Today's headlines:
- The Washington legislature seems poised to pass a law banning law enforcement from wearing masks.
- The news is not as positive for a "millionaire's tax" in Olympia.
- Spokane County needs new technology to clean the contaminated landfill near Colbert. It's strategy for the past three decades hasn't been working.
- Construction gets underway for Adams Elementary on Spokane's South Hill.
- UW researchers want to expand the use of ketamine to help people get through opioid withdrawal.
Plus, current Spokane poet laureate Mery Noel Smith is using her platform to get more kids involved with poetry. With the help of Spokane Arts, she's creating the first youth poet laureate position that comes with real responsibility—and thousands of dollars.
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In Washington, it may soon be illegal for law enforcement officers to wear face coverings. A ban on masks for local and federal officers has one more hurdle to clear in the state legislature before it goes to the governor’s desk. Both chambers have approved it. The Senate must now sign off on changes made by the House.
Opponents like Rep. Jeremie DuFault say the ban risks the privacy of officers, and is empty political posturing.
“This bill makes a do nothing statement at the expense of the safety and privacy of our law enforcement officers. Do nothing Madam Speaker because the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibits state governments from interfering in the enforcement of federal law," he said.
Supporters say making officers show their faces is a way of holding them accountable.
California passed a similar ban on masks, but a court blocked it earlier this year. It’s unclear if Washington’s bill would encounter similar challenges.
Meanwhile, a proposed income tax for people who make more than a million dollars a year has an uncertain future.
The Washington State Standard reports Democrats are still not fully on board and neither is Governor Bob Ferguson. Ferguson wants more money raised by the tax to be diverted to lower and middle income people. The Standard reports there aren’t currently enough votes to approve the tax, but behind-the-scenes efforts to build support continue.
The legislation would impose a ten-percent tax on all income above a million dollars.
Small business owners are mixed in their opinions about the tax. Some, including in the tech industry, worry the tax would be applied to their profits and reduce the amount of money they’re able to reinvest in their businesses.
But, Steven Severin, who owns and operates a number of music venues and restaurants in Seattle says, because of his business’ cash flow, he’s likely not affected.
“Most of the money we make goes to paying rent, our staff and all the other costs. We will not be taking a hit from this tax," he said.
The bill does include tax breaks for small businesses, but tax breaks for high-grossing corporations were removed.
The legislation has been approved by the Senate and is expected to be debated on the House floor next week.
Spokane County needs new technology to clean up the Colbert superfund site.
As SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, the current remediation strategy for the shuttered landfill isn’t working.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: In the late 1970s, Keytronic Corporation and Fairchild Air Force Base were dumping their hazardous waste into the landfill near Colbert in north Spokane County.
The hazards were chlorinated solvents, also known as volatile organic compounds, which are often found in degreasers or paint strippers.
Spokane County project manager Austin Stewart told County Commissioners that, at that time, the landfill didn’t have a bottom liner to catch those contaminants. So, they infiltrated into the aquifer.
The county has been trying to figure out how to clean up the site for the past three decades.
STEWART: “The big remedial technology selected to clean up this site was a pump and treat system. So effectively what that does is it extracts contaminated water, it strips that VOC contamination from the water, and discharges the clean water to the Little Spokane River.”
Stewart says that strategy isn’t actually cleaning up the site.
He says a better treatment would be injecting colonies of contaminant-eating bacteria into the most affected areas. But his team needs to know where those areas are.
So they’re asking for permission to apply for a grant that would help them collect that data, then move forward with the new remediation strategy–which could still take at least three more decades.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
The process of replacing Spokane’s oldest school, 117-year-old Adams Elementary, has begun.
Spokane Public Schools superintendent Adam Swinyard says demolition crews have removed some of the school’s portable classrooms. The gym has been knocked down. That work will continue as long as the weather cooperates.
Swinyard hopes construction on the new school will continue in a month or two. He says they’ve tweaked the original plans for the school’s footprint.
“For example, a constituent group asked for us to site a bike trail that intersects the side of the property just to make our city a little bit more friendly for our bike riders. And so that's just a good example of that. That wasn't part of the K-12 design, but at virtually no cost, very easy to site in a bike path on the edge of the perimeter of the building," he said.
