title: Journey (band)

text: Perry, Schon, Rolie, Smith, and Valory entered Cherokee Studios in late 1978 to record their fifth studio album, "Evolution", which was released in March 1979, peaking at number 20 on the "Billboard" 200. The album, which was a milestone for the band, gave the band their first "Billboard" Hot 100 Top-20 single, "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'", peaking at number 16, which gave the band significant airplay. Following the tour in support of "Evolution", the band expanded its operation to include a lighting and trucking operation for their future performances, as the tour had grossed more than $5 million, making the band as popular as it had ever been in five years. The band later entered Automatt Studios to record their sixth studio album, "Departure", which was released in March 1980, peaking at number eight on the "Billboard" 200. The first single from the album, "Any Way You Want It", peaked at number 23 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 in 1980.


title: Journey (band)

text: Keyboardist Gregg Rolie left the band following the "Departure" tour to start a family and undertake various solo projects. It was the second time in his career he had departed from a successful act. Keyboardist Stevie "Keys" Roseman was brought in to record the lone studio track, "The Party's Over (Hopelessly in Love)", on the band's live album "Captured". Rolie suggested pianist Jonathan Cain of The Babys as his permanent replacement. With Cain's synthesizers replacing Rolie's organ, Cain had become the new member of the band.


title: Journey (band)

text: With Cain joining as the new keyboard player, the band entered Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, in late 1980, releasing their seventh studio album, "Escape", in July 1981. "Escape" became their most successful album, charting at number one in the United States. The album had a clutch of hit singles, which included: "Who's Crying Now", "Still They Ride", "Open Arms", and the iconic "Don't Stop Believin'".


title: Journey (band)

text: The band began another lengthy yet successful tour on June 12, 1981, supported by opening acts Billy Squier, Greg Kihn Band, Point Blank, and Loverboy, and Journey opened for the Rolling Stones on September 25 in Philadelphia at JFK Stadium. MTV videotaped one of their two sold-out shows in Houston on November 6, 1981, in front of over 20,000 fans, later released on DVD.


title: Journey (band)

text: Following the success of the 1981 tour, the band's full establishment as a corporation, and the formation of a fan club called "Journey Force", the band released "Only Solutions" and "1990s Theme" for the 1982 Disney film, "Tron". Schon had also made time to work with Jan Hammer on a few albums. Journey continued touring in 1982 with shows in North America and Japan.


title: Journey (band)

text: With millions of records, hit singles, and tickets sold, the band entered Fantasy Studios again in the middle of their 1982 tour to record their eighth studio album, "Frontiers". Released in February 1983, the band's second-best selling album sold over six million copies, peaking at number two on the "Billboard" charts, and spawning the hit singles "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)", "Faithfully", "Send Her My Love", and "After the Fall".


title: Journey (band)

text: Journey began the "Frontiers" tour in Japan, and continued in North America with Bryan Adams as opening act. During the tour, NFL Films recorded a video documentary of their life on the road, "Frontiers and Beyond", shooting scenes at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with more than 80,000 fans in attendance.


title: Journey (band)

text: After the "Frontiers" tour, the band took some time off. Lead singer Steve Perry and guitarist Neal Schon both pursued solo projects. In 1984, Perry, with the help of Herbie Herbert, recorded and released his first solo album, "Street Talk". Neal Schon toured briefly in 1984 with his supergroup HSAS, in support of their sole album, "Through the Fire" released that year on Geffen.


title: Journey (band)

text: When asked if Journey was over because of the selling of their properties at the end of 1984, Neal Schon commented, "No way Journey's ending. We're all too committed to this band to ever let that happen. In fact, one of the reasons we decided to go off in separate directions for a while was to keep the band as strong as ever."


title: Journey (band)

text: Following a phone call between Cain and Perry, Journey returned to Fantasy Studios in late 1985 to record their ninth studio album ,"Raised on Radio", but with Perry taking the role as the album's producer. Tensions within the band were shown when Herbert and Perry fired both bass player Ross Valory and drummer Steve Smith for musical and professional differences a few months into the recording sessions for the album, though Valory later admitted he left the band on his own accord. Bassist and future "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson, bassist Bob Glaub, and established drummer Larrie Londin were brought in to continue the album's recordings. "Raised on Radio" was released in May 1986, peaking at number four on "Billboard's" album chart, but underperforming compared to the band's previous two efforts. It featured five singles: The top-10 hit "Be Good to Yourself" along with "Suzanne", "Girl Can't Help It", "I'll Be Alright Without You", and "Why Can't This Night Go On Forever?".


title: Journey (band)

text: The "Raised on Radio" tour began at Angels Camp in August 1986 and the band performed sold-out shows throughout the United States before concluding with two shows in Anchorage in early 1987, with selected dates supported by Honeymoon Suite, The Outfield, and Glass Tiger. The tour featured both Randy Jackson on bass and Mike Baird on drums, and was videotaped by MTV for a documentary that included interviews with the band members, which was called "Raised on Radio", the same as the album title.


title: Journey (band)

text: With tensions between Perry, the band, and the band's manager Herbie Herbert at an all-time high following the tour's conclusion, Perry was unable or unwilling to remain actively involved, and was tired of touring, as it was affecting his health and his vocals. Herbert had booked 15 more shows for the tour, but Perry had declined, and told Schon and Cain that he was done with Journey.


title: Journey (band)

text: The band went into a hiatus in 1987 following the conclusion of their "Raised on Radio" tour. Columbia Records released the "Greatest Hits" compilation in November 1988, which became one of the best-selling greatest-hits albums, selling over 15 million copies and continuing to sell half a million to a million copies per year. The compilation spent 750 weeks on the "Billboard" album charts until 2008.


title: Journey (band)

text: While Perry had retreated from the public eye, Schon and Cain spent the rest of 1987 collaborating with artists such as Jimmy Barnes and Michael Bolton before teaming up with Cain's ex-Babys bandmates John Waite and Ricky Phillips to form the supergroup Bad English with drummer Deen Castronovo in 1988, releasing two albums in 1989 and 1991. Steve Smith devoted his time to his jazz bands, Vital Information and Steps Ahead, and teamed up with Ross Valory and original Journey keyboardist Gregg Rolie to create The Storm with singer Kevin Chalfant and guitarist Josh Ramos, along with Herbie Herbert as the band's manager, as he did with Journey with Scott Boorey.


title: Journey (band)

text: On November 3, 1991, Schon, Cain, and Perry reunited to perform "Faithfully" and "Lights" at the Bill Graham tribute concert "Laughter, Love & Music" at Golden Gate Park, following the concert promoter's death in a helicopter accident. In October 1993, Schon, Rolie, Valory, Dunbar, Smith, and Cain reunited and performed at a private dinner for their manager Herbie Herbert at Bimbo's in San Francisco, with Kevin Chalfant on lead vocals.


title: Journey (band)

text: After the breakup of Bad English in 1991, Schon and Castronovo formed the glam metal band Hardline with brothers Johnny and Joey Gioeli, releasing only one studio album before his departure. Neal later joined Paul Rodgers in 1993 for live performances, alongside Deen Castronovo. In 1994, Steve Perry had released his second solo album "For the Love of Strange Medicine", and toured North America in support of the album, though his voice had changed since the last time he had performed.


title: Journey (band)

text: Perry made the decision to reunite with Journey under the condition that Herbie Herbert would no longer be the band's manager. The band hired Irving Azoff, longtime Eagles manager, as the new manager for the band in October 1995. Steve Smith and Ross Valory reunited with Journey and the band started writing material for their next album, with rehearsals beginning that same month.


title: Journey (band)

text: The band began recording their 10th studio album, "Trial by Fire", in early 1996 at The Site and Wildhorse Studio in Marin County and Ocean Way Recorders, in which they recorded under producer Kevin Shirley. It was released in late October that year, peaking at number three on the "Billboard "album charts. The album's hit single "When You Love a Woman", which reached number 12 on the "Billboard" charts, was nominated in 1997 for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. The album also produced three top-40 mainstream rock tracks, "Message of Love" reaching number 18, "Can't Tame the Lion" reaching number 33, and "If He Should Break Your Heart" reaching number 38.


title: Journey (band)

text: Plans for a subsequent tour ended when Perry, troubled by pain while hiking in Hawaii on a 10-day break in August 1996, discovered he had a degenerative bone condition and could not perform without hip-replacement surgery, which for some time he declined to undergo, later admitting he had other physical issues. The accident resulted in the album's release date being delayed.


title: Journey (band)

text: The band took a break following the album's release to work on solo projects, waiting for Perry to make up his mind on if he wanted to tour. Schon released his solo album "Electric World" in 1997, later creating Abraxas Pool with former Journey member Gregg Rolie, drummer Michael Shrieve, and a few former Santana members. Cain released his two solo albums, "Body Language" and "For A Lifetime" in 1997 and 1998, respectively.


title: Journey (band)

text: Following the reunion album's release, the band was becoming restless waiting for an answer from Perry regarding touring. Following a phone call between Cain and Perry, the latter announced that he would be departing from Journey, releasing himself from the band's contracts and making the decision to semiretire from the music business, disappearing from the public eye again. Steve Smith later exited the band, citing that Journey would not be the same without Perry, and returning to his jazz career and his project Vital Information.


title: Journey (band)

text: The band hired drummer Deen Castronovo, Schon's and Cain's Bad English bandmate and drummer for Hardline, to replace Steve Smith. After auditioning several high-profile candidates, including Geoff Tate, Kevin Chalfant, and John West, Journey replaced Perry with Steve Augeri, formerly of Tyketto and Tall Stories. The band later recorded the song "Remember Me", which was featured on the soundtrack for the 1998 film "Armageddon".


