has heard that Jefferson County is interested in creating affordable housing and jobs. We have heard that over the past 15 years, at least. But housing costs continue to escalate and jobs are scarce. Our children know this. They mostly have to move away...
Anti-Police Black Lives Matter Requested Police Escort and Received Preferential Treatment
Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County requested a police escort for its Juneteenth march down Port Townsend's Water Street. They got it, at taxpayer's expense. A public records request by Port Townsend Free Press has obtained the application for the special use...
Outside Money Weighed Heavily on District 2 Commission Race
Outside money bankrolled Lorna Smith. An out-of-state donor made the largest single contribution to top finisher Heidi Eisenhour. Even Amanda Funaro, who is in third place after the first count of ballots, received sizable contributions from outside Jefferson County...
Reckoning with “The Reckoning”
The KPTZ program called "The Reckoning," was supposed to be a moderated conversation between Jefferson County Sheriff Joe Nole and a Native American woman, an organizer of Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County and an Hispanic man, with Port Townsend's Mayor jumping...
Jefferson County Invites Texans to Vote in Local Election and the Wall Street Journal Has the Story
Former Port Townsend Free Press contributor Scott Hogenson has an article in the August 2, 2020 edition of the Wall Street Journal. Scott and his family have moved to Texas. But he and his wife received ballots inviting them to vote in the August 4 primary...
Port Townsend’s “Welcoming City” Hurts Blacks: Systemic Racism #3
Illegal immigration hurts Black Americans. The evidence is overwhelming and incontrovertible. Port Townsend's liberal elite wanted to jump on the sanctuary city bandwagon. In March 2017 City Council declared the city to be a "welcoming city" and directed local...
Thank You!
It is time for us to say, "Thank you!" We started this modest effort at citizen journalism a little over two years ago. We were forced to take last year off to deal with personal and professional business matters, and just resumed active publishing in January of this...
City Council Threatens Port Townsend’s Public Safety
No police brutality. No court judgments for racial profiling or wrongful arrest. No Department of Justice investigations or complaints by civil rights groups that our police have systematically, even occasionally targeted minority citizens. It is widely recognized...
Crime and Violence in Port Townsend
More than one violent incident a day. Reading The Leader's cutesy police blotter feature you wouldn't know it. But statistics released by the Port Townsend Police Department in a presentation to City Council show our city has more violence--and more crime--than many...
Coronavirus Alarmism Is Running Rampant
The media is reporting "More virus cases", "Cases surge", and raising other terrifying alarms. Or as Chicken Little would say: "The sky is falling, the sky is falling." But emphasizing just the number of "cases" is very deceptive. There are key questions that should...
Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County: Where Are Donations Going?
Where does the money go? Who gets it? How is it used? Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County won’t answer these questions. The group has been soliciting and accepting donations through a Venmo account and other avenues. One local business donated a day’s worth of...
Brian Pruiett on COVID, Taxes, Sex Ed, 2A, MAT, Inslee and More
Jim McEntire interviews Brian Pruiett for the Port Townsend Free Press. Pruiett is a candidate to represent the 24th Legislative District in the Washington State House of Representatives, a position held by long-time incumbent Steve Tharinger. McEntire is well-known...
Wondering About Black Lives Matter
The other day in Port Townsend as the Black Lives Matter march passed through Uptown. I saw many people I know, good people, thoughtful people, marching with this group. I wondered to myself why these people would show their support for an organization whose name...
Black Life Mattered to Port Townsend Police
A young Black man could be dead if not for Port Townsend police. The story has received no coverage by local newspapers. Nothing from Black Lives Matter of Jefferson County. None of the high school kids who blocked traffic while shouting "Black lives matter!" have...
You Can’t Believe Jay Inslee: His Big COVID Hospital Crisis Lie
Hospitals overrun. Critically ill COVID patients without beds. A healthcare nightmare. Governor Jay Inslee is blowing that horn again. He recently claimed that Yakima County ran out of hospital beds due to a spike in COVID cases there. That very alarming claim went...
1,200 Miles Through Washington’s Phase 3 Counties
Time is of the essence. That was the single most important observation gleaned from 1,200 miles of travel through Washington’s Phase 3 counties. To get to them we had to drive through Phase 2 counties and some still in a variation of Phase 1. These "phases" refer to...
Jefferson Community Foundation Plays Victim…And Bully
A local businessman has left Jefferson County after false accusations of racism incited by the Jefferson Community Foundation. And a small business already devastated by the Governor’s shut down order is the talk of protests and boycotts that could finish it off....
Masks Forever
As of Friday, June 26th, 2020, according to Executive Decree 20-03 from the Washington State Secretary of Health, “Every person in Washington State must wear a face covering that covers their noses when in any indoor or outdoor public setting.” Initially it was just...
Multi-Million Dollar Fraud on Taxpayers: The Cherry Street Project Unmasked
Let us call it what it is: fraud. Incompetence is no longer an adequate explanation. Homeward Bound is in default on their $1 million loan from the city. They have no way of repaying what they owe, or finishing work on the decrepit building looming over a Port...
