Benton and Franklin counties saw its unemployment rate increase slightly from December 2024 to January 2025 despite Benton County adding nearly 1,250 workers to payrolls during that time and the region’s labor pool growing by fewer than 50 people. 

Potential impacts to research funding at Washington State University from recent federal directives are being lessened, but university leaders say that projects and programs are still expected to lose millions of dollars. 

Work on this west Pasco intersection includes installation of new traffic signals, dedicated turn lanes, bike lanes and other upgrades to support current traffic flow and as the area grows.

Hundreds of fired probationary employees from the U.S. Department of Energy are returning to work but they may have to go through a new hire onboarding process and face the looming possibility of being fired again.

This fast fashion retailer occupies an 11,800-square-foot space that underwent a $1.3 million remodel before it opened in 2021. 

The duo that’s now organizing the annual summer concert series on Kennewick’s Clover Island has announced a new festival coming to Richland in June. 

Another central Richland thoroughfare is going to be congested over the coming months as it undergoes its first major overhaul in decades. 

Senate Republicans have published the Legislature’s first budget proposal for the next biennium, and it includes full funding for a workforce program that has lifted hundreds of Benton and Franklin county residents out of poverty.

A man who was the first in his family to attend college and has held roles at multiple colleges and universities serving Black and Hispanic students is the new leader of Heritage University, which has a branch campus in Kennewick.