Riley

Fri, May 22, 2015, 10:35 am

A couple dozen folks, including political junkies, bloggers, editors and reporters, gathered yesterday afternoon at NY Pizza to bid Riley Sweeney a goodbye as he leaves political reporting and commentary behind to take a job with the city of Ferndale.  Ralph Scwhartz, a reporter with the Bellingham Herald, was there and has posted up a fun article about the gathering on his political blog at the Herald website.  

Permanent links to the Bellingham Herald and to Ralph and Samantha's political blog are in the right side column of NWCitizen, under the "Local Blogs & News" label.

Apple Pay Comes to Bellingham

Thu, May 21, 2015, 4:26 am

Apple Pay - and Google Wallet - are secure ways of using our credit and debit cards. Far more secure than using the cards themselves. As we all know, credit card info is stolen on a routine basis, forcing users to cut them up and wait for new ones, causing limitless aggrevation while working with banks and credit unions to get illegal purchases reversed. Credit cards in other countries are more secure, with chip technology being the most common security solution. Wall Street and the big banks have ignored this problem for decades because the losses are less than 3% and all the angst is on the users and small issuing banks.  

WECU - the Whatcom Educational Credit Union - has just implemented Apple Pay for all its members. It started on Wednesday without fanfare. All I had to do was scan my WECU credit card into my iPhone 6 - didn't even need to go to the credit union.  I tapped the app - passbook - and it coached me to take a photo of my credit card. The app then displayed the credit card number and info for my approval.  I tapped ok and it was done.  

Then it was time to test it. Walgreens on Meridian enables both Apple and Googe payment systems. For my first time purchase, the register clerk, Sawyer, helped me. It was simple, but I did not know whether to touch or wave the phone near the credit card reader. With advice, I held the phone near the normal credit card reader at the check out counter and my phone came alive - displaying the credit card. I held the top of my phone within an inch of the graphic symbol (top of this article) that was on the card reader.  A nice "ding" sound told Sawyer that I had successfully paid, and my receipt was printed. It took about 2 seconds. You can look for these graphic symbols on credit card readers the next time you shop. The process with a smart phone is much faster than using a credit card.  

You can scan in credit cards and also debit cards.  You can scan in Visa, MasterCard and others.  When it comes time to pay, you tap - on your smart phone screen - the icon of the card you want to use.  Very cool.  

Is this article news or an advertisement?  It is news - and a nudge to local business owners to enable it for payment. This important new tech process has very real benefits to everyday people. It is a secure way of using cards and you can still use your old credit card separate from your phone. Within a couple years we will all be using this system routinely. Apple deserves credit for initiating this. 

WECU was not the first locally. Wells Fargo has it, as does Key Bank. If you know of another local bank that offers it, let me know and I'll list it here.

And here are links to Apple Pay and Google Wallet. They have great illustrations and clear text.  

Delightful Article about Home Skillet

Wed, May 20, 2015, 8:24 am

There is a very small restaurant - 32 seats - in the Sunnyland neighborhood called Home Skillet. It serves breakfast and lunch. NWCitizen writers have met there many times for breakfast and to discuss local politics and articles-in-progress. The food is excellent, the staff just sassy enough to keep you alert and yet provide superb service. Dining there the first time is a fun experience. Weekends are over-crowded. All in all, one of those fine little businesses that help make Bellingham and Whatcom County nice places to live.

Today's online Bellingham Business Journal has a lengthy and wonderful article about Home Skillet, with several photos. It tells us about the special experiences and training the owners went through before starting the restaurant. They were cooks in one of the most unique places in the world with a very demanding clientele. I know, as my late brother, local dentist "painless Bill," was one of them. 

The Bellingham Business Journal provides daily local business news. I check it each morning and find they often have news before the Herald. The Herald business reporter, Dave Gallagher, worked there before being recruited to the Herald. Readers benefit from the competition between the Herald and Business Journal. There is a new link in the right side "Links" column that will direct you to the Business Journal. Of course, the link to the Herald has been there for many years now.  

- John Servais

Don’t Blame the Cops?

Wed, Apr 29, 2015, 11:27 pm

What credible evidence did Baltimore police have that gangs were unifying to take them out?  Or is that classified?  It provided a convenient excuse for the police to suit up in military gear to provoke a bunch of high school kids.

Parents and teachers report that "…police actions inflamed a tense-but-stable situation."  Police reportedly turned away school buses and prevented students from dispersing.  Was there a strategy and tactical plan?  Or is that classified?

In the National Review, a columnist blames Democratic policies and practices, suggesting racial arrest disparity exists because "Criminals make their own choices..", that "Meretricious “black rage” rhetoric…" props up "..not a revolt, but a crime spree."  The author admits police can be undisciplined, calling it political "..incompetence and corruption..", "..the product of the progressive wing of the Democratic party enabled in no small part by black identity politics."

Maybe we shouldn't blame the kids, blacks or the cops - or the Democrats. Sure, there will always be unruly children, undisciplined police and bad public management, but isn't it time to admit that the militarization of police has steadily made things worse?  Democrats don't have any monopoly on militarization.