title: Journey (band)

text: Following a rehearsal with Augeri and Castronovo, the band performed four gigs in Japan, a reliable touring stronghold for the band. When asked how he felt about touring for the first time in over a decade, Schon commented: "It's a little like we are reborn again." Journey embarked on a tour in the United States titled Vacation's Over, which began in October and concluded at the end of December in Reno. They continued the tour with another leg in 1999, beginning in Minnesota in June and concluding in Michigan in September.


title: Journey (band)

text: From March to August 2000, the band entered Avatar Studios to record their next studio album, "Arrival" with producer Kevin Shirley. The album was released in Japan later in the year. A North American release of the album followed in April 2001, peaking at number 56 on the Billboard charts. The album's single "All the Way" failed to boost sales for the album which was considered a disappointment with mixed reviews and resulted in Sony dropping the band from their label. Upon the album's completion, the band embarked on a tour in support of the album in Latin America, the United States, and Europe.


title: Journey (band)

text: During the events of September 11, 2001, in response to the attacks in New York City, the band joined various other bands at a major fundraising event to help the victims and families of the attack held on October 20 and 21 at the Smirnoff Music Centre in Dallas, Texas. The event raised about $1 million.


title: Journey (band)

text: Activity for Journey was quiet in 2002, as Schon formed Planet Us with bandmate Castronovo, Sammy Hagar and former Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony until 2004, when Planet Us disbanded. Schon also co-wrote songs with the band Bad Company, while Cain released another solo album. Having made some recordings between 2001 and 2002, the band released a four-track EP titled "Red 13" in November under their new label Journey Music, with an album cover design chosen through a fan contest with the online cover designed by Kelly McDonald, while the retail cover designed by Christopher Payne was only made available at the band's performances. The band only performed one club gig in support of the EP, but later began another tour of the United States from May to August in 2003, that included their teaming with Styx and REO Speedwagon in Classic Rock's Main Event. The band then toured the following year on the Summer Detour, which began from June and concluded in September 2004. In November, Journey reteamed with both REO Speedwagon and Styx for a tour around the Caribbean aboard the "Triumph" cruise ship.


title: Journey (band)

text: In 2005, the members of Journey were inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame alongside former members Perry, Dunbar, Tickner, Steve Smith, and Fleischmann. Rolie was the only member who did not appear at the ceremony. Surprised to see Perry joining them to accept the induction with the band, Valory commented on the wonderful things Perry had to say in which he looked to be in fine shape, and that it was a pleasant surprise to see him.


title: Journey (band)

text: Following their accolade on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the band began recording at the Record Plant in Sausalito, California, for their 12th studio album, "Generations", with producer Kevin Elson, who had previously collaborated with the band. The album was released on August 29 in Europe, with a North American release following on October 4. The album peaked at number 170 on the "Billboard" charts. To promote the album and celebrate the band's 30th anniversary, the band embarked on a tour starting in Irvine, California, in June and concluding in Phoenix in October. Each concert on the tour was three hours long with an intermission and featured many of their classic hits, as well as new songs from the album.


title: Journey (band)

text: In 2006, the band toured in Europe and then joined Def Leppard in a North American tour. During the tours, however, suggestions arose that Augeri was not singing, but was using backing tracks to cover up his deteriorating vocals, resulting in him getting attacked by the fans. Augeri had been suffering from vocal attrition problems before the band began the tour with Def Leppard, and Journey had been accused of using prerecorded lead vocals, an accusation that former manager Herbie Herbert insists was true. Valory denied the accusations, stating that it was an urban myth, and that Augeri's vocals did not give out. In a press statement, the band later announced that Augeri had to step down as Journey's lead singer and leave the tour to recover. Augeri performed his last show with Journey on July 4 in Raleigh.


title: Journey (band)

text: With the successful tour still going on, the band was quick to hire Jeff Scott Soto from Talisman as their lead vocalist. He performed as Journey's vocalist for the first time on July 7 in Bristow. Because of its success and popularity, the tour was extended to November. Soto was later officially announced as the band's new vocalist in December 2006. Following tours of Europe and the United States in 2007, the band announced on June 12 that Soto was no longer part of the group. In a statement, Schon stated: "He did a tremendous job for us and we wish him the best. We've just decided to go our separate ways, no pun intended. We're plotting our next move now."


title: Journey (band)

text: Following Soto's departure, the band was again without a lead vocalist. Neal Schon began searching YouTube for a new lead vocalist, with Jeremey Hunsicker of the Journey tribute band Frontiers auditioning and spending a week with the band writing material. Hunsicker claims to have been formally offered the position, but the offer fell through shortly afterwards following tension with Schon. One of the tracks co-written with Hunsicker, "Never Walk Away", later appeared on the "Revelation" album. Schon later found Filipino singer Arnel Pineda of the cover band The Zoo, covering the song "Faithfully". Schon was so impressed that he contacted Pineda to set up two days of auditions, which went well, naming him the official lead vocalist of Journey on December 5, 2007.


title: Journey (band)

text: Although Pineda was neither the first foreign national to become a member of Journey (former drummer Aynsley Dunbar is British), nor even the first nonwhite (bass player Randy Jackson is African American), his recruitment resulted in some fans of Journey making racist comments towards the new vocalist. Keyboardist Jonathan Cain responded to such sentiments in the "Marin Independent Journal": "We've become a world band. We're international now. We're not about one color."


title: Journey (band)

text: In 2007, "Don't Stop Believin'" gained press coverage and a sharp growth in popularity when it was used in "The Sopranos" television series final episode prompting digital downloads of the song to soar.


title: Journey (band)

text: In November 2007, Journey entered the studio with Pineda to record the studio album, "Revelation". The album was released on June 3, 2008. It debuted at number five on the "Billboard" charts, selling more than 196,000 units in its first two weeks and staying in the top 20 for six weeks. As a multidisc set (2-CD) each unit within that set counts as one sale. Journey also found success on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart where the single "After All These Years" spent over 23 weeks, peaking at number nine.


title: Journey (band)

text: On February 21, 2008, Pineda performed for the first time with Journey in front of 20,000 fans in Chile. The band began the "Revelation" tour in the United Kingdom in June, continuing the tour into North America, Asia, Europe, and South America. The 2008 leg concluded in October. Receipts from the 2008 tour made Journey one of the top-grossing concert tours of the year, bringing in over $35,000,000. On December 18, 2008, "Revelation" was certified platinum by RIAA.


title: Journey (band)

text: The band performed at the Super Bowl XLIII pregame show in Tampa on February 1, 2009. The band continued their "Revelation" tour in May and concluded it in October 2009. The band had also performed in Manila to 30,000 fans, which was recorded for a live release, "Live in Manila".


title: Journey (band)

text: In 2009, "Don't Stop Believin'" became the top-selling song on iTunes among those released before 2000.


title: Journey (band)

text: The band entered into Fantasy Studios on 2010 with Pineda to record their studio album, "Eclipse". The album was released on May 24, 2011, and debuted at number 13 on the "Billboard" 200 charts. The band toured the United Kingdom in June 2011 with Foreigner and Styx. Journey was awarded the prestigious "Legend of Live Award" at the "Billboard "Touring Awards in October. Greatest Hits 2 was released in November.


title: Journey (band)

text: In June 2015, Deen Castronovo was arrested following a domestic altercation. He was fired by Journey in August and was ultimately replaced by Omar Hakim on the band's 2015 tour. In 2016, Steve Smith again returned as Journey's drummer, reuniting all of the members of the "Escape-Frontiers-Trial by Fire" lineup except lead singer Steve Perry. Their tour that year also featured Dave Mason and The Doobie Brothers. In 2018, during the North American tour with Def Leppard, Journey topped the "Billboard" Hot Tours List by grossing more than $30 million over 17 shows.


title: Journey (band)

text: On March 3, 2020, Schon and Cain announced that they had fired Smith and Valory and were suing them for an alleged "attempted corporate "coup d'état,"" seeking damages in excess of $10 million. The lawsuit alleged Smith and Valory tried to "assume control of Nightmare Productions because they incorrectly believe that Nightmare Productions controls the Journey name and mark" to "hold the Journey name hostage and set themselves up with a guaranteed income stream after they stop performing." Valory and Smith contested the firings, with the support of former manager Herbie Herbert and former lead singer Steve Perry. Court filings revealed that Steve Perry had been paid as a member of the band for years despite not performing. In an open letter dated that same day, Schon and Cain stated Smith and Valory "are no longer members of Journey, and that Schon and Cain have lost confidence in both of them and are not willing to perform with them again." Valory countersued Schon and Cain, among other things, for their partnership's claim of owning the Journey trademark and service mark (collectively known as the mark), when that partnership, Elmo Partners, was only the licensee of the mark from 1985 to 1994, when the license was terminated by Herbie Herbert of Nightmare Productions, owners of the mark and name. Valory also sought protection against Schon from using any similarities of the Journey mark and name for his side project, Neal Schon – Journey Through Time. That May, Schon and Cain announced that bassist Randy Jackson would once again join the band, replacing Valory, and drummer Narada Michael Walden was announced as an official new member of Journey, replacing Smith.


title: Journey (band)

text: In June 2020, Schon announced via his social-media page that a new album with Jackson and Walden was "starting to take shape". The following month, he confirmed the album's progress, and confirmed that they would be releasing new music in early 2021. In January 2021, he announced that the first single of the album would be released later that year, with possibly a worldwide tour to follow. In April 2021, the band reached an "amicable settlement" with Valory and Smith, confirming their departures. The single "The Way We Used to Be" was released on June 24, 2021.


