June 30, 2017: Canadian Trail Looks to Minimize Vessel Underwater Noise for Endangered Southern Resident Orcas

The region's endangered southern resident orcas face a triple threat – the lack of sufficient Chinook salmon, contamination and underwater noise from vessels. While orca and chinook numbers continue to plummet, the Port of Vancouver will conduct a unique vessel experiment this summer. They're asking ships to slow down their speed by half. Orca researchers and the Port of Seattle are taking notice. Martha Baskin has our story.

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June 20, 2017: “Trump-Proof Seattle" Campaign Devises Plan to Protect At-Risk Communities and Programs

With proposed federal cuts to everything from housing and mass transit to job training and environmental restoration, the Trump-Proof Seattle campaign wasted no time in proposing an alternative source of revenue to protect programs at risk. They hosted town hall forums in every city council district to get buy-in from council members. Their plan was to impose an income tax on high net worth individuals in Seattle. This summer, the city council is expected to pass an ordinance that could raise as much as $125 million annually which fewer than 5% of households would pay. Martha Baskin has the story.

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June 13, 2017: Climate Activists in PNW Fight Construction of World's Largest Methanol Refinery

Climate activists have held the line against Shell's Arctic drilling plans, shut down tar sands valves at refineries, and waged wave after wave of actions against new fossil fuel proposals for coal export terminals and oil-by-rail refineries in the Pacific Northwest. Late last year, Portland moved to the forefront of opposition to coal, oil, and gas exports when its city council voted unanimously to prohibit new fossil fuel infrastructure in the city. But opposing a proposal to build the world's largest gas-to-methanol refinery on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington State may be the most challenging fossil fuel fight that activists have waged to date. Martha Baskin has our story.

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