Crews have fought fire with fire to help secure the containment lines. One method you may not have heard of uses ping pong balls and helicopters. They’re officially called PSDs, or plastic spherical devices.Read More
Northwest News
The agency serves areas where private carriers won't go. And in those remote communities, which helped elect the president, the Postal Service can be seen as a lifeline as well as a human connection.Read More
Toward the end of the roll call, Trump made a surprise visit to address the delegates from the convention hall in Charlotte. He appeared right after the Florida delegation cast its votes — a symbolic nod to President Trump’s primary residence and an important battleground in 2020.Read More
The fire grew fast when it first started Tuesday, Aug. 18, quickly becoming the top priority in the state. Fire managers said Sunday night they were really pleased with the progress. Crews did burnout operations over the weekend, a method of basically fighting fire with fire.Read More
A study released this week points to two passengers infected on a four-hour-plus flight. But there hasn't been a lot of documentation of transmission on planes. So how risky is flying?Read More
Washington state has laws in place to prevent that. And the state, which has been all-vote-by-mail since 2011, has a decade of experience with ballot boxes that counters the president’s claims. Read More
Conservationists are “cautiously optimistic” after discovering a mother wolverine and her kits at Mount Rainier National Park. It’s the first time a family of wolverines has called the park home in more than 100 years. Read More
The U.S. Postal Service has suffered from financial problems for years, but Louis DeJoy, a Republican fundraiser, chose this summer to cut some overtime, withdraw sorting machines and impose other operational changes that have effectively reduced the system's throughput.Read More
A 2017 analysis that looked at historic versus recent distributing areas of the species and found that the populations have declined by almost 50% of its historic range and it has been accelerating in recent years.Read More
In June, the Yakima Health District was reporting as many as 200 new COVID-19 cases per day. Now, daily cases are in the 20s since Sunday, Aug. 16. Gov. Jay Inslee says the county’s early masking directive is the likely cause.Read More
Firefighters are working to contain a large fire in north-central Washington. So far, the Palmer Fire has burned at least 6,000 acres and forced evacuations as winds pushed flames forward. It’s expected to grow, pushing north toward the Canadian border, in the coming days.Read More
The air quality around the Northwest is gradually worsening with the increasing number of wildfires burning this week. Health and air quality officials are urging people to be prepared in case the smoke becomes more prominent.Read More
The months-long closure of the U.S.-Canada border to non-essential crossings has been extended again. The border crossing restrictions will last at least until late September, probably longer, due to the pandemic. The outlook is leading people who used to cross regularly to make major life changes.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a statewide emergency Wednesday to help with fires burning in on the Olympic Peninsula and in central and eastern Washington. Read More
Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington, a three-term Republican and 9/11 commissioner, has died at the age of 92. Thomas Slade Gorton III was born in Chicago in 1928. He was a descendant of the Gorton Seafood family of Massachusetts. But it was politics that attracted him from a young age.Read More
One hundred years ago, both chambers of Congress passed the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed American women the right to vote. The landmark amendment was ratified into the U.S. Constitution the following year, in August of 1920.Read More
For some people, there are advantages to living in an unprotected area. For one, they don’t have to pay taxes into a fire district or timber taxes to the state. Residents in Moses Coulee area of Douglas County want to act as an initial attack team for their small area, helping douse the flames until official fire crews arrive.Read More
Louis DeJoy, an ally of President Trump, has come under fire in recent weeks for what's viewed as directives to slow down USPS in order to suppress absentee or mail-in votes. Read More
A federal judge has put Idaho’s controversial transgender athletics ban on hold. The injunction will allow Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye to review the myriad constitutional questions surrounding the law, which bans transgender women and girls from participating in women’s and girls’ sports.Read More
It's not often that you'll read an obituary for a tree. Or that a dead tree gets a memorial service of sorts. But then there aren't many like Vancouver, Washington's "Old Apple Tree."Read More
A study out Monday found that Hispanic and nonwhite workers made up 73% of cases associated with workplace outbreaks in certain industries, despite representing 24% of the workforce in those sectors.Read More
Washington state has killed the last two known wolves in the so-called Wedge pack in Stevens County, which had been preying on livestock, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said Monday.Read More
Some schools across the country are under pressure to reopen for in-person classes, even in states like Idaho where coronavirus cases continue to rise out of control.Read More
Experts look into a new study that claims wearing a neck gaiter may be worse than no mask at all. And they discuss other face coverings such as goggles and plastic face shields.Read More
The nominee, William Perry Pendley, has been leading the agency since last August through a series of controversial continued appointment extensions. Prior to coming to Washington D.C., the Wyoming native had spent much of his career at the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation challenging the very agency he now leads.Read More
Washington’s all vote-by-mail Aug. 4 primary is in the books, with final results certified soon. And it revealed some noteworthy trends. Republican Loren Culp will be Gov. Jay Inslee’s opponent on the November ballot as Inslee seeks a rare third term. Read More
In 2017, the Trump administration scaled back protections of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. A federal judge has now struck down the rule change — and cited "To Kill a Mockingbird" in so doing.Read More
