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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Business
Air taxi by Airbus completes 114 test flights in Northwest skies
Not a single accident.
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More state money sought as Eugene prepares to host 2021 world track champs
Public funding for big-time sports tends to generate static. So, Oregon Governor Kate Brown is building her case now for additional taxpayer support for...
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Defense contractors test drones in Oregon
Defense contractors are testing new surveillance drones in Pendleton, including the largest one to ever fly in the Northwest.
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Environment
Plastic with your seafood? Same question goes for otters and orcas
It was a dark and slippery early morning on the Oregon coast when researchers scrambled down the rocky shore in the small town of Yachats. They kept one eye on the crashing waves while scanning for two species of Pacific Northwest sea life that are now being checked for microplastics — fibers and fragments less than 5 millimeters long.
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Environment
Great quakes of Northwest past: Scientists look to the shaky future by probing lakes
Multiple teams of earthquake researchers are looking in what may seem like an unlikely place to figure out how strongly the Pacific Northwest shook during great quakes in the past.
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Environment
PNW coast could be protected as orca habitat
NOAA is expected to announce plans to expand protected habitat for endangered orcas to include all of WA, OR and northern California.
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Utilities get early access to earthquake warning system
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Daylight saving movement gets another nudge, this time from Canada
The movement to “ditch the switch” — the twice-yearly ritual of changing our clocks between daylight and standard time — just got a push from British...
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Daylight saving movement gets nudge from Canada
The movement to “ditch the switch” — the twice-yearly ritual of changing our clocks between daylight and standard time — just got a gentle push from British Columbia, where residents signaled they are keen to join Washington state and Oregon on permanent daylight saving time.
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Arts & Life
Jumpers get their due nearly 75 years after wartime missions over Northwest
It’s a story that seemingly has it all: a classified mission, dashing young men in uniform, leaps out of flying airplanes, stray bombs, plus some wildfires and a side of racial prejudice. The little-known slice of Pacific Northwest history featuring an all-black Army battalion is less likely to be overlooked now that the state of Oregon and people in Pendleton have put up a historical marker.