title: Journey (band)

text: In July 2021, Schon confirmed that Deen Castronovo, who was previously in the band, had rejoined as a second drummer. Meanwhile, Jackson's back surgery led to the band bringing in Marco Mendoza to play bass, with Mendoza having previously played with Schon and Castronovo in Neal Schon's Journey Through Time. Mendoza's stint with Journey, though, only lasted a few months due to Schon's feeling that his bass playing did not gel with the band's sound, and he was replaced by Todd Jensen, who had previously played with Schon and Castronovo in Hardline.


title: Journey (band)

text: On February 16, 2022, the band announced the title and track listing of their 15th studio album "Freedom", which was released on July 8, 2022. On March 1, 2022, Cain confirmed that neither Walden nor Jackson remained in the lineup, with Walden's exit following a minor heart attack following a live show in Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, both were still featured on "Freedom", as they had completed their parts on the album before their departures. Schon later stated that Walden and Jackson were still "musical members" of the band, and he would certainly write again with Walden in the future. Schon also did not rule out the possibility of former members Steve Perry and Gregg Rolie returning for a reunion on the band's 50th anniversary. The second single from the album, "You Got the Best of Me", was released on April 26, 2022; the third, "Let It Rain", on May 17; the fourth, "Don't Give Up on Us", on June 7; and the fifth, "United We Stand", on July 4.


title: Journey (band)

text: On October 27, 2022, Journey announced their fifth live album, "Live in Concert at Lollapalooza", which was released on December 9, 2022.


title: Journey (band)

text: Journey songs have been heard or referred to in numerous films, television series, video games, and even on Broadway. The band's songs have been covered by several artists and adopted by sports teams. In particular, "Don't Stop Believin was heard in the final episode of "The Sopranos", adapted by the television series "Glee", sung by the "Family Guy" cast, adopted as the unofficial anthem of the 2005 Chicago White Sox and 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series championship teams, performed by The Chipmunks in their album "Undeniable" (2008), and sung by the cast of the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages". A remixed version of their song "Separate Ways" was used in the penultimate episode of the fourth season of "Stranger Things".


title: Journey (band)

text: On March 8, 2013, a documentary, "", was released. The movie, directed by Ramona S. Diaz, chronicles the discovery of Arnel Pineda and his first year with Journey.


title: Journey (band)

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, "Don't Stop Believin was used as an anthem for patients who were being discharged from New York Presbyterian Queens Hospital and Henry Ford Health System after defeating the virus. On August 21, 2021, Journey played the song live at New York's "We Love NYC: The Homecoming Concert", which was scheduled to celebrate the city's emergence from the pandemic.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The SCP Foundation is a fictional secret organization documented by the collaborative-writing wiki project of the same name, with the abbreviation standing for "Special Containment Procedures". Within the website's shared universe, the Foundation is responsible for capturing, containing, and studying various paranormal, supernatural, and other mysterious phenomena unexplained by science (known as "anomalies" or "SCPs"), while also keeping their existence hidden from the rest of human society.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The collaborative writing project operates on a wiki-like website, and includes elements of many genres such as horror, science fiction, and urban fantasy. The majority of works on the SCP Wiki consist of thousands of SCP files: mock confidential scientific reports that document various SCPs and associated containment procedures. The website also contains "Foundation Tales", short stories featuring various characters and settings in the SCP universe. The wiki's literary works have been praised for their ability to convey horror through a quasi-scientific and academic writing style, as well as for their high standards of quality.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The SCP universe has inspired numerous adaptations and fan-made works in widely varying forms of media, including drama, novels and video games.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The fictional setting centers around the findings and activities of the SCP Foundation: an international secret society, consisting of a scientific research institution with a paramilitary intelligence agency to support their goals. Despite their extremely secretive nature, the Foundation is entrusted by governments around the world to capture and contain various unexplained phenomena that defy the known laws of nature (referred to as "anomalies", "SCP objects", "SCPs", or informally as "skips"). They include living beings and creatures, artifacts and objects, locations and places, abstract concepts, and incomprehensible entities which display supernatural abilities or other extremely unusual properties. If left uncontained, many of the more dangerous anomalies will pose a serious threat to humans or even all life on Earth. Information on SCPs and the Foundation is strictly withheld from the general public in order to prevent mass hysteria that would supposedly occur if they were leaked, and allow human civilization to "continue functioning normally".


title: SCP Foundation

text: When an SCP anomaly is discovered, teams of undercover Foundation agents (often called Mobile Task Forces) are deployed to either collect and transport the object to a Foundation facility, or to contain it at its location of discovery if transportation is not possible. If an anomaly is too widespread, elusive, or otherwise inaccessible, containment usually consists of suppressing all knowledge of the SCP from the public. This is accomplished through censorship of mass media, and dosing eyewitnesses with amnestic drugs which erase their memories of anomalous events.


title: SCP Foundation

text: Contained SCPs are studied and researched by scientists in order to improve containment methods for them. The Foundation also acquires human test subjects, usually convicts from prisons, forcing them to take part in experiments involving certain SCPs. Considered to be disposable, these "D-class" personnel are used in experiments with particularly dangerous SCPs to avoid risking Foundation employees themselves. The Foundation maintains documentation for all SCPs which they are aware of, which can include or link to related reports and files. These documents describe the SCPs and include instructions for keeping them safely contained, as well as supplementary incident reports or experimentation logs.


title: SCP Foundation

text: Apart from the Foundation itself, there are numerous rival organizations (referred to as Groups of Interest) which deal with SCPs for various purposes. Examples of major Groups of Interest include the Chaos Insurgency, a terrorist splinter group consisting of ex-Foundation defectors who attempt to weaponize SCPs; the Global Occult Coalition (GOC), a secret paramilitary agency of the United Nations which specializes in destroying supernatural threats instead of containing them; and the Serpent's Hand, a militant group which advocates for the rights of anomalous beings, resisting both the Foundation's and GOC's efforts to suppress paranormal activity worldwide. Other Groups of Interest seek to exploit anomalies by producing or selling them for monetary profit; or using them to serve their own religious, political, or ideological goals.


title: SCP Foundation

text: On the SCP Wiki, the majority of works are stand-alone articles detailing the "Special Containment Procedures" of a given SCP object. In a typical article, an SCP object is assigned a unique identification number and a "containment class" based on the difficulty of containing it. The documentation then outlines proper containment procedures and safety measures before describing the SCP object in question. Addenda (such as images, research data, interviews, history, or status updates) may also be attached to the document. The reports are written in a scientific tone and often censor words with black bars (ex. █████) and [DATA EXPUNGED] markings. As of August 2021, articles exist for nearly 6,600 SCP objects; new articles are frequently written by contributors.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The SCP Wiki contains over 4,200 short stories referred to as "Foundation Tales". The stories are set within the larger SCP universe, and often focus on the exploits of various Foundation staff members, SCP entities and objects, among other recurring characters and settings. Gregory Burkart, writing for Blumhouse Productions, noted that some of the Foundation Tales had a dark and bleak tone, while others were "surprisingly light-hearted".


title: SCP Foundation

text: The SCP universe has neither a central canon nor the ability to establish one due to its community-oriented nature, but stories on the wiki are often linked together to create larger narratives. Contributors have the ability to create "canons", which are clusters of SCPs and Foundation Tales with similar locations, characters, or central plots; many of these canons have hub pages that explain their basic concept and provide information such as timelines and character lists.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The genres of the SCP Wiki have variously been described as science fiction, urban fantasy, horror and creepypasta.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The SCP Foundation originated in the "paranormal" /x/ forum of 4chan in 2007, where the very first SCP file, SCP-173, was posted by an anonymous user (later identified as Moto42), accompanied by an image of the sculpture "Untitled 2004" by Japanese artist Izumi Kato. Although displeased with the unlicensed use of his art, Kato allowed the use of the photo explicitly for the noncommercial purposes of the community. Initially a stand-alone short story, many additional SCP files were created shortly after; these new SCPs copied SCP-173's style and were set within the same fictional universe. A stand-alone wiki was created in January 2008 on the EditThis wiki hosting service to display the SCP articles. The EditThis website did not have moderators, or the ability to delete articles. Members communicated through individual article talk pages and the /x/ board; the website lacked a central discussion forum. In July 2008, the SCP Wiki was transferred to its current Wikidot website after EditThis switched to a paid model. "Untitled 2004" was removed from the entry for SCP-173 in 2022.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The current Wikidot website contains numerous standard wiki features such as keyword searches and article lists. The wiki also contains a news hub, guides for writers and a central discussion forum. The wiki is moderated by staff teams; each team is responsible for a different function such as community outreach and discipline. Wikidot users are required to submit an application before they are allowed to post content. Every article on the wiki is assigned a discussion page, where members can evaluate and provide constructive criticism on submitted stories. The discussion pages are frequently used by authors to improve their stories. Members also have the ability to "upvote" articles they like and to "downvote" articles they dislike; articles that receive too many net downvotes are deleted. Writers from the "Daily Dot" and "Bustle" have noted that the website maintains strict quality control standards, and that sub-par content tends to be quickly removed.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The Wikidot website routinely holds creative writing contests to encourage submissions. For example, in November 2014, the SCP Wiki held a "Dystopia Contest" in which its members were encouraged to submit writings about the Foundation set in a bleak or degraded world. The website has also held seven themed contests for the opening of new Series, wherein the most-upvoted submission is listed at the beginning of the Series and the submissions of runner-ups are listed under an available number of their authors' choosings. As of Series VIII, the contest themes have covered urban legends, science fiction, eldritch horror, history, mystery, nature, and luck.


