Intro Haiku:
The Friday Forecast
A review of Watchdog news
How will the winds blow?
Article includes the ChatGPT synopsis of the CCWD article segments we discussed. Full forecast discussion is available in the automated transcript of the podcast and can be accessed by clicking the ‘transcript’ button under the podcast window at the top of the article.
Google AI: A forecast is a calculated prediction of future conditions, events, or trends based on the analysis of historical data, current trends, and, sometimes, expert judgment.
Forecast discussion inspired by the Clallam County Watchdog article from Monday, February 2, 2026: Hold Onto the Base So You Don’t Lose It!
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SEGMENT 1 — What “Compassion” Looks Like Now (Title: You Paid for This)
READ ALOUD: This story argues that Clallam County leaders have redefined compassion in a way many residents don’t recognize anymore.
The county approved funding for drug-use harm-reduction kits — including materials explaining rectal drug use — at a cost of roughly one hundred thousand dollars.
Officials frame this as public health. Critics see it as taxpayer-funded enabling.
The key issue isn’t whether harm reduction exists — it’s whether the county has any clear boundary between reducing harm and normalizing dangerous behavior.
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
SEGMENT 2 — Rules Used to Matter… Until They Didn’t (Title: No Papers Required, Except When They Were Required)
READ ALOUD: The article highlights a sharp contrast in enforcement.
During COVID, residents were required to show vaccine proof to eat indoors.
Today, many basic rules — from public safety concerns to encampment impacts — are treated as optional or unenforceable.
The author’s argument is simple: rules are enforced when it’s easy and ignored when it’s uncomfortable.
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
SEGMENT 3 — Public Safety Complaints That Go Nowhere (Title: Just Tell Your Son to Walk Another Way)
READ ALOUD: One example in the article describes residents raising concerns about an unstable individual repeatedly blocking sidewalks near a school route.
Law enforcement declined to intervene, saying the sidewalk wasn’t technically blocked.
The concern wasn’t politics — it was safety.
The response communicated that unless a problem fits neatly into a checkbox, it may be ignored.
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
SEGMENT 4 — Environmental Priorities vs. Human Reality (Title: Tumwater Creek, Boots on the Ground)
READ ALOUD: The article also points out a contradiction in environmental policy.
Grants and planning documents focus on ecosystems and forestry while ignoring human waste, trash, and encampments that are actively damaging those same environments.
In other words, officials talk about protecting nature while ignoring what’s actually happening on the ground.
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
SEGMENT 5 — How “Local” Is Your Local Paper?
READ ALOUD: Out of 19 stories in a recent local newspaper edition, only three were actually local:
• A rodeo arena upgrade
• Jefferson County’s homeless count
• A local teen running for senate
The other 16 stories covered issues like federal government actions, national politics, foreign events, and economics — not decision-making that affects life here in Clallam County.
That means only about 15.8% of the “local” paper’s coverage was truly local — in a county dealing with rising taxes, growing encampments, and active government decisions.
There was plenty of international intrigue, and very little accountability close to home.
“The press is no longer a watchman; it is often a participant.” — Walter Lippmann.
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
SEGMENT 6 — Sign Permits Matter — But Camps Don’t
READ ALOUD: The City of Sequim recently reminded residents why sign permits are essential — for aesthetics, safety, and community character.
Right after that reminder, the article highlighted a growing homeless encampment that is unpermitted, unmanaged, and environmentally destructive — and has received no enforcement, citations, or urgency from city leadership.
If sign permits matter for community character, why do unpermitted encampments seem to go without consequence?
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
SEGMENT 7 — From County Payroll to Drug-Use Advocacy
READ ALOUD: A local professional, once a Clallam County harm-reduction specialist, is now Director of Operations for a nonprofit that openly supports people who use drugs “however they envision and define their lives” — explicitly rejecting deterrence or criticism.
According to the article, this nonprofit model now mirrors the county’s adopted approach to harm reduction.
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
SEGMENT 8 — “Everything Was Healthy Back Then”
READ ALOUD: The Jamestown Corporation’s CEO stated that rivers were healthy 50 years ago — water was abundant and sea levels stable.
Local readers pointed out contradictions:
• If rivers were healthy then, why remove protective infrastructure like the Towne Road dike?
• Why spend taxpayer money on restoration if nothing was damaged?
When you include clear-cutting, wetland development, commercial fishing expansion, and other impacts, the rhetoric doesn’t square with local experience.
PAUSE — DISCUSS YOUR FORECASTS
Thank you for listening, laughing & sharing!
Strait Shooter:
Add a shot of satire to your coffee with the Strait Shooter Friday edition, out today at 6:06am. Learn about the newest ‘I’m Helping’ initiative that’s sweeping the county, the non-local local weather, the challenge for kids learning guitar in Sequim, and questionable blatant transparency from a Port Angeles City Councilman. It’s too funny to be true, and yet it is the truth, kind of.
Get Your Emails to Elected Officials Published in Clallam County Letters:
Next issue will be published Monday, February 9, 2026.
Clallam County Letters accepts emails to county, city, state, and federal government officials.
Clallam County commissioners can be redressed by the people via email:
Mark Ozias: Mark.Ozias@clallamcountywa.gov
Randy Johnson: Randy.Johnson@clallamcountywa.gov
Mike French: Mike.French@clallamcountywa.gov
Loni Gores, Clerk: Loni.Gores@clallamcountywa.gov
Find all other Clallam County officials, offices, and employees in the staff directory.
To have your letter published in Clallam County Letters, please include clallamityjen@gmail.com in the CC or BCC fields.
