SREC, city to split after failed mediation
The City of Spokane will go ahead with creating its own emergency communications system.
The announcement came after the Spokane Regional Emergency Communications Board voted Thursday to end its contract for dispatch services with the Spokane Fire Department.
The city and county had spent nearly 18 months negotiating over the emergency communications system.
The city says it produces more than half of SREC’s call volume and nearly half of its revenue — which it says means the city should get more than two of the 10 seats on the board.
Meanwhile, the county maintains that the current representation for agencies across the county is the most equitable and efficient model.
"We have consistently provided information, responded to every request, and even directly supported the City’s consultants in their work," said SREC Executive Director Lori Markham in a statement. "Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, it has become clear that the City desires local control over its dispatch services and is no longer interested in being part of a fully regionalized, shared model built for efficiency and public safety."
In the statement, SREC argued that the city already has its own dispatchers for Spokane Police and should be able to expand that service to the fire department as well during a six-month transition period.
"I have no doubt the City of Spokane can create an emergency communications system that ensures uninterrupted, high-quality service to the people we serve and the first responders providing that service," Mayor Lisa Brown said in a statement from the City. "As we work to implement the new system, it is important that arbitrary deadlines not be applied to the process in order to ensure a safe transition."
"Today’s decision by SREC to remove our department from the regional dispatch system is disappointing and shortsighted. SREC’s unwillingness to meaningfully collaborate ignores both operational realities and public interest," Spokane Fire Chief Julie O’Berg said in a statement issued Thursday. "Our priority has always been and will remain the safety of our community and seamless coordination in emergencies. That will remain at the forefront during this time of transition.”
SREC has given Spokane six months to establish its own dispatch system for the fire department before the partnership completely ends.
SRHD votes to expand opioid treatment this fall
Spokane County’s opioid treatment center is planning to offer longer hours and more staff this November.
The health district’s Treatment Services asked the Spokane County Board of Health yesterday if the center could expand its hours, staffing, and capacity using its 4-million-dollar surplus revenue from the last seven years.
Administrative Officer Alicia Thompson said the expansion could increase current capacity from about 955 patients per week to at least 12 hundred, if not 13 or 14 hundred.
Dosing currently ends before noon on weekdays.
The new hours would extend that to 5:30 in the afternoon Monday through Friday, starting in November.
Board members asked Thompson if afternoon availability is really what would get more people involved in treatment.
"The reality is that we don’t have a crystal ball. We just know that Spokane has a big problem, and we know that nobody else has tried this," Thompson told the board. "So we’d like to try this and see. We have a lot of suspicion that there are a lot of people who would come for services in those hours — the afternoon hours."
Though some members raised concerns, the Board of Health passed the expansion proposal.
According to the Spokane County Medical Examiner, Spokane is still facing an increase in opioid-related deaths, though numbers are decreasing state- and nationwide.
STA CEO search lands on 1 finalist over objections from some board members
The Spokane Transit Authority is moving forward with its plan to introduce just one candidate to the public as its potential new CEO.
Some members of the STA Board say this betrays the expectation that multiple candidates would be brought forth for public consideration.
STA’s CEO selection process started last year with third party consultant KL2 Connects.
The board offered five of the 30 applicants the chance to interview. Two withdrew, and the other three were interviewed by the STA Board. Just one was selected as a finalist candidate.
At the beginning of the hiring process, the Board passed a resolution that it would present one to three candidates to the public.
Spokane City Council member Michael Cathcart joined the STA board after the hiring process started.
"I disagree with the idea of only bringing one candidate; however, after hearing feedback from those who have interviewed and been a part of this process, I definitely understand it," he said during the meeting. "We’re following what was approved even if I disagree at this point with what it is."
Council and board member Zack Zappone made a motion to release public records of other candidates’ qualifications.
Initial legal analysis suggests that about 90% of those documents, including employment history, would be redacted under the Public Records Act.
ID abortion rights ballot initiative campaign kicks off Saturday
Abortion rights advocates will begin collecting signatures Saturday to overturn Idaho’s near-total ban on the procedure, while also protecting access to birth control and IVF.
The campaign from Idahoans United for Women and Families would return Idaho to the rules upheld by Roe v Wade before it was overturned in 2022. That means lawmakers couldn’t ban the procedure before fetal viability or in emergency cases.
Idahoans United for Women and Families executive director Melanie Folwell said her group’s initiative would also protect the availability of Plan-B, which is a form of emergency contraception.
State lawmakers approved a near-total abortion ban five years ago that went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
It only allows abortions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is threatened.
“On somebody’s, one of the hardest days of their life, it is being made worse, more dangerous, more expensive, scarier, riskier by the government,” Folwell said.
Due to confusion over the threshold of what conditions might immediately threaten a patient’s life, doctors at St. Luke’s Health System has airlifted several pregnant women out of state to get abortions.
OB-GYNs have fled Idaho, at times taking spouses who are also medical providers with them, according to Folwell.
Since the overturning of Roe v Wade, voters have weighed in on 18 ballot initiatives or constitutional amendments across the country. Fourteen of those supported abortion rights, including issues in seven states that voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.
That, Folwell said, gives her confidence that Idaho will follow suit.
“I think the idea that a politician is ever going to know better than what is happening with your own family, your own health, your own body, your own life, your own future, your destiny, your kitchen table is ludicrous.”
She said her group has more than 1,000 volunteers across the state ready to collect the roughly 66,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot in November 2026. They will also need to collect a certain percentage of those from at least 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts.
The kickoff rally begins at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Idaho Capitol.
WA healthcare workers raise alarm on cuts in GOP spending bill
As Congress mulls billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, healthcare workers worry about the harmful impacts if the proposal goes through.
Thelma Hedrick, an x-ray tech at Kadlec Regional Medical Center in the Tri-Cities area, said workers are already dealing with staffing shortages. Funding cuts will only make things worse.
"We show up every day for our patients and we’re calling on our elected officials who are threatening Medicaid to put patients and healthcare workers at the center of that decision," she said during a press conference Thursday.
Hedrick joined Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson, who called on Congress to protect Medicaid.
Ferguson said the ripple effects could also affect people who don’t even rely on the program.
"You go to a hospital that may close because these cuts," he said during the press conference. "Many hospitals across our country and in our state are hanging on by a thread. That’s the reality now.”
Some supporters of the budget plan say the cuts don’t go far enough.
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Reporting by Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, James Dawson and Ruby de Luna.