Not every Olympic story is happening in Tokyo this week. Take for instance two runners in Tacoma.Read More
Northwest News
Since Democrats re-took the Washington Senate after a special election in 2017, they’ve enacted numerous pro-union bills, along with sweeping policy changes backed by unions. Democrats say their agenda is […]Read More
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attend a virtual wildfire briefing with seven governors. CREDIT: Https://Www.Youtube.Com/Watch?V=PzvDeLvcQ7U The federal government is asking how it can help better fight wildfires […]Read More
A photo of Josh Gortler from the cover of his book “Among The Remnants.” In this episode of Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella, retired social worker and community leader Josh […]Read More
New laws governing Washington State law enforcement took effect on Sunday, including their use of force (HB 1310) and tactics (HB 1054).
Some police departments in King County say new laws means they will no longer respond to certain calls; City of Seattle chief Adrian Diaz calls that “absurd.”Read More
If you’ve ever backpacked in the Northwest’s mountaintops, you’ve likely spent some time among whitebark pines. These important trees are bringing together researchers across the West, who want to save them from a fatal fungus.Read More
Nez Perce Tribal Police Chief Harold Scott on April 21, 2021 in the Northwest Public Broadcasting studios. In this episode of Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella, Nez Perce Tribal police […]Read More
The Black Members Caucus nearly doubled in size this year and now has nine members. How is the caucus as a whole, and how are the individual members, changing the conversation and narrative around racial equity?Read More
From Oregon to the Dakotas, hay stocks for hungry cattle are already low. On top of that, ranchers say summer pastures are dry from the widespread drought.Read More
Extremely hot and dry conditions have caused some land managers to close more recreation areas than normal. Read More
When Vancouver hosted a modern expo in 1986, it joined the Northwest’s other major cities, Portland (1905), Seattle (1909, 1962) and Spokane (1974) as exposition hosts. In the years since Expo ’86, Vancouver’s has also gained important symbolism as the last expo hosted in North America. It was a kind of golden moment. Read More
Dry conditions across Washington have prompted the state’s Department of Ecology to declare a drought emergency. Read More
Earthquake researchers are eager to dig into a trove of new data about the offshore Cascadia fault zone. When Cascadia ruptures, it can trigger a megaquake known as "the Big One." The valuable new imaging of the geology off the Oregon, Washington and British Columbia coasts comes from a specialized research vessel.Read More
There are thread-like worms on Mount Rainier that reserachers are looking at live at 32 degrees or they die... called ice worms. Read More
Temperatures in the Inland Northwest are still hotter than normal, and this week the region will also be more prone to fire danger and smoky air due to drought and wind.Read More
This year in north-central Washington has echoes of 2015, when the complex of fires across Okanogan County burned tens of thousands of acres on the reservation, closer to Omak, and shut down Highway 155 across the reservation for long stretches. What was true then is very possible now: The fires took out a lot of timber that the tribes harvest and use for revenue. Read More
It was almost a year ago that Athena Fitness in Olympia was facing financial doom. The women-owned business had opened just before the pandemic struck. In August of last year, new COVID restrictions threatened to put the owners out of business. So, what’s happened since?Read More
In this episode of "Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella," KUOW reporter Esmy Jimenez talks about her life growing up in a rural part of central Washington as an undocumented immigrant, being the first in her family to attend college, and the fun and hardship of reporting on the never-ending news cycle.Read More
Time is running out for a spur-of-the-moment trip to Multnomah Falls. Starting July 20, timed tickets will be required for one-hour visits to the popular sight-seeing destination east of Portland.Read More
Starting in mid-2022, people in Washington will be able to dial 988 instead of 911 to access different types of services in a mental health crisis.Read More
“Wildfire is presenting an imminent threat to life, property, and the environment, and we need all hands on deck,” Gov. Brad Little said in a statement. “I appreciate our firefighters and fire managers for working so hard under such challenging conditions, and I am grateful that our guardsmen are able to step in once again to support Idaho communities.”Read More
There are about 1.2 million LGBTQ adults in the U.S. who are nonbinary, according to a first-of-its-kind study released last week by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, a research center that focuses on the intersection of law and public policy, and sexual orientation and gender identity.Read More
Washington on Friday became the second state in the Pacific Northwest in as many days to announce emergency rules that provide farmworkers and others who work outdoors more protection from hot weather in the wake of an extreme heat wave that is believed to have killed hundreds of people.Read More
The story of some Native American Scouts and their complicated reasons for working with the United States government. Read More
Tribes across the Northwest called for immediate action to remove the four Lower Snake River dams during a two-day Salmon and Orca summit in western Washington. The group called on President Biden and congressional members to “take bold action, now.”Read More
