Wildfire activity in the Inland Northwest has increased in recent years, but strong evidence suggests that much of the Western United States is in a fire deficit.
When you call 911, you are likely facing one of the worst moments in your life. In that moment, you expect a quick, reliable response because the difference between life and death can come down to seconds.
The 200-acre Thorpe property in the Latah Valley was rushed into a land exchange by Hilary Franz in her last weeks as the state’s commissioner of public lands. In the coming days, the Board of Natural Resources has opportunity to fix that mistake.
When I entered medical school, I had two goals: learn to provide the best care possible to my patients and to build lasting, trusting relationships with them. To cultivate those relationships, I was taught trust was everything.
As a retired state biologist, I spent a long, productive and enjoyable career working for Idahoans to preserve, protect and perpetuate all of their wildlife. But one of my biggest frustration’s was watching the continuing and dramatic decline of Idaho’s wild salmon.
Across Washington state, school districts are grappling with a growing funding crisis, struggling to meet the needs of students and educators amid rising costs and resource shortages. Despite efforts to increase public education investment in recent years, the state’s approach to K-12 funding is falling short, leaving many districts – particularly those serving low-income communities – without the financial support they need. While some areas see improvements, the inequities in our funding system mean that the schools serving our most vulnerable students are still being left behind, unable to provide the equitable education every child deserves.
“Unaccountable bureaucracies,” “waste,” “buildings filled with bloat,” “spending out of control.” With these justifications, Elon Musk’s DOGE has up to now enjoyed a blank check from the new administration to dismiss a large chunk of the federal workforce … with little evaluation of actual waste.
Like many people here in Washington state, we have watched in alarm, horror and outrage as the new federal administration has taken a chainsaw to critical public programs and thrown millions of lives into disarray – all supposedly in the name of “efficiency and cost-savings.” The decisions made the past few weeks will come at a terrible cost to us all: in researchers losing jobs or grant funding before developing life-saving drugs; in everyday people facing more exorbitant grocery prices due to tariffs; in loss of access to gender-affirming care and surgeries to people whose lives depend on them.
As a mother of seven, most recently becoming a grandmother, nothing matters more to me than knowing our children will be safe and thrive, not just today, but after we’re no longer able to care for them. Working as I do in real estate, I helped my three oldest kids find places to live, but they don’t have the housing stability they deserve. They are experiencing rent gouging at its worst – rent going from $700 to $1,300 in six months, with just 20 days’ notice.
Washington’s Legislature should make a bold move to protect its residents from those who choose to drink and drive by lowering the legal blood alcohol concentration limit from 0.08 to 0.05.
Many people have supported tariffs to raise federal revenue and to pressure foreign leaders. However, any enthusiasm for increased tariffs must be tempered by the economic reality that for us in Eastern Washington, tariffs mean trouble.
