In the early 1970s, Joel Connelly had recently earned a graduate degree from the University of Washington and was sure he would stay there for doctoral studies. Then one summer, he took a replacement job as a reporter at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, one of the city’s two daily newspapers.
He quickly realized he could do things as a reporter that he never could as a college professor.
Connelly got a tip that Larrabee State Park in his hometown of Bellingham was likely to be in a land exchange with the Department of Natural Resources, which, he was told, would log the bejesus out of it. Connelly reported it, and Bellingham residents were outraged. Within 48 hours, the deal was axed — and the area that would have been cleared remains untouched today…