When you can't see the difference between our civilian police force and soldiers in the National Guard, we've crossed a line that could be difficult to retrieve.  It won't get anything but worse without more transparency and vigorous debate.  Civil order is a delicate balance served neither by hooliganism or a police state. Only words can keep sticks and stones at bay.  Bring on 2016!

Tip Johnson

Political Junkie has new look

Wed, Apr 01, 2015, 8:43 am

A tip of our hat to Riley Sweeney for the new dynamic format at his Political Junkie website.  Check it out.  This morning, he posted up 4 new articles - a couple that are a bit tongue in cheek in honor of today's foolish day. 

We don't know if this look is only for today as a ripoff of Buzzfeed, or if it bodes for the future.  Regardless of format, Riley continues to center his articles around the personalities of local elected officials.  No one is safe, even those whose campaigns he has managed in the past.  And with his light touch, all enjoy being skewered a bit by Riley.  (well, all except possibly Doug Ericksen)

What is valuable about the Political Junkie is Riley's focus on the character and personalities of those in office and those campaigning for it.  He interviews, attends forums, talks to acquaintances and then provides us citizens the best profiles of the actual persons behind the political face of any blog or news media in the area.  

- John Servais

“Rob-bing” the Public, “Fix-ing” the Price

Tue, Mar 31, 2015, 12:59 pm

In two special meetings today at 1801 Roeder Ave, one starting at 3 p.m. and one at 6 p.m., people will have their last chance to comment on the ports proposed deal to give away our public waterfront to a shell corporation of foreign nationals.

Port Director Rob Fix said, “Dollars are a very important consideration ... but it’s certainly not the only factor here."  Indeed. It seems to have more to do with wool, partly of the Irish variety.

The Port will not be receiving a Deed of Trust, securing its land loan against the land in first position. This effectively enables Harcourt to use the Land as its downpayment to banks after which it will have only an unsecured obligation to repay the Port. 

The Port is "Rob-bing" the public by artificially "Fix-ing" the fair market value at less than 1/4 to 1/2 of what it really is and requiring only a token downpayment.  Future values over the estimated timeline inure to the developer.

The public is on the hook for at least $100 million with zero return on investment while development as proposed could devastate the existing downtown.

Harcourt will not have to pay legal costs for disputes even though they have a reputation for being litigious.

Someone other than Harcourt must be benefitting or this wouldn't be happening, but the public is only getting fleeced and the wool pulled over their eyes.

Tip Johnson

Bellingham’s Billion Dollar Boondoggle Begins?

Mon, Mar 30, 2015, 2:16 pm

19 Nov 2014: Harcourt’s last available accounts show it had €70 million in net assets at the end of 2012. The developer had debts of €800 million, a proportion of which was due to the National Asset Management Agency....

15 February 2015: "...this piece of group-restructuring gymnastics, achieved by banging ownership of its shares through several different entities in Ireland and the Isle of Man in a single day last week, has been coupled with a re-registering of Harcourt Developments in Dublin as an unlimited company. Harcourt can now have its accounting cake and eat it. As it is unlimited, it does not have to file detailed public accounts in the Companies Registration Office.  So its creditors, rivals and the pesky reprobates in the media will no longer be able to turn up anything about the financial performance of Harcourt"

17 February 2015: "The sudden move by Titanic Quarter Ltd comes after loans relating to the company were sold by Ulster Bank. They are now owned by Davidson Kempner, a US vulture fund with a reputation for cost-cutting."

The image above is from the Porrt of Bellingham, given the Bellingham Herald to depict the maximum contemplated development, for an article published April 27, 2013.

Billion Dollar Boondoggle
The Port's Foul Vapors
Little Hong Kong by the Bay
Steal This Waterfront
Trust Me!
Working Waterfront?
Good, Bad and Ugly
What We Don't Know?

More

Tip Johnson

Trillion Dollar Fraudsters

Sat, Mar 21, 2015, 2:54 pm

A must read Krugmann article eviscerates the Republican budget that proposes "… savage cuts in food stamps, similarly savage cuts in Medicaid over and above reversing the recent expansion, and an end to Obamacare’s health insurance subsidies. Rough estimates suggest that either plan would roughly double the number of Americans without health insurance. But both also claim more than a trillion dollars in further cuts to mandatory spending, which would almost surely have to come out of Medicare or Social Security."

He points out that "The modern G.O.P.’s raw fiscal dishonesty is something new in American politics" and warns that "We’re looking at an enormous, destructive con job, and you should be very, very angry."

On the heels of the recent mutiny of 47 members of Congress interfering with the administration's diplomatic relations with Israel, and now this budget clearly aimed at harming the poor, isn't it time to admit Republicans are crazy?

They are threatening to directly harm many citizens, and what they propose will most certainly harm many of them, too.  Isn't being a clear and imminent threat to yourself and others grounds for involuntary commitment?  Last I checked, mutiny still was.  Why are these dangerously insane people allowed to wander freely, posing such significant risks to themselves and others?

- Tip Johnson