Today's headlines:
- Washington officials ask judge to force private immigration detention center to allow state health inspections.
- Unofficial results from Washington's special election are in: None of the ballot measures in Stevens and Spokane Counties passed.
- Private construction companies want in on fixing Idaho's failing infrastructure.
- College students in Idaho will pay more for tuition next year.
- Moscow officials deny a permit to a developer connected to a Christian nationalist religious movement.
Plus, Washington state's Democratic party is facing a competitive election season. Its fiercest challengers? Other Democrats. State reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more on powerful Washington Dems being challenged from the left by a new wave of millennials running for office.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and James Dawson.
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 Wednesday, April 29, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington health officials say they’ve tried to inspect the state’s largest immigration facility 10 times in the last three years over allegations of medical mistreatment and subpar living conditions.
But they’ve never been let in. Now the governor is asking a federal judge to step in.
And Idaho is having an especially hard time finding the money to maintain and repair infrastructure. One private company is offering Kootenai County help.
Plus, Washington state Democrats are facing tough challenges this election year… from fellow Democrats.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Washington state’s largest immigrant detention facility is facing a court challenge over health inspections.
State Government Reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more.
SARAH MIZES-TAN: The Governor and Attorney General filed an injunction yesterday to get health inspectors access to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
The Center has repeatedly blocked health officials from seeing inside.
State Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self of Mukilteo says living conditions are reportedly dire.
LILLIAN ORTIZ-SELF: “Above everything else, they’re human beings. And they don’t deserve to be assaulted, raped, starved, poisoned by chemicals.”
SMT: About 1,300 people are being held at the facility.
Over 3,000 reports have been filed against the company that owns the detention center alleging subpar living conditions like dirty drinking water, contaminated food, and sexual assault and violence.
The company disputes these claims.
In Olympia, I’m Sarah Mizes-Tan.
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Unofficial vote totals show none of the ballot measures in Stevens or Spokane Counties passing during yesterday’s special elections.
In Spokane County, just under 50% of voters cast ballots in favor of East Valley School District’s bond, about 5% fewer than its first attempt in February.
The bond needed 60% approval to pass.
The Stevens County Library District’s operations levy received 46% approval.
Library officials previously told SPR a levy failure would mean service and staffing cuts.
And the Nine Mile Falls School District’s capital levy got a combined 45% of the vote between Spokane and Stevens County.
County canvassing boards will certify results in 10 days.
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Maintaining and repairing infrastructure is getting more difficult across the country, but Idaho is having an especially hard time finding the money.
In Kootenai County, private firms are offering help to local governments.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Rich Tyler is a municipal civic liaison with Core Construction, a private company out of Boise.
TYLER: “There is need for capital improvements to support the infrastructures of the county and not enough money.”
EB: Tyler was in Coeur d’Alene this week to talk to Kootenai County commissioners.
RT: “We know the history of the state when it comes to trying to pass bonds with the supermajority. When you don't have those access to funds, you have a growing community, a need for infrastructure, your traditional ways of financing those projects really may not be the best option.”
EB: Tyler and his team were pitching the idea of private public partnerships, which they call P3.
Private companies often have more initial capital than municipalities do, plus they have fewer restrictions on debt.
While it’s common for governments to contract with private companies, P3 tends to give private companies more risk and more reward, so it’s more lucrative for them.
P3 is happening all over the country, and the partnerships are usually initiated by private companies, Tyler’s team said.
There’s no cost savings to the public, who either pay indirectly through taxes or directly through user fees.
But P3 could be one way to unlock the cash flow that Idaho’s roads, bridges, and jails desperately need.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
— — —
Tuition will increase for many Idaho college students next year.
The state Board of Education today approved rate hikes averaging four-and-a-half percent for each of the state’s four-year colleges.
Those are the University of Idaho, Lewis-Clark State College and Boise State and Idaho State Universities.
The U of I will charge the state’s highest tuition.
Next year, resident undergraduates will pay about 98-hundred dollars in tuition and fees, about 400 more than this year.
U of I Chief Financial Officer Brian Foisy says it’s still a pretty good deal.
BRIAN FOISY: “Our tuition remains within a competitive range relative to our peers. While we are not the lowest-cost institution in the group, we are also not positioned at the high end. Instead, we are squarely within the market, which is important for both competitiveness and perceived value.”
OH: The state board granted the tuition increases after a legislative session that cut millions from college and university budgets.
— — —
A Moscow developer affiliated with a Christian nationalist religious group cannot prop up a music and dance in the city’s downtown.
James Dawson explains.
JAMES DAWSON: Developer Rusty Olps says he’s about to close on the prime downtown Moscow location this week, which was previously a bicycle shop.