Black Blood Fuels Port Townsend’s Green Cars: Systemic Racism Part 2
Black slavery in Port Townsend. Not its practice, but its products. Cars using cobalt mined by Black African slaves, including child slaves, will drive over the "Black Lives Matter" section of Water Street. This is a stark reveal of the systemic racism of Port...
Everything You Need to Know About The Port Hadlock Sewer Project
Going back as far as the 1970s there has been talk of building a sewer for the Port Hadlock area. The designation of Port Hadlock as an Urban Growth Area in 2002 meant that a sewer was required. It has been some time coming to fruition, but a sewer in Port Hadlock is...
Black Lives Don’t Matter: Systemic Racism in the Jefferson County Public Health Department
Genocide by abortion. Black Genocide. It is the leading cause of death among Black Americans, greater than all diseases, accidents, suicides and murders combined. Over nineteen million Black Americans have been intentionally killed. In some communities more Blacks are...
Recognizing Commissioner Greg Brotherton
"Best commissioner in years." "A breath of fresh air." "Someone who is actually trying to help." I've been hearing from quite a few people in Jefferson County that County Commissioner Greg Brotherton is being extremely helpful and responsive to those struggling to...
The Fabricated Ferguson Fable
What's with white kids and their parents getting down on both knees on our streets and sidewalks and raising their hands over their heads? And this repetitive call-and-answer chanting of "Hands up!", followed by "Don't Shoot!" What's that all about? Its practitioners...
Be The Change You Want To See In The Police
It is easy to lay down on a street for a few minutes, to rage and swear at police, to accuse them of all sorts of despicable actions and evil attitudes and toss off demands for sweeping systemic reform. It is especially easy with the police protecting you from getting...
Unmasking Masking Mendacity
Jefferson County has gone all in on community masking. On June 5 Dr. Thomas Locke, Jefferson County Public Health Officer, issued a directive requiring that masks be worn in all indoor spaces. Just wander around town and look in the windows and on the doors of local...
Will Port Townsend’s Next Demonstration Be Peaceful?
Port Townsend has avoided the mayhem and destruction that has hijacked many of the otherwise civil demonstrations against the murder of George Floyd. Another George Floyd demonstration is planned for Friday, June 5. This event, entitled "Justice for Black Lives:...
No COVID Spike From Anti-Lock Down Protests
Once again the experts were wrong. We were warned that those reckless and irresponsible people on the steps of the Capitol in mid-April protesting the statewide lockdown would cause a spike in COVID cases. Unmasked cries of "Give me liberty or give me death!" would...
Port Townsend Acts to Help Businesses Hammered by Lock Down–Finally
Port Townsend is finally doing something to help businesses that have been closed by the Governor's COVID lock down order. City Council will consider at its June 1, 2020, meeting a resolution to turn city street parking spaces and sidewalks into extensions of...
Phase 3 Reopening For Jeffco Already Delayed, Commssioners Must Avoid More Foot Dragging
Restaurants almost full. Gyms open. The Rose showing movies again. Booklovers at the library. Swimming at Mountainview. Soccer, softball games on glorious Spring days. Open mics, church services, street music. Beer drinking outside at the Pourhouse. Whale watching....
Masks: Nope and Hope. Two Views.
NOPE By Brett Nunn Masks. Some people are wearing them. Some are not. Some of the people wearing them are proclaiming that maskless people are ignorant at best, and “Killing People!” at worst. The people not wearing masks are confounded by the people who are...
Kate Dean & Co. to Retail and Restaurants: “Drop Dead.”
"There is no evidence tourists spread COVID." That was what Dr. Thomas Locke, Jefferson County's Public Health Officer, told the Board of Health. Unfortunately for Jefferson County his words at the BOH's pivotal May 21 meeting were quickly forgotten. Driven by fear,...
Fear and Loathing in Port Townsend
The woman driving the shiny black Range Rover let go of the wheel with both hands. She flipped her middle fingers at the young mother standing at the curb with her children and a sign reading, “Let Me Work.” The woman in the Range Rover was about 60, had her windows...
The Informants of Jefferson County
Who has been informing on their neighbor? An enterprising citizen journalist has enabled a searchable database that answers that question. Allegations of violations of the Governor's "Stay at Home" and "essential/non-essential" business list have generated thousands...
Yes, Dr. Locke Could Be Wrong, Very Wrong
Questions unasked. Statements and predictions taken at face value. Vague data, ambiguities, and contradictions unaddressed. Whatever happened to "Question Authority"? Jefferson County Public Health Officer Dr. Thomas Locke has a huge responsibility and huge powers due...
Life in Port Townsend for a family with a non-essential business
I don’t know if we are the typical Port Townsend family of four. We own a house here. We have a business here. Our kids go to the public schools, participate in sports. We are involved with Jefferson County 4H and the Girls Boat Project. We did all those things and...
Open All Jefferson County Retail Now, While There Is Something To Reopen
"I'm making a Costo run, babe." "Are you going to Silverdale or Sequim? If you go to Silverdale you can hit Lowe's. Then swing by Central Market in Poulsbo. I've got a list." One of the great injustices of Governor Inslee's lock down order is that he has bludgeoned...
