KPLU News

Licensed outdoor marijuana grows may be allowed in Washington after all.

Staff at the state’s Liquor Control Board said Wednesday they’ve been persuaded by potential growers to consider alternatives to energy-intensive indoor pot production.

Meanwhile, medical marijuana patients rallied at the state Capitol in opposition possible new restrictions on them.

The Army is planning to spend $26 million on a new National Guard facility in Tacoma. The readiness center would bring the Guard back to the city after leaving its historic Armory two years ago.

Congressman Derek Kilmer, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, joined Reps. Adam Smith and Denny Heck in pushing the Army to fund the new center. He said the Tacoma project is a high priority, even in an atmosphere of military budget cuts.

Kim Thompson, co-publisher of influential Seattle-based publisher Fantagraphics Books — known for celebrated alternative comics, graphic novels and comic strip anthologies — has died.

Fantagraphics announced Thompson's death Wednesday, four months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was 56.

Fans spoke, and apparently Microsoft listened.

In a reversal of the company's previous position, Microsoft announced Wednesday that its forthcoming Xbox One gaming console would no longer require a regular Internet connection and would not restrict used or shared games.

Since the system was revealed in May and at its big presentation at E3

Washington’s delegation to the Paris Air Show is trying to persuade more European aerospace companies to do business here. They're finding that European companies are receptive, in part because they want to do business in dollars.

A vaccine against human papillomavirus — the most common sexually transmitted infection and the cause of almost all cervical cancer — is dramatically reducing the prevalence of HPV in teenage girls.

The first vaccine against HPV, Merck's Gardasil, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006.

Washington state's labor market continues to improve slowly, according to the latest unemployment rate released Wednesday. The state's Employment Security Department said the jobless rate for May ticked down two-tenths of a percent from April to land on 6.8 percent.

State labor economist Paul Turek says it's the first time since late 2008 that the unemployment rate stood below 7 percent.

The man who identified the quietest place in the Lower 48—dubbed the "One Square Inch of Silence"—is going deaf.

This Olympic Peninsula fellow campaigned against noise pollution, particularly at his symbolic spot in the Hoh Rain Forest in Olympic National Park. The self-described "Sound Tracker" is now in a race to edit his life's work before he loses more of his hearing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nStp4urqcM

Italy's high court has explained why it reversed the acquittal of American student Amanda Knox, saying the decision acquitting her of murder was full of contradictions.

In March, the Court of Cassation overturned Knox's acquittal in the 2007 murder of flatmate Meredith Kercher and ordered a new trial. On Tuesday, the high court issued its written reasoning for doing so.

Traffic began rolling across the repaired Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River Wednesday morning, completing a hasty, around-the-clock salvage and reconstruction job.

The repair started less than four weeks ago after an oversize load brought down the vital bridge.  Northwest Washington drivers and businesses are relishing a return to normal.

While the American Medical Association may not have the clout it once did, it's still the largest single group of doctors making waves about health and the practice of medicine.

So it's not nothing when the AMA's House of Delegates approves a measure to label obesity a disease.

I knew that  recipe was dangerous the moment I saw it. Six Thai peppers? A half cup of chile oil? And that was just the start of the hot stuff. Naturally, I couldn't wait to make it. 

Because he'll eat anything (except tofu), I invited Weekend Edition host Kevin Kniestedt over to have some. We were in agony. And we couldn't stop. Maybe you'd like to try it.

At a time when Washington State has been making headlines for the largest dam removal project ever on the Elwah River, Snohomish County is proposing a new one.

The Snohomish County Public Utility District says the proposed dam’s modern low-impact design would help the county diversify its energy portfolio and meet the future power demands of a growing population.

Drivers and businesses in Northwest Washington are voicing elation now that there is a firm date for reopening the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River. The Washington Department of Transportation says the temporary replacement bridge will start carrying traffic Wednesday morning.

It took just three and a half weeks to clear the wreckage of the collapsed I-5 bridge and to build a new span across the gap. State transportation secretary Lynn Peterson says the temporary replacement can carry 99 percent of the usual car and truck traffic; no oversize loads will be allowed.

Starbucks will begin posting calorie counts on its menu boards and bakery cases nationwide next week—something it’s already required to do in King County

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dealt a big blow to environmental groups fighting proposed coal export terminals in the Northwest.

During testimony before Congress, an official with the agency said the Corps is not planning a broad environmental study on the impact of coal exports, meaning the proposed terminals' effects on climate change won’t be considered during the review process.

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn likely never saw it coming.

While testifying against proposed coal export terminals before a Congressional committee on Tuesday, McGinn found himself at the receiving end of a bizarre—and, at times, personal—attack.

On the offensive was U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-West Virginia, who boasts taking on “anti-coal zealots” on his website.

More than half of Washington's congressional delegation is asking the U.S. government to respect the state's marijuana legalization effort.

In a letter released Tuesday, seven members of Congress asked the Department of Justice to not pre-empt the new law or prosecute residents acting in compliance with state law. They also asked federal officials to provide guidance on the U.S. government's legal response to a marijuana industry.

A dapper older gentleman spurns his mate of a certain age to take a fresh-faced young lover. You've seen that movie before, right?

Well, this choice of youth may turn out to be more than a Hollywood trope.