Today's headlines:
- Legislators wrap up 2026 legislative session in Boise. What did lawmakers finish at the last minute, and what was left undone?
- Idaho moves to restrict teachers' unions, bypassing a committee hearing.
- Spokane's legislative delegation sees more turnover with three veteran representatives choosing not to seek election.
- Unemployment in Washington hit its highest rate since 2021, but this year's tech layoffs aren't to blame. So what is?
- UW researcher says a newly FDA-approved GLP-1 pill could have major benefits worldwide.
Plus, Spokane City Council member Paul Dillon was elected Spokane County's Democratic Party chair last week, making him the third leader in seven months. Emry Dinman of the Spokesman-Review joins to talk about the recent turbulence in the party as candidates gear up for the midterms.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by James Dawson, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Nickelsburg, Emry Dinman and Owen Henderson.
The show is hosted and produced by Owen Henderson.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Friday, April 3, 2026.
On today’s show, the Idaho legislature has gaveled out its 2026 session, a week later than originally planned. What did lawmakers finish at the last minute, and what was left undone?
Plus, Washington’s unemployment hit its highest rate since 2021 this January. But despite massive tech layoffs at the start of the year, economists say that industry isn’t to blame for the increase.
And Spokane City Council member Paul Dillon was elected Spokane County's Democratic Party chair last week, making him the third leader in seven months.
A reporter who’s been following the story joins to talk about the recent turbulence in the party as it prepares to support candidates in the midterms.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
After a legislative session defined by bitter budget debates, the Idaho House and Senate have adjourned for the year. James Dawson reports.
JAMES DAWSON: The last few days at the Idaho Capitol have been a flurry of paperwork, long nights and flared tempers at times.
Several bills from the House were left by the wayside as lawmakers left town, like a last-minute push to allow concealed firearms in areas of courthouses.
Several House Republicans, like Rep. Rick Cheatum, supported the bill, but only because they say they didn’t want to cross the National Rifle Association.
RICK CHEATUM: “I’m going to ask you to vote no on this bill. I’ll be voting yes because I can’t oppose the NRA, but I don’t like this bill at all.”
JD: The House passed the measure, but state senators declined to give it a hearing.
The Senate also rejected a bill that would’ve allowed the attorney general to potentially bounce local elected officials from office if they break the law.
Legislators will reconvene next January barring any special sessions called by themselves or the governor.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
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OH: A bill barring taxpayer money from supporting teachers’ union activities cleared the Idaho legislature this week before lawmakers wrapped up the session.
The proposal was thought to be dead for the year when a Senate committee declined to give it a hearing.
But supporters hijacked a different bill and replaced it with something very similar to the version sitting in a desk drawer to bypass the committee.
Public school districts would no longer collect union dues and teachers couldn’t use paid leave to lobby or testify on legislative issues under the bill.
Democratic Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking says this bill unfairly punishes teachers in an anti-union state despite educators giving their lives to protect students across the country in recent years.
JANIE WARD-ENGELKING: “Teachers have stood in the line of fire to shield your children and they would do it in a heartbeat because those kids in that classroom, they’re ours. They’re ours, too.”
Republican Sen. Josh Kohl rejected that last statement.
JOSH KOHL: “Children do not belong to teachers or a teachers union at any part of the day.”
OH: The House quickly signed off on the Senate’s proposal and sent the bill to the governor for his signature.
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Spokane state Rep. Timm Ormsby says he’s stepping away from the legislature after 23 years.
He’s the fourth of Spokane’s nine-person legislative delegation to announce he won’t run for reelection this year.
Ormsby has chaired the powerful House Appropriations Committee for years.
He has also been known as a legislator willing to work across the aisle with Republicans, like Cheney Rep. Mike Volz.
MIKE VOLZ: “It will mean a loss to Spokane. Clearly, he's been there 20 years to 22 years and I've always been able to work with him and Marcus Riccelli, you know, before he went to the Senate. We all work together on regional stuff.”
