Today's headlines:
- A new Washington law encouraging permanent supportive housing will nix "good neighbor agreements" for Spokane homeless shelters.
- Spokane is home to Washington's only nonprofit land bank devoted to affordable housing. It's about to get easier for other municipalities to make their own.
- Gov. Bob Ferguson is set to sign the 'millionaire's tax' today, the state's only income tax.
- The war in Iran is sending gas pump prices upward—but diesel costs for WA farmers are going even higher.
- Washington AG Nick Brown sues online prediction market platform Kalshi for violating state online gambling ban.
- Spokane sees its biggest turnout yet for the city's third "No Kings" rally.
Plus, retired professor Sean Cassidy says he thought his life was over when he was diagnosed with cancer about four years ago. But now, he tells NWPB's Rachel Sun that he couldn’t have been more wrong.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Sarah Mizes-Tan, Ruby de Luna, Jennifer Wing, Owen Henderson and Rachel Sun.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Monday, March 30, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington’s governor has signed a raft of new laws aimed at improving housing across the state. We’ll look at how one would change Spokane’s process for placing homeless shelters in neighborhoods.
And the war in Iran is affecting drivers’ wallets at the gas pump, but farmers who need diesel are feeling an even bigger squeeze.
Plus, one north Idaho man’s reflections about how his life has changed after his cancer diagnosis.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Washington is trying to encourage the creation of more permanent supportive housing across the state.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham explains how a new law will change Spokane’s process for placing homeless shelters in neighborhoods.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Washington legislators decided this session that local regulations were one of the biggest barriers to building housing—especially permanent supportive housing—across the state.
So, they passed a bill making sure any kind of shelter, transitional housing, or permanent housing is treated the same as any residential housing in Washington.
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the bill into law last week after a glowing introduction from Lt. Gov. Denny Heck.
DENNY HECK: “One of my favorites, not to call out favorites, is 2266 relating to permanent supported housing. I frankly and embarrassingly will admit that I thought it was a moral failing of our state that our laws did not encourage and facilitate more construction of permanent supported housing…This bill is a strong step forward.”
EB: The new law will change Spokane’s current placement process for scattered site shelters across the city.
Previously, each shelter had to create and maintain a “good neighbor agreement.”
That’s a contract with the neighborhood on how potential issues would be addressed and who would be responsible.
But under new state law, those specialized requirements will be nixed.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: And Spokane has the only non-profit land bank devoted to affordable housing in Washington. But it’s about to get easier for other cities and counties to follow suit.
Gov. Ferguson Friday also signed Spokane Democrat Natasha Hill’s bill allowing local governments to let non-profit organizations buy and hold land for affordable housing development.
Spokane Regional Land Bank Executive Director Ami Manning celebrated the signing of the bill at a watch party in Spokane on Friday.
AMI MANNING: “This is not the answer to everything, but this is a way that we can really work on reclaiming our neighborhoods, work on those commercial properties that the governor was talking about that are just vacant and not in use. There's a lot of opportunity in this bill, but it's not everything.”
OH: The legislation lets land banks hold parcels without having to pay state and local tax on them.
It also requires counties to give land banks priority when they look to find other uses for surplus land.
The bill was one of several Gov. Ferguson signed Friday meant to improve housing across the state, including one to allow housing in mixed-use and commercial zones and one to let counties allow rural landowners to build detached accessory dwelling units.
— — —
Ferguson is also expected to sign a tax on high earners today [MON]. It’s a historic measure for a state with no income tax.
State Government Reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more.
SARAH MIZES-TAN: The so-called “millionaires’ tax” would take a 9-point-9 percent cut of household income over a million dollars. Less than 1-percent of residents would pay. The tax would fund state services, and other items like education programs, free school meals and tax breaks for low-income people. It would take effect in 2029.
Democrats who supported the bill say Washington’s tax code currently overburdens lower income households and a tax on the wealthy could be a step toward reversing this.
Opponents say the measure violates the state constitution, and they worry that Democrat lawmakers will eventually expand the tax to encompass all income brackets – not just the highest ones. Republicans are promising lawsuits and a ballot initiative to repeal the measure.
In Olympia, I’m Sarah Mizes-Tan.
— — —
OH: The Middle East war is affecting consumers at the gas pump, including Washington farmers.
Andrew Albert is a third-generation farmer in Snohomish County. He grows hay, wheat, and other crops on his 1,400 acre farm.
Albert says diesel already costs $2 more per gallon than before the war.
ANDREW ALBERT: “We’re running 15-20 tractors at a time at our busiest times, and then with trucks running at the same time, it’s easy several thousand gallons a week.”
OH: The raw ingredient is just one piece of the supply chain puzzle.
Joe Phillips is economics professor at Seattle University.
JOE PHILLIPS: “You have to think about the different production costs, the transportation costs, the selling costs that just add up and are, in many ways, a much bigger part of the price that consumers pay.”
OH: He says the extent of the price increase will also depend on how long the conflict lasts.
— — —
Placing online bets in Washington on sports, elections or cultural events could get a lot harder if Washington Attorney General Nick Brown prevails in court.
