Wildfire risks fail to slow home growth

Diana Hefley and Scott North of The (Everett) Herald used state and local data to show that "the areas of Snohomish County with the highest potential for wildfires are home to more than 5,500 people, most relatively new arrivals. ... Since 2000 an average of 100 new houses and mobile homes have sprouted in the fire-prone areas each year."

Eric Nalder of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer investigated the inner-workings of a tanker fleet owned by the third-largest oil company in the nation, ConocoPhillips. The series was inspired by a mystery spill in Puget Sound. The company had denied that its ship, the Polar Texas, was the spiller, while the U.S. Coast Guard said the oil matched the vessel's cargo. The investigation revealed a much wider pattern, that on the West Coast important reforms following Exxon Valdez spill are being undermined, ignored, violated and, in the case of tug escorts, trimmed back through the influence of the oil company. The P-I revealed through interviews and internal company documents a wide pattern of misconduct and dangerous behavior aboard a number of the company's huge ships, vessels that regularly carry nearly 40 million gallons of oil over some of the roughest seas in the world to refinery ports in Washington and California.

Lee Davidson of The Deseret Morning News used state data to show that "44 percent of such Utah 'high hazard' dams meet all minimum safety standards - more than a sixfold improvement" since the paper last examined Utah's dams in 1988. "At that time, officials rated as safe a mere 7 percent of those dams classified as 'high hazard,' defined as those where failure would likely kill people and cause extensive damage." Salt Lake City is downstream from eight unsafe dams.