Today's headlines:
- Severe winds rattle the Inland Northwest.
- A YouTube "cottage industry" is forcing Spokane County to consider charging fees for police body cam footage.
- A tiny town in rural northeast Washington saves 22 units of low income housing.
- Washington researchers and public health officials are trying to prepare for a measles outbreak during the World Cup.
- Both the University of Idaho men's and women's basketball team are advancing to the NCAA tournament after wins yesterday.
Plus, experts say there’s a growing need for more people in the nuclear workforce as energy demands increase. Northwest Public Broadcasting's Rachel Sun reports from Washington State University, which is trying to step up to meet that need.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Sarah Mizes-Tan, Eliza Billingham, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Noel Gasca and Rachel Sun.
Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
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[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Thursday, March 12, 2026.
On today’s show, much of eastern Washington and north Idaho will see high winds throughout the morning. Gusts up to 60 miles per hour are possible.
Plus, Spokane County officials say a YouTube “cottage industry” is forcing them to consider charging a fee for body cam footage.
And there’s a growing interest in nuclear science as global energy demands increase. But the industry needs more workers. We’ll hear from one research facility that’s ramping up its training.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
The high winds blowing through the Northwest this morning are expected to subside as the day progresses.
National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Bodnar says the winds from the southwest are crossing paths with a cold front that’s moving through from a different direction.
STEVE BODNAR: “That front will continue to move south out of the region and so we’ll start to see, from north to south, our sustained winds beginning to come down. But it’s not going to go calmly by any means. So we kind of go back to those gusts of 35 to 50, which are still capable of creating some tree damage.”
OH: Bodnar says blowing dust could cause visibility issues in the Columbia Basin, especially in Lincoln, Adams and Grant counties.
A high wind warning will remain in effect for most of eastern Washington and north Idaho until 11:00 this morning.
Spokane public safety officials are urging extreme caution for anyone who needs to go out during the wind storm.
Officials say not to approach downed power lines.
If a downed line poses an emergency, call 911, but for trees tangled in lines, call your electric utility.
If you see trees blocking roadways or downed trees in city parks, you can call 311.
Intersections that don’t have power should be treated as four-way stops.
After winds subside, city officials say they’ll prioritize opening blocked arterials, followed by blocked residential streets, then general debris removal.
And once the winds calm, residents can take yard debris to the Waste to Energy facility.
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A so-called “income tax on millionaires” is headed to Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk after its final passage in the state Senate.
This came after a historic 25 hours of uninterrupted debate in the state House of Representatives.
Democrats in favor of the bill say it will make the state’s tax system more fair.
Republicans like House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary from Auburn remain skeptical of the pledges to deliver services and tax relief.
DREW STOKESBARY: “Our constituents are facing among the highest prices in the country in terms of gas, groceries, childcare, housing, this bill gives them virtually nothing.”
OH: In the consolidated budget lawmakers will vote on today [THURS], a portion of the income tax revenues will be designated for school meals, extending a state tax credit to more families, and stabilizing local government finances… but not until 2029.
Court challenges and a potential ballot initiative to repeal the tax are expected in the coming months
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Spokane County says a YouTube cottage industry is forcing it to consider charging a fee for body cam footage.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Body cam footage gets quick clicks on YouTube and other social media platforms.
But Spokane County Public Records Coordinator Tony Dinaro says it takes a long time to do the proper redaction for body cam recordings.
TONY DINARO: “We do have a lot of requesters who run monetized YouTube channels and they make very voluminous requests for body camera footage. And because that has really slowed down our public disclosure process in the sheriff's office, we looked at this possibility of charging in order to recoup some of that time.”
EB: Dinaro says according to his team’s calculations, any third party requesters should pay 78 cents per minute of recording.
That would cover the time employees spend redacting victim’s faces or other sensitive information not included in the public records act.
He says anyone involved in a body cam recording would be able to get the footage for free. People can also come to the sheriff’s office in person to watch redacted footage, also for free.
Dinaro says Spokane County is one of the only agencies in the state that doesn’t charge a fee, which attracts a lot of YouTubers. He expects a fee would discourage those kinds of requesters.
Spokane County will hold a public hearing on the proposal on Tuesday, March 24 at 2 pm.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: An apartment complex in a rural northeast Washington town was sold for $1.00.
SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas has more on what this means for Metaline Falls.
MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS: The nonprofit Rural Resources bought an apartment complex in Metaline Falls—a town of about 280 people—for $1.00.
The local volunteer board who previously ran the building didn’t have the funds to keep up with the property’s extensive repairs.
Now, Rural Resources CEO Bryan Raines says they are trying to preserve one of the town’s only low-income housing options.
According to a most recent health needs assessment in Pend Oreille County, housing was the most cited issue by participants in the area.
