Today's headlines:
- Spokane County fentanyl deaths fall as a new, more potent drug emerges: carfentanil.
- Ferguson signs a controversial law enforcement certification bill as some sheriffs argue it violates the state consitution.
- WA's capital budgets is signed into law with a focus on affordable housing.
- Spokane state Rep. Orsmby won't seek reelection after more than two decades in office.
- The cost of goods in Spokane is now level with Seattle—though services and housing are still cheaper east of the Cascades.
- Idaho digital learning platform may lose half its budget under bill heading to Gov. Little.
- The Trump administration sues ID Sec. of State Phil McGrane over voter data.
Plus, NWPB's Anna King takes us to the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon, where the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla tribes are working to reduce food waste.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Lisa Brooks, Owen Henderson, and Anna King.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Thursday, April 2, 2026.
On today’s show, overdose deaths in Spokane County fell significantly last year. But as access to fentanyl has decreased, another more potent drug has emerged.
Plus, Washington law enforcement leaders will need to meet certain standards or be removed from office. Some sheriffs, like Spokane’s John Nowels, say that violates the state constitution.
And we visit the Umatilla Reservation, where several tribes are working to reduce food waste.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Overdose deaths in Spokane County dropped significantly at the end of last year, and access to fentanyl also decreased.
But as SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, different dangers emerge as the drug landscape shifts.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: 2025 started off with 42 overdose deaths in January. In December, there were four.
Mark Voightlaender is an analyst for the Regional Anti-Violence and Enforcement of Narcotics, or RAVEN, task force.
MARK VOIGHTLAENDER: “Part of what we're seeing with the fentanyl deaths is the amazing amount of naloxone that's out there.”
EB: He also says there’s less fentanyl on the streets, and it’s less pure than it used to be.
MV: “There's no question that the closing of the southern border has had an impact on fentanyl here in Spokane. There are no pills available. There is powder available, but not to the extent that it was before.”
EB: But less fentanyl means people are cutting the drug with other substances—most often methamphetamine.
Voightlaender added that drug routes across the northern border, traditionally used for molly and other club drugs, are now being used for fentanyl.
He told Spokane Valley City Council that’s putting their community at the center of a large system.
MV: “Whether you know it or not, you are probably one of the major transshipment points for drugs in the United States.”
EB: He also noted the rise of a new synthetic opioid that the federal Drug Enforcement Agency says is one hundred times as potent as fentanyl.
It’s called carfentanil. Voightlaender said Spokane law enforcement set up a drug bust last year expecting to find fentanyl. Instead, it was carfentanil.
Cops in Seattle uncovered the drug in their city on the same day.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
— — —
OH: Leaders of Washington policing agencies must now meet the same standards as their officers if they want to keep their jobs.
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed that bill into law yesterday.
BOB FERGUSON: “They should be certified and have law enforcement experience, pass a background check, and have a clean criminal history. Under this bill, sheriffs and police chiefs who are decertified are removed from office.”
OH: Chiefs and sheriffs have a year to earn their certification. Anyone who doesn’t could be removed by the state’s Criminal Justice Training Commission.
There’s only one sheriff in Washington who’s not currently a certified officer—Daniel Garcia in Pacific County.
Some legislators and law enforcement officials, including Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels, believe the decertification provision violates the state constitution.
They say sheriffs are elected officials who cannot be removed by an unelected state agency.
They argue voters and elections are the ultimate check on a sheriff’s power.
— — —
Washington is putting more than 200 million dollars into affordable housing.
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the updated capital budget into law yesterday.
It pays for construction projects like school buildings and public works projects.
At the signing ceremony in Olympia, Ferguson highlighted a few of the places that money will be spent.
BF: “It includes $123M in additional funding to the Housing Trust Fund, which helps build or preserve approximately three thousand units of housing. The increase to the housing trust fund includes $43M to preserve or repair affordable housing. This funding can be used as well, for flood-damaged homes.”
OH: The governor signed seven housing-related bills into law last month. Most change rules to make it easier to acquire land and buildings to add new housing.
Ferguson also signed the state's supplemental operating budget yesterday.
He praised the Legislature for coming up with the funds to make up for a billion-dollar shortfall and federal cuts to food assistance and healthcare programs.
— — —
Longtime Spokane state representative and the lead budget writer for Washington House Democrats Timm Ormsby says he’s not running for reelection this year.
Ormsby has represented District 3 in the state legislature for more than two decades.
He made the announcement yesterday after the governor signed the supplemental budget Ormsby helped write.
Public Disclosure Commission data shows that so far, no other candidates have filed to run for Ormsby’s district, which encompasses the city of Spokane.
— — —
A cup of coffee now costs the same in Spokane as it does in Seattle.
That’s according to the latest data from Eastern Washington University.
