Investment in wind energy and other “new” energy sources — solar, geothermal and biomass — is proving to be a big time windfall as Washington’s economy pulls out of the Great Recession.

The rain will stop. When it does, thousands of smiling noobs will pedal shiny candy-colored cruisers and used mountain bikes with fake suspension forks along Portland's streets. They’ll ride to work a couple times and to drink beer. And then, when the first drops of autumn rain moisten their seats, they will stop. Don’t be one of them!

The BC government's promise to review the controversial carbon tax is being applauded by agricultural organizations. Officials confirmed Tuesday that the government will increase the carbon tax one more time as scheduled this year. But after that the tax will be frozen while the government conducts a review to determine its impact on BC's economy.

Don't make the mistake of blaming the potato for Pringles. Some people, heavily influenced by the bad press both potatoes and corn routinely garner, have asked me whether those foods are indeed “real” and worth eating at all. The answer, of course, is yes.

This is the smallest studio apartment you can build in California, by law — 160 square feet — and it includes a bevy of space-saving measures. If you’re like me, you watch this video and think “my house is 10 times as big as this apartment and only slightly more functional."

Portland car owners will have a chance to pocket $300, if they sign up their vehicles for other drivers to use. Portland is officially test-driving a new kind of car-sharing beginning Wednesday.

Todd Tanner, the chair of the new group Conservation Hawks — sportsmen who don’t want climate change to ruin their fun — has challenged anyone to prove to him that climate change shouldn’t be a concern. If you succeed, he'll give you his favorite gun.

The state Legislature on Tuesday approved an expansion of Oregon's small system of marine reserves to research how they may help better manage commercial fisheries. The legislation ends more than a decade of fighting among commercial fishermen, conservation groups and coastal communities.

The streets of Seattle's Chinatown International District used to fill up with restaurant patrons every evening as the parking meters ticked off the last paid minutes at 6 p.m. But community leaders complain that neighborhood business has been cut in half since the city extended paid parking meter hours until 8.

A year after the cable comedy series “Portlandia” aired its hilariously true-to-pdx-street-life skit “Bicycle Rights,” the clever satire-of-a-satire web series “Vancouvria” has responded with “SUV Rights.” To quote Homer Simpson when he was funny: “It's funny 'cause it's true!”

Lawmakers in Washington are considering a proposal to start dismantling the state's civil jurisdiction over American Indians, a step many consider long overdue.

The deaths of four people in two avalanches Sunday in the Cascade Mountains northeast of Seattle are the latest examples of what can happen when backcountry skiing, powered by the predictable human urge for thrill, meets the more capricious nature of high-country snow. Though textbook conditions for avalanches have had forecasters throughout the Mountain West ramping up warnings for backcountry travelers, close calls and fatal accidents continue to mount.

The U.S. population is growing at the slowest rate since the Great Depression after two decades of robust increases.For two consecutive years since 2009, the population has grown just 0.7% a year, down from annual increases around 1% in previous years and the lowest since the late 1930s.

Why the steep decline of Steller sea lions in Alaska? The answer is simple. Because they swim in a sea with the nutritional value of a field of celery.

After years of taking farmers to court to assert their patent rights, agri-giant Monsanto Co.is being sued by farmers. Lots of farmers. The innovative suit is brought under the Declaratory Judgment Act, which allows for a preemptive judgment that would clear farmers of infringement suits before they even grow their plants. The farmers are not seeking any money or injunction.

The leading mayoral candidates—Charlie Hales, Eileen Brady and Jefferson Smith—got this question at a Feb. 16 forum sponsored by the Northwest Examiner at the Northwest Neighborhood Cultural Center. The question was aimed at Northwest Portland specifically (Chapman Elementary, the candidates were told, has 32 percent of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.) But the candidates took a broader view in their answers.

Coal — not oilsands — is the largest threat to the world's climate. Still, that's no reason to endorse the Keystone XL or Northern Gateway pipelines, say two Canadian climate experts in a provocative study released on the weekend.

Coal is fast gaining notoriety as the dirtiest fossil fuel and a growing source of global greenhouse gas emissions, all of which is staining the B.C. government's green climate-action initiatives.

A plant that last flowered when woolly mammoths roamed the plains is back in bloom. Biologists have resurrected a 30,000-year-old plant, cultivating it from fruit tissue recovered from frozen sediment in Siberia. The plant is by far the oldest to be brought back from the dead: the previous record holder was a sacred lotus, dating back about 1200 years.

Prominent wildlife photographers, including Ansel Adams, have spoken out for conservation in the past. But today’s photographers have taken the mission to new heights by changing how they craft their images and by lobbying policymakers in Washington and abroad.