Washington

Alex Frick

Before joining the Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader, Alex Frick studied journalism at the University of Florida. As a non-traditional student, Frick returned to school to pursue his reignited passion for storytelling and discovered journalism. While in college, he interned at the Leader, where he experienced firsthand the challenges of providing consistent and sufficient, high-quality local news coverage in rural areas. Frick was also one of 24 students from the United States selected by CNN to participate in a 10-day global crisis simulation in Abu Dhabi, joining 120 students from 20 countries to experience fast-paced reporting under pressure. Prior to his return to school, Frick worked in automotive management, following in his father’s footsteps where he developed valuable leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills. He now brings that same drive, curiosity, and passion to covering real-life stories and pressing issues in Jefferson County.

Alexander Banks

Before joining the Yakima Herald-Republic, Banks completed two internships with the Baker City Herald, through the University of Oregon's Snowden internship, and the Statesman Journal, in partnership with the Asian American Journalists Association. During those internships, he covered education, economic development, breaking news and feature stories. He holds a bachelor’s degree in creative writing from Oregon State University and is currently studying for his master’s in strategic communications from Washington State University. His passion for journalism started while working for OSU’s student newspaper, The Daily Barometer, where he wrote his first feature story on the dean of the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences. Banks enjoys screenwriting, photography, videography and learning Spanish in his free time. A fun fact about him is that his mother used to be a columnist for The Oregonian.

Owen Racer

Before joining Cascadia Daily News, Racer reported on intergenerational farming in Ecuador and El Salvador for The Guardian, documenting how consumerism, climate change and emigration collide on farms that future generations decide to inherit or leave. In Washington, D.C., he covered the IRS and Congress for Bloomberg. In New York City, he reported on maternal health disparities, riding the city’s subways with mobile mental illness teams to explain how the increasingly popular model of mental health care impacts the workforce. From producing audio stories on mental health for NPR stations WHYY and WVXU in Cincinnati, Ohio, his hometown, to photographing youth impacted by gun violence in New Orleans, his reporting crosses topics and mediums. During the 2024 presidential election, he was the lone U.S. correspondent for The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine’s English-language media outlet, covering campaigns, foreign policy and Congress. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Simmerdeep Kaur

Before joining the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, Simmerdeep Kaur was the lead reporter at the Redwood City Pulse, where she covered city government and launched the newsroom’s first-ever podcast. The series featured in-depth interviews with Redwood City Council candidates ahead of the 2024 elections. Kaur’s odyssey into journalism began as an undergraduate, working as a part of her university’s editorial team and interning at several newsrooms in India. As a Master’s student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, she was determined to reinvent herself and go beyond writing. She acquired data skills by learning Python and tools for visualizations to serve as a strong supplement to her stories. Kaur is a firm believer that in an era of growing threats to press freedom, robust journalism is more essential than ever. Over the past three years, she has reported on a wide range of topics, including police brutality, threats to press freedom, AI warfare, and the dangers of lithium-ion batteries.

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

At the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, our mission is to provide the news and information people in southeast Washington need to make informed decisions about their health, safety and economic well-being. Our 11 journalists deliver news via unionbulletin.com, a three-day print newspaper and social media. We are part of The Seattle Times Co., which believes decisions about the U-B and local are best made by the people who live and work here in the community.

Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader

The Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader is the rare, locally owned and operated newspaper that occupies the same building it’s been in for more than a century. That’s more than history — it’s a living promise to the community. The mission of The Leader is to fairly, thoroughly and accurately cover our community within the framework of standards-based professional American journalism. We commit to fearless, in-depth reporting that informs, investigates and strengthens our community.

Cascadia Daily News

Cascadia Daily News, a three-year-old news startup, is a hyperlocal, fiercely independent digital/print publication covering Northwest Washington state from a newsroom in Bellingham, WA. CDN's 14 staffers lead the region between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. in breaking news, enterprise and accountability journalism in a vibrant university city on the Salish Sea. Our collaborative team of seasoned and young journalists is consumer-focused and committed to mixing old traditions with new strategies to push local news forward.

InvestigateWest

As a nonprofit, collaborative newsroom, InvestigateWest’s mission is to produce investigative journalism that holds power accountable, exposes injustice and empowers communities across the Northwest. Over the years, our work has generated significant impact, including a dozen new state laws to protect workers, the environment and vulnerable children. Our reporting is regularly republished by dozens of outlets across the region. We also frequently partner with national publications including The Washington Post, The Atlantic and The Guardian.

Yakima Herald-Republic

The Yakima Herald-Republic, which publishes daily, is the largest media outlet in the Yakima Valley. It is dedicated to serving Central Washington with breaking news, sports and in-depth coverage. The newsroom also includes El Sol de Yakima, a Spanish-language website and weekly paper. The Herald-Republic is part of the family-owned Seattle Times company.

InvestigateWest

InvestigateWest is a nonprofit news organization founded in 2009 that is dedicated to change-making investigative journalism for the Pacific Northwest. The Northwest-based newsroom covers a range of topics including the environment and climate change, health inequities, social justice, voting rights and government accountability. Our reporting appears on our website and is regularly republished by 15 news outlets across Washington, Oregon and Idaho. We also frequently partner with national publications including The Washington Post, The Atlantic and The Guardian.