Tom Banse

Everywhere they look, Pacific Northwest scientists find teeny-tiny plastic pollution. Broken down particles are in our water, falling out of the air, in salmon, shellfish and in our own bodies.

The stewards of Oregon's tallest lighthouse are sprucing up the popular landmark on Oregon's central coast for its 150th anniversary in 2023.

The states of Washington and Oregon have submitted a joint bid to the U.S. Department of Energy to get a share of $8 billion that Congress set aside to launch "Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs" around the nation. But good luck trying to learn what exactly the bi-state bid entails.

The majority of captains of big commercial ships entering and leaving Puget Sound are cooperating with a request to slow down temporarily to reduce underwater noise impacts to the Pacific Northwest's critically endangered killer whales.

While many of the disruptions of the pandemic have eased this year, the surge in traffic fatalities is showing few signs of abating. Policymakers are trying a number of tactics to respond.

New modeling by the University of Washington of the impacts of a major Cascadia earthquake offers a less dire picture of the aftermath of the so-called "Big One" — specifically when it comes to highway bridges.

Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often in the Pacific Northwest that ships collide with whales. But when it does, the whale probably dies. Three separate teams have developed smartphone-based systems that can alert commercial mariners to watch out or slow down when there are whales nearby. A recent ride-along on a big container ship demonstrated that real-time whale alerts are still a work in progress.

A quartet of independent candidates on the ballot this November in Oregon and Washington state will test voter appetites for a centrist "third way." They are experienced contenders running for state senate, Oregon governor or Washington Secretary of State.

Half a dozen Pacific Northwest craft breweries are diversifying into making nonalcoholic beer. But instead of brewing bland and watery "near beer," they're injecting quality and variety into a space that used to be dominated by a few national brands.

A contractor demolished the towering smokestack at Portland General Electric’s shuttered coal-fired power plant near Boardman on Thursday morning, heralding the end of the era of coal-fired power generation in Oregon.

Collisions between vehicles and large animals, like deer, are not only scary. The medical, car repair and cleanup costs really add up. That's according to a new study out of Washington State University that supports the case for building more wildlife crossings on highways.

The U.S. Forest Service is looking at something different — very different — to improve situational awareness at big wildfires: high altitude balloons.