Northwest (OR WA)

"OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled Thursday that the state's hazardous substances tax is constitutional."

"Getting a suction tag onto a 5-ton orca can be tricky, but the scientific rewards are big. Scientists are using the devices to gather underwater data about orca behavior to find out how vessel traffic might be affecting the endangered whales."

"If all had gone according to plan, the Millennium Bulk Logistics Terminal near Longview, Wash., would have begun shipping coal to Asia in the late fall. The Gateway Pacific Terminal at Cherry Point, just north of Bellingham, Wash., would begin construction in 2013."

"The Portland City Council voted 5-0 during a raucous public meeting Wednesday morning to add fluoride to Portland's drinking water, ending the city's status as the only major U.S. city that hasn't approved fluoridation."

"PORTLAND, Ore. -- Who bears responsibility for an impoverished child with a mouth full of rotting teeth? Parents? Soda companies? The ingrained inequities of capitalism? Pick your villain, or champion. They are all on display here as the largest city in the nation with no commitment to fluoridating its water supply -- and one of the most politically liberal cultures anywhere -- has waded into a new debate about whether to change its ways and its water."

"Beside Seattle’s notoriously polluted Duwamish River, an excavator scoops up small pieces of waste metal and slings them onto a rusty mountain at Seattle Iron & Metals Corp. A pile of flattened cars and trucks squats nearby amid vast sheets of scrap metal. For at least the last four years, this auto-shredder and metal recycler has dumped more pollutants into the river than allowed under the federal Clean Water Act, government records show. The levels have ranged higher than 250 times above what’s known to harm salmon that migrate through the river."

"A U.S. study has found an unusually high incidence of gastrointestinal disease in a small U.S. town located downstream from a Teck smelter in Trail, B.C."

"In the early 1990s, anglers in the Upper Columbia River reported seeing beads of liquid mercury floating in the water."

"The Pacific Northwest may be the epicenter of U.S. coffee culture, and now a new study shows the region's elevated caffeine levels don't stop at the shoreline."