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Every Day I'm Truffling: Shuffling Into The Woods, Dogs In Tow, To Hunt A Northwest Delicacy May 20, 2021

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The forest smells slightly damp. Grasses cover logs. Sticks decay on the ground. Unknown animals have surely left scents as they traipse about, eating meals and wandering around this recently thinned stand about an hour north of Seattle. But all those smells – undetectable to the human sniffer, or at least this allergy-suffering reporter – don’t matter to Lolo, a Lagotto Romagnolo. The Italian dog is hot on the hunt for black truffles.

Come for your shot, Canadians, proposes exclave of Point Roberts, USA May 18, 2021

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As the story of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Pacific Northwest changes from scarcity to surplus, one northwestern Washington community says it is in a unique position to extend a helping hand across the border. Point Roberts, USA, is attached to British Columbia and doesn’t connect by land to the rest of Washington state. Inoculation shots are scarcer in Canada. So, Point Roberts officials want to offer surplus vaccines to their northern neighbors. But bureaucratic hurdles stand in the way.

Remaking Oregon Trail Video Game With An Eye Toward More Accurate Native American Depictions May 12, 2021

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Jazz Halfmoon remembers playing the educational video game Oregon Trail as a reward for doing well in her Oregon grade school class. “It was on a super old computer,” she says. “The green screen was like the only color.” She says it was really exciting, and the kids would often clamor and fight over who could play the game on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon. “I remember being like ‘oh, like the Indians killed off somebody in your wagon train … and then being like, ‘Oh we’re Indians, you know,’” Halfmoon says. Halfmoon, who is 38, and a generation of kids like her grew up playing it. They remember the game mostly for the moment — wait for it — their party died of dysentery. Now, a new spin on the wagon train game focuses on more accurately representing Native Americans. The company Gameloft tackled the redesign of Oregon Trail for Apple Arcade just in time for the increase in worldwide play because of the pandemic. Its target audience: the now

Rocket fireball over Northwest in late March provides lasting value to space junk sleuths May 07, 2021

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Stargazers across the Pacific Northwest were treated to quite a light show in late March when the errant reentry of a spent rocket sent fireballs streaking high overhead. The uncontrolled disintegration of the rocket rained debris onto eastern Washington state, where fortunately no one was hurt. While the search for mangled rocket parts goes on, the event also provided a great learning opportunity for researchers that could foreshadow a space junk warning system.

As Easterday Family Property Is Auctioned, Giant Buyers Attracted To Water-Rich Deal May 05, 2021

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Redtail hawks glide off telephone poles sailing above verdant fields that scoop downward along a basalt slope to the bending Columbia River. This unique swath of ground is about to get a new owner; the roughly 12,000 Easterday family acres in Benton County are to be auctioned off starting in mid-June.

Even In The Bright Of Day, Some Central Washington Residents Have A Solar Energy 'Nightmare' May 03, 2021

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You can see Mount Adams rising from the horizon on a grassy hilltop on Amy Hanson’s land. Farms reach out in most directions. Homes dot the landscape. Hanson and her husband invested more than a decade and thousands of dollars into this property, driving nearly 200 miles from Chehalis on weekends to build fences and whatever else they could afford as the years went on. She might not be walking distance from everyone, but recently Hanson and her neighbors in rural Klickitat County have become closer than ever. They’re banded together to fight a new giant knocking at their doors: big solar.

Taxes, police reform and environment. Washington legislators wrap 'historic' session Apr 26, 2021

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Fifteen weeks ago, majority Democrats in the Washington Legislature convened a 105-day session vowing to address the fallout from COVID-19, police accountability, greenhouse gas emissions and issues of racial justice. On Sunday, Democrats adjourned the session having accomplished much of what they set out to do, including passage of a number of sweeping bills that Gov. Jay Inslee, in a statement, called “historic” in nature. "This session's accomplishments are as important to the long-term well-being of our state as any session I've seen," Inslee said.

It's Complicated: Why Some Northwest Latinx Residents And Farmworkers Hesitate On COVID Vaccine Apr 23, 2021

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Vanessa Delgado’s dad didn’t want to take a whole unpaid day off of work to get a vaccine appointment. She’s working on her doctorate in Irvine, Calif., but helped her father, Victor Delgado, get a vaccine close to his home in Benton County, Wash.

'It's Irreversible': Goldendale Green Energy Project Highlights A History Of Native Dispossession Apr 07, 2021

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Some 15,000 years ago, an ice dam broke in Montana. Water cascaded across the Northwest in some of the largest flooding ever to happen on Earth. And the Ka-milt-pah people climbed up to one of the highest points on the Columbia River. “There were lookouts and warnings to the Ka-milt-pah band members. Prior to the big flood, they escaped the canyon,” says Elaine Harvey, a Ka-milt-pah member, known in English as the Rock Creek Band of the Yakama Nation.

Yes, there are mermaids in the Pacific Northwest. They get their own museum now, too Apr 06, 2021

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The Pacific Northwest might seem like an unlikely place for mermaids and mermaid culture to catch on given the cold water here. Yet, putting on an eye-catching tail and pretending to be a mythical sea being is a thing across the Northwest. There's even a brand new mermaid museum near Aberdeen, Washington.