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Today's Headlines: October 7, 2024

Secretaries of State work to reassure voters about ballot security

The Secretaries of State in Washington and Idaho are sharpening their focus on the election that is four weeks away.

Last week, Washington’s Steve Hobbs participated in a conference on cybersecurity at Gonzaga. Later, he talked about keeping ballots secure in an interview with Spokane Public Radio.

“My focus is trying to get ahead of any nation-state actor that tries to launch a cyberattack or a disinformation campaign, trying to lower the number of folks that feel that the integrity of elections are at risk," he said.

Hobbs says three Washington counties have had their websites disabled by ransomware attacks during the last year and a half. Clark and Cowlitz are two of them.

He says he’s had success in convincing election officials in Ferry and Grant counties to install specific technology, called an Albert sensor, that he says detects outside attacks. Only Lincoln County has refused to adopt his recommendation.

Hobbs' office says it has distributed about $2 million to county elections offices to help them improve security.

Two weeks ago, Phil McGrane held a press event on the steps on the Statehouse in Boise to sign a letter to voters, assuring Idahoans that the election would be easy to participate in, secure and accurate. The state’s 44 county elections officials also signed the pledge.

Friday tour highlights manufacturing in Spokane

The Association of Washington Business brought its annual Manufacturing Week bus tour to Spokane on Friday.

Spokane Community College student Cadence Haskins leads a demonstration in the hydraulics lab at SCC. The audience included  AWB members and students from East Valley High School. AWB visited on national Manufacturing Day — Friday, Oct. 4, during the third day of the organization's annual Manufacturing Week bus tour.
Photo by Brian Mittge/Association of Washington Business
Spokane Community College student Cadence Haskins leads a demonstration in the hydraulics lab at SCC. The audience included AWB members and students from East Valley High School. AWB visited on national Manufacturing Day — Friday, during the third day of the organization's annual Manufacturing Week bus tour.

The event showcases some of the area’s successful manufacturing facilities for elected officials and business owners from around the state. It was also a chance to give more than a dozen East Valley High School students a glimpse at future career opportunities.

They stopped briefly at Spokane Community College, where they were greeted by Cadence Haskins. She endorsed the college’s two-year robotics and mechatronics program, from which she’ll graduate at the end of the year.

“I didn’t want to dedicate four years of getting a degree before I join the workforce. I wanted to join the workforce as fast as I could with the education that I needed to do just that and that’s how I got introduced to the trades," she sasid.

Hawkins says she’s on track to graduate at the end of the year and expects to land a good job when she does.

“I was very, very lucky to come across this program," she said. "Now I’m using this time to make sure that other students know that this is a great opportunity for a student who’s mechanically inclined, they want to be challenged and they want to work with their hands, but they also want a good-paying job as soon as they graduate," she said.

She says she’s part of a cohort of about 10 students, some of whom have already received job offers.

WA law aims to get local fire crews help faster

A new law makes the process for local fire agencies to get air support for wildfires easier to navigate.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources and some local fire departments say it was a success this year.

Brian Brett is the fire chief of the Wenatchee Valley Fire Department. Every year, he says they have significant fires that have to bring in state resources.

“We had multiple incidents that historically would have consumed those resources, but we were able to hold it on our own,” Brett said.

Brett says with the support of state aircraft, local crews kept a lot of fires under control.

Getting a quick, initial attack can keep wildfires from getting big. DNR says the state was able to keep most fires under 10 acres this year because, in part, crews could get aircraft on fires quickly.

A report about how the legislation performed is expected to come out in December.

Researchers investigate rumblings at Mt. Adams

Geologists say they are curious, but not yet worried, about an uptick in activity at a volcano in south central Washington.

Mount Adams is one of the sleepiest active volcanoes in the Cascade Range. A small earthquake every few years is typical. But it’s shaken up expectations recently — with six small quakes in September alone.

The quakes are so small most people wouldn’t notice them, according to Jon Major with the US Geological Survey, and he said there’s no cause for alarm.

“The volcanoes in the Cascades talk to us all the time. Mount Adams generally is fairly quiet," Major said. "This time it's decided to perk up a little bit and talk to us a little bit more. Exactly why it's talking to us, we don't know.”

Researchers are deploying more seismometers to the volcano to get a better look at what might be going on beneath its surface.

More whooping cough cases emerge in southeast WA

At least five people on the Palouse have been diagnosed with a respiratory illness called pertussis.

Whitman County Public Health reports that five students at Washington State University have been diagnosed with pertussis, or whooping cough.

According to the health department, people who were close contacts to infected individuals should contact their providers to discuss preventative antibiotics.

Pertussis is particularly dangerous to babies under a year old and seniors.

No cases outside the WSU student population have been identified. However, everyone in the community is advised to take preventative measures. That includes good hand, mouth and nose hygiene, and getting vaccinated if needed.

Those vaccinations are recommended no less than every 10 years for healthy adults. Boosters are also recommended for anyone who may expose a child under one year old.

The Washington Department of Health says 780 pertussis cases have been reported statewide through the third week of September, far higher than at the same time in 2023. This year’s reported cases are the most in Washington since 2015.

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Reporting contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Lauren Gallup, Courtney Sherwood and Rachel Sun.