Ed Ronco

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.

Four guys walk into a bar, and what happens next is definitely not a joke.

It started when my partner David and I went out with another couple. We saw a show and, afterward, went for a nightcap at a nearby establishment. We're not naming it here because it's not important where this happened, just that it happened.

Pacing behind his cow barn, David Haakenson looks out over the farm where his family has lived since 1989.

Today, it’s surrounded by water from the Snoqualmie River.

“It’s all frothy and logs are going down, and we’ve got water all around,” he said. “I’ve got all my tractors and trucks and vehicles, and all the animals, up here on this raised-dirt mound, and my house is a stone’s throw away, and I’ve got my row boat in the driveway.”

Time was, being called “nerd” was a bad thing.

That is happily different now, says Sarah Jane, gallery and program director at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, which is home to the exhibit “Obsessed: The Art of Nerd-dom” through March 15. Admission is free.

When the USS Nimitz was commissioned in 1975, the crew did not yet know what the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would see. In the years since, it's been adjacent to some of the world's tensest moments.

Hours after she was sworn in on a historic first day of the 2020 legislative session Jan. 13, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, talked live with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco. It was part of our special KNKX Connects to Olympia broadcast in the Temple of Justice on Jan. 13. They discussed legislative priorities, including gun-control bills, what her swearing in means for representation in state government — and some pretty neat bipartisan socks.  

As part of our KNKX Connects to Olympia broadcast at the Temple of Justice on Jan. 13, Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib talked live with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco. They discussed the tensions between the U.S. and Iran, Washington’s role in global trade and challenges facing Gov. Jay Inslee’s administration.

Rep. My-Linh Thai moved to the U.S. when she was 15, as a refugee from Vietnam. Now, she’s a Democratic representative for the 41st District, which includes Bellevue and Mercer Island. She talked live with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco, during our KNKX Connects to Olympia broadcast on Jan. 13, about the changing face of the Legislature, among other issues.

As part of our KNKX Connects to Olympia broadcast at the Temple of Justice on Jan. 13, Rep. J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, talked live with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco. The House minority leader discussed Republican priorities in the Legislature — including Initiative 976 — and homelessness, among other issues.

As part of our conversations for KNKX Connects to Olympia, we’ve heard lawmakers talk about homelessness as a priority for this 60-day session. It’s a growing issue in many parts of our state, not just cities. But it is perhaps most visible there.

Olympia is home to about 52,000 people, and it’s growing. Rob Smith is one of the new arrivals. He came here about six years ago, and was so taken with the city that he started a podcast about it.

“Welcome to Olympia” explores not just the sights in Washington’s capital city, but also the stories. As we explored stories from Olympia for our KNKX Connects reporting project, we wanted to journey beyond the Capitol Campus. Smith showed us some of his favorite places.

WATERSHED PARK

Debra Stephens became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Washington — the state’s highest court — on Jan. 6. She’s been on the court since 2008, and is currently the only sitting justice from Eastern Washington.

We visited Chief Justice Stephens to talk about the law, being chief justice, and more. We aired this conversation during a special broadcast on Jan. 13, 2020, from the Temple of Justice, as part of our KNKX Connects reporting project.

Never walk across the state Capitol Campus with Austin Jenkins if you’re in a hurry.

Fortunately, we are not in a hurry as Jenkins shows us around today, which is good, because he stops every so often to chat with someone he knows: a staffer at the front desk of the Capitol visitors’ office, a lawmaker making his way across the rotunda to a meeting, an acquaintance whose son was on the same basketball team as his.

The truth is, Jenkins gets around this place with plenty of speed — he says he can get from his office to the rotunda in under three minutes — and knows the Capitol Campus inside and out.

This is not the first story written about the newsstand at Pike Place Market, especially in the last few weeks. But it could very well be one of the last.

On Dec. 31, the newsstand at bustling Pike Street and First Avenue for 40 years will close for good. And on a recent Monday morning, nearly everyone who drops by says they regret that news.

“I’m sorry you’re closing,” says a woman carrying a freshly bought centerpiece from another stall.

“This is part of the character of the market,” says another passerby.

Author's note: One of the best parts of this job is the opportunity to learn new things from smart people. In June, producer Geoffrey Redick and I traveled to Twisp, in the Methow Valley. That’s where we met Mayor Soo Ing-Moody. Her town dealt with large wildfires in 2014 and again in 2015, when three firefighters died. We were looking to Twisp for some lessons learned, for a program we did exploring wildfire danger here in Western Washington. Ing-Moody took us to an overlook along a highway where we talked about how the landscape changed after the fires, the difference between fear and preparation, and how tragedy changes a community and its people. (This story originally aired July 9.)

A Washington state lawmaker took part in "domestic terrorism" against the United States during a 2016 standoff at a wildlife refuge in Oregon and traveled throughout the West meeting with far-right extremist groups, according to an investigative report released Thursday. Crosscut legislative reporter Melissa Santos has been following this story. She talks with KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco. 

For four days this past week, Laura Calkins was up before the dawn, into the shop at Quigg Brothers Construction in Aberdeen, and hard at work putting more than 50,000 Christmas lights on a dump truck.

Or, “only” 50,000, as Calkins is quick to point out. She’s gone as high as 250,000 lights before.

The painstaking work was in preparation for the Montesano Festival of Lights. The annual three-day festival has been taking place in the Grays Harbor County seat for more than 30 years.

Just before “Cabaret” begins, actor Casey DeCaire, in character as the M.C., walks out on the stage and barks at the audience.

“Before we start, turn off your cell phones!” he shouts in a German accent. “Ja! And anything that buzzes. We have many beautiful actors on the stage. We will not touch you, so please do not touch us.”

 Editor's note: The story below was written by Associated Press reporter Tim Booth.  

SEATTLE (AP) — University of Washington football coach Chris Petersen has unexpectedly stepped down after six seasons at the school, with defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake promoted to over the program.

In Timothy Egan’s new book, “A Pilgrimage to Eternity,” the Seattle author walks the Via Francigena, a nearly 1,100-mile pilgrimage from Canterbury to Rome – the seat of the Church of England, to the epicenter of Roman Catholicism.

On Nov. 11, 1919, the United States was marking its first-ever Armistice Day. World War I had come to a close just a year earlier.

In Centralia, a parade for the occasion turned violent. The American Legion and the Industrial Workers of the World – union members known as “Wobblies” – engaged in violence that ultimately left six people dead, and many more wounded and injured.

This weekend, events throughout the city will commemorate what some people call “The Centralia Tragedy,” and others call “The Centralia Massacre.”

Two Navy warships will be in Seattle soon, undergoing an overhaul in drydock at Vigor Industries.

The work is being done there instead of at the massive Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The Kitsap Sun’s Josh Farley says the Navy is growing its fleet, and that means it needs more capacity for maintenance of its vessels. Farley told KNKX All Things Considered host Ed Ronco that things are busy in Bremerton.

Flood waters were receding across parts of our region Tuesdsay, after heavy overnight rains blocked roads caused problems along numerous rivers, including the Stillaguamish in Snohomish County. KNKX’s Ed Ronco checked in with Spencer and Karen Fuentes, owners of Hazel Blue Acres farm in Silvana. Listen to their full conversation.

Educators in Washington state — and around the world — are spending time this week talking about media literacy. It’s part of a special week designed to boost students’ understanding of how different forms of media function.