Northwest News

Fire crews in southern Idaho are now at a standoff with a fire that’s surrounded the resort town of Featherville. It’s been clear for days that the town’s businesses and summer homes are in the path of the 90,000 acre Trinity Ridge Fire east of Boise. But fire managers say they have to wait for the blaze to creep to lower ground before crews can fight it head-on.

More than a thousand fire fighters in Idaho are working to protect homes as a massive wildfire moves closer to the mountain communities of Pine and Featherville. Sadie Babits reports.

The Trinity Ridge fire burning 100 miles northeast of Boise remains the state’s number one firefighting priority. That’s because the wildfire continues to threaten hundreds of homes in Pine and Featherville. Mary Christensen – a fire information officer – says thick smoke lifted and now the wildfire has picked up.

Managers at a blaze in north Idaho were warned about hazardous conditions the day before a 20-year-old firefighter died on the job. That’s according to an informal report by the head of a federal hotshot crew, which refused to work on the fire. Correspondent Jessica Robinson has more.

Wildfires have burned more land this year in the U.S. than in the last decade. Large fires continue to burn in California, Washington, Nevada and Idaho.

Attorneys for an Oregon victim of clergy sex abuse say they will appeal a new decision that frees the Vatican from a lawsuit. That ruling came down Monday in federal district court in Portland. The 10-year-old lawsuit aims to link the Holy See in Rome to abuse by American priests.

Fire crews expect to contain the Taylor Bridge Fire in central Washington by Tuesday afternoon. Crews are now working in steep terrain on the northwest side of the blaze.

President Obama has announced that the Columbia River Crossing -- and three other infrastructure projects around the nation -- will be expedited.

Dramatic images of destruction from a central Washington wildfire this week haave prompted an overwhelming flood of donations to fire victims. So much that the state of Washington is urging well meaning donors to stop giving food and clothing and donate money instead. In Cle Elum, correspondent Courtney Flatt checked out the brimming donation centers.

Firefighters have mostly contained the Holloway fire, a massive blaze on the Oregon-Nevada border. But Amelia Templeton of Earthfix reports there is still no clear solution for the cattle left homeless by Oregon’s summer fires.

Across America, two-thirds of the population drinks water treated with fluoride. Oregon’s fluoridation rate is about 23 percent — 48th out of fifty states. Portland is now the largest city in the country without fluoridated water but a coalition of supporters is lobbying to change that. KLCC's Tiffany Eckert takes a look at this controversial subject.