Hall pledges open mind as his term as Spokane police chief begins

Spokane Police Chief Kevin Hall has already been hearing ideas from the community, and is prepared to hear more, he said in his first remarks as the city’s law enforcement leader.
Speaking to reporters and a crowd after being sworn in by Mayor Lisa Brown, Hall praised the police department and said he could “bring a different lens” to solving complex problems, including homelessness and substance abuse.
“Nobody has cracked this nut yet when it comes to [the] unsheltered and the fentanyl epidemic, so we're going to need a little bit of latitude and time to figure this out with the community,” Hall said. “Believe me, I'm already hearing about it. Before I even came up here, I was hearing about it from the community and there's a lot of ideas out there.”
Hall, a veteran of the Tucson Police Department, said the issues Spokane faces are common to many Western cities. He credited his former supervisors for allowing him to develop innovative programs and adjust them as conditions change.
“I made some mistakes. I hope to not make some of those mistakes here, when it comes to dealing with different vulnerable populations,” Hall said. “I will certainly bring forward my philosophy of lifelong learning and intellectual humility.”
Hall succeeds former Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl, who left at the end of former mayor Nadine Woodward’s term in December 2023.
Election workers begin recounting votes in Washington state race

Elections workers around Washington have begun the hand recount of nearly two million ballots. That will determine whether Democrat Dave Upthegrove or Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson will continue as a candidate for the office of state Lands Commissioner.
Upthegrove leads by only 51 votes. State law requires a recount when it’s that close.
In Spokane County, elections workers enter their second day of slogging through about 145,000 ballots.
“We’re recounting all seven candidates, plus the undervote, the overvote and the write-ins. And then we’re comparing that to what the machine count was for the election, what was certified. If there’s a difference, then we have to dig down into that batch and see if we can identify why there’s a difference," said Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton.
Dalton estimates, if all goes well, the recount will take four full days. It’s an extra task in an already busy election schedule for her office.
“At this moment we are also designing the ballot for the general election," she said. "Of course we don’t know whose name is going to go in that spot for Commissioner of Public Lands, but as far as designing the ballot, knowing what the layout’s going to look like, we’re already working on that and so all we’re going to need is just the name in that spot.”
She says her office needs to have the ballot finalized for printing a few days after Labor Day, so there’s some urgency to get the recount done.
Legal challenge to Kroger-Albertsons merger gets day in court
A trial over the proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons is underway in Portland.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) joined some of her congressional colleagues when she signed on to an amicus brief opposing the proposed merger. The Federal Trade Commission brought the lawsuit.
Critics of the plan say it could lead to a monopoly. Kroger and Albertsons say if the merger goes through, more than 500 of their stores would be sold to a wholesale grocer – including more than 100 in Washington.
Cantwell says the company, C&S Wholesale Grocers, isn’t positioned to run pharmacies in the stores.
“I don't want to have a merger where they sell to an organization that is practically assuring us that there will be no pharmacies in these grocery stores,” Cantwell said.
In an emailed statement, an Albertsons spokesperson wrote, “We are disappointed that the [Federal Trade Commission] continues to use the same outdated view of the U.S. grocery industry it used 20 years ago.”
Nothing has been decided about the merger, including what would happen to workers. The companies involved have said they’ll honor union contracts and won’t close stores.
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Reporting contributed by Brandon Hollingsworth, Doug Nadvornick, and Lauren Gallup.