The summer movie blockbuster season kicked off May 27 with the release of a long-delayed sequel to the 1980s hit "Top Gun." And Pacific Northwest moviegoers may recognize some familiar mountain scenery in the background.Read More
A scheme to entertain a 4-year-old youngster in Spokane by playing a jazz album nearly three decades ago produced a cascade of aftereffects that culminated on stage in Olympia, Washington, this month with crescendos of horns and multiple standing ovations. During the debut of a 16-piece, all-Indigenous big band, the performers on stage hearkened even further back in Read More
An Australian company is eying property next to the soon-to-close coal power plant in Centralia, Washington, to build a big hydrogen fuel production facility. Fortescue Future Industries went public with its plans during a hydrogen symposium hosted by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County on Thursday.Read More
The U.S. Forest Service has okayed a plan to develop what would be the first overnight tourist facilities within the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, including camping, cabins and a lodge.Read More
Close to 200 federal, state and tribal emergency preparedness planners gathered around a giant map of the Pacific Northwest this week to rehearse and critique the federal response plan for "The Big One." The three-day Cascadia earthquake discussion exercise partially replaced a much bigger planned dress rehearsal that was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.Read More
San Francisco Bay area company Sila Nanotechnologies purchased a vacant factory in Moses Lake, Washington, and announced plans Tuesday to open a big operation there to produce advanced battery materials to power electric cars.Read More
Private electric utilities in the Pacific Northwest are planning tens of millions of dollars in upgrades to reduce the risk that their power lines could spark wildfires during extreme weather. Utilities such as Pacific Power, Avista, Idaho Power, Portland General Electric and Puget Sound Energy are either required to or are voluntarily submitting wildfire mitigation plans. Read More
Alcohol and blood donation don't seem at first glance to go together. But that pairing is one of several creative strategies deployed by major Pacific Northwest blood centers to drum up more donors this spring.Read More
People with an interest in geography or Pacific Northwest history are coming up with replacement names for dozens of places around the region that currently have a name considered derogatory. The U.S. Secretary of the Interior launched the search for new names by ordering a specific racial slur stricken off the map nationwide as expeditiously as possible.Read More
The Columbia River has long divided the two halves of Washington's cross-state Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. Now, a rebuilt rail trestle over the river south of Vantage connects the two sides making it easier for cyclists, horse riders and hikers to undertake a spectacular east-west journey.Read More
Democratic-led states on the West Coast are setting ambitious timelines to phase out sales of gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. The Washington Legislature just approved a goal that all new cars sold in the state beginning with model year 2030 be electric. Oregon and California have 2035 as their target. Some of these dates are aspirational, but one has teeth.Read More
Pickleball, invented in 1965 in Washington State, is now the state’s official sport / Tom Banse – Northwest News Network Listen Tom Banse reports on pickle ball being named the […]Read More
Pickleball, invented in 1965 in Washington State, will become the state’s official sport. / Tom Banse – Northwest News Network Listen Tom Banse reports on the popularity of Pickleball and […]Read More
U.S. Senate votes to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. CREDIT: HENRIQUE SIMPLICIO / FLICKR/FLIC.KR/P/F1JXBL Listen Tom Banse reports on efforts to make Daylight Saving Time permanent / Runtime: 1 minute […]Read More
Read Daylight saving time starts early Sunday morning, so remember to set your clocks ahead by an hour this weekend. That’s despite the fact that Oregon and Washington have passed […]Read More
Washington’s Democratic-majority legislature passes major transportation funding bill Listen Read Democrats who control the Washington Legislature have sealed a deal to raise and spend nearly $17 billion over the next […]Read More
Washington lawmakers get serious about spending money to retrofit old school buildings for earthquake safety CREDIT: ShakeAlert Listen Read An effort to jump-start the pace of earthquake retrofits to older […]Read More
A controversial tax on Washington State fuel shipped to other states was shot down by lawmakers CREDIT: Mark Lennihan/AP Listen Read A proposed tax on gasoline and diesel delivered to […]Read More
