Conroy, Baumgartner face off in WSU debate
Michael Baumgartner and Carmela Conroy made late pitches to voters during a televised debate at Washington State University Monday night.
The pair are competing to replace Cathy McMorris Rodgers as eastern Washington’s Congressional representative.
Republican candidate Baumgartner is a former state senator and current Spokane County treasurer. He touted his experience in Olympia, including his role in helping WSU develop a medical school based in Spokane.
"What I would bring is a good track record of pragmatic, conservative leadership, working in a bipartisan fashion. I think the voters know me," he said in the debate. "You look at things like the medical school that we brought to Spokane. We now have more doctors being produced in Spokane than they do in Seattle and we need them. We need them in rural areas."
Democrat Carmela Conroy is a former Spokane County deputy prosecutor and foreign service officer.
"I had the honor of serving our nation, promoting our democratic principles and open economies, while keeping our nation safe," she said. "I don’t have experience in this particular form of job search. I haven’t run for office before, but what I do know is how the federal government works."
The debate was sponsored by WSU’s Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service and broadcast on KHQ’s sports and weather channel.
Open primary proponents rally support as voting begins
Voters in six states will decide in November whether to open their political primaries to all voters, rather than allowing only party members to cast ballots.
Supporters of open primaries held a virtual rally Oct. 21, two weeks before ballots are due.
Besides Idaho and Montana, open primaries and ranked choice voting are on the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, South Dakota and Washington, DC.
John Opdycke, president of the national group Open Primaries, said the ballot measures offer a variety of approaches to allow people who don’t want to declare a party affiliation to vote in primary elections.
Arizona campaign director Sarah Smallhouse said the momentum toward changing the primary system is driven by a growing number of independent voters. Business groups are also supporters, she said. They want more stability in Arizona’s political system.
There’s a similar shift in Colorado, where the campaign director there said it won’t be long before more than half of the electorate will consider themselves independents.
In Alaska, the one state trying to maintain an open primary and ranked choice voting, the campaign director says the new system has had a positive effect. She said more people are voting for candidates from multiple parties and six of Alaska’s 40 legislators are independents.
State veterinarian recommends precautions against avian flu
Washington wildlife officials are urging people who own backyard poultry to take care to prevent the spread of avian influenza.
Amber Itle, the state’s chief veterinarian, told KUOW public radio that she gets stressed every fall, when migratory water fowl arrive in the area. That’s because they’ve spent the summer up north, mixing with birds from around the world.
“They hang out with all their friends from Asia and Europe and they exchange viruses,” Itle said. “And then we hold our breath and wait for them to come back."
So far, the new strains of avian influenza haven’t been particularly dangerous to humans. But they are deadly to birds. During the current outbreak, 47 poultry flocks in the state– including two commercial flocks– have been infected. Once the virus is detected, those birds have to be quickly euthanized.
Itle said every backyard flock is at risk. An estimated 15 percent of migrating waterfowl carry the virus. If a backyard flock is infected, this is what owners might see:
“You may go out one day and your birds will look fine, and the next day you may see no clinical signs, you may just see a 40 percent mortality in your coop or some sick birds or lethargic birds,” Itle said.
If that happens, Itle said, call the Washington Department of Agriculture immediately.
Birds should be kept inside, away from contact with wild fowl, Itle said. And she recommended removing anything that might attract waterfowl, such as outdoor feeders.
Applications open for Idaho 'Empowering Parents' microgrants
Empowering Parents, the Idaho grant program for educational expenses, is kicking off a new year.
The microgrant program is intended to help parents of K-12 children pay for education-related programs and materials, tutoring, and arts and STEM supplies.
Awards are prioritized according to income, with first priority given to families whose Adjusted Gross Income is less than $60,000. The grants are $1,000 per eligible student. The most any single family can get is $3,000.
Empowering Parents’ 2023 launch was a little rocky. While supporters had envisioned the money would pay for items such as computers and books, an audit found a small percentage of parents spent the money on clothes, TV sets, and household supplies. That discovery prompted more scrutiny from the Idaho Board of Education and new guardrails for the program.
This year, there are clearer guidelines for what parents can and can’t buy. Updated rules and more about the application process can be found at EmpoweringParents.idaho.gov.
WA airports get federal infrastructure money
Four airports in Washington are getting more than $24 million in federal grants from the bipartisan infrastructure law.
According to announcements by Washington’s senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, $2 million of that will go to Spokane International Airport for the final stages of its TREX program.
TREX, or the Terminal Renovation and Expansion Program, is expanding the C Concourse, including three additional passenger boarding bridges and accessibility upgrades. When complete, the project is supposed to add six additional ticket counters and three additional gates for the concourse.
The other airports getting funding are in Seattle, Tri-Cities and Yakima.
Sea-Tac is the largest recipient of the Washington airports. It's getting $17.5 million to fund a portion of Phase 1 construction for the South Concourse Reconstruction Project including structural, seismic, and building system upgrades.
The airports in Yakima and Tri-Cities are getting $1 million and $4 million, respectively.
This funding effort is part of the Airport Terminal Program, which aims to address aging airport infrastructure.
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Reporting was contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Deborah Wang, Brandon Hollingsworth and Owen Henderson.