ellensburg

New statewide grants are helping people find ways to improve the air in their communities.

A group of poets in Kittitas County will honor eight important Washington women in verse.March is Women’s History Month, and this Friday at Gallery One in Ellensburg, the poets will perform their crown of sonnets, a succession of seven, separate sonnets, at the Women’s History Month Poetry Extravaganza.

Deepening polarization is eroding faith in the electoral and democratic process on which our democracy depends. What can we do to cultivate mutual respect, repair damaged relationships, and reweave a civic fabric frayed from years of growing division? In this episode, produced by NWPB, we discuss working and speaking together in the Northwest in a climate that is increasingly difficult to do so.

The south-central region of Washington's 8-region area for coronavirus restrictions can immediately reopen. That news came Sunday from the state Department of Health. It means the counties encompassing Walla Walla, the Tri-Cities, Yakima and Ellensburg can advance to Phase 2.

Rescheduled fall sports seasons for high school athletes are kicking off this month in large parts of Washington state and Oregon. The general happiness this brought came with a dose of consternation among some coaches and families over strict COVID-19 safety guidelines set down by state health authorities.

As school districts across the state scramble to transition their classrooms safely from the online world back to the real world, they may benefit from the advice of the dozens of Washington districts that welcomed students back into their halls this past fall.

Online classes and no fall college sports spell trouble for Washington college towns like Pullman, Ellensburg and Bellingham that lean on a higher education-fueled economy.

Small, mostly white rural towns across Washington are standing up in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter protests. Although dwarfed by comparison with the thousands protesting in places like Seattle and Portland, the people standing up against racism in smaller numbers do not think their message should be dismissed or watered down because they aren’t big enough to make the national news.

Many Washington counties have qualified to move on to Phase 2 and reopen certain businesses ahead of others. More than 20 already have. But Kittitas just got approved – after being one of the first counties to qualify.

Health officials in Kittitas County have found at least one new positive case of COVID-19: a worker at a Twin City Foods processing plant in Ellensburg. The news came Friday after more than three weeks of no new confirmed cases. That plus the county’s low population made Kittitas County eligible to lift social distancing measures earlier than other parts of the state.