Today's headlines:
- Washington's 'millionaires' tax' evades legislative deadline after passage by key committee
- Spokane considers rerouting $100,000 from its police budget to help families affected by federal immigration enforcement.
- Spokane may not have to pay for the Waste-to-Energy Plant's carbon emissions under a bill advanced by a House committee Monday.
- The Northwest Commission on Colleges and University removes North Idaho College's probation and fully reinstates its accreditation.
- A bill to regulate children's social media use clears Idaho House.
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And after December's historic flooding in western Washington, tribal biologists say giving rivers more room to roam can help both salmon and people. But as KUOW’s John Ryan reports, knocking down levees means losing valuable farmland.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson and John Ryan.
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 Tuesday, February 10, 2026.
On today’s show, a controversial proposal to tax incomes over one million dollars has met and passed its first test in the Washington legislature.
Plus, after a multi-year saga that included a firing without cause and open meetings violations, North Idaho College’s accreditation has finally been restored to good standing.
And as flood recovery continues in western Washington, we hear about one effort that could mitigate future damage and help restore salmon populations. But as John Ryan will tell us, not all local farmers are on board with the plan.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
A key Washington Senate committee has approved a divisive bill to tax incomes of more than a million dollars.
All but one Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee voted yesterday to advance the measure.
The committee amended the so-called “millionaires’ tax” to increase the revenue dedicated to public defense services from 5% to 7%, an estimated 200 million dollars annually.
Other tweaks would increase a tax break for smaller businesses and modify the distribution of that public defense money to emphasize assistance for rural counties.
Republicans argue the tax could be expanded in the future for those making less than a million dollars.
The income tax proposal now goes to the Rules Committee, which is expected to advance the measure to the full Senate for consideration.
If passed, this tax could bring in about 3-point-6 billion dollars a year once fully implemented.
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The City of Spokane is considering whether to funnel 100 thousand dollars from the police budget to direct assistance for at-risk immigrant families, especially those affected by federal immigration enforcement.
The money would be doled out by the Spokane Immigrant Rights Coalition, a conglomeration of nonprofits and churches.
The financials would be overseen by Muslims for Community Action and Support, a 501(c)3 that has stricter reporting requirements than the Coalition.
Deputy City Administrator Maggie Yates told City Council the Spokane Police Department is supportive.
MAGGIE YATES: “Chief Hall was a part of those early conversations, and we continue to be in discussion with him, collaboratively trying to figure out how to address the gap. Through that partnership, we were able to identify funding in SPD's budget to make this $100,000 contract possible.”
OH: She says the dollars would be for things like housing, grocery, transportation, or medical expenses to stabilize families and prevent accumulating costs or stressors.
Though the Coalition has ties to the progressive advocacy group FUSE Washington, Yates says it would not be allowed to use the money for any lobbying efforts.
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A bill exempting Spokane’s Waste-to-Energy plant from parts of the Climate Commitment Act survived a legislative deadline yesterday [MON].
The House Appropriations Committee approved a measure that would take Spokane off the hook for buying carbon credits to offset the plant’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Instead, the bill would create separate regulations to oversee and reduce carbon emissions from the state’s only garbage incinerator.
The measure now goes to the House floor for consideration.
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After alleged hostile behavior, open meetings violations and messy hirings, North Idaho College’s accreditation crisis is over.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Ed Harri, a vice president for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, Zoom-ed into a room filled with dozens of NIC staff, students and supporters.
ED HARRI: “Earlier today, the Commission's decision on North Idaho College's accreditation was communicated to college leadership…the sanction of probation was removed and accreditation was reaffirmed for NIC. Congratulations.” [cheers]
EB: NIC President Nick Swayne also Zoom-ed in—from D.C. He apologized that he and his team already had plane tickets booked to lobby national legislators. But he said there’s nowhere he wanted to be last night more than NIC.
NICK SWAYNE: “This college and this community has faced a lot of challenges together. But we weren't just sitting around waiting. We were always moving forward.”
EB: Harri said there’s nothing left for NIC to do except a standard cycle of reporting.
There should be a year six report this spring and a year seven evaluation next year.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Idaho lawmakers are trying to bring down levels of social media addiction in children.
As James Dawson reports, a new bill would impose several new restrictions on some of the world’s biggest online brands.
JAMES DAWSON: If passed into law, social media companies would by default set all privacy settings to their highest levels for children 16 and under.
It would also ban paid advertisements, endless scrolling feeds or excessive push notifications without parental permission.
Republican Rep. Jaron Crane, who sponsors the bill, says excessive social media use can be damaging to kids in so many ways, including harassment.
JARON CRANE: “It’s one thing for someone to cyber bully one of us in this room as a public servant. But when you’re a kid dealing with some unknown profile on a social media platform, the way in which they respond to that is entirely different.”
JC: Most House members supported the bill.
Republican Rep. Joe Alfieri brought up a neuroscientist who recently testified before Congress with an alarming hypothesis.
