Today's headlines:
- Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown say they can't stop ICE from coming to Washington, but they'll to everything they can to make sure immigration officers act within the bounds of the law.
- Washingtonians across the state are looking to curb youth access to kratom, a federally unregulated substance that can get users high. But state and cities are taking different approaches.
- The cost of incarcerating people in Idaho is going up as the state's inmate population is spiking.
- Let's Go Washington's initiative re-enacting parent's "right to know" is now certified to go before the state legislature.
- The Newport School District proposed its first bond in decades to renovate its high school. On Monday morning, one of those classrooms was an inch deep in water.
- STA is updating its operating procedures for double decker buses after one crashed into a too-low viaduct in downtown Spokane.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Scott Greenstone, Eliza Billingham, Owen Henderson, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Carrillo-Casas and Kyrsten Weber.
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 27, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington’s governor and attorney general say they’re preparing in the event that more federal immigration agents are sent to the state
And both the city of Spokane and the Evergreen State are considering rules for the federally unregulated substance kratom.
While one might ban it, the other sees it as a potential revenue source.
Plus, it’s special election season, and school districts across the Inland Northwest are asking voters to weigh in on bonds and levies. We’ll walk through a few of the ballot measures.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
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Washington Governor Bob Ferguson is condemning the president’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, including the shooting of a nurse by federal agents in Minneapolis Saturday.
BOB FERGUSON: "We will not allow this administration to turn our nation into an authoritarian regime. That is not our America, and we will not allow this administration to change that."
OH: Minutes before their press conference yesterday, Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Brown says it denounces an internal memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that says officers can enter homes without judicial warrants.
NICK BROWN: "People have asked what we can do if ICE descends on Washington state, as they have in Minnesota. And I will not speculate on our strategy. I'm not going to hand our playbook to them."
OH: The governor says grass-root groups will also play an important role if ICE increases their presence in Washington—as they’re doing in Minneapolis.
BF: “If things continue to escalate, and that happens here in Washington state, we'll need to depend on those folks to partner with us on making sure the conduct of ICE agents is being recorded.”
OH: Ferguson says he isn’t aware of plans for more immigration agents to come to the state.
Still, as KUOW’s Scott Greenstone reports, state officials are meeting with the head of Washington's National Guard to discuss deployment scenarios in the event ICE agents are sent to Washington.
SCOTT GREENSTONE: Washington’s governor and the state’s top lawyer urged the federal government to quote ‘de-escalate’ in Minnesota.
Attorney General Nick Brown:
NB: “If you are not horrified by what we've been seeing from federal agents in Minnesota shooting a man on the ground, shooting a woman in her car… jailing clergy, arresting children. I just have to pray that anyone not outraged by this, that they will come through the fog of lies from this administration.”
SG: Some Republicans, such as Spokane Congressman Michael Baumgartner, have said they’re disturbed by video of border patrol agents shooting Alex Pretti in Minneapolis Saturday.
But on conservative site Seattle Red, the state Republican party chair Jim Walsh said the shooting was justified because Pretti had a weapon on his person.
I’m Scott Greenstone in Olympia.
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OH: Washingtonians across the state are looking to curb youth access to kratom, a federally unregulated substance that can get users high.
But as SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, the state and individual cities are taking different approaches.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: The Washington state Senate is considering a bill that would put a 95% tax on kratom products and require kratom retailers to have a license.
All tax revenue would fund harmful substance prevention efforts for youth.
Amy Brackenberry, on behalf of the Washington State Public Health Association, says her organization would like regulation to go further.
AMY BRACKENBERRY: "We believe regulation needs a broader set of guardrails including the age-gating of product for ages 21 and up."
EB: Oregon currently has a similar age restriction on kratom purchasers and requires kratom retailers to register every year.
The City of Spokane is currently considering an outright ban against kratom. The ordinance is scheduled to have its first reading this week. If it passes next week, Spokane would be the first Washington city to ban the product outright.
A lobbyist for the American Kratom Association told senators that his organization supports age restrictions and labeling requirements.
But it would only seek to ban 7-OH, a synthetic substance that has opioid-like effects and is sometimes found in kratom products.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Idaho’s incarcerated population is spiking at a time when holding inmates is getting more and more expensive across the board—in state prisons, county jails and out of state facilities.
Correction Department Director Bree Derrick told lawmakers yesterday the number of people entering facilities is growing, while the release rate and average stay length have remained stable.
The increase comes as costs of basic supplies for housing inmates are rising, some by about 25%
The governor is recommending the state grow the Correction Department’s budget for county and out-of-state placements by almost 70% from the current fiscal year.
His request for the entire department is about 10% above last year’s ask.
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The Washington Secretary of State’s office is forwarding a second initiative from hedge fund executive Brian Heywood to state lawmakers.
This one would roll back changes to a Parents’ Bill of Rights initiative approved by the legislature in 2024.
Secretary Steve Hobbs says Heywood’s organization, Let’s Go Washington, has submitted enough signatures to send it to lawmakers.
Democratic leaders have said they don’t plan to hold a hearing for the measure.
Instead, they say, they’ll forward it to the November ballot for a vote of the people.
Last week, Hobbs sent another Heywood initiative to the Capitol.
It would require school districts to forbid transgender girls from competing against athletes assigned female at birth.
It will likely also be decided by voters.
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Ballots are in the mail for Washington voters who have February elections.
In Spokane County, four school districts have issues to decide.
The East Valley district is asking its voters to approve a $220-million bond issue.
Much of that money would fund construction of a new East Valley High School.
Voters in the Rosalia and St. John’s school districts each have operations levies and capital levies to decide.
There’s also an operations levy ask on the ballot in Tekoa.
In Pend Oreille County, Newport School District has proposed a bond to renovate the rural town’s 45-year-old high school.
The school district’s last bond was more than 2 decades ago.
SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas has more.
MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS: February ballots will include a $46.3-million bond to upgrade and modernize the building.
Superintendent Dave Smith says their main priority would be the high school’s HVAC system.
DAVE SMITH: "We have teachers that bring in their own heaters, I mean, which is not real cost effective, but we try to just pump up the heat as much as we can. But I mean, that's another problem in itself with utility costs."
MCC: Their current heating system is a 45-year-old boiler that pumps hot water through old and rusting coils around the building.
On Monday morning, Smith says a heating coil broke inside one of their classroom walls, flooding the room with an inch of water and drenching neighboring rooms.
If passed, the bond would tax property owners at a rate of $1.75 per $1,000 in assessed property value for up to 22 years. The district would also qualify for an estimated $17.7 million in state grant assistance.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
OH: Newport voters will also decide a maintenance and operations levy.
Ballots for all Washington elections must be returned by February 10.
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Spokane Transit says it’s updating some of its procedures for operating its double decker buses, like the one that hit a downtown railroad viaduct earlier this month.
The agency says all double decker drivers will make safety stops before driving under viaducts.
And it says it will disable the navigation software on the buses when it puts them back into action.
The bus that hit the viaduct was off its normal route when the accident occurred.
The agency immediately took the buses out of service.
STA confirms that the driver was trained and authorized to operate doubledecker buses and had experience driving the route they were on, but ended off-route.
STA is working with the navigation software company to determine if there were any software-related issues.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Scott Greenstone, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Kyrsten Weber and me, Owen Henderson. I’m also the host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
