Mount Vernon

A man stands on the roof of a building smiling while wearing a yellow vest, blue striped shirt, blue pants, glasses and white hard hat.

Arts & Culture

The vision of Mount Vernon’s Library Commons becomes reality

Margaret Bikman

Ribbon-cutting ceremony to be held Sept. 28 for the new community hub.

Jack Casady, left, and Jorma Kaukonen have performed together, with a variety of contributors, as Hot Tuna since 1969. The two met as teenagers in the Washington D.C. area.

Blues

The sweet sound of friendship: A conversation with Hot Tuna's Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady

John Kessler

Veteran musicians Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady met 60 years ago as founding members of Jefferson Airplane. The lifelong friends continue to soar with a full touring schedule, visiting Mt. Vernon and Tacoma this week.

The Manatee Energy Storage Center, a battery farm built by NextEra Energy, entered service in Parrish, Florida, in 2022. That company wants to build the first standalone, utility-scale battery storage projects in Skagit and Whatcom counties.

Environment

Battery farms, energy industry’s new darling, lining up to enter Pacific NW

Tom Banse

Utilities and independent energy companies have proposed a slew of standalone battery energy storage systems, some of which have generated vocal pushback in the permitting process.

A group of people sit a metal park table. Behind them are people walking around where there are tent displaying different fruits and vegetables. A clocktower is in the far background.

Arts & Culture

There’s more to farmers markets than meets the eye

Adam Sowards

An outlet for local farmers and artisans to share their talents also brings together — and educates — the community.

Mount Vernon's flood wall was put to the test on Nov. 16, as the Skagit River rose to levels just shy of the 1990 record. The wall kept the water back, shielding the city's downtown from major flooding.

Environment

Downtown Mount Vernon spared as rivers surge and inundate region

Ed Ronco

A flood wall completed in 2018 appears to have saved the city's historic business district from the devastation felt by other communities.

Hayley Thompson, the coroner in Skagit County, says the makeshift morgue she rents from the local hospital — a space converted from a closet — has a lot of flaws. But it's better than what most coroners have.

Politics

Coroners in Washington manage to investigate deaths despite untenable conditions

Kari Plog

It isn’t often a coroner gets to deliver good news. Last week was an exception for Hayley Thompson.The Skagit County coroner learned her office was…

Test baker Julia Berstein (right) works with a graduate student at the Bread Lab in Skagit County.

News

KNKX Connects: Bread Lab helps farmers grow tasty wheat

Ed Ronco

MOUNT VERNON, WASH. — When the Bread Lab was founded eight years ago, it was just that — a lab inside Washington State University’s Mount Vernon Research…

Advanced manufacturing is the top industry in Skagit Valley.

News

KNKX Connects: Skagit County’s ‘boomlet’ includes lots of manufacturing

Ed Ronco

MOUNT VERNON, WASH. — With more than a million visitors flocking to Skagit Valley every year for the Tulip Festival, it’s easy to think agriculture is the…

News

KNKX Connects: Host previews special broadcast in Skagit Valley

Kirsten Kendrick

MOUNT VERNON, WASH. — Today, All Things Considered broadcasts from Mount Vernon City Library for KNKX Connects to Skagit Valley. Host Ed Ronco talked with…

Craig Romano's wife, Heather, stands at a lookout in Mount Vernon's Little Mountain Park.

News

KNKX Connects: Trails advocate introduces Little Mountain, Mount Vernon's 'park for the people'

Geoffrey Redick

MOUNT VERNON, WASH. — KNKX Connects to Skagit County this Thursday, when All Things Considered broadcasts live from the Mount Vernon City Library. In this…