Washington News Archives

Washington has a new name for a very old waterway. The inland waters including the Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Strait of George will now be known together as the Salish Sea.

Avista Utilities customers in Washington and Idaho should see lower energy bills because of a decline in natural-gas prices.

WASHINGTON a ' Internal investigations into the conduct of several House members have been exposed in an extraordinary, Internet-era breach of security involving the secretive process by which Congress polices lawmaker ethics.

Washington Medicaid patients are nearly six times more likely to die of a prescription painkiller overdose than the general population.

Is it too much to ask for a little sanity in politics today? Apparently so. The Right has been particularly insane in the attacks they've leveled against President Obama.

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition. Politicians may play the eternal optimists, but even they couldna TMt feign surprise at Wednesdaya TMs announcement that Boeing will begin assembling commercial jets omewhere other than Washington state.

The Associated Press 2:15 p.m. October 28, 2009 President Barack Obama signs the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, Wednesday, Oct.

Washington Roundtable today made the following statement in response to Boeing's Announcement Regarding the Second 787 Line.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will press for more access for American companies in China's clean energy sector, an area where Washington feels it can make inroads on its enormous trade imbalance with China.

The state is seeking public comments on two contamination-cleanup agreements -- one for Ballard and the other for Renton.

A scientific study found evidence that three Washington volcanoes might share the same magma pool.

WASHINGTON - Businesses would not be required to provide health insurance under legislation being readied for Senate debate, but large firms would owe significant penalties if any worker needed government subsidies to buy coverage on their own, according to Democratic officials familiar with talks on the bill.

Six years ago, Precept Brands chose not to compete with companies making big-bucks wines, instead seeing opportunity in the under-$10-a-bottle market.

Residents in the area around a landslide in central Washington that wiped out portions of a highway are being told to stock up just in case they become isolated for long periods.

For the past several years I've been doing an annual update on the progress of Washington malbec, one of my favorite red wine varietals.

The Coast Guard is participating in joint exercises with U.S. and Canadian naval forces in Washington area waters during the week of Oct.

Federal regulators plan to inspect large dairies, feedlots and other operations in central Washington's lower Yakima Valley that are suspected of discharging pollutants and causing groundwater contamination.

A new report says 12 percent of Washington school children are enrolled in an after school program.

A Toppenish man was sentenced to 39 years in prison for shooting a man as he left work at a convenience store.

After dialing back his attacks on President Obama's foreign policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney says the administration has damaged U.S. ties with key allies, dangerously wavered in Afghanistan, undermined progress in Iraq and sabotaged the Bush administration's national security legacy.

You absolutely must read the letter from State Senator Val Stevens on the many reasons to reject Referendum 71.

A second trial began Wednesday to determine whether a mentally ill man who stormed a Jewish center in 2006, killing one woman and wounding five others as he railed against Israel and U.S. foreign policy, was legally insane at the time.

Approximately 100,600 people in Washington lost health insurance coverage in 2009 due to a rise in unemployment, according to a report issued today by the health consumer organization Families USA.

Washington's problems seem not just humongous but beyond solutions - from the economy to health reform to global warming, Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan. But occasionally a controversy is thrust before us where we all know the right thing to do.

Hoping to ease Washington ranchers' concern about gray wolves, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing what may be the most generous compensation in the West for livestock losses to the newly returned predators.

Glenn A. Bakken and Mandy L. Martin, both of Coeur d'Alene. Larry W. Gunn and Emily P. De Mots, both of Colfax.

Former Miss Washington and Wapato native Elyse Umemoto is partnering with the state Attorney General's Office to support a domestic violence bill that would enhance penalties for repeat abusers.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 - The polls are close as Washingtonians get ready to vote on a measure that could roll back existing rights for gays and lesbians.

Gov. Mark Parkinson moved Wednesday to have an outside review of Kansas' prison system following allegations of widespread illegal sex among staff and inmates at the state's prison for women.

The reckless driving conviction of a motorcyclist north of Vancouver, Wash., has been overturned by the state Supreme Court because the arrest was made by a police officer outside his jurisdiction.

The state fire marshal's office reports there have been 42 fire fatalities so far this year compared to 31 at this time in 2008 in Washington.

A man accused of being the getaway driver for the "River Rat Bandit" has been ordered held on $2 million bail.

The mayor of Bellingham says "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart is getting a key to the city.

