Javi Berkman is a journalist known for stories with a sense of humor and humanity

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Featured in: The Stranger, Bellingham Alive, The Front, and The AS Review

 
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sick pay for the sickening

Betty Wetter was a month into planning the Queer Sick Pay Fund when she tested positive for COVID-19. She had to miss all her gigs for the end of Pride Month.

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bellingham’s tesoro escondido

When you walk into Mi Rancho, it feels like you’re stepping into a community marketplace where everyone knows each other. In a way, that’s exactly where you are. Make no mistake, the community that shops and eats here is close-knit, and if you go often enough, they’ll remember you, too.

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elevator outages trap students

Elevators in the VU have broken down 41 times since 2015, according to University Police logs, more than any other building on campus.

In just over three out of four of those instances, at least one person was trapped inside.

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singing in surgery

Kira Iaconetti, 20, has had a lot of performances in her life, but the most nerve-racking wasn’t for an audience at Benaroya Hall or for her fellow community members in Lynden.

Iaconetti’s scariest performance was for an audience of fewer than 10 people — all of them medical professionals there to remove her brain tumor.

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intergenerational roots

Jane Wong is someone with deep, widespread roots. They ground her in China in the rows of crops her ancestors planted for generations. They grow deep into the fertile New Jersey soil and dig into the wet earth of the Pacific Northwest.

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