Wolf poachers go mostly undiscovered — but that hasn’t stopped nonprofit organizations from putting up significant cash rewards for information about these incidents. While rewards generally don’t lead to convictions, Defenders of Wildlife’s Gwen Dobbs says reward offers in cases of wildlife poaching can help raise public awareness, “hopefully serving as a deterrent Read More
When Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced a sweeping investigation into burial sites on current and former school sites that have historically served Native Americans, it was met with amazement, even among people who’ve been searching out Indigenous remains for years.Read More
After years of waging appeals, and a last minute petition for a 90 day delay, former Washington state Auditor Troy Kelley has entered a federal prison camp in California to serve his sentence for conviction of possession of stolen property and other crimes.Read More
First a drought. Then record heat. Now Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has declared a statewide wildfire state of emergency. Read More
It’s back to the drawing board for state regulators, after the Washington Court of Appeals ordered the Department of Ecology to rework permits for confined animal feeding operations, known as CAFOs. A panel of judges ruled that current waste discharge permits don’t adequately protect groundwater and don’t take climate change into account.Read More
With a record 9.3 million jobs open in the U.S. as of April, and a workforce in no hurry to get back to work, a growing number of employers are looking to hiring bonuses to fill their ranks. Long a tradition on Wall Street, sign-on bonuses are rare in low-wage work such as fast food, warehousing and food delivery. Now, as the economy has picked up, hiring bonuses are everywhere.Read More
In this episode of "Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella," cartoonist Jesse Clyde is radiating good vibes and positive energy. He shares how he tries to be present in the moment and explains how money and other societal distractions can take away from his artwork.Read More
The National Weather Serivce is warning of extreme fire danger Tuesday night and Wednesday. Lightning storms, dry conditions and winds are expected to combine Tuesday evening and Wednesday, priming Eastern Washington and North Idaho for wildfires.Read More
As education culture wars consumed the Statehouse this spring, the running joke was that Idaho educators were scrambling to Google to figure out what “critical race theory” is. Things aren’t much different now. So, think of this as summer school.Read More
The Northwest is primed for fire season, and not in a good way. East of the Cascades, forecasters say this year could be worse than recent record-breaking fire seasons. Read More
Ahead of the first Fourth of July since an attack on the Capitol, fueled by baseless claims of voter fraud, and as several GOP-led states work now to enact stricter voting rules, majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents express worry about the health of democracy.Read More
Blueberries, raspberries and blackberries from Oregon to Washington to British Columbia are baked on the bush and vine. Growers are calling the heat damage widespread and catastrophic. Read More
The Supreme Court on Friday declined to take up the case of a Tri-Cities florist who refused to provide services for a same-sex wedding, leaving in place a decision that she broke state anti-discrimination laws.Read More
List of some Northwest Fourth of July events in 2021.Read More
Right now, those all-time heat records are preliminary. It will take a committee, more measurements and tests before those numbers can be officially entered into the record books. Read More
As forecasters warned of a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada last weekend, officials set up cooling centers, distributed water to the homeless and took other steps. Still, hundreds of people are believed to have died from Friday to Tuesday.Read More
Indiscrete comments made by an ExxonMobil lobbyist to undercover activists may figure prominently in upcoming congressional hearings about the role of oil companies in the battle against climate change.Read More
Fifteen months after Washington state's first “stay at home” order was issued in response to the coronavirus, businesses across the state are now allowed to return to pre-pandemic operations.Read More
Scores of deaths along the U.S. West Coast and in the Vancouver metro area in Canada are being blamed on an ongoing heat wave that has broken records.Read More
Record heat across the Northwest is taking a toll on agriculture – both the crops and the workers who harvest them. Read More
In this episode of Traverse Talks with Sueann Ramella, speech language pathologist Jennifer Griffin talks about dyslexia and signs that you or your child may be suffering from it.Read More
Avista says it plans to cut power to parts of its coverage area Tuesday as a way to reduce demand for power. Spokane saw rolling outages Monday, and will likely see more on Tuesday. Residents of the Tri-Cities region have been warned they could also see outages this week for up to four hours at a time.Read More
Cities were reminding residents where pools, splash pads and cooling centers were available and urging people to stay hydrated, check on their neighbors and avoid strenuous activities. The National Weather Service in Coeur d’Alene said this week's weather “will likely be one of the most extreme and prolonged heat waves in the recorded history of the Inland Northwest.”Read More
A major heat wave is hitting the Northwest. Heat and its long-term effects kills more people in the U.S. than any other weather-related issue. Now is the time to prepare. Here are some steps you can take to get ready: Read More
Several Northwest cities set record high temperatures for Saturday. Spokane was not one of them. Its official high of 98 fell two degrees short. In eastern Washington, Pasco, Hanford and Yakima were among those setting records for June 26.Read More
