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Peninsula Daily News July 31, 2011
Port Townsend-Jefferson County’s Daily Newspaper
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‘Black hole’ for Border Patrol? Whistleblower in D.C. alleges Peninsula waste By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — A U.S. Border Patrol officer said the Port Angeles station is a “black hole” where agents have “no purpose, no mission,” yet are told to work overtime to simply justify its
expanding budget. Port Angeles-based Agent Christian Sanchez told the Advisory Committee on Transparency on Friday in Washington, D.C., that agents who cover the North Olympic Peninsula are ordered to work at least 10-hour shifts even
when there’s no work to do and that he has faced retaliation for speaking out against this practice. The government watchdog group is run by the Sunlight Foundation and advises the Congressional Transparency caucus. Additionally, Sanchez said, the agents — now numbering 40 — have little relevant work to perform and sometimes pass time by simply driving around the Olympic Peninsula, what agents call the “Baja 500.” “During our work shifts, other
agents and I always talked about how coming to work was like the black hole, swallowing us up slowly, with no purpose, no mission,” he said, according to the statement the agent read to the group. In response to a request for comment, Border Patrol spokesman Richard Sinks said: “U.S. Customs and Border Patrol does not comment on specific cases. We take all allegations of wrongdoing seriously and fully cooperate with investigating authorities.” Sinks declined to comment further.
The Border Patrol’s presence on the Peninsula has expanded dramatically since 2006, when it had four agents based in Port Angeles. The agency is building a new $5.7 million station at 110 Penn St. that can house up to 50 agents. It’s expected to be complete by April. The Government Accountability Project, another watchdog group, provided the Peninsula Daily News with a copy of Sanchez’s statement. Turn
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The disappearing lakes: Aldwell and Mills
A river runs through it
Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
The Elwha River carves through newly exposed delta at the south end of Lake Aldwell. Floodgates on the soon-to-be dismantled Elwha Dam are fully open.
Once and future Elwha River returns
‘Celebrate Elwha!’
By Rob Ollikainen
By Diane Urbani
The river is cutting a ALSO . . . channel through the Peninsula Daily News ■ More southern end of both resphotos of OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Seven ervoirs as it pushes sedithe changing weeks before the ceremonial start of the ment along, which is Elwha razing of the Elwha River dams, the hisexactly what the River/C1 toric river channel is already taking shape. National Park Service Lake Aldwell and Lake Mills — formed was going for in this when the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams stage of the landmark $325 million were built in the early 20th century — have salmon restoration project. been lowered to their spillways, about a dozen “The flow is more pronounced than it was before,” Olympic National Park feet below their fixed surface elevations.
spokesman Dave Reynolds said. “On the south end of the [Lake Aldwell] reservoir, you can see the river flowing to and through the lake, whereas that was once static. “It’s pretty striking.” Power generation ceased at both dams June 1. The lakes were lowered to their spillways — 18 feet in the case of Lake Aldwell — as Mother Nature took over the flow. Turn
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The long-anticipated tear-down of the Elwha River dams, aimed at restoring the river to its free-flowing incarnation, is cause for “Celebrate Elwha!,” a cluster of mid-September events ranging from a science symposium to sunset cruises and concerts. Turn
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Judge Verser diagnosed with pancreatic cancer By Charlie Bermant Peninsula Daily News
PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, his assistant said Friday. Court Administrator Michelle Moore said Verser
told her doctors said the cancer was between stage one and stage two. Stage four is the most severe. “They caught it early, so there is a good chance that it can be treated,” Moore said. “I talked to him earlier today, and he sounded great.”
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home in Port Townsend, Moore said. “He is a candidate for surgery, but it isn’t yet decided who [will do that] and where that will take place,” she said. Surgery would take approximately eight hours followed by a week of hospitalization as well as chemo-
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therapy and radiation treatment, Moore said. She said Verser met with his oncologist Friday to review his PET scan from Thursday. “He and Joyce have just reported in that the results of the PET scan are as well as could be,” Moore said. Turn
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Verser
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Verser, 62, was discharged Friday from the University of Washington Northwest Hospital and Medical Center in Seattle, where he had been hospitalized since July 22. He and his wife, Joyce, who were married in a small courtroom ceremony in February, planned to return to their
95th year, 179th issue — 8 sections, 78 pages
Business/Politics D1 Classified E1 Clubs/Organizations C2 Commentary/Letters A10 Couples *PW Dear Abby C4 Deaths C7 Movies C4 Nation/World A3 * Peninsula Woman
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