Today's headlines:
- Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels says some proposed regulations around automated license plate readers would "significantly diminish" his office's ability to respond to crime.
- Following Spokane's lead, Spokane Valley police wonder if their city should also ban cryptocurrency ATMs.
- Northeast Washington state Senator Shelly Short says the state's current wildlife strategy is helping wolves more than deer and elk.
- Idaho's health and welfare committees are tapped to cut Medicaid.
- Idaho governor state agencies need to consult his office before responding to legislators’ and journalists’ questions.
Plus, SPR's Doug Nadvornick talks with Spokane pediatrician Sarah d’Hulst about influenza in the region and how it compares to the rise in cases nationwide.
- - -
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson, Owen Henderson, and Kyle Pfannelstiel.
The show is hosted and produced by Owen Henderson.
- - -
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s January 21, 2026.
On today’s show, Spokane County’s sheriff says a proposed bill to regulate the use of automated license plate readers would hinder his office’s ability to fight crimes.
And the debate over wolf management in northeastern Washington is back at the state legislature.
Plus, the US has seen a very active flu season. So much so that hospital staff in Spokane are required to wear masks when they interact with the public.
A local pediatrician and primary care medical director will put this year into context and provide some tips about what to do when symptoms start getting serious.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Car theft reports in Spokane County have dropped by more than half since 2022—from more than 3 thousand a year to fewer than 15-hundred.
The Sheriff’s office says that’s mostly thanks to automated license plate readers, sometimes called ALPRs or Flock cameras.
The cameras are at the center of a hot button legislative debate as communities raise concerns over their use in federal immigration searches.
This week, County Commissioners and Sheriff John Nowels discussed a proposed state law that would force law enforcement to delete ALPR footage 72 hours after it’s recorded.
JOHN NOWELS: “We believe that shortening down the retention period to 72 hours would significantly diminish our ability to fight crimes…We took the broad averages of many of our call types. I don't think there was a single one that was under 72 hours.”
OH: Nowels says his department disabled the nationwide look-up feature early into its use of ALPRs. When the feature is on, it allows any law enforcement to search the cameras—unbeknownst to the owning agency.
Currently, most law enforcement seeking footage from Spokane County cameras need to ask for help or permission from the sheriff’s office.
Washington does not currently regulate ALPRs at the state level.
— — —
Last summer, Spokane banned all cryptocurrency kiosks within city limits.
Now, as SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, Spokane Valley is considering doing the same.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Police estimate there are at least 20 cryptocurrency ATMs in Spokane Valley.
Last year, scammers posed as family members, attorneys, and even then-county prosecutor Larry Haskell to convince people to send tens of thousands of dollars through crypto kiosks.
Spokane Valley police are asking city council if they are interested in passing local legislation that would prohibit those kiosks in their city.
There’s currently no state or federal legislation prohibiting crypto ATMs. But SVPD Chief Dave Ellis points to Spokane’s citywide prohibition as an example of how local governments can combat a nationwide problem.
The U-S leads the world in crypto ATMs, with more than 30 thousand cash-to-crypto machines. Canada is second, with about 3 thousand.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
— — —
OH: The debate over wolf management is back in the Washington legislature.
Addy Republican Senator Shelly Short says the state’s wildlife management currently prioritizes predator animals over deer and elk.
To change that, she’s sponsoring a bill requiring the state Fish and Wildlife Department to do annual population counts of white-tailed deer in areas where gray wolves don’t have federal protection.
If the numbers fall by a quarter or more, she says WDFW should take steps to move or kill the responsible predators to protect deer and elk herds.
SHELLY SHORT: “We’ve just seen a lack of management for a very long time and are very concerned about what that means to the longevity of the population.”
OH: Opponents of Short’s proposal say the Department of Fish and Wildlife did a five-year survey within the last decade.
Liz Carr from the Kettle Range Conservation Group says the department found deer populations are generally stable or slightly declining in some areas, while elk populations are up in some regions.
LIZ CARR: “Scientific studies clearly show wolves and cougars are not causing ungulate declines in Washington. Drought, disease and human impacts are the real threats.”
OH: Supporters of Short’s bill say hunters have had fewer opportunities as wolf populations have increased.
They argue the state needs to re-balance its wildlife management strategy to give deer, elk and other prey animals a better chance at survival.
— — —
Idaho’s House and Senate health and welfare committees have a lot on their plates this session.
As James Dawson reports, those lawmakers are being tasked with finding 22 million dollars in cuts to help balance Idaho’s budget.
JAMES DAWSON: Republican Rep. Josh Tanner, who co-chairs the state’s budget committee, told his peers on House Health and Welfare Tuesday to scrounge up the further cuts.
The proposed $22 million in new cuts are on top of $23 million in Medicaid provider rate cuts made last fall.
Despite a strong uptick in tax collections last month, Tanner says hard decisions need to be made.
JOSH TANNER: “I don’t like to budget on hope or assumptions that we’re going to grow our way out of this economically. At some point in time we have to go, ‘Nope, [these programs] need to get cut right now.”