The Ferry County sheriff is asking for $138,000 to cover the costs of filling in for Republic Police Chief Loren Culp while he campaigns for governor. The sheriff's office is located in Republic, a town of about 1,100 people, but Republic has its own police force. Culp is the chief and only member of the force.Read More
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act late Wednesday night in response to the fire, which was burning about 500 acres at the time in the Mosier Creek area of the Columbia River Gorge, between Hood River and The Dalles.Read More
In an interview with WebMD, CDC Director Robert Redfield warned of the dual threat of the coronavirus and flu season. He urged Americans to follow COVID-19 health guidance and get the flu vaccine. Read More
Many of the county’s cases have spread in the small town of Brewster, where there is a large tree-fruit growing, packing and shipping industry. According to public health officials, there have been 885 positive cases in Okanogan County –– 518 in Brewster.Read More
President Trump told Fox Business Network that he's against additional funding and election assistance for the U.S. Postal Service in order to sabotage efforts to expand mail-in voting.Read More
While most people who die from COVID-19 are over 65, health care workers who die are often younger. Here are stories of some who died in their 20s, leaving shattered dreams and devastated families.Read More
On Aug. 3, Gov. Inslee announced new rules for indoor fitness studios and gyms that nearly tripled the required spacing between class participants from six feet to 17 feet. Krueger expressed her frustration in a 4-minute video she posted to Instagram. “I have to say that I am freaking pissed,” she said in the video. “We’re unable to pay our bills with these mandates; that Read More
Voter turnout in the Washington state primary is usually low, and turnout in 2016 was just under 35%. But Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman had still advised counties to plan for turnout that could potentially exceed 60%.Read More
The Education Working Group requested the Legislature take up the issue of school closure authority when Gov. Brad Little convenes an extraordinary session of the Legislature the week of Aug. 24. Currently, health districts do have the authority to issue quarantine orders or close schools.Read More
This latest rollback proposal, issued Tuesday, comes from the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region. It would end a 25-year-old provision that prevents logging of trees that exceed 21 inches in diameter in six national forests across Eastern Oregon and Washington.Read More
Canvassers have been out in North Idaho the past few weeks. They will be working between now and the end of September to follow up with people who haven’t filled out census forms.Read More
The state of Washington on Tuesday ordered that more endangered wolves be killed in a pack that continued to prey on cattle in Stevens County even after one member was eliminated. The decision was criticized by conservation groups who want the state to stop killing wolves. The state has killed more than 30 wolves since 2012.Read More
Seattle’s police chief says she is stepping down, a move made public the same day the City Council approved reducing the department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition. Carmen Best, the city’s first Black police chief, said in a letter to the department that her retirement will be effective Sept. 2 and the mayor has appointed Deputy Chief Adrian Diaz Read More
Undocumented workers who lost income because of the coronavirus pandemic, but were passed over for federal assistance, will finally be getting some help in Washington state, thanks to a new $40 million relief fund.Read More
Washington Firefighter Quarantining With COVID; It’s A Test Of Safety Plan Ahead Of Wildfire Weather
The firefighter contracted COVID-19 outside of the fire camp. He tested positive after he left the fire. The firefighter came into contact with 14 others, who have now been quarantined and aren’t showing symptoms right now, according to the DNR. This year, fire camps have been kept smaller and more spaced out – to help prevent widespread outbreaks. Read More
The latest harvest estimates say Washington ranchers will harvest nearly 153 million bushels of wheat and Oregon 44 million bushels. That’s around average for both states. A typical barge holds around 122,500 bushels of wheat — meaning 44 million bushels would be about 360 barges full of grain on the Snake and Columbia Rivers heading toward export terminals.Read More
The June agreement is one of three, six-figure-a-week, no-bid contracts the state of Washington has entered into with McKinsey – one of the largest consulting firms in the world -- in the midst of the pandemic, according to a review by the public media Northwest News Network and The Seattle Times. The nature and price of the contracts has raised questions about whether Read More
It's been 75 years since the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to Koko Kondo, who was an infant when one of those bombs was dropped on Hiroshima.Read More
The virus might eventually behave more like the common cold, according to Vineet Menachery, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Texas Medical Branch.Read More
In the Columbia Basin, the Democratic challenger for Washington state’s 13th Legislative District house seat has focused his message on farmworker safety and called for the boycott of fruit. It’s quite a move for a candidate in a district where the economy is dominated by agriculture.Read More
Oregon Forest Resources Institute, created in the early 1990s to educate residents about forestry, has acted as a public-relations agency and lobbying arm for the timber industry, in some cases skirting legal constraints that forbid it from doing so.Read More
Multiple sources tell OPB, federal officers are watching closely to see if the delicate peace holds through the weekend, in what some describe as a key moment for determining how many federal officers will remain in Portland.Read More
A federal appeals court in San Francisco has denied the Justice Department's motion for a retrial in the case against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who led an armed standoff against federal agents over cattle grazing near his ranch in 2014.Read More
