Do you want to own an old ferryboat? A retired Washington car ferry is for sale again after the current owner's many ideas for the boat did not work out. Continue Reading Want To Own A Big Ol’ Boat? A Former Washington State Read More
Effective this October, a standard Washington, Oregon or Idaho driver's license won't pass muster with the Transportation Security Administration to board a domestic flight. Continue Reading What’s In Your Wallet? It’s Read More
Remember back when it didn't cost anything to visit a state park for the day? A senior Republican in the Washington Legislature says the state's budget surplus should make it possible for park access to be free again. Read More
The crash of a Boeing 737 airliner shortly after takeoff from the Iranian capital hit home in the Pacific Northwest Wednesday. The crash victims include immigrant families just across the U.S. border in British Columbia. Read More
Boeing is close to maxing out the storage space it has leased at the Moses Lake, Washington, airport for its grounded 737 Max airliners. The plane maker plans to deploy a fresh wave of mechanics across the mountains to maintain the large fleet until those planes can fly again. Read More
The decades-long quest of Chinook tribal members to regain federal recognition gets another airing in court on Monday. A U.S. District Court judge is scheduled to hear oral arguments on cross-claims for summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the tribe against the Department of the Interior. Read More
As of the New Year, no bus fare is needed to ride the Olympia area's Intercity Transit. On Wednesday, the transit agency became the largest in the Pacific Northwest to eliminate fare collection, leapfrogging Corvallis and Missoula which did so earlier. Read More
A holiday wish of many Pacific Northwest rail fans is more roundtrips on the Amtrak Cascades schedule with greater speed and reliability. But in order to beef up train service between Seattle and Portland, a bypass route south of Tacoma needs to be reopened. There is still no fixed date to return Amtrak trains to those tracks where a deadly derailment happened just over Read More
The once-every-ten-years census count of everyone living in the United States starts next month, beginning with remote villages in Alaska. West Coast states are spending local tax dollars to boost the response when their turn comes beginning in March. Read More
The panel that sets highway and bridge tolls in Washington is recommending the state follow Oregon's lead and phase in a pay-by-the-mile road tax to make up for expected declines in gas tax revenue. The nonbinding recommendation to the Washington Legislature from the state Transportation Commission drew flak from skeptical taxpayers and faces a bumpy road ahead in the 2020 Read More
Airbus has wrapped up flight testing of a pilotless air taxi in eastern Oregon skies and is moving on. The global aerospace company, along with its rival Boeing and many others, is striving to make flying cars an option for your urban commute someday. Read More
A fully electric seaplane has made its first flight over the mouth of the Fraser River near Vancouver. The maiden flight represents a milestone in the long process of reducing the aviation industry's emissions, noise and costs by electrifying short-to-medium distance commercial flying. Read More
In this season of holiday shopping, now is about the time when many of us get stuck and don't know what to get for someone on our gift list. There are at least three Pacific Northwest companies who may come to your rescue with ideas for unconventional presents. A hint: they involve used dolls, a precious, exotic spice and a different kind of gift card. Read More
Thursday was supposed to be the day that a Washington state ballot measure to lower car registration fees took effect. But the state Supreme Court has let an injunction stand against what is known as the $30 car tabs initiative. That means hundreds of thousands of drivers will get full price bills in the coming months that they thought they had voted to reduce. Read More
Scientists found nine to eleven instances over roughly the last 3,000 years where a Cascadia earthquake seems to have triggered a San Andreas quake. The vast majority of great Cascadia quakes during that period have a correlation on the San Andreas Fault. Read More
The problem with regular driver licenses from Oregon and Washington is that both states have chosen not to verify the immigration status of applicants. Continue Reading ‘That ID Won’t Fly’: Deadline Read More
New companies are poised to bring back supersonic commercial flying. A recently-formed industry group wants to designate airspace over the Inland Northwest for the flight testing. Continue Reading Supersonics – The Fast Read More
An eight-member federal court jury on Wednesday ordered Amtrak to pay Madeleine Garza of Maple Valley, Washington, $4.5 million for pain, suffering and possible future disabilities. Garza received spinal injuries and broke her pelvis during the derailment of the speeding Amtrak Cascades train, which was traveling from Seattle to Portland. Read More
After bemoaning that the state's highways, bridges, ferries and rail cars "are on a glide path to failure," Washington State Department of Transportation Secretary Roger Millar laid out the case for building an ultra-high speed railway on dedicated track. Read More
If you ask American consumers whether fresh seafood or previously frozen tastes better, you are bound to get "fresh" as the answer. But blind taste tests conducted by Oregon State University found that fish caught and quickly frozen at sea rated as good or better than supposedly "fresh" fish bought at the supermarket. Read More
Earlier this year, the Washington and Oregon legislatures voted by wide margins to ditch the twice-yearly time switch. Oregon's move is contingent on California getting on board too, which won't happen until next year at the earliest. Read More
As many travelers can attest, phenomenal growth at Sea-Tac Airport is pushing against the physical limits of the terminal and airfield. That is why Washington state legislators earlier this year voted to create a siting commission to get the ball rolling on building a new primary airport. Read More
Amazon’s ever-expanding footprint in Seattle — and the polarizing growing pains that accompany it — contrasts what’s currently happening in northeastern Oregon. Continue Reading Amazon To Expand Data Centers In Northeastern Oregon, Read More
The old Amtrak route started in Seattle, went south to Portland, then east through the Columbia River Gorge to Boise, and then to Salt Lake City, with an onward connection to Chicago. A volunteer-led nonprofit called the Association of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates (AORTA) proposes to revive at least the Portland to Boise segment. Read More