Port Townsend’s Selfish, Cruel Old People
We are triaging the young and healthy for the sake of the elderly and already sick. We are not all in this together. It is families and people who need to work paying the cost in terms of lost jobs, crushed hopes and lost homes so old people can feel safe. We are...
PUNT! Local Leaders Waste Chance at Early Open for Jefferson County Businesses
Delay and dithering rules in Jefferson County. Eight counties have already applied to enter phase 2 now, the next step in Governor Inslee's reopening of Washington's economy. Local officials instead have opted to add additional procedural steps not required by the...
Protest Against Lock Down Grows In Port Angeles
"Reopen Clallam County" has seen its numbers of protestors continue to grow. Every Thursday at 4:30 p.m. the group assembles on Lincoln Street, Port Angeles, by the courthouse to protest Governor Inslee's "Stay at Home" order. They have also been sharing information...
Face Toward The Enemy: Protesting Governor Inslee’s Stay At Home Order
A whole lot of guns. That was my first observation at the April 19, 2020, rally on the Capitol steps in Olympia. About 2,500 people had assembled to protest the Governor’s lock down order and call for restoration of constitutional rights. I saw many USA flags, Trump...
Default the Cherry Street Project Now
Port Townsend should immediately declare the Cherry Street Project in default and save taxpayers a little over $316,000. That is the balance of cash remaining on the city's loan to Homeward Bound Community Land Trust, the volunteer organization behind the stalled-out...
Snohomish County Sheriff Refuses to Enforce Governor Inslee’s Shut Down Order
It started in Franklin County and has now spread to Snohomish County. County Sheriffs are refusing to enforce Governor Jay Inslee's order that is shutting down hundreds of businesses and throwing millions of Washingtonians out of work. This is the statement from...
Port Townsend City Council M.I.A. In Time Of Crisis
No sense of urgency. More discussion of plastic bags and Earth Day than doing anything to alleviate the economic crisis already devastating our community, destroying lives and sowing despair and anger. That sums up the Port Townsend City Council's weekly meeting on...
Where Is The Recovery Plan for Port Townsend and Jefferson County?
No deaths, no new cases, ICU's not overrun, hospital beds open. Where's the emergency for the Olympic Peninsula? Neither the Port Townsend City Council nor the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners have discussed at their meetings any plan for getting...
Jay Inslee is Losing Control
He has only himself to blame. Senseless, irrational, and transparently political decisions have undermined the integrity of Governor Jay Inslee's "stay at home" order. Protests and defiance are building. A protest against his order is set for this Sunday, April 19,...
PT City Council Spends Weekly Meeting Disccusing CO2 Emissions and Raising Taxes
Faced with the worst economic and social crisis in generations the Port Townsend City Council met to work on a recovery plan that would slash the costs of doing business and creating jobs, cut taxes to make housing more affordable for those getting by on less, and...
How’s Jay Inslee Doing as Dictator?
We face great dangers to life and liberty, not just from a novel virus, but also from political leaders who too quickly embrace the role of dictator and abuse their power. That's how it goes with dictators. And that's how it's going with Jay Inslee. On one hand,...
Jay Inslee Is A Terrible, But Typical Central Planner
We need a Smarter Stay-At-Home Order. Gov. Jay Inslee's current version is causing avoidable collateral damage. We get it. Flatten the curve, maintain social distance, wash your hands, don't touch your face and wipe down frequently touched surfaces. Sure, some people...
Rep. Derek Kilmer’s “No Ban Act” Would Have Made the Pandemic Worse
U.S. Represenative Derek Kilmer is sponsoring legislation that would have prevented President Trump from banning travel from China and Europe to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus and would have overturned bans on travel from Iran and other nations the President...
Miracle Cure Discovered Locally for COVID19 Side Effects
Some people are not doing so well handling the pandemic. In one sad case, a Port Townsend woman was heard screaming through her open back door. A teenage girl called out to ask if she were okay. The screaming woman answered, "Yes! I'm just letting out anger. I hope...
Tax Realtors for Affordable Housing: They’ve Got the Cash
Homeowners don't have cash to pay higher property taxes. It is tied up in their homes. Homebuyers need all their cash for downpayments and higher mortgages. Home sellers have cash only briefly. The proceeds from the sale of their home go towards buying a new place to...
Cherry Street Project Welcomes First Tenants
After three years and a budget of $3.2 million, the Cherry Street Project welcomed its first tenants. Not in the 70-year old building contaminated with asbestos and lead. No, these tenants are living al fresco in a homeless encampment. The photograph for this story...
Leading Environmentalist Condemns Climate Fear Mongering: More on Jefferson County’s Fake Climate Emergency
We are not putting our survival in danger. Apocalyptic fear mongering about climate change has no basis in science. Those who fan the flames of climate panic are causing real harm. So says award-winning, highly respected environmental champion Michael Shellenberger....
