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
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Santa’s reindeer to get competition: Amazon flight-testing package delivery drones in Pendleton
E-commerce giant Amazon confirmed to public radio that it has begun flight testing of package delivery drones at a test range in Pendleton, Oregon, as well as continuing near Seattle and elsewhere. Routine delivery of online orders to consumers by aerial drones remains a long ways off, though.
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'Welcome Back Loonies': U.S. reopens border to Canadian leisure travelers
There was cheering, celebration and emotional reunions along the northern border as the U.S. reopened its land and sea crossings to Canadian leisure travelers for the first time in 19 months. The international ferry between Port Angeles and Victoria began sailing again Monday too, with all of its southbound trips sold out. Some border restrictions remain that could temper the rebound in tourism.
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Washington state and Oregon considering more tsunami refuge facilities along Pacific Coast following
According to a new state study, dozens of elevated evacuation platforms are needed along Washington's Pacific Coast to ensure people can escape a tsunami spawned by a major earthquake on the offshore Cascadia fault zone.
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Record numbers of Bigg's killer whale sightings and humpback calves in Salish Sea
Whale watchers have spotted a record number of humpback calves in inland Pacific Northwest waters this season. There was also a record streak of Bigg's killer whale sightings that just ended, according to a local whale research nonprofit. Those observations offer some good news to offset the ongoing concern about the survival of the Northwest's iconic, but critically endangered resident orcas.
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A grab-bag of juicy local measures on Nov. 2 ballot in absence of statewide initiatives
There are no statewide initiative measures on the ballot this November in Oregon and Washington state. That’s a change from usual, but voters around the region are casting ballots on a variety of newsworthy local initiatives.
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When will drone delivery be a thing? Slow to take off, but now building in Bend
Holiday shopping season is just around the corner. With all the news about supply chain problems, you might be wondering how to get your online purchases on time. A startup company has opened a factory in Bend, Oregon, to manufacture delivery drones. But those zippy aircraft won’t be flying packages to your house.
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Craft brewing in the Pacific NW dates so far back that archaeologists are on the case
The Pacific Northwest is rightfully proud of its thriving microbrewery scene. Most beer lovers probably consider the rise of craft brewing a phenomenon of the past few decades. But the first brewpubs in the Northwest date so far back that archaeologists were called in to excavate the remnants of one in Jacksonville, Oregon.
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Pacific NW governors hold fast on vax deadline as local officials warn of worker exodus
The days are quickly ticking down to next Monday's deadline when most Oregon and Washington teachers, health care workers and public employees need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Elected officials especially in more conservative swaths of the Pacific Northwest remain fearful of a "mass exodus" of firefighters and health care professionals.
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Nursing and war require alert personnel. These researchers are studying fatigue countermeasures
Long hours. Extreme fatigue. You couldn't miss it in the faces of soldiers and refugees at Kabul Airport last month and you can't miss it now in the faces of caregivers in hospitals here at home. It just so happens that Washington State University Spokane is in the midst of a series of studies of how sleep deprivation affects people in high stress, high risk jobs.
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Trickle-down effects from Washington's overcrowded hospitals
The overcrowded hospitals we've been telling you about for weeks are having ripple effects out into the community -- some you could predict and some which are a little more startling. Take for example a fire that gutted a house in Ocean Shores or expensive airlifts from Leavenworth, Washington.