Today's headlines:
- While Spokane waits on technology that could improve its Waste to Energy plant, it's trying to divert waste out of the trash stream before it reaches the incinerator.
- Most of Panhandle Health District’s clients are women seeking gynecological help. One Bonner County Commissioner thinks that sounds too much like Planned Parenthood.
- Health insurance enrollment on federal and state marketplaces dropped by about 1.4 million people this year. That comes after legislation to extend enhanced premium tax credits failed to pass a Senate vote last year.
- Idaho's JFAC passes further budget cuts over concerns they're too deep.
Looking to support the podcast? It's that time of year when the Inlander collects votes for its yearly "Best Of" issue, and the SPR News team would greatly appreciate your vote for SPR News Today in the Best Local Podcast category.
And education advocates are calling on Washington state lawmakers to make it easier for military families to access preschool. KNKX's Mitch Borden looked into proposed legislation that could affect thousands of troops.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Eliza Billingham, James Dawson and Mitch Borden.
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 Monday, February 9, 2026.
On today’s show, Spokane has the only waste-to-energy plant in Washington. But as state goals to reduce carbon emissions close in, local officials are trying to reduce the amount of trash going to the facility while working to cut a deal with legislators.
Plus, north Idaho’s public health district largely serves women, especially those seeking family planning and gynecological help. But Bonner County officials say those aren’t the services it should focus on.
And Washington lawmakers are considering legislation that could help more military families qualify for the state’s free preschool program.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Spokane officials are negotiating with the state legislature on a bill that could change how Washington regulates the waste-to-energy plant.
But, as SPR’s Doug Nadvornick reports, the city says it’s also working to divert more garbage before it’s burned.
DOUG NADVORNICK: Next year, thanks to the Climate Commitment Act, Spokane may have to buy up to eight million dollars’ worth of carbon credits to offset the incinerator’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The city wants to avoid that, so it’s working on alternatives with the legislature.
Public Works Director Marlene Feist says the latest option, which cleared one House committee last week, would exempt the city from having to buy credits.
MARLENE FEIST: “It would still have us, you know, monitor and reduce emissions, so we'd still be meeting those kinds of goals. They would just be goals set for waste to energy outside of the CCA.”
DN: But the necessary tech to help reduce emissions may not be feasible for years. So for now, it’s important to stop trash before it gets to the incinerator.
MF: “So plastics, number one and number five, particularly plastic cups and paper cups, we're going to start allowing those and encouraging people to put those into their recycle bins.”
DN: City officials warn they might have to close the incinerator if the state insists on carbon offsets. But, given the city and state’s massive investment in building and modernizing the plant over the last 30 years, that’s not likely.
I’m Doug Nadvornick reporting.
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OH: Most of the Idaho Panhandle Health District’s clients are women. Many are seeking family planning and gynecological help.
That’s not what Bonner County Commissioners think public health should be doing. SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Seventy percent of Panhandle Health’s clients are women. Those women are from every socioeconomic level in North Idaho.
That’s part of what Medical Director Gregory Pennock learned when he did an audit of his health district’s clinical services.
But when Pennock presented to Bonner County Commissioners last month, he said the health district is providing services women could get somewhere else.
GREGORY PENNOCK: “They’re duplicative services…why are people coming to Panhandle Health? It’s easy for them, they like seeing the provider, they get good care there. The nurse practitioner has found a niche for those patients.”
EB: The health district’s demand for women’s health seemed suspicious to Commissioner Ron Korn.
RON KORN: “It sounds a lot like Planned Parenthood… And yet I don’t want to be responsible at a county level to look like we’re funding a Planned Parenthood service.”
EB: Bonner County Commissioners will have a special meeting this Thursday to discuss the future of clinical services at Panhandle Health.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Health insurance enrollment on healthcare dot gov and state marketplaces dropped by about 1-point-4 million people this year.
That’s according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Rachel Sun reports.
RACHEL SUN: That drop in enrollment comes after legislation to extend enhanced premium tax credits failed to pass a Senate vote last year. Those tax credits previously reduced the cost of health insurance for millions of buyers.
An analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation looked at state-by-state projected increases for a 60-year-old who made just over $62-thousand dollars per year with a benchmark Silver Plan.
In Washington, that person would see their monthly premium increase by one hundred and ninety-two percent.
A different report by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that just over half of the people losing eligibility for those tax credits were between the ages of 50 and 64.
I’m Rachel Sun.
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OH: The Idaho legislature will soon take up another round of budget cuts.
That’s after the state’s budget committee on Friday endorsed a plan of further reducing state spending by up to 5%.
James Dawson has more.
JAMES DAWSON: Cuts would come across both the current fiscal year and the next, totaling $131 million and $143 million respectively.
JOSH TANNER: “We’re making hard decisions to put us into a very slim position at this point in time.”