Jefferson County’s Fake Climate Emergency
Forget facts. Forget failed predictions. Forget the best, most relevant science. Climate fear exploiters are set to ram through a "climate emergency declaration" that will give the Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners greater powers to dictate just about...
Realtors’ Anti-Competitive Practices Inflate Housing Costs
Realtors drive up housing prices. The restraints of trade ingrained into the way realtors work make the housing affordability crisis worse. Even the buyer's agent is part of the problem, for they are incentivized to seek a higher sale price though that goes against...
Tax Realtors to Fund Affordable Housing: A Proposal for Housing Activists
One segment of the housing market can and should bear higher taxes to generate funding for affordable housing. That is realtors, who take a percentage of the sale price of houses built and maintained by other people. As real estate prices rise, they earn increasingly...
Still Too Many Bambis: Port Townsend’s Deer Pose Increasing Health Risks
I mentioned in my last opinion piece that the city made a good start by banning the feeding of deer within city limits. In speaking with the city, and state fish and game representatives, it seems that there is more to come. Expect a long process involving public...
UW Meteorologist: Washington Faces No Climate Emergency
Jefferson County will be just fine even if the models predicting global warming prove accurate. We will face no inconvenience other than more rain. Don't take it from us. Listen to University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass. He has been working with a team of...
Port Townsend Womxn’s March Calls for Release of Green River Killer
Gary Ridgeway, the Green River killer, raped, tortured and murdered over 48 women. The Port Townsend Womxn's March wants him, and all other rapists, murderers, child rapists and wife beaters released from prison in the name of women's rights. Yup. That's right, crazy...
Too Many Bambis: Port Townsend Makes a Good Start on the Problem
The City of Port Townsend did something good. On October 7, 2019 ordinance 3233 was added to section 9.08.020 of the municipal code. Human feeding of wild ducks, geese, gulls and deer within the city limits is now listed as a public nuisance. The key species here is...
“Completely Bogus” Numbers–More Problems and Delays for Cherry Street Project
The City of Port Townsend bought and imported at significant cost a nearly 70-year old building that had just failed a Canadian hazardous materials inspection. The presence of asbestos and lead in the troubled building has been disclosed only recently as the group...
Tri-Area Thanksgiving Meal: A Wonderful Community Gathering
The tables are set, the turkeys are roasting, volunteers are getting excited about seeing old friends and making new ones. The annual Tri-Area Community Thanksgiving Meal will return starting noon tomorrow and filling bellies and bringing smiles until 3 p.m. Hundreds...
Nazi Witches Put Curse on Joe D’Amico
Somewhere in Port Townsend, little dolls of Joe D'Amico are being stuck with hat pins. Or wax Joey Dee miniatures are being cast into coal fires. Or hairs plucked from the back of Joe's head at the last hearing on his proposed gun range are being woven into triple...
What’s Happening With the Cherry Street Project?
Port Townsend's premiere affordable housing project is an eyesore. One of the most expensive real estate developments in Jefferson County--over $2 million in public funds for eight apartments--is boarded up, uninhabitable and detracting from the quality of the...
Happy New Year! And Adios, For Now
Thank you to all the readers who helped us exceed 60,000 page views since our first investigative report was published a short seven months ago. Our most widely read reporting was on the Cherry Street Project--the extravagant waste of scarce affordable housing...
Questions Remain Unanswered About Jefferson County’s Changed Oath of Office
Questions and concerns about the new Jefferson County Oath of Office have prompted County Administrator Philip Morley to prepare and distribute a special memorandum detailing the change, but the document fails to address key questions. Morley’s December 21 memo...
17 and Pregnant: The Third Trimester, Joy From Despair
The first six months of Ravyn's journey opened with happiness and hope then crashed hard into the reality of being a teen mother. We encouraged readers not to rule out this young couple just because of the hopelessness and despair described in Ravyn's First and...
Jefferson County Officials No Longer Sworn To Uphold Federal Laws
Elected officials in Jefferson County, along with all county employees, will no longer swear an oath to support the laws of the United States, according to a recent modification of the oath of office. Up until this year, county officials pledged in their oath to,...
The Tragedy of the Cherry Street Project
The Cherry Street Project is in more trouble than city and non-profit leaders are letting on. Behind the scenes they have been wrestling with the realization that the original cost estimate appears to have been unrealistic. The fledgling non-profit group of volunteers...
Seventeen and Pregnant: Despair and Fear in the Second Trimester
(We rejoin Ravyn, who asked to share her journey with us. In the first installment (click here), she and her nineteen-year old boyfriend decided to marry and do what it took to bring their child into the world. Pregnancy radically changed Ravyn, a "horrible person"...
Brotherton Eyes “Significant Cuts” to County Development Codes
Jefferson County Commissioner-elect Greg Brotherton said Thursday, “our codes are standing in the way,” of economic growth and promised regulatory reform by reducing the size of the county’s Unified Development Code (UDC) upon taking his seat on the Board of County...
