4th Photos and Trash Tenders

Here are a selection of photos I particularly liked from my take at the Blaine, Wash., 4th of July parade. All but the last ran only online and not in the print edition. I’ll spare you the red, white, and blue caption information. I think you get the idea. 

And lastly, I covered a story recently regarding a little spit of land that we can hardly call America - Point Roberts. Much like Alaska, you cannot get to it except by boat or through Canada. Unlike Alaska, most of the people living there seem to be Canadians. However, this trash story really stirred up some controversy about encroaching socialism on the reader blogs. I don’t get it either. 

Point Roberts Transfer Station employee Jonathon Short picks up bits of trash near a row of discarded appliances on Thursday, July 3. Owner Arthur Wilkowski, who has managed the dump for nine years, feels his business is insolvent due to a lack of enforcement of a county garbage policy. “I’ve done my job serving the community, building [the dump] site,” he said, “but [the city council] literally just doesn’t care.”