Two Colville women were booked into a rural Washington jail. It became a death sentence
Critics say WA jails are letting opioid users suffer from withdrawals, leading to preventable deaths
Environment
State Agency Met with Oil-by-Rail Firm in Private Ahead of Permit Application
A 2023 DeSmog investigation uncovered a “backroom deal” between Portland city officials and Zenith Energy. New documents show the state environmental regulator also met with the company.
Oregon begins rewriting landmark climate program derailed by gas lawsuit
During the next year, the Department of Environmental Quality will work on a new program to limit climate emissions and help vulnerable communities
Idaho residents still seeing impacts of decades-old nuclear test fallout
‘The fight isn’t over’: Idaho downwinders persist after Congress cuts compensation for them.
In an era of climate change, Alaska’s predators fall prey to politics
With Alaska's wildlife numbers declining, agencies are blaming — and culling — predators. The true threat is much more complex.
Washington Law Attempts to Fill the Void in Federal Regulation of Hazardous Chemicals
With a years-long backlog in the U.S. government’s risk assessments of thousands of potentially hazardous chemicals, the new law requires companies to disclose what chemicals are used in their products.
NW states, tribes reach ‘historic’ deal with feds over Columbia River Basin fish and dams
Settlement agreement calls for a 10-year pause in legal fighting over salmon restoration efforts that dates back to the 1990s.
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.