Today's headlines:
- Washington is moving again to separate its vaccine advice from guidance issued from the federal government.
- Washington House Majority Leader is apologizing for drinking on the job on Wednesday.
- Panhandle Health District wants to emphasize alternative and nutrition-based medicine in North Idaho as it shifts prevention efforts from infectious diseases to chronic diseases instead.
- One Idaho senator is pushing to make voter affidavits more strict.
- Former public health officer Bob Lutz asks a federal appeals court to reopen his case against the Spokane Regional Health District. Lutz says the district fired him without due process.
Plus, Washington state set aside $100 million last legislative session to pay for new police officers. But local municipalities haven't seen a penny of it yet. Jake Goldstein-Street from the Washington State Standard explains why the rollout has been so slow, even though the law says all the money has to be spent by mid-2028.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, Noel Gasca, James Dawson, Doug Nadvornick and Owen Henderson.
Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
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TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Friday, February 27, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington is taking another step away from the federal government when it comes to vaccines and public health policy.
And the Panhandle Health District could totally revamp what services it provides in north Idaho, moving away from a focus on infectious diseases.
Plus, Washington’s governor pushed hard last year to set aside funds so local governments could hire more law enforcement officers. So why hasn’t any of that money gone out yet?
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Washington state is on its way to shifting decision-making authority on vaccines away from federal bodies.
After Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. installed several anti-vaccine members to the federal immunization advisory panel, the group drastically reduced the number of shots recommended for children.
Now, a bill to uncouple state immunization law from the committee’s guidance is headed to the governor’s desk.
It also requires insurers to follow state guidance on what shots to cover, rather than federal advice.
This follows Washington’s move to partner with California, Oregon and Hawaii to make public health recommendations separate from federal guidance.
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The Panhandle Health District could completely revamp the type of services it provides to North Idaho.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Panhandle Health wants to move away from infectious disease prevention to focus on chronic disease prevention instead.
To do that, Medical Director Gregory Pennock wants his clinics to combine traditional medicine with alternative and nutritional practices to combat high mortality illnesses like heart disease and cancer.
Most of Panhandle’s clients are currently women, who come for family planning and gynecological help.
Pennock says the health district wants to shift philosophies but not populations.
GREGORY PENNOCK: “We’re gonna start with women…women are the cornerstone of the family, they’re the cornerstone of medical decision-making within the family. And we have an existing women’s health clinic that we can focus on and build upon.”
EB: Pennock suggested using licensed volunteers from Idaho’s Medical Reserve Corps to cut down on costs.
Bonner County Commissioners had various reactions. Commissioner Asia Williams is unclear if medical reserve corps members are willing to volunteer for the district.
Commissioner Ron Korn is unconvinced that healthcare is something the government should provide.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Washington House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon is apologizing for consuming alcohol before completing his committee work in the state legislature Wednesday.
Video from that day’s Appropriations Committee meeting captured the Democratic representative’s slurred and halting speech.
JOE FITZGIBBON: “We—we have still managed to put forward a budget that prioritizes the people of this state.”
OH: In a statement, Fitzgibbon called his decision to drink alcohol before the committee work was over a “serious mistake”.
He said his actions were a “painful and embarrassing lesson”.
The Legislative Ethics Board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Idaho senators are moving ahead with a bill to make voting with an affidavit more secure.
Right now, registered voters who forget to bring their ID to the polls can swear to their identity on an affidavit to get a ballot.
The bill from Republican Sen. Brian Lenney would require those voters to give their birth date or driver’s license number to a poll worker to better verify who they are.
BRIAN LENNEY: “It’s still a loophole, in my opinion. This raises the bar significantly compared to what we currently have.”
OH: Lenney originally introduced a bill to remove voter affidavits as an option entirely.
But he says he chose to take this route as an incremental way to achieve that goal.
The proposal now moves on to the Senate floor for consideration.
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Former Spokane public health officer Bob Lutz has asked a federal appeals court to revive his wrongful termination lawsuit against the health district.
During a hearing yesterday at Gonzaga, Lutz’s attorney says his client was given no warning before he was fired in 2020.
Then-Administrative Officer Amelia Clark and the health board had become dissatisfied with his handling of state COVID mandates.
Lutz sued to get his job back, along with back pay.
In 2025, a federal judge dismissed most of Lutz’s claims and sent the others back to Spokane County court to be reconsidered.
Lutz’s attorney told a three-judge panel that his client’s due process rights were violated.
The Ninth Circuit Appeals Court is now considering the case.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Last legislative session, one of Washington Governor Bob Ferguson's priorities during a tight budget year was a pool of money to help local governments hire more law enforcement officers.
