Top bishops sue WA over mandated reporting law
Washington’s top Catholic officials are suing the state over its new law adding clergy to its list of professions required to report child abuse.
The bishops argue the law amounts to religious discrimination by mandating the clergy members disclose things told to them in confession.
In their suit, filed Thursday, the bishops of Spokane, Seattle and Yakima asked for an injunction that bars criminal investigations and prosecution of Roman Catholic clergy for not divulging information they have learned through confession.
Governor Bob Ferguson, a Catholic himself, issued a statement late Thursday, saying he’s “disappointed” in his church for “filing a federal lawsuit to protect individuals who abuse kids.”
Washington woman released from NWDC
After three months inside the Northwest ICE Processing Center, Lewelyn Dixon is going home.
Dixon was detained by ICE at the end of February after returning from a trip to the Philippines. That’s where she was born.
She is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
At a hearing Thursday inside the center, a judge ordered Dixon’s release.
After the judge ordered Dixon’s release, her niece, Emily Cristobal, thanked the crowd outside.
" This is what community looks like," she said. "And without all of you, we wouldn't be where we are today. So thank you so much."
Other supporters rallied, including members of the Service Employees International Union. That’s the union Dixon belongs to.
" We're here with her community," union local president, Tricia Schroeder, said. "You know, again, the why is because they're trying to divide workers and divide people in this country and we're gonna continue to show up in unity.”
Schroeder said the union fought hard to ensure Dixon will still have her job at UW Medicine.
The union plans to continue working with the university to set precedent on how to handle cases like this.
Researchers test waste clean-up measures at Hanford nuclear site
The Hanford Site is testing a complex matrix of air scrubbers on a stack.
It’s part of a massive effort to clean up 56 million gallons of radioactive waste stored at the site in southeast Washington.
This more-than-200-foot stack is attached to part of the hulking Waste Treatment Plant. Now, Hanford officials and contractors are watching reams of numbers coming out of computerized scrubbers in the stack.
The ultimate goal? See if the chemical load being emitted matches their expectations, and are under state limits.
Brian Hartman is the project director for Bechtel, the main federal contractor responsible for the plant.
"We’ll take our feed system, where we operate the plant, and then we will actually go in and add what we call spiking chemicals to see ‘Hey, does our instrumentation measure what we spiked into the melter itself?'" he told NWPB.
So far, no radioactive material is being treated in the plant.
"We’ve seen years of permitting documents go back and forth, and design documents," Suzanne Dahl with the Washington state Department of Ecology said. She's one of the very top watchdogs over the project.
"We’ve had a field presence throughout the whole time. And then right now, they’re going through their cold commissioning stages."
The test must be approved by Ecology before the plant can move on to hot commissioning. That’s when actual radioactive and chemical waste is treated – possibly later this year.
Hospital system asks judge to uphold $52 million defamation judgment for Ammon Bundy
Former Idaho gubernatorial candidate and anti-government activist Ammon Bundy is once again on the clock in his bankruptcy proceedings.
Lawyers for St. Luke’s Health System recently filed a new motion to prevent Bundy from discharging a $52 million defamation judgment levied against him by a jury in 2023.
Bundy filed for bankruptcy last summer in Utah to wipe the judgment from his record.
Attorneys for St. Luke’s are asking the judge to not discharge the judgment debt because they say he acted maliciously and flouted the original court proceedings by refusing to show up.
The Utah bankruptcy court judge initially ruled in favor of St. Luke’s in January, but reversed that decision after Bundy said he wasn’t properly served with legal paperwork.
Bundy must respond to the latest motion by June 16 and attend a hearing on the issue July 15 to maintain his objection.
The $52 million judgment stems from repeated protests and online statements he made directed at the hospital and certain staff members, claiming they were aiding and abetting child traffickers.
Bundy’s friend and sometimes business partner, Diego Rodriguez, also helped lead the charge against St. Luke’s when his grandson was taken from his mother for a health evaluation.
Protests briefly shuttered St. Luke’s downtown campus, requiring ambulances to be rerouted.
As previously reported by Boise State Public Radio and the Idaho Capital Sun, switchboard employees fielded calls from 30 different states that included death threats, according to statements made by the health system.
They included:
- "I'll f------ kill you"
- "If that baby is not returned to its mother there is going to be hell to pay"
- "Groups are going to be coming . . . we're coming"
- "The governor of this state should be shot"
- "It's disgusting what this hospital is doing to this baby ... sex trafficking ... you are responsible for that"
- "How about you give that baby an enema you baby killers? What is wrong with you morons? You are going to pay for this."
- "If anything happens to your [sic] child your ass is dead"
- "You will be put in jail and executed"
- "I am so f------ pissed off at you people right now, you have no right to be alive."
Throughout both the civil lawsuit and bankruptcy proceedings, Bundy has said St. Luke's is trying to inflict financial harm on his family.
ArtFest celebrates 40th year in Spokane
Spokane’s highest profile arts festival opens its 40th edition this morning at the Museum of Arts and Culture in Browne’s Addition.
Museum chief marketing officer Marit Fischer says 75 visual artists from six states will set up booths for the three days of ArtFest.
"This is a community. We really want to celebrate art," she told SPR News. "We want to celebrate the work of these artists, give them a place to, you know, add to their livelihood, to commune with each other, to share their work with the public, and make it a big party.”
The visual artists will be joined by a variety of music and performance artists who will play throughout the weekend in the MAC Amphitheater.
"We have Rosie CQ, who does percussion and pop. We have Milonga, who is a favorite of Spokane," Fischer said. "We have New Age Soul with Aspen Kai, Jazz with Time Baby, and then Musha Marimba. So, if you have a rainbow of music, we try to touch every color."
The festival also includes arts projects for children, access to the museum, nine local food trucks and a beer garden.
Admission is $5 a person with a $20 cap for families.
Parking is available in the museum garage, although Fischer urges folks to take the bus or walk to avoid congested traffic on narrow Browne's Addition streets.
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Reporting by Owen Henderson, Lauren Gallup, Anna King, James Dawson and Doug Nadvornick.