Today's headlines:
- Did I-2066 violate Washington's single subject rule? The state Supreme Court heard arguments over the natural gas initiative yesterday.
- Idaho's high court hears arguments today over the state's new School Choice Tax Credit.
- Sandpoint loosens regulations on short-term vacation rentals to comply with current Idaho law. But new lobbying efforts could push deregulation even further this year.
- Land banks make strides in the Washington legislature. They're one tool that could help the state combat its affordable house crisis.
- Washington might ban 3D printed "ghost guns," but makerspace owners worry they could become collateral damage of a broadly written bill.
- Washington's Secretary of State verifies an initiative concerning trans athletes in girls' sports. If the legislature doesn't consider it, it will be on ballots this November.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Amy Radil, Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham and Doug Nadvornick.
The show is hosted and produced by Owen Henderson.
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TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s January 23, 2026.
On today’s show, the high courts of Washington and Idaho are considering consequential cases. One has to do with the Evergreen State’s push to move toward renewable energy sources, while the other deals with public spending on private education in the Gem State.
And Sandpoint is begrudgingly loosening its restrictions on short-term rentals to comply with state law.
Plus, Washington legislators are considering more restrictions on untraceable “ghost guns.”
While many say they support the intent of the bill, some are worried it could accidentally result in criminal prosecution of 3D printer owners or maker spaces.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
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Washington’s Supreme Court yesterday heard arguments about an initiative intended to preserve “access to natural gas.”
Voters passed the measure in 2024, but a King County judge struck it down last spring as overly broad.
In oral arguments, Justice Steven González asked lawyers defending the initiative how far it extends.
STEVEN GONZÁLEZ: “If a private developer decides that they want to build an apartment complex that only has renewable energy sources, can the municipality approve that without discouraging the use of natural gas and running afoul?”
OH: Karl Davis with the attorney general’s office said yes, the initiative does not govern individual energy choices.
Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis asked an attorney whether initiatives can ever have multiple provisions to achieve their goals.
RAQUEL MONTOYA-LEWIS: “Because it seems to me that your proposal or the way you’re asking us to interpret this rule would result in potentially 50 initiatives that would need to be passed to accomplish the things that are happening here.”
OH: Environmental groups are asking the court to invalidate the initiative, saying all of its implications may not have been clear to voters.
The state Attorney General and the Building Industry of Washington defend it.
They say all of its provisions involve the single focus of energy choice.
The state's highest court could issue a decision in the next few months.
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Idaho’s Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case over the state’s new School Choice Tax Credit.
A coalition including the Idaho Education Association and Moscow School District sued this fall, asking the court to declare the credit unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs say it violates part of Idaho’s constitution that says the legislature has to maintain a “uniform” and “thorough” public school system.
Attorney General Raúl Labrador says the law gives families choice and takes nothing from public schools.
His office says more than 4,600 families have applied for the funds since applications opened last week.
The tax credit offers families up to $5,000 dollars per non-public school student to use for tuition and other education expenses and up to $7,500 dollars for students with special needs.
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Sandpoint loosened its regulations on short term rentals like Airbnbs to comply with Idaho state law. But it may have to go even further this spring.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Current Idaho law doesn’t allow cities to prohibit or heavily regulate short term rentals, or STRs.
To avoid a lawsuit, Sandpoint City Council approved amendments to its out-of-compliance code this week, albeit begrudgingly.
Sandpoint Mayor Jeremy Grimm said he believes STRs degrade neighborhoods, but private interests at the state level are winning out.
JEREMY GRIMM: “There's an intense lobbying effort to preempt local control here and take the ability to manage and regulate short term rentals out of our hands, which I totally disagree with.”
EB: That lobbying is ongoing. City Planner Jason Welker says there are efforts this legislative session to deregulate further—even to the point of prohibiting cities from requiring that Airbnb hosts get a business license.
JASON WELKER: “We're ripe for testing the limits of deregulation and if they can get away with this in Idaho, they're going to move on to all the other states and see if they can just achieve full deregulation of STRs nationwide.
EB: If Idaho changes its law around STRs again, Sandpoint will have to realign its code before those new laws go into effect on July 1.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: A Washington House committee has approved a tool that lets counties create land banks to collect parcels for affordable housing.
Land banking is a tool allowed in other states, but the three-year-old Spokane Regional Land Bank is one of just a few such entities in Washington.
The group’s executive director, Ami Manning, says the bill would allow organizations like hers to get priority access to surplus government parcels.
AMI MANNING: “It really helps us fill in the gaps left by the private market and existing programs because it’s comprehensive in its scope. And so while everybody can land bank, this coordinated land banking allows us to create a pipeline of affordable housing projects.”
OH: The bill would also allow land banks to qualify for tax exemptions for property they own.
Opponents of the bill say that would give land banks an unfair advantage over private developers who pay taxes on their land holdings.
They argue it would deprive local governments of revenue.
Spokane Democrat Natasha Hill’s bill now moves to the full House for consideration.
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Washington could further restrict 3D-printed “ghost guns.”
Redmond Democrat Osman Salahuddin is sponsoring the bill heard this week in the legislature.
OSMAN SALAHUDDIN: “I'm proud of the gun violence measures that our state has taken in recent years, but we must close the loopholes that allow untraceable ghost weapons to proliferate.”
OH: Alex McCourt is an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. He’s been studying the use and recovery of ghost guns across the country.
ALEX McCOURT: “After the federal rule and some corresponding state laws went into effect, there was a decrease in ghost guns recovered. In short, our early preliminary findings are suggesting that ghost gun policies work as intended.”
OH: The state already restricts the manufacture and assembly of untraceable firearms.
But this bill would specifically ban using 3D printers to create guns—as well as the possession or sale of certain computer codes used to make firearm parts.
Washington resident William Benjamin told the committee he supports the intention…
WILLIAM BENJAMIN: “...but I respectfully ask that the legislator revise the wording to create a narrower and more clearly defined scope so that lawful use of 3D printing and design tools are not unintentionally restricted.”
OH: Christian Czar runs a makerspace in Seattle with 3D printers.
CHRISTIAN CZAR: “As written, I fear my makerspace would need to remove our 3D printers to avoid criminal liability, even if it is unlikely we'd be prosecuted.”
OH: The House Civil Rights Committee hasn’t yet set another hearing date for the bill.
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The Washington Secretary of State’s office has verified the first of two initiatives sponsored by Seattle hedge fund executive Brian Heywood.
The measure would require school districts to adopt policies forbidding transgender girls from competing against athletes assigned female at birth.
The initiative would also require health care providers who perform sports physicals to provide statements verifying an athlete’s sex.
In a statement, the group Washington Families for Freedom said that policy could put young students “at risk of unnecessary genital examinations.”
The measure will be sent to the legislature for consideration.
Democratic leaders say they don’t plan to hold hearings on it and will instead send it to a statewide public vote in November.
The future of a second Heywood initiative, regarding parents’ rights to access information from their children’s schools, is still in the signature counting phase.
That would reverse changes the legislature made last year to a similar initiative approved by lawmakers in 2024.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Amy Radil, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and me, Owen Henderson. I’m also the host and producer.
Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next week.
It’s SPR.
