Fear of ICE causes labor shortage for WA cherry growers
Cherry growers in Washington continue to struggle with a shortage of pickers.
They say fear and rumors of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are causing a labor shortage that's reaching a crisis point for some.
Rosa Hernandez is picking cherries at an orchard in Wenatchee. She was one of the few who made the journey from California to Washington to pick this year.
And Hernandez said even though she's a citizen, she was terrified on the drive.
" I would have to hold—to have to use the restroom just because I didn't want to stop at those stop areas, you know?" she said. "And I would see cop cars or any sheriffs, anything. And it just put that fear in me because it is scary. It's scary for anybody right now."
Hernandez said she knows a lot of pickers from California who stayed home this year.
She's picking for Carlos Torres, who said he has about half the workers he'd expect to.
Torres said that if he can't get his cherries harvested during the short window when they're ripe, it would put him in a tough spot, financially.
"Maybe next year we won't be able to get financing to farm," he told KUOW public radio. "It would practically cripple the company."
Growers and pickers say they haven't seen any ICE raids on Washington farms, but the specter of them is still keeping workers home.
State historian retires, underlines importance of civic duty
Washington’s state historian is retiring after 17 years of bringing state archives to life and nearly four decades exploring Grays Harbor for Aberdeen’s The Daily World.
He’s also warning his home state about the dangers of losing touch with history.
John Hughes has spent his life, first as a newspaper reporter, then as Washington’s chief historian, studying the people and politics that impact the state the most.
He’s combed state archives and profiled inspiring politicians who span the political spectrum.
These are the people, Hughes said, who can encourage faith in American values and systems, and he told TVW’s Inside Olympia program he’s very melancholy about these days.
"My daughters are talking me off a ledge every day when I see what's happening to American democracy," Hughes said.
He’s particularly disheartened by the shuttering of the Washington State Library and the Washington Talking Book and Braille Library.
But he hopes the work he has left behind—nearly 20 books in all—will inspire Washingtonians to uphold the same virtues its best leaders have held in the past.
"I want my legacy to be a celebration of civic duty and storytelling and how important it is to respect cultural norms, how important it is to maintain our respect for cultural institutions even as times change and even as the world evolves," Hughes said. "I believe these are perilous times for American democracy. These books and these oral histories are a testimony to integrity and democratic values."
Hughes’ latest book is called New Land, chronicling Washington’s resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees after the Vietnam War.
Upthegrove commemorates CDA shootings, wildland firefighting
State and local officials in the northwest continue to honor the firefighters shot and killed in an ambush Sunday in Coeur d’Alene.
Washington Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove addressed the loss during an event to honor National Wildland Firefighting Day in Ellensburg Wednesday.
"Firefighters are a family. And when one agency suffers a painful loss like this, it's felt by firefighters around the country," he said. "And I know this was felt by our firefighters here locally."
Department of Natural Resources Wildfire Division Manager Russ Lane said the DNR will use the shootings as an opportunity to make sure something like it never happens again.
"The events of June 30th will become part of that learning culture," he said. "We'll honor the fallen by learning from that tragedy and use those lessons to prevent future tragedies."
Along with the victims of the Canfield Mountain shooting, Upthegrove recognized the nine Washington firefighters who died in the last year.
Wildland Firefighting Remembrance Week started June 30 and continues through July 6.
One month on, the search for Travis Decker continues
It’s been about a month since the Decker sisters were found dead near Leavenworth.] Authorities continue to search for the girls’ father, Travis Decker, who is wanted in connection with their killings.
The National Park Service is sending out a swift water search team to look for Travis Decker, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison said. They’re working from the crime scene down to the Columbia River.
"So we continue to do follow-up on areas that we have not fully checked, the river is starting to slow down," Morrison said. "So it’s giving us a little better access there and we just want to just double check on some of the areas we had searched in before, just to make sure we didn't miss anything."
The Washington State Patrol Crime Lab matched Travis Decker’s DNA to the scene where his daughters—Olivia, Paityn and Evelyn Decker—were found dead.
With this evidence, the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office says they do not have reason to believe there are other suspects linked to the killings.
Morrison asks people to continue to stay alert. He said the sheriff's office has no confirmation that Decker is dead.
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Reporting by Monica Nickelsburg, Eliza Billingham, Owen Henderson and Reneé Dìaz.