Ed Ronco

One size does not fit all. That's the message from the mayors of Sumner and Bonney Lake, neighboring communities in eastern Pierce County with a combined population of about 31,000 people. They wrote a joint letter to Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this month asking for a little more leeway in the state's phased reopening plan, especially for small businesses in their communities.

It's fair to say that this Memorial Day is unlike most that have come before. For one, there won’t be the usual parades or ceremonies.

Those rituals can be of great comfort to many who are coping with loss on Memorial Day, especially people in or connected to the military.

KNKX spoke with Lt. Col. Jason Nobles, deputy chaplain for First Corps, based at Joint Base Lewis McChord near Tacoma.

The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed interest across the country in mail-in voting — which is how Washington state voters have cast ballots universally for nearly a decade.

Washington's Secretary of State Kim Wyman often is called upon by those elsewhere to explain how the process works. She's also a Republican, and leaders of her party — including President Donald Trump — have expressed skepticism about the idea of voting by mail. (She says she'd like to convince him otherwise.)

A new coronavirus relief bill passed the House last week, but appears dead in the Senate. 

Still, U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, hopes some of the provisions aren't lost. The original measure included more support for Medicare and Medicaid and hazard pay to health care workers dealing with the pandemic. 

Kilmer talked to KNKX about the bill, and the larger response to COVID-19.

Margaret Bullock did not expect the latest exhibition at the Tacoma Art Museum to be so timely. And it’s fair to say she didn’t want it to be timely, either.

That’s because “Forgotten Stories: Northwest Public Art of the 1930s” focuses on a time of economic catastrophe in the United States, when the federal government commissioned artists to paint murals and complete other works, as part of the massive effort to get people earning paychecks during the Great Depression.

Before the pandemic brought daily life to a standstill in Washington state, KNKX toured a massive construction project at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Lance Lyttle, the airport's director, said even if an economic slowdown were to arrive — which did not seem imminent in mid-February — it would still be important to continue growing. 

This week, the Port of Seattle said that's exactly what it will do, at least at the airport. 

Since March, 1 in 5 workers in Washington have filed unemployment benefit claims, and nearly $1.5 billion in benefits have been paid out. That includes federal money that has increased weekly payments in response to the coronavirus pandemic, state officials said Thursday.

Employment Security Department Commissioner Suzi LeVine said that of the 787,533 people who have filed for benefits since March 7, more than half a million who have filed an initial claim since the pandemic began have been paid.

From shuttered businesses to record unemployment, the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic are all around us.

Businesses themselves — whether small neighborhood stores or huge global corporations — face tough decisions. And that got us wondering about ethics: Will the way businesses behave now, even if they’re closed or doing limited business, affect the decisions consumers make later?

Republicans in the state Legislature have laid out a plan for restarting Washington's economy. It asks the state to suspend some taxes on small businesses, place a moratorium on some rulemaking from state agencies, and allow operations to resume in some sectors.

State Rep. J.T. Wilcox, leader of the House Republicans, talked about this plan with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco.

The fire chief in Point Roberts, Washington, is hoping to test hundreds of people in his community for COVID-19, regardless of whether they have symptoms.

Using tests from Northwest Laboratory in Bellingham, Whatcom County Fire District 5 Chief Christopher Carleton hopes he can get at least 400 people in this 1,200-person community to take a test. So far, Carleton says they’ve tested 137 people.

Can wildfires prepare you for a pandemic? The mayor of Twisp, in Washington state’s Methow Valley, says they can.

Paul Taub is a retired flute teacher. He also plays professionally around the Seattle area. And his years of playing a wind instrument have put him particularly in tune with how his lungs work.

Still, when he developed a cough, a fever, and some chills, he just thought it was a cold.

The USS Nimitz is one of the country's 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, and it's homeported in Bremerton. It's expected to set out to sea in the near future.

Last week, a top Pentagon official said there had been "small breakouts" of the novel coronavirus on the ship. The Navy quickly refuted that.

To help us understand exactly what's happening aboard the Nimitz, KNKX's Ed Ronco spoke with Josh Farley, who covers military affairs for the Kitsap Sun.

In state politics, it’s the season when candidates file paperwork announcing their campaigns. Challengers line up against incumbents, who dig in and tout their accomplishments.

Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib will not be joining them. He announced in March that he’s leaving elected office for the Catholic church. The move shocked everyone from constituents to fellow elected officials. 

Lots of events have moved online since the pandemic forced bans on public gatherings. 