JD: That’s Republican Rep. Josh Tanner, who co-chairs the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee. He thinks the governor’s plan of using mostly one-time funds to balance the budget would be worse in the long run if tax revenue doesn’t rebound.
The cuts passed Friday would exclude K-12 education, Medicaid, prisons and state troopers. That means other state agencies would share a heavier burden of the reductions.
Sen. Kevin Cook was one of a few Republicans to oppose the plan.
KEVIN COOK: “That approach is not [precise]. It is taking a chainsaw to the budget. It’s not looking at accountability.”
JD: The proposal still needs approval from the House and Senate, along with the governor to take effect.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: We interrupt your daily news podcast with something we don’t usually do at SPR: self-promotion.
If you’ve been enjoying SPR News Today, we’d love to spread the word about the show.
One way to do that? Voting for us in the Local Podcast category of the Inlander’s yearly “Best Of” competition.
You can find a link on our website or in this episode’s description.
Another way to help is just leaving us a rating and review on your podcasting platform of choice. It helps more than you know to raise our profile. OK, now, back to the news.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Education advocates are calling on Washington state lawmakers to make it easier for military families to access preschool.
In 2025, the Evergreen state was home to over 56,000 active duty troops.
And for those who are parents—it can be hard to access affordable child care and early education.
But proposed legislation could help more military families qualify for the state’s free preschool program. KNKX reporter Mitch Borden has more.
MB: If you’ve ever stood in a preschool classroom like this one in Bremerton, it can seem a little chaotic. But these 3 and 4 year olds are learning a lot as they play games – on the day I visit - it's alphabet bingo.
[AMBI: “K” “I have one” “No K, what about you?”]
Now, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers is aiming to help more children from military families get into classrooms like this one.
[AMBI: “C” “I have one” “Good job, how about a Z?” “Nooooooo.”]
Washington state’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program, or ECEAP as it is more commonly known, helps low income students attend preschool for free. Along with helping with academics, the program provides meals and medical screenings.
Education advocates like Joel Ryan are pushing for the program to include children that have parents who’re in the armed forces because they face a lot of challenges.
JOEL RYAN: “I was surprised by the depth of poverty and the limited resources that are available to families.”
MB: He’s the executive director of the Washington State Association of Headstart & ECEAP. Ryan points to evidence that many military families face food insecurity. Young kids can also struggle when a parent is deployed.
He says ECEAP can help with these problems, but a lot of military households make too much to qualify.
JR: “Often these families are making just above the cut off that ECEAP allows. So we’re creating a little bit more flexibility in the ECEAP statute so that those families will be able to enroll.”
MB: The legislation being considered by Washington state lawmakers would expand ECEAP’s eligibility requirements.
Depending on space in a classroom, it would allow higher earning military families into the program, but there would be an income cap based on the state’s median income.
For a military household of three to qualify for ECEAP, they would have to make less than $6,000 a month.
If passed, this bill isn’t expected to affect the state budget or increase ECEAP’s operating costs.
Shannon Turner says opening up the program to more military families would be a big improvement.
He lives in Bremerton and served in the army for around a decade. He’s a father of four and says whenever he was deployed it was incredibly stressful.
SHANNON TURNER: “I was always concerned about ‘how is my family doing? how is my wife doing? How’s my son? Is my family taken care of, do they have everything they need?”
MB: Turner says he knows from first hand experience that it can be hard for lower rank service members to make ends meet. Turner started as a private in the army and worked his way up to being a sergeant.
ST: “There were times we had to go to food banks, or a church to help get funds to kind of help pay the rent. So it's definitely hard.”
High prices in Washington can be an issue for people moving here from areas with a low cost of living, according to Maria Tobin. She’s with the South Sound Military and Communities Partnership, which advocates for military families and communities near Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Pierce County.
MARIA TOBIN: “They get a stark reality when they come here, recognizing how expensive the gas is, how far away they’re going to have to live, how much groceries cost here.”
MB: She says expanding access to ECEAP could free up time for military spouses to get a job.
MT: “It’s not only the educational component, but it allows military families to have that second income. That’s extremely important.”
It wasn’t until after leaving the army that Shannon Turner learned about ECEAP. He was unemployed at the time, so his family qualified.
Turner enrolled his daughter. And, it didn't take long before he saw how the program was helping her come out of her shell.
ST: “When I would go to pick her up, the smile on her face and getting the hug is like ‘oh daddy this is what I learned today. Oh daddy, here is my friend. Can we go over to her house so I can play with her?”
MB: Along with preparing his daughter for kindergarten, Turner says the program’s medical screenings found that she was having hearing issues and helped her get the care she needed.
He says ECEAP was life changing for his family. And now, Turner wants state lawmakers to make it easier for other military parents to get this support for their kids.
I’m Mitch Borden reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Eliza Billingham, Rachel Sun, James Dawson and Mitch Borden.
I’m Owen Henderson, your host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
