Focus
Wildfires are burned into Washington's history — and our headlines
We might think of smoky summers as a new plague. But for centuries, wildfire smoke has been confounding Northwesterners, blocking sunsets and even sinking ships.
Knute Berger
Knute “Mossback” Berger is an editor-at-large and host of "Mossback’s Northwest" at Cascade PBS. He writes about politics and regional heritage.
Latest work
Focus
How Washington's 'summer of fire' nearly destroyed Seattle, Spokane and Ellensburg
On the cusp of becoming a state, the Washington territory suffered three major fires that would change the course of history.
Culture
How Washington’s most infamous bridge failure helped engineers prevent more
On this episode of Mossback's Northwest, Knute Berger looks back at what Puget Sound learned from the Tacoma Narrows bridge disaster.
Opinion
As the economy booms, Washington voters see a system rigged for the rich
A new Crosscut/Elway Poll shows a populist streak that stretches across the state and mirrors a national trend.
Culture
Would my grandparents have made it to the U.S. under Trump’s immigration policy?
New visa and green card rules proposed by the Trump administration threaten the core of who we are.