Travel Concerns & A Lot of Money Spent

Travel Concerns & A Lot of Money Spent. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.

People living in Washington State that want to board a flight may find they can't unless they are carrying their passports even for a domestic flight. Seems Washington State drivers licenses are not compliant with federal licensing standards. There's only a handful of states like Washington. When traveling, TSA could require a passport for identification for all flights unless the state decides to change the current laws regarding licensing. Washingtonians with the new enhanced licenses would not be affected by the change.

The northwest saw it's fair share of wildfires this past year. Some of the largest wildfires ever were recorded this year with the effects still creating issues in some places. According to Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, 2015 saw huge amounts of money spent on wildfire suppression.

VILSACK: The First year ever that 52% more of the majority of our forest service budget went to fire suppression. In 1995 you would have seen a number that was probably closer to 16%.

The interesting thing is that there were fewer fires this year but more were of the mega-fire variety like the Soda Fire in Idaho and the Okanagan Complex Fire in Washington State.

That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.