Tom Banse
Regional Correspondent
Stories
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To 'honor the shoulders we stand on' — Big band premieres with nod to history of Native jazz musicians
A scheme to entertain a four-year-old youngster in Spokane by playing a jazz album nearly three decades ago produced a cascade of aftereffects that culminated on stage in Olympia, Washington, this month with crescendos of horns and multiple standing ovations. During the debut of a 16-piece, all-Indigenous big band, the performers on stage hearkened even further back in history to celebrate the little-known, but long line of Native jazz musicians and big bands.
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KUOW Newsroom
Hydrogen Valley vision for Southwest Washington gets boost from Aussies' proposed plant
An Australian company is looking at repurposing the soon-to-close coal power plant property in Centralia, Washington, to build a big hydrogen fuel production facility. Fortescue Future Industries went public with its plans during a hydrogen symposium hosted by the Economic Alliance of Lewis County on Thursday.
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Volcano lodge and developed campground okayed in Mount St. Helens National Monument
The U.S. Forest Service has okayed a plan to develop what would be the first overnight tourist facilities within the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, including camping, cabins and a lodge.
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Rehearsing for ‘The Big One’ on a room-sized chess board
Close to 200 federal, state and tribal emergency preparedness planners gathered around a giant map of the Pacific Northwest this week to rehearse and critique the federal response plan for "The Big One." The three-day Cascadia earthquake discussion exercise partially replaced a much bigger planned dress rehearsal that was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Big factory for electric car battery materials coming to Moses Lake, Washington
San Francisco Bay area company Sila Nanotechnologies purchased a vacant factory in Moses Lake, Washington, and announced plans Tuesday to open a big operation there to produce advanced battery materials to power electric cars.
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KUOW Newsroom
NW electric utilities spending millions to reduce risk of wildfire
Private electric utilities in the Pacific Northwest are planning tens of millions of dollars in upgrades to reduce the risk that their power lines could spark wildfires during extreme weather. Utilities such as Pacific Power, Avista, Idaho Power, Portland General Electric and Puget Sound Energy are either required to or are voluntarily submitting wildfire mitigation plans.
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Red beer, takeout coupons, and big giveaways deployed to recruit more NW blood donors
Alcohol and blood donation don't seem at first glance to go together. But that pairing is one of several creative strategies deployed by major Pacific Northwest blood centers to drum up more donors this spring.
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Dozens of Northwest places have a slur in their name. People are coming up with replacement names
People with an interest in geography or Pacific Northwest history are coming up with replacement names for dozens of places around the region that currently have a name considered derogatory. The U.S. Secretary of the Interior launched the search for new names by ordering a specific racial slur stricken off the map nationwide as expeditiously as possible.
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KUOW Newsroom
Riding or hiking across Washington state just got easier with new bridge over Columbia River
The Columbia River has long divided the two halves of Washington's cross-state Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail. Now, a rebuilt rail trestle over the river south of Vantage connects the two sides making it easier for cyclists, horse riders and hikers to undertake a spectacular east-west journey.
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KUOW Newsroom
Washington wants drivers to plug into clean cars by 2030
Democratic-led states on the West Coast are setting ambitious timelines to phase out sales of gasoline-powered cars and light trucks. The Washington Legislature just approved a goal that all new cars sold in the state beginning with model year 2030 be electric. Oregon and California have 2035 as their target. Some of these dates are aspirational, but one has teeth.