Northwest (OR WA)

"The U.S. government's latest plan for offsetting the harm to migrating salmon from a series of dams in the Columbia River watershed violates the Endangered Species Act, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday."

"For centuries, Lummi tribal fishermen have harvested, dug up clams and fished for salmon in the tidelands and waters of northwest Washington state. Now, the tribe says a proposed $700 million project to build the nation’s largest coal-export terminal threatens that way of life. The tribe last year asked federal regulators to deny permits for project, saying it would interfere with the tribe’s treaty-reserved fishing rights."

"More than 5 billion gallons of oil are transported by boat and barge to the five refineries located in Puget Sound each year. With so much petroleum moving along our coastlines, accidents are, sadly, almost bound to happen. Is Washington ready for the next big one? That’s the question the state Department of Ecology had in mind at the first-of-its-kind “worst-case” oil spill drill off the coast of Anacortes earlier this month."

"The Pacific fisher, a small, weasel-like predator whose numbers in Oregon's forests have plummeted since European settlement of the West, will not join the federal endangered species list."

"The [Washington] state attorney general's office is taking a powerful Washington, D.C., lobby, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, to court, seeking damages over money laundering in a 2013 initiative campaign."

"The Obama administration and California officials are expected to announce a landmark agreement Wednesday to tear down four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, bypassing Congress to restore a major salmon fishery on the Oregon border."

"Buildup of carbon dioxide is changing the chemistry of the world's oceans, threatening coastal economies and ecosystems -- nowhere more than on the Pacific Coast, according to an expert study released Monday."

"Blame it on the mass of water known as "the Blob”—four-plus degrees Fahrenheit, warmer-than-normal, nutrient-poor ocean waters hugging the Pacific coast—or on El Niño, habitat destruction or toxic runoff. Whatever the cause of dwindling coho salmon runs, the effect on western Washington tribal fishing nations can be summed up in one word: disastrous."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to release its proposed Portland Harbor Superfund Site cleanup plan early next month."

"An FBI agent is suspected of lying about firing twice at Robert "LaVoy" Finicum and may have gotten help from four other FBI agents in covering up afterward, authorities revealed Tuesday."