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Saturday is the 33rd anniversary of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens that killed 57 people, knocked down a forest and filled the sky and rivers with volcanic ash.

The mountain in southwest Washington may be the best known volcano in the state, but it's not the only one or the most dangerous.

Washington’s Department of Licensing has released a list of federal agencies that have received fictitious driver’s licenses for undercover operations. But the list made public Friday does not include the Central Intelligence Agency even though the state agency previously acknowledged its work with CIA.

As lawmakers wrap up their first week of a special legislative session, Senate majority leaders have asked that more than 30 bills be considered as part of the budget discussions.

A list of 33 measures, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, was submitted during a private meeting Thursday, including bills dealing with changes to the workers' compensation system, education bills and other bills tied to the budget, including funding for state parks and higher education. Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler declined to comment on the list Friday.

Flax is the oily seed usually spotted in the nutritional supplement or cereal aisles.

If the price tag for health insurance goes up under Obamacare, it’s likely to hit some policy holders in their 20s, economists have warned. Now that the first round of numbers are available in Washington state, we can see whether that’s the case.

Welcome to the Humanosphere podcast, our weekly look at the world of global health and development. Tom and I begin with a discussion on the headlines – from the UN asking us to eat more bugs to the refusal of most American retailers to sign a pact improving worker safety overseas. Our featured guest this week … Continue reading →

Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess is dropping out of the mayor's race.

The Richland florist who refused to sell flowers for a same sex-couple’s wedding has filed a counter suit.

Arlene’s Flowers owner Barronnelle Stutzman says she "will not wilt." She argues there are plenty of other shops in the Tri-Cities that could cater to a gay or lesbian wedding. 

Kristof is, for many, the voice of the humanitarian movement. Not surprisingly, he gave a rousing, moving talk Thursday evening for the Seattle Biomed crowd in which he emphasized the stunning progress that has been made in global health over the past few decades. He also spoke on the danger posed for sustaining this success story due to public apathy and the mistaken sense that the fight against poverty is too overwhelming, a 'hopeless' task. Continue reading →

Charley Patton is considered by many to be the father of Delta Blues. What does that actually mean? A combination of location, timing and talent, put him at the leading edge of the new musical direction of the 1920s. He was one of, if not the first, to play what we might recognize as blues.

When the diagnosis is cancer, the expenses can pile up in a hurry.

Even people with insurance can face steep copayments for drugs, a sizable share of hospital bills and significant incidental expenses. These side effects of cancer care are sometimes even called "financial toxicity."

So wouldn't it make sense for doctors and patients to talk over the financial strain that cancer treatment might bring and what might be done to manage it?

Well, it's not always easy for patients to bring it up, says S.

Eskinder Nega was arrested after raising questions about arrests under Ethiopia’s anti-terrorism legislation in September 2011. Now he serves an 18 year sentence thanks to the very law he questioned. “The Ethiopian government is treating calls for peaceful protest as a terrorist act and is outlawing the legitimate activity of journalists and opposition members,” said Amnesty International‘s … Continue reading →

Rosling is strikingly upfront about the limitations of data. Sometimes, the problem is that different countries measure things – like unemployment – in different ways, he says. In other cases, there are real uncertainties in the data that must be assessed: child mortality statistics are quite precise, whereas maternal mortality figures are not; global poverty measurements are infrequent and uncertain. Continue reading →

I’ve been waiting for someone to make this argument based on the numbers. I don’t expect it to be very popular or compelling. The long-standing emphasis on women and children’s needs in global health are based not so much on simple burden of disease numbers alone as on issues of equity. Source: Sciencedaily Men experience … Continue reading →

The Washington Post’s chief policy wonk blogger Ezra Klein has published his conversation with Bill Gates about global health. Most of the discussion is focused on exploring how the Gates Foundation attempts to use data and better metrics to improve the fight against diseases of poverty. Ezra Klein: Your Foundation is known for taking a … Continue reading →

A rebuttal to this week’s New Yorker article by Paul Bloom who contends empathy is worse than useless. Michael Zakaras, in HuffPo, notes: (E)mpathy is an often irrational emotional response that plays favorites, he says. It is thus a poor mechanism for solving real problems and making tough choices — whether distributing international aid or … Continue reading →

The first planeload of Copper River salmon from Cordova, Alaska, landed Friday morning at Sea-Tac Airport and the Alaska Airlines pilots carried a 40-pound king to waiting chefs.

The annual cook-off among local chefs this year includes Master Sgt. Robert Schulman, a 31-year Air Force Reserve chef representing the 446th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

We reported weeks ago on a humorous campaign by UNICEF asking people to stop liking them on Facebook and just send money – “Like Us on Facebook and We’ll Vaccinate ZERO Children Against Polio.” Now here’s a report that says “FB likes” may be worse than useless. Source: Smithsonianmag Facebook allows people to connect around … Continue reading →

That’s what William MacAskill, an ethicist at Oxford, explores in this article for Quartz. MacAskill (who inexplicably notes his last name used to be Crouch) begins his critique by noting the lack of scientific evidence for homeopathy and then digs into where the money goes. Source: Quartz I normally hate to be critical of specific … Continue reading →