VANCOUVER, Wash. - Anglers planning to fish for salmon on any of the eight tributaries that flow into the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam can expect good fishing for hatchery coho.

Starting Aug. 1, when fall salmon fishing opens in the Columbia River Basin, anglers fishing those rivers will be allowed to catch and keep up to six adult salmon per day, provided that at least four of them are hatchery-reared coho. No wild coho may be retained.

The six-fish daily limit - up from two salmon in recent years - may also include up to two chinook salmon, subject to rules in effect on each river.

SEATTLE- Carol Hammons says she picked up a sofa, recliners, and a hide-a-bed from her local Rent-A-Center store. The sofa's fabric was torn, a foot was bent, and the recliner didn't work.  But, according to a sworn statement, that's just where Hammons' problems with the national lease-to-own chain started.

When she stopped making payments in protest, Hammons says Rent-A-Center employees came to her home to find her 11-year-old autistic daughter being babysat by two neighbor girls. The employees refused to leave, telling the girls that Hammons would be jailed for theft. Hammons says that Rent-A-Center employees also passed on personal financial information to her neighbors, including the accusation that she wrote bad checks.

OLYMPIA - "Ear to the Ground," a blog from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR), helps the public follow the agency and its management of 5.6 million acres of state lands that provide revenue to support public schools, universities, county services and other public institutions.

Readers of Ear to the Ground (http://www.washingtondnr.wordpress.com/) were among the first to learn how to download an application to partner with DNR on a biomass project to demonstrate the safe use of wood energy.

ASTORIA, Ore. - The Coast Guard conducted a medical evacuation of a 32-year-old man approximately 90 miles west of the mouth of the Columbia River Friday.

The crew of the 62-foot fishing vessel Mary B contacted Coast Guard Group/Air Station Astoria, Ore., around 2 p.m. requesting the evacuation of a crewmember who was very ill. 

A rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Group/Air Station Astoria was dispatched to the vessel where they were able to safely hoist the man and transfer him to awaiting emergency medical services at Air Station Astoria.  The man was then taken to Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria where he was last listed in stable condition.

Statewide low moisture levels and high temperatures keep fire danger high

OLYMPIA - The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is currently responding to more than 42 fire incidents in Northeastern Washington. These fires include those in state and federal jurisdictions. The more than 200 firefighters, aided by 36 fire engines and 5 helicopters, deployed in response have kept all of the fires under 10 acres in size, and most are under 2 acres.

DNR fire officials warn that the entire state will see dangerous fire conditions this weekend and into next week.

"This next seven days will be some of the highest fire danger levels we've seen in recent years, for the Westside as well as the Eastside," said Mark Gray, acting Assistant Division Manager of DNR Fire Control, Aviation and Camps.