title: SCP Foundation

text: Apart from the original English wiki, 15 official foreign language branches exist, and some of their articles have been translated into English. The Wanderer's Library is a sister site and spin-off of the SCP Wiki. It uses the same setting as the SCP universe, but is made up of fantastical stories rather than scientific reports. The SCP community also maintains a role-playing site, a forum on Reddit, and accounts on Facebook and Twitter.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The SCP Foundation has received largely positive reviews. Michelle Starr of "CNET" praised the creepy nature of the stories. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw, writing for the "Daily Dot", praised the originality of the wiki and described it as the "most uniquely compelling horror writing on the Internet". She noted that the series rarely contained gratuitous gore. Rather, the horror of the series was often established through the reports' "pragmatic" and "deadpan" style, as well as through the inclusion of detail. Lisa Suhay, writing for the "Christian Science Monitor", also noted the SCP Wiki's "tongue-in-cheek style".


title: SCP Foundation

text: Alex Eichler, writing for "io9", noted that the series had varying levels of quality and that some of the reports were dull or repetitive. However, he praised the SCP stories for not becoming overly dark, and for containing more light-hearted reports. Additionally, he praised the wide variety of concepts covered in the report and said that the wiki contained writings that would appeal to all readers. Leigh Alexander, writing for "The Guardian", noted that the wiki's voting system allows readers to easily locate content which "the community thinks are best and most scary."


title: SCP Foundation

text: Winston Cook-Wilson, writing for "Inverse", compared the SCP stories to the writings of American author H. P. Lovecraft. Like Lovecraft, SCP casefiles generally lack action sequences and are written in a pseudo-academic tone. Cook-Wilson argued that both Lovecraft's works and those of the SCP Wiki were strengthened by the tensions between their detached scientific tone and the unsettling, horrific nature of the stories being told.


title: SCP Foundation

text: Bryan Alexander, writing in "The New Digital Storytelling", stated that the SCP Foundation is possibly "the most advanced achievement of wiki storytelling" due to the large-scale and recurring process through which the wiki's user-base creates literary content.


title: SCP Foundation

text: The works present on the SCP Foundation website have been the subject of numerous independent adaptations and inspired some original works:


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington Territory, which was ceded by the British Empire in 1846, by the Oregon Treaty in the settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute. The state is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean, Oregon to the south, Idaho to the east, and the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north. It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Olympia is the state capital; the state's largest city is Seattle. Washington is often referred to as Washington state to distinguish it from the nation's capital, Washington, D.C.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is the 18th-largest state, with an area of , and the 13th-most populous state, with more than 7.7 million people. The majority of Washington's residents live in the Seattle metropolitan area, the center of transportation, business, and industry on Puget Sound, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean consisting of numerous islands, deep fjords, and bays carved out by glaciers. The remainder of the state consists of deep temperate rainforests in the west; mountain ranges in the west, central, northeast, and far southeast; and a semi-arid basin region in the east, central, and south, given over to intensive agriculture. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, after California. Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the state's highest elevation at , and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous U.S.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is a leading lumber producer; its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. The state is the largest producer of apples, hops, pears, blueberries, spearmint oil, and sweet cherries in the U.S., and ranks high in the production of apricots, asparagus, dry edible peas, grapes, lentils, peppermint oil, and potatoes. Livestock, livestock products, and commercial fishing—particularly of salmon, halibut, and bottomfish—are also significant contributors to the state's economy. Washington ranks second only to California in wine production.


title: Washington (state)

text: Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft, missiles, shipbuilding, and other transportation equipment, food processing, metals, and metal products, chemicals, and machinery. Washington has more than a thousand dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, electricity generation, flood control, and water storage.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is one of the wealthiest as well as most socially liberal states in the country. The state consistently ranks among the best for life expectancy and low unemployment. Along with Colorado, Washington was one of the first to legalize medicinal and recreational cannabis, was among the first states to legalize same-sex marriage in 2012, and was one of only four U.S. states to have been providing legal abortions on request before the 1973 Supreme Court decision in "Roe v. Wade" loosened abortion laws nationwide. Similarly, Washington voters approved a 2008 referendum on legalization of physician-assisted suicide, and Washington is currently one of ten states—along with Washington, D.C.—to have legalized the practice.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington was named after President George Washington by an act of the United States Congress during the creation of Washington Territory in 1853; the territory was to be named "Columbia", for the Columbia River and the Columbia District, but Kentucky representative Richard H. Stanton found the name too similar to the District of Columbia (the national capital, itself containing the city of Washington), and proposed naming the new territory after President Washington. Washington is the only U.S. state named after a president.


title: Washington (state)

text: Confusion over the state of Washington and the city of Washington, D.C., led to renaming proposals during the statehood process for Washington in 1889, including David Dudley Field II's suggestion to name the new state "Tacoma"; these proposals failed to garner support. Washington, D.C.'s, own statehood movement in the 21st century has included a proposal to use the name "State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth", which would conflict with the current state of Washington. Residents of Washington (known as "Washingtonians") and the Pacific Northwest simply refer to the state as "Washington", and the nation's capital "Washington, D.C.", "the other Washington", or simply "D.C."


title: Washington (state)

text: The 9,300-year-old skeletal remains of Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete human remains found in North America, were discovered in Washington in the 1990s. The area has been known to host megathrust earthquakes in the past, the last being the Cascadia earthquake of 1700. Before the arrival of Europeans, the region had many established tribes of indigenous peoples, notable for their totem poles and their ornately carved canoes and masks. Prominent among their industries were salmon fishing and, notably among the Makah, whale hunting. The peoples of the Interior had a different subsistence-based culture based on hunting, food-gathering and some forms of agriculture, as well as a dependency on salmon from the Columbia and its tributaries. The smallpox epidemic of the 1770s devastated the Native American population.


title: Washington (state)

text: The first recorded European landing on the Washington coast was by Spanish Captain Don Bruno de Heceta in 1775, on board the "Santiago", part of a two-ship flotilla with the "Sonora". He claimed the coastal lands up to Prince William Sound for Spain as part of their claimed rights under the Treaty of Tordesillas, which they maintained made the Pacific a "Spanish lake" and all its shores part of the Spanish Empire.


title: Washington (state)

text: In 1778, British explorer Captain James Cook sighted Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, but Cook did not realize the strait existed. It was not discovered until Charles William Barkley, captain of the "Imperial Eagle", sighted it in 1787. The straits were further explored by Spanish explorers Manuel Quimper in 1790 and Francisco de Eliza in 1791, and British explorer George Vancouver in 1792.


title: Washington (state)

text: The British–Spanish Nootka Convention of 1790 ended Spanish claims of exclusivity and opened the Northwest Coast to explorers and traders from other nations, most notably Britain and Russia as well as the fledgling United States. American captain Robert Gray (for whom Grays Harbor County is named) then discovered the mouth of the Columbia River. He named the river after his ship, the "Columbia". Beginning in 1792, Gray established trade in sea otter pelts. The Lewis and Clark Expedition entered the state on October 10, 1805.


title: Washington (state)

text: Explorer David Thompson, on his voyage down the Columbia River, camped at the confluence with the Snake River on July 9, 1811, and erected a pole and a notice claiming the territory for Great Britain and stating the intention of the North West Company to build a trading post at the site.


title: Washington (state)

text: Britain and the United States agreed to what has since been described as "joint occupancy" of lands west of the Continental Divide to the Pacific Ocean as part of the Anglo–American Convention of 1818, which established the 49th Parallel as the international boundary west from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains. Resolution of the territorial and treaty issues west to the Pacific was deferred until a later time. In 1819, Spain ceded their rights north of the 42nd Parallel to the United States.


title: Washington (state)

text: Negotiations with Great Britain over the next few decades failed to settle upon a compromise boundary and the Oregon boundary dispute was highly contested between Britain and the United States. Disputed joint occupancy by Britain and the U.S. lasted for several decades. With American settlers pouring into Oregon Country, Hudson's Bay Company, which had previously discouraged settlement because it conflicted with the fur trade, reversed its position in an attempt to maintain British control of the Columbia District.


title: Washington (state)

text: Fur trapper James Sinclair, on orders from Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, led some 200 settlers from the Red River Colony west in 1841 to settle on Hudson Bay Company farms near Fort Vancouver. The party crossed the Rockies into the Columbia Valley, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia, then traveled south-west down the Kootenai River and Columbia River. Despite such efforts, Britain eventually ceded all claims to land south of the 49th parallel to the United States in the Oregon Treaty on June 15, 1846.


title: Washington (state)

text: In 1836, a group of missionaries, including Marcus Whitman, established several missions and Whitman's own settlement Waiilatpu, in what is now southeastern Washington state, near present-day Walla Walla County, in the territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Perce Indian tribes. Whitman's settlement would in 1843 help the Oregon Trail, the overland emigration route to the west, get established for thousands of emigrants in the following decades. Marcus provided medical care for the Native Americans, but when Indian patients—lacking immunity to new, "European" diseases—died in striking numbers, while at the same time many white patients recovered, they held "medicine man" Marcus Whitman personally responsible, and murdered Whitman and twelve other white settlers in the Whitman massacre in 1847. This event triggered the Cayuse War between settlers and Indians.


