As of Friday afternoon, 61 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Yakima County. Even though at least another 17 patients were transported out of the county, the region’s major hospital, Virginia Mason Memorial, had completely run out of hospital beds as of Thursday night. Read More
Even as Washington counties work to reopen in various phases of the state’s four-phase reopening plan, county jails and state prisons and corrections institutions continue to deal with coronavirus outbreaks and COVID-19 infections. Read More
A survey by the Yakima Health District found that just 35 percent of residents wear masks in public. That spurred the health district to issue a masking directive, hoping to get 80% of residents to use face coverings. Continue Read More
Yakima County has the most COVID-19 cases per capita among West Coast states. The largely Latinx agricultural workforce helped secure the backbone of the local economy. Continue Reading During Pandemic, Yakima Farmworkers Kept Their Read More
Yakima County has the highest rate of COVID-19 infections among counties on the West Coast. That means a larger portion of the county's population has tested positive for the coronavirus compared to other counties. Continue Reading What’s Driving Read More
News and information on the COVID-19 pandemic released by state and local governments is primarily in English. And though health districts and emergency management offices translate some of that information into Spanish, immigrant communities in places like the Yakima Valley still struggle to access that information. Read More
Even with increasing numbers in Yakima County, there’s some good news. Health officials say they’re seeing fewer new hospitalizations — meaning the much-watched curve could be flattening. Continue Reading With Coronavirus Read More
First responders in Moscow, Idaho will soon have access to more respirators, face shields and gowns. And in Washington’s Yakima Valley, a shuttered former hospital may soon be reopened by the state with the cooperation of its bankrupt owner to continue hospital service. Read More
Like many decades-old businesses, Yakima and Seattle-based PaintSmith has had experience with layoffs. After the 2008 recession, the company went from 80 employees to just 10. It taught Smith that his company can survive financial downturns. Read More
According to the county Department of Corrections, the captured inmates told officials they were upset after Gov. Jay Inslee announced a statewide order to stay at home to fight the coronavirus pandemic and “the virus outbreak has them all scared.” Read More
Coronavirus continues to spread in Washington and Idaho. As of Sunday, March 22, Washington had nearly 2,000 confirmed cases, with at least 95 deaths since the outbreak began. Idaho’s official number stood at 47 cases, with most in Blaine County. Read More
The United States Department of Justice is suing King County over its ban on deportation flights from Boeing Field. A King County executive order banned deportation flights from Boeing Field in April 2019. Since then, ICE has diverted detainees to and from Yakima airport by bus. Read More
As more old orchard land in central Washington is converted into housing developments and schools, there are concerns over legacy pesticides in the soil where children play and families live. That’s especially true in Wenatchee and Yakima. Read More
Civil rights groups are poised to sue Yakima County over their election system, alleging it dilutes Latinx votes in violation of the state Voting Rights Act. Continue Reading Civil Rights Groups Claim Latinx Disenfranchisement Read More
A proposal to change Yakima’s form of government by replacing the city manager with an elected mayor is off the table — at least for now. City council members voted Tuesday to remove the measure from the February ballot hours after two lawsuits were filed by a coalition of civil rights organizations. Read More
An outbreak of Hepatitis A that’s been spreading throughout Washington state has reached Yakima County. It’s expected to grow over the winter, according to the county health district. The district has confirmed 18 cases of Hepatitis A since declaring an outbreak Nov. 7. The state Department of Health has confirmed 124 cases this year, mostly in King and Spokane counties. Read More
El próximo consejo municipal en Yakima será menos diverso. Solo una candidata Latina tiene una ventaja estrecha sobre su oponente electoral, cuatro años después de que las primeras Latinas tomaron cargos en el ayuntamiento después de una elección histórica. ¿Qué sucedió? Read More
Yakima's next council will likely be different. Only two Latina candidates ran for office this year, and just one has a lead — a narrow one — over her opponent. Yakima’s population is nearly half Latinx. Continue Reading Read More
La única candidata latina postulada para el Consejo Municipal de Yakima parece haber perdido la eleccion. En resultados preliminares, Eliana Macías perdió contra Kenton Gartrell, quien ha recibido 57 por ciento del voto. Continue Read More
The only Latina candidate running for Yakima City Council appears to have lost her bid. That means Yakima -- the population of which is nearly 50 percent Latinx -- will likely be governed by an all-white council for the first time since 2015. Read More
Esta tarde, el consejo municipal de @CityofYakima considerará establecer el cargo de alcalde en el ayuntamiento, elegido por toda la ciudad. Pero elecciones como estas han reprimido el voto latino, segun el ACLU Continue Read More
Tuesday, Nov. 5 is election day, but the city of Yakima is debating what might go on its next ballot in 2020. Councilmembers are considering a proposal to put the establishment of a mayoral position to a vote. The Yakima mayor would replace the city manager’s position and be elected by the city at-large. Read More
The demonstrations, including those in the Tri-Cities and Yakima, were part of a global effort coordinated largely by students and young adults to draw attention to climate change and the need for elected officials, business leaders and individuals to take action. Read More
Back in June, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that some citizenship interviews and naturalization ceremonies would take place in Portland or Yakima instead of the local Seattle office. Officials said it would help cut wait times. Now the city is helping provide transportation. Read More
NWPB listeners and viewers have a new voice and face helping to bring them the news of the Northwest – particularly central Washington’s Yakima Valley. Continue Reading Meet NWPB’s New Yakima Valley ReporterRead More
