RANGE Media

This week in municipal meetings! State PFAS filter funding may be coming soon. Plus, spending to keep unhoused people sheltered in bad weather and a potential new land bank. All the deets on all that + more:

A dozen school & rural fire districts have proposed levies on the ballot to replace expiring local taxes that pay for key services or to fund maintenance on public facilities across Spokane County. We broke them down & how much they'll cost for the average homeowner.

Now in her second campaign against Baumgartner after losing the open race to replace former Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers in 2024, Conroy said the region has weathered many new challenges under the Trump administration’s domestic and foreign policy.

Comma board leadership told union members that Curley would oversee the philanthropic side of the business and keep a seat on the board.

Initially, two-term state Rep. Suzanne Schmidt (R-Spokane Valley) faced an uncontested race to take over the open commission seat. That is, until Rachelle Miller, who is running on an anti-data center platform, filed as a write-in candidate in June.

In this week's CIVICS: Ready, set, vote! Ballots are out and our Elections page is live! Also, the BOCC is set to adopt a new pause on permitting for new data centers that would last until June 1, 2027, over 5 months longer than its original pause, set to expired Dec. 15.

RANGE asked 4 local teenagers how they feel about the Parent’s Bill of Rights ballot measure: Privacy, parental rights and teen safety on the ballot in November as Let’s Go WA measure seeks to change parental rights in the state

Today's the day! Join us at 6 PM at Pacific Avenue Pizza for PolitiCrawl. We'll take the City Line to JADE and hop on the bus to round out the night at Community Pint. Plan to spend about 1.5 hours at each bar. Get Tickets: https://bit.ly/4juXnFJ

Starting in 2029, the Millionaires Tax would tax Washington households at 9.9% on any income they make over $1 million. But chances are you’re safe — even if you have a million dollars squirreled away in the bank. Learn more about the measure on your ballot:

Privacy, parental rights and teen safety on the ballot in November as Let’s Go WA measure seeks to change parental rights in the state. Here's what 4 local teens have to say about the Parent’s Bill of Rights ballot measure. www.rangemedia.co/pa...

Want to learn to use the PDC - one of Washington reporters’ favorite tool for public accountability - to research your candidates like a journalist? Learn how: www.rangemedia.co/pdc-how-to-u...

Get your tickets for the 3rd annual PolitiCrawl (a politics-themed pub crawl). We'll start at Pacific Avenue Pizza at 6 PM and take the City Line to JADE and then Community Pint. Meet your reps, candidates, and other locals interested in Spokane's politics.

In the texts, which were added to court records as part of discovery in the Musselman family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the Spokane Police Department, the officers were trying to figure out how they would justify their presence at the scene.

ProPublica has been reporting for months on the Trump administration’s regulations on mail-in voting, gather state voter data and investigate voter eligibility ahead of the elections. They spoke with experts to answer questions about voting by mail. Read their story at RANGE.

Before the primaries, we asked candidates running for local office a series of questions and some of them even answered. We cleaned up the clutter and pared down our questionnaires to just the candidates who survived in the primaries. See them all here:

CIVICS: Spokane City Council voting on new 0.1% public safety sales tax Wednesday. Multiple municipalities are setting their lobbying agendas for 2027. Plus, PolitiCrawl is this Friday, and you should be there!

This week in CIVICS: Spokane County is realizing that a good data center zoning policy is going to take more than four months to develop and will consider extending it until June 2027. Read about that and everything else going on at public meetings this week here:

After we published an article on the rising number of guest writers for the Spokesman-Review using AI to write their columns, the paper issued an official policy: No more AI writing on the opinions page.

If the disaster declaration is approved, fire victims will be able to apply for up to $42,500 from FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program. Over the past 5 years, the president has taken an average of 43 days to approve a request for aid from WA, according to a RANGE analysis.

Update on today's community bike ride: Our fearless bike leader has food poisoning and will be unable to take us on our community bike ride! We hope to be able to reschedule it soon. www.rangemedia.co/spokane-week...

For years, the Spokesman-Review staff have raised concerns about editor Rob Curley's leadership, culminating in his suspension in August. @wilsonc.bsky.social and @bydaisy.bsky.social @rangemedia.co report on how Curley lost the faith of his newsroom: www.investigatewest.org/rob-curley-s...

The messages in which officers Daniel Valencia and Matthew Stewart strategized their reports were part of a longer string of texts that started one hour and 14 minutes after they’d killed Joshua Musselman from more than 100 feet away as he was fleeing into his apartment.

Mark your calendars for Friday, October 16 for our 3rd annual PolitiCrawl (yes, a politics-themed pub crawl)! Connect with elected leaders & candidates to learn more about upcoming policies that might impact you. RSVP for ticket info here: https://bit.ly/4juXnFJ