Here are the top local news stories that ran in The Bellingham Herald last week.
DOG SHOT BY BELLINGHAM POLICE OFFICER
A dog was in critical condition after being shot by a Bellingham police officer Wednesday, Jan. 11.
Two officers were returning to their patrol car in the 2500 block of Racine Street at about 3 p.m. Wednesday after a routine investigation, when a dog unrelated to the investigation ran toward them. As they approached their car, the dog lunged at one of the officers several times, according to police.
The officers reported that they yelled repeatedly at the dog, but it continued to approach, saying it "lunged, barked, snarled and showed its teeth."
One of the officers shot the dog in the face at close range. In his report, the officer said he had nowhere else to go and his stun gun wasn't an option in such close proximity, said police spokesman Mark Young.
A friend of the dog's owner, however, said the animal is a friendly dog and questioned whether the shooting was necessary.
TRIBES WANT CLEARER WATER RIGHTS
Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Indian Tribe are seeking federal court intervention to settle Nooksack River water rights issues that affect the city of Bellingham's water supply and the availability of irrigation water in parts of Whatcom County.
Six years of negotiations between the tribes and other water users have failed to reach full agreement.
Both tribes have sent letters to the U.S. Department of the Interior asking the federal agency to file a lawsuit against the state of Washington. The tribes want a federal judge to spell out the extent of their water rights.
The water supply for Bellingham is potentially affected. While the city draws its water from Lake Whatcom, the city replenishes the lake with water from the middle fork of the Nooksack River.
STATE: LAKE WHATCOM NEEDS BETTER PROTECTION
The Washington Growth Management Hearings Board has ruled that Whatcom County's land-use regulations in Lake Whatcom watershed don't do enough to protect the lake's water quality.
"The current report on Lake Whatcom water quality demonstrates that the existing regulations have not protected Lake Whatcom and that the problems are actual and proven, not speculative," the board's ruling states.
Among other things, the board ruled that county regulation changes approved in 2011 were inconsistent with the county's own comprehensive plan, which says the county should minimize development around the lake and should work with property owners to find "acceptable development solutions at lower overall densities than the present zoning allows."
Instead, the board determined that when the county amended rural development regulations in 2011, the new rules for a portion of the lake watershed would allow property owners to do more intense development and possibly increase polluting runoff into the lake.
ST. JOSEPH TO BUILD CANCER CENTER
By the end of the year, cancer treatments provided by the PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center should all be under one roof. Completion of a new, $23 million St. Joseph Cancer Center is expected by late November.
The typical routine for a cancer patient after surgery includes follow-up appointments with doctors, and radiation and chemotherapy treatments. Currently, those three after-surgery regimens happen at three different locations.
The 35,000-square-foot building will be behind the existing cancer center, just east of the PeaceHealth campus off of Squalicum Parkway, and will be built with expansion in mind.
BELLINGHAM BOY DIES IN ACCIDENTAL HANGING
The death of a 10-year-old boy hanged at his home in Sudden Valley was ruled an accident Thursday evening, Jan. 12.
Caleb Kors, a budding circus and street performer, died two days earlier at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle from brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen, according to the King County Medical Examiner's Office.
Kors, a fifth-grader at Geneva Elementary School, was known for his showmanship at Bellingham Farmers Market, where he often busked as a juggler. Under his stage name "Flip," he performed acrobatic tricks with Bellingham Circus Guild.
Members of the circus guild who worked with Kors said he had been making a costume the night he suffered the injury that killed him.
