In a pilot project that could help better manage the planet's strained natural resources, space-age technologies are helping a Washington state community monitor its water availability.

Many of Washington State's sea otters are exposed to the same pathogens responsible for causing disease in marine mammal populations in other parts of the country.

By Seattle Times May 10--The National Marine Fisheries Service has issued a draft environmental-impact statement assessing a proposal by the Makah Tribe to hunt gray whales. The document, more than 900 pages long, does not make a recommendation about whether the tribe should be allowed to hunt.

Five men in Washington state facing federal charges for killing a gray whale say they were hunting under tribal rights. The men from the Makah tribe said they acted within the 153-year-old treaty their tribe signed with the U.S. government, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported Monday.

By CRAIG WELCH, Seattle Times Dec. 30--SEQUIM, Clallam County -- A 12-year-old boy's crayon-scrawled note in a Sequim Applebee's led police on a six-hour manhunt Friday that ended in Pierce County when authorities learned the child had pulled off a hoax and was safe at home.