I was hoping it was a Cristo art installation. But no, the plastic wrap around the Hylebos Bridge on the NE Tacoma side of the Tideflats is part of a bridge rehabilitation project that got under way this month.

The plastic keeps stuff that comes off during sandblasting from getting into the waterway. Once the first span (actually called a bascule leaf) is cleaned, the second span will get wrapped.

The bridge hasn't worked since 2001 and was left in the uplifted position to allow ships to use the channel. That, however, hasn't helped cars and trucks much.

Using $15 million from the federal government and the Port of Tacoma, the city has contracted with Quigg Bros. Construction to fix it. That will restore a second route out of the peninsula (in addition to Taylor Way, something that is not only convenient but necessary in an emergency.

The work will be finished by the end of 2011.

The hundreds of thousands of volunteer hours South Sounders invested in Tacoma's 2008 Tall Ships Festival paid off for the second time Saturday.

Mike McLeod of Tall Ships Tacoma's Board of Directors, accepted the award at the International Sail Training and Tall Ships Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Tacoma has taken part in the festival only twice, in 2005 and 2008. Both times it has won Port of the Year. This year, it outdid the cities of Victoria and Port Alberni in British Columbia and San Francisco, Oxnard, Los Angeles, San Diego and Dana Point in California. In 2005, it also bested Vancouver, B.C.

The Tall Ships Challenge cycles between the east and west coasts and the Great Lakes each three years.

Captains and crew members have the biggest say in who wins Port of the Year.

It matters to them that the city of Tacoma arranged to have their bilges pumped, that union electrical workers had safe power strung to their ships and that volunteers kept crowds controlled and docks secure. It matters to them that shoreside folks welcome them with warm smiles, shopping specials, and free internet service.

McLeod believes that Youth on Board, a program pioneered by Tall Ships and Metro Parks, impressed ASTA and the skippers. That program trained young people in seamanship and placed them on Tall Ships for the sail from Victoria to Tacoma. Later in the summer, half a dozen of those young people went to California to sail aboard USCG Barque Eagle.

"We were one of the few ports that really embraced the sail training opportunity," McLeod said. "I'm told that ASTA is using the program we developed as a model."

While Port of the Year is an honor, the volunteers' first payoff was a well-run festival that drew crowds of 400,000 to the Foss in July.

Organizers estimated that 2,000 volunteers invested tens of thousands of hours in the festival. They built docks, gathered sponsors, picked up trash, directed crowds, catered to crews, and after all the ships had sailed, they left the Thea Foss Waterway with about $1.5 to $2 million worth of improvements.

Tammy Fitting entered the courtroom promptly at 8:30 a.m. Before the immigration judge sat down, she looked around the windowless room inside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

There wasn’t much to see. It was a standard Monday master calendar hearing last month. Eighteen detainees filled half the seats. Across the aisle, the pews were bare – except for Colleen Waterhouse.

Waterhouse, the chairwoman of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tacoma and Pierce County, has sat in the same spot in the back corner most Mondays over the past three years. She listens, takes notes and fills out stacks of surveys for the National Lawyers Guild’s court watch program.

The forms ask dozens of questions to ensure the judge and Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer are providing due process: Has the judge inquired into the detainees’ mental health? Does the government lawyer provide legal advice? Does someone adequately explain the process to the detainees?

“We always try to make sure we have someone here,” she said. “We make sure to keep an eye on what’s going on.”

=> Read more!

A court battle over open records and the company that operates the Northwest Detention Center has been avoided.

The GEO Group, which has operated the 1,030-bed Northwest Detention Center since 2004, filed a petition in Pierce County Superior Court last week to block the release of several documents requested through public-disclosure laws.

Here’s what happened:

Tim Smith of the Bill of Rights Defense League filed the request to obtain tax records from The GEO Group. He said he filed the records to “better understand the operations of the facility and current efforts to expand its operations.” The detention center will expand by 545 beds. The $40 million project should be completed by September 2009.

=> Read more!

A major shakeup could be coming to the Puyallup Tribe of Indians’ government.

Tribal members have collected more than 700 signatures on a petition that could force a recall vote of two councilmen affiliated with a group critical of longtime leaders. If the signatures are certified, David Bean and James Miles could be voted off of the seven-person council.

It would be the first recall vote in 20 years, former councilwoman Sylvia Miller said. The tribal council oversees all business of the tribe, one of Pierce County's largest employers.

“They’ve divided our tribe,” she said, “and we want our tribe back.”

But Miles and Bean say the recall attempt is the tribe’s old guard trying to reclaim lost political power and challenge their critics to produce documents backing up allegations.

