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Aint No Big Deal's downhill skier Rob Whitney, right, gets a timing chip from cross country skier Holly Brooks during the annual Ski to Sea Race at Mount Baker Ski Area Sunday morning, May 29, 2011.

2013 Ski to Sea special section

Browse photo galleries, event coverage and more in our Ski to Sea section.

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Get the latest on Whatcom politics, education, business, crime, sports and more on our blogs.

Meridian High School's Old Main building comes down after 91 years

Meridian High students and former students watch an excavator demolish the 1922 Old Main building on the school campus Monday morning, May 20, 2013.

LAUREL - It was a bittersweet day Monday, May 20, as staff and current and former students of Meridian High School watched demolition start on the school's nearly 100-year-old Old Main building.

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Archive by category ''Local News

SKI TO SEA

Ski to Sea organizers keep an eye on Nooksack River, say rest of race course is good to go

If you want to know how the Nooksack River will be running for this year's Ski to Sea, wait until Saturday, May 25 - the day before the seven-leg relay race that covers about 93 miles from Mt. Baker Ski Area to Bellingham Bay.
LOCAL NEWS

Ferndale might reverse decision to put gas tax on ballot

FERNDALE - City voters might not be asked to approve a gas tax after all. A Ferndale City Council member who voted in favor of putting a penny-per-gallon tax on the November ballot might change his vote when the council revisits the decision at its next meeting, on Monday, June 3.
LOCAL NEWS

Work to begin soon on Wharf-Boulevard roundabout in Bellingham

BELLINGHAM - The City Council has approved Ram Construction Co.'s $1.14 million bid for construction of a roundabout at the snarl of asphalt where State, Forest and Wharf streets link up with the Boulevard.
LOCAL NEWS

PeaceHealth, UW Medicine to have 'strategic affiliation'

A "strategic affiliation" between PeaceHealth, which operates Bellingham's only hospital, and UW Medicine announced Monday, May 20, has raised some concerns about secular hospitals doing business with religious health-care systems.
LOCAL NEWS

Northern Whatcom County beaches closed to recreational shellfish harvesting

The state Department of Health has closed beaches in northern Whatcom County to recreational shellfish harvesting because of unsafe levels of the biotoxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning.
LOCAL NEWS

Bellingham council offers cut-rate lease to dance group for Parkade space

BELLINGHAM - On a 5-2 vote, City Council has approved giving a local dance group a below-market rental rate for lease of retail space inside the city's Parkade on Commercial Street.
LOCAL NEWS

Tax hike on garbage transfer stations to go to new Ferndale library

FERNDALE - The City Council raised the solid-waste utility tax from 12 to 12.5 percent on Monday, May 20, to help cover $1.05 million it has agreed to pay for construction of a new library west of City Hall. The tax hike takes effect in 2014.
WHATCOM BUSINESS

Whatcom's housing affordability index hits new high

Even as home prices are rising in Whatcom County, homes are still more affordable than they have been in years.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Tribal judge refuses to block disenrollment of 306 Nooksacks

DEMING - Nooksack Tribal Chief Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis has cleared the way for tribal officials to go ahead with plans to strip 306 people of their membership in the tribe, refusing to grant an injunction that would have blocked such a move.
CRIME

Bellingham woman gets nine years for role in local drug ring

A Bellingham woman who was involved in a drug ring that distributed methamphetamine and heroin throughout Whatcom County was sentenced to nine years in prison Tuesday, May 21, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.