Spokane’s interim police chief will leave the department
As Spokane welcomes a new permanent police chief, the department’s acting chief is getting ready to depart.
Spokane Police spokeswoman Julie Humphreys confirmed Wednesday that Acting Chief Justin Lundgren will leave the department at the beginning of August.
In a statement, Lundgren said he knew that his appointment to lead the police force would be a temporary one, and that he chose not to apply for the role permanently.
Lundgren succeeded former police chief Craig Meidl, who left office at the end of former mayor Nadine Woodward’s term last year.
Lundgren said he was offered a position in the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, working with Sheriff John Nowels.
Thursday morning, Mayor Lisa Brown’s office announced Kevin Hall was selected as the city’s next permanent police chief. Hall, the assistant chief of police in Tucson, Arizona, was selected from among four finalists. Hall is expected to start work in early September.
Idaho election initiative qualifies for the November ballot
A ballot initiative that seeks to reshape Idaho elections will go before the state’s voters this fall.
The initiative seeks two changes: one would open the state’s primary elections to all voters, instead of being limited based on party affiliation. The second would institute ranked choice voting for general elections, in which voters would select candidates and rank them according to preference.
The Idaho Secretary of State’s office confirmed Idahoans for Open Primaries collected more than the required number of verified signatures. About 63,000 signatures were required, and a minimum percentage had to come from at least eighteen of the state’s legislative districts.
The initiative’s backers say the changes would broaden participation in Idaho elections and make elected officials more representative of a wider group of voters.
Opponents worry it could jeopardize the conservative grip on state and local government. Idaho lawmakers have attempted in the past two sessions to ban ranked choice voting by law. Last month, delegates to the state GOP convention in Coeur d’Alene wrote opposition to ranked-choice voting into the party’s platform document.
To become law, the initiative requires a simple majority of support from Idaho voters.
Idaho hands out grants to improve wastewater treatment
Last year, the state of Idaho announced it would distribute $115 million to improve wastewater treatment around the state. Some of that will be spent for a new facility on the north shore of Lake Pend Oreille.
In 2002, the state of Idaho and the Kootenai-Ponderay Sewer District put limits on the amount of phosphorus to be discharged into the scenic north Idaho lake. The goal was to keep it healthy for people and wildlife.
Since the 1970s, the district has used a lagoon system to filter out undesirable nutrients. But the system needs to be upgraded.
“Because the district’s existing treatment plant can’t remove nitrogen or phosphorus, they have to build a new, higher-end, more advanced treatment plant to do that,” said Brett Converse, a senior wastewater engineer at JUB Engineers, which is working with the district to design a new plant. It will be located near the town of Kootenai.
The state is chipping in nearly $14 million. Converse says the district has also secured a nearly nine million dollar government loan and is looking for other funding. He says the projected cost has risen from $22 million when it was first conceived six years ago to $32 million today.
Construction is scheduled to begin in late spring or summer 2026. The plant is projected to go online by fall 2027.
The state has also awarded grants to two other north Idaho projects for wastewater projects.
Plummer — in Benewah County — will receive $3 million to build a storage lagoon and land application system at its wastewater treatment plant. Troy — in Latah County — will collect about $6.3 million for wastewater system improvements. That will include closed caption TV inspections, replacing and rehabilitating manholes and pipes, and developing a land application system.
Burn ban issued for WA state-managed lands
A protracted heat wave and dry weather prompted the Washington Department of Natural Resources to issue a burn ban for state-managed lands.
The ban, effective Wednesday, includes campfires, prescribed burns, use of grilling charcoal and any outdoor burning.
Sixty-five fires have broken out on DNR land this month alone, according to the agency’s wildfire information dashboard. Most have been small. June saw 116 fires on DNR land, burning nearly 17 square miles.
The burn ban is set to expire at the end of September, though that date could be adjusted based on conditions.
Clarkston unhoused allowed to remain in local park — for now
Unhoused residents in Clarkston, Washington are likely to continue camping at a local park despite a recent U-S Supreme Court ruling that allows cities to enforce civil or criminal penalties on unhoused people who sleep in public spaces.
It’s a relief for some, and an irritation for others; unhoused residents living in Clarkston will, for now, be allowed to continue to sleep overnight at a city park following the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass v. Johnson decision.
John Wolff is the lawyer representing unhoused residents in a lawsuit against the city of Clarkston.
He says the Grants Pass decision, which allows cities to punish unhoused people for sleeping in public spaces, addresses one of the claims in his clients’ lawsuit. But several more remain untested.
"All the other claims remain and we intend to pursue them to the fullest extent of the law,” Wolff said.
Those claims include a Washington constitutional right against cruel punishment; deprivation of due process guaranteed by federal and state constitutions; and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
It also includes a state and constitutional right to travel, which plaintiffs argue also includes a right not to travel, or, to stay where they live.
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Reporting was contributed by Brandon Hollingsworth, Doug Nadvornick and Rachel Sun.