title: Washington (state)

text: Fort Nisqually, a farm and trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company and the first European settlement in the Puget Sound area, was founded in 1833. Black pioneer George Washington Bush and his Caucasian wife, Isabella James Bush, from Missouri and Tennessee, respectively, led four white families into the territory and founded New Market, now Tumwater, in 1846. They settled in Washington to avoid Oregon's Black Exclusion Law, which prohibited African Americans from entering the territory while simultaneously prohibiting slavery. After them, many more settlers, migrating overland along the Oregon Trail, wandered north to settle in the Puget Sound area.


title: Washington (state)

text: Spanish and Russian claims to the region were ceded in the early 19th century through a series of treaties. The Spanish signed the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, and the Russians the Russo-American Treaty of 1824 and 1825.


title: Washington (state)

text: The Oregon Question remained contested between the United Kingdom and the United States until the 1846 Oregon Treaty established the border between British North America and the United States along the 49th parallel until the Strait of Georgia. Vague wording in the treaty left the ownership of the San Juan Islands in doubt; during the so-called Pig War, both nations agreed to a joint military occupation of the islands. Kaiser Wilhelm I of the German Empire was selected as an arbitrator to end the dispute, with a three-man commission ruling in favor of the United States in 1872. The border established by the Oregon Treaty and finalized by the arbitration in 1872 remains the boundary between Washington and British Columbia.


title: Washington (state)

text: The growing population of Oregon Territory north of the Columbia River formally requested a new territory. As a result of the Monticello Convention, held in present-day Cowlitz County, U.S. Congress passed legislation and President Millard Fillmore signed into law on March 2, 1853, the creation of a new Washington Territory. The boundary of Washington Territory initially extended farther east than the present state, including what is now the Idaho Panhandle and parts of western Montana, and picked up more land to the southeast that was left behind when Oregon was admitted as a state; the creation of Idaho Territory in 1863 established the final eastern border. A Washington state constitution was drafted and ratified in 1878, but it was never officially adopted. Although never approved by the United States Congress, the 1878 constitution is an important historical document that shows the political thinking of the time; it was used extensively during the drafting of Washington state's 1889 constitution, the one and only official Constitution of the State of Washington. Washington became the 42nd state of the United States on November 11, 1889.


title: Washington (state)

text: Early prominent industries in the new state included agriculture and lumber. In Eastern Washington, the Yakima River Valley became known for its apple orchards, while the growth of wheat using dry farming techniques became particularly productive. Heavy rainfall to the west of the Cascade Range produced dense forests, and the ports along Puget Sound prospered from the manufacturing and shipping of lumber products, particularly the Douglas fir. Other industries that developed in the state included fishing, salmon canning and mining.


title: Washington (state)

text: For a long period, Tacoma had large smelters where gold, silver, copper, and lead ores were treated. Seattle was the primary port for trade with Alaska and the rest of the country, and for a time, it possessed a large shipbuilding industry. The region around eastern Puget Sound developed heavy industry during the period including World War I and World War II, and the Boeing company became an established icon in the area.


title: Washington (state)

text: During the Great Depression, a series of hydroelectric dams were constructed along the Columbia River as part of a project to increase the production of electricity. This culminated in 1941 with the completion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in the United States and the largest dam in the world at its construction.


title: Washington (state)

text: During World War II, the state became a focus for war industries. While the Boeing Company produced many heavy bombers, ports in Seattle, Bremerton, Vancouver, and Tacoma were available for the manufacture of warships. Seattle was the point of departure for many soldiers in the Pacific, several of whom were quartered at Fort Lawton, which later became Discovery Park. In Eastern Washington, the Hanford Works atomic energy plant was opened in 1943 and played a major role in the construction of atomic bombs.


title: Washington (state)

text: After the end of World War II, and with the beginning of the civil rights movement, the state's growing Black or African American population's wages were 53% above the national average. The early diversification of Washington through the Great Migration led to successful efforts at reducing discrimination in the workplace. In 1950, Seattle's first black representative for the state's legislature was elected. At the 1970 U.S. census, the black population grew to 7.13% of the total population.


title: Washington (state)

text: In 1970, the state was one of only four U.S. states to have been providing legal abortions before the 1973 Supreme Court decision in "Roe v. Wade" which loosened abortion laws nationwide.


title: Washington (state)

text: On May 18, 1980, following a period of heavy tremors and small eruptions, the north face of Mount St. Helens slid off in the largest landslide in recorded history before erupting violently, destroying a large part of the top of the volcano. The eruption flattened the forest up to 20 km north of the volcano, killed 57 people, flooded the Columbia River and its tributaries with ash and mud, and blanketed large parts of Washington eastward and other surrounding states in ash, making day look like night.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is the northwesternmost state of the contiguous United States. It borders Idaho to the east, bounded mostly by the meridian running north from the confluence of the Snake River and Clearwater River (about 117°02'23" west), except for the southernmost section where the border follows the Snake River. Oregon is to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part and the 46th parallel forming the eastern part of the Oregon–Washington border. During Washington's partition from Oregon, the original plan for the border followed the Columbia River east until the confluence with the Snake, and then would have followed the Snake River east; this was changed to keep Walla Walla's fertile farmland in Washington.


title: Washington (state)

text: To the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. Its northern border lies mostly along the 49th parallel, and then via marine boundaries through the Strait of Georgia, Haro Strait, and Strait of Juan de Fuca, with the Canadian province of British Columbia to the north.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is part of a region known as the Pacific Northwest, a term which always refers to at least Washington and Oregon, and may or may not include some or all the following, depending on the user's intent: Idaho, western Montana, northern California, British Columbia, and Alaska.


title: Washington (state)

text: The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state. In addition to Western Washington and Eastern Washington, residents call the two parts of the state the "Westside" and the "Eastside", "Wet side" and "Dry side", or "Timberland" and "Wheatland", the latter pair more commonly in the names of region-specific businesses and institutions. These terms reflect the geography, climate, and industry of the land on both sides of the Cascades.


title: Washington (state)

text: From the Cascade Mountains westward, Western Washington has a mostly Mediterranean climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range has several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains. From north to south, these major volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. All are active volcanoes.


title: Washington (state)

text: Mount Rainier—the tallest mountain in the state— is south of the city of Seattle, from which it is prominently visible. The U.S. Geological Survey considers Mount Rainier the most dangerous volcano in the Cascade Range, due to its proximity to the Seattle metropolitan area, and most dangerous in the continental U.S. according to the Decade Volcanoes list. It is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states.


title: Washington (state)

text: Western Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula, which support dense forests of conifers and areas of temperate rainforest. These deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only rainforests in the continental United States. While Western Washington does not always experience a high amount of rainfall as measured in total inches of rain per year, it does consistently have more rainy days per year than most other places in the country.


title: Washington (state)

text: Eastern Washington—the part of the state east of the Cascades—has a relatively dry climate, in distinct contrast to the west side. It includes large areas of semiarid steppe and a few truly arid deserts in the rain shadow of the Cascades; the Hanford reservation receives an average annual precipitation of . Despite the limited amount of rainfall, agriculture is an extremely important business throughout much of Eastern Washington, as the soil is highly productive and irrigation, aided by dams along the Columbia River, is fairly widespread. The spread of population in Eastern Washington is dominated by access to water, especially rivers. The main cities are all located alongside rivers or lakes; most of them are named after the river or lake they adjoin.


title: Washington (state)

text: Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, with annual rainfall increasing as one goes east to in Pullman, near the Washington–Idaho border. The Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the state's northeastern quadrant. The Palouse southeast region of Washington was grassland that has been mostly converted into farmland, and extends to the Blue Mountains.


title: Washington (state)

text: The state of Washington has a temperate climate. The eastern half of Washington has a semi-arid climate, while the western side of Washington as well as the coastal areas of the state have a cool oceanic climate. Major factors determining Washington's climate include the large semi-permanent low pressure and high pressure systems of the north Pacific Ocean, the continental air masses of North America, and the Olympic and Cascade mountains. In the spring and summer, a high-pressure anticyclone system dominates the north Pacific Ocean, causing air to spiral out in a clockwise fashion. For Washington, this means prevailing winds from the northwest bring relatively cool air and a predictably dry season.


title: Washington (state)

text: In the autumn and winter, a low-pressure cyclone system takes over in the north Pacific Ocean. The air spiraling inward in a counter-clockwise fashion causes Washington's prevailing winds to come from the southwest, and bring relatively cool and overcast weather and a predictably wet season. The term "Pineapple Express" is used colloquially to describe atmospheric river events, where repeated storm systems are directed by this persistent cyclone from the tropical Pacific regions a great distance into the Pacific Northwest.


title: Washington (state)

text: Despite Western Washington's marine climate similar to many coastal cities of Europe, there are exceptions such as the "Big Snow" events of 1880, 1881, 1893, and 1916, and the "deep freeze" winters of 1883–1884, 1915–1916, 1949–1950, and 1955–1956, among others. During these events, Western Washington experienced up to of snow, sub-zero (−18 °C) temperatures, three months with snow on the ground, and lakes and rivers frozen over for weeks. Seattle's lowest officially recorded temperature is set on January 31, 1950, but low-altitude areas approximately three hours away from Seattle have recorded lows as cold as .


title: Washington (state)

text: The Southern Oscillation greatly influences weather during the cold season. During the El Niño phase, the jet stream enters the U.S. farther south through California, therefore late fall and winter are drier than normal with less snowpack. The La Niña phase reinforces the jet stream through the Pacific Northwest, causing Washington to have more rain and snow than average.


title: Washington (state)

text: In 2006, the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington published "The Impacts of Climate change in Washington's Economy", a preliminary assessment of the risks and opportunities presented given the possibility of a rise in global temperatures and their effects on Washington state.


