Election notes for Washington
The recount will begin today to determine the second candidate in the race for Washington Lands Commissioner.
Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler is advancing to the November election. The question is which candidate will challenge her. Democrat Dave Upthegrove holds the second position, but Republican Sue Kiehl [keel] Pederson is only a few votes behind. The race is so close that it falls within the state’s mandatory recount threshold.
Elections workers in each of the state’s 39 counties will recount the ballots by hand. Here in Spokane County, Auditor Vicky Dalton estimates that will take up to five days. The results will be reported to the Secretary of State’s office. It is the only race that will be recounted in Spokane County.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of State’s office has certified the candidates and initiatives that will appear on the November ballot.
They include measures that would overturn the state’s Capital Gains Tax and its Carbon Cap and Investment Program. A third initiative would allow people to opt out of the state’s Long-Term Care program, which is funded by payroll deductions. The fourth would stop local and state governments from banning the use of natural gas for new construction and require utilities to provide natural gas to people who want it.
Spokane’s new police chief to be sworn in today
Kevin Hall will take the oath of office during a noon hour ceremony in the Tribal Gathering Place. Hall will then say a few words, as will Mayor Lisa Brown. He’ll also take a few questions from reporters.
Hall comes to Spokane from Tucson, Arizona, where he worked his way through the ranks to become assistant chief. He replaces Justin Lundgren, the former interim chief who has since moved on to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
ID tries new wolf population counter
Idaho Fish and Game is using a new method to determine the state's wolf population.
The latest technique for the wolf count employs a genetics-based method.
A tooth is taken from all wolves harvested through hunting and trapping.
Roger Phillips with the Fish and Game Department said those teeth can provide specific information on the actual population.
“What the minimum number of litters that are produced every year, and then we can track the lineage of those litters, and then from there we have known quantity," he said. "And then essentially we can go through computer modeling.”
The predicted population numbers seem to check out when compared to camera-based estimates, said Phillips.
The camera method has been used for several years.
However, Phillips said a recent decline in wolf populations means fewer wolves are showing up in the camera method, and now the accuracy is in doubt.
The latest estimated wolf population for the summer of 2023 was 1150.
This is believed to be near the high end of the yearly population, which is estimated to decline by almost half by the time the hunting and trapping season is over by late fall.
Northwest poets win grants to promote writing
Three Northwest poet laureates are receiving $50,000 grants to help them bring their works to new and larger audiences.
The three writers from Washington and Idaho are among 22 recipients of poet laureate fellowships from the Academy of American Poets.
They include Idaho’s Writer in Residence, Kerri Webster from Boise. She proposes to use her stipend to tour the state and celebrate writing of all kinds, “promoting poetry, promoting literature, promoting reading and passionately promoting libraries and librarians and the work that they do.”
Webster says she will conduct 10 workshops over the next year in small towns and cities, including Lewiston. Some of those will be directed toward high school students.
“They just seem to have a passion for poetry, for the reading of it and for the writing of it. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that poetry is very much a way of formulating and articulating the self and, with high school students, that is what they are all about," she said.
Washngton’s poet laureate, Arianne True from Tacoma, and the laureate of the city of Redmond, Ching-In Chen, were also named poetry fellows and awarded $50,000 grants.
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Reporting was contributed by Steve Jackson and Doug Nadvornick.