Economics professor Patrick Jones told Spokane Valley City Council the cost of goods in the region is on par with costs in Washington’s biggest city.
PATRICK JONES: “We are no longer an inexpensive place to live and do business. I mean, I think that was true of a decade or two ago... We're getting bigger, we're growing up, and prices are moving along with this population and income growth.”
OH: Even though the cost of goods has caught up, the costs of services and housing in the Spokane metro area are still lower than the west side.
But the median household income in Seattle is more than $100,000 dollars. In Spokane County, it’s roughly $86,000.
Jones says it’s the first time the median income in Spokane has been above the national level for at least 50 years.
— — —
Idaho’s digital learning platform is poised to lose half its budget after state senators signed off on the proposal.
The Idaho Digital Learning Academy hosts remedial and advanced classes online that rural students often use to broaden their education.
But Senate Republican Leader Lori Den Hartog says IDLA’s class offerings have ballooned past their original mandate.
LORI DEN HARTOG: “When IDLA was first established, it was never envisioned for elementary students. This piece of policy takes care of that.”
OH: The bill would bar students below sixth grade from enrolling in classes from IDLA along with setting new minimum fees.
Democratic Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking says she worries the more than $13 million in cuts could jeopardize a kid graduating on time.
JANIE WARD-ENGELKING: “I hope that we’re not cutting so severely that we make it impossible for some of our students to get through high school with all the classes they need.”
OH: House lawmakers already approved the bill. It now goes to Gov. Little’s desk for consideration.
— — —
Idaho’s top election official now joins many Democratic Secretaries of State in being sued by the Trump administration.
The Justice Department asked Phil McGrane to turn over all of Idaho’s voter data in December, including voters’ driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.
McGrane told the feds in February he didn’t have a “clear legal duty” to give them more than the publicly available information he’d already sent.
DOJ says it wants the data to ensure election integrity and yesterday filed suit against McGrane.
When asked about the request by SPR last month, McGrane said Idaho voters should stay confident in the state’s elections.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
The Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes view their traditional food as something that deserves the utmost respect.
So, they're working the save food from the dump.
Anna King from Northwest Public Broadcasting reports on how these tribes are striving to repurpose their food waste.
ANNA KING: Colleen Sanders pops a five-gallon bucket.
[SOUND: Pop]
Inside: Decomposing food waste. She digs in with both hands.
We’re on the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in northeast Oregon.
COLLEEN SANDERS: “You can see we have some fry bread someone didn’t want to eat, we have some meat that people didn’t want, lots of bread and there it is celery… there’s some of our beautiful sister.”
AK: These Columbia Plateau tribes believe that they return to the earth when they die and that foods, like wild celery and salmon, are their relatives coming back.
So, this food is sacred.
Sanders is the co-director of this food waste project—called Nixyaawii, Don’t Throw It Away! —for the Confederated Tribes.
She says with food waste …
CS: “We’re looking at that decomposition – it’s inherently the idea of death and transition. Which makes people uncomfortable a lot of the time.”
AK: In 2024, the Confederated Tribes got a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to get started.
This Bokashi fermenting system—what Sanders is digging through—is one way they’re addressing food waste.
It uses bran to break down the food and create nutrient-rich soil.
[SOUND: Bucket lid clicks, people mumbling]
DeArcie Abraham is the project’s contractor. Abraham says seeing people engage with the food waste program is really exciting and rewarding. And—
DeARCIE ABRAHAM: “Understanding the importance of diverting food waste, it makes me happy and it makes me feel like my work that I put into it is worth it.”
AK: In about a year, the tribes’ food waste recovery initiatives have already diverted about 2 metric tons of the stuff.
All that waste used to go to the landfill.
Now, the soil they create goes into local people’s gardens.
[SOUND: Scraping]
And there’s so much recovered food waste that there’s too much of it to process.
Winter temperatures mean the food breaks down more slowly.
Even chickens are eating some of the highest-quality food waste.
[SOUND: Chicken squawk] [SOUND: Kids]
We’re here at Culture Night — a weekly program held throughout the school year at the Mission Longhouse.
Seven-year-old Kwynn French is learning to take care of her food waste. She plays a game called “Recover Our Resources.”
It challenges children to pick the correct place for each type of food waste. Now, she gets a prize:
KWYNN FRENCH: “I like slime, but my parents wouldn't like it because we have carpet.”
AK: Kathleen Elliott brings Kwynn here nearly every Wednesday. She’s her grandma.
KATHLEEN ELLIOTT: “This is what grandparents do. My grandmother taught me how to take care of the land and take care of ourselves also. So, I am just doing what my grandmother did.”
AK: Ultimately, Elliott says, she wants Kwynn to learn how to take care of the food and land like she did years ago.
Elliott says we’re all here to take care of the Earth.
In Mission, Oregon, I’m Anna King.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Lisa Brooks, Anna King and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.