Howling Chickens! NW Discovery Lab’s Latest Adventure
We are always delighted to share news from Port Townsend's NW Discovery Lab. The educational and life enhancement this program offers...well, we wish we'd had them as kids. We are fortunate to have this program thriving here. Here's the latest. Teaser: it involves...
Things That Really Work In Jeffferson County: The Recyclery
[Editor's Note: Welcome new contributor Brett Nunn, a long-time Port Townsend resident, father and published author. He wants to write to about things that really work in our wonderful community, while other contributors shine a light on some things needing a...
Jefferson County’s 2019 Budget: Increased Spending, Declining Revenues, More Deficits
The Jefferson County General Fund budget is projected to operate at a deficit in 2019, with spending to be 3.6% greater than revenue, according to the draft budget proposal from County Administrator Philip Morley’s office. The 2019 budget blueprint earmarks $20.37...
Standing Up To The Attacks On This Site’s Editor
Over the past few months there has been an orchestrated effort to spread defamatory and libelous information about the editor of the Port Townsend Free Press. This information is absolutely and unequivocally false. Some of this information was spread by Jefferson...
Updated: Judge Landes Accuses Prosecutor Haas of Bribery and Ethics Violations
On May 17, 2018, Jefferson County District Court Judge Jill Landes filed a complaint with the Washington State Bar Association against Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael E. Haas accusing him of bribery and ethics violations. The case was being actively investigated...
Lessons from the Boiler Room’s Failure, and Our New Comment Policy: Updated
Once upon a time the Boiler Room was a good thing for teens and Port Townsend. We have all heard the stories of rewarding friendships, of lives changed and lives saved. But when news of the Boiler Room’s closing made its way around town, we also heard more than a few...
Deficits Loom for Jeffco Budget
The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners has a simple but huge problem. The government is spending more than it takes in. Beginning in January we’ll see whether the board, with its newest member, is up to the challenge. Between 2011 and 2016, general fund...
A Zero-Emissions Governor
Governor Jay Inslee can still be a climate champion on a global scale. Sure, he didn’t get a carbon tax to hold up as an example of the sacrifice his state was willing to make. Voters again rejected a plan he backed that would have made gasoline, propane,...
Riding Shotgun with JCSO Deputy Brandon Przygocki
It’s a tight fit – strapped in the passenger seat of a Ford Explorer Police Interceptor crammed with radios, radars, computers, keyboards, and both lethal and non-lethal long weapons. Ten-year veteran Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff Brandon Przygocki holds the wheel....
Democrats Romp In Tuesday’s Elections
Energized Democrats in Jefferson County delivered commanding victories up and down the ticket Tuesday, with Greg Brotherton winning a landslide victory for the open seat on the Board of County Commissioners and Joe Nole unseating incumbent Sheriff Dave Stanko. ...
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We'll return after the election with new stories and new contributors as Port Townsend Free Press continues to grow. Thank you!
Listen to Washington’s Leading Climate Scientist: Vote No on I-1631, The Deceptive, Flawed Carbon Tax
I-1631 should look familiar to Jefferson County voters. It is the misleadingly labeled "carbon fee" plan that is actually exactly like the carbon tax scheme soundly rejected by voters just two years ago. Indeed, it imposes the very same tax on energy, but now...
Vote for Dave Stanko–Guest Editorial by Gene Farr
On October 22, 2018, I wrote an editorial, "Sheriff Stanko, Please Stand Down," about why I believe Dave Stanko should not get another term as Jefferson County Sheriff. In it, I asked "What's with Republicans?" Though not endorsed by the party, many prominent...
Greg Brotherton’s Marijuana Business Cited for 8 Violations Since 2014
From Initial Success to Declining Sales and Repeated Infractions A cannabis shop owned by Jefferson County Commissioner candidate Greg Brotherton was cited October 10 for violating state marijuana regulations, marking the eighth citation issued against his store in...
Disenfranchising District 3
The people of District 3 in Jefferson County have been disenfranchised from the Board of County Commissioners for some time now. The question for today is whether their voice will continue to be disregarded by the Port Townsend political elite. I say disenfranchised...
Windward School Students Dig For Mastodons
How cool is this? We received this press release from Windward School, one of the excellent enrichment programs run privately in Jefferson County for children and families wanting more than our public schools offer. Here's the story, then more on Windward School:...
Reject The Port Townsend Manifesto
I give Jefferson County Democrats a lot of credit for being on the ball. When I opened my mailbox last week to find my ballot for the November 6 election, I also found a sample ballot provided by our local Democrat Party. The timing was impeccable. They were crystal...
Greg Brotherton Opposes Child Safety Cannabis Rules
Readers of this column know that I’ve spent a little time in politics. After having worked four presidential campaigns, scores of U.S. Senate and governorship races, and hundreds of congressional campaigns, I felt comfortable thinking I had pretty much seen it all...
Sheriff Stanko, Please Stand Down
I have been working my way through a long list of deputies and civilian employees of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. They volunteered to speak with a journalist, something I don’t get much when I am trying to pry information out of law enforcement. I should...
