Columbia River

On a desert plateau seven miles from the Columbia River, a massive federal project to clean up a Cold War-era nuclear weapons plant is deeply troubled. The effort to avoid a future environmental calamity here, at the most polluted site in North America, is a priority of the Energy Department but has foundered because of engineering mistakes and runaway costs.

A cruise ship with more than 250 people on board ran aground on a sandbar in the Columbia River. The Coast Guard was transferring passengers to another ship.

The year was 1929. The tall sagebrush at the far end of central Washington's Moses Coulee hinted at a generous water supply and good soil, despite the arid habitat, so the Billingsley family settled in.

The American theater has not given us many large and lasting plays examining the roots of our nation's often interventionist foreign policy, but Robert Schenkkan has tried to fill the gap with "Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates," now at the Mark Taper Forum.

Jay Minthorn doesn't hesitate when asked if two countries, seven states, Indian tribes and countless other stakeholders can ever agree on how to manage the Columbia River.

The water seems quiet and calm at the mouth of the Columbia River, offering no hint of its turbulent history or the deep emotions that it provokes in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1941, folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a paean to the Columbia River's Grand Coulee Dam, enthusing that power generated by the New Deal monument "is turning our darkness to dawn.

The engine of an Amtrak train derailed along the Columbia River, sending at least 26 passengers to hospitals with mostly minor injuries, officials said.