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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Hundreds of Washington schools have failing grade for earthquake safety
Tens of thousands of public school students in Washington state returned to classes this month in school buildings judged to be at risk of collapse in a strong earthquake.
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PeaceHealth, unions clashing after health system places hundreds of workers on unpaid leave
Since PeaceHealth announced its own deadlines, unions representing a swath of workers have leveled at least seven labor complaints.
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In a hot NW housing market, even isolated Point Roberts is seeing prices sizzle
How hot is the Pacific Northwest real estate market? So hot that even in an isolated exclave such as Point Roberts, Washington, home prices are sizzling and some properties are changing hands sight unseen.
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Skeptics of sea otter reintroduction getting organized on Pacific Coast
Sea otters are undeniably cute, but cuteness only goes so far when major economic interests are at stake. That's an inference you can make from the emergence of organized pushback to the possible reintroduction of sea otters along the Oregon Coast.
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Tokyo Olympics were a gold, silver and bronze bonanza for athletes with Pacific NW ties
Athletes from the Pacific Northwest will practically need an ore cart to push their haul of precious metal to the airport after the final weekend of action at the Tokyo Olympics. Professional basketball and baseball players from Portland, Tacoma and Seattle accounted for most of the gold and silver medals as the delayed 2020 Summer Games came to a close.Olympians with strong connections to Oregon and Washington state mined 39 total medals at the Tokyo Games.
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Across 41 year age gap, an Olympic hopeful and a Senior Games champ have partnership that sprints
Not every Olympic story is happening in Tokyo this week. Take for instance these two runners in Tacoma. He's a 26-year-old former Oregon Ducks standout, now a professional quarter-miler. She's a 67-year-old baby boomer who began sprinting barely a decade ago. Together they overcame various personal disappointments and sorrows to make a winning combination.
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More than 100 athletes with Pacific Northwest ties entered in Tokyo Olympics
If you like cheering for hometown athletes — or former Ducks, Zags or Huskies — you're in luck when the Summer Olympics start in less than a week. The team rosters for the USA and a bunch of foreign countries are chockablock with athletes with Pacific Northwest ties. By our count, 50 Team USA Olympians have strong connections to Oregon or Washington. At least 51 more athletes are at the Olympics representing foreign countries after starring for universities or turning pro in the Northwest.
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Seismic research ship goes boom-boom to seek answers at origin of the next Big One
Earthquake researchers are eager to dig into a trove of new data about the offshore Cascadia fault zone. The valuable new imaging of the geology off the Oregon, Washington and British Columbia coasts comes from a specialized research ship. The National Science Foundation seismic survey ship Marcus Langseth zigged and zagged over the full length of the undersea Cascadia Subduction Zone -- from the Oregon-California border north to Vancouver Island.
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'Dangerously hot' temps force schedule changes at Olympic trials in Eugene
The broiling heat in the weekend forecast is forcing changes at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team Trials underway in Eugene. Distance races are being shifted earlier in the day, but shorter events are staying put on the schedule in the peak afternoon heat.
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Food crisis feared on peninsula isolated by border as only grocery teeters on closure
A local fire chief is warning of a looming "humanitarian crisis" on the peninsula of Point Roberts in northwest Washington state. It's a strange predicament brought on by a money-losing supermarket and pandemic-related restrictions on crossing the U.S.-Canada border.