Providence to stop providing some outpatient services in northeast Washington
Providence Health Care has announced it is closing several programs in Spokane and Stevens counties. It’s shuttering its Chewelah-based DominiCare, a companion-based program that serves elderly people who need non-clinical in-home services. It’s also closing outpatient physical therapy clinics in Spokane, Spokane Valley and Chewelah.
Washington U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell says since the Trump administration announced an intent to cut back on Medicaid spending, she has feared this time of announcement was inevitable.
"One of the great things about rural Washington is that it is more affordable, but you have to have schools, you have to have health care, you have to have law enforcement. We don't want to see them traveling 90 minutes to go get care somewhere. So we're seeing what we were afraid was going to happen," Cantwell told reporters at an event in Spokane.
The last day of services is Friday, October 3. Providence says about 60 positions will impacted. Some people will be laid off. Others may be reassigned.
Homeless coalition shines spotlight on Spokane's fentanyl problem
The Spokane Homeless Coalition is trying to learn more about the intersection between homelessness and fentanyl addiction. The coalition hosted a fentanyl mini conference Thursday to try to understand how that overlap happens.
Among the themes: Not everyone who uses fentanyl is homeless. But an overlap does exist between people who don’t have homes and people who are addicted to fentanyl.
The conference featured five panelists who fought their own fentanyl addictions.
“Opiates was never my thing," said a woman who identified herself as Phylicia.
"It was always just weed, alcohol, and meth for over 20 years of my life. I'd like to say I was a functioning addict. And then something really bad happened. My mom died all of a sudden in 2022, and I hooked up with the guy who was using fentanyl, and for the next year of my life, I fell into using fentanyl. I was homeless.”
Phylicia is now a counselor with Compassionate Addiction Treatment.
All of the speakers had started using substances very young.
That includes Sarah Nowels, daughter of Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels.
“I became addicted to fentanyl when I was 17. I had been smoking and drinking for a couple of years, and I had really struggled with my mental health since I was like 12 years old," she said.
Nowels was the only speaker who hadn’t become homeless after getting addicted to fentanyl.
She said love from her family was crucial to her recovery. She now works for Frontier Behavioral Health.
“I think the number one thing for me was having some type of support. I work with people every day who don't have family, they don't have friends, they don't have anybody but us," she said.
Each of the panelists said their recovery started when they decided they wanted to change their life. Some made that decision in treatment. Others made it in jail.
They said the crucial part was that someone was there when they reached out for help.
Pasco mayor could be next U.S. attorney in eastern Washington
Pete Serrano, who ran unsuccessfully for Washington attorney general last year, may become the new U.S. attorney in for the eastern Washington district.
Multiple media outlets report Serrano could be nominated as early as next week. Serrano confirmed that in interviews with the Spokesman-Review and Washington State Standard.
Serrano would become the fourth person to serve in that position this year. He would replace Stephanie Van Marter, who is now the acting U.S. attorney. Van Marter assumed the job in July when Richard Barker stepped down. Barker took the job earlier this year when Biden appointee Vanessa Waldref resigned after Donald Trump took office.
Serrano has served for several years on the Pasco City Council. Its members chose him last year to serve as mayor. He is a former attorney with the U.S. Department of Energy. He is currently an attorney for an organization he founded, Silent Majority Foundation.
The eastern Washington district of the U.S. attorney's office has offices in Spokane and Yakima.
Washington humanities organizations look to private sector for funding
Humanities organizations in the Northwest are looking for ways to make up money they lost when the National Endowment for the Humanities cancelled dozens of grants this year.
This week, Humanities Washington made 20 of those groups happy when it announced it has awarded more than $100,000 from its Stories Fund.
“We did have a private donor step up and fund these grants so they weren’t affected when the NEH grants were cancelled," said Julie Ziegler, the executive director of Humanities Washington.
She says those grants are distributed to groups in all corners of the state. The recipients include the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture in Spokane, FAVS News in Pullman, the Methow Valley Interpretive Center in Twisp and Wenatchee Valley College in Omak.
“To really be able to continue to tell the stories of our communities, we are going to need to take control of this ourselves and fund some of it with private donations, which is what happened in this case," she said.
Ziegler says the competition for those grants was fierce, with four to five applicants for every grant that was awarded. They were given as part of Humanities Washington’s celebration of 50 years of service to the state.
Idaho state troopers begin transport duties for ICE
Idaho Governor Brad Little says a state police team has begun the process of helping immigration agencies move people in detention from state to federal facilities.
On Thursday, the governor’s office said state troopers moved three men, two from Mexico and one from Honduras, from a local jail to an ICE facility in southern Idaho. According to the state, all three have criminal histories in the U.S, two for an assortment of violent crimes, one mostly drug offenses.
The transport was funded by part of a $300,000 appropriation from the governor’s emergency fund. The state police has been authorized to carry out up to 100 transports during the next year.
Trump calls for leadership changes at Oregon computer chip manufacturer
President Donald Trump is demanding that Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan resign immediately. Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that the head of the computer chipmaking company is "highly conflicted." He provided no evidence.
The president is likely referring to Lip-Bu Tan’s investments in Chinese technology companies with government ties. Concerns had previously been voiced by Arkansas senator Tom Cotton.
It is legal for American business leaders to have holdings in other countries.
Even though a president has no authority to remove a company’s CEO, the comments appear to be spooking investors, Intel’s stock tumbled after the post.
Intel is headquartered in California but has a major research, development and manufacturing hub in Hillsboro, Oregon.
The Oregon chipmaker is the state’s largest private employer with around 18,000 workers, although that’s down from 23,000 a few years ago.
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Reporting contributed by Eliza Billingham, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Alexandra Duggan, Jake Goldstein-Street, Doug Nadvornick and Kyra Buckley.