That includes The Stranger's popular Silent Reading Party. Once a month, people would gather in the Fireside Room of Seattle's Sorrento Hotel and just sit together in silence, and read. Christopher Frizzelle is editor of The Stranger, and co-founded the party about 15 years ago.

As the coronavirus pandemic stretches on, many of the concerns voiced months ago are starting to be realized. Personal protective equipment for health care workers is in short supply. And some places are seeing their hospital capacity pushed to the limit.

Officials at rural hospitals are also worried. They operate on a tight budget, and with elective procedures on hold, there are very real financial concerns.

One of the steps taken during the pandemic were restrictions on the border between Canada and the United States. Last week, we heard from Point Roberts, Washington, which is separated from the rest of Whatcom County. People who live there have to go through British Columbia to get in or out of town.

UPDATE, March 26: Since we spoke with Scott Elliston, we heard some more details from the Canadian government on travel in and out of Point Roberts. Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was quoted as saying cross-border travel may continue for people in communities where it's essential to everyday life. And in a conversation with KNKX, Canada's Consul General in Seattle said his country's border officers have been given some discretion to determine what constitutes essential travel into the country.

Widespread layoffs have swept across Washington state, as public health orders attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 by closing restaurants, gyms, and other public places.

Today, economic development officials in Pierce County as well as state and federal officials outlined some options for small businesses. They talked about low-interest loans, federal aid and other programs. U.S. Rep.  Derek Kilmer was part of that conversation, which took place by conference call. He spoke by phone with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a massive federal effort Tuesday, President Donald Trump asked Congress to speed emergency checks to Americans, enlisted the military for MASH-like hospitals and implored ordinary people to do their part by staying home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

There are 17 doctors in Congress — 14 in the House, and three in the Senate. U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Sammamish, is one of them, and the only representing Washington state. Her 8th Congressional District includes a lot of King, Pierce, Kittitas and Chelan counties, as well as a small portion of Douglas County.

Schrier tells KNKX the doctors elected to Congress are talking to each other, but deferring to the scientific members of the administration, such as experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes of Health.

As new information emerges about coronavirus and COVID-19, seemingly multiple times a day, we wanted to take a moment and go back over the basics. Good basic information can do a lot to help in a crisis, and provide a foundation to make sense of new developments.

KNKX spoke with Dr. Ann Marie Kimball, professor emeritus at University of Washington School of Medicine. She also started the APEC Emerging Infections Network, to look at new illnesses emerging from highly populous countries in Asia.

Election officials in Western Washington say they’re hearing a lot of concern from voters about the state’s upcoming presidential primary.

That’s because in order to cast a ballot, you must check a box on the outside of the ballot return envelope, indicating whether you’re voting Democratic or Republican.

When you arrive on an international flight at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, you end up at the S-gates and are shepherded into customs – a windowless area in this nearly 50-year-old building, under low ceilings and fluorescent lights.

A $968 million renovation will add a new International Arrivals Facility to the airport, which sees 51.8 million passengers a year.

And airport officials hope the new facility will offer a completely opposite experience than what travelers encounter today.

Lance Lyttle’s office offers a view across most of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He’s the managing director for the aviation division for the Port of Seattle. In short, he manages the airport. And from his corner windows you can see planes taking off and landing, and taxiing around the airfield.

But these jets are tiny in comparison to a new bridge that connects the airport’s South Satellite to a new International Arrivals Facility, where passengers will retrieve luggage and go through customs.

Republican lawmakers in Oregon’s capital have walked off the job, to protest a controversial cap-and-trade bill aimed at addressing greenhouse gas emissions.

And this isn’t the first time.

In British Columbia now, the company TC Energy is building a liquefied natural gas pipeline across the northern part of the province. The Coastal GasLink project is highly controversial, in large part because it crosses the reserve and traditional lands of the Wet'suwet'en First Nation.

Demonstrations in Victoria and Vancouver are among many across Canada that have brought parts of daily life to a halt at times — from rail lines, to the B.C. Legislature, to the centers of busy downtowns. To help us sort through what's going on, KNKX's Craig McCulloch — based in Vancouver, B.C. — talked with KNKX’s Ed Ronco.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray spoke to KNKX about a variety of topics during an interview at her Tacoma office. She’s represented Washington state in the Senate since 1993. We asked her about Boeing, the aftermath of impeachment, the White House spending priorities, the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and the influence of money on politics.

Athena Tauscher is on a quest.

The fifth-grader, and many of her classmates at Elmhurst Elementary School in the Franklin Pierce School District, would very much like it if state lawmakers passed a particular bill this session. The subject? A dinosaur.