He told the city’s Board of Adjustment on Monday that offering music and dance lessons, along with Sunday church services, would uphold the town’s reputation as Idaho’s “Heart of the Arts.”
RUSTY OLPS: “It seems like having venues in the downtown corridor where people can learn the arts would be in line with sort of the greater aesthetic and cultural vision for Moscow.”
JD: While church services are automatically allowed in downtown Moscow, educational services need permission from the city.
Olps’ ties with Christ Church Pastor Doug Wilson brought out dozens of people urging the board to deny the permit application. That pushback resonated with Vice Chair Tim Thomson.
TIM THOMSON: “I have a hard time believing that this is harmonious with the culture and the perception of what the downtown core really stands for.”
JD: It’s unclear if Olps will appeal the decision. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: Washington state's Democratic party is facing a competitive election season. Its fiercest challengers? Other Democrats.
Olympia correspondent Sarah Mizes-Tan reports.
SMT: Fresh-faced Hannah Sabio Howell is running for state Senate in a district representing Seattle’s Capitol Hill, but when I tried to talk to her about her campaign, her fire alarm kept going off.
[ALARM AMBI]
HANNA SABIO HOWELL: “Apartment living.”
SMT: She’s a young millennial taking on one of the state’s most powerful Democrats.
HSH: “I think right now we're seeing a community based movement against status quo, politics as usual, Democratic leadership that has said we're delivering for you while we look around and say, ‘Where is it? I can still barely afford to live here.’”
SMT: Sabio Howell favors more taxes on the state’s richest corporations and people. And she’s running against Seattle’s Jamie Pedersen—the Senate majority leader. She thinks Pedersen is out of touch with his liberal district.
Dean Nielsen, a Democratic political consultant, says it’s remarkable to see Pedersen being challenged from the left.
After all, he led the effort to pass a historic income tax on millionaires this year.
DEAN NIELSEN: “Majority leader Peterson has been, frankly, the most progressive Senate Leader in Washington state history.”
SMT: Experts like Nielsen say a leftward shift is happening all across the Puget Sound region.
This primary election season, at least six Democratic incumbents are facing challenges from within their own party. And those newcomers are more liberal.
Even moderate incumbents like Amy Walen, are attracting opponents from the left.
Walen is a state rep from Kirkland. She’s one of a few Democrats who voted against the so-called “millionaires’ tax” this year. Her opponent supports that tax.
Here’s Nielsen again:
DN: “You already are starting to see some of those fracturings within the Democratic caucus, and as the caucus gets larger and the Republicans fail to compete in these elections, you're only going to see this more and more.”
SMT: He says it wasn’t too long ago that Republicans were a larger force in Legislative races.
DN: “Up until 2018 you had fairly competitive legislative elections where the Republicans were controlling the Senate. Now these elections have largely become uncompetitive, and the Republican Party is vanishing in Washington state.”
SMT: Senate majority leader Jamie Pedersen—who we heard about earlier— says he actually welcomes a challenge from a more liberal candidate.
He’s run unopposed or nearly unopposed since 2013.
JAMIE PEDERSEN: “I think competition is really great for democracy, and I applaud that. I'm glad that my constituents will have a choice, and I'm excited to get out and talk to them about the work that we've been doing.”
SMT: Pedersen says he tries to keep his progressive Seattle base in mind when crafting laws like the millionaires tax.
His base in the 43rd legislative district tends to favor these kinds of tax-the-rich policies. But he says lawmaking is about compromise too.
JP: “It's also hard for people probably living in the bubble that the deep blue 43rd sometimes is to understand what it takes to get things passed in Olympia.”
SMT: Chad Minnick is a Republican political consultant.
He believes that what’s driving Washington state’s leftward shift can be traced to the other Washington—D.C.
CHAD MINNICK: “What has happened is Trump is so unpopular with the left wing base and with moderate independent voters on the left coast, where we are, that dominates it so much that it doesn't matter what your policy positions are, as a Democrat, you're going to have—you're going to have the advantage.”
SMT: He says national politics have pushed both Democrats and Republicans to more extreme ends of the political spectrum.
CM: “There's very few moderates left in either party. To be honest, these days, [it’s very hard to find that middle ground and get elected.]”
SMT: Hannah Sabio Howell, remember her, she has that very sensitive fire alarm in her apartment
[FIRE ALARM AMBI]
This year she’s running to the left of the Democratic establishment, but she started her career working as an aide for Eastside Rep. Larry Springer.
He’s a moderate Democrat—a dying breed in Olympia.
In fact, Springer’s not running this year. And two new Democrats will vie for his seat this election season.
In Olympia, I’m Sarah Mizes-Tan.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, James Dawson and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
