English Bulldog Puppies for Sale in Tacoma, WA

Power outages are beginning in the Puget Sound area as “bomb cyclone” conditions hit western Washington with strong winds and rough weather Tuesday evening.

Here’s a round-up of current outages. Check www.pse.com/en/outage/outage-map for the full list of outages and estimated restoration times.

Update: PSE.com and its outage map were operational at 9:15 p.m.

PSE was reporting scattered outages in the Lake Tapps area, north Puyallup, Bonney Lake, Buckley and Enumclaw.

Previous post: Regional power supplier Puget Sound Energy’s online outage map and website were experiencing technical difficulties Tuesday evening.

The utility said on X at 7:41 p.m that it was working to re-establish its online presence as quickly as possible.

We're working on issues related to https://t.co/cO5Q5cy8x1 and our outage map. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve the issue. pic.twitter.com/ibyfcIb5sb

— Puget Sound Energy (@PSETalk) November 20, 2024

The Eatonville School District announced that classes and school activities would be canceled Wednesday due to storm impacts.

“Due to widespread power outages, fallen trees, and high winds in some areas, school is canceled on Wednesday, November 20th,” the district reported Tuesday evening on Facebook. “All school buildings are closed for the day. All after school activities are also canceled. Out-of-district transportation is canceled for the day. We hope everyone remains safe and warm.”

Tacoma Public Utilities was reporting 24 outages affecting 4,962 customers throughout its service area, mostly south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, at 9:43 p.m.

Update at 8:33 p.m.: The trees have been cleared.

Previous post: Two lanes were blocked on northbound state Route 167 near the Stewart Road/Jovita Boulevard East interchange at 8:13 p.m., WSDOT reported.

A system-wide outage beginning at 6:07 p.m. might leave Anderson Island residents without power overnight, as Puget Sound Energy deals with issues on the mainland affecting service to the island, according to an X post by Tanner Electric Cooperative. The island crew is currently helping with storm-related repairs in North Bend, according to the post.

A few scattered outages were reported around Thurston County as of 9:45 p.m., including a few in the Yelm area, according to Puget Sound Energy’s outage map.

Update on wind gusts within the last hour (mph):Sunrise (Rainier): 77Enumclaw: 74Cape Elizabeth Buoy: 72Camano Is.: 63Port Townsend: 61Federal Way: 57Sea-Tac Airport: 55#wawx

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 20, 2024

An outage in the Roy area began at 5:02 p.m., impacting 1,397 customers. The cause is under investigation. Estimated restoration time is 8:30 p.m.

Two outages in Yelm began at 5:10 and 5:15 p.m. respectively, impacting 197. Estimated restoration time for both is 9:30 p.m.

Updated: Cleared as of 7:12 p.m.

Previous post: The Washington State Department of Transportation reported trees limbs down with possibly power lines also down on state Route 410 east of Sumner at 6:35 p.m.

WSDOT report: “Trees down on SR 7 southbound from milepost 25.92 near La Grande Rd E to milepost 31 near Ohop Valley Rd E [West-End] beginning at 7:01 pm on November 19, 2024 until further notice.”

At 7:39 p.m., WSDOT was reporting snow and ice in places on Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass with “strong gusty winds, blowing snow, poor visibility.”

Drivers trying to reach Interstate 90 using state Route 18 from points south will need to seek alternate routes.

Downed trees have the highway closed in both directions between Issaquah-Hobart Road and I-90, WSDOT reported about 8 p.m. There is no estimate for when it would reopen.

EB & WB SR 18 is closed btwn I-90 and Issaquah-Hobart Road due to downed trees. No estimate when the road will reopen over #TigerMtn summit.Use alternate routes and expect delays. Freight traffic should not use Iss-Hobart Rd or city streets, which are not suitable for trucks. pic.twitter.com/7NpGECWRfM

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) November 20, 2024

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

This story was originally published November 19, 2024, 6:51 PM.

A statewide outage that affected Washington state courts’ network for two weeks ended Monday.

“The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is in the process of bringing up systems on the Washington Courts network, following successful work and testing throughout the weekend,” the office said in a news release.

The outage began after the AOC detected unauthorized activity on the Washington Courts network. Action was taken to secure critical systems. The outage included all Judicial Information Systems, the Washington Courts websites and associated services, The News Tribune previously reported.

Monday’s release said that the unauthorized activity has been eliminated, with a forensic analysis ongoing.

“We can confirm that there was no detected breach of data and the event did not result in ransomware, due to quick action taken to isolate and secure the network. A post-event release will follow the next meeting of the state’s Judicial Information System Committee in December as we learn more,” the release said.

To help minimize anticipated disruptions, the Blake Refund Bureau, the Appellate Court Document Portal and e-filing for appellate courts will continue to be offline until the network is stable, the release said.

Some services offered by the Pierce County Superior Court Clerk’s Office were affected by the outage. Electronic court record searches and balance information for judgments and fines owed were unavailable for a time, the office said in a previous news release.

The statewide outage also affected Pierce County’s district and municipal courts. Only essential District court functions were available because they were operating with limited services, The News Tribune reported.

The outage has since been resolved, district court administrator Misty Robison told The News Tribune in an email.

Robison said the court is advising members of the public to expect longer than average wait times as they work on getting through their backlog, while also assisting customers.

“We appreciate their understanding and cooperation,” she said.

