Washington

It was good old-fashioned peer pressure that got Terry Hemingway to sign up for the first Bloomsday in 1977. He was persuaded by a coworker at Kaiser Aluminum.

From 1975: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers strongly recommended the construction of a sewage system and treatment plant in the Spokane Valley.

For the first time, a nonprofit that serves Spokane’s Haitian community, is combining its New Year’s celebration with Haitian Independence Day.

Half of the roughly 30 dogs at the nonprofit shelter SpokAnimal have contracted a yet-to-be-identified respiratory illness that’s led to some cases of pneumonia and the temporary closure of the shelter.

The rustic Bear Creek Lodge along North Mt. Spokane Park Drive, just outside the state park, was built in 1952 but closed in 2023 and sold to the park for a new headquarters building.

Tucked away in an event space in a local library, surrounded by a small but dexterous group of neighbors and volunteers fiddling and futzing with a sweater that needs buttons or an umbrella with a busted rib, Chris Oxford is taking apart a brass-bottomed lamp.

From 1975: Fairchild Air Force Base was getting a “face-lift” in preparation for a new mission.

State and federal agencies are investigating a recent mineral oil spill at Priest Rapids Dam as cleanup efforts conclude. Newly released records show a history of similar spills at Grant County Public Utility District dams over the past decade.

The Center for Biological Diversity is attempting to save a delicate plant with showy pink flowers that grows only along a narrow windy cliff edge in the arid Saddle Mountains north of the Tri-Cities.

Consumers in Washington and five other states should avoid some ground beef products from an Idaho company after testing confirmed contamination with E. coli, federal authorities said Saturday. Mountain West Food Group, of Heyburn, Idaho, is recalling around 2,855 pounds of raw ground beef sold under its Forward Farms label with a Jan. 13 sell-by date, according to a news release from the U.S. ...

From 1975: Construction of new homes on the Rathdrum Prairie continued, despite a proposed moratorium because of the possible contamination of Spokane’s drinking water.

SEATTLE — Abdi Jama’s phone started buzzing with questions from community members a month ago, when President Donald Trump referred to people from Somalia as “garbage” and said they should “go back to where they came from.” The anxious calls and texts kept coming as immigration officers surged into Minneapolis, the largest Somali hub in the U.S., said Jama, a Somali American community leader ...

From 1975: The Associated Press listed the top stories in Washington for 1975, and the No. 1 story was also a top story 50 years later: Flooding in Western Washington.

A section of Highway 2 north of Leavenworth to Stevens Pass will partially reopen Monday morning, part of a 49-mile stretch of highway that has been closed for more than a week, Gov. Bob Ferguson said Friday. About 20 miles will be open from Coles Corner to Stevens Pass, allowing access to the ski resort from the east. A pilot car will guide vehicles for about 7 miles along a single lane near ...

LYNDEN, Whatcom County — More than 200 pairs of eyes turned to Larry Stap when he stepped into his dairy farm, Twin Brook Creamery, to check on the girls." Under the building's tin roof, a herd of curious Jersey cattle sheltered from the pelting rain on a December afternoon, crowding the edges of their pen to sniff newcomers. It's eggnog season, and "we need every drop of milk we can get," ...

From 1975: Spokane beer drinkers had something to celebrate: Coors beer was finally coming to the Spokane area.

From a tiny Nativity scene carved in stone to a large blow-mold plastic set, Rhonda Fischer’s collection embraces the spirit of the season.