The Letter The Leader Won’t Publish: How Michael Haas Hurt a Rape Victim
Our four-part series, "Dumping a Rape Case, and its Victim," examined how Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael Haas mishandled the rape case against Patrick McAllister and mistreated the victim. Haas refused to meet her, a young Filipino woman with the initials SL,...
Michael Haas Under Investigation: Hiding the Truth from Voters
Michael Haas is under investigation and trying to run out the clock before voters can learn about it. The Jefferson County Prosecutor has been facing an ethics investigation by the Washington State Bar Association. We previously reported that the investigation centers...
Jefferson County Prosecutor Haas Faces Bar Association Investigation
Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael Haas is under investigation by the Washington State Bar Association for two ethics violations alleged to have occurred during his term in office. On September 1, 2018 we filed a public records request for documents containing...
Greg Brotherton’s Lack of Judgment and Maturity
It’s impossible to know what goes on in the mind of Elon Musk. The man who leads Tesla and the privately-held SpaceX Corporation is a genius and a visionary. But his judgment and maturity are now being called into question. Musk generated wide ranging problems for...
White, Twenty-Something and in Jail: Life Behind Bars in Jefferson County
On any given day, fifty-plus young men and women live locked behind bars in the Jefferson County Jail in Port Hadlock. They range in age from twenty to twenty-eight years old. Seventy-five percent are male. All are white. Instead of building careers and...
Knowing the Homeless: The Individuals on Port Townsend’s Streets
2012 was the year I moved to Port Townsend from Tacoma. While I immediately loved this place, our proximity to nature and the beach, I found myself having difficulty relating to people in my new home town. It wasn’t that I felt anyone gave off a negative...
Gun Control Emerges as Issue in Jeffco Commissioner Race
Initiative 1639 is not the only threat to your Second Amendment rights on the November 6 ballot. The Jefferson County Board of County Commissioners is joining the effort to keep you from exercising your constitutional rights. The voters' decision on who...
Tweek Watch Olympic Peninsula: Facebook Crime Fighters
A game camera is triggered by motion at 3 a.m. A black Dodge pickup truck is photographed leaving a meth compound in Sequim. The pic goes up on the Facebook page of Tweek Watch Olympic Peninsula where it is seen by over 2,500 people. This truck and...
Teen Marijuana Use in Jefferson County: A Growing Problem Needing An Aggressive County Commission
Jefferson County has a real problem with teens using marijuana. Marijuana use among our kids, starting in the sixth grade, is significantly worse than the rest of the state. Marijuana use by teens, medical experts agree, damages brain development and can...
Republican Jodi Wilke Wins Union Endorsement; Judges, Lawyers Score Haas Low on Integrity, Competence and Leadership
A little campaign news. Republican challenger Jodi Wilke has snagged a union endorsement in her David vs. Goliath race against incumbent Mike Chapman, who represents Jefferson County in the State House of Representatives. In his race to remain a District 24 State...
17 and Pregnant–A Story in Three Parts
The First Trimester Stories not being told, voices not being heard. Port Townsend Free Press set out to address that shortcoming in our local journalism scene. That means more than politics and investigative reporting, if we are to meet the goals we have...
Setting the Guilty Free; The Conclusion of Dumping a Rape Case and Its Victim; State of Washington v. Patrick J. McAllister
Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael Haas had a stronger case on retrial than the one that had sent Patrick McAllister to prison 6 years earlier. At the same time the defense case had gotten weaker. But Haas threw the case away, turned loose a man with a...
Fake Democracy in Jefferson County
I had a brief and cordial correspondence recently with Port Townsend City Councilman David Faber about the way commissioners are elected in Jefferson County. With the race for District 3 County Commissioner perched atop the local ballot, I asked him how he felt about...
Alone and Unprotected; Dumping a Rape Case and Its Victim Part 3; State of Washington v. Patrick J. McAllister
She couldn’t tell the prosecutor from the defense team. When SL walked into the room where Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael Haas had told her to appear for a deposition, she saw men so friendly with each other she felt isolated and alone. She had never met Haas. ...
The Questions Michael Haas Won’t Answer; State of Washington v. Patrick J. McAllister
Michael Haas has refused to answer any questions on how he handled the case of State versus McAllister and the woman at the center of that rape case. As reported previously, Haas dismissed the charges without ever first telling the victim. He did not speak with her...
Reefer Madne$$
Reefer Madness is gripping America. I’m not talking about the 1936 cult movie classic that so many of us rolled our eyes at as teenagers. I’m talking about the billions of dollars that are flowing into U.S. and Canadian stock markets to buy shares of companies that...
Dumping a Rape Case, and Its Victim Part 2; State of Washington v. Patrick J. McAllister
This is the second installment in our investigation of how Jefferson County Prosecutor Micahel Haas handled the case of State of Washington v. Patrick J. McAllister. Our first report is here: Part 1. Also relevant: The Questions Michael Haas Won't Answer. The...
Knowing “The Homeless”
When we see a homeless person “flying a flag” (panhandling with a cardboard sign), we react with sadness and empathy, followed by a gift of money. It may make us feel better. But are we making things worse? We live in a society with plenty of opportunity. Employers...
