A Portland-based energy developer has signed property leases for a big solar farm in Klickitat County near the Columbia River. When completed, the solar project will be the largest in Washington.Read More
Following months of speculation, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has formally launched a campaign for president that he said would seek to mobilize the country around an ambitious plan to combat climate change. Read More
The Natural Resource Management Act includes a little of everything — meant to satisfy public land interests all over the country.
The land-conservation measures have received a lot of attention. But there are other provisions in the bill concerning the Northwest, among them wildfire risk, research and air quality resources, hunting on public lands, water management for Read More
Washington could soon join the ranks of its West Coast neighbors, requiring fuels at the pump that produce less carbon pollution. A low-carbon fuels bill passed its first big test Monday, moving out of the House Appropriations Committee.Read More
Thousands of old brick, stone and concrete buildings in the Pacific Northwest could crumble in the next strong earthquake. To face that challenge, measures pending in the Oregon and Washington legislatures would set up grant programs to help owners of dangerous buildings make seismic safety upgrades.Read More
First, he was caught on store surveillance allegedly stealing a $70 office chair. Now Washington anti-tax activist Tim Eyman has produced his own video. It shows him returning to the scene of the alleged crime.Read More
Latest school closures and delays from our area. You can also report closures and delays on this page by filling out the form located at the bottom of the page.Read More
As the number of cases and geographic reach expands in Southwest Washington’s measles crisis, state lawmakers are looking to revisit who can opt out of vaccinations.Read More
Jay Inslee Wants More High-Speed Internet In Washington. It’s Needed In Rural And Tribal Communities
Washington's governor wants the state to start treating the internet the same way it treats electricity. That is, as a necessity. For example, many areas of the reservation of the Colville Tribes lacks broadband and therefore can't communicate with doctors through telemedicine. Read More
For years, Oregon and Washington have been searching for the best way to catch more hatchery fish while letting the wild fish return unharmed to their spawning grounds. Now, one group says they’ve found it.Read More
The city of Vancouver has been fined $60,000 after raw sewage was accidentally released into the Columbia River in 2017. The discharged sewage from Vancouver’s Westside Wastewater Treatment Plant happened during two separate spills in September and October of 2017Read More
Governor Jay Inslee will pardon people under his new Marijuana Justice Initiative. People convicted of minor marijuana possession in Washington can now have their record cleared.Read More
In Washington and 11 other states, and Washington, D.C., undocumented people can still get a license to drive. The idea is that roads are safer if everyone using them has passed a driver's test. But that licensing process may put undocumented people at risk of deportation.Read More
Federal fishery managers are increasing the catch limits for several West Coast species that were overfished and severely restricted for years. Surveys show depleted populations of yellow eye and bocaccio rockfish, cow cod and ocean perch — all classified as groundfish — are rebounding decades ahead of schedule.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is proposing a hefty $10 billion increase in state spending over the next two years to maintain current services and fund new priorities, including mental health and orca recovery. To pay for it, Inslee is once again pushing for a new state capital gains tax on high income earners as well as an increase in the business and occupation tax on Read More
Congress has agreed to make it easier to kill sea lions threatening fragile runs of salmon in the Northwest. A bill approved by the House this week changes the Marine Mammal Protection Act to lift some of the restrictions on killing sea lions to protect salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River and its tributaries.Read More
Apparently, salmon don’t like the smell of watercress. The aroma of shrimp doesn’t pique their interest either. And the fragrance, eu de steelhead? A definite no-go.Read More
Washington utility regulators say the Canadian utility Hydro One may not acquire the Spokane-based utility Avista. In a statement, the state Utilities and Transportation Commission said "the proposed merger does not serve the public interest."Read More
In 2018, San Juan County had the highest voter turnout at nearly 84 percent, while Yakima County had the lowest at 61 percent. One major reason for that gap: demographics. Read More
The Northwest is already seeing the effects of climate change, according to a new national climate assessment. Read More
According to some Oregon and Washington legislators, it's high time to get rid of the twice-yearly ritual of changing clocks. This past month, 60 percent of California voters approved Proposition 7, a ballot proposition to make daylight saving time permanent. Read More
Washington Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib, who is blind and has faced vitriol online, is requesting funding in the next two-year state budget to hire security when he attends large, public events. The request is contained in an agency "decision package" submitted by Habib's office to the Office of Financial Management as part of the lead-up to the budget writing process.Read More
Nearly 20 years after Washington voters passed Initiative 695, which repealed Washington's motor vehicle excise tax, anti-tax activist Tim Eyman says he's close to qualifying a new initiative to repeal taxes to support Sound Transit and restrict car tabs to $30. Read More
Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen was among the Republicans fighting to keep his seat after Tuesday’s election. AUSTIN JENKINS / N3 Listen It wasn’t a sweeping blue wave, but Democrats […]Read More
