The James Beard Awards are the Oscars of the food world, and Seattle has two nominations,

which means reservation wait lists are ahead. It's truly one battle after another. I'm Brandy Fulwood,

host of Seattle Eats. On the latest episode, Seattle Times Food Critic Tonvin and I break down the results

and help you nominate your next dinner.

Listen to Seattle Eats on the KUOW app or wherever you get your podcast.

Good afternoon. And really, it's a great afternoon if you can get outside.

It truly feels like spring out there.

From the KUOW Newsroom, this is Seattle now.

I'm Paige Browning with a roundup of today's top stories.

It's Monday, April 6th.

Starting with a very sad wildlife story, a gray whale that has been swimming up a southwest Washington River has died.

The juvenile whale had swum around 20 miles up the Willa River and appeared extremely thin.

Researchers found it dead Saturday in shallow water.

Before that, two adult gray whales were recently found dead at Ocean Shores, Washington.

John Calamboquitos of the Cascadia Research Collective says it's part of a larger decline in gray whale populations.

They're down to their lowest levels in 50 years.

This isn't just this boom-bust cycle we've seen before.

This looks like something more prolonged, more extended, something much more troubling.

Scientists will be performing an examination of the whales.

Over in tax debate world, Washington's Supreme Court will take up a constitutional challenge

to a portion of the state's new income tax on high earners.

State government reporter Sarah Mises Tan has more.

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