About 40 recall supporters met on the banks of the Puyallup River in Tacoma’s Tideflats to announce the success of the signature-gathering process. They needed 691 signatures and had 702 as of Saturday afternoon.

“They’re a cultural embarrassment,” tribal member Marian Smith said. “They’re not living the way we were raised to behave. That’s the worst part. They’re dishonoring our traditions and our culture. They’re arrogant.”

=> Read more!

Ten months after its abrupt closure, the city of Tacoma has a plan to renovate the iconic Murray Morgan Bridge.

But now comes the $80 million question: Who will pay for the renovations?

That’s the estimated price of renovating the bridge, which was closed to vehicles in October. The state legislature set aside $40 million in February for renovations to the bridge, but only under the guidelines that the city takes ownership of the bridge from the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Assuming such a large task had some council members hesitant during a study session Tuesday.

Still, many left optimistic that the city is moving closer to reopening the span over the Thea Foss Waterway that links downtown with the Tideflats.

“I think we have a plan for the first time,” Mayor Bill Baarsma said. “A tangible, specific plan of action.”

=> Read more!

Tacoma makes an appearance on CargonewsAsia.com.

It's got gems like this:

The port of Tacoma has been working for the past 30 years building a niche in the business of intermodal cargo.

Finally, intermodal cargo gets some love in the international press.

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project put out a press release opposing the expansion of the Northwest Detention Center, which I wrote about last week.

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) today expressed its opposition to the decision of the Department of Homeland Security to expand the capacity of the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. According to local news reports, the private contractor which runs the facility, the GEO Corporation, will be expanding the capacity of the detention center by 50% so that it can hold up to 1,500 individual at a time.

“The widespread detention of individuals because of civil violations of immigration law is one of the clearest examples of how our current immigration system is failing,” said Jorge L. Barón, NWIRP’s Executive Director. “Although many people in our community do not realize this, a significant proportion of the individuals detained at the Tacoma detention center have resided in the United States for many years and have either no criminal record or a record composed of only traffic offenses. Detaining these individuals while their cases are processed before the immigration court results in the needless separation of family members and makes it harder for people to obtain legal representation.”

Around 90 percent of the individuals who are detained at the Tacoma detention center are unable to obtain an attorney to represent them in their deportation (or “removal”) cases.

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project provides presentations to individuals detained at the Northwest Detention Center through its Legal Orientation Program (LOP). During these presentations, detainees have the opportunity to learn about immigration court procedures and avenues to pursue legal immigration status. Detainees also have the opportunity to meet with a legal advocate who can access the person’s options in their individual immigration case. NWIRP staff attorneys are also able to take on a limited number of cases for direct representation before the immigration court.

I've just written something for tomorrow's paper about the ending (for most) of the quarantine at the Northwest Detention Center on Tacoma's Tideflats.

Click below to read it:

=> Read more!

I talked to a spokeswoman at Immigration and Customs Enforcement about the Washington Post series on health care in detention centers. The only death at the 1,000-bed Northwest Detention Center on the Tideflats was listed as "questionable" by the Post.

My story (possibly for tomorrow’s paper) is below:

=> Read more!

The Washington Post is in the midst of publishing a four-part series about medical care in immigrant detention centers. (It was also the subject of a "60 Minutes" piece last night.)

The Post's research shows 83 deaths since the formation of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in March 2003. Thirty deaths the newspaper called questionable.

One of those questionable deaths occured at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.

The man was Jesus Cervantes-Corona, a 42-year-old man from Mexico. He died on Nov. 18, 2006. The New York Times reported he died of coronary artery disease. According to ICE documents obtained by the Post, the agency saved more than $105,000 by not treating 31 cases of chest pain.

There will be another anti-Northwest Detention Center protest this weekend. From Infoshop News:

This coming Saturday there will be a rally starting in People's Park at 12 PM in the Hilltop district of Tacoma. At 1 PM we will leave the park and head down the hill.

As it stands right now, no one even knows about the existence of the Northwest Detention Center. The families affected by the raids and those who support them are aware of its existence. But the general population does not know.

This blackout and secrecy has gone on for too long. Those of us with the privilege and ability to do something have done nothing. Those of us least affected by the raids have sat by for too long while the process of detention, removal and terror continues unabated.

Do not let this concentration camp remain a secret. Come to Tacoma on Saturday and help us bring the simple KNOWLEDGE of its existence to the public and show the city, ICE and the Department of Homeland Security that we will not stand for the Detention Center's presence any longer.

Remember, the path of the good German was easy to take. Time is running out. We will not end the raids tomorrow. But we will certainly not end them doing nothing.