Homeland Security’s ‘welfare’ check on Idaho migrant students raises school privacy questions
In other parts of the country, the welfare checks have resulted in children being taken out of their homes and put back into government custody
Environment
An Alaska Native tribal council greenlit a gold mine. Some tribal members aren’t happy.
Some in the Native Village of Tetlin claim their leaders broke tribal laws when agreeing to the Manh Choh mine.
Oregon’s first large-scale solar park and farm hinges on 50-year-old land use laws
A farmer behind the state’s first “agrovoltaic” farm says critics cannot stop ‘an idea whose time has come’.
Struggling salmon fishermen getting federal help in Oregon and along West Coast, but it may be too late
U.S. Department of Commerce declared a Chinook fishery disaster for 2018, 2019 and 2020 when salmon populations plummeted.
Landfills in Washington and Oregon leaked ‘explosive’ levels of methane last year
EPA inspection reports find methane exceedances are more common than operators say.
The Pacific Northwest scored $1B to create a clean hydrogen hub. Now what?
State leaders and a range of prospective fuel producers, industrial consumers, trade unions, utility companies and several Southwest Washington tribes collaborated on a joint pitch for the billion-dollar slice of federal money.
The dangerous consequences of wildland fire dispatcher burnout
An internal Forest Service survey shows a critical link in the wildfire fighting apparatus is struggling.
The threats facing Washington's cougars
Expanded development on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, viewed as a climate refuge, is encroaching on prime wildlife habitat. As big cats find it harder to avoid people, many are winding up dead.
Amid heavy smoke, wildfire crews work without practical respirators
'There are times where you just don’t breathe, because you can’t.'
Billions spent on hatcheries, habitat fails to help native Columbia River salmon, study finds
An Oregon State professor and U.S. Geological Survey biologist reviewed 50 years of data on fish survival and hatchery costs
Tribes call for feds to ban chemical in car tires that is linked to salmon deaths
So far, a more environmentally-friendly alternative to keep tire rubber from degrading hasn’t emerged.
What WA’s new wildfire smoke rules might mean for outdoor workers
Washington could be the second state to impose permanent safety regulations, but employers and workplace advocates disagree on the proposal.