The state of Oregon is pushing the community hospitals along the Oregon Coast to improve their earthquake resilience. This comes after a state report predicted none of them would be able to sustain operations after the feared Big One -- a magnitude 9 offshore Cascadia earthquake and tsunami. Read More
An iconic Boeing jet model nicknamed the Queen of the Skies swooped back into Moses Lake, Washington, Tuesday where it once was a regular presence. This queen will be accessorized to carry bling under its wing while it's there. Continue Read More
Airbus, along with its rival Boeing and many others, is striving to make flying cars an option for your urban commute. The enthusiasm around the test flight hangar in Pendleton, Oregon, has to be leavened, though. Industry insiders said the technology is running years ahead of regulators and public acceptance. Read More
Plastics in the ocean food chain has become a hot topic for local scientists, for similar reasons city and state policy makers and activists are debating plastic bag bans and how to reduce plastic straw and bottled water usage. All are concerned that the world's oceans are awash in plastic trash and fibers. Read More
Multiple teams of earthquake researchers are looking in what may seem like an unlikely place to figure out how strongly the Northwest shook
during great quakes in the past.They're poking around the bottom of lakes in Western Washington and Oregon. It turns out lakes preserve a nifty earthquake record that can shed light on the next "Really Big One." Read More
The movement to “ditch the switch” — the twice-yearly ritual of changing our clocks between daylight and standard time — just got a push from British Columbia, where residents signaled they are keen to join Washington state and Oregon on permanent daylight saving time. Read More
Triple Nickles thought they were destined for Japan when they stopped at Pendleton Army Airfield in the spring of 1945. But no, they were about to be converted into smokejumpers for Operation Firefly. Professional smokejumping started in 1939 in Washington's Methow Valley. Read More
The crash on Dec. 18, 2017, killed three passengers and injured 65 others, including people on board the speeding train and motorists on adjacent Interstate 5. Amtrak asserted the only question the jury would need to wrestle with is "what is fair and reasonable compensation." Read More
An archaeological dig along the Salmon River in western Idaho has yielded evidence of one of the oldest human settlements in the Americas yet found. Newly published findings from the excavation give impetus to a scientific rethinking of when and how the first people arrived in North America. Read More
The Pacific Northwest Seismic Network has detected more than 4,500 tremors over the past two weeks deep beneath the Olympic Peninsula and southern Vancouver Island and from another swarm stretching from Eugene to the Siskiyou Mountains. Read More
If you were among the 1.7 million people who got a mysterious, unbidden $91.94 check in the mail recently, you may wonder if it is legitimate. It is! And the best news may be that recipients will get a similar check next summer. Read More
Whale watch tour companies have knocked a proposed orca protection initiative off the November ballot in San Juan County, Washington. The ballot measure would have asked voters to greatly increase the stand-off distance between boats and endangered killer whales. Read More
Photo analysis by a forensic imaging expert from suburban Seattle is backing up a new search for the pioneer aviator Amelia Earhart. Right now, a National Geographic expedition is at an uninhabited island in the South Pacific looking for Earhart's missing airplane. Read More
Humpback whales are resurfacing in big numbers in the Salish Sea, the Columbia River mouth and the Northwest coast. Along with excitement over the humpbacks' return comes concern about ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. Read More
A whale expert is reporting a rare sighting of blue whales off the Washington state coast. The largest animals on the planet have also been sighted in unusual numbers offshore of Oregon this summer. Continue Reading Whale-Come To Read More
A badly entangled whale is swimming free again after a dramatic rescue off the Washington coast on Thursday evening. The 35-foot long humpback whale calmly allowed responders to cut it free of fishing gear, according to witnesses. Read More
Pacific Northwesterners who forage for wild mushrooms are noticing that the late summer and fall delicacies are coming in early this year. Edible wild mushrooms are now flooding wholesale markets. Continue Reading Get Out The Sauté Read More
Dozens of Northwest doctors are teaming up with a national nonprofit to write a different kind of prescription. Their "park prescriptions" direct patients with obesity, anxiety, depression or certain chronic conditions to spend more time outside. Read More
Oregon State University created something of a sensation back in 2015 when researchers announced they discovered and patented "seaweed that tastes like bacon." Four years later, the hard work of commercialization continues, but guilt-free bacon from the sea remains elusive. Read More
Giant rats sound like something to be scared of, perhaps. But the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium in Tacoma, Washington, thinks quite the opposite about the African giant pouched rats it just put on display. The rodents are billed as "hero rats." Read More
An environmental nonprofit is gauging interest in the creation of an orca enclosure in Washington's San Juan Islands. The organization is hosting public outreach meetings over the coming week in six Western Washington locations. Continue Read More
Long-distance hiking can be the experience of a lifetime. It also can present dicey to mundane hurdles, like having to hike stretches along busy highways or logging roads. Trail crews are working this summer to improve some enticing regional routes -- that you may or may not have tried -- including the Oregon Coast Trail and the east-west Pacific Northwest Trail from Read More
In the span of just a few years, the Washington State Patrol has built up a fleet of more than 100 drones. At last check, the Oregon State Police had three. The Washington patrol says its small quadcopters are used for crash investigations, not for surveillance. Read More
How's this for emergency preparedness? An elementary school located in the tsunami inundation zone in Cannon Beach, Oregon, has equipped every student with a personal disaster survival kit. Continue Reading ‘Kits For Read More
Boeing is running out of space to park grounded 737 Max jets in the Puget Sound region and is now sending some of its Renton, Washington, factory output to Moses Lake's spacious airport. Continue Reading Undeliverable Boeing Read More
The tally of dead gray whales washing up on Pacific Northwest beaches during this year's northbound migration keeps going up. That's prompting an unusual request for volunteers from a federal agency. Continue Reading Mind If We Drop Off A Read More
