Word: bellingham
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Somebody put a dead rat in Curtis Smith's mailbox. Someone else has made anonymous phone calls accusing him of trying to poison his neighbors. And all around the usually placid university town of Bellingham, Wash., activists from a group called Citizens Against Forced Fluoride have planted lawn signs adorned with skull and crossbones. "I had no idea it would get this intense," says Smith, 70, a retired dentist who is leading a Nov. 8 ballot initiative to add fluoride to the local drinking water. "These are very angry people...
...this makes for a potent mix, especially when filtered through the Internet, where health-safety concerns tend to get amplified. Much of the opposition to the fluoridation initiative in Bellingham comes from people like Lane Weaver, a fire-alarm technician, and his wife Danelle, a housewife and mother of two. When they first heard about the issue this summer, the Weavers Googled the word fluoridation. Nine of the first 10 items that came up were decidedly antifluoride. "I was horrified," says Danelle. "Why would I want to put a toxic industrial chemical in my children's bodies?" She joined Citizens...
...averaged only 1.4 fewer cavities than those in non-fluoridated areas. And even in fluoridated cities, severe decay remains rampant among the poor--partly because some 85% of dentists, according to state surveys, reject Medicaid patients. Still, for those with little dental care, water fluoridation makes a difference, contends Bellingham's Curtis Smith. "Twenty percent of our kids account for 80% of the cavities," he says. "With fluoride in the water, they would get a blast every time they drink...
Instead of giving up or just getting a new dog, Wilson joined the growing ranks of animal lovers who are filing lawsuits over their pets. After consulting Adam Karp, a lawyer in Bellingham, Wash., who says he has handled about 100 animal-related cases in the past four years, Wilson filed suit in late October. She has already won at least a temporary victory. Last month a superior court judge ordered the exchanges to resume immediately, pending a final ruling. (Templeton declined to comment on the case.) About seeing Marley for the first time in three months, Wilson says...
Expelled from school and charged with possessing marijuana with intent to deliver, the girl has a hearing scheduled for Aug. 23 in Bellingham, Wash. Deputy prosecutor Thomas Verge has said he will probably ask for an exceptionally long sentence that would put the teen behind bars until her 21st birthday. The controversy has upset the community. "She was a wonderful young girl," says her principal, Dan Newell. "I wouldn't have ever thought that if anyone was going to haul marijuana across the border, it would be this lady...