Swinyard says the new school will sit closer to the corner of 37th and Regal than its predecessor. That will give students more green space behind the school, which will act as a buffer from the busy traffic in that neighborhood.
Adams is the first of the projects to be financed by money from the bond issue voters approved last November.
A new study published this month found that a small dose of ketamine can help relieve fentanyl withdrawal.
Researchers believe using this strategy could help patients access addiction treatment without extreme discomfort.
KNKX reporter Mitch Borden has more.
University of Washington’s Lucinda Grande was one of the authors of the article. She says people going through opioid withdrawal face a lot of uncomfortable symptoms.
GRANDE: “They have intense bone pain, muscle pain, stomach upset that’s like incredible painful cramps, they get vomiting and diarrhea."
The study looked at 50 patients at an Alabama crisis center that used fentanyl who were starting to go through withdrawal.
They were injected with a small dose of ketamine, which is a sedative, and then received a dose of buprenorphine, a medication for opioid use disorder that can bring on severe withdrawal symptoms.
However, instead of feeling worse, Grande says, because of the ketamine, the majority of patients began to feel better.
She hopes that these findings will inspire more medical providers to use ketamine to address fentanyl withdrawal and make addiction treatment less intimidating for patients.
I’m Mitch Borden reporting.
Spokane has a poet laureate. Her name is Mery Noel Smith. Her job is to promote poetry and literature.
She will also serve as a mentor to the city’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate. Spokane Arts and other organizations are accepting applications from poets 14 to 17 years to fill this brand-new, two-year position that will pay a thousand dollars a year. They will, like Smith, promote the art form in the community.
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Mery Smith: This program will be about this student kind of having their own take and their own vision for what needs to happen to uplift poetry and the poetry community in their eyes, where their perspective, because I think each Poet Laureate would say, this is what it means to be Poet Laureate. This is what it means, as many people as you would say, you know, this is what it means to play basketball, you'd get a hundred different opinions. And it'll be exciting to see what these kids kind of come up with as like their goals and their hopes for what they would do with this position, because it really is, it's wonderful for the poet.
It's very affirming as a poet to be like, I'm the Poet Laureate, but it's also a way of giving and creating that which you crave that doesn't maybe even exist yet. And so I'm excited to see what these kids come up with.
DN: So among the applicants, what would you be looking for in terms of picking one out of that group that would apply?
MS: I can't pick one. I know that because I know too many kids and I know too many students and I'd be like, you are all the winners. So they won't let me do it, I promise. But I know that they'll be looking for, you know, bodies of work, like what kind of poetry are you currently writing? And then there's on the application process, it's like, kind of tell us about what you're already doing to sort of implement some of these ideas, goals, visions you have around community engagement for poetry.
DN: So what do you hope a 14 to 17 year old Poet Laureate would bring to Spokane?
MS: Just their voice, their perspective. We don't, I don't think, I don't want to say we don't, but I know that for me, it has taken me a while to learn to respect children, not just to like adore them or they're funny or, you know, be amused or whatever, but to really listen and to respect them as whole people. They are learning, they are growing, they are young, and they are so brilliant and they are seeing a lot and experiencing a lot and they have something to offer. So I just can't wait to hear from them.
DN: And do they have to be in Spokane?
MS: Yes.
DN: So they can't go off to college, for example, to WSU, they got to
stick in Spokane?
MS: Yeah.
DN: Because they have obligations…
MS: Yeah, yes, there will be there will be obligations or there will be, you know, things when you want to come and bring them to and they need to be local for that. And I think that will help really pour into the local poetry economy for there's not there's some all ages, but there isn't a ton of youth centered or youth focused events at this time and so by creating this position, and this program, I think that'll start to change. And then we'll see more and more things that are student led and student focused in Spokane. And hopefully that will generate, you know, some excitement, because we want the kids, we want those brilliant, bright, beautiful kids to stay in Spokane to work here and live here and make art here. And, and we got to give them places and spaces to exist.
Mery Noel Smith is Spokane’s poet laureate. Spokane Arts is accepting applications for its inaugural youth poet laureate program through the end of March. Poets 14 to 17 years old are eligible to apply. You need to submit a resume and two or three original poems.
