Henry Brannan

Trump budget maintains many Columbia River salmon, environment programs — despite dramatic proposed cuts Columbia River salmon recovery programs fared better in the 2026 federal budget than tribes, advocates, bureaucrats and biologists feared.

Pres. Trump's budget maintains many Columbia salmon recovery programs — despite huge cuts throughout '25.
Insiders told me the cuts brought together a wide-ranging group of powerful interests to ask Congress to restore funding. WA's powerful delegation delivered.
www.columbian.com/news/2026/fe...

Forest Service seeks feedback on Gifford Pinchot commercial huckleberry harvest The U.S. Forest Service announced a new public survey Wednesday to investigate the impacts of its 2025 ban on commercial huckleberry harvests in Gifford Pinchot National Forest.

USFS is weighing whether to extend a temporary 2025 ban on commercial huckleberry harvests in Gifford Pinchot.
The ban followed decades of advocacy by Native nations motivated by significant harms to berry habitat, gatherer safety and treaty-reserved rights.
www.columbian.com/news/2026/ja...

What does ‘time immemorial’ really mean? - High Country News If you’ve seen the phrase time immemorial used repeatedly in Indigenous affairs reporting, there are some compelling reasons why.

My latest essay for HCN critically interrogates the phrase "time immemorial," which Indigenous affairs reporters like me sometimes overuse.

www.hcn.org/issues/58-1/...

The type of take you have when you’ve never tried an al pastor taco 😐😒

Murray, Cantwell, more ask feds to expedite WA emergency declaration, cite Cowlitz River floods If approved by Trump, the declaration would mean Washington could access federal support.

NEW: WA's Congressional delegation asked President Trump to approve the state's expedited emergency declaration today.
The ask comes as the Cowlitz + other rivers flood. But also amid the politicization of disaster aid. The White House told TDN it hasn't received the request.
tdn.com/news/local/g...

Rural Southwest Washington counties take multimillion-dollar tax hit from policy limiting loggable land by streams Officials in timber-dependent counties around Southwest Washington say the state Forest Practices Board’s new rule expanding no-logging zones around some streams amounts to an economic siege.

Officials in timber-dependent counties around SW WA say the state's new rule expanding no-logging zones around some streams amounts to an economic siege waged from Olympia.
“They just want us to be able to make their beds and flip their burgers..."
www.columbian.com/news/2025/de...

Ag giant eyes long-abandoned Longview port Berth 4 Port officials aim to finalize a lease in early 2026 for the $500 million to $1 billion project.

New: Global ag giant Nutrien is looking to build a $500m-$1b Longview fertilizer export plant in 2027, company officials told TDN.
The decision had been seen as a test between the U.S. and Canada of who could offer more to woo investment.
tdn.com/news/local/b...

Re that last bit: I get the top 10% of earners + corporate AI spending are what's holding the economy up right now but I don't see how so much unemployment couldn't harm the economy... and the country's stability more broadly.

This is truly mind boggling... Amazon is the US' 2nd biggest employer and aims to have robots running 75% of its operations. What will happen to the people they employed? What will happen to the US economy as its consumer spending backbone takes this hit?

Skamania County eyes penalties as it ties rescues record of 67 so far this year Skamania County is on pace to set a new record for search and rescues this year. The 67 rescues conducted so far in 2025 already tie the previous record.

New: Skamania County has tied its previous search and rescue record with more than 2 months left in 2025.
The costly rescues have compounded the county's fiscal crisis and pushed the sheriff to try to fine "reckless or negligent" recreationists who call for rescue.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

SW WA shipping industry feels impacts of Trump’s effort to remake U.S. economy The $31 billion Columbia River shipping industry is feeling the impacts of President Donald Trump’s effort to remake the U.S. economy to be less reliant on imports.

The $31b Columbia River shipping industry is feeling the impacts of President Donald Trump’s effort to remake the U.S. economy to be less reliant on imports.
The effects have been mixed for SW WA — leaving uneasiness in the place of the outright fear.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

Ecology researchers work to update Columbia River fish advisories — but face new challenges in climate change STEVENSON — The harvest moon’s reflection danced through the churning wake of Jakub Bednarek’s 16-foot aluminum jet boat on a recent night along the Columbia River.

New: How do the fish health advisories that inform anglers of the dangers lurking in their catch start?

With a small team of state researchers, and some 911 calls reporting aliens on the water, as it turns out:
www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

2/2 "... complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom. At stake is virtually every corner of the economy, with the hype and buildout of AI infrastructure rippling across markets, from debt and equity to real estate and energy."

OpenAI, Nvidia Fuel $1 Trillion AI Market With Web of Circular Deals A wave of deals and partnerships are escalating concerns that the trillion-dollar AI boom is being propped up by interconnected business transactions.

1/2 "Never before has so much money been spent so rapidly on a technology that, for all its potential, remains largely unproven as an avenue for profit-making. The recent wave of deals and partnerships involving the two are escalating concerns that an increasingly..
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Huckleberry harvest thrives after ban — a win for conservation and Native rights in Gifford Pinchot The first huckleberry season since the U.S. Forest Service banned commercial harvesting in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest was a resounding success for conservation of the berries, as well as Nati

New: A ban on commercial huckleberry harvest in Gifford Pinchot this year was a success for conservation and Native nations' treaty-reserved rights.
But with the ban set to expire before next harvest, will the Forest Service continue it?
www.columbian.com/news/2025/oc...

Feds greenlight killing more sea lions to protect endangered salmon as controversy fades The federal permit that allows Northwest states and some Native nations to trap and kill salmon-eating sea lions in the Columbia River was reapproved late last week.

