The Tri-Cities Washington chapter of a national non-profit LGBTQ rights group just got a windfall. The money comes after a settlement in the eight-year-long Arlene’s Flowers case. Continue Reading Flower Fight: Same-Sex Read More
A lot of us hunkered down at home last Thanksgiving instead of making the usual feast. Now we’re getting together again. But with pandemic-related shipping and supply chain issues, plus this summer’s extreme heat … you’ve got a recipe for sticker shock. Read More
A large-scale Northwest farmer allegedly stole Snake River irrigation water during this past summer. And Washington state has clamped down hard with an unusually-large fine. Continue Reading State Of Washington And Read More
Now that fall’s here, Northwest farmers are taking account of their summer work and crops. And they’re planning for their next harvest. But this summer’s drought and heat twisted things up. A day-trip up Taylor Flats Road in Franklin County quickly shows some of the heat’s major damage. Read More
Health officials are testing Tri-Cities, Washington drinking water twice a week for toxic algae since a half-dozen dogs were sickened or died recently after being on the Columbia River. And the rivershore is closed in Howard Amon Park in Richland. But toxic algae is a nationwide problem, and we still have much to learn. Read More
Pets dead or sick after coming in contact with Columbia River water near the Tri-Cities, Wash. Now health officials have confirmed the culprit, Anatoxin-a in toxic algae. Continue Reading Six Dogs Sickened Or Dead Near Read More
One of the historically largest farm equipment sales in the country is happening this week in the Northwest. It follows the bankruptcy of the Easterday family empire after its multi-million-dollar cattle swindle. Continue Reading Read More
The saga of the troubled Easterday ag empire is spreading to rural Idaho. At issue: The fate of an Easterday ranch centered on a beautiful meadow that contributes water to the Spokane region. Continue Reading Easterday Idaho: What’s To Become Of Read More
Two meatpacking giants are battling in federal bankruptcy court over a 1,500 acre feedlot near Pasco, Washington. It’s part of the ongoing Easterday cattle swindle saga. Continue Reading Beef Wars: Two Meat Giants Battle Over Easterday 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. Continue Reading Western Ranchers Are Cuttin’ Herds Like Mad To Prep For A 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. Continue Reading Berry Bake: Read More
Record heat across the Northwest is taking a toll on agriculture – both the crops and the workers who harvest them. Continue Reading Weird Potatoes, Bad Berries, Hazardous Human Conditions: Heat Takes Its Toll On Read More
Northwest farmers are pouring on the water to moisten soils ahead of the triple-digit temperatures and possible record highs expected this weekend. Continue Reading High Heat Brings High Worry About Crops, As Farmers Were Read More
The agricultural arm of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints — Farmland Reserve, Inc. — has agreed to pay about $210 million for a major swath of southeastern Washington farm ground. Continue Reading Major Read More
Some people work their whole life trying to solve one big problem. That was the case with geoscientist John Zachara, who studied Hanford. Correspondent Anna King has this remembrance of the scientist who died recently from a rare form of blood cancer. Read More
Nearly 12,000 acres of Easterday family farmland in Benton County will likely sell for more than its $210 million asking price, according to court documents and sources with knowledge of the deal. Continue Reading Read More
June 3 marks a year since COVID-19 blasted through my immune system. I have never figured out how I got it. And my recovery has come in fits and starts. But mostly it’s just been incredibly, snail-slow. Continue Read More
Some stunted wheat fields won’t see the combine this summer. Cattle operators are severely cutting back their herds for lack of grass. Little moisture since February in wide swaths of the Northwest is to blame. And drought is deepening across the West, with federal drought maps showing massive and growing areas of red. Read More
Mysti Meiers and Danielle Kleist say they don't define themselves as Asian Americans first, but as human beings. And that’s how they wish the rest of us would see them. Continue Reading Two Asian American Friends In The Read More
The company Gameloft tackled the redesign of Oregon Trail for Apple Arcade just in time for the increase in worldwide play because of the pandemic. Its target audience: the now-40-year-olds and their kids. And more Native American players. Read More
Easterday Ranches and Easterday Farms has provided beef, potatoes, onions and produce to dinner tables for more than three generations. Now in bankruptcy, many of the family’s key properties will be sold to repay debts. It’s one of the largest sales of prime water-rich agricultural lands in the Columbia Basin in recent history. Read More
Across the Northwest, many Latinx families are facing similar barriers to getting vaccinated and other issues. Adding to the complexity is powerful misinformation on social media and by word-of-mouth, the recent health concerns over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and religious reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Read More
Seven cattle have been found mutilated over the last three months in Crook County and the sheriff’s office is actively investigating and hoping for a break in the case. This follows several recent cases in the past few years in rural Oregon. Read More
Much of the Northwest’s high country is still deep in good snowpack but short on rain this spring. That has dryland wheat farmers and cattle ranchers fretting. Cold, wind and dust are even wreaking havoc with produce farmers in the region. Read More
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation are opening a two-day mass vaccination event to any resident age 16 and above who resides in the 11 counties that span the tribes’ ceded territory. The offer is open to anyone, not just tribal members. Read More
A boom in American consumers’ online shopping during the pandemic has prompted a boost in imports from Asia. But that left U.S. agriculture products without a ride back. Many ships aren’t waiting to be loaded with agricultural goods at West Coast ports before heading back across the ocean with empty containers. Plus, the Trump administration’s trade war hit apples hard. Read More
Washington rancher Cody Easterday pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal district court to defrauding Tyson Foods Inc. and another unnamed company out of more than $244 million. Easterday admitted charging the companies for the costs of purchasing and feeding hundreds of thousands of fictitious cattle. Read More
