Daniel Walters, InvestigateWest

In both cases, politicians take a larger role in handpicking reporters

As Trump administration seeks tips on migrants, some have turned tip line into a weapon, and Rep. Stephanie Mickelsen (R-Idaho Falls) became the target of such a weapon by Ryan Spoon, Ada County Republican vice chair.

An investigation into Spokane Valley City Councilman Al Merkel resulted in the entire record of the inquest being published online. Now the fight has shifted to the state Capitol in Olympia. City staffers asked their local state representative, Republican Rob Chase, to push legislation to further shroud the identities of accusers and witnesses.

Political pressure, loss of access to data from social media sites have made it harder to study how falsehoods spread for UW's Center for an Informed Public.

New barrier highlights difficulty of Washington’s law limiting use of public records for commercial purposes

The coalition of conservative legislators has fractured — and its brand is heading for a custody battle.

GOP resolution fuels concerns about threats to democracy; state party leader dismisses criticisms as “hair-on-fire rhetoric”

A few of the stories we stumbled across while testing the Pacific Northwest’s records’ systems

We asked for government records from 15 Northwest cities, and Spokane was the slowest to provide them