In July, Washington House Democrats chose Rep. Laurie Jinkins to be the next Speaker of the House. She represents the 27 th Legislative District, which includes downtown Tacoma, Hilltop and Point Defiance. She succeeds Rep. Frank Chopp, who stepped down from the speaker’s chair — but not the House — earlier this year. He served as speaker for 20 years.

As a young scientist, Alice Ball was brilliant and ambitious, and would go on to bring hope to a category of people condemned to a life of suffering and isolation. But today our hero is barely remembered — maybe because she was a “she,” and African-American, and the year was 1916.

Imagine writing a letter about the love of your life addressed to a complete stranger. The object of your affection may only read it once, or not at all. But it’s almost certain that dozens of people you’ve never met — maybe hundreds — will know exactly how you’re feeling at that moment. At the very least, Deanna Bender will know.

Before Sound Transit’s light rail took people from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to downtown Seattle, there was the Tacoma Link. The 1.6-mile line has stayed roughly the same since it opened in 2003, starting at the Tacoma Dome and bringing passengers down Pacific Avenue, past the University of Washington Tacoma, the federal courthouse, and several of the city’s museums. The line ends on Commerce Street, just past 11th, and if you stand on the platform and look north, you can see orange

If you were in Tacoma in the early 1900s, you might have been able to score a ticket to hear opera singer Enrico Caruso. Or see a famous choreographer, Vaslav Nijinsky, dancing on stage with the Ballet Russe. When the historic C.N. Gardner Building was built in 1906 — KNKX’s new home at 930 Broadway — downtown Tacoma was at the heart of a thriving music and theater scene.

The Grand Cinema is more than a theater — it’s like Tacoma’s living room. It’s where people come together not only to watch and appreciate films, but also to engage in conversation with their neighbors about those films. “There are a lot of theaters where movies are played,” said Jamika Scott, a board member for the nonprofit, in a conversation with Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick. “But the difference is The Grand is an organization that was bred out of love for the community, and is

Cities, by and large, want to grow. But with growth can come new challenges. Seattle and San Francisco, for example, saw a housing crisis emerge as the tech boom sent the cost of living sky high – leading many middle- and lower-income residents to feel priced out. Tacoma is experiencing some of those pressures, too. But Ali Modarres says the city has an opportunity right now to avoid big problems other communities have seen as they’ve grown.

Editor's note: Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins first reported this story Monday. Today, he talked in more detail about it with Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick. Listen to their conversation above, read his in-depth story below, and listen to his on-air feature here . In recent months, court commissioners on both sides of the Cascades have found the state of Washington in contempt, and even imposed fines, over access to state psychiatric care for people with severe developmental

Tacoma is a pretty special place. We don’t want to romanticize it — it’s complicated, like anywhere. But it does have this quality of openness, a willingness to let people in. That’s exactly what the Sound Effect team did on Saturday. Gabriel Spitzer hosted a special, live show from KNKX Public Radio’s new downtown Tacoma station, while strangers wandered around on self-guided tours of the space. And the doors will stay open long past Saturday's grand opening. The new station offers a place to

This story originally aired on Oct. 14, 2018. Craig Egan, who lives in Tacoma, stumbled into an obsession kind of by accident. It happened on FaceBook. “A friend of mine posted some graph that had an anti-vax slant to it. At that point I had no idea that this was a thing,” Craig remembers. "Anti-vax," as in people who believe that vaccinations are harmful and oppose giving them to kids. The thought of not vaccinating children in anathema to Craig. In online, anti-vaccination forums, Craig poked