Thurston County Superior and District courts were both impacted by the Administrative Office of the Courts network outage.

Superior Court had to instruct parties to prepare paper bench copies of all materials for proceedings. New case filings and filling documents for existing cases had to be handled in person at the Thurston County Clerk’s Office.

This story was originally published November 19, 2024, 5:30 AM.

The News Tribune

Puneet Bsanti is a breaking news reporter for The News Tribune. After she graduated from Washington State University in 2023, she was an intern for the Bellingham Herald. She was born and raised in the Bay Area in California.

The AFS Global STEM Changemakers Initiative is aimed at high schoolers and secondary educators and provides opportunities to travel to different parts of the world to learn STEM.

American Field Service (AFS) is an international non-profit organization that is not associated with any government agency that promotes intercultural learning possibilities to increase understanding between people of different backgrounds. Their Global STEM Changemakers Initiative provides full scholarships for STEM and sustainability focused exchange opportunities for high school age students through three different programs.

The three programs aimed at students range in age requirements and length, with the longest program being 16 weeks, with 12 weeks of curriculum being followed by a four-week travel experience with the choice of four possible countries, Brazil, China, India or Egypt.

AFS also offers a virtual exchange program for educators. The program for educators is a six-week virtual program for current secondary STEM educators. It is an online certificate program that emphasizes sustainability, aims to promote diversity through developing new ideas to bring to a multicultural classroom and results in the participant earning an AFS global competence certificate as well as a digital badge to reflect these credentials. This program is also funded by British Petroleum (BP), a British oil and global energy company and provides full scholarships for all participants.

“I definitely wish I knew about this sooner and I feel like if this was advertised at SAMI, there would be a ton of interaction from students and teachers alike. I would definitely be interested in this program! I want to still be involved in marine biology even though I’m becoming a teacher, and I feel like this is an amazing idea to continue to be involved in STEM and actually making an impact on the world,” high school student of Tacoma’s Science and Math Institute (SAMI) Ayla Macary said.

These programs are in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s (UP) School of Social Policy and UP’s Center for Social Impact Strategy. These programs are also fully funded by BP. Their funding allows for these programs to be delivered on full scholarship, with everything from travel costs to visa application assistance being included. BP will be funding 5000 scholarships over the next five years.

The curriculum aspects of these programs take place via Zoom with multiple meetings occurring throughout the day to accommodate school schedules and time zones. This is combined with asynchronous self-paced online content and together takes up about three to four hours each week. This is a global program as residents of many different countries are eligible to apply.

The AFS Global STEM Changemakers Initiative also attempts to serve underrepresented populations in STEM, trying to break down barriers like financial status and gender. AFS also partners with community organizations and schools in order to seek out these candidates. Candidates from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.?

“I really love how the website is set up. It has something for everyone from just a basic sort of introduction into STEM, to more complex and demanding fields, all while still making it interesting. If I was a bit younger and not right at that gap between 17.5 – 18, I would totally sign myself up next year. Especially since it has full courses and allows you to surround yourself with people who also have similar goals and ambitions to you,” Macary told The Ledger.

For those who know someone who may be interested in applying, applications for AFS’s Global STEM Academies will open Nov. 15 and applications for the other programs will be opening in early 2025.

What is the best internet provider in Tacoma?

After rigorous research, CNET has determined that Quantum Fiber is the best internet service provider in Tacoma. It’s the only fiber provider in the city, giving you symmetrical upload and download speeds, essential for remote workers or online gamers. Quantum Fiber also has some of the lowest prices in Tacoma, and it guarantees they’ll never increase.

Xfinity has the cheapest internet plans in Tacoma, starting at just $20 monthly. Prices increase on all plans after a year or two, but you’ll find this with many internet providers. Lightcurve is the best regional internet provider in Tacoma, and while its starting prices are slightly higher than Xfinity’s, there are no built-in price increases. If you want to guarantee your bill won’t ever go up -- and can’t get Quantum Fiber -- T-Mobile is an excellent wireless provider in Tacoma and comes with a price-lock guarantee.

Best internet in Tacoma, Washington

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in Tacoma

The best internet deals and the top promotions in Tacoma depend on what discounts are available during that time. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers.

Tacoma internet providers, such as Xfinity and Lightcurve, may offer lower introductory pricing or streaming add-ons for a limited time. Others, including Quantum Fiber and T-Mobile Home Internet, run the same standard pricing year-round.

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How Fast Should Your Home Internet Be?

Answer 3 easy questions to discover our recommended speed for your household.

For a more extensive list of promos, check out our guide on the best internet deals.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

What’s a good internet speed?

Most internet connection plans can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you're looking for an internet plan that can accommodate videoconferencing, streaming video or gaming, you'll have a better experience with a more robust connection. Here's an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for various applications, according to the Federal Communications Commission. Note that these are only guidelines and that internet speed, service and performance vary by connection type, provider and address.

For more information, refer to our guide on how much internet speed you really need.

How CNET chose the best internet providers in Tacoma

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. What’s our approach? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

It doesn’t end there: We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. We look at sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power, to evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of the time of publication.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:

The answer to those questions is often layered and complex, but the providers who come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. When it comes to selecting the cheapest internet service, we look for the plans with the lowest monthly fee, although we also factor in things like price increases, equipment fees and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is relatively straightforward. We look at advertised upload and download speeds and also take into account real-world speed data from sources like Ookla and FCC reports. (Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.