River Martinez (he/him) is a city news reporter for The Front this quarter. He is a first-year visual journalism and political science major. River spends his time doing model United Nations, climbing and tinkering on his film camera. You can reach him at marti722@wwu.edu.
The Lummi Nation has filed a preliminary injunction to cease all construction operations at Point Roberts during an ongoing lawsuit against Whidbey Telecom, Whatcom County, the United States Department of Agriculture and the United States Department of Commerce.
Whatcom County Councilmember Jon Scanlon spent almost 12 hours listening and engaging with constituents in Whatcom County on May 13, 2026. The county council is the main legislative body for Whatcom and is made up of seven members, including two at-large positions. Jon Scanlon has been an at-large representative for Whatcom County since January 2024. The Front followed Scanlon for a day on May 13.
Bellingham International Airport will close for 30 days in the summer of 2027 as construction crews repair many parts of the airport, primarily the single runway. The Port of Bellingham issued the closures set to be from July 20 through August 19, 2027.
Western Washington University is among 9,000 schools in a nationwide Canvas cyberattack, rendering the website nonfunctional as of May 7, 2026.
All lanes of northbound Interstate 5 opened after nearly a month-long closure from March 19 to April 15 due to a large-scale landslide blocking a four-mile stretch of the highway. The shutdown, between mileposts 248 and 249, comes after two other road closures in Whatcom County — one in February for Mount Baker Highway due to atmospheric rivers, and one in April 2025 for Chuckanut Drive due to landslides.
The case of approximately 25 skinned canine carcasses that recently washed ashore on Guemes Island in Skagit County last week has been uncovered. According to the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office, a veterinary forensics team concluded the dead canines were foxes.
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