JD: Republican Rep. Don Hall says however these cuts are made, legislators need to be aware of potential downstream effects.
DON HALL: “Certainly it will look good if you can cut budgets on the state level, but if that just cost shifts down to the counties, the same citizens are paying the same taxes.”
JD: Proposed cuts to health and welfare programs are expected to go before the budget committee in early February.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
— — —
OH: Idaho Governor Brad Little wants his office to be involved any time state agencies respond to questions from legislators—or journalists.
Reporting by our partner the Idaho Capital Sun shows Little’s chief of staff sent a memo to state agency directors last week, directing them to inform the governor’s office when their departments receive information requests.
The memo also outlined how and when officials could testify to the legislature, requiring them to get prior approval from the governor’s office to speak on most bills and saying agencies “must support” Little’s budget proposal if testifying to the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee.
The memo also directs agencies to coordinate with the governor’s office before replying to journalists’ questions.
In a statement to the Idaho Capital Sun, Little’s communications director called the actions laid out in the memo “common practice” and said it was part of policy before he became governor in 2019.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
It’s been an unusually active flu season across the U-S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 18 million Americans have caught it and more than nine thousand have died from it.
Spokane’s hospitals say one in seven people who visit their emergency rooms with respiratory issues are battling the flu.
So, staff at the hospitals are required to wear masks when they meet with the public.
SPR’s Doug Nadvornick spoke with Spokane pediatrician Sarah d’Hulst about dealing with this year’s flu.
SARAH D'HULST: Typically, what we do is keep track of the percentage of folks who come into the ER and who test positive for the flu when they have respiratory infections.
And so right now, we're in the teens, the mid-teens of folks who come in with a respiratory infection who have flu or RSV.
DOUG NADVORNICK: Is this unusually high?
SdH: It's not unusually high. We're certainly on the upswing right now. It has not seemed to level off or start to drop off yet.
DN: Is this a normal peak time for most years in terms of flu or is it earlier or later?
SdH: We do tend to see flu start to pick up around the holidays, so Thanksgiving to Christmas. And then our peak flu typically is January, February, sometimes into March.
Interestingly, if we think back years ago to when we had the H1N1 outbreak, that was in October. That was a very early year. So this is a little more typical.
DN: And is there anything different about this year's flu just in terms of symptoms than in past years?
SdH: Typically, we're seeing respiratory symptoms. We're seeing cough, runny nose, respiratory distress, issues with pneumonia. We've not really seen necessarily an uptake in severe complications.
Some of those can be brain complications, nerve complications. And unfortunately, we have seen death in children.
These are not different than past years. It's just always concerning when we start seeing complications and death in something that often can be prevented.
DN: So how do you counsel parents when they say their children or their spouses get sick? When do you tell them it's time for you to go into an urgent care center or to an emergency department?
SdH: Great question. Most doctor's offices have triage nurses that are available 24-7 to answer questions.
So anytime a parent is concerned that things seem worse, or it's been a week and we're not getting any better, absolutely, parents should be calling.
I would even skip the urgent care and go right to the ER if I feel like my child is really struggling to breathe or myself.
I can't get up off the couch or out of the bed. I cannot catch my breath. I can't speak in a complete sentence. I'm so short of breath. That's very concerning.
DN: I've had people tell me, you know, qualitatively, that this flu symptom has knocked them on their rear ends, I think, in ways that others haven't. They've been sick longer and it's been more severe. Are you hearing some of that, too?
SdH: We are hearing a little bit of that, yes. You know, it's interesting when we think back over the last five years, we had a couple years there when, other than COVID, we saw very few other illnesses.
I remember, shockingly, there was about 18 months I never saw an ear infection between 2020 and 2021 because we were all so separated.
And so I don't know yet that we fully understand the impact that not getting exposed to those little colds here and there had on our immune system while we were separated from each other physically.
And so I think some of us maybe don't remember the last time we had the flu, but the flu will knock you on your tail for sure.
DN: So how well does this year's flu shot match the flu? In other words, if you get the flu shot, is it a pretty good chance you're not going to get the flu or you're going to get it in a, you know, it's not going to be as bad? What's the match like this year?
SdH: Right. It's pretty good. We never know until a little bit further in because, like I said, we're kind of on the uptick of, you know, how present is this in our community.
The goal of the flu shot is to certainly decrease the number of people who get it, decrease the severity of it, and to decrease the complications.
And so I would say this is so far seeming average compared to other seasons, how well the flu shot is working.
But we really won't know until we kind of get through the thick of it and look at the data.
OH: That’s Sarah d’Hulst, a pediatrician and primary care medical director at MultiCare Rockwood, speaking with SPR’s Doug Nadvornick.
She says it’s not too late to get a flu shot to minimize your chances of getting a severe case of the flu.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson, Kyle Pfannenstiel, and me, Owen Henderson. I’m also the host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
