Northwest News

Crews are beginning to head home from the biggest wildfires that have been burning for the last two weeks in central Washington. But there are still more than 4,000 people working to contain the blazes on the east slopes of the Washington Cascades. That’s down about 800 from the peak workforce last weekend.

The Washington Supreme Court could decide by the end of this year whether a voter-approved two-thirds requirement for tax hikes is constitutional. But first, the justices must determine who has the right to challenge the law. That technical question was the focus of oral arguments Tuesday. Olympia Correspondent Austin Jenkins has details.

The "world's most comprehensive collection" of opium smoking paraphernalia has a new home; it's at the University of Idaho. A writer and collector, originally from San Diego, donated the exquisite antiques. Correspondent Tom Banse has the intriguing back story of how these so-called "instruments of self-destruction" came to a small Northwest town.

Firefighters are making progress on several massive blazes around the Northwest. In Oregon, the Pole Creek Fire near Sisters is around 70 percent contained. Crews in central Washington are getting the upper hand on the 53,000-acre Wenatchee Complex, where another blaze flared up yesterday. And in Idaho fire bosses report minimal activity at the Mustang Complex along the Idaho-Montana border.

The fate of Washington’s two-thirds requirement for tax hikes is now in the hands of the state Supreme Court. The justices Tuesday heard oral arguments in a constitutional challenge to the supermajority threshold.