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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Environment
Get out the sauté pan, fall mushroom season starting early in Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwesterners who forage for wild mushrooms are noticing that the late summer and fall delicacies are coming in early this year.
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Older orcas living in captivity could find sanctuary on San Juan Islands
An environmental nonprofit is gauging interest in the creation of an orca enclosure in Washington's San Juan Islands. The organization is hosting public...
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Mind the gap: Efforts aim to stitch together long trails, getting hikers off highway’s edge
Long-distance hiking can be the experience of a lifetime. It also can present dicey to mundane hurdles, like having to hike stretches along busy...
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'Kits for Kids' take preparedness up a notch at tsunami-vulnerable Oregon school
How's this for emergency preparedness? An elementary school located in the tsunami inundation zone in Cannon Beach, Oregon, has equipped every student...
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Undeliverable Boeing 737 Max jets spill over to Central Washington for storage
Boeing is running out of space to park grounded 737 Max jets in the Puget Sound region and is now sending some of its Renton, Washington, factory output...
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Environment
Mind if we drop off a dead whale on your beach? Asking for a friend.
The tally of dead gray whales washing up on Pacific Northwest beaches during this year's northbound migration keeps going up. That's prompting an...
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Oregon State establishes hemp research center amid surge in farmer interest
Oregon State University has established what it considers to be the nation's largest hemp research center. This comes amid a surge of farmer interest in...
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Cormorants are protected. But their poop is corroding a bridge across the Columbia River
Cormorants by the thousands have taken up residence under the landmark Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia River. Their poop can corrode the bridge...
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Deal for Columbia River hydropower clears path for diamond making in Wenatchee
When you think of made-in-the-Northwest products, diamonds are probably not on your list. But soon, they could be. A contract signed Thursday for...
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Pacific NW pilots will fly a special plane in D-Day and Berlin Airlift commemorations
Get ready to hear a lot of World War II memories: The milestone 75th anniversary of D-Day is coming up on June 6. Pilots from the Pacific Northwest aboard a historic plane have arrived in the United Kingdom to take part in a reenactment of the invasion of Normandy.