OH: Volz also isn’t seeking another term.
He says he’s stepping away from Olympia to focus on his job as Spokane County treasurer.
His Sixth District seatmate, Rep. Jenny Graham, and Fourth District Rep. Suzanne Schmidt are also not running for the legislature again.
Schmidt recently announced she’ll run for Spokane County Commissioner.
Candidates including former Spokane City Council member Jonathan Bingle have announced their intentions to run for the vacant offices.
The candidates can officially file in the first week of May.
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Unemployment in Washington hit 5 percent in January, its highest rate since 2021.
KUOW’s Monica Nickelsburg has more on new data from the state Employment Security Department.
MONICA NICKELSBURG: Washington’s unemployment was higher than the national rate of 4.3 percent in January.
The year also started with mass layoffs across Washington’s tech industry. Those layoffs have continued at a slower trickle, most recently from Oracle and Meta.
But state economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman said tech isn’t driving rising unemployment.
That’s because the industry continues to grow in some strategic areas, even as it cuts jobs.
ANNELIESE VANCE-SHERMAN: “ These are sectors that have kind of gone from extremely high growth to a period of overall decreasing employment. And more or less, it flattened out since then. So I would classify them as very little growth.”
MN: Job losses in the state last year were driven by manufacturing, retail, and business services, while education and healthcare saw job gains.
OH: That was Monica Nickelsburg, reporting.
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A University of Washington obesity researcher says the new weight loss drug approved this week by the Food and Drug Administration has a chance to make a real impact.
Foundayo from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly is the second GLP-1 pill to be approved by the FDA, after Novonordisk’s Wegovy.
UW’s Ellen Schur says having an alternative to the injectable GLP-1s like Ozempic may make the drug more palatable to some potential patients.
She says the manufacturing costs are also lower, which may keep its price manageable for most people.
ELLEN SCHUR: “I think having this new tool introduced to our toolbox will be helpful in changing access and also really changes the potential public health implications and even the global public health implications for managing obesity.”
OH: Though no clinical trials have directly compared Foundayo and Wegovy, some researchers say the newer pill may have better results—not because Foundayo is necessarily more effective, but because it doesn’t require fasting to work like Wegovy does.
Schur was in Spokane last night for a presentation at Gonzaga University as part of an ongoing lecture series.
— — —
Providence Family Care-Chewelah has completed a remodeling that it says will double patient care space and improve access to its services.
The $1.65 million project includes 12 exam rooms instead of six, five providers and a full lab with additional testing capacity.
Providence held an open house yesterday afternoon to celebrate the expansion’s completion.
Lead clinic physician Dr. Paul Larsen says the project faced several delays.
PAUL LARSEN: “There’d be Medicaid cuts or Medicare cuts, or you know, other expenses that superseded.”
OH: Another factor, he says, was finding enough providers to recruit to the new space.
But so far, Larsen says the expanded clinic has seen nearly 100 patients.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Late last week, the Spokane County Democratic Party elected a new chair, current Spokane City Council member Paul Dillon.
That makes him the third leader the party's had in seven months. With me now to talk about what's behind the latest period of turbulence for the Spokane County Democrats is Emry Dinman, who's been following this story for the Spokesman Review. Emry, thanks for being here.
EMRY DINMAN: Good morning, Owen. Thank you for having me.
OH: So before we jump into the details, do you mind just laying out a rough timeline of the most recent round of leadership changes?
ED: So Naida Spencer had been elected as chair in February of 2024. She resigned in September of 2025, followed by Stephen McCray, elected November of last year. He resigned in about three months and now we have Paul Dillon.
OH: So we'll start with former chair Naida Spencer. There is a lot to unpack, but why don't we start with the basics about why she said she left?
