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Rick Thurmer's completed his life-long goal of summiting the seven highest summits on seven continents. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Local News

Mukilteo climber who summited peaks worldwide dies in Cascades

Dr. Richard Thurmer had gone solo hiking over the weekend on Dragontail Peak. His body was recovered from…

Logo for news use, for stories regarding Washington state government — Olympia, the Legislature and state agencies. No caption necessary. 20220331

Local News

Inslee signs new bills on catalytic converters, hazing and more

The governor also cleared the way for an Indigenous persons alert system, with highway messages like a “silver”…

An EA-18G Growler taxis down the airstrip on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island during the squadron’s welcome home ceremony in August 2017. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Scott Wood/U.S. Navy)

Local News

Whidbey Growlers fly to Germany to ‘bolster’ NATO against Russia

Six EA-18G Growler jets and 240 Navy personnel from NAS Whidbey headed to Europe on Monday.

monorail

Northwest

Seattle Center Monorail celebrates 60 years

The elevated train has outlasted its critics, whooshing on pneumatic tires from Seattle Center to downtown.

Gregory Lemke (left) and Davyd Klimov are working to bring Klimov’s wife, Natalia, to the U.S. from Ukraine. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)

Local News

For Ukrainian couple, ‘a dead end no matter where I try to go’

Davyd Klimov, originally from Ukraine, is helping his wife escape from afar.

Ed Hunt stands outside his RV on Cornwall Avenue on March 16. Hunt has lived along the road for more than a year. (Hailey Hoffman/Cascadia Daily News)

Northwest

Crackdown on parked RVs hits home to Bellingham’s homeless

The city resumes a 72-hour parking limit, which means rigs used as living quarters must be moved. Many…

Sen. John Lovick's bill to make pickleball the official state sport was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on Monday. (Photo provided by Chuck Wright)

Sports

Pickleball officially named Washington’s state sport

Gov. Jay Inslee signed SB5615 into law during a ceremony held Monday afternoon in Bainbridge Island.

Downtown Leavenworth on March 16, 2022. (Sue Misao / The Herald)

Northwest

Highway in Leavenworth reopened after perceived bomb threat

U.S. 2 was closed for about 3 hours in both directions Thursday afternoon.

Worker pick buds ready for packing and shipping as they go by on a conveyor at Washington Bulb Company on Thursday, April 11, 2019 in Mount Vernon, Wash. RoozenGaarde, the retail division, is the public side of the enterprise, with fields to stroll, gift shops and bouquets of fresh flowers so visitors can bring the magic home. Washington Bulb Company is the wholesale operation of growing and shipping about 40 varieties of tulips. With 15 acres of climate-controlled greenhouses, plus warehouses and loading docks, it is as practical as the fields are pretty. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)

Northwest

Tulip, daffodil farmworkers strike over wages, conditions

The work stoppage comes just ahead of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, set to begin April 1.

FILE - In this file photo dated Monday, March 11, 2019, rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines plane crash south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The number of deaths in major air crashes around the globe fell by more than half in 2019 according to a report released Wednesday Jan. 1, 2020, by the aviation consultancy To70, revealing the worst crash for the year was an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX on March 10 that lost 157 lives. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene, FILE)

Northwest

Former Boeing test pilot found not guilty of deceiving FAA

Mark Forkner was acquitted Wednesday on felony charges of deceiving federal regulators.

FILE —Idaho Gov. Brad Little delivers his State of the State address inside the House Chambers at the state Capitol building, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, in Boise, Idaho. Legislation for Idaho's biggest tax cut in history is heading to Little's desk who touted the plan in his State of the State Address last month. (AP Photo/Otto Kitsinger, File)

Northwest

Idaho governor signs abortion ban modeled on Texas law

Relatives of a fetus can sue up to four years after it’s aborted. Rapists can’t sue, but their…

FILE - In this March 4, 2018, file photo, MacKenzie Scott arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills, Calif. The billionaire philanthropist revealed that she has donated nearly $4 billion to 465 nonprofits in a new blog post Wednesday, March 23, 2022 confirming the gifts that the groups have been announcing on their own for months. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Business

MacKenzie Scott announces nearly $4 billion in donations

Scott is one of many billionaires who have promised to donate more than half of their wealth.

FILE - This Oct. 27, 2020, file photo shows a sign at a Starbucks Coffee store in south Seattle. Workers at a Seattle Starbucks store in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood are set to vote on unionization on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, the latest push by workers at the coffee giant to form collective bargaining units. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Northwest

Seattle Starbucks unionizes in coffee giant’s home city

Employees at a Seattle Starbucks have voted to unionize, the first such vote in the company’s home city.

Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. (Olivia Vanni/The Herald)

Local News

Lawsuit: Everett hospital hid ‘charity care’ in the fine print

State law requires hospitals to absorb costs for the poorest patients. It might as well have been a…

Other state representatives respond to roll call over a virtual meeting before their swearing in on Friday, Jan. 8, 2020 in Everett, Wa. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

Local News

Once a rarity, remote government meetings appear here to stay

A locally inspired bill pushes governing boards to let people keep participating from afar, even when the pandemic…

Northwest

Seattle to return nearly 300 artifacts to Upper Skagit Tribe

The tools, scrapers, chopping devices and hammerstones hold cultural significance for tribe.

Washington Secretary of Health Umair A. Shah speaks at a news conference with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Inslee announced that Washington state is expanding its vaccine mandate to include all public, charter and private school teachers and staff, as well as those working at the state's colleges and universities. Inslee also expanded the statewide indoor mask mandate in place for non-vaccinated individuals to include those who are vaccinated. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Local News

‘ForWArd’ plan details how state will ‘coexist’ with COVID

Moving away from mandates, officials say the next phase in Washington’s response is about “empowering” residents to keep…

FILE - In this July 25, 2020, file photo, police pepper spray protesters, near Seattle Central College in Seattle, during a march and protest in support of Black Lives Matter. Democratic lawmakers in California, Maryland and Washington passed far-reaching policing reforms this year in response to the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. But the first full year of state legislative sessions since the killing sparked a summer of racial justice protests produced a far more mixed response in the rest of the country. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

Local News

Inslee signs bill revising rules for use of force by police

Accountability activists are disappointed that force can still be used to temporarily detain people.

Northwest

Canada announces it’s dropping testing requirement at border

Starting April 1, fully vaccinated travelers won’t be required to complete a pre-entry COVID-19 test.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signs a measure that prohibits legal action against both people seeking an abortion and those who aid them, on Thursday, March 17, 2022 in Olympia, Wash. Inslee's signature comes days after the Legislature in neighboring Idaho approved a bill modeled on a law in Texas that allows lawsuits to enforce a ban on abortions performed after six weeks of pregnancy. (AP Photo/Rachel La Corte)

Northwest

Inslee signs bill prohibiting Texas-style abortion lawsuits

The law prevents the state from taking action against women seeking abortions and people who assist them.