Tom Banse

Democratic-led states on the West Coast are setting ambitious timelines to phase out sales of gasoline-powered cars and light trucks.

The push to restart the Pacific Northwest’s last remaining aluminum smelter got a boost this week.

For more than five years, Washington state, Oregon and British Columbia have collaborated on studies of a possible Cascadia bullet train to run between Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, Canada.

Next week, Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign a law designating pickleball as the official state sport of Washington. The mash-up of badminton, tennis and pingpong has come a long way since its invention on Bainbridge Island, Washington, in 1965. Skilled local pickleball players have turned pro and brand new businesses are opening to cater to the pandemic boom in recreational play.

An abrupt awakening in Congress is raising hopes on the West Coast that last weekend's switch from standard time to daylight time might be the next to last time we go through the annoying clock change ritual.

Majority Democrats in the Washington Legislature drove the largest transportation spending roadmap in state history across the finish line on Thursday on nearly party line votes. The revenue and spending package funds new spans over the Columbia River, wider highways, four new ferries, bus rapid transit expansions, free fares for youth, fish-friendly culverts and new bike trails and pedestrian bridges.

An effort to jumpstart the pace of earthquake retrofits to vulnerable, older school buildings in Washington state has unanimously passed the Legislature.

A proposed tax on gasoline and diesel delivered to out-of-state customers from Washington refineries has gone by the wayside.

Idaho's House of Representatives will send a memorial to Olympia, protesting the proposed export fuel tax.

None of the thirteen Winter Olympians with ties to the Pacific Northwest is coming home from the Beijing Games with a medal.