Lauren Gallup

Dry, hot and windy conditions have communities on alert for wildfire danger across the Pacific Northwest. Those conditions propelled fire growth over the weekend, and more of the same weather is expected this week.

Everyone watching fires around Washington this week held their breath as about 600 lightning strikes hit the landscape across the state. The Washington State Department of Natural Resources, who, alongside agency partners, prepared for those conditions this week by pulling in out-of-state resources and pre-positioning crews. The lightning strikes ignited at least two fires in the state, the Easy fire and Swawilla fire. According to a public information officer on the Swawilla fire, a series of fires started from lightning strikes on the Colville Reservation this week.

Six years ago, if you had told Jamie Cline that today, she would be the mom of a toddler, working at a doctor’s office and completing her bachelor’s degree, she would have thought you were nuts. But, she is doing all of those things. On top of all of that, Cline is also nearly six years into recovery from drug addiction.

In Skagit County, a nonprofit that houses a number of animals, including exotic ones, is in continued legal battles. A law firm that advocates for animal rights is claiming the organization may have violated the Endangered Species Act, by, as the law firm claims in its complaint, the illegal euthanization of wolves.

Tacoma For All and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 367 announced plans to bring an initiative to Pierce and Thurston county voters next year. The groups are calling the initiative a workers’ bill of rights.

Lurking within the deep, blue waters that lap along the Washington state coastline and into the Puget Sound, algal blooms burst in colorful explosions when the sun shines across the surface, giving these aquatic plants life. But these brightly colored blooms sometimes pack a dangerous punch.

Many counties in Washington and Oregon have closed recreational shellfish harvesting with active toxic algal blooms in coastal waters that have also impacted commercial operations.

It used to be the case that people who harvest shellfish could breathe a sigh of relief in late autumn. Spring, summer and even early fall have long presented the right conditions for harmful algae to grow and produce biotoxins in waters along the Washington state coast and into Puget Sound. But in recent years, recreational and commercial harvesters, state agencies and tribes are noticing biotoxin outbreaks more commonly in the winter, too.

A portion of the Electron Dam on the Puyallup River has to be removed, according to a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appeals court upheld the decision by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington that a vertical metal wall portion of the dam, a temporary spillway, makes the dam a complete barrier to fish passage and must be removed.

At food establishments across Redmond, diners this month will find a unique accompaniment to their orders; poems. Penned by local writers as well as poets from international Cities of Literature, the poems expound on community, harvest and lineage. Redmond’s poet laureate, Ching-In Chen, is leading the project, called Read Local Eat Local, It kicks off on Thursday Sept. 19 in conjunction with the Downtown Redmond Art Walk.