February 9 - 15, 2023
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Community Newspaper of Blaine and Birch Bay HHHECRWSSHHH Postal Customer
IN THIS
ISSUE
Rule introduces bill on vehicle pursuits, page 2
Local auto broker settles $430,000 lawsuit, page 5
PRSRT STD U. S. Postage PAID Permit NO. 87 Blaine, WA 98230
Blaine real estate agent celebrates 99 years, page 8
Arts and Jazz fundraiser raises $16,000 Ferndale cop walks from underage sex solicitation charge Charge dropped due to insufficient evidence By Ian Haupt
(See Langton, page 3)
s Blaine High School alumnus Jake Wolfburg (‘02) surprised Dorita and Bob Gray, pictured, with an annual $5,000 scholarship in their name during the 26th annual Arts and Jazz fundraiser on February 4. Bob will retire this year after 42 years as band director; Dorita helped found the Blaine Fine Arts Association. The fundraiser raised about $16,000 that will go toward arts scholarships, trips, programs and supplies. Read more on page 7. Photo by Molly Ernst
Corps’ BP Cherry Point limit no limit at all, environmental groups say By Ian Haupt Environmental groups are unhappy with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ January 23 modification to its 1996 permit that limits the volume of crude oil BP can handle at its Cherry Point facility. They say the ceiling would allow the oil company to double its shipping capacity. The Corps will limit BP’s capacity to 191 million barrels per year. This limit will be enforced through requiring annual vessel call and crude oil volume reports. However, according to BP’s website, the Cherry Point terminal can process 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day, or slightly more than 91 million barrels per year.
Friends of the San Juans marine protection and policy director Lovel Pratt said in a joint February 1 press release that the decision is nonsensical. “The Corps’ ‘limit’ on the volume of crude oil that BP can receive at its terminal is nonsensical and unconscionable,” Pratt said. “This ‘limit’ is a license to more than double the volume of crude oil that’s currently processed at BP.” In 1996, the Corps approved a permit to add a north wing to the already operational south wing of the Cherry Point dock, originally built for ARCO in 1971. BP purchased ARCO in 2000, and construction on the north wing finished in (See Cherry Pt, page 3)
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A criminal case against a former Ferndale police officer accused of soliciting sex with the 12-year-old daughter of a woman he met while responding to a 911 call was dismissed February 6. Whatcom County deputy prosecuting attorney Kellen B. Kooistra filed a motion in Whatcom County Superior Court February 6 to dismiss the attempted second-degree child molestation case against Michael Scott Langton, 47, of Blaine. The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the case can be tried in the future. Whatcom County prosecuting attorney Eric Richey said the prosecutor’s office didn’t have enough evidence to proceed. Since Langton was charged with attempted child molestation, Richey said to convict him the prosecutor’s office would have to prove he made a substantial step, which requires an overt act, to commit the crime. Langton requested sex but those were mere words, Richey said, which are not enough to convict. “We thought this was the correct thing to do based on the evidence provided,” Richey said. In the motion to dismiss, Kooistra wrote that the prosecutor’s office had probable cause for the charge and sufficient evidence that Langton intended to commit a crime. What it lacked was sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he took a substantial step toward committing the crime as the law defines it. According to the affidavit of probable cause (APC), Langton responded to the woman’s home after a report of a collision in her apartment parking lot on July 10, 2022. Langton gathered her contact information as a witness. He returned to the woman’s apartment the next day, and the woman’s 12-year-old daughter answered the door. Langton called the woman and said he forgot the name of her apartment complex. On the following day, July 12, 2022, the woman called Langton to let him know a neighbor probably had video footage of
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