Today's headlines:
- East Adams hospital "resets," pausing many patient services as it tries to stay afloat until levy dollars arrive.
- About 30,000 Idahoans likely no longer have health insurance, latest data shows.
- Idaho lawmakers get first look at federal rural health program.
- WA officials unveil 400-page statewide climate plan.
Plus, a teacher at Southwest Washington's Battle Ground High School was suspended eight months ago for what she said in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death.
The social studies teacher is still trying to be allowed back in the classroom. The conflict demonstrates the difficulties teachers face when it comes to social media and political controversy.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Monica Carrillo-Casas, Owen Henderson, James Dawson, Bellamy Pailthorp and Erik Neumann.
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 Friday, April 24, 2026.
On today’s show, an Adams County hospital says it’s “resetting,” temporarily eliminating certain patient services as it tries to stay afloat until levy dollars start to come in.
Plus, Idaho lawmakers are beginning their oversight of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal cash to modernize the state’s rural health system.
And a Washington teacher was put on leave after she was accused of making light of Charlie Kirk's death. She denied the allegations, and a third-party arbitrator said she should get her job back.
But so far, the district won’t let her return to the classroom.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
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The healthcare clinic in Ritzville is eliminating certain services for patients, at least temporarily.
SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas has more on what this will look like for Adams County residents.
MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS: The East Adams Rural Healthcare Clinic in Ritzville announced a “clinic reset” this week.
Chief Operations Officer Dallas Killian says two providers are leaving. Still, one provider will be on site at a time, with three providers rotating daily throughout the week. Emergency room services will remain open 24/7 for urgent needs.
Killian says the reset comes from financial concerns and patients wanting more consistent providers.
DALLAS KILLIAN: “We had to make a change quick; otherwise, it could have closed the entire hospital instead of just the clinic.”
MCC: In addition, he says the clinic has discontinued services for interventional pain procedures. He advises patients to find care in Spokane or the Tri-Cities areas.
Some of those services included nerve blocks and joint injections.
DK: “HPM holistic pain management, we were partnered with them, and they would have a provider here two times a week for clinic visits and for pain management procedures. HPM has decided to part ways with us, so they're taking their provider with them… That's going to be a big loss, but we're working to employ our own pain management provider.”
MCC: Killian says an operating levy for the clinic narrowly passed earlier this year, which will help with the longevity of the hospital.
Since the levy won’t go into effect until next year, the reset will keep it afloat, he says.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
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OH: About 30,000 Idahoans who previously had health insurance are likely to be uninsured this year.
That’s one of the findings of a new report from the state’s insurance exchange.
The spike comes after Congress failed to extend enhanced premium tax credits last year.
About 5,000 people opted out of coverage during Idaho’s open enrollment period, and more than 24,000 have disenrolled since that period closed.
In contrast, fewer than 16,000 disenrolled after open enrollment closed for last year.
The report also shows the number of Idahoans paying $100 or less per month for coverage fell by nearly 20%, while those paying more than $300 per month jumped by 13%.
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State officials want to hit the ground running as Idaho begins to prop up its rural health transformation initiative over the coming months.
James Dawson has more.
JAMES DAWSON: A legislative oversight committee held its first meeting Wednesday with a tight timeline ahead. The first installment of the five-year federal grant totals $186 million and must be earmarked by October 30.
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare Director Juliet Charron says she’s working to hire 12 temporary staff for the program’s lifespan who will help organize contracting and track compliance.
JULIET CHARRON: “We have a pretty lean approach. I’ve seen some pretty large teams even from our neighboring states to the east that have even smaller populations than we do.”
JD: Charron says the state will focus on increasing access to telehealth services as well as using AI for diagnostic support, billing and helping stop cybersecurity threats.
Idaho also wants to make services more available in rural areas for maternal health, behavioral health, dental and diagnostics.
State lawmakers said little during the committee’s first meeting. They’ll soon get a look at proposed awards and contracts in the coming weeks.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
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OH: Washington now has a comprehensive, statewide climate action plan.
The effort was launched three years ago, using a federal grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.
State leaders unveiled the plan as they marked Earth Day this week in Tacoma.
They say it provides a roadmap for achieving the cuts to greenhouse gas emissions that state lawmakers have mandated.
That goal is net zero by 2050.
Casey Sixkiller is the director of the Washington State Department of Ecology.
CASEY SIXKILLER: “This is about action, right? It's not just about having a plan that makes us all feel good and it sits on a shelf somewhere and no one does anything with it. Is how we put action behind those words.”
