I'm Tracci Dial with NWPBs Weekly News Now.

A movement to deprioritize enforcement of certain drug laws.

Tacoma is the latest northwest city to make enforcing drug laws related to psychoactive substances like psilocybin mushrooms, specifically entheogen related activities.

Entheogens are the preferred term for the psychoactive drugs.

Now, cities cannot decriminalize those drugs because that's a state law.

But... “By passing this resolution, we provide an opportunity to lend our voice to decriminalizing it at a state level.” - That was Tacoma City Council member Joe Bushnell.

He brought the resolution forward.

The council unanimously approved it.

Gallons and gallons of invasive mussels found on a tugboat near Spokane.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Watercraft Inspection Station along Interstate 90 found some extra passengers recently.

One boat had 21 gallons of quagga and zebra mussels on board.

That is the most that Fish and Wildlife has caught on a single boat in almost a decade.

The boats had been anchored in Lake Michigan.

And those mussels are well-established in Lake Michigan.

NWPBs senior environmental correspondent Courtney Flatt has the full story online at nwpb.org, where you can also find lots of prior reporting from her on this issue.

So far, the quagga and zebra mussels have not fully infiltrated Washington.

They're not established here quite yet, but they are getting close.

Find out where they were most recently found in the northwest online at nwpb.org.

A big rural grant, the biggest of its kind, is making your trip to Walla Walla faster.

Soon.

More than $108 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation will go toward making a two lane stretch of Highway 12 into four lanes right outside the Tri-Cities from Wallula to Nine Mile Hill.

“About every two to five years, we get another chunk of funding and take on another phase.

So it's been a long term transportation project, and hopefully we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.” - That's Pat Reay with the Port of Walla Walla.

Soon is relative, though.

The project has to be fully funded.

It's close to a $300 million job before that last bit of construction can begin.

And Valentine's Day is coming up.

And until Tuesday the 11th, you can share a special memory, a favorite song, or a message of love.

Love is in the air and on the air at nwpb.org.

You can click the top image on the website, then you'll get the submission form.

Then listen for the dedication.

And that's coming up on Friday the 14th on NWPB Classical.

And again the deadline to get those in is Tuesday the 11th.

Thanks for joining us.