Working with Cheney Senator Jeff Holey and budget writers, Ferguson got lawmakers to set aside $100 million for the proposal. But that money hasn't actually reached municipalities yet.
Here to talk about it is Jake Goldstein-Street, who's been following the story for the Washington State Standard. Thanks for being here.
JAKE GOLDSTEIN-STREET: Thanks for having me.
OH: I think the natural first question is, why? Why don't we start there? What do we know about why the rollout has been so slow?
JGS: When you ask the question of why the rollout has been slow, we kind of have to go back to the debate around this legislation from last year.
Progressives were not particularly on board with the idea of sending $100 million for law enforcement for hiring, even though the state is last in the nation per capita and police staffing.
The governor came into office saying that he would veto any state budget that didn't have the $100 million. So they had to come to some sort of compromise.
And what they landed on was a pretty complicated proposal, pretty unique idea of how to run a grant program. And so you've got this $100 million, but it could go to other public safety measures, hiring co-responders and those sorts of things beyond just hiring police.
And then also to qualify for the grant program, you need to either enact a new 0.1% sales tax focused on this that could go towards public safety measures, or have an existing similar tax.
The idea there is that this $100 million is finite. And if you're trying to hire an officer for 20 or 30 years, you need some sort of sustainable revenue source. And so cities and counties were sort of on board with that idea.
Almost all cities and counties have one of these existing taxes. But then along with that, to qualify for the grants, and for applying the new sales tax, you needed to meet a series of requirements around a certain number of officers have crisis intervention training, you follow model policies around such things like the Keep Washington Working Act, and lay them out in the paperwork. And so we've gotten to the point now a year or so later, where none of the money has reached anyone yet.
And cities, counties, police were telling lawmakers last year that the way this was being set up was pretty complicated, and that it was going to take a long time to roll out. And so I don't think anyone's surprised by this, but it has been frustrating.
OH: I'm curious what you've heard from the governor so far about this unsurprising slow start.
JGS: For the governor, this was one of his big campaign promises. He told us last year that he's not totally worried about the issues.
I think the thing to note here is the Criminal Justice Training Commission, who's running this grant program, has not had a ton of experience doing something like this.
And this is particularly complicated. And so I think he's upfront with the fact that they've heard feedback that this has been pretty complex, pretty cumbersome, pretty bumpy.
I think now you could say that they're back on track a bit and getting closer to rolling out these grants. So I think he's not too concerned.
OH: On the flip side, what are you hearing from city administrators about this bumpy road?
JGS: So that's where there's a lot more concern. I think one thing to note here is that in the law that passed last year, outlining this, it said the money needed to be spent by mid-2028.
And now we're in early 2026. The money hasn't even reached cities yet. The first grant application period is still open.
It was set to end the end of February. That was pushed back to the end of March, seemingly because there weren't that many applicants. You know, there's a lot of things in the law that weren't necessarily super clear.
One thing that a few city officials have laid out is this issue with the sales tax. If you pass that and apply it, but don't meet all the requirements, those training requirements following model policies, like I said, the state could withhold your tax revenue up to $100,000 a month from that tax.
But there were concerns from a lot of smaller cities that, ‘Hey, this tax isn't even going to bring in $100,000 a month for us.’
And there was concern that if we don't meet these requirements, but we're trying to apply the tax, you're going to be dipping into our other sales tax revenue separate from this new tax to try to reach that $100,000.
They eventually got guidance from the state that that was not how it was going to work that they'll only withhold up to 100,000 from this specific tax, but that gave a lot of cities pause going into this.
And that's just one example of sort of the fears and concerns that cities and counties have had going into this trying to do things quickly, because they want to get most likely cops on the ground as quick as possible.
But it does take a while, given all these different requirements. And so it's they're anxious to get going here and are frustrated that it hasn't gotten going yet.
OH: Well, is there anything that could be done in this very complicated system to make the rollout easier and kind of get this spending back on track if we're looking to, you know, get $100 million out the door by 2028?
JGS: You know, the dreaded word here, stakeholders had hoped that there might be some kind of legislation this year in this legislative session to sort of correct some of these fixes, clarify things to try to make it a bit smoother. That does not appear to be happening, barring a miracle.
I will say I think cities and counties have been pleasantly surprised in the past couple months, things are moving out a bit quicker, things are a bit smoother. But now it's just a matter of deciding on these awards, getting the money out, you can't put the genie back in the bottle and go back six months and have all the answers to the questions that people have been looking for.
So either way, there's gonna be frustration about when this money hits, but it seems like things are getting smoother with time.
OH: Jake Goldstein Street covers breaking news for the Washington State Standard. Thanks for sharing your reporting with us.
JGS: Thanks for having me.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Noel Gasca, James Dawson, Doug Nadvornick and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also the host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
