Tom Banse
Tom Banse covers business, environment, public policy, human interest and national news across the Northwest. He reports from well known and out–of–the–way places in the region where important, amusing, touching, or outrageous events are unfolding. Tom's stories can be heard during "Morning Edition," "Weekday," and "All Things Considered" on NPR stations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
Before taking his current beat, Tom covered state government and the Washington Legislature for 12 years. During the early 1990s, he worked in the Seattle bureau of United Press International. He got his start in radio at WCAL–FM, a public station in southern Minnesota. Reared in Seattle, Tom graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with a degree in American Studies. In 1996, he spent two months reporting from Bonn and Berlin, Germany on an Arthur F. Burns Fellowship. In 1999, he traversed the globe to cover the Pacific Rim (Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan) on a Jefferson Fellowship.
When not sifting through press releases, listening to lobbyists, or driving lonely highways, Tom enjoys exploring the Olympic Peninsula backcountry and cooking dinner with his wife and friends. Tom's secret ambition is to take six months off work and travel to a faraway place where there are no radios.
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Laser beams that sweep erratically across crops have shown promise in protecting harvests from loss caused by birds. But researchers are still studying whether the beams may harm the animals' retinas. -
Aviation giant Boeing, a corporate sponsor of the inauguration and one of the country's largest exporters, is planning new buyouts and layoffs on top of nearly 11,000 job cuts last year. -
A U.S. Army program allows elite athletes to join the military and train in their sport. Four Kenyan distance runners in the U.S. military quickly became citizens and will represent America in Rio. -
Now that recreational use of marijuana is legal in four states, law enforcement officials are looking for quicker ways to test drivers for excessive pot use. Entrepreneurs are taking on the challenge. -
The Okanogan fire burning in central Washington is the largest wildfire in the state's history. Some area homeowners have cleared brush to keep the fire away. One built a nonflammable concrete home. -
Four years ago, cross-country skiers Erik and Sadie Bjornsen tried to make the Olympic team but came up short. This year, one has earned a spot; the other is waiting to find out. -
President Barack Obama named former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his Commerce secretary. Locke, an Asian-American, is Obama's third pick for the job. Locke served two terms as Washington's governor. He now works at a Seattle-based law firm.
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Oregon's Wheeler County, one of the poorest in the American West, hopes to stimulate a struggling rural economy by attracting attention to ancient fossils and the state's prehistoric times. -
In the small town of Seaside, Ore., residents took time out of the weekend to participate in a tsunami evacuation drill. Producer Tom Banse sends this audio postcard of the disaster-preparation training day.