BRYAN RAINES: “It's so critical to make sure that residents that currently occupy are able to stay in the community, and that we're able to continue having that property exist in that area.”
MCC: Raines says they have been awarded $4.7 million from the Washington State Department of Commerce to help renovate the 22-unit apartment complex.
He says they will begin renovations in September and expect to finish by June of next year.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
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As public health officials in Washington try to stop a measles outbreak, some infectious disease experts say they’re concerned about the highly contagious virus spreading during the FIFA World Cup.
Dr. Shireesha Dhanireddy with UW Medicine says it can often take days for people to get tested and diagnosed with measles, because they mistake their symptoms for another viral illness.
SHIREESHA DHANIREDDY: “In that time, they’ve been to many, many places. School, or to the mall, or other settings where there may be high populations of people.”
OH: Like, a sports stadium filled with tens of thousands of fans.
Dhanireddy says this could give public health agency contact tracers a harder time documenting where an infected person has been—and who they may have exposed to the virus.
So far this year, 26 measles cases have been reported statewide in Washington, and more than 1,100 have been reported nationwide.
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The University of Idaho is joining Gonzaga in sending basketball teams to the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament this fall.
The Vandal men’s and women’s teams each won Big Sky Conference tournaments in Boise yesterday.
The women defeated Montana State yesterday afternoon, 60-57. The men defeated Montana, 77-66 late last night.
For the women, it was their 29th victory against only five losses. They were the regular season conference champions.
The men had finished seventh in the regular season standings but were undefeated in the tournament.
Both will now wait until Sunday afternoon to find out when and where they’ll play their opening round games in the NCAA tournament.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Experts say there’s a growing need for more people in the nuclear workforce as energy demands increase.
Northwest Public Broadcasting’s Rachel Sun reports from Washington State University’s Nuclear Science Center, which is ramping up research and training to meet that need.
[REACTOR ROOM AMBI]
RACHEL SUN: Inside the reactor room at W-S-U’s Nuclear Science Center, there’s a big pool, inside of which you can see a nuclear reactor glowing a vibrant blue.
COREY HINES: “The core is glowing blue, there's no lights or anything down there. The radiation coming out of the core, some of it is in the form of electrons. Those electrons are traveling faster than the speed of light through water, and they create a wake effect called cherenkov radiation.”
RS: That’s Corey Hines, the center’s director. He says the reactor, which reaches its 65th year in operation this week, isn’t used for its energy output. It’s used to produce radioisotopes that are sent to laboratories for research across the country.
A radioisotope is the unstable form of an element that emits radiation as it changes into a more stable form. If that sounds complicated, the process for making them is quite simple:
CH: “We encase target material so it's watertight, and then put it next to the core. That's it. The longer we leave it in the core, the greater the amount of radioisotopes that we generate.”
RS: That’s what they’ve been doing for years -- irradiating materials, and shipping them off to laboratories for research. But for the first time in decades, the nuclear sector is seeing a lot of interest from government and private entities as energy needs climb.
Kim Christen is the vice president for research at W-S-U. She says industry estimates predict a need for 300-thousand more people in the nuclear workforce by 2050.
KIM CHRISTEN: “ So we're developing a series of degrees, certificates, and micro credentials that will meet people where they're at.”
WSU already trains students to operate their nuclear reactor, and expects more to earn their certificates this year. But Hines says there’s still untapped potential as the nuclear sector grows.
CH: “What we're hearing from the industry is we need people, way earlier on, to get interested in this because we need people that are health physicists, that are radio chemists, that are welders, that are technicians that are … hot cell operators.”
RS: What’s a hot cell? Well, “hot” is an informal term used to describe how radioactive something is. More radiation equals more “hotness.”
Put simply, hot cells are very well-insulated boxes that allow scientists to safely work with highly radioactive material. They weigh in at around 300-thousand pounds each.
And WSU is in its first stage of building a hot cell facility right now. Christen says those could eventually allow for more advanced research with those radioisotopes already being produced.
KC: “It can come out of the pool, it can go into the hot cell, the researcher can do their research. We can get those results out the door that day to the customer, which could be the US government … it could be a fusion company.”
RS: The first part of that project was funded by a congressional earmark of $7.6 million dollars, and is set to be completed this summer.
Phase two of the project will be to add the actual hot cells. That second phase could take over two years, and cost anywhere from $23 million to $43 million dollars.
The university has yet to secure that funding, but Christen says that public-private partnerships, as well as federal funding, are on the table.
I’m Rachel Sun in Pullman.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Doug Nadvornick, Sarah Mizes-Tan, Eliza Billingham, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Noel Gasca and Rachel Sun.
I’m Owen Henderson, the host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
