Spokane could increase anti-opioid spending
Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown has proposed spending $730,000 of the city’s share of an opioid settlement on three projects.
Under the mayor’s proposal, the city would spend $400,000 to create an outdoor space where people with or at-risk of opioid use disorder can stay temporarily while city workers help them find a place to stay.
"We want a place where, if the individual doesn’t fit into one of our scattered sites, but we don’t want them just to move to another neighborhood or another location or set up another camp," she said during a meeting of the community anti-fentanyl group Gabriel's Challenge Tuesday night.
"We want them to say, 'Go here. It’s fenced. There is a service provider. you can stay there while we navigate you to the next place.'"
She’s also proposed directing $300,000 to Maddie's Place, a nursery caring for babies going through withdrawal and other effects of their mothers’ drug use.
"We wanted to make a co-investment," Brown said. "The county is doing this and the council’s supportive of an investment in those youngest, the infants and their family and we were very impressed with the success of Maddie’s Place, so we’re proposing an investment in Maddie’s Place.”
Brown spoke last night at City Hall during a meeting for a community anti-fentanyl group.
Under the mayor’s proposal, the city would spend $400,000 to create an outdoor space where people can hang out temporarily while city workers help them find a place to stay.
Brown also wants the city to spend $30,000 to invest in a mobile treatment and outreach center.
The mayor’s proposal would add to about $2.5 million the city has already spent on other opioid-related projects.
Decker girls found dead in campground outside Leavenworth
Three missing Wenatchee sisters were found dead Monday at a campground near Leavenworth.
Police say the girls’ father is wanted in connection to their deaths.
The Wenatchee Police Department says the Decker sisters — five-year-old Olivia, eight-year-old Evelyn, and nine-year-old Paityn — had been missing since Friday, May 30.
That’s when their mother called police to say the girls’ father, Travis Decker, had not returned them following a scheduled visit. On Monday, police found Decker’s truck near Rock Island Campground.
They then found the bodies of the three girls. Police said in a news release they are searching for Decker and are asking for help.
They say anyone who believes they may have seen him, or know where he is, should call 911 immediately.
Trump budget axes salmon fund
The Trump Administration is proposing to eliminate the number-one source of funding for the Northwest’s struggling salmon runs.
The $100-million Salmon Recovery Fund helps local governments and tribes restore salmon habitat up and down the West Coast.
"It takes time and investment to change the trajectory of salmon recovery, but if the plug is pulled, the tribe will have to do something to protect our treaty rights," said David Troutt, natural resources director for the Nisqually Tribe.
The relationship between tribes and the federal government could switch from collaborating on restoring watersheds to fighting in the courts.
Tribal and state officials say the funding is critical to keep the region’s salmon and orcas from going extinct.
The White House says its budget proposal saves tax dollars by eliminating woke and wasteful spending.
Treaties signed in the 1850s guarantee tribes the right to fish and hunt in exchange for giving up most of their land.
“The tribes will protect our treaty rights," Troutt said. "And if we don't have the ability to do it collaboratively, we'll look to other means, and it may drive us more quickly and more regularly into the courts."
Cantwell, hospitals warn of Medicaid cuts in 'big, beautiful bill'
U.S. Senate Democrats are pressuring their Republican colleagues to ignore provisions in the House Republican budget that reduce spending for the Medicaid program.
During a press conference yesterday, Washington’s Maria Cantwell said hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians could lose their subsidized health insurance.
She said that would force sick people who can’t afford doctor’s visits to go to emergency rooms instead, sticking hospitals with the cost of caring for them.
"The result in declining revenue would have adverse consequences for at-risk hospitals and rural communities," she said. "We have all heard from our rural hospitals warning us about this. How is it that our Republican Senate colleagues are not listening to those rural hospitals?"
The Washington State Hospital Association and its members are lobbying against cuts to Medicaid.
They say most hospitals are still struggling to recover from the financial stresses from the COVID era and that Medicaid cuts could lead to reduced services and even closures.
Idahoan tapped to oversee U.S. Forest Service gets smooth confirmation hearing
An Idaho businessman tapped to become the new leader of the U.S. Forest Service faced little questioning over his past land disputes with the agency during his confirmation hearing.
Michael Boren, who co-founded the multi-billion dollar investment firm Clearwater Analytics, has sparred with the Forest Service in recent years over his ranch in central Idaho.
The property is within the protected Sawtooth National Recreation Area.
Neighbors said he built an airstrip before getting the required permits, and the Forest Service accused a company formerly linked to him of building an unauthorized cabin on federal land.
President Donald Trump nominated Boren to serve as the U.S.D.A undersecretary for natural resources and environment, which oversees the Forest Service and the 193 million acres of land under its jurisdiction.
During his confirmation hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Tuesday, Boren said he’s already consulted the agency’s ethics lawyers.
“I will commit to making sure they always know everything about anything that could be a conflict of interest that I can tell them and to always following their advice,” he said in response to a question from Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
Klobuchar, the committee’s top Democrat, also asked Boren how he will manage the agency as thousands of employees have resigned or retired recently.
He said it’s not an ideal situation, but that he’s run understaffed businesses before.
“I know that we have to live with the resources we receive and we will find a way to do that,” Boren said.
Just five of the Senate committee’s 23 members attended the hearing.
Boren told senators his priorities include better preventing wildfires, supporting timber production and being a good neighbor to private landholders.
"When people go to the forest, it's a spiritual experience, it's an awakening and it's a patriotic experience for them and I want to make sure they have that opportunity."
He also recounted his relationship to the country's public lands. Boren's father worked with the Forest Service while he grew up and Boren himself later bought timber from the agency to resell as a side business.
The full Senate must still confirm his appointment.
Embattled UI-Phoenix deal no longer on the table
The University of Idaho’s proposed purchase of the for-profit University of Phoenix has fallen through.
The University of Phoenix released a statement Tuesday, saying the two institutions have agreed to end their talks.
This apparently ends a two-year battle that began in 2023, when the Idaho Board of Education approved the purchase.
The University of Idaho saw it as a way to attract new students and improve its online offerings.
But the board’s approval started a political and legal battle.
Attorney General Raul Labrador challenged the transaction, saying the board’s discussions were conducted out of the public eye.
Skeptical state legislators then questioned the deal; some looked for a way to stop it.
Now the University of Phoenix says it will move on and continue operating as an independent, private college.
The University of Idaho will ask the state Board of Education Thursday to approve the termination of the purchase agreement.
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Reporting by Doug Nadvornick, Reneé Diaz, John Ryan, and James Dawson.
Reneé Diaz reports for NWPB in collaboration with The Wenatchee World and the Murrow College of Communication Local News Fellowship Program.