EWU researchers near end of racial covenants search
Spokane residents will soon be able to see a map of every racial property covenant that was filed in the county.
Since 2022, researchers at Eastern Washington University have been combing through records to find deeds and plat maps that contain the now-unenforceable restrictions that largely prevented Black Americans from buying or living on certain properties.
It’s hard work to dig through book after book for something you’re not sure you want to find, Project Director Tara Kelly said.
“There's those moments where we find a racially restrictive covenant. And on the one hand, you want to celebrate: ‘We're doing this research and we found something, this really backs up our research process and our efforts,’" she told SPR News. "And then at the same time, you think, ‘Oh… I found one.’”
She said her team is preparing to roll out maps of all of the counties in eastern Washington in the coming months. They also plan to host workshops to teach residents how to use the maps and next steps they can take if they find a covenant on their property.
History Professor Larry Cebula is the managing director of the project, and he said some of what they encountered might surprise people.
“You'll hear people say, ‘Well, that was just standard operating procedure back then.’ It was not," he said. "It was the minority of documents created by people who were racist to maintain white supremacy. But they are out there.”
Kelly, Cebula and the researchers at Eastern were tasked with finding the covenants in the state’s eastern 20 counties, while a team at the University of Washington tackled the west side of the state.
WA officials honor soldiers still unaccounted for
Washington’s Department of Veterans Affairs and others remembered prisoners of war and service members who are missing in action with a ceremony Friday in Olympia.
Advocates said 2024 has been a fruitful year for identifying those still unaccounted for. Forensics experts confirmed bone fragments found on a hilltop in Laos in 2023 were those of Air Force Sergeant David Price from southwest Washington.
He was one of 11 men killed when North Vietnamese forces attacked a top secret CIA site in 1968.
A second Washingtonian may also have died there. Rick Holland from the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Puyallup told those gathered today that he learned a bone fragment recovered there has been confirmed to have belonged to his father, Technical Sergeant Melvin Holland.
The younger Holland said he expects to join an expedition to Laos early next year to find more remains.
“My family has fought for 57 years. We have not given up. We will not give up," he said during the ceremony. "It is my life’s mission to bring my father and the other seven remaining men from that site home.”
National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, an organization that represents families of prisoners of war and those missing in action, reports 36 Washingtonians and eight Idahoans are still unaccounted for.
Cantwell looks for a faster way to track fentanyl overdoses
Washington U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell is co-sponsoring a bill designed to help state and local governments and health agencies more quickly and accurately track fentanyl overdoses.
Cantwell has joined with Republicans Chuck Grassley and John Cornyn and Democrat Amy Klobuchar to require the Department of Justice to provide grants to encourage agencies to collect overdose data. Their goal is to have real-time data available that allows public health agencies to see which areas are having trouble and where help is needed.
The senators say they want to expand a web-based reporting platform developed in the Washington D.C./Baltimore area seven years ago. They say other local and state governments and agencies around the nation are using it to map their own overdoses, including some in Washington.
City officials ask state not to ship Hanford waste through Spokane
At tonight’s meeting, the Spokane City Council will consider their own response to state agencies that have proposed moving nuclear waste through Spokane.
Last week, Mayor Lisa Brown sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and State of Washington asking them to reconsider the route of waste from the Hanford Nuclear Site.
Originally, the hazardous waste from the decommissioned Hanford Nuclear Site was set to be transported through Oregon, but after the state and the Umatilla Indian Tribes expressed their concern, the shipments were rerouted.
In her letter, Brown said that because both truck and rail traffic must pass through the heart of downtown, the plan poses a “unconscionable risk” to Spokane and its residents.
She also pointed out that no Environmental Impact Statement had been made for the new plan to route the waste through Spokane.
Councilmember Zack Zappone is now sponsoring a resolution asking for more public comment and local engagement before the transportation plan is finalized.
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Reporting contributed by Owen Henderson, Doug Nadvornick.