New: Killing sea lions has become an increasingly popular solution to salmon extinction as agreements fall apart & Trump guts funding.
The 2020 permit allowing the killings generated 22k+ comments, only ~200 in favor. That same permit received 1 comment this month.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/se...

Dispatches from the field: Columbian’s Columbia River reporter takes a dip into subject matter CASCADE LOCKS, Ore. — As I stood on the edge of a sternwheeler about a mile out into the Columbia River last weekend, I might have started to question why I thought it would be a good idea to swim acr

New: Last year I covered a 1.1-mile swim across the Columbia, and the characters that made it a cherished tradition.
Along the way, I accidentally promised some of them that I'd join this year... last weekend, after a year of training, I did.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/se...

Southwest WA ports and shipping advocates dodge politics to bring home federal dollars Ryan Hart was at Portland International Airport last month waiting to board a flight for Washington, D.C., when he saw Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

New: A look at the political tightrope walk that keeps federal $ flowing into the Columbia River shipping system.
The $ is key in keeping the system globally competitive at a time when intl businesses are rethinking trade relationships w/ the US amid growing costs.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/au...

Bird Flu May Be Airborne on Dairy Farms, Scientists Report

The bird flu virus that has beset dairy farms since early last year may be spreading through the air in so-called milking parlors and through contaminated wastewater
(Gift link)

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/04/h...

‘Wake-up call’: Officials say giant Pacific earthquake serves as warning for local megaquakes, tsunamis Daniel Eungard gets a handful of tsunami alerts each month because of his job running the tsunami hazards program for the Washington Geological Survey. Most of them are nothing.

New: Emergency response and tsunami modeling officials said this week's 8.8 quake off Russia's Pacific coast is a warning to the PNW about its own looming megaquakes — and the need for the region to prepare.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/au...

Flight Manifests Reveal Dozens of Previously Unknown People on Three Deportation Flights to El Salvador Hacked data obtained by 404 Media reveals dozens more people on deportation flights to El Salvador who are unaccounted for. “We have not heard from these people’s families, so I think perhaps even the...

SCOOP: The manifests for three legally contested deportation flights to El Salvador contain the names of dozens of people who have not been acknowledged in any way by the US government. Immigration experts following the case say they don't know where these people are

www.404media.co/flight-manif...

Trump pulls out of $1 billion Biden-brokered Columbia River salmon restoration plan The Trump administration on Thursday pulled out of a $1 billion Biden-era plan to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin more than a century after overfishing and dams be

Background: Challenges the endangered fish face from an ever-warming Columbia are compounded by an equally perilous political environment.
So far this year, the Trump admin has gutted salmon restoration progs + killed hopes for an unobstructed Lower Snake River.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Columbia Basin’s salmon are in hot water, literally, says report from Save Our Wild Salmon Environmental group Save Our Wild Salmon released its first Columbia River Hot Water Report of the year Wednesday, as water temperatures throughout the basin this year have already surpassed the key 6

New: Environmental group Save Our Wild Salmon released its first Columbia River Hot Water Report of the year Wednesday.
It comes as water temperatures throughout the basin this year have *already* surpassed the key 68-degree threshold for salmon survival.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Seattle Times sharing the jetty story:

After six years, 32,000 boulders and $172M, the Columbia River jetty rehab is almost done CLATSOP SPIT — For most of the past two years, Jesse Allen has worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week operating a crane to move sedan-sized boulders miles out into the mouth of the Columbia River.

After 6 yrs, 32k boulders and $172M, the Army Corps' rebuild of the Columbia River South Jetty is almost done.
The barrier allows ships carrying $31B in goods a year to pass the dangerous estuary where 2,000,000 gallons of water crash into the Pacific every second.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Trump pulls out of $1 billion Biden-brokered Columbia River salmon restoration plan The Trump administration on Thursday pulled out of a $1 billion Biden-era plan to restore salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia River Basin more than a century after overfishing and dams be

Background: the tour also followed a huge win by the industry regionally when President Trump ended a $1 billion Biden-era salmon recovery plan that had threated four dams that are key for river-based grain export.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Mississippi River shippers get weeklong tour of Columbia River shipping system KALAMA — A group of Mississippi River shipping industry figures were treated to a tour of the Columbia-Snake river grain export system last week by the Washington Association of Wheat Growers alongsid

Mississippi River shippers got a 6 day tour of Columbia River shipping system last week. The tour stretched from Cape Disappointment to Lewiston, ID.
It was aimed at building a united voice to advocate for US grain shippers' interests.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

Southwest Washington steel importers hurting after Trump doubled import tax to 50 percent Southwest Washington steel importers are feeling the pain from a Trump administration move earlier this month to double the import taxes they pay to 50 percent.

New: SW Washington steel importers are hurting after President Trump doubled import taxes to 50% earlier this month.
Local importers and ports say the move will lead to higher consumer costs and layoffs in associated industries. Projections back that up.
www.columbian.com/news/2025/ju...

If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029:

- $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion
- $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million
- $8 billion for hiring/retention
- Billions more.

ICE Is Using a New Facial Recognition App to Identify People, Leaked Emails Show The new tool, called Mobile Fortify, uses the CBP system which ordinarily takes photos of people when they enter or exit the U.S., according to internal ICE emails viewed by 404 Media. Now ICE is usin...

New from 404 Media: ICE is using a new facial recognition app to identify people, leaked emails show. Point camera at person, reveal their identity. It uses the CBP system that records peoples' faces as they enter or exit the U.S. Now, turned inwards to be used by ICE www.404media.co/ice-is-using...