Today's headlines:
- GOP and Democratic Nortthwest officials call investigations, de-escalation after federal agents shoot another Minneapolis protester.
- Spokane elementary school student and her dad detained by Border Patrol.
- Idaho Supreme Court justices seem skeptical of a challenge to the state’s school choice tax credit during oral arguments Friday.
- Washington lawmakers try to make it legal for farmworkers to bargain a union contract.
- Bring back "real food." Washington experts opine on new federal nutritional standards.
- Worrisome radioactive waste gets a new dry home at Hanford.
- Rep. Hunter Abell (R-Inchelium) is pushing Washington to follow through on building a memorial to veterans of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- The Seattle Seahawks square up for a Super Bowl rematch against the Patriots after a narrow victory over the LA Rams Sunday.
And Washington's recently implemented rent control measures coupled with rising utility costs mean some mobile home park owners in the state have to sell their plots. SPR's Eliza Billingham brings us the story of one couple in Spokane Valley.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Owen Henderson, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Lauren Gallup, Reneé Dìaz, Anna King, Doug Nadvornick and Eliza Billingham.
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 26, 2026.
On today’s show, Northwest lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for investigations and de-escalation after federal immigration agents shot and killed another protester in Minneapolis this weekend.
And we have the story of a Spokane elementary school student who, along with her father, has been taken to a Texas immigration detention facility.
Plus, SPR’s Eliza Billingham walks us through the effects of Washington’s new rent control law on mobile home park owners in the eastern part of the state.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Democratic and Republican officials from the Northwest are calling for accountability and investigations after federal immigration agents shot another U-S citizen in Minneapolis on Saturday.
Eastern Washington Representative Michael Baumgartner joins a small group of GOP lawmakers to call for hearings on the killing.
In a social media post, he urged public officials to make fact-based statements and avoid inflammatory language.
Trump administration officials have defended the agents’ actions and referred to Alex Pretti, the man killed, as a domestic terrorist
Washington Democratic Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell both say they won’t support a bill giving additional funding to the Department of Homeland Security.
In a statement, Idaho Democratic Party Chair Lauren Necochea called the agents’ actions “federal lawlessness” and said the administration is “lying to cover up a killing.”
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A Spokane elementary school student was detained alongside her father earlier this month.
The family has been transported to a Texas detention center.
SPR’s Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas has more.
MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS: Spokane resident Arnoldo Tiul-Caal was detained, alongside his 10-year-old daughter, after being followed by Border Patrol agents for multiple days.
Olga Lucia Herrera, a local volunteer, says the family was navigating an ongoing asylum case. She accompanied Tiul-Caal to multiple check-ins without issues.
Herrera says Tiul-Caal worked in construction while his daughter attended Logan Elementary. He has no criminal record and a valid work permit.
The family is currently being held at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, she says.
Jennyfer Mesa, executive director of Latinos en Spokane, says she has been contacting them almost daily, providing support and legal guidance.
According to the Department of Justice database, their next court hearing is on March 9.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
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OH: Some Idaho Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical of a challenge to the state’s school choice tax credit during oral arguments Friday.
A coalition including the Moscow School District and Idaho Education Association want the court to declare the 50-million-dollar program unconstitutional.
But many of the justices questioned the coalition’s attorneys on the central argument of their challenge: that the state constitution prevents Idaho from financially supporting private schools.
Two justices also seemed to doubt whether the coalition had the standing to even challenge the program without a real injury.
Thousands of families have already applied for the tax credit this year.
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When the National Labor Relations Act made it possible for workers to unionize, it excluded certain jobs, like farmworkers.
Now, some Washington lawmakers want to give those agricultural workers a legal path to collective bargaining. N-W-P-B’s Lauren Gallup reports.
LAUREN GALLUP: Lawmakers have brought forward a bill in both the House and the Senate that would allow agricultural workers to unionize.
Octavia Santiago Martinez is a farmworker and elected member of Familias Unidas por la Justicia.
She spoke at a hearing for the House bill on Tuesday.
OCTAVIA SANTIAGO MARTINEZ: “Porque nosotros, los que tenemos un contrato colectivo, hemos notado la diferencia entre tener un contrato y no tener un contrato.”
TRANSLATION: “Because for us, the people that have a contract and that have that privilege, we have seen the difference and have seen firsthand what it means to have a contract and not to have it.”
LG: At the hearing, farmers expressed concerns with workers unionizing and bargaining for higher wages. They fear that this could hurt their bottom line at a time when the state is losing farms.
MICHAEL CONNORS: “Washington has lost 3,600 farms between 2017 and 2022, or about two farms a day.”
LG: That’s Michael Connors. His family grows potatoes, onions, apples, and cherries in Eastern Washington. He says if workers strike during harvest season, the farm loses that year’s yield.