Many Americans say they are disaffected with the system of politics and sit on the sidelines, especially in midterms. But not voting can have consequences: Just look at these races.Read More
The Washington Supreme Court upheld most of the state's charter school law Thursday, eliminating the specter that a dozen schools serving about 3,400 students might have to close.Read More
The campaign against a ballot measure creating a carbon pollution fee has set a fundraising record for statewide initiatives.Read More
The state of Washington sent high-needs foster youth to a residential facility in Iowa where they were isolated, held in a restrictive setting and at times subject to “abusive restraint practices," according to a scathing report released Wednesday by the advocacy group Disability Rights Washington.Read More
Grazing restrictions on public lands may have unintended consequences for greater sage grouse, according to a recent study. The imperiled birds depend on habitat on both public and private lands, and much of that habitat can be lost when ranching operations go under.Read More
A Washington state senator who says he’s heard from “literally hundreds of parents” of adult children who are struggling with mental illness or addiction wants to allow families to petition for temporary guardianship.Read More
The new trade agreement signed Sunday at midnight called the USMCA short for the U.S. Mexico, Canada Agreement by the Trump Administration, could change things on some Northwest farms. Farmers are hopeful this new agreement will lift their commodity prices -- many of which are low right now. Read More
Washington state Sen. Joe Fain denied Faber’s written allegations to The Seattle Times. “Any allegation of this serious nature deserves to be heard and investigated for all parties involved,” Fain told the Times.Read More
Dairy workers and members of the United Farm Workers union boarded a coach bus on their way to Seattle this week. It’s all for the start of a five-day fast to bring awareness to their Darigold Dozen campaign against the Ruby Ridge Dairy near Pasco. Read More
Since the late 1980s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been keeping track of big polluters through their Toxic Waste Inventory or TRI. The EPA has released their latest data for 2017. We crunched some numbers for Washington, and here are the results. Read More
As teachers in a record number of Washington school districts strike this week, a top official with their union says the unwillingness of superintendents and school boards to negotiate higher pay raises for teachers is a crime. Read More
Climate change might lead to bigger populations of hungrier insects. This could have serious consequences for grain-growing regions in the Northwest and across the world.Read More
There’s an old saying that a boat is simply a hole in the water into which you dump your cash. They can be cheap to buy, but are expensive to maintain, insure, berth, repair and operate. They age, they weather, they often sink. When they do, they create another kind of money hole. The solution? Recycling.Read More
Wildfire activity in the American West is likely to get worse in coming years. A new study out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to the lack of precipitation in the summer as the major driving factor when it comes to increasing fire severity.Read More
In 2005, when Gordon Hempton founded One Square Inch of Silence, he designated a spot, a few miles up the Hoh River Trail into the rain forest, the quietest place in the U.S. and marked it with a small, red stone. "In a place like this your auditory horizon isn't just 1 or 2 miles," he says. "You can hear everything that's happening in this valley.Read More
Fires across the region have blanketed the Northwest in smoke. Blazes in California and British Columbia are also adding to the thick, reddish-gray haze. Read More
An Oregon-based group of shipwreck hunters wants to find the historic remains of the first steamship to provide service in the Puget Sound in the 1800's. The shipwreck search was inspired by one Port Townsend, Wash., man's obsession. Read More
The U.S. Drought Monitor says the entire state of Washington is abnormally dry. In Oregon, nearly 90 percent of the state is facing moderate to severe drought.Read More
Weather predictions across the West are calling for excessive heat and more dry weather this week. That forecast is anything but good news in the Northwest, where significant risk of wildfire continues to increase.Read More
A variety of forest experts say that one of the best ways to reduce the threat of these mega-blazes is to use fire itself. They say we need to increase the pace of prescribed fire and let some wildfires continue to burn when it’s safe to do so. Of course, there’s not nearly as much political support for letting fires burn as there is for putting fires out.Read More
Fire officials say this year is on par with 2014 and 2015 – two of the worst seasons on record in the Northwest. Things are ramping up nearly a month earlier than previous years, and resources are stretched thin. Read More
The race for U.S. House in eastern Washington has taken a negative turn. Despite criticism, 5th District Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers has doubled down on a controversial ad campaign attacking her Democratic opponent, Lisa Brown, using information proven to be misleading and false.Read More
The West is way behind on reducing the buildup of hazardous fuels we created. And much of the work we do to reduce those fuels is missing the key ingredient: fire.Read More
Northwesterners are hearing a lot about mountain lions lately. Since May, an extremely rare fatal attack in the Washington Cascades, a Willamette Valley pool party interrupted by a wandering cat and a viral Facebook video of a mountain lion lounging in a southern Oregon woman’s living room have made headlines across the region.
Are the Northwest’s mountain lions acting Read More
Backers of a proposed gun-control initiative in Washington plan to deliver their final batch of petitions July 6th to the Secretary of State. Read More
Federal officials anticipate a big wildfire season in the Northwest throughout July, August and possibly into September.Read More
