November 5 - 11, 2020
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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
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The Blaine Library is now open by appointment, page 3
Special Veterans Day section, page 8
Election results for state and local races, page 10
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
WSDA finds two Election Day, at last Asian giant hornet queens in chopped tree By Grace McCarthy
(See Hornets, page 2)
s The ballot drop box at the Blaine Library saw a steady stream of cars in the afternoon on Election Day.
Photo by Ian Haupt
Alicia Rule ahead in close 42nd district race By Oliver Lazenby After initial election returns were posted on election night, Blaine councilwoman Alicia Rule, a Democrat, led incumbent Luanne Van Werven for the 42nd Legislative District Position 1 seat. She was up by 2,523 votes (51 percent to 48 percent), according to the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office. Van Werven has held the Position 1 seat since 2014. “I expected it was going to be really close. I actually expected it would be closer than this, but this was a tough race,” Rule said. “I’m looking forward to being able to serve the people of Whatcom County. I think people are really ready to move past partisanship and I think the vote reflected that.” Rule believes she could still serve on Blaine City Council and said she hasn’t
yet decided if she will. For the 42nd Legislative District Position 2 seat, incumbent Democrat Sharon Shewmake led Republican Jennifer Sefzik 52 percent to 48 s Alicia Rule percent. If both Shewmake and Rule are elected, it would be the first time since 1998 that both 42nd district House seats were won by Democrats. County-wide, 61 percent voted for Joe Biden and 36 percent voted for Donald Trump in the presidential race. Though that race was too close to call the morning after Election Day, the results to most lo-
cal races were a little clearer due to record early turnout and a large number of ballots being processed before Election Day. (See Election page 5)
Letters . . . . . . . . . 4 Health . . . . . . . . . 6 Classifieds . . . . . 11 Police . . . . . . . . . 14 Crossword . . . . . . 14 Tides . . . . . . . . . . 14
INSIDE
Four days following the eradication of the first Asian giant hornet nest on October 24, Washington State Department of Agriculture officials cut down the alder tree containing the nest and discovered two live queen hornets. The queens are thought to be either two virgin queens or one virgin queen and one old queen, said Karla Salp, WSDA public engagement specialist, in a video statement. The hornets mate and produce offspring at the end of October that will create their own colonies for next year. Scientists transported the tree cavity to a Washington State University lab in Puyallup on October 29. They kept the log wrapped in cellophane and placed it in a walk-in cooler to keep any potentially live hornets dormant, similar to how nearly freezing temperatures kept the hornets docile during the early morning eradication of the nest. Entomologists filled the log with carbon dioxide before splitting it in half. Once split, the log revealed live hornets, both workers and new queens, according to a WSDA blog post that detailed the nest removal and opening. They also found larvae and developing adults, along with the seemingly chewed radio tag used to locate the nest. More information will be available after WSDA finishes analyzing the nest this week, Salp said. “The entomologists are going to be examining and analyzing all of the contents that were inside the tree,” she said. “They will be weighing and measuring the adults that had emerged, they’ll be measuring the different size cells of the comb to determine, hopefully, how many queens had been produced in the nest, as well as counting how many queens we located in the nest and that may give us some sort of idea about whether some queens had already left the nest or not.” During eradication, the scientists vacuumed up 85 hornets and WSDA entomologist Chris Looney captured 13 the day before the eradication. The first Asian giant hornet nest was found in the U.S. October 22 after scientists tracked a hornet back to the east Blaine nest using new, long-range radio tags
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