Today's headlines:
- New state data shows 13% of Washingtonians dropping ACA coverage after federal subsidies expired.
- The World Cup may not have the economic effect that Seattle or Spokane expected.
- Medical Lake expands Eastern Washington's ban on selling kratom.
- Latah County wants a new jail, but isn't sure how to pay for it
- Sunnyside is getting more housing for H-2A visa workers. Labor advocates worry fewer local farmworkers will be hired.
Plus, in recent years, the Idaho legislature has passed or considered a number of bills regarding parents’ rights when it comes to their kids’ education. The “Idaho Medical Freedom Act” bans vaccine mandates and prohibits businesses, governments and schools from requiring customers, employees or students to get medical treatment.
But Le Soleil Child Care, a private daycare in Boise, and a group of parents are suing Idaho officials, arguing that the law’s vague language bans a range of health protections—from hand washing to sending home sick kids.
SPR's Owen Henderson asks Nick Marquiss, an assistant professor at Gonzaga University Law School, to weigh both sides' merits.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Mitch Borden, Eliza Billingham, James Dawson, Monica Carrillo-Casas and Owen Henderson.
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 Friday, May 8, 2026.
On today’s show, new state data shows Washingtonians are dropping their Affordable Care Act health coverage after Congress failed to renew tax credits that kept costs down for middle income households.
And a new report shows hosting FIFA World Cup teams or games this summer may not come with the economic boost Spokane and other Washington cities had hoped for.
Plus, Idaho lawmakers last year passed a “medical freedom” law, prohibiting schools and businesses from requiring vaccines and other medical interventions.
But a group of parents and a daycare are suing, saying the measure also means child care centers can’t send home sick kids.
We’ll talk through the arguments with a law professor.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Thousands of people in Washington state are dropping their Affordable Care Act insurance after Congress allowed federal health subsidies to expire last year.
KNKX’s Mitch Borden reports.
MITCH BORDEN: Compared to 2025, around 40,000 fewer people in Washington signed up for health insurance through Washington Health Plan Finder. That’s according to new data from the state.
Laura Kate Zaichkin is an insurance analyst for the state. She says this drop is