Answering Criticism About Brinnon Group Column
One of my favorite responsibilities as a news executive was to serve as an ombudsman. When readers express complaints about a news organization’s coverage of an issue, it is the ombudsman’s role to publicly and constructively respond to these complaints, and explain...
From Russia With Love…And Respect For The Law
It would have been easy to break the law. My Russian fiancé Elena and I, along with our new baby, could have easily obtained a Canadian tourist visa, hopped the ferry in Victoria, B.C., and illegally set up home in sanctuary city Port Townsend. In this city that has...
Dumping a Rape Case, and Its Victim; State of Washington v. Patrick J. McAllister
On April 26, 2018, in the midst of his reelection campaign, Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael Haas dismissed a rape case rather than take it to trial. It is the case of SL, a 21-year old Filipino woman brought into this country by a Brinnon man 26 years older. ...
Now Showing – Desperation Over Pleasant Harbor
[The South Speaks Back: Quick Retort from the Brinnon Group] One way to gauge desperation is through rhetoric. The more unhinged someone’s language, the more they know they’re losing. Facts are supplanted by accusations. Emotion displaces intelligence. We’ve all been...
Discovery 4-H Project Saves Bees: Look for Kids with Cameras at Jefferson County Fair
From left: Ruby Groussman (8), Andre Mackey (10), Ike Banks (13), Evan Mackey (12). The youth photographers in the Discovery 4-H Club photo project will help “Save the Bees” for this year’s fair theme. The Jefferson County Fair theme is “Bug Up!!”...
What Trump Should Have Said in Helsinki
I really enjoy writing about politics in Jefferson County. The opportunity to learn and better connect with the people and issues that matter to us is deeply appreciated and I have mostly resisted the urge to write about national politics. But after a...
A Dope Dealer on the County Commission?
Greg Brotherton Undermines Youth Prevention Efforts Greg Brotherton owns Sea Change Cannabis, the first pot shop to open in Jefferson County. He promotes the expanded use of marijuana through his website and movies he has written and produced. He puts...
District 3 Commissioner Race: Greg Brotherton on the Issues
With this set of answers from Greg Brotherton we complete our Q&A with the candidates running to replace Kathleen Kler as the Jefferson County District 3 Commissioner. You can read the discussion with the other candidates, Craig Durgan, Jon...
District 3 Commisioner Race: Ryan McAllister on the Issues
We put the same questions to all four candidates in the race to replace Kathleen Kler as the Jefferson County District 3 Commissioner. You can read the answers from Craig Durgan and Jon Cooke by clicking on their names. Friday we will publish answers...
The Government We Deserve
Philosophers and political thinkers have observed rightly over the centuries that people get the government they deserve. But a couple of news items over the past week got me wondering whether Jefferson County really deserves such bad government. First...
DISTRICT 3 COMMISSIONER RACE: JON COOKE ON THE ISSUES
We asked all candidates in the race for the open seat representing District 3 on the Jefferson County Commission the same four questions. Monday, we published Craig Durgan’s answers. Today it is Jon Cooke’s turn. “Growth, Opportunity,...
DISTRICT 3 COMMISSIONER RACE: CRAIG DURGAN ON THE ISSUES
We asked all the candidates running to represent Jefferson County Commission District 3 several questions which highlight the challenges of the position. We will be running their responses this week. Craig Durgan is an engineer and it shows in his mastery...
Jefferson County’s Hierarchy of Needs
Had anyone told me last year that I’d be writing about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as it pertains to Jefferson County politics, I would have told them they’re nuts. But having made a passing reference to it a few weeks ago, and having listened to local...
Pressure Mounts for Action on Hadlock Sewer
77% of Landowners Petition Jefferson County Commission Landowners representing 77% of the areas of Port Hadlock zoned for commercial, industrial and multi-family units on June 18, 2018, delivered to the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners their...
A SPECIAL INDEPENDENCE DAY FOR PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS
Port Townsend and Jeffco Contracts Requiring Payment of Union Dues Now Unenforceable Pop quiz: If you belong to a collective bargaining unit in Jefferson County, and if that collective bargaining unit took money from you to support the reelection of...
A BLOODY AFTERNOON IN KAH TAI PARK
A 911 call: assault in progress, Kah Tai Park. On their way police listen to an open line, a second call originating from inside the park. A man screams for help. Then another voice comes on and shouts, "Give me that phone!" The line goes dead. A...
GLIMMERS OF HOPE FOR THE HADLOCK SEWER
Large Federal Infrastructure Bills Could Provide Funding Local and state governments have been unable to pay for the critically needed Port Hadlock-Irondale sewer project. At least another $30 million must come from somewhere. It could come from...
Is Opposing Donald Trump’s Economic Policies Racist?
Port Townsend’s Women’s March: Bigoted or Detached from Reality? [Editor's note: We have notified the Port Townsend Women's March organization that we would be happy to publish their response to this commentary] The Congressional Black Caucus is...
