Spokane athletes qualify for Summer Paralympic Games
Three Spokane athletes, all women, have earned the right to compete in the Paralympic Games in Paris next month.
David Greig, the track and field coach for ParaSport Spokane, their sponsoring organization, says 31-year-old sprinter Taylor Swanson will participate in three events in Paris, the 100 and 200-meter dashes and an event called a universal relay, in which four participants run 100 meters. He says Swanson will benefit from an earlier experience this year when she won two silver medals at a world championship meet in Japan.
Lindi Marcusen, who is 28, is also a sprinter. Greig says Marcusen became the first woman who is an amputee above the knee to run 100 meters in less than 15 seconds. She’s qualified in that race and also as a long jumper.
The third qualifier is 17-year-old Lauren Fields, a wheelchair racer who will compete next fall at the University of Illinois. Fields qualified in the 100 and 800 meters. Greig says it’s first international meet.
Greig says four other newly-qualified Paralympians have past ties to ParaSport Spokane. They include Susannah Scaroni, the reigning Paralympics gold medalist in the five thousand meter wheel chair race. She’s a Tekoa native who is a seven-time Bloomsday champion and 2023 Boston Marathon champion. This will be her fourth Summer Paralympic Games.
Hannah Dederick from Mead is a wheelchair racer who won this year’s Bloomsday competition. It will be her second Paralympics. The other two are Jaleen Roberts and Annie Carey, both sprinters and long jumpers.
The Paralympics will run from August 28-September 8 in Paris.
Two Colville Reservation fires still uncontained
A 5,500-acre fire burning in south Ferry County is still zero percent contained, according to fire officials.
The Swawilla Fire started on Wednesday night due to a lightning strike.
It’s now caused Level Three evacuations for the entire Swawilla Basin, less than 10 miles south of Keller.
Elsewhere on the Colville Reservation, the Bridge Creek Fire has already burned about 1,100 acres and is also still zero percent contained.
Level Two evacuations are in place for residences the SanPoil Road (Old River Road), between Bridge Creek Road to 30 Miles Road.
Combined with recent heat, the risk of fire weather is predicted to be at its worst on today and tomorrow as wind speeds pick up.
Bennett-Walcott drops out of 5th District primary
The race for Washington’s 5th congressional seat is one person smaller.
Democratic candidate Bobbi Bennett-Walcott announced this weekend that she was suspending her campaign for the seat currently held by outgoing representative Cathy McMorris-Rogers.
That leaves 10 people still in the race — three Democrats and seven Republicans.
In the statement announcing her withdrawal, Bennett-Walcott also endorsed fellow Democrat and women’s health practitioner Bernadine Bank.
WA economic forecast calls for 'healthy' growth
A panel of Washington economic specialists says the rest of this year will be characterized by slow, steady growth.
Slow growth is the natural next step after the rapid recovery seen in the wake of the pandemic recession. The state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council predicts the state’s GDP – the value of goods and services produced in Washington – will continue to tick up for the rest of 2024.
“If you had to pick sort of one numeric indicator of what an economy is doing, that’s probably the best one,” Dave Reich, the council's executive director, said.
“Growth over time is about rising living standards," he told SPR News. "As GDP goes up, there’s more goods and service available for everyone.
"Not to say they’re equally spread out of anything like that, but generally, on average.”
Reich says GDP growth rates on the order of one- to two- percent are the new norm. While that’s lower than rates the country enjoyed in latter half of the 20th century, Reich says it’s still healthy growth – and growth is what you’re looking for. You don’t want the economy to contract. That’s called a recession.
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Stories contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Owen Henderson, and Brandon Hollingsworth.