Bellingham News

Bellingham Bay Fencing Association member Abby Barr, left, fences with Jason Lenz, right, on Thursday, June 5, 2014, in Bellingham, Wash.

Sheila Nickerson, a former poet laureate of Alaska, shares her newest book, "Harnessed to the Pole: Sledge Dogs in Service to American Explorers of the Arctic 1853-1909," at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 10, 2014 at Village Books.

In Western Washington, we like to say that summer doesn't start until after Independence Day.

"We are opening tomorrow at 4:20 p.m. We'll be open 'til midnight. We'll let our customers sleep in," said Aaron Nelson, senior vice president of operations for 2020 Solutions.

The sixth annual Sunnyland Stomp, including the second annual Chicken Race, will take place in Bellingham's Sunnyland neighborhood from 1 to 9 p.m. Saturday, July 12, 2014.

Bellingham's Nearly Stellar theater company presents Mark Landon Smith's "An Evening of Culture: Faith County II," continuing the saga of a community theater troupe trying to stage "Romeo and Juliet."

Kevin Nelson, of Bellingham, Wash., holds a sign that reads "Drug War Ends Here," outside Top Shelf Cannabis, Tuesday, July 8, 2014, in Bellingham, Wash.

My blog is about an alternative retirement lifestyle - Full-Time RVing. Here you get to follow my travels and see many of the interesting places and people I encounter along my way.

I take great pride in representing Bellingham in Congress. Not only is it the most beautiful district in the country, it is also where I was born and raised.

A customer who declined to give his name sniffs a strain of recreational marijuana at Top Shelf Cannabis on Tuesday in Bellingham, Wash., during the first half-hour of legal sales in the state.

David Perry Snelling discusses his new mystery, "Without a Clue" - about a former Norwegian policeman and his wife who survived the German occupation of Norway and subsequently move to Camano Island - at 7 p.m. Friday, July 11, 2014 at Village Books, 1200 11th St. in Bellingham.

Bellingham artist Melissa Bishop exhibits her paintings at Buethorn Watercolor Studio, 301 W. Holly St, from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, July 11, during the monthly Downtown Art Walk, showing through the end of August.

Commencement services for graduating Western Washington University students in Carver Gymnasium at Western Washington University on Saturday morning June 14, 2014, in Bellingham, Wash.

Logos Bible Software is adding about 24,000 square feet of office space in downtown Bellingham.

BELLINGHAM — Hundreds of customers were on hand - along with TV stations and a food truck - as Top Shelf Cannabis opened Tuesday, July 8, the first store in Bellingham to legally sell recreational marijuana.

The 29-year-old from Kansas, who's in Washington visiting family, showed up to Top Shelf Cannabis about 4 a.m. with his girlfriend, Sarah Gorton, making them the first in line to buy pot legally in a retail shop.

I'm back from a 16-day trip to Italy with some fond memories, a few souvenirs -- wine, olive oil and olive wood kitchen utensils -- and a limp.

At Cannabis City, where the owner wasn't planning to open his doors until noon Tuesday, a 65-year-old retiree named Deb Greene, showed up just before 3 p.m. Monday.

Legal pot shops in Washington don't officially open until tomorrow morning, but here in Bellingham, the good vibes are already flowing.

Bellingham could purchase a site for construction of a new central library building as early as next year if the mayor's office and City Council approve more than $5 million in funding for the library's 2015 capital budget.