Northwest

HANFORD, Wash. — You’ve heard the grim numbers about the Hanford nuclear site — the millions of gallons of radioactive waste and the growing price tag for cleanup.

PORTLAND — Three years ago, Lindsey Topping-Schuetz became a first-time mother when her son Owen was born. He was six weeks early and went immediately to the neonatal intensive care unit, wher…

BAKER CITY — When Daniel Koopman arrived in Baker City in August 2015 to become the Baker County director of Blue Mountain Community College, smoke darkened the sky and hung over the town.

RICHLAND, Wash. — Not enough is known to decide on the best and most economical way to treat much of the low-activity radioactive waste in Hanford’s underground tanks, said a committee of the …

CORVALLIS — Ancient human artifacts found in a remote corner of northwestern Idaho could deliver a major blow to a long-held theory that North America’s first humans arrived by crossing a land…

WASHOUGAL, Wash. — Residents of Washougal, Washington, say a controversial rock-mining operation is disrupting their neighborhood’s peace and quiet and violating the Columbia River Gorge Natio…

PORTLAND — Conservationists are accusing the Trump administration of putting the interests of industry — including logging and grazing in the Pacific Northwest — ahead of the survival of the c…

PORTLAND — You might have noticed some smoky skies lately, particularly in the Inland Northwest from the Williams Flats Fire near the Grand Coulee Dam.

SPOKANE — More work needs to be done to determine the cost and impact on the region's power grid in the next 30 to 50 years if four dams on the Snake River are removed, experts say.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — 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 pat…

RICHLAND, Wash. — A new federal report says that a massive building at the Hanford Nuclear Site is worse off than managers thought.

SPOKANE, Wash. — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife on Wednesday authorized killing some members of a wolf pack that are preying on cattle in the northeastern corner of the state.

An irrigation district serving farmland and residents in Kennewick and Richland, Wash., says the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is threatening its water supply. The bureau says it is working with …

Fine fuels increasingly fire-ready

BILLINGS, Montana — Climate change in the Western U.S. means more intense and frequent wildfires churning out waves of smoke that scientists say will sweep across the continent to affect tens …

Wildfires also burn in California, Oregon

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will review the status of seven threatened or endangered species in Washington state, including four types of pocket gophers found in only two westside counties.

SPOKANE, Wash. — It’s been nearly 80 years since salmon and steelhead made it past Chief Joseph and Grand Coulee dams in Washington’s Upper Columbia Basin. It’s long been a goal for tribes to …

A drought covering all or parts of nine Western Washington counties worsened in the past week from "moderate" to "severe," the U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday.

RICHLAND, Washington — At the Hanford Nuclear Site in southeastern Washington, and across the West, winter’s deep snow and a cool spring have produced lots of brush and grass.

As the weather heats up and forests begin to dry out, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, has wildfires on his mind.

SALEM — Lacy Ramirez Gruss did vocal exercises, stretched, pulled her hair back, and slipped on some comfortable shoes.

State wildlife biologists documented at least 137 wolves in 2018, a 10% increase over the previous year, according to the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife's annual wolf report released…

The breeding male of the Walla Walla Pack captured on a remote camera on private property in northern Umatilla County in Feb., 2019.

SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown has tapped former legislator Bev Clarno to be Oregon’s 37th secretary of state.

SALEM — Nearly 150 years ago, the nation’s attention was fixed on a remote area near the Oregon-California border, where 50 Modoc Indian soldiers were fending off a thousand U.S. Army soldiers…

SALEM — A bill introduced in the House would allow more gas stations to offer self-service pumps.

The Oregon Department of Human Services Thursday disclosed that millions of agency emails had been breached in January, potentially exposing the personal medical information of hundreds of thousands.

New revenue generated from increasing Oregon’s tobacco tax would come with an additional decline in sales because Washington buyers would likely stop crossing the river to buy, economists said…

SALEM — Oregon is earthquake country, and students across the state practice duck-and-cover drills just the same as they practice fire evacuations, learning to protect themselves in the event …

State lawmakers are considering more than two dozen bills that could affect Oregonians who consume recreational and medical marijuana.

A proposed ban on clear-cutting, pesticide-spraying, road-building and fertilizing in Oregon’s forested watersheds is raising fears of severe disruptions to timber production.