title: Washington (state)

text: Rainfall in Washington varies dramatically going from east to west. The Olympic Peninsula's western side receives as much as of precipitation annually, making it the wettest area of the 48 conterminous states and a temperate rainforest. Weeks may pass without a clear day. The western slopes of the Cascade Range receive some of the heaviest annual snowfall (in some places more than water equivalent) in the country. In the rain shadow area east of the Cascades, the annual precipitation is only . Precipitation then increases again eastward toward the Rocky Mountains (about east of the Idaho border).


title: Washington (state)

text: The Olympic mountains and Cascades compound this climatic pattern by causing orographic lift of the air masses blown inland from the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the windward side of the mountains receiving high levels of precipitation and the leeward side receiving low levels. This occurs most dramatically around the Olympic Mountains and the Cascade Range. In both cases, the windward slopes facing southwest receive high precipitation and mild, cool temperatures. While the Puget Sound lowlands are known for clouds and rain in the winter, the western slopes of the Cascades receive larger amounts of precipitation, often falling as snow at higher elevations. Mount Baker, near the state's northern border, is one of the snowiest places in the world. In 1999, it set the world record for snowfall in a single season—.


title: Washington (state)

text: East of the Cascades, a large region experiences strong rain shadow effects. Semi-arid conditions occur in much of Eastern Washington with the strongest rain shadow effects at the relatively low elevations of the central Columbia Plateau—especially the region just east of the Columbia River from about the Snake River to the Okanagan Highland. Thus, instead of rain forests, much of Eastern Washington is covered with dry grassland, shrub-steppe, and dunes.


title: Washington (state)

text: The average annual temperature ranges from on the Pacific coast to in the northeast. The lowest temperature recorded in the state was in Winthrop and Mazama. The highest recorded temperature in the state was at Hanford on June 29, 2021. Both records were set east of the Cascades. Western Washington is known for its mild climate, considerable fog, frequent cloud cover, long-lasting drizzles in the winter and warm, temperate summers. The eastern region, which does not benefit from the general moderating effect of the Pacific Ocean, occasionally experiences extreme climate. Arctic cold fronts in the winter and heat waves in the summer are not uncommon. In the Western region, temperatures have reached as high as in Maple Valley during the June 2021 heat wave, and as low as in Longview.


title: Washington (state)

text: Forests cover about half the state's land area, mostly west of the northern Cascades. Approximately two-thirds of Washington's forested area is publicly owned, including 64 percent of federal land. Common trees and plants in the region are camassia, Douglas fir, hemlock, penstemon, ponderosa pine, western red cedar, and many species of ferns. The state's various areas of wilderness offer sanctuary, with substantially large populations of shorebirds and marine mammals. The Pacific shore surrounding the San Juan Islands is heavily inhabited by killer, gray, and humpback whales.


title: Washington (state)

text: In Eastern Washington, the flora is vastly different. Tumbleweeds and sagebrush dominate the landscape throughout large parts of the countryside. Russian olives and other trees are common alongside riverbanks; however, apart from the riversides, large swaths of Eastern Washington have no naturally existing trees at all (though many trees have been planted and are irrigated by people, of course). A wider variety of flora can be found in both the Blue Mountains and the eastern sides of the Cascades.


title: Washington (state)

text: Mammals native to the state include the bat, black bear, bobcat, cougar, coyote, deer, elk, gray wolf, hare, moose, mountain beaver, muskrat, opossum, pocket gopher, rabbit, raccoon, river otter, skunk, and tree squirrel. Because of the wide range of geography, the State of Washington is home to several different ecoregions, which allow for a varied range of bird species. This range includes raptors, shorebirds, woodland birds, grassland birds, ducks, and others. There have also been a large number of species introduced to Washington, dating back to the early 18th century, including horses and burros. The channel catfish, lamprey, and sturgeon are among the 400 known freshwater fishes. Along with the Cascades frog, there are several forms of snakes that define the most prominent reptiles and amphibians. Coastal bays and islands are often inhabited by plentiful amounts of shellfish and whales. There are five species of salmon that ascend the Western Washington area, from streams to spawn.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington has a variety of National Park Service units. Among these are the Alta Lake State Park, Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area, San Juan Islands National Wildlife Refuge, as well as three national parks—the Olympic National Park, North Cascades National Park, and Mount Rainier National Park. The three national parks were established between 1899 and 1968. Almost 95 percent (876,517 acres, 354,714 hectares, 3,547.14 square kilometers) of Olympic National Park's area has been designated as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System. Additionally, there are 143 state parks and9 national forests, run by the Washington State Park System and the United States Forest Service. The Okanogan National Forest is the largest national forest on the West Coast, encompassing . It is managed together as the Okanogan–Wenatchee National Forest, encompassing a considerably larger area of around .


title: Washington (state)

text: There are 39 counties within the state, and 281 incorporated municipalities which are divided into cities and towns. The majority of the state's population lives within Western Washington, in the Seattle metropolitan area; the city of Seattle is the principal city of the metropolitan area, and Western Washington, with a 2020 census population of 737,015.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington's population was 7,705,281 in the 2020 census, a 14.6 percent increase since the 2010 census. In 2018, the state ranked 13th overall in population, and was the third most populous, after California and Texas, west of the Mississippi River. Washington has the largest Pacific Northwest population, followed by Oregon, then Idaho. The Washington State Office of Financial Management reported the state population at 7,656,200 as of April 1, 2020.


title: Washington (state)

text: As of the 2010 census, the population of Washington was 6,724,540. The Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metropolitan Area population was 3,439,809 in the 2010 census, half the state total.


title: Washington (state)

text: The center of population of Washington in 2010 was at , in an unpopulated part of the Cascade Mountains in rural eastern King County, southeast of North Bend, northeast of Enumclaw, and west of Snoqualmie Pass.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington's proportion of residents under the age of five was 6.7%, 25.7% under 18, and 11.2% 65 or older.


title: Washington (state)

text: According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 12.1% of Washington's population were of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race): Mexican (9.7%), Puerto Rican (0.4%), Cuban (0.1%), and other Hispanic or Latino origin (1.8%). The five largest ancestry groups were: German (17.8%),


title: Washington (state)

text: "Note: Births in table don't add up, because Hispanics are counted both by their ethnicity and by their race, giving a higher overall number."


title: Washington (state)

text: While the population of African Americans in the Pacific Northwest is relatively scarce overall, they are mostly concentrated in the South End and Central District areas of Seattle, and in inner Tacoma. The black community of Seattle consisted of one individual in 1858, Manuel Lopes, and grew to a population of 406 by 1900. It developed substantially during and after World War II when wartime industries and the U.S. Armed Forces employed and recruited tens of thousands of African Americans from the Southeastern United States. They moved west in the second wave of the Great Migration, leaving a high influence on West Coast rock music and R&B and soul in the 1960s, including Seattle native Jimi Hendrix, a pioneer in hard rock, who was of African American and Cherokee Indian descent.


title: Washington (state)

text: Native Americans lived on Indian reservations or jurisdiction lands such as the Colville Indian Reservation, Makah, Muckleshoot Indian Reservation, Quinault, Salish people, Spokane Indian Reservation, and Yakama Indian Reservation. The westernmost and Pacific coasts have primarily American Indian communities, such as the Chinook, Lummi, and Salish. Urban Indian communities formed by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs relocation programs in Seattle since the end of World War II brought a variety of Native American peoples to this diverse metropolis. The city was named for Chief Seattle in the very early 1850s when European Americans settled the sound.


title: Washington (state)

text: Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are mostly concentrated in the Seattle−Tacoma metropolitan area of the state. Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, which are all within King County, have sizable Chinese communities (including Taiwanese), as well as significant Indian and Japanese communities. The Chinatown-International District in Seattle has a historical Chinese population dating back to the 1860s, who mainly emigrated from Guangdong Province in southern China, and is home to a diverse East and Southeast Asian community. Koreans are heavily concentrated in the suburban cities of Federal Way and Auburn to the south, and in Lynnwood to the north. Tacoma is home to thousands of Cambodians, and has one of the largest Cambodian-American communities in the United States, along with Long Beach, California, and Lowell, Massachusetts. The Vietnamese and Filipino populations of Washington are mostly concentrated within the Seattle metropolitan area. Washington state has the second highest percentage of Pacific Islander people in the mainland U.S. (behind Utah); the Seattle-Tacoma area is home to more than 15,000 people of Samoan ancestry, who mainly reside in southeast Seattle, Tacoma, Federal Way, and in SeaTac.


title: Washington (state)

text: The most numerous (ethnic, not racial, group) are Latinos at 11%, as Mexican Americans formed a large ethnic group in the Chehalis Valley, Skagit Valley, farming areas of Yakima Valley, and Eastern Washington. They were reported to at least date as far back as the 1800s. But it was in the late 20th century, that large-scale Mexican immigration and other Latinos settled in the southern suburbs of Seattle, with limited concentrations in King, Pierce, and Snohomish Counties during the region's real estate construction booms in the 1980s and 1990s.


title: Washington (state)

text: Additionally, Washington has a large Ethiopian community, with many Eritrean residents as well. Both emerged in the late 1960s, and developed since 1980. An estimated 30,000 Somali immigrants reside in the Seattle area.


title: Washington (state)

text: In 2010, 82.51% (5,060,313) of Washington residents age5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 7.79% (477,566) spoke Spanish, 1.19% (72,552) Chinese (which includes Cantonese and Standard Chinese), 0.94% (57,895) Vietnamese, 0.84% (51,301) Tagalog, 0.83% (50,757) Korean, 0.80% (49,282) Russian, and 0.55% (33,744) German. In total, 17.49% (1,073,002) of Washington's population age5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.


