Rural WA hospitals foresee closures under GOP bill
With President Donald Trump’s signature bill passing and significant Medicaid cuts on the horizon, a rural eastern Washington hospital district is anticipating possible closures in the next few years.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” may bring an impending failure of rural healthcare to hospitals in a 10-year period, Shane McGuire, CEO of the Columbia County Health System, said.
McGuire told SPR News his hospital, Dayton General, is one of six in Washington that will potentially close because of this bill, although it is unclear what other hospitals would close.
"People may be forced to move from their community, or we may no longer be able to provide that long term care service,” he said.
Jaqueline Barton True, advocacy and rural health vice president for the Washington State Hospitals Association, said they don ’t anticipate seeing these closures to happen in the next year.
"But as I look out to 2028—[I] definitely have concerns," she said.
Rural communities also often rely on urban hospitals for higher level specialty care access, Barton True said.
Now, Urban hospitals are going to have to make hard choices, she told SPR News, on what services they will be able to offer the community, heavily impacting nearby communities who find themselves relying on them.
"If you need brain surgery, that's probably not happening in a rural community," Barton True said. "You're probably headed to Spokane or Seattle, and when those hospitals are going to be forced to absorb these cuts, it's going to make it that much harder for rural patients to be able to seek specialty care."
According to the most recent U.S. Census, nearly 17% of Washington’s population lives in rural areas. Barton True said there are 44 rural hospitals in the state.
US Ed. Dept. to release promised funds to the relief of NW school officials
The Idaho State Board of Education won’t have to cover nearly three million dollars in frozen federal grants for after school programs.
Now, federal officials say they’re releasing the funds this week.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration held back nearly $7 billion in grants for migrant students, teacher training and after school programs, saying they were reviewing the funding.
The news had after school programs across the country and the northwest scrambling to make up the difference before state officials said they had found some extra cash to keep operations going through December.
On Friday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to states, saying they would fully fund the initiative beginning Monday.
The letter says officials have not yet decided the fate of the migrant education or teacher training grants.
Those outstanding funds for Idaho total more than $26 million. Before the freezes, Washington state was set to get about $137 million.
ID Dept. of Lands weighs hiking fire prevention surcharge
Owners of around 67,000 parcels in Idaho forestlands could soon have to pay more for state fire prevention services in the coming years.
The State Land Board signed off on a piece of proposed legislation from the Idaho Department of Lands earlier this week that would raise this surcharge from $40 up to $100.
The fee hasn’t changed since 2009. But Deputy Director Bill Haagenson said costs sure have.
“You can see a downtrend in our fire deficiency fund based on increasing expenditures and revenue not keeping pace with that,” he said during the board’s meeting Tuesday.
This surcharge only affects parcels of forestland with some kind of residential improvement on them. The state also doesn’t levy a fee if the land is already being taxed by another fire district.
Haagenson said the agency has had to cover some fire prevention expenses elsewhere in his budget since revenue from the fee has been flat.
He said that’s especially true in areas where cities meet Idaho’s vast wildlands.
“It affects us both on the suppression side and the preparedness side in terms of the equipment, the staff, the training, the things that we have to have ready to provide a robust initial attack response in the wildland-urban interface,” Haagenson said.
If approved by the legislature, the fee hike could raise up to $4 million annually.
Spokane's reserve assets on track to disappear by 2027
The City of Spokane is on pace to deplete all its reserve funds by 2027. In other words, the city is currently on track to have no extra money in less than two years.
Budget analyst Jacob Miller said labor contracts signed during the pandemic are cutting into savings.
Those savings were already at below-target levels when pandemic stress forced the previous administration to dip into them.
"So what can we do? Ultimately, we need to control costs—” said Miller during a special budget hearing.
“—What you can do is call me a paramedic," interrupted Council President Betsy Wilkerson, reacting to the news. "Because I’m going to need some resuscitation right now."
Rising costs of health care benefits are only making matters worse, Miller said. The city may need to consider selling assets to boost revenue.
Salish School executive director passes the baton to two successors
The Salish School of Spokane is under new leadership.
Longtime executive director and school co-founder LaRae Wiley has now transitioned to a new role as Elder-Linguist.
In her place, Kim Richards and Brea Desautel will serve as co-executive directors. Both have worked closely with Wiley for years.
Richards, whose children attend the school, has served many roles within the Salish School, starting with her time as the school’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program liaison.
"I've been a family service coordinator connected to ECEAP," she told SPR News. "I've been a board member. I've been the interim executive director. I've been in the administration. But most importantly, I've been a parent and community member."
Richards said she and Desautel are excited to take up Wiley’s mantel and are looking to expand the school’s existing work to revive Interior Salish languages.
"We've had conversations with communities who are up in the Yukon, talking to them about sending students out there to study abroad—a different kind of study abroad, if you will," she said. "Really going into those Indigenous communities around the world where they are also working on revitalizing their language."
Richards said she hopes to continue the school’s mission—not just of restoring Salish languages and culture but also rebuilding support networks within the region’s Indigenous communities.
"It's something that you wouldn't necessarily see upfront or maybe even pay attention to," she told SPR News. "But that's really the heart of this movement, is being a community and being in community with each other and supporting each other in this journey and raising each other's children together.”
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Reporting by Monica Carrillo-Casas, James Dawson, Eliza Billingham and Owen Henderson.