Top Stories: Downtown vacancies; invasive newts; grafitti rock shattered

The Bellingham Herald covered a range of major developments last week, from local government challenges to public safety incidents. Here’s a digest of the top stories you may have missed.

Here are key takeaways:

• About 10% of first-floor properties in downtown Bellingham’s city center are vacant, with rates climbing to 14% in the pedestrian core, prompting the City Council to consider financial incentives and penalties to address empty storefronts.
• Whatcom County Executive Satpal Sidhu warned employees of possible layoffs and schedule adjustments for the 2027-28 budget cycle, citing a structural imbalance between rising labor costs and stagnant revenues.
• English ivy is now illegal to buy, sell or transport in Washington after the state Department of Agriculture added the invasive plant to its quarantine list in August 2025, citing its harm to native species and trees.
• Michael Steven Daniels Jr., 48, was arrested early Friday after fatally shooting a Ferndale man on Ferndale Terrace and is being held without bail at Whatcom County Jail on charges of second-degree murder, fourth-degree assault and second-degree burglary.
• State wildlife officials seized 16 invasive newts carrying a contagious pathogen from an Everson man, tracing the amphibians to a Boston dealer who illegally sold animals exposed to a potentially deadly disease to breeders nationwide.
• The Washington State Department of Transportation broke Bellingham’s iconic 100-ton I-5 boulder into about 100 pieces rather than relocating the nearly 60-year-old community message board, which stood in the way of a $160 million salmon stream project.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.