Rukke named acting pipeline safety director
LACEY, Wash. — The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission has named Scott Rukke acting director of the commission’s pipeline safety division, according to a commission press release. Rukke, w...
Judge fines company for fraudulent business letters
SEATTLE — A King County Superior Court ordered two companies and their owners on Nov. 1 to pay $24.8 million in penalties after sending over 230,000 deceptive letters to small business owners in violation of the ...
AWB honors exceptional Washington employers
TACOMA — The Association of Washington Business presented its top awards to 13 employers Thursday at the annual Evening of Excellence during a gala ceremony at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center. “It is our ...
Self-pollinating plant shows rapid loss of genetic variation
PULLMAN — Without bumble bees, a flowering plant that can self‑pollinate lost substantial genetic variation within only nine generations, an experimental study found. A group of “selfing” monkeyflower plants los...
WineVit conference set for February
CASHMERE — The WineVit 2023 conference will be held Feb. 6-9 at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, according to a press release from the Washington Winegrowers Association. The annual three-day eve...
State of the spuds: Potato harvest looking up
COLUMBIA BASIN — The state of the taters is, well, pretty darn good this year. “The potato harvest is definitely a lighter crop than what we’re historically used to,” said Dale Lathim, executive director of Pota...
Ag officials warn against rabbit virus
OLYMPIA — Officials with the Washington State Department of Agriculture have confirmed the presence in the state of yet another highly infectious animal disease with the discovery of two cases of rabbit hemorrhag...
‘What cherry harvest?’ Growers report drastic drop in yield
ROYAL CITY — There are short and long crops in the tree fruit business, good and bad years, and then there are those years, those harvests, the ones few growers – if any – remember fondly. The 2022 Pacific Northw...
State regulators charge PacifiCorp with failure to plan
LACEY — The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, the body that regulates the state’s utilities, has filed a complaint against Oregon-based utility PacifiCorp for failing to consider the social cost...
Washington company develops special shoes for people with diabetes
REDMOND — A Washington-based maker of remote sensors for health care has teamed up with a Florida-based maker of protective footwear for people with diabetes to create shoes that can monitor diabetic ulcers and h...