Farmers say they’ve already taken a hit from the pandemic and higher fertilizer costs. Now they are going to get 3% less for their potatoes from Lamb Weston, McCain Foods and J.R. Simplot Company. Continue Reading Cut And Fried: Read More
When wineries release their new vintages to the public it’s often called “Spring release.” Those bottlings have been cooped up all winter aging. So have winter-weary patrons. Those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are stepping out to wineries and meeting in small groups both outdoors and in. Read More
The company that makes Aplets and Cotlets, the famous jellied fruit candy from central Washington, is calling it quits this June. Served up for Christmas and family reunions alike, the gelatinous apple and apricot treat studded with walnuts was famous far beyond Washington’s borders. Read More
Cattle rustling is as old as the West. And a recent $225 million alleged cattle heist involving Easterday Ranches and Tyson Fresh Meats in Washington is one of the largest cases in U.S. history. And that case, like others nowadays, happened on paper, not on the range. Read More
The starting point of a Northwest-based saga of alleged invented cattle, a multi-million dollar lawsuit and two bankruptcies may lie in a short handwritten list of numbers scrawled on a lined sheet of three-hole punch paper that purports to show Cody Easterday’s annual losses from speculating on the cattle futures market. Read More
Just how do you miss 200,000 phantom cattle over several years? That’s what some people in the Columbia Basin cattle-feeding industry are wondering in an ongoing saga between Tyson Fresh Meats and Easterday Ranches. Read More
In southeast Washington, the welfare of more than 50,000 head of cattle is worrying Tyson Fresh Meats. Can the herd continue to be fed and cared for while the company set up to guard over them, Easterday Ranches, files for federal bankruptcy? Read More
Since December, Easterday Ranches in WA has been embroiled in an alleged scandalous cattle rustling scheme. Now, a bankruptcy case calls into question whether a $225M lawsuit will go forward. Continue Reading Read More
The case of so-called modern-day cattle rustling in southeastern WA involving 200,000 fake cows and $225M is getting more complex by the day. Now, Easterday Ranches has filed for bankruptcy. Continue Reading Read More
As the public media Northwest News Network reported Wednesday, Tyson recently filed a suit against Washington-based Easterday Ranches seeking to get a neutral third party to take over the business until accounts could be settled. It came after Easterday allegedly made up hundreds of thousands of cattle on paper and fictitiously fed them, costing Tyson more than $225 Read More
A major Washington cattle operator allegedly “fed” over 200,000 head of cattle that didn’t exist for years. Now Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc is suing. Tyson says in a lawsuit filed in Franklin County Superior Court this week that its losses are more than $225 million. The losses are from false cattle sales and feed costs. Read More
A potato processing plant in the central WA town of Warden burned down in a dramatic overnight fire Thursday. It’s a hit to the already struggling NW potato industry. Continue Reading Potato Plant Down: Fire At Central Read More
Washington state plans to roll out mass doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at regional hubs starting Monday, Jan. 25. But some local officials say they received little notice and that they’re far from ready. Continue Reading Read More
As President Donald Trump prepared to leave office, his Department of Energy was celebrating that a new analytical lab was “ready to operate” at the Hanford Site in southeast Washington. Continue Reading Hanford Waste Still On The Read More
Sheriff's deputy Jon Melvin, 60, was found Dec. 11, 2020, in bed at his home in Desert Aire, in southwestern Grant County. Fellow deputies were checking on his welfare after family members were unable to reach him. Continue Read More
The first time it happened, it was a squeezing feeling. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My heart raced. At the hospital, I got an EKG and took a blood test. It wasn’t a heart attack. Just felt like one. Doctors are learning COVID-19 isn’t just a respiratory illness. Some of those who’ve had it, like me, end up with heart inflammation, heart rhythm problems or worse. Read More
David Bowen has owned his own bar in Cle Elum, been a Kittitas County commissioner and managed groundwater nitrate cleanup in the Yakima Valley. Now, he’ll hold the U.S. Department of Energy accountable for its cleanup at the site using the Tri-Party Agreement. That’s a 1989 document struck between Ecology, the federal Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Read More
“No legitimate organic grower would ever use Glyphosate or Diquat” says one farmer of a product that WA, OR and CA have said farmers should stop using. The company that makes “Agro Gold WS” says they’ll appeal. Continue Read More
Thousands of people are flocking to the Bavarian-themed town in central Washington. The mayor says nearly 70% of Leavenworth merchants’ income comes in these few holiday weeks. Dr. Malcolm Butler, health officer for Chelan and Douglas counties, says visitors are less likely to bring COVID-19 to Leavenworth than get it there. Read More
Rural America has been the site COVID hotspots this year: prisons, nursing homes and meat packers. But there are few doctors, ICU beds and little backup when health care workers also get sick. Ken Roberts died Nov. 29, just one person among many who died in an outbreak of COVID-19 at North Valley Extended Care in the Okanogan County town of Tonasket — population about Read More
Lori Freeman calls the loss of top public health officers across the country “steady and alarming.” Freeman heads the National Association of County and City Health Officials. More than 70 have been fired, left or plan to leave their posts since the pandemic began in the U.S. In fact, so many are leaving, she’s keeping a spreadsheet. Read More
In the weeks leading up to the election, residents in five smaller areas around eastern Washington and Oregon spoke about how they were feeling. Now, as people are awaiting results, we checked in with a few. Continue Reading ‘Dry Read More
In total, Anna King saw five sunrises and drove more than 1,000 miles on her way to five towns spanning both sides of the Columbia in eastern Washington and Oregon. She listened hard to the worries and hopes of as many as 100 hundred residents in the region. Read More