JOE ALFIERI: “Generation Z is less intelligent than the previous generation and it is because of these devices.”
JD: Companies that ignore the proposed rules could be sued in civil court by families, under the bill. State senators will take up the issue next.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: If you’ve been enjoying SPR News Today, we’d love to spread the word about the podcast.
One way to help is just by leaving us a rating and review on your podcast platform of choice.
And ‘tis the season for the Inlander’s yearly “Best Of” issue. You can vote for us in the Local Podcast category until Tuesday, February 17.
Find a link on our website or in this episode’s description.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
December’s floods took a heavy toll on people—and fish—in western Washington.
Surging flood waters can be rough on salmon, especially when rivers are blocked off from going where they want to go.
Biologists and tribes say giving rivers more room to roam can help both salmon and people.
KUOW’s John Ryan reports from the mouth of the Stillaguamish River, north of Seattle.
[FOOTSTEP AMBI]
JOHN RYAN: Scott Boyd is walking through deep mud at the river’s edge.
This river mouth changed dramatically in October. That’s when the Stillaguamish Tribe removed two miles of earthen levee that kept the river and the tides from spreading onto nearby farmland.
SCOTT BOYD: “Well, before, it was a dairy operation. And now it's a big tidal marsh”.
JR: Boyd is a Stillaguamish tribal member and fisheries manager.
The tribe has about 400 members.
SB: “Our official reservation is pretty small, I want to say less than 100 acres. It wasn't granted to us until maybe 10 years ago.”
JR: Over the past 15 years, the Stillaguamish Tribe has purchased a couple thousand acres of land in Snohomish County for fish and wildlife habitat.
Like other tribes, the Stillaguamish signed a treaty giving up almost all of their land. But they kept their rights to fish and hunt.
SB: “It is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow to buy back the land that we essentially traded for the resource, the fish, but it's what we have to do to get things back on track.”
JR: What the tribe wants back on track is salmon.
Chinook salmon are a threatened species in Puget Sound.
Last year, so few came back to the Stillaguamish River that the entire tribe was only allowed to catch 26 fish.
Tidal marshes are crucial nurseries for Chinook salmon. So the tribe has been buying up riverfront land and removing levees to turn farmland into wetland.
SB: “The salmon, it has always been important to our people, to the tribe, to our way of life, and we’re finding that these habitat projects are the best bang for our buck right now.”
JR: This brand-new wetland has benefits beyond salmon.
[BIRD AMBI]
Thousands of shorebirds launch from the mudflat in tight formation, like a pulsing, living cloud.
JASON GRIFFITH: “Watch these dunlins. it's a visual symphony.”
[BIRD AMBI FADES]
JR: Jason Griffith is a biologist for the Stillaguamish Tribe. He says now, when the river floods, some of its destructive energy can spread out and dissipate before it does harm.
JG: “Now the river can connect to its flood plain like it hasn't in 140 years.”
JR: Farther back from the river, the tribe built a new levee to keep farmland behind it protected from high waters.
JG: “By giving the river more space, we are reducing the damage and the expense to society to maintain infrastructure. It's cheaper to maintain if you stay further away.”
JR: But there are always tradeoffs with changing land use.
TYLER BREUM: “There’s only so much farmland. The population of the country, of the world, it's still increasing, and they got to get their food from somewhere.”
JR: Tyler Breum farms potatoes and seed crops a few miles north of this new wetland.
TB: “The levees make life in the floodplain possible. Y ou know, we wouldn't be able to farm or to live there without the levees.”
JR: During the December floods, Breum spent an anxious night riding his all-terrain vehicle on a levee by his farm.
TB: “I was just out there on my four-wheeler, just riding back and forth, back and forth, I think every hour during that night, just riding the dike up and down, making sure we're okay.”
JR: That century-old levee sprang a leak during a flood four years ago. Luckily, a duck hunter noticed it, and repair crews were able to muster before disaster struck.
TB: “The city of Stanwood could have been underwater there, if it hadn't been caught as quickly as it was.”
JR: Breum tried to buy the farmland that is now becoming a marsh. He was outbid by the Stillaguamish Tribe.
Still, he says he supports salmon-habitat projects, as long as farmers see some benefits too.
TB: “It's really important that Chinook recover. There are fields that are less productive than other fields that should probably be the first to go. I'm probably alone in that opinion when it comes to local farming.”
JR: None of the farmers on the board of the Snohomish County Farm Bureau would comment for this story.
The new levee on the Stillaguamish tribe’s latest habitat project stands four feet taller than the one torn down.
That could help neighboring farms survive the bigger floods expected with a changing climate.
[RIVER AMBI]
The Stillaguamish tribe has restored hundreds of acres of tidal habitat so far but aims for much more.
Scientists say it will take thousands of acres to help Puget Sound Chinook swim off the endangered-species list.
I'm John Ryan, reporting.
[RIVER AMBI FADES]
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson, John Ryan and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
