This afternoon, bigwigs from the other Washington announced that $750 million from the stimulus package will be dedicated to restore and repair the national parks across the country. Washington's beloved Olympic National Park is on the government's laundry list of projects and will receive $54.7 million in funding for dam removal and other park projects. Talk about some happy trees. Other national parks will also receive funds, including: the National Mall ($55.8M), New York's Ellis Island ($26M), Dinosaur National Monument ($13.1) and Philadelphia's Independence Hall ($5M). more ›

Local researchers and science geeks are totally geeking out right now, as $21.5 billion of the stimulus dollars, dedicated solely to research and development, is now up for grabs. Scientists from across Washington, including the big shots at UW, WSU, Children's, and Fred Hutch have all applied for funding, and will continue to keep their fingers crossed for months until they hear who gets a slice of the stimulus research pie. Signs point in a positive direction, as one local laboratory focused on energy efficiency research was awarded $124 million in stimulus bucks already. The Pacific Northwest is expected to receive some funding (=more jobs), including dollars for biomedical research, volcano monitoring, and earthquake studies. more ›

Seattlest just got our stimulus check from the government—cha-ching!—and we're looking for ways to spend it that don't involve just handing it over to the oil companies. We thought we'd share some ideas: more ›