Environmental hazards, including PCBs, were repeatedly found at Sky Valley Education Center’s campus in Monroe. Some of the highest levels were found in classrooms, including Michelle Leahy’s room, housed in circular pods. The school is still open. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times)
Environmental hazards, including PCBs, were repeatedly found at Sky Valley Education Center’s campus in Monroe. Some of the highest levels were found in classrooms, including Michelle Leahy’s room, housed in circular pods. The school is still open. (Steve Ringman / The Seattle Times)
Times Watchdog

Toxic PCBs festered at a Monroe school for eight years as students, teachers grew sicker

More than 200 students, teachers and parents say harmful toxicants at the Sky Valley school gave them cancer, early puberty and brain damage, among others. Monroe school officials knew about environmental hazards, but acted slowly. Updated

FILE – in this Aug. 3, 2007, file photo magic mushrooms are seen in a grow room at the Procare farm in Hazerswoude, central Netherlands. Magic mushrooms and other psychedelic plants and fungi are now effectively decriminalized in Ann Arbor, Mich., at least in terms of city police enforcement priority. City Council voted unanimously Monday night, Sept. 21, 2020 in favor of a resolution declaring it’s the city’s lowest law enforcement priority to investigate and arrest anyone for planting, cultivating, purchasing, transporting, distributing, engaging in practices with or possessing entheogenic plants or plant compounds. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
Mental Health

Legislation proposed to legalize psychedelic mushrooms in Washington

An artist’s sketch released by the FBI of the skyjacker known as ‘Dan Cooper’ and ‘D.B. Cooper’, from the recollections of passengers and crew of a Northwest Orient Airlines jet he hijacked between Portland and Seattle, Nov. 24, 1971. ‘Cooper’ later parachuted from the plane with $200,000 in ransom money. Dead or alive, he has not been found. The FBI is making a new stab at identifying mysterious skyjacker Dan Cooper, who bailed out of an airliner in 1971 and vanished, releasing new details that it hopes will jog someone’s memory. Credit: Associated Presas / FBI (handout from FBI)
Pacific NW Magazine

Meet the FBI agent who spent 9 years on the D.B. Cooper hijacking

House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, is displayed on video screens as he speaks remotely following opening remarks from House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, during the opening session of the Washington state House, Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash. Lawmakers started the new legislative session Monday during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and much of their work will be done remotely as leaders try to limit the possibility of exposure. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) WATW101 WATW101
Danny Westneat

Democrats seem lost without Trump, while the local GOP surges back from the dead Updated

Don't Miss

Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart (30) reacts during a time out as forward Stephanie Talbot, left, looks on in the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, in Everett, Wash. The Storm won 85-75.
Matt Calkins

Superstar Breanna Stewart leaving Seattle in free agency would send the Storm back to mediocrity

*** READER’S LENS – ONE TIME USE ONLY *** Vance Thompson alexavance@mac.com Seattle, Washington 206-619-2633 Seattle, Pike Place Market 2021/03/10 Waterfront area construction area as viewed from Pike Place Market. Other than the colors, patterns and shadows, the orange jacket caught my eye. Sony a6600 mirrorless. Zeiss Batis 85mm shot at f/1.8, 1/4000 sec, ISO 50. Steelworker.JPG I agree to the Readers Lens Terms and Conditions 17:22:21 18 Mar, 2021
Pacific NW Magazine

This image of Pike Place Market is our 2021 Reader Photo of the Year

Washington acting head coach Will Conroy calls out to players during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Oregon State on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022, in Corvallis, Ore. Washington won 82-72. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman) ORAL113 ORAL113
Husky Basketball

Will Conroy showcases coaching transformation by guiding UW men to win as acting head coach

Editorial

Hold leadership accountable for disastrous Boeing ethos

Politics

**EMBARGO: No electronic distribution, Web posting or street sales before 3:01 a.m. ET SUNDAY, SUNDAY, JAN. 23, 2022. No exceptions for any reasons. EMBARGO set by source.**A Trump hat for sale at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Florence, Ariz., Jan. 15, 2022. To many of those who attended the Trump rally but who never breached the Capitol, that date wasn’t a dark day for the nation. It was a new start. (Stephen Goldstein/The New York Times) XNYT77

For many Trump supporters who marched, Jan. 6 was only the beginning

FILE – Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., speaks before President Joe Biden signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill into law during a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) WX205 WX205
Last straw: Fed-up Arizona Democrats censure Sen. Sinema Updated
Downtown Helen, Ga., is shown Friday, Jan. 21, 2022. Helen is located in White County, lin the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northeast Georgia, where officials were stunned when the 2020 census said the county had 28,003 residents. A Census Bureau estimate from 2019 had put the county’s population at 30,798 people. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) GAJB504 GAJB504
‘Whoa, that’s not right’: Georgia towns lead census appeals Updated
Defend Chernobyl during an invasion? Why bother, some Ukrainians ask
Britain says Russia seeking to replace Ukraine government VIEW Updated
Black Americans respond to McConnell’s comments on voting
With new AG, Virginia takes new position on abortion case
U.S. blocks flights by Chinese airlines in escalating dispute

Local News

Des Moines city councilmember Anthony Martinelli is subject to multiple allegations of domestic abuse.

