When ‘The Big One’ Hits The Northwest, What Could You Do With A Few Seconds Warning?

By Tom Banse
A cracked road from an earthquake
Smartphone users who opted in to a test of the West Coast earthquake early warning system got an early taste on Thursday of what is to come. Mobile phones from Seattle to Olympia blared with an alarm for imaginary incoming shaking. The earthquake warning system -- already operational in California -- will launch for the general public in Oregon on March 11 and statewide in Read More

Washington State Lawmakers May Pass New Wealth Taxes This Year. Here’s A Breakdown

By NWPB News
Washington House representatives listen to testimony,, Jan. 24, 2019, before they unanimously voted to approve a code of conduct for the Legislature. CREDIT: TED S. WARREN/AP
Each of the proposals is different. But for many Democrats, as well as others on the political left, the goal is the same: Make the richest Washingtonians pay for COVID-19 relief programs and other services that would help people who are struggling. Democrats also say the state's current tax system is highly regressive, meaning lower-income people pay a larger share of Read More

Why We Can’t Make Vaccine Doses Any Faster

By NWPB News
An empty syringe on a table at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center after a care worker received the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 16, 2020. CREDIT: Brian van der Brug/AP
Vaccine supply chains are extremely specialized and sensitive, relying on expensive machinery, highly trained staff and finicky ingredients. Manufacturers have run into intermittent shortages of key materials, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office; the combination of surging demand and workforce disruptions from the pandemic has caused delays of four to 12 Read More

TV REVIEW: ‘It’s A Sin’ Series, Set During AIDS Epidemic, Resonates During COVID-19

By NPR News
It's a Sin follows a cast of characters (Omari Douglas, Lydia West, David Carlyle, Callum Scott Howells and Nathaniel Curtis) in London as they deal with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic. CREDIT: Ben Blackall/HBO Max
The emergence of AIDS provides the impetus for It's a Sin, a hit British series about five young people who share a London apartment over the years from 1981 to '91. The show is the semi-autobiographical brainchild of Russell T. Davies, a writer best known for creating Queer as Folk and resurrecting Doctor Who. With his gimlet eye for the pop jugular, Davies turns the Read More

Why Bill Gates Is Investing Big Time In Farmland Across Washington And The Country

By NWPB News
File photo. Washington state's richest residents, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, would pay a wealth tax on certain financial assets worth more than $1 billion under a 2021 proposed bill whose sponsor says she is seeking a fair and equitable tax code. Under the bill, starting Jan. 1, 2022, for taxes due in 2023, a 1% tax would be levied not on income, but on "extraordinary" assets ranging from cash, publicly traded options, futures contracts, and stocks and bonds. CREDIT: Elains Thompson/AP
Seattle’s technology billionaires are many things: innovators, visionaries, philanthropists and some less polite descriptors, depending on whom you ask. But thanks to some scrupulous digging by industry journal The Land Report, which tracks land ownership across the country, we now know that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has another feather in his multi hyphenated career Read More

Assault Survivor Groups Denounce Former State Senator On Washington Redistricting Commission

By NWPB News
Senate Republican floor leader Joe Fain, R-Auburn. CREDIT: TED WARREN
Groups representing women and sexual assault survivors are denouncing the appointment of former state Sen. Joe Fain to the state redistricting commission, a body that will shape Washington state politics for the next decade. Fain, 40, narrowly lost his reelection bid in November 2018, after being accused of raping a woman years earlier. The former Republican state senator Read More

Washington State’s Vaccine Rollout Highlights Difficulty Of Enforcing Eligibility And Line-Jumping

By Eilís O'Neill
Workers and patients at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site near downtown Seattle in January. "The vast majority who are coming in do appear to be meeting the eligibility criteria," says Dr. Jeff Duchin, King County's public health officer. Grant Hindsley/AFP via Getty Images
The Washington state Department of Health told us they aren't keeping track of who's eligible and who's not among those vaccinated, but anecdotal evidence suggests ineligible people are getting vaccines at many clinics across the state. This happens because each provider must come up with its own process for checking eligibility, and most rely on the honor system. Read More

Confronting The Blind Spot In The Great American Protest Song ‘This Land Is Your Land’

By NPR News
Picture of Woody Guthrie performing
Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" has long been offered as an "alternative national anthem," performed by musicians from Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger to Chicano Batman and Sharon Jones. Its message seems fairly simple — we are all equally entitled to the rights of this country, including the land we stand on. But Native Americans will just as soon point out Read More

Undocumented Workers, Disproportionately Hit By Pandemic, May Get More Help In Washington

By NWPB News
Ramón Núñez is currently driving for food delivery services to make money after switching from driving for Uber in order to lessen his exposure to COVID-19. He is photographed in Issaquah on Jan. 27, 2021. He is one of about 60,000 undocumented immigrants to get funds from the state during the pandemic. CREDIT: Dorothy Edwards/Crosscut
If approved next month, the additional $70 million would make Washington state a nationwide leader in help offered to the undocumented community, which has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, Latino and Black people in particular. Last year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an unprecedented $125 million in aid for undocumented workers. Washington state Read More

With Worries Of Armed Protests, Inauguration Day At Washington State Capitol Was Quiet

By NWPB News
John Hess holding a sign describing President Joe Biden as a “traitor” and a “thief," as he stands outside a barricade set up by state troopers at the Washington state Capitol building, Jan. 20, 2021. CREDIT: Melissa Santos/Crosscut
Washington National Guard troops were on site to guard against any repeat of the violence and disruption seen Jan. 6. While security forces were less visible than they have been in recent days, a spokesperson for the Washington State Patrol said they were still there protecting the seat of the Washington state government. He declined to share more information, but said the Read More