Fishing for a family's food

An Alaskan whose family holds a subsistence fishing permit chronicles their annual trip to the Kasilof River, where they fish for sockeye salmon using set-nets.

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When animals attack, and also when they don't

It's the time of year when animal-human encounters are on the rise. Bears are picnicking on hikers, moose are invading trailer parks, and muskrats are blamed for destroying entire towns. You could be next.

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A Seattle Expo legacy emerges from the trees

The University of Washington cut down a row of beautiful poplars on campus over the weekend. I love poplars and hated to see that. But as we approach 2009, the centennial year of Seattle's first world's fair, the tree-cutting at least had the benefit of revealing a lovely architectural legacy of the expo.

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Alaska blogger Celtic Diva's identity is revealed

I got in touch by e-mail with Celtic Diva, who found out this week that she's been selected by the Democratic National Convention Committee for a press credential at the August convention. She'll join a corps of bloggers representing the 50 states, three territories, and interestingly enough, U.S. ex-pats in Argentina.

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Guess which Northwest blogs will cover the Democratic National Convention

The Associated Press reported today on the list of bloggers selected to cover the Democratic National Convention. One from each state will form a "state blogging corps" who will be seated with state delegations during the convention in Denver this August. The group blog HorsesAss, led by "accidental activist" David Goldstein, was chosen from Washington state, and the choice for Oregon was BlueOregon, "the water cooler around which Oregon progressives will gather," another group blog.

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57 states — and the Soviet of Washington?

Sen. Barack Obama must be drinking some of the same Seattle water as secessionist Mayor Greg Nickels. In Beaverton, Ore., he told the crowd that he'd visited "57 states" with "one left to go." He goes on to say that the only states he hasn't been to during his presidential bid are Alaska and Hawaii, which means Obama thinks the U.S. has 58 states, though by his own count there should be 59.

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The Northwest's real fairy tales

When it comes to Northwest legends, we usually think big: There's Bigfoot, D.B. Cooper's Big Heist, Paul Bunyan and his Big Blue Ox — even the Big White Worm of the Palouse. This tradition goes back. When Jonathan Swift documented Gulliver's travels in the early 1700s, he placed the land of the giants, Brobdingnag, in the Pacific Northwest — somewhere between what we know today as British Columbia and Alaska. But we have our mini-myths, as well. Yes, Northwest giants are fun to think about (remember Olaf?), but take a minute to think about our munchkins.

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Annals of Northwest secession

A primer of regional separatist movements, real and imagined.

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The Great White hope

It may be the season for finding big white enigmas. In March, scientists spotted a long-rumored white killer whale in Alaska. Closer to home, researchers who have been pawing the sod in search of the Great White earthworm of the Palouse have come up with some surprising new clues about the elusive and possibly endangered creature. Two recent discoveries, one near Moscow, Idaho, and one near Leavenworth, Wash., suggest that the worms are not only out there, they may live farther afield than previously thought.

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Northwest travel: Five courses up the Inside Passage

Many Seattleites have either never traveled the Inside Passage or seen only parts of it, remotely, from the deck of a cruise ship. A trip through on a ferry is well worth the time.

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Tongue ties: a language bridge across the Bering Strait

A Western Washington University professor has compared native languages in North America to those in Asia and found ties that suggest they come from the same ancestors.

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Go fish: The government's answer to depleted stocks

While officials are calling for a moratorium on commercial salmon fishing along much of the West Coast, they're opting for a different tactic in Puget Sound: continued fishing.

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Hey, what about an Absolut Ecotopia?

A vodka ad stirs anger and nationalism, tapping a history that links to the fight for the Pacific Northwest.

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Cool ideas for doomsday

While global warming is producing an Arctic land rush, climate change could also result in the far north becoming humanity's ark.

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Recession alert: Put Oregon on the danger list

Marple's Pacific Northwest Letter, a bible of the Northwest economy, is predicting that Oregon, "if not yet in recession, it likely soon will be." The reasons: sectors like lumber exposed to the homebuilding recession; continued manufacturing decline in computer chips and electronic instruments, which have not fully recovered since the dot.com meltdown; and overall manufacturing decline since mid-2006.

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How we fare in the quest for academic pork

The respected Chronicle of Higher Education has just published a new report on the scramble for academic earmarks. A surprise, considering how well the University of Washington does in federally funded research and how well placed Sen. Patty Murray is: The UW is not among the leading porkers.

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Do we need guns at Paradise?

Some Northwest lawmakers have pushed the Bush administration to allow visitors to carry loaded guns in our national parks. It gives backpacking a whole new meaning.

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Our economy's secret sauce: the weak dollar

The Northwest economy continues to surge, while the rest of the country struggles, and it's tempting to think it's because of all the smart folks out here, cooking up new companies. Doubtless that's partly true. But a bigger factor is the weak dollar. Washington state, for instance, leads the nation in exports as a share of state output. Those exports are booming because of the weak dollar, which translates into bargain prices offshore. Michael Parks, editor of the invaluable Marple's Pacific Northwest Letter, tallies up the figures for Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, and finds the export totals hitting new all-time highs for the fourth consecutive year. Total exports last year for the region ($92.5 billion) were up 20 percent over 2006, about twice the national increase.

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Reaganomics, Election '08, and the New American West

We live in a changed world — of NRA Democrats and environmentalist Republicans.

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2007 in review: Mossback hunts down the wildest animal stories of the year

Giant swimming rats, seducing Sasquatch, and bear-hunting at the Vancouver Olympics.

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