Des Moines council member accused of domestic violence resigns

Featured Columnist

Democrats seem lost without Trump, while the local GOP surges back from the dead

Project Homeless

Woodland Park homeless encampment is Harrell’s first target, but shelter issues may stymie him

She didn’t want to die homeless. But in Seattle, there were few places to turn.

Seattle has struggled to care for sick and homeless people since the 1800s; now programs are trying something different

Disturbing allegations emerge about nonprofit hired to end Bitter Lake encampment in Seattle

A night in a Seattle severe weather shelter, with snow outside but threat of COVID inside

Business & Tech

What my dog taught me about investing | Your Funds

Featured Columnist

Microsoft’s blockbuster deal faces big obstacles

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Nation & World

The cabin, left, behind the house may have served as a living space for enslaved people at Sharswood.

An old Virginia plantation, a new owner and a family legacy unveiled

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Coronavirus

A nurse brings a COVID-19 patient into the ICU from another floor of the hospital at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. (Leila Navidi/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS) 37525287W

Court battle over a ventilator takes a COVID patient from Minnesota to Texas

Food & Drink

Buttermilk Waffles.

This easy buttermilk waffle recipe is fast, flexible and fun

Pacific NW Magazine

Daniel J. Evans, Seattle, State Representative; Republican nominee for governor Evans Prefers ‘Gov. Dan’ Washington’s governor-elect Thursday solved one of his weightier problems: It will be Gov. Dan Evans, not Gov. Daniel J. Evans said he preferred use of the less formal name in the news media. Credit: Robert Heilman,. 1964

In his new book, former Washington Gov. Daniel J. Evans recalls an era of turbulence, political scandals and the influence of the trailblazing ‘Action Team’

Editorials & Opinion

When violence is targeted at Jewish people, anywhere, it is targeted at us everywhere | Op-Ed

Featured Columnist

Microsoft backs new approach to save local news in Yakima

Horsey Cartoon

COVID kids behind the eight ball

Sports

Seattle Storm forward Breanna Stewart (30) reacts during a time out as forward Stephanie Talbot, left, looks on in the second half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, in Everett, Wash. The Storm won 85-75.

Superstar Breanna Stewart leaving Seattle in free agency would send the Storm back to mediocrity | Matt Calkins

Featured Columnist

Superstar Breanna Stewart leaving Seattle in free agency would send the Storm back to mediocrity

Arts & Life

FILE – André Leon Talley, a former editor at large for Vogue magazine, speaks to a reporter at the opening of the “Black Fashion Designers” exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2016. Talley, the towering former creative director and editor at large of Vogue magazine, has died. He was 73. Talley’s literary agent confirmed Talley’s death to USA Today late Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) NYET950 NYET950

Sunday Best: Remembering fashion icon André Leon Talley

Sunday Best: Remembering fashion icon André Leon Talley

From our publisher

A year-end message on saving our country’s local free press system

Photography

Washington Huskies forward Lauren Schwartz tries to go for the steal as Oregon Ducks guard Sydney Parrish, left, passes the ball to forward Sedona Prince during the second quarter. Friday, Jan. 21, 2022 in Seattle, Wash. 219370
Sports

Photos: Oregon at UW in NCAA women’s basketball VIEW

Mark Giordano lays into Adam Raska, and draws the 5-minute penalty for fighting in the 2nd period. The San Jose Sharks played the Seattle Kraken Thursday, January 20, 2022 at Climate Pledge Arena, in Seattle, WA. 219271
Sports

Photos: Kraken sink the Sharks VIEW

First time on skis, Sujal Bhandari gets instructions in bending and learning control from John Thomsen at the Mini Mountain Indoor Ski Center in Bellevue. They’re on an angled moving carpet controlled by Thomsen. Sujal is seven. Ref to more photos online Indoor ski lessons on a moving carpet at Mini Mountain in Bellevue. LO linesonly Saturday January 8, 2020 219275
Local News

Not as easy as it looks VIEW

Washington’s Nate Roberts puts on the emphatic jam as the Huskies become the aggressors to strt the game against Cal. The bucket gave Washington a quick 4-0 lead on the Golden Bears. The California Golden Bears played the University of Washington in NCAA Men’s basketball Wednesday, January 12, 2022 at Alaska Airlines Arena, in Seattle, WA. 219287
Sports

Photos: UW hangs on to beat Cal VIEW