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Tom Banse

Regional Correspondent

About

Tom Banse covers national news, business, science, public policy, Olympic sports, and human interest stories across Washington state. Now semi-retired, Banse is an Olympia-based reporter with more than three decades of experience covering the Pacific Northwest. Most of his career was spent with public radio's Northwest News Network, but now in semi-retirement his work appears on multiple nonprofit news outlets including KUOW. His recent areas of focus range from transportation, U.S.-Canada borderlands, the Northwest region's planned hydrogen hub, and emergency preparedness.

Previously, Tom covered state government and the Washington Legislature for 12 years. He got his start in radio at WCAL-FM, a public station in southern Minnesota. Reared in Seattle, Tom graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with a degree in American Studies.

Location: Olympia

Languages: English, German

Stories

  • caption: Pacific Beach Elementary School on the Washington coast would be relocated out of the tsunami inundation zone if local voters pass a bond measure on February 8.

    Earthquake safety for Washington schools heading to the ballot

    The January 15 volcanic eruption near Tonga was a stark reminder of the threats posed by tsunamis. That's long been a concern in the Pacific Northwest, where thousands of students go to school within reach of a large tsunami. Oregon and Washington have been plugging away at retrofitting schools to withstand earthquakes. But the burden of relocating low-lying schools falls largely on local taxpayers. A vote-by-mail school bond election now underway in a coastal section of Grays Harbor County, Washington, will test voter appetite to pay higher taxes to build tsunami-safe schools.
  • caption: Washingtonians Corinne Stoddard, third from left, of Federal Way and Eunice Lee, third from right, of Bellevue punched their tickets to Beijing at the 2022 U.S. Olympic Short Track Speedskating Team Trials in December.

    These athletes from the Northwest are going to the 2022 Winter Olympics

    The presence of eleven skiers, skaters and sliders with ties to the Northwest should add intrigue to the 2022 Beijing Olympics, although the upcoming sports spectacle beset with extreme COVID precautions, a diplomatic boycott and scarce snowfall hardly needs more drama. Several late additions to the Team USA Olympic roster upped the regional representation at next month’s Winter Games to similar levels as in past editions.
  • caption: Inline skating coach Darin Pattison proudly stands beside some of the many photos of one of his proteges, Olympic short track speedskater Corinne Stoddard of Federal Way, WA, at the Pattison West roller rink in Stoddard’s hometown.

    Pipeline of short track speedskaters from Washington to Olympics grows longer

    A roller skating rink in Federal Way, Washington, has a remarkable track record of minting future ice skating Olympians. The rink is probably best known for being the early training ground for Apolo Ohno, among others. The streak continues now for an eighth consecutive Winter Olympics with a new short track speedskater on Team USA named Corinne Stoddard. But meanwhile, the storied roller rink is for sale.
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    Washington state lawmakers propose year-round standard time to get around Congress

    Washington state senators are trying a new gambit to stop the twice-yearly ritual of changing our clocks from standard time to daylight time and back again. A previous effort to move the whole West Coast onto permanent daylight saving time failed to win requisite congressional support. So now, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers is pushing for Pacific standard time to be observed year-round.
  • caption: A green burial at White Eagle Memorial Cemetery near Goldendale, Washington. Stratman family members dug this grave and conducted their own ceremony.

    DIY funerals: Your family can be your own funeral director, if you want

    An informal network of consumer activists, bereaved parents and green burial advocates are building websites to advise and empower families who may wish to handle funeral arrangements themselves. "Home funerals" are legal, yet just one of a widening set of options for how to lay a loved one to rest.
  • caption: New natural gas hookups to commercial buildings and homes are in the crosshairs of policymakers intent on reducing a growing source of carbon emissions.

    Natural gas furnaces, water heaters in crosshairs of some Northwest policymakers

    Fossil fuel use in buildings looks to be the next frontier for climate activists at the state and local level. There's a convergence of activity in the Pacific Northwest right now aimed at phasing out natural gas furnaces and water heaters. Cities from Eugene to Bellingham have teed up bans on natural gas in new commercial buildings. But natural gas has its defenders, too, who have beaten back proposed phaseouts before.