WA auditors find digital equity grant improperly disbursed
Washington state auditors say the state Commerce Department gave out $10.7 million in grant money without proper oversight.
An audit found the main contractor on a digital equity grant got most of those millions as an advance—rather than being reimbursed for expenditures as required.
Auditors also found that most of the 10-point-7 million the Commerce Department paid the Equity in Education Center did not have proper documentation showing what it paid for, said auditor Sadie Armijo.
"We actually went out to this grantee, and tried to get that information from them, and we were not able to get a lot of it," she told KUOW public radio. "We really were only able to get support for about $2 million, and some of that was still pretty questionable."
Some of the spending was not allowed, said Armijo—like an open bar at a resort and first-class flights.
Commerce Department head Joe Nguyen said since he took over the agency in January he’s made major changes to ensure that staff and grantees are properly trained to prevent such situations in the future.
Spokane County needs to make room for more affordable housing. So what's the right density to aim for?
Denser housing can give more room for creativity and green space.
But most of Spokane County’s residential zoning promotes more crowded neighborhoods of single-family homes.
If one photo shows pedestrian paths, open space, and homes of various shapes and sizes and the other shows rows of long, skinny houses packed together with no yards, which photo would you guess shows a denser neighborhood?
According to Spokane County Planning Director Scott Chesney, it’s the first one.
In a presentation to the Board of County Commissioners, Chesney showed visuals of what different housing densities looked like.
"At 15 units an acre, you’ve got the possibility of doing some variety. And this is where the neighborhood design concept starts to show some possibilities," he said. "We’ve moved toward a townhouse project and not very much single-family in this case, but it does have some variety and it provides some open space and amenity."
But almost none of the county allows for 15 units an acre. Most of the county’s residential areas are capped at 8 units per acre. That tends to produce those uniform rows of single family homes.
Washington state is telling Spokane County that it needs to find space for 8,000 more affordable housing units than it currently has capacity for.
Upping residential density could increase that capacity. But during his presentation, Chesney and the commissioners didn’t discuss changing the 8 unit per acre cap.
He said the prevailing assumption is that people strongly prefer single family homes over any other housing style.
Air quality alert in effect for north ID counties
Idaho state officials have issued an air quality alert for the five northern counties until noon Friday.
The Department of Environmental Quality predicts the air will be unhealthy for people with sensitive respiratory systems.
The National Weather Service is forecasting that Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint and Silver Valley will all experience some haze.
The same is likely on the Washington side of the border, Lisa Woodard with Spokane’s Clean Air Agency said.
"We aren’t anticipating that this is going to be on the higher end at all," she said. "We think we’re going to have some improvement."
Spokane’s air quality index was in the high moderate range for much of Wednesday afternoon before improving in the evening hours.
Westerly winds blew smoke from wildfires in western Washington and Vancouver Island into the region Wednesday. Forecasters say that may continue for another day or so.
Woodard told SPR News people with respiratory issues should take the conditions seriously.
"So if you or someone in your care is elderly, has some children, pregnant, has existing conditions, health conditions, those groups are considered in sensitive populations," she said. "They will first want to take precautions and reduce the amount of time outdoors."
You can find updated air quality numbers on the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality and the Washington Department of Ecology websites.
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Reporting by Ann Dornfeld, Eliza Billingham and Doug Nadvornick.