Mule deer in tall grasses and forbs, Iwetemlaykin Heritage Site, Wallowa Valley, Oregon. (Credit: Leon Werdinger / Alamy Stock Photo) watch Listen (Runtime 0:59) Read A fatal disease for deer […]Read More
Workers remove trees impacted by the Gray Fire near Interstate 90. (Courtesy: Washington State Department of Transportation) Read By: Rebecca White / Spokane Public Radio Update: Interstate 90 has re-opened. Washington […]Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday said all of the state’s counties will remain in their current phase of the state’s economic reopening plan and won’t face more restrictions because new COVID cases are levelling off after a recent spike.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to soon roll back the economic reopening of more counties because of rising coronavirus cases. Reverting to Phase 2 would force businesses, museums and churches to reduce indoor capacity.Read More
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday that counties now must fail in two metrics to be moved back a phase in their reopening. The governor says the state won't act unless counties have both a high hospitalization and case rate.Read More
Lori Freeman calls the loss of top public health officers across the country “steady and alarming.” Freeman heads the National Association of County and City Health Officials. More than 70 have been fired, left or plan to leave their posts since the pandemic began in the U.S. In fact, so many are leaving, she’s keeping a spreadsheet.Read More
The Spokane County health board has fired Health Officer Bob Lutz, the man who has been the face of the county’s battle against the coronavirus since March. The eight-to-four vote came after a four-hour proceeding, during which Adminstrative Officer Amelia Clark listed a detailed list of actions that she says warranted Lutz’s removal.Read More
The Spokane Regional Health District's administrative officer has reportedly asked Health Officer Bob Lutz to resign. Amelia Clark addressed reporters during a press conference Friday morning.Read More
The move by the USPS prompted a scramble by county auditors who run elections in their counties and the Washington Secretary of State’s office, which oversees elections statewide, to put out public messages to clarify the process. Read More
Organizers for this Sunday’s rally say they are waiting to announce a location because of threats. Read More
As the coronavirus pandemic continues across the world, local health officials in Washington are beginning to employ a power given to them by state law that allows to keep contagious people in quarantine.Read More
“I couldn’t be happier with the timing of all of this," Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward said Friday morning during a news conference. "Spokane County is the biggest community in the state to now move forward. So thank you for being Inland Strong."Read More
Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday said that 10 additional counties are eligible to apply to loosen some social distancing restrictions in place to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.Read More
Given the opportunity to accelerate the restart of shuttered businesses and social activities, six counties in central and eastern Washington wasted no time this week in submitting the necessary paperwork to the state government. Kittitas, Garfield, Columbia, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille County officials hope to hear an answer back from the Washington State Secretary of Read More
Construction industry advocates are asking Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to allow more home building to continue under his “stay home, stay healthy” order meant to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.Read More
The year was 1918 – the last time a pandemic reached Spokane. A century has passed, and the Inland Northwest and the world are once again contending with quarantine and the powerful role public health officials can play in times of outbreak.Read More
The patients were transferred from Travis Air Force Base in California and are part of repatriation efforts, meaning they contracted the virus outside of the country. Bob Lutz, health officer for the Spokane Regional Health District, says their arrival shouldn’t worry the city’s residents.Read More
In other words, jail deaths are a local matter. It’s up to the jail director, the sheriff or other county officials to decide how an in-custody death should be investigated. The state has no role and no oversight of that investigation. The result is jail death investigations have no guarantee of independence, oversight or necessarily accountability.Read More
Between 2008 and 2018, more than 300 people died after being taken to a county jail in Washington or Oregon, according to an investigation earlier this year by OPB, KUOW and the Northwest News Network. Nearly half died by suicide.Read More
After 57 days, a Washington woman's exhaustive search for her missing border collie ended in tears of happiness when the pair were reunited in a Kalispell subdivision. Carole King, of Deer Park, north of Spokane, had traveled to Flathead County for a four-day getaway with her husband when the unthinkable happened.Read More
Health officials have confirmed two more cases of vaping-related lung disease in Washington state. It is now considered a state-wide outbreak, since the amount of cases is above historic levels.Read More
It’s been more than a year since the state Department of Social and Health Services took the unprecedented step of shutting down a major in-home care provider for developmentally disabled adults. Now, 16 months after the provider’s sister company, Aacres Washington, took over care of many of those vulnerable adults, the cycle is repeating itself.Read More
A 17-year-old male accused of shooting and killing a fellow classmate at Freeman High School south of Spokane in September 2017 will stand trial as an adult. Read More
Pullman Police say they defused a possible explosive device Sunday morning. It follows the discovery and disposal of a similar incident in Moscow, Idaho last week.Read More
