Scholars disagree, but a Baltimore study shows a marked decrease in crime where there is more tree canopy.

AP reports, "Curt Ebbesmeyer ... (said) he’s expected 100 sneakers with bones in them. He’s advising anyone who discovers human remains to call 9-1-1 and wait for police."

A resolution to oppose coal ports passed out of the energy and environment committee with a unanimous vote. Mike O'Brien said he will urge the council to look at other ways to produce jobs.

After lengthy efforts in Portland failed to get an agreement on reducing emissions, activists are launching an efforts statewide to get the governor and state Legislature to lower limits.

The draft report points to potentially catastrophic impacts on the world's largest salmon run from a proposed open pit mine near Bristol Bay. Although the Seattle area is home to an estimated 1,000 people who fish commerically in Bristol Bay every year, the EPA curiously failed not to alert local media to the document.

The Oregonian reports, "Since 2002, when the government started tracking sea lions at Bonneville, fishermen took a yearly average of about 37,500 spring chinook, the variety sea lions like best. California sea lions at the dam took roughly 3,200 annually."  

A new research paper states that the mass of plastic waste has grown 100-fold in 40 years. The Vancouver Sun reports, "The plastic particles are being vacuumed up by marine life and birds, and the mix is heavy with toxic chemicals."

A study released by the U.S. Geological survey found contaminents from pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the waters of the Columbia River—pollutants from daily life that are not removed during the municipal waste purification process.

The Tyee reports, "the weight of scientific evidence over climate change, and concern over environmental despoliation in general, is leading many faith groups to fuse existing traditions of social activism with environmental concern."

EarthFix reports, "Seattle journalist and author Blaine Harden spent time in Eastern Washington researching the book he wrote about the great river of the West: The Columbia."