Representative Lisa Parshley from Olympia is one of the sponsors of the House bill. She says lawmakers could rewrite the bill so that workers would be restricted from striking during harvests. But —
LISA PARSHLEY: “ If you bargain in good faith, you're not gonna have a strike. Okay? They don't wanna strike. They wanna work.”
LG: If the bills pass, the law will put farmworkers under the jurisdiction of the public employment relations commission for the purpose of collective bargaining.
I’m Lauren Gallup, reporting.
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OH: The federal government has released new dietary guidelines, and some nutrition experts say the updates raise concerns.
University of Washington clinical dietician Judy Simon says the guidelines are disappointing because they don’t individually define what healthy eating looks like.
JUDY SIMON: "I think the idea of yes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, this whole eat more real food. That is great. But it also kind of leaves out social determinants of health. Not everybody can afford red meat. You can get very healthy protein from lentils and beans and less meat."
OH: The reaction to the update from Margaret Viebrock with Washington State University Extension is ‘that’s great’ — but last year her nutrition education program was defunded.
MARGARET VIEBROCK: " We had a very robust program where we taught a lot of parents how to prepare food, and we worked at the food banks and talked about how to make nutritious foods we no longer teach those classes. There's a lack of knowing how to cook."
OH: The new guidelines call for more protein and full fat dairy, while avoiding sugars and highly processed foods.
Experts like Simon are concerned the emphasis on eating too much red meat could lead to chronic illness like heart disease.
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At the Hanford site, there are nearly 2,000 capsules filled with radioactive waste. They’re sitting in a pool of water.
But if an earthquake hit, that could cause a Fukushima-type disaster.
Last week, federal workers moved some of the capsules to store them more safely. Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Anna King reports.
ANNA KING: In total, it will take at least three years to carefully transfer all these capsules out of the pool into nearly 20 huge dry casks.
Here’s Ryan Miller, a spokesman with Washington State’s Department of Ecology. That’s the agency that watches over this work.
RYAN MILLER: “From the state’s perspective, we’re really excited and we’re glad to see this project moving forward. It’s really integral to our goal, our continuing goal, of cleaning up the Hanford site, reducing risks to the surrounding environment and communities.”
AK: The radioactive waste in the capsules is all part of the leftovers from making plutonium for bombs during WWII and the Cold War.
I’m Anna King.
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OH: Northeast Washington Representative Hunter Abell wants the state government to honor veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Inchelium Republican has proposed building a monument at the state capitol in Olympia.
HUNTER ABELL: “Couple of years ago, a memorial was authorized here on the capitol campus as a discretionary matter. There was no process established and no money provided. So what this bill is designed to do is it creates the process. It’s designed to stimulate the private fundraising that I think will be necessary ultimately to complete the bill.”
OH: Abell says he’ll ask for a small amount of money to get the project started.
He hopes to have the memorial built and ready for dedication within five years.
The capitol campus already houses memorials for veterans from World Wars 1 and 2 and the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
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The Seattle Seahawks are headed to Super Bowl 60 to play the New England Patriots.
The Hawks beat the Los Angeles Rams, 31-27, last night in the N-F-C championship game at Lumen Field in Seattle.
The Seahawks led most of the game, but needed a late defensive stand deep in their own territory to keep the Rams from scoring a game-winning touchdown.
Quarterback Sam Darnold [DAR-nold] threw three touchdown passes, including one to Eastern Washington University alum Cooper Kupp.
It will be Seattle’s fourth Super Bowl and its second against New England.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Some mobile home park owners are selling after Washington instituted rent control last year.
As SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, it’s an opportunity for both tenants and developers.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Guy and Lori Milton sold their small manufactured housing community in Spokane Valley last November.
GUY MILTON: “It was meant to be our retirement income. Our intent was to never sell it.”
EB: But after utility costs went up and Washington installed a 5% cap on lot rent increases, the Miltons decided they could no longer make enough money.
LORI MILTON: “It got to just be kind of scary and overwhelming and for a small park. We can't absorb those kind of costs.”
EB: Washington requires owners to give tenants a notice of sale. This allows tenants to consider forming a co-op to buy the land underneath them, which usually makes their living expenses more stable.
But forming a co-op can be intimidating, and tenants’ offers don’t have to be accepted.
The Miltons considered selling to their tenants, but eventually sold to the developer that owns apartment buildings next to the park.
The developer told them it will keep the mobile home park as is… for now.
VICTORIA OBANION: “Most of the parks are built in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s.”
EB: Victoria O’Banion works for the Northwest Cooperative Development Center.
VO: “At a certain point, the landowner may choose, rather than doing the repairs…they may just be forced or elect to make the decision that they close the manufactured housing community and then rebuild and repurpose that parcel to a housing development.”
She quickly points out that that hasn’t happened anywhere yet. She doesn’t know if rent control could lead to more tenants owning their land or being displaced.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Monica Carrillo-Casas, Lauren Gallup, Reneé Dìaz, Anna King, Doug Nadvornick, Eliza Billingham and me, Owen Henderson. I’m also the host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