Washington State is looking to attract more film making to the state Listen Read The Washington Legislature looks set to invite more movie sets. A proposed increase in motion picture […]Read More
Plug-in cars charge up at the Washington State Capitol Campus. CREDIT: TOM BANSE Listen Read If you were holding off buying an electric car in hopes of getting a generous […]Read More
The 400-mile Olympic Pipeline carries gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in northern Washington state, such as BP Cherry Point shown here, to a distribution hub in Portland, Oregon. […]Read More
Democrats in charge of the Washington Legislature are proposing a new tax on gasoline and diesel fuel destined for Oregon, Idaho and Alaska to partially pay for a cornucopia of highway, transit, rail, bike trail and ferry construction across Washington state. The "exported fuel tax" was included in a transportation spending and revenue package unveiled Tuesday in Olympia.Read More
A complex deal is taking shape to revive the Pacific Northwest's last remaining aluminum smelter. Alcoa idled its Intalco Works smelter near Ferndale, Washington, a year-and-a-half ago and laid off virtually all the workers there. The plan to bring this industry back involves a new owner, cash from taxpayers and an uncertain new contract for cut-rate wholesale power.Read More
The January 15 volcanic eruption near Tonga was a stark reminder of the threats posed by tsunamis. That's long been a concern in the Pacific Northwest, where thousands of students go to school within reach of a large tsunami.Read More
The presence of eleven skiers, skaters and sliders with ties to the Pacific Northwest should add intrigue to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, although the upcoming sports spectacle beset with extreme COVID precautions, a diplomatic boycott and scarce snowfall hardly needs more drama. Several late additions to the Team USA Olympic roster upped the regional representation at next Read More
A roller skating rink in Federal Way, Washington, has a remarkable track record of minting future ice skating Olympians. It started in the 1990s and 2000s with four-time Olympic long track speedskater K.C. Boutiette and short track gold medalist Apolo Ohno. The streak will extend to an eighth consecutive Winter Olympics when a new short track speedskater on Team USA named Read More
Washington state senators are trying a new gambit to stop the twice-yearly ritual of changing our clocks from standard time to daylight time and back again. A previous effort to move the whole West Coast onto permanent daylight saving time failed to win requisite congressional support. So now, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers is pushing for Pacific Standard Time to be Read More
Washington state workers and perhaps many others could get an extra day off in honor of women getting the right to vote. The idea for a Women's Suffrage Day holiday got a friendly reception on the opening day of Washington's 2022 legislative session.Read More
The year 2021 isn’t even over, yet Oregon and Washington have already smashed their previous records for total annual deaths. Those records were just set last year. The coronavirus pandemic is only one piece of the explanation.Read More
As people gather for the holidays, some use the opportunity to discuss difficult but important family topics. That includes what folks want to happen when they die and how they want to be remembered. Often when a death occurs, the next of kin hands the arrangements over to a funeral director in the moment of grief and stress. But some families are choosing to stay with the Read More
Over the course of this year, you've no doubt heard about labor shortages throughout the economy. Waiters are scarce. Hospitals are short-staffed. There are not enough snow plow drivers. Add another job category to the list. It's an important one: blood collectors.Read More
Fossil fuel use in buildings looks to be the next frontier for climate activists at the state and local level. There's a convergence of activity in the Pacific Northwest aimed at phasing out natural gas furnaces and water heaters. Cities from Eugene to Bellingham have teed up bans on natural gas in new commercial buildings. But natural gas has its defenders, too, who have Read More
Christians, Jews, Sikhs and Quakers go to Olympia mosque to show support after explosion. People of many faiths gathered outside the Islamic Center of Olympia before Friday prayers to demonstrate […]Read More
You're not imagining things if driving in Pacific Northwest traffic feels as busy these days as it was before the pandemic. Traffic data from the Oregon and Washington transportation departments show highway volumes are nearly back to 2019 levels.Read More
