Spokane announces pilot program to reduce downtown crime
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown and the leaders of the city’s police and fire departments announced a program intended to reduce crime and improve perceptions of Spokane’s downtown area.
A 30-day program called CORE will increase police patrols, add behavioral health specialists who work with first responders, and beef up outreach to get unsheltered people into treatment, housing or other services.
“I think this effort, this CORE effort, is going to make a difference, because it's literally more feet on the street, and it is coordinating resources that are already there in a better way, and adding some new resources to the equation,” Brown told SPR News.
Business leaders, property owners and some politicians have argued Spokane’s downtown feels less safe than it should. CORE’s effects will be measured by actual crime statistics and by gauging the impressions of people closely connected to downtown.
“We know that there are a lot of people that live, work, shop, and have recreation downtown. And we want the big picture of this to be a safer community, both in our core and in our neighborhoods,” Brown said.
The pilot phase will allow Spokane leaders to see how the approach works before deciding to alter or continue the effort, Brown said. But CORE’s future will also depend on whether the city can find the money necessary to sustain it. That will involve conversation with the city council and the outcome of the November election, in which Spokane voters are being asked to approve a one-tenth of one cent sales tax for community safety.
Sandpoint group expands LGBTQ support effort
Today is National Coming Out Day, and one north Idaho non-profit is using the opportunity to come out with a new mission.
The group behind Sandpoint’s Pride Festival is expanding to a year-round organization called SAFE — the Sandpoint Alliance for Equality.
They’re stepping up to try to fill the lack of support LGBTQ people in the area feel.
“Unfortunately, in North Idaho, there is still a lot of hostility and homophobia within just our local climate and something that we experience every day,” Emily Golphenee, one of the founding members of SAFE, said.
After the local chapter of an LGBTQ support group folded, she said the queer community was feeling the lack of resources and support.
“In Sandpoint, there is a limited amount of resources around mental and physical health, and specifically myself as a bisexual individual and other queer community members. It's difficult to find resources that openly support who we are,” Golphenee told SPR News.
So she and the other organizers of SAFE held a community forum and decided they could step up to meet those needs.
"We have outgrown just a single day festival and we want to become this year-round organization where people can show up and have that feeling of pride every single day in their lives," Golphenee said.
The Sandpoint Alliance for Equality — or SAFE — will have its official launch at Bluebird Bakery this evening at 5:30.
Translated ballots now available for Spokane-area elections
Spokane County election officials have been mailing out ballots this week. The League of Women Voters is trying to help voters whose primary language isn’t English understand what’s on those ballots.
The Spokane League of Women Voters put translated ballots online for next month’s election.
Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton, a member of the league, said the ballots are available in nine languages. This includes Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese, Swahili, Ukrainian, Dari and Kinyarwanda.
“The translated ballots will be posted by the League, not on our county website, because they aren't official translations,” Dalton told SPR News. “But they will be incredibly helpful to those communities where English is not their proficient language. So again, this is the second time they've done it. I am just absolutely thrilled.”
Eligible voters can place the translated ballots side-by-side with the official ballot in English, so they can read what the official ballot says.
The sample ballots include all federal, state and county candidate races and advisory measures that are on the official election ballot.
Ferguson looks to shorten abortion drug lawsuit
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is asking a federal judge to rule that the Food and Drug Administration’s restrictions on the abortion medication mifepristone are unlawful
In a filing late Thursday, he asked for the judge to decide the case without a trial. It’s the latest in a multi-state lawsuit filed last year.
In a press release this morning, the AG’s office said the FDA is illegally using excessively burdensome regulation to limit access to a drug that studies show is safer than drugs like Viagra or Tylenol.
Approximately 60% of the abortions in Washington state are medication abortions.
Last day for Idaho voters to register online
If you’re hoping to register to vote online, today is your last chance ahead of November’s election.
Online applications will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. tonight. You’ll need an Idaho driver’s license or another state-issued ID to complete the process.
Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane told Boise State Public Radio counties cut off online registration a few weeks before Election Day to give clerks the chance to ready their pollbooks and other materials needed for the vote.
For Idahoans without internet access, county clerks are accepting in-person voter registration forms for the rest of the business day.
If you miss tonight’s deadline, you’re not out of luck. McGrane says it’ll just take a little bit longer when you go to the polls in-person.
“We really are fortunate to live in Idaho and to have this and we’ve had [same-day voter registration] for a long time,” McGrane said. “It is not common in many other states, so there’s a good chance people coming from another state that the rules are different.”
You can register to vote, or check your registration status at voteidaho.gov.
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Reporting was contributed by Brandon Hollingsworth, Owen Henderson, Monica Carillo-Casas and James Dawson.