Washington

Dog treats made by Aloha students available at Washington County K9 Trials

Published

2 years ago

May 17, 2024

Dog treats made by Aloha students available at Washington County K9 Trials

WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ore. (KPTV) – The 17th annual Washington County K9 Trials will be held this Saturday. Along with the free competition will be a community fair where you can pick up some free doggie treats made by a group of local kids.

Sergeant Eamon O’Reilly is with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. He’s a patrol supervisor and along with his K9 partner Radar is part of the Tactical Negotiations team, where most interactions with the public are far from easy.

“We do help people, but we interact with people on their worst day,” Sgt. O’Reilly said.

But the law enforcement duo is probably best known for their Instagram page “Deputy Dog Radar,” where the two share treats, both for humans and for dogs.

They have a worldwide following, including Aloha High School’s Structure Routine Center. So instructors invited the pair to come visit their class and sample their homemade treats called “Doggie Dots.”

“It was just really neat to me to see the passion the kids had for making the dog treats and how much fun they had sharing with me,” Sgt. O’Reilly said.

Rourke Lowe teaches the class of about 11 special education students.

“My job is to work on all of the academic basics but we also do things like life skills and community living and out of those class periods became an idea for dog treats,” Lowe said.

For about a year now, the kids take three simple ingredients for each batch. They make their own oat flour and peanut butter, then add either banana or pumpkin. They shape them, bake them, then package and sell them – mostly to school staff.

It’s not a money-making business, but the program needs money to continue and to start other programs that give the students opportunities to learn and be included.

“That if we give them those skills and give them those opportunities here and we’re able to work on them and fine tune them that might be a better step or a good next step for them outside,” Lowe said.

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Soon, Multnomah County will be the first Oregon county to implement a program changing the way domestic violence survivors are treated by the justice system.

The program really spoke to Sgt. O’Reilly who posted about the treats on Instagram and put a link to the Beaverton Education Foundation fundraising campaign in his bio. He says he loves being a part of helping these students be successful.

“I just thought, I have this opportunity to help them and the people who are fans of Radar are wonderful people,” he said. “They have shown generosity in the past and I thought they will also love this idea.”

And his fans do love it. The fundraiser has more than doubled its original goal so the class can not only continue to make the doggie treats but they also plan to buy and operate a coffee cart.

If you would like to donate, click here.

The instructor Mr. Lowe will be at the K9 Trials at the Hillsboro Stadium on Saturday with 100 bags of Doggie Dots to give away for free, along with recipe cards. Sgt. O’Reilly and K9 Radar will also be there.

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.

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Washington

Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.

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Washington

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.

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