ED: We don't have enough time to go into all of it, but there's been a long-standing generational divide in the Spokane County Democrats that had somewhat stabilized in recent years, but had started to flare back up under Spencer. And she had taken a sabbatical last summer. During that sabbatical, she appoints Matthew Sorey, who is the vice chair, as acting chair.
Within a couple of months, she decides that Matthew Sorey is not doing a good job. It's complicated, but effectively publicly accuses him of mismanagement, calls for stripping him of the chairmanship role. That gets everybody at loggerheads.
It, again, flares up this long-standing divide. Sorey is more represented by the young Democrats, this more progressive wing. Spencer is more representative of the more moderate old guard.
And, you know, these accusations of mismanagement turn into a clash between their supporters. Eventually, Spencer decides that she doesn't want to be the center of this flare-up and determines that she needs to resign.
OH: And so then when Spencer leaves and Stephen McCray—her boyfriend, we should note—took charge, it sounds like he had a pretty fractured party to try and start to bring back together. And as we already know, he resigned after about three months in the chair. What was it this time? More of the same?
ED: I mean, it really was more of the same. The issue was that, again, Spencer says that she resigns so that she's no longer the center of this flare-up of long-standing tensions.
McCray almost immediately appoints her into a leadership position. Now, Spencer says that this was just a transition position and once he had his feet under him, she was going to leave. But all of the tensions that had been lingering that supposedly had been diffused by her resignation flare back up again almost immediately.
There are attempts to get her disciplined for—you know, it's not clear what exactly the violations of their bylaws that she was accused of, but the fact of the matter is that she very quickly becomes the center of this conflagration again. And McCray decides that he doesn't want to be a part of it as well and leaves three months later along with a fairly large slate of leaders, again, kind of representing that old guard class.
OH: So now we come to Councilmember Paul Dillon, who was the only candidate in last week's election. What has he told you about why he decided to step up?
ED: Well, Paul has been involved in local politics for a long time. He had, you know, one of his early steps along the way to the council position was working with the Spokane County Democrats. He's a more progressive candidate.
He's in his early 40s now. But at the time he was, you know, part of the Young Democrats and it was told by members of the old guard at the time that ‘You're never going to make it in politics. You're too far to the left.’
And, you know, a lot of the concern with the old guard is we need people to be electable. I overheard this at the election, some folks saying, you know, ‘We need to win moderates. We need to win independents to be able to win elections.’
Well, Paul has won an election. He is, you know, this sort of unifying figure just in who he is as a member of this more progressive wing who has won an election, admittedly, in the city of Spokane, which is this kind of blue oasis in eastern Washington. In a way, he sort of represents this merging of the two ideals, at least at the moment.
OH: So to round out this conversation, I think there might be some listeners, even ones here in Spokane County, who could hear all of this and go, ‘I don't really care. It sounds like a bunch of squabbling and infighting.’ So why does this matter?
ED: I think it matters on two levels. One, functionally, a county party is there to help people get elected and it needs to be functional, it needs to be able to fundraise, it needs to be able to organize, to help doorknock, and it needs to be a well-functioning organization to be able to do all of those things. It's also supposed to, you know, cultivate new candidates.
But also, I think that this is emblematic of the national kind of existential crisis that the Democratic Party is having, which is which direction do they go from here? Are they better represented by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders? Do they all belong under the same tent? And this, to me, feels like a microcosm of that larger debate.
The one other thing to note is that Paul is the first representative of the progressive wing to lead the county party in quite some time. And I did hear some sentiment at the election of, well, you know, it's their turn to lead. Let's see how they do.
So there definitely seems to be a moment of unity in the county party right now. Whether that lasts, really, it depends on Paul. It depends on everybody else involved in the party. So we'll see by the end of the year.
OH: Emry Dinman covers City Hall for the Spokesman-Review. Emry, thank you for your time and for sharing your reporting with us this morning.
ED: Thank you, Owen.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by James Dawson, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Nickelsburg, Emry Dinman and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
