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SPR News Today: Spokane clergy bring back lessons from Minneapolis protests

This photo shows posters reading "Renee Nicole Good, American Mom, Murdered by ICE" on a boarded up shop in Minneapolis on Jan. 11, 2026. A group of Inland Northwest faith leaders traveled to the Twin Cities to join the protests last week.
Chad Davis
/
Flickr Creative Commons
This photo shows posters reading "Renee Nicole Good, American Mom, Murdered by ICE" on a boarded up shop in Minneapolis on Jan. 11, 2026. A group of Inland Northwest faith leaders traveled to the Twin Cities to join the protests last week.

Today's headlines:

  • The Washington legislature unknowingly redirected vape tax revenue dollars last year. That's costly for public health.
  • New tax conformity bill would add to Idaho's growing lost revenue.
  • K-12 public schools may no longer be exempt from cuts to try to balance the Gem State's budget.
  • A proposed Idaho bill would require Idaho voters to bring IDs to the polls.
  • The race to represent eastern Washington in D.C. is getting more crowded.
  • Cannabis could be more hazardous for people with mental health problems than previously thought.

Plus, eastern Washington clergy flew to Minneapolis to support anti-ICE protests. SPR's Eliza Billingham spoke with Reverend Genevieve Heywood, who says there's a lot for Spokane to learn.

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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.

Reporting contributed by Eliza Billingham, James Dawson, Owen Henderson and Noel Gasca.

The show is hosted and produced by Owen Henderson.

Owen Henderson hosts Morning Edition for SPR News, but after he gets off the air each day, he's reporting stories with the rest of the team. Owen a 2023 graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he studied journalism with minors in Spanish and theater. Before joining the SPR newsroom, he worked as the Weekend Edition host for Illinois Public Media, as well as reporting on the arts and LGBTQ+ issues.
Eliza Billingham is a full-time news reporter for SPR. She earned her master’s degree in journalism from Boston University, where she was selected as a fellow with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting to cover an illegal drug addiction treatment center in Hanoi, Vietnam. She’s spent her professional career in Spokane, covering everything from rent crises and ranching techniques to City Council and sober bartenders. Originally from the Chicago suburbs, she’s lived in Vietnam, Austria and Jerusalem and will always be a slow runner and a theology nerd.