Brown announced Friday he’s suing the prediction market Kalshi, accusing the platform of violating Washington’s online gambling ban.
Brown says Kalshi users can bet on everything from the weather and March Madness to the outcomes of U-S military operations.
NICK BROWN: “You can also bet on the length of a press conference in January of this year. Bets were made out of Kalshi on when the White House press secretary would end the press conference, and when it ended abruptly, people questioned whether or not the move was pre arranged.”
OH: Online gambling remains illegal in Washington state, except in-person at tribal casinos.
Brown says the goal of the lawsuit is to prevent Kalshi from operating in Washington and to return money to state residents who have lost bets on the site.
— — —
Thousands gathered for the third—and so far largest—“No Kings” rally in Spokane on Saturday, joining an international day of protest against the Trump administration.
Alyssa MacKay helped organize the thousands of attendees who lined Division Street for a mile between B.A. Clark Park north to Franklin Park.
ALYSSA MACKAY: “There's a type of energy that you get when you bring a crowd like this together who all have the same vision for our country, that this is not the way we want our country to be going. We're headed in the wrong direction and everyone seems to be on the same page.”
OH: Protest signs focused on the Epstein files, immigration, cost of living, and accusations the president was overstepping his constitutional powers.
Hundreds also gathered to protest in downtown Spokane.
Both rallies were largely peaceful, though two protestors were arrested in a small skirmish with police outside the downtown ICE facility.
Rallies also took place in Coeur d’Alene, Colville, Grand Coulee, Newport, Omak, Republic, Sandpoint and Twisp.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Retired professor Sean Cassidy says he thought his life was over when he was diagnosed with cancer about four years ago.
In hindsight, he says, he couldn’t have been more wrong. N-W-P-B’s Rachel Sun reports.
[CAFE AMBI]
RACHEL SUN: I’m sitting in the Blue Lantern cafe in Lewiston, Idaho, talking with Sean Cassidy. Cassidy is a retired Lewis-Clark State College professor.
For the past few years, Cassidy has been living life in a pretty extraordinary way. He’s telling me about a trip around the globe that he took two years ago.
SEAN CASSIDY: “I had done it before, going one direction. And so I wanted to try … heading west instead of going east. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but I thought, ‘That’s something I’d like to do.’”
RS: Cassidy has crammed a lot of adventures into just a few years. Since then, he’s also visited Japan and Mexico. This month, he visited Hawaii’s Big Island to see the active lava flows.
SC: “It's something that I might have put off before, but I didn't.”
RS: The reason Cassidy doesn’t like to put things off anymore, he says, is because of a routine surgery he went in for over four years ago to remove a kidney stone.
SC: “When I came out of the anesthetic, I'm looking at my doctor … He's looking at me. And I'm saying, ‘Oh, well, OK, did you get it?’ And he goes, ‘No. We didn't get it. I went in there and when I looked around, your kidney is riddled with cancer tumors.’”
RS: A biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. Cassidy says those tumors keep coming back. Last summer, he had three tumors removed. The summer before that, doctors removed eight.
Cassidy lives on an annual cycle: Surgery, biopsy and waiting for results. He says the waiting part is the hardest.
SC: “The thing about cancer — I sort of describe it as living in a house full of snakes. Some of the snakes are poisonous, but you don't know which ones are the poisonous ones, and you don't know when they're gonna bite you or not bite you. So, every time you follow up, you're dreading going into a new room.”
RS: Cassidy is no stranger to cancer. Before he was diagnosed, he watched his mother, two sisters, and his grandparents all die of cancer.
SC: “I’ve seen what it does. I've seen how devastating it is. So, coming out of anesthetic, that was a moment where I felt ill beyond coming out of anesthetic. Just sort of like, ‘Oh my God, my life is over. I'm done.’ And it absolutely was wrong.”
RS: Cassidy says one of the things that brightens his days the most are regular walks with friends where they discuss topics ranging from psychology, to artificial intelligence, to politics, music and literature.
SC: “It sounds like (those conversations) might all be hoody-doody, intellectual things. They aren't. A lot of 'em are really silly and stupid stuff.”
RS: But Cassidy says he doesn’t consider himself an optimist. Instead, he found the term “cheerful fatalist” fits better.
SC: “Every doctor's (visit) is a new possibility that they're gonna tell me this is the end. All I can do is approach that not with, ‘I think it’s all going to be OK,’ but I hope I have a sly smile on my face and even as I am in the hospital, that I am still able to make some jokes.”
RS: Until that happens, he says, he’s grateful to have another day.
SC: “Before I would've probably been moaning about, ‘Oh, I'm old, and my feet hurt, muh muh muh muh.’ You know, all that stuff we do ‘cuz we’re old. Now it's like, OK, it hurts. But man — I'm still here to hurt. Wow. That’s -- isn’t that great?”
RS: In Lewiston, I’m Rachel Sun.
[CAFE AMBI FADES]
OH: This story is part of a mini-series on living with cancer.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Sarah Mizes-Tan, Ruby de Luna, Jennifer Wing, Rachel Sun and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