Looking for a road trip and food trip this Labor Day weekend? The Yakima Valley town of Granger hosts its annual Menudo Festival, complete with a contest for those who want to show off their tripe-cooking skills. Continue Reading Get A Read More
Informe critica a Yakima por vuelos ICE de deportación, mientras la ciudad explica dilema financiero
Un portavoz de Yakima dice que la ciudad vigila de cerca las operaciones de ICE que ocurren localmente. Sin embargo, el Centro de Derechos Humanos de la UW allega que “Yakima permanece responsable por su rol en envío de detenidos para ser abusados en otros sitios.” Read More
A new report from the University of Washington Center for Human Rights estimates that on average 160 people in ICE custody now flow through the Yakima airport each week. The city receives money for each of those flights, and is at risk of losing millions in federal grants if they don't allow them. Read More
Immigrants in South Seattle and Bellevue who applied for citizenship will now have to travel to Yakima or Portland for their naturalization interview instead of having it at the local Seattle office. Continue Reading Read More
This month, more than 3,000 Army National Guard soldiers from Washington, Oregon and California have taken up temporary residence at the Yakima Training Center. Continue Reading At Yakima Training Center, Thousands Of Read More
Seattle’s Boeing Field and the Yakima Air Terminal have a choice: Let Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) flights land at the airport or risk future money from the government. It started in April when King County Executive Dow Constantine issued an order to rid Boeing Field of ICE flights. Read More
After losing its only flight operator at Boeing Field last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement switched to the Yakima Air Terminal in Central Washington. Continue Reading ICE Lands Deportation Flight In Yakima Read More
The only thing unique about this twice-weekly child play space, buried deep in a state Department of Social and Health Services office in Yakima, are its customers: families in crisis. "When they come into this room and are here for a while you see the shoulders drop," Maria Vasquez said. "They relax. They settle. They smile." Read More
Esta cafetería en Yakima lo tiene todo. El cafe esta bueno, tiene un gran ambiente y el wifi nunca falla. Pero Northtown Coffeehouse también es reconocido como un lugar de bodas. Continue Reading Mucho Amor (y Cafe) En Esta Estación de Tren en YakimaRead More
North Town Coffeehouse in Yakima has it all. Great espresso, great ambience and great wifi. It also has a constant line of wedding ceremonies -- over 370 last year. Continue Reading A Whole Latte Love At This Yakima Train Station Turned Read More
At this time last year, authorities in Central Washington were on high alert because of the slow-moving Rattlesnake Ridge landslide near Yakima. A year later, what’s changed? The landslide isn’t quite over – yet. But it has slowed down significantly. Read More
The Environmental Health Disparities Map ranks neighborhoods from 1 to 10. Ten is coded in red, meaning a higher environmental risk while 1, being the lowest, is coded in blue. On that map, Yakima County is a big, red blemish. Read More
The Washington State Department of Health released its annual report on HIV and AIDS this week, pegged to the Dec. 1 World AIDS Day. According to the report, 14,000 people are HIV positive in Washington, on par with past years. Continue Read More
Angeles Pulido has been a nurse for 18 years, inspired to get trained and work with HIV/AIDS patients in Yakima after reading a Time magazine article. She remembers patients like one of her first: “Deep black, deep black. To see those eyes. I’ll always remember him. He was one of the first patients I had the opportunity to be with.” Read More
Emily Washines was 18 years old when she was crowned Miss National Congress of American Indians. Yakama tribal councilmembers and elders sung a warrior song for her and then extracted a promise. Tribal leaders had something in mind. They wanted Washines to remember a message about a little-known war that wracked the Northwest in the 1850s. Read More
Sometimes we grieve for people we’ve never met. Walking through a cemetery, looking at the graves of people who exist to you only as names in stone, it’s easy to wonder at the loss. It’s a shallow grief, not the long-term grief for a friend lost, but the fleeting interjection of some unknowable person into your periphery. Read More
Recently, 18 Filipino veterans received Congressional Gold Medal replicas at the Filipino Community Hall in Wapato, Wash. All but two were awarded posthumously. Continue Reading Yakima Valley Filipino WWII Vets Honored Read More
The 2018 Midterm election is upon us, and now it’s time to wait and make sure all the ballots are counted. But how does that process actually work? Continue Reading How Does Your Ballot Get Counted In Washington? Veeeery CarefullyRead More
Some Washington Latino-owned businesses say they were wrongly put on a list that claimed they were against I-1631, a state ballot initiative seeking to tax carbon emissions. Continue Reading Latino Businesses Caught In Read More
It’s September, so the hops harvest is in full swing in Washington’s Yakima Valley. At the Carpenter family’s farm in Granger, workers are making their way between rows of trellises, pulling down vines and feeding them into a sorting machine. Continue Read More
Yakima will soon be home to the largest farmworker housing complex in Washington. The revamped FairBridge hotel officially opened Friday, June 1, and the first guest workers will be housed there beginning June 11th. Read More
May Day demonstrations happened around the Northwest May 1, including in Latino-concentrated Yakima. The peaceful gathering focused on immigration reform. But the turnout was low compared to previous years with only a couple hundred people there. Read More
May 1st marks International Workers’ Day. In Yakima, May Day organizers are pushing last-minute flyers before their march on Tuesday. They hope for strong turnout from farmworkers, the immigrant community, and Latinos. But some are worried the political climate will affect attendance. Read More
Most people think of asthma as a city kid problem — but it turns out rural kids are just as likely to have asthma. And the children of the people who grow our food are especially vulnerable. Researchers at the University of Washington and the Yakima Valley Farm Workers’ Clinic are working on a new approach to solving the problem. Read More
Yakima County Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday, April 10 to support mining operations that the Yakama Nation believes will disturb a Native burial ground. The battle is three years in the making. Continue Reading Yakama Nation Says Read More