CANDIDATE FORUM LONG ON GRIPES, SHORT ON ANSWERS
The big thing that emerged from Sunday’s Honesty Forum in Port Ludlow, where all four candidates for the open seat on the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners appeared on the same stage, was that most of them are better at griping about problems than...
SUGAR HILL FARMS OPENS ITS DOORS
Photos by Kara Kellog A sweet spot on SR 19 is bringing smiles to Jefferson County. Brenda and Mike Hill on June 12 opened business as Sugar Valley Farms in the old Beaver Valley Store. Inside awaits what one customer described as “simple extravagance.”...
GOVERNOR INSLEE RESPONDS
Do Black Lives Matter When It Comes To Green Cars? Electric cars run on the suffering of Black children living like slaves. Dangerous, toxic mining conditions in the Congo cause death, disease and birth defects at alarming rates. The cobalt from...
The Bernie Problem
I like Bernie Sanders. He’s something of an anomaly in American politics because he’s one of the most honest politicians on the scene, not just today but going back decades. It took a lot of courage for Sanders to declare himself a Socialist when running...
DEMOCRAT HOUSE INCUMBENTS CRUSHING REPUBLICAN CHALLENGERS IN FUNDRAISING
GOP Hopes for Turning the Peninsula Red Face Money Problems Inspired by the historic victory of Republican Jim Walsh in the 19th Legislative District, the Washington House Republican Caucus has visions of the rest of the Olympic Peninsula turning...
HAAS FACES SECOND COMPLAINT
Prosecutor's Odd Response Repeats Charge He Let A Serial Rapist Go Free Jefferson County Prosecutor Michael Haas has been hit with another complaint for unlawful use of his office in his campaign for re-election. While the alleged infraction may be minor,...
Vintage Auto Art Around the County
Photos by Kara Kellogg
Do Black Lives Matter When It Comes To Green Cars?
Electric cars run on the suffering of Black children living like slaves. Amnesty International exposed this painful truth in 2016. You can read their report by clicking on its title, "This is What We Die For." Most of the world's cobalt comes from the...
Lights in the Darkness
The young man was dead. He lay on his back, eyes open, skin the color of ash, no sign of breathing. It looked like he had fallen off a new Cannondale road bike. The bike--carbon fiber, electric transmission, high-end wheels--was on his chest. He wore...
THE CRAZY OTTER OPENS IN HADLOCK
Three years after starting negotiations to buy the notorious Zoog's Caveman Cookin', followed by years of remodeling, construction and engineering, partners Ashley Emery and Brent Garrett today opened their Crazy Otter to its first customers. "We're in the...
PDC CLOSES COMPLAINT AGAINST PROSECUTOR HAAS WITH REMINDER NOT TO BREAK THE LAW
A complaint filed against Prosecuting Attorney Michael Haas for illegal electioneering in office has been closed by the Public Disclosure Commission with a reminder not to use his office for electioneering or solicit campaign contributions from his...
OUR BUSY BOATYARD
Local workers, local businesses, local heroes photos by Kara Kellog
Jefferson County’s Conflicted Democrat Party
Being relatively new to the Olympic Peninsula, I confess that my institutional knowledge of local politics is not terribly comprehensive. But I think it fair to observe that we owe a modicum of credit to the all-Democrat County Board of Commissioners for...
CHAPMAN PILES UP ENDORSEMENTS; Mc ALLISTER LEADS IN FUNDRAISING
Representative Mike Chapman (D) is collecting a pile of organizational endorsements in his re-election bid. He is also far outpacing his Republican opponent in his fight to retain his seat representing the 24th District. He can claim endorsements from :...
HAAS LASHES OUT AT LAW ENFORCEMENT AFTER FOP ENDORSES KENNEDY [Updated]
Area law enforcement has broken a tradition of noninvolvement in the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney's race to endorse challenger James Kennedy's bid to oust incumbent Michael Haas. On May 20, 2018, the Fraternal Order of Police, North...
SEATTLE’S TAX ON JOBS COULD BE JEFFERSON COUNTY’S GAIN [Updated]
Area legislators indicate support for tax credit for economically depressed counties. But Tharinger ridicules. Jefferson County could use a break. A Pierce County legislator wants economically struggling counties like Jefferson to get a tax credit equal...
Moon Over Port Townsend
The Battle of the Sexes has reached new depths of confusion. Not a day passes without some person being accused by some other person of some form of unseemly behavior, invariably linked to sex or something like sex. Some cases are very serious, like the...
ABOUT IPA, AND INTRODUCING OUR FIRST COLUMNIST
We rate everything from Port Townsend Brewing as quaffable, top-notch suds. That is our considered position on local beer and we’re sticking to it. So much for a beer tasting review. This is really about the last group of dancers in the Rhody...
CHERRY STREET “AFFORDABLE” HOUSING TO COST MORE THAN $2 MILLION
$401 per square foot......$167,196 per bedroom......$250,794 per apartment......and counting...... The City of Port Townsend is financing some of the most expensive residential construction in Jefferson County in the name of “affordable” housing. Costs...