OH: The state climate plan is nearly 400 pages long.
Sixkiller says individual communities can use it for guidance as they develop new policies or seek grants for projects to reduce their emissions.
Pierce County hosted the unveiling and the first of several roundtable discussions about the plan.
Several more are being organized to take place over the next 6 to 8 months.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
A teacher in southwest Washington was suspended eight months ago for what she said at a politically charged time.
The social studies teacher is still trying to be allowed back in the classroom.
As Oregon Public Broadcasting's Erik Neumann reports, the conflict demonstrates the difficulties teachers face when it comes to social media and political controversy.
ERIK NEUMANN: The incident for Battle Ground High School social studies teacher Amanda Gonzales started on September 10th.
It was the same day that conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot during a speaking event outside Salt Lake City.
Gonzales remembers it was in between class periods. A student came up and asked if she had heard about Kirk’s death.
AMANDA GONZALES: “I was just like, ‘he’s not my political cup of tea,’ and moved back to, let’s end this, move on.”
EN: The student’s account was different. In a text message to his mom, he wrote: “[Ms. Gonzales] was laughing about it, saying she had no sympathy for Nazis.”
His mom shared a screenshot of the text on social media. From there, it went viral.
A few hours later, the district put Gonzales on paid administrative leave. She’s been there for the past eight months.
She says it feels like the situation burned her life to the ground.
AG: “It's impacted my children. It's impacted my parents. You know, my parents now have video cameras on their home because their address was leaked online. I look out the window and if I see a car across the street for too long, I start to panic.”
EN: In a report outlining why Gonzales was being discharged, Superintendent Sherry Whitten wrote that multiple students alleged the teacher had a "political bias" and it was having a negative impact on the district.
<Quote> “The district finds the students credible” Whitten wrote.
Officials with Battle Ground Public Schools declined to comment.
Then in January a retired Washington state Superior Court judge weighed in. She’d been hired as a third-party arbitrator.
In her report, the arbitrator wrote that the allegation against Gonzales was “not credible” and the opinion she’d expressed “was not egregious.”
Gonzales should get her job back, the arbitrator recommended, along with attorney’s fees and back pay.
But the district hasn’t allowed Gonzales to return to class. And that lack of support has left some teachers feeling unprotected.
Just after the incident with Gonzales, English teacher Jordan Johnston was teaching the 1953 Arthur Miller play, The Crucible.
It tells the story of the mass hysteria of the Salem witch trials.
It’s an allegory for the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s.
JORDAN JOHNSTON: Part of what happens in The Crucible is that you have these young teenagers making up just outright lies about the adults in the town.
EN: Johnston remembers leaving her classroom when an administrator pulled her aside.
JJ: “She said, ‘I just wanted to let you know that another teacher overheard some students bring up your name as possibly being, uh, really, liberal teacher and that maybe they could get you to say something to get you in trouble and maybe get you fired.’”
EN: The next minute, she had to step into her classroom and teach The Crucible, a play about false accusations and reputations being ruined.
Some other teachers at the school feel the same chilling effect. Joseph Drury is a math teacher at Battle Ground High School.
JOSEPH DRURY: We’re all just kind of walking on eggshells it feels like.
EN: Shauna Walters’ son is the high school student whose text messages sparked the investigation into Gonzales.
She declined an interview request, but wrote she doesn’t think the teacher should get her job back: “We were assured multiple times that the district did not base their pursuit of termination solely on the testimony of my son, rather from the mountain of evidence from multiple sources.”
Nearby districts have dealt with other social media conflicts recently.
Ben Folgers is an English language arts teacher in Des Moines, Washington and a union representative for the Washington Education Association. He says a school cell phone ban in Washington state would be one small way to prevent the kinds of incidents like Gonzales’ in Battle Ground.
BEN FOLGERS: “Teenagers are teenagers. They’re not fully thinking about the consequences of what that accusation can have.”
EN: While Oregon and many other states have laws prohibiting the use of personal electronic devices during the school day, Washington has no such rule.
At this point, Gonzales has a few options. The district has made multiple settlement offers but, she says, none have been enough to make up for her potential lost retirement savings and medical coverage.
Now, after eight months, she and her lawyer are giving the district until Monday to reinstate her—or they say they’ll take the issue to Clark County Superior Court.
I'm Erik Neumann reporting.
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OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Monica Carrillo-Casas, James Dawson, Bellamy Pailthorp, Doug Nadvornick, Erik Neumann and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer.
Thanks for listening, and have a good weekend. We’ll be back in your feeds next week.
It’s SPR.