title: Washington (state)

text: The largest denominations by number of adherents in 2010 were the Roman Catholic Church, with 784,332; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with 282,356; and the Assemblies of God, with 125,005.


title: Washington (state)

text: Like other West Coast states, the percentage of Washington's population identifying themselves as "non-religious" is higher than the national average.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington has a relatively strong economy, with a total gross state product of $612,996.5 million in 2019, placing it fifth in the nation and growing by 6.5 percent per year—the fastest rate in the United States. The minimum wage as of January 1, 2021, was $13.69 an hour, the second highest of any state or district in the country behind Washington D.C at $14.00 an hour. Significant business within the state include the design and manufacture of aircraft (Boeing), automotive (Paccar), computer software development (Microsoft, Bungie, Amazon, Nintendo of America, Valve, ArenaNet), telecom (T-Mobile US), electronics, biotechnology, aluminum production, lumber and wood products (Weyerhaeuser), mining, beverages (Starbucks, Jones Soda), real estate (John L. Scott, Colliers International, Windermere Real Estate, Kidder Mathews), retail (Nordstrom, Eddie Bauer, Car Toys, Costco, R.E.I.), and tourism (Alaska Airlines, Expedia, Inc.). A "Fortune" magazine survey of the top 20 Most Admired Companies in the U.S. has four Washington-based companies: Amazon, Starbucks, Microsoft, and Costco. At over 80 percent the state has significant amounts of hydroelectric power generation. Also, significant amounts of trade with Asia pass through the ports of the Puget Sound, leading to a number six ranking of U.S. ports (ranking combines twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) moved and infrastructure index).


title: Washington (state)

text: With the passage of Initiative 1183, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) ended its monopoly of all-state liquor store and liquor distribution operations on June 1, 2012.


title: Washington (state)

text: The state of Washington is one of seven states that do not levy a personal income tax. The state does not collect a corporate income tax or franchise tax either. Washington businesses are responsible for various other state levies, including the business and occupation tax (B & O), a gross receipts tax which charges varying rates for different types of businesses.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington's state base sales tax is 6.5%, which is combined with a local sales tax that varies by locality. The combined state and local retail sales tax rates increase the taxes paid by consumers, depending on the variable local sales tax rates, generally between 7.5% and 10%. As of March 2017, the combined sales tax rate in Seattle and Tacoma was 10.1%. The cities of Lynnwood and Mill Creek have the highest sale tax rate in the state at 10.5%. These taxes apply to services as well as products. Most foods are exempt from sales tax. However, prepared foods, dietary supplements, and soft drinks remain taxable.


title: Washington (state)

text: An excise tax applies to certain products such as gasoline, cigarettes, and alcoholic beverages. Property tax was the first tax levied in the state of Washington, and its collection accounts for about 30% of Washington's total state and local revenue. It continues to be the most important revenue source for public schools, fire protection, libraries, parks and recreation, and other special-purpose districts.


title: Washington (state)

text: All real property and personal property are subject to tax unless specifically exempted by law. Most personal property owned by individuals is exempt from tax. Personal property tax applies to personal property used when conducting business, or to other personal property not exempt by law. All property taxes are paid to the county treasurer's office where the property is located. Neither does the state assess any tax on retirement income earned and received from another state. Washington does not collect inheritance taxes. However, the estate tax is de-coupled from the federal estate tax laws, and therefore, the state imposes its estate tax.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington state has the 18th highest per capita effective tax rate in the United States, as of 2017. Their tax policy differs from neighboring Oregon's, which levies no sales tax, but does levy a personal income tax. This leads to border economic anomalies in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. Additional border economies exist with neighboring British Columbia and Idaho.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is a leading agricultural state. The following figures are from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Washington Field Office. For 2018, the total value of Washington's agricultural products was $10.6 billion. In 2014, Washington ranked first in the nation in production of red raspberries (90.5 percent of total U.S. production), hops (79.3 percent), spearmint oil (75 percent), wrinkled seed peas (70.4 percent), apples (71.1 percent), sweet cherries (62.3 percent), pears (45.6 percent), Concord grapes (55.1 percent), carrots for processing (30.6 percent), and green peas for processing (32.4 percent).


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington also ranked second in the nation in the production of fall potatoes (a quarter of the nation's production), nectarines, apricots, asparagus, all raspberries, grapes (all varieties taken together), sweet corn for processing (a quarter of the nation's production), and summer onions (a fifth of the nation's production). Washington also ranked third in the nation in the production of dried peas, lentils, onions, and peppermint oil.


title: Washington (state)

text: The apple industry is of particular importance to Washington. Because of the favorable climate of dry, warm summers and cold winters of central Washington, the state has led the U.S. in apple production since the 1920s. Two areas account for the vast majority of the state's apple crop: the Wenatchee–Okanogan region (comprising Chelan, Okanogan, Douglas, and Grant counties), and the Yakima region (comprising Yakima, Benton, and Kittitas counties). Washington produces seven principal varieties of apples which are exported to more than sixty countries.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington ranks second in the United States in the production of wine, behind only California. By 2006, the state had over of vineyards, a harvest of of grapes, and exports going to more than forty countries around the world from the state's 600 wineries. By 2021, that number had grown to 1050 wineries. While there are some viticultural activities in the cooler, wetter western half of the state, almost all (99%) of wine grape production takes place in the desert-like eastern half. The rain shadow of the Cascade Range leaves the Columbia River Basin with around of annual rain fall, making irrigation and water rights of paramount interest to the Washington wine industry. Viticulture in the state is also influenced by long sunlight hours (on average, two more hours a day than in California during the growing season) and consistent temperatures.


title: Washington (state)

text: As of December 2014, there are 124 broadband providers offering service to Washington state; 93 percent of consumers have access to broadband speeds of 25/3Mbit/s or more.


title: Washington (state)

text: From 2009–2014, the Washington State Broadband Project was awarded $7.3 million in federal grants, but the program was discontinued in 2014. For infrastructure, another $166 million has been awarded since 2011 for broadband infrastructure projects in Washington state.


title: Washington (state)

text: "U.S. News & World Report" ranked Washington second nationally for household internet access, and sixth for online download speed, based on data from 2014 and 2015.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington's state transportation system comprises several modes that are maintained by various government entities. The state highway system, called State Routes, includes over of roads and the Washington State Ferries system, the largest of its kind in the nation and the third largest in the world. There are also of local roads maintained by cities and counties, as well as several ferries operated by local governments. There are 140 public airfields in Washington, including 16 state airports owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) is the major commercial airport of greater Seattle. Boeing Field in Seattle is one of the busiest primary non-hub airports in the U.S.


title: Washington (state)

text: There are extensive waterways around Washington's largest cities, including Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma, and Olympia. The state highways incorporate an extensive network of bridges and the largest ferry system in the United States to serve transportation needs in the Puget Sound area. Washington's marine highway constitutes a fleet of twenty-eight ferries that navigate Puget Sound and its inland waterways to 20 different ports of call, completing close to 147,000 sailings each year. Washington is home to four of the five longest floating bridges in the world: the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge over Lake Washington, and the Hood Canal Bridge which connects the Olympic Peninsula and Kitsap Peninsula. Among its most famous bridges is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed in 1940 and was rebuilt. Washington has 75 port districts, including several major seaports on the Pacific Ocean. Among these are ports in Seattle, Tacoma, Kalama, Anacortes, Vancouver, Everett, Longview, Grays Harbor, Olympia, and Port Angeles. The Columbia and Snake rivers also provide of inland waterways that are navigable by barges as far east as Lewiston, Idaho.


title: Washington (state)

text: The Cascade Mountain Range also impedes transportation. Washington operates and maintains roads over seven major mountain passes and eight minor passes. During the winter months, some of these passes are plowed, sanded, and kept safe with avalanche control. Not all stay open through the winter. The North Cascades Highway, State Route 20, closes every year due to snowfall and avalanches in the area of Washington Pass. The Cayuse and Chinook passes east of Mount Rainier also close in winter.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is crossed by several freight railroads, and Amtrak's passenger Cascade route between Eugene, Oregon, and Vancouver, BC is the eighth busiest Amtrak service in the U.S. Seattle's King Street Station, the busiest station in Washington, and 15th busiest in the U.S., serves as the terminus for the two long-distance Amtrak routes in Washington, the Empire Builder to Chicago and the Coast Starlight to Los Angeles. The Sounder commuter rail service operates in Seattle and its surrounding cities, between Everett and Lakewood. The intercity network includes the Cascade Tunnel, the longest railroad tunnel in the United States, which is part of the Stevens Pass route on the BNSF Northern Transcom.


title: Washington (state)

text: Sound Transit Link light rail currently operates in the Seattle area at a length of , and in Tacoma at a length of . The entire system has a funded expansion plan that will expand light rail to a total of 116 miles by 2041. Seattle also has a streetcar network with two lines and plans to expand further by 2025. 32 local bus transit systems exist across the state, the busiest being King County Metro, located in Seattle and King County, with just above 122 million riders in 2017. Residents of Vancouver have resisted proposals to extend Portland's mass transit system into Washington.


title: Washington (state)

text: Hanford Nuclear Reservation is currently the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup. The radioactive materials are known to be leaking from Hanford into the environment.


title: Washington (state)

text: In 2007, Washington became the first state in the nation to target all forms of highly toxic brominated flame retardants known as PBDEs for elimination from the many common household products in which they are being used. A 2004 study of 40 mothers from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Montana found PBDEs in the breast milk of every woman tested.


