Journal of the San Juans, May 27, 2015

Page 1

Sports

Arch rival eliminated; Wolverines advance, bound for State PAGE 16

Scene

Club ahoy! Where kindred spirits share more than jibs, anchors, sails PAGE 9

Guest Column

Escalating utility bills got you down? Find out how to crunch those kilowatts down to size; Part II PAGE 7

Journal

The 75¢ Wednesday, May 27, 2015 Vol. 108 Issue 21

Roles evolve in fight vs. DV

Charges change in court By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor

Program seeks men to ‘Stand Up’ to help end violence at home By Colleen Smith Armstrong Islands’ group publisher

Local men are taking a public stand in opposition to violence against women. Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Services of the San Juans has been holding a fundraising campaign to get 100 “stand up” men to donate $100 in tribute to a woman in their life. “This is a way for men to get involved but also be recognized for it,” said DVSAS Community Advocate Alison Sanders. “Men have been honoring daughters, mothers, partners. It’s been really sweet.” Donors have until the end of May to make donations at www.dvsassanjuans.org. The campaign has not yet reached 100 men. Donors and the woman they are honoring will have their name published in the paper and on the DVSAS website and will receive a handmade card. The contribution will go towards safety planning tools and counseling services for victims and prevention outreach in the schools. “The campaign was our director Kim Bryan’s idea. We always wanted to do it around Mother’s Day,” said Sanders. “With the start of the men’s action group on San Juan Island, it seemed like there See DV, Page 3

Contributed photo / Burke Museum

At right, Dr. Christian Sidor, Burke Museum curator of vertebrate paleontology, and Brandon Peecook, U of W graduate student, show the size and placement of the fossil fragment compared to the cast of a Daspletosaurus femur.

A ‘first’ unearthed on Sucia

A San Juan Island man who initially faced a charge of felony assault will serve two years on probation and the likelihood of no time in jail after pleading guilty to a lesser offense. On May 4, Eric Michael King pleaded guilty in San Juan County Superior Court to one count of third-degree attempted assault, a gross misdemeanor. He had initially been arraigned in late February on a charge of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon following an altercation with another man in which he allegedly brandished a knife. He pleaded not guilty to the felony offense at that time. Under the sentence handed See COURT, Page 3 PG. 2 PG. 3 PG. 5-12

State’s first-ever dinosaur bone found on Sucia Island’s Fossil Bay By Scott Rasmussen Journal editor

The discovery of human remains is not an uncommon occurrence in the San Juan Islands. But dinosaur bones? Well, as it turns out, the San Juans very own Sucia Island is home to the first-ever discovery of a dinosaur fossil in Washington state. Not just any dinosaur, mind you, but one from the family of carnivorous, ferocious creatures known as theropods, which includes Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds as well. “The fossil record of the west coast is very spotty when compared to the rich record of the interior of North America,” said University of Washington biology grad student Brandon Peecook, who assisted the Seattle Burke Museum’s

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Dr. Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrate paleontology, in identifying the fossil. “This specimen, though fragmentary, gives us insight into what the west coast was like 80 million years ago, plus it gets Washington into the dinosaur club.” Washington is now the 37th state where dinosaurs have been found. Sidor and Peecook’s description of the fossil was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE. It will be on display in the lobby of the Burke Museum beginning Thursday, May 21. The story of the fossil’s discovery gets even better. Dino silhouetteIt was first sighted in mid-May 2012 near the shore of one of a number of Sucia Island marine state parks by a Burke Museum research team, which was collecting ammonite fossils (a creature with a spiral shell) from a marine rock unit known as the Cedar District Formation at the time. And not just any park, but near one of the campsites by—get this—Sucia Island’s Fossil Bay. See SUCIA, Page 4

Winner of six 1st place awards in Washington Newspaper Publishers Association 2014 BNC, 17 in all

Sales deadline

2015 Parks & Trails guide publishes the week of July 1st in the Journal, Sounder & Weekly. Sales Deadline: Tuesday, June 16, 2015. For more information call the Journal 378-5696. A suppleme

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