E-commerce giant Amazon confirmed to public radio that it has begun flight testing of package delivery drones at a test range in Pendleton, Oregon, as well as continuing near Seattle and elsewhere. Routine delivery of online orders to consumers by aerial drones remains a long ways off, though.Read More
There was cheering, celebration and emotional reunions along the northern border on Monday as the U.S. reopened its land and sea crossings to Canadian leisure travelers for the first time in 19 months. The international ferry between Port Angeles and Victoria began sailing again with all of its initial southbound trips sold out. Some border restrictions remain that could Read More
If you are on the Pacific Northwest Coast when the next Cascadia megaquake strikes — also known as "The Big One"— the standard advice is to run for higher ground as soon as the shaking stops. But in some low-lying places such as Ocean Shores and Long Beach, Washington, and Warrenton and Seaside, Oregon, the closest high ground could be a long walk away over buckled roads.Read More
Whale watchers have spotted a record number of humpback calves in inland Pacific Northwest waters this season. There was also a record streak of Bigg's killer whale sightings that just ended, according to a local whale research nonprofit. Those observations offer some good news to offset the ongoing concern about the survival of the Northwest's iconic, but critically Read More
There are no statewide initiative measures on the ballot this November in Oregon and Washington state. That’s a change from usual, but voters around the region are casting ballots on a variety of newsworthy local initiatives.Read More
With all the news about supply chain problems, you might be wondering how to get your online purchases on time. If only the promised future of aerial delivery by drone could be realized during the upcoming holiday shopping season.Read More
An Olympic torch lighting ceremony in (Ancient Olympia,) Greece on Monday started the countdown to the next Winter Olympics. Those games will unfold in Beijing three-and-a-half months from now. Olympic hopefuls from the Northwest are undeterred by controversies swirling around the host country. Read More
The Pacific Northwest is rightfully proud of its thriving microbrewery scene. Most beer lovers probably consider the rise of craft brewing a phenomenon of the past few decades. But the first brewpubs in the Northwest date so far back that archaeologists were called in to excavate the remnants of one in Jacksonville, Oregon.Read More
The days are quickly ticking down to next Monday's deadline when most Oregon and Washington teachers, health care workers and public employees need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.Read More
Respiratory therapist Gina McCarthy cares for COVID-19 patients in overflowing MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital. Never in her 28 years in the profession has she worked hours like she does now.Read More
The overcrowded hospitals we've been telling you about for weeks are having ripple effects out into the community -- some you could predict and some which are a little more startling. Take for example a fire that gutted a house in Ocean Shores, expensive airlifts from Leavenworth, Washington, and slow response times for ambulance transports in Portland.Read More
Research photos taken with a drone show multiple killer whales are close to giving birth in one of the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered pods. The late-stage pregnancies stirred excitement among whale watchers -- and also renewed worries about the availability of adequate food supply for the mothers and babies.Read More
Just in time for the kickoff of the NFL regular season, the first legal sports betting operation in Washington state has opened for business. On Thursday, a line of bettors queued behind a sports celebrity to place their first bets at a tribal casino in the eastern suburbs of Seattle.Read More
The state of Oregon has set an ambitious goal to prepare more families in earthquake country to be "two weeks ready" after a disaster. Washington's emergency management agency is also seeking more funding to prepare people in a similar way. Read More
Tens of thousands of public school students in Washington state returned to classes this month in school buildings judged to be at risk of collapse in a strong earthquake. A new report to the state Legislature prepared by state geologists and a structural engineering firm gave the lowest possible seismic safety rating to more than 90 percent of the school buildings Read More
How hot is the Pacific Northwest real estate market? So hot that even in an isolated exclave such as Point Roberts, Washington, home prices are sizzling and some properties are changing hands sight unseen.Read More