title: Washington (state)

text: Three recent studies by the Washington State Department of Ecology showed toxic chemicals banned decades ago linger in the environment and concentrate in the food chain. In one of the studies, state government scientists found unacceptable levels of toxic substances in 93 samples of freshwater fish from 45 sites. The toxic substances included PCBs, dioxins, two chlorinated pesticides, DDE, dieldrin and PBDEs. As a result of the study, the department will investigate the sources of PCBs in the Wenatchee River, where unhealthy levels of PCBs were found in mountain whitefish. Based on the 2007 information and a previous 2004 Ecology study, the Washington State Department of Health advises the public not to eat mountain whitefish from the Wenatchee River from Leavenworth downstream to where the river joins the Columbia, due to unhealthy levels of PCBs. Study results also showed high levels of contaminants in fish tissue that scientists collected from Lake Washington and the Spokane River, where fish consumption advisories are already in effect.


title: Washington (state)

text: On March 27, 2006, Governor Christine Gregoire signed into law the recently approved House Bill 2322. This bill would limit phosphorus content in dishwashing detergents statewide to 0.5 percent over the next six years. Though the ban would be effective statewide in 2010, it would take place in Whatcom County, Spokane County, and Clark County in 2008. A recent discovery had linked high contents of phosphorus in water to a boom in algae population. An invasive amount of algae in bodies of water would lead to a variety of excess ecological and technological issues.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The current statewide elected officials are:


title: Washington (state)

text: The bicameral Washington State Legislature is the state's legislative branch. The state legislature is composed of a lower House of Representatives and an upper State Senate. The state is divided into 49 legislative districts of equal population, each of which elects two representatives and one senator. Representatives serve two-year terms, while senators serve for four years. There are no term limits. The Democratic Party has a majority in the House and Senate.


title: Washington (state)

text: The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the state. Nine justices serve on the bench and are elected statewide.


title: Washington (state)

text: The two current United States senators from Washington are Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats. Murray has represented the state since 1993, while Cantwell was first elected in 2001. The state is one of four with two female senators.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington's ten representatives in the United States House of Representatives ("see map of districts") as of the 2020 election are Suzan DelBene (D-1), Rick Larsen (D-2), Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-3), Dan Newhouse (R-4), Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5), Derek Kilmer (D-6), Pramila Jayapal (D-7), Kim Schrier (D-8), Adam Smith (D-9), and Marilyn Strickland (D-10).


title: Washington (state)

text: Due to Congressional redistricting as a result of the 2010 Census, Washington gained one seat in the United States House of Representatives. With the extra seat, Washington also gained one electoral vote, raising its total to 12.


title: Washington (state)

text: The state is typically thought of as politically divided by the Cascade Mountains, with Western Washington being liberal (particularly the ) and Eastern Washington being conservative. Washington has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every election since 1988.


title: Washington (state)

text: Although the Eastern half of the state votes heavily Republican, the overwhelming Democratic dominance in the Seattle metropolitan area has turned Washington into a reliably blue state. Michael Dukakis narrowly won Washington in 1988, and Democrats have won the state in every presidential election since, and by safe margins since 2008.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington was considered a key swing state in 1968, and it was the only western state to give its electoral votes to Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey over his Republican opponent Richard Nixon. Washington was considered a part of the 1994 Republican Revolution, and had the biggest pick-up in the house for Republicans, who picked up seven of Washington's nine House seats. However, this dominance did not last for long, as Democrats picked up one seat in the 1996 election, and two more in 1998, giving the Democrats a 5–4 majority.


title: Washington (state)

text: The governorship is held by Democrat Jay Inslee, who was elected to his first term in the 2012 gubernatorial election and, after the 2020 election, became the first incumbent in more than 40 years to be elected for a third term. In 2013 and 2014, both houses of the Washington State Legislature (the Washington Senate and the Washington House of Representatives) were controlled by Democrats. The state senate was under Republican control, due to two Democrats' joining Republicans to form the Majority Coalition Caucus. After the 2014 elections, the Democrats retained control of the House, while Republicans took a majority in the Senate without the need for a coalition. In November 2017, a special election gave Democrats a one-seat majority in the Senate and complete control over state government. Since then, in the 2018 election, the Democrats have only expanded their majorities.


title: Washington (state)

text: No state has gone longer without a Republican governor than Washington. Democrats have controlled the Washington Governor's Mansion for years; the last Republican Governor was John Spellman, who left office in 1985. Washington has not voted for a Republican senator, governor, or presidential candidate since 1994, tying Delaware for the longest streak in the country.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington uses the non-partisan blanket primary system after the approval of Initiative 872 in 2004. All candidates run on the same ballot during primary elections and the top two candidates advance to the general election in November, regardless of party affiliation. This has resulted in several same-party general election match-ups.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington is one of the ten states to have legalized assisted suicide. In 2008 the Washington Death with Dignity Act ballot initiative passed and became law.


title: Washington (state)

text: In November 2009, Washington voters approved full domestic partnerships via Referendum 71, marking the first time voters in any state expanded recognition of same-sex relationships at the ballot box. Three years later, in November 2012, same-sex marriage was affirmed via Referendum 74, making Washington one of only three states to have approved same-sex marriage by popular vote.


title: Washington (state)

text: Also in November 2012, Washington was one of the first two states to approve the legal sale and possession of cannabis for both recreational and medical use with Initiative 502. Although marijuana is still illegal under U.S. federal law, persons 21 and older in Washington state can possess up to one ounce of marijuana, 16 ounces of marijuana-infused product in solid form, 72 ounces of marijuana-infused product in liquid form, or any combination of all three, and can legally consume marijuana and marijuana-infused products.


title: Washington (state)

text: In November 2016, voters approved Initiative 1433, which among other things requires employers to guarantee paid sick leave to most workers. On January 1, 2018, the law went into effect, with Washington becoming the seventh state with paid sick leave requirements.


title: Washington (state)

text: Washington enacted a measure in May 2019 in favor of sanctuary cities, similar to California and Oregon laws which are among the strongest statewide mandates in the nation.


title: Washington (state)

text: In 2019 the legislature passed the Clean Energy Transformation Act, which requires all electricity sales to be from zero-carbon sources by 2045 and net-zero by 2030.


title: Washington (state)

text: As of the 2020–2021 school year, 1,094,330 students were enrolled in elementary and secondary schools in Washington, with 67,841 teachers employed to educate them. As of August 2009, there were 295 school districts in the state, serviced by nine Educational Service Districts. Washington School Information Processing Cooperative (a non-profit opt-in state agency) provides information management systems for fiscal & human resources and student data. Elementary and secondary schools are under the jurisdiction of the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).


title: Washington (state)

text: High school juniors and seniors in Washington have the option of using the state's Running Start program. Begun by the state legislature in 1990, it allows students to attend institutions of higher education at public expense, simultaneously earning high school and college credit.


title: Washington (state)

text: The state also has several public arts-focused high schools including Tacoma School of the Arts, the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics, and The Center School. There are also four Science and Math based high schools: one in the Tri-Cities known as Delta, one in Tacoma known as SAMI, another in Seattle known as Raisbeck Aviation High School, and one in Redmond known as Tesla STEM High School.


title: Washington (state)

text: There are more than 40 institutions of higher education in Washington. The state has major research universities, technical schools, religious schools, and private career colleges. Colleges and universities include the University of Washington, Seattle University, Washington State University, Western Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, Seattle Pacific University, Saint Martin's University, Pacific Lutheran University, Gonzaga University, University of Puget Sound, The Evergreen State College, Whitman College, and Walla Walla University.


title: Washington (state)

text: The top two health insurers as of 2017 were Premera Blue Cross, with 24 percent market share, followed by Kaiser Permanente at 21 percent. For the individual market, Molina Healthcare had the top share at 23%.


title: Washington (state)

text: The state adopted the Washington Healthplanfinder system in 2014 after the passage of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (also known as "ObamaCare").


title: Washington (state)

text: The state of Washington reformed its health care system in 1993 through the Washington Health Services Act. The legislation required individuals to obtain health insurance or face penalties, and required employers to provide insurance to employees. In addition, health insurance companies were required to sell policies to all individuals, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and cover basic benefits. The act was mostly repealed in 1995 before it could go into full effect.


title: Washington (state)

text: Hospitals exist across the state, but many of Washington's best-known medical facilities are located in and around Seattle. The Seattle–Tacoma area has six major hospitals: Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle Children’s, Swedish Medical Center, MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, and St. Joseph Medical Center. The Seattle-area hospitals are concentrated on First Hill, which is home to Virginia Mason Medical Center (the neighborhood has received the nickname "Pill Hill" owing to the high concentration of healthcare facilities).


title: Washington (state)

text: Pickleball, a racquet sport invented on Bainbridge Island in 1965, was designated as Washington's official state sport in 2022. For two years in a row, 2021 and 2022, the sport was named the fastest growing sport in the United States by the Sports and Fitness Industry Association (SFIA).


title: Washington (state)

text: The Seattle Open Invitational golf tournament was part of the PGA Tour from the 1930s to the 1960s. The GTE Northwest Classic was part of the Senior PGA Tour from 1986 to 1995, and the Boeing Classic since 2005. In addition, the 2015 U.S. Open was held at Chambers Bay, and several major tournaments were held at Sahalee Country Club.


title: Washington (state)

text: Pacific Raceways is a motorsports venue that has hosted the Northwest Nationals of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and a round of the Trans-Am Series.


title: Washington (state)

text: Four ships of the United States Navy, including two battleships, have been named USS "Washington" in honor of the state. Previous ships had held that name in honor of George Washington.