Commissioners got their first look Tuesday at a proposed $291 million budget for 2020 with staff recommendations to reduce debt by using surplus cash savings and limit an electric-rate-revenue increase to customers to one-tenth percent. Budget hearings for public comment are scheduled Oct. 8 in Ephrata and Moses Lake and Oct. 10 in Quincy (see sche...

By Christine Pratt, Grant PUD Public AffairsLAKE ROOSEVELT — Enjoy fishing for salmon? Then please help eradicate the invasive Northern Pike. The Grant, Chelan and Douglas PUDs are contributing to an effort by tribes and state agencies to control this voracious predator that, if not contained, could set back decades of salmon recovery efforts acros...

BEVERLY — Bryan Shultz's personal watercraft survived a white-water plunge earlier this month wilder than an adrenaline junkie's wildest nightmare. Good thing Shultz wasn't on it. The Puyallup-area visitor launched his 3-person Yamaha WaveRunner on the Columbia River at Frenchman Coulee, where he and his wife were camping. What started as a calm, g...