Dennis Castano can rattle on about pinochle, his favorite Louis L'Amour paperbacks and his days working as a logger, but he can't seem to remember why he's in prison.

The National Weather Service says the rain will continue through the work week in Washington with a chance Wednesday of a few inches of snow in the mountain passes.

President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, walk out of the White House and across Pennsylvania Ave.

This weekend my husband and our boys visited several local farms for the Skagit Valley Festival of Family Farms .

A massive and growing landslide shoved a quarter-mile of State Route 410 into the Naches River, forcing the river to find a new course and causing some flooding in the sparsely populated valley on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range.

Evacuation advisories are in effect for 38 homes near a wildfire burning in the Tripp Canyon, near Cashmere.

Miller's border collie, Angus, likes to hang out in the vineyard as Miller, right, and neighbor John Dundas select grapes ready for crushing on Miller's one acre of plantings near Sequim.

Police have arrested a man they believe to be the "River Rat Bandit," sought in a string of at least 18 robberies in Washington and Oregon.

Last week, I returned from an eight-day visit with my cousin, John Wott, in Seattle, Wash.

WASHINGTON a ' A Fort Riley soldier from New Mexico has died after being wounded in Afghanistan.

The state Department of Revenue says second quarter taxable retail sales are down a record amount in Washington, when compared to the second quarter of 2008.

In this Sept. 23, 2009 file photo, President Barack Obama finishes his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton watches in New York.

Court documents say DNA found after a break-in last month matches that of an elusive teenager wanted in Washington.

Eastern Washington University has a record number of students this fall. The Cheney school reported 10,504 full-time equivalent students, 379 more than last fall quarter.

NASA begins a series of flights Oct. 15 to study changes to Antarctica's sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets.

Gov. Chris Gregoire says she wants to extend a tax break for companies that do repair work on airplanes.

Washington's passenger car license plates are getting one letter longer. The state Department of Licensing says it is switching to a new seven-character plate configuration, similar to that used by California.

Howard G Goldberg in New York David Lake MW, a pivotal pioneer in Washington State's wine industry, died Monday.

Puget Sound Business Journal Gov. Chris Gregoire View Larger Washington state encourages aerospace and Boeing should build its airplanes in Washington, not South Carolina, according to Gov.

Swipe a chip into Sound Bites hummus, and you're sweeping up more than a velvety mouthful of a party staple.

What do super sports cars and passenger airliners have in common? Increasing use of composites for one and, now, sponsorship of composites testing at the University of Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, of Nev., center, followed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, of Calif., walks out of the West Wing of the White House in Washington on Sept.

Two coalitions of top U.S. corporations are using Washington visits and more than $1 million in advertising to prod the Senate and White House to accelerate work on an energy and climate bill.

Hundreds of insurgents armed with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades stormed a pair of remote outposts near the Pakistan border, killing eight U.S. soldiers and capturing more than 20 Afghan security troops in the deadliest assault against U.S. forces in more than a year, military officials said.

Blowing dust has caused numerous multi-vehicle accidents on local roads as high winds blow through Eastern Washington.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says Washington and other veto-holding members in the U.N. Security Council are studying sanction options if Iran does not prove its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

In this Sept. 18, 2007 file photo, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Frankly, the investigative journalism gig has gotten pretty easy these days. In the corridors of power, evidence is as easy to pick up as cigar butts used to be, of the cynical way the game is played.

Today is Saturday, Oct. 3, the 276th day of 2009. There are 89 days left in the year.

Fresh from a landmark meeting that put Iran nuclear talks back on track, Tehran and six world powers are already quibbling over what was agreed on ahead of follow-up talks later this month.

The governor's Office of Financial Management is preparing a budget report on prisons.

WASHINGTON: Fearing a backlash, Democrats worked to smooth the impact of sweeping health-care legislation on working-class families Thursday as they pushed President Barack Obama's top domestic priority toward a crucial Senate advance.

Large hospitals in Washington state have lost a bid to have the federal government give them millions of dollars in additional reimbursements for certain low-income patients.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, right, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R- Utah, listen during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on health care overhaul reform legislation on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Sept.

The U.S economy will be growing again by year end, but tight credit conditions for consumers and businesses will hamper the recovery, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday as it raised its forecast for growth next year to 1.5 percent from 0.8 percent.