The Bellingham Herald
Editorial Forum
Questions for the editor
1155 N. State St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
360-715-2261
Bellingham Herald Executive Editor Julie Shirley will answer your questions about the newspaper and its policies.
Most Recently Answered Questions
Questions 1 - 10 of 28 (Page 1 of 3)
Submitted by Sylvia Nightingale from Bellingham
Q: what has happened to the blogs? Everyone on vacation?
A: Education reporter Kira Cox left last week and new education reporter Kie Relyea is still getting up to speed on the beat, but she'll be blogging soon. Others should be about the same, although news does slow a bit during the holidays as newsmakers go on holiday or are focused elsewhere.
Answered 12/01/11 14:16:23 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by John Bremer from Bellingham
Q: The Herald has presented "both sides" of the toxic coal terminal proposal. Why has your information not exposed the dangers of mercury pollution from coal burning? The attached factual information about coal generated mercury in the fish in our stores is horrifying, and it should be your responsibility to communicate this information to Bellingham parents whose children are being poisoned and would be poisoned more severely if they continued to eat mercury-laden fish when millions of tons of toxic coal were being sent to Asia over our land.
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201111/mercury.aspx
A: There are lots of resources for national stories on coal burning dangers. With limited resources, we focus our efforts on local stories others aren't reporting.
Answered 10/11/11 19:09:17 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by Michael Short from Bellingham
Q: Why haven't I seen any reporting in the McClatchy owned B-herald about the (peaceful) protesters on Wall street which has been in progress for over two weeks?
http://front.moveon.org/the-biggest-thing-happening-right-now-that-your-local-news-probably-isnt-telling-you/#.TnZH7eg_FAN.facebook
A: You must have missed our story on the local protest in Saturday's newspaper, which also included a national story. http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/10/07/2218881/protesters-block-downtown-streets.html#storylink=misearch
Answered 10/11/11 19:07:42 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by Tori from Ferndale
Q: Is the Herald going to do any stories on outstanding teachers as the school year wraps up. My little girl has the best Kindergarten teacher and I am wondering how to give her recognition? Thanks
A: We'd like to hear more. If we can't do a story, it would make a fabulous RAVE for our Monday "rants and raves" section. If you want to write something of 200 words or less, please send it to Letters@bellinghamherald.com.
Answered 05/06/11 16:18:32 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by Maria Lightner from Bellingham, WA
Q: I was wondering what happened to Mike Lukovich's cartoons on the website; I really miss them.
A: There was very little traffic to the cartoons, so we've stopped posting them. You can Google and find them elsewhere online. And, we continue to print them in the newspaper.
Answered 04/22/11 17:16:32 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by toadie from bellingtown
Q: In my browser,
the commented index is blank but the popular index isn't.
Any ideas?
A: Hmmmm. It's showing in my Firefox. But there are some technical difficulties with the ordering of the stories in the widgets. You may have caught a time when a tech was doing something to them. They are working to get them back to the way they were.
Answered 09/03/10 11:32:39 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by toadie from bellingtown
Q: You need to reinstate the 'commented' index on your main page.
Without it, one cannot revisit any discussion they haven't already participated in.
The 'popular' story index column is worthless and as long as trivial stories push important ones off the page,
it's a necessity.
A: Not sure what you're asking. Both the "most commented" and "most popular" story widgets are still on the right side of the home page.
Answered 09/03/10 09:41:10 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by Tim from Bellingham, WA
Q: Will the Herald be doing any more endorsements before the primary on August 17th?
A: Yes, and the final endorsements should be out this weekend.
Answered 07/26/10 13:14:12 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by Francene Holquinn from Bellingham, WA
Q: I love doing puzzles, but imagine my disappointment when I discovered the wrong word list given for the word search puzzle in this weeks Shopper's Edge. Someone did a boo boo.
A: The word list was in error this week and we apologize. We're recently added puzzles to Shopper's Edge and will put new policies in place to avoid this in the future.
Here's the correct list:
Agent
Aid
Airport
Am
Any
Arc
At
Be
Bravely
Choir
Dad
Did
Die
Do
Duck
Dull
Ear
Environment
Era
Far
Fast
Fled
Gay
Go
Grin
Had
Hers
Hi
Host
Ideals
If
Is
It
Lady
Land
Lap
Last
Leg
Let
Lighted
Liking
Lip
Loser
Lot
Map
Mess
Moths
Mrs
My
Nap
Not
Odd
Of
Old
Ore
Pad
Pen
Photo
Phrase
Pure
Read
Rid
Rob
Rod
Rule
Sad
Salt
Sands
Sea
See
Shark
She
Sun
Tag
Tan
Tar
Tell
Toe
Tow
Trip
Trout
Trumpet
Try
Type
Uncle
Up
Urge
Us
Van
Vet
Vivid
Wasn't
We
Why
Wrap
Yell
Yet
Answered 07/19/10 15:21:21 by Julie Shirley
Submitted by Marina Dugan from Bellingham
Q: I noticed that you've added "Muslim Life in Whatcom County" in your "Ask the Newsmaker" section. Will you also be adding experts on the Orthodox Christian and Roman Catholic faiths? How about the various Protestant denominations or Jewish faith? The Herald has many readers of many faiths in Whatcom County, Islam being only one of them. Thank you.
A: We've had the Muslim Life Q&A for more than a year, since we wrote a story about a local family that published a book promoting understanding of their faith. They were kind enough to open themselves up to our readers to explain a faith that few know much about in this time when it's critical to understanding of U.S. international affairs. We have no plans to feature other faiths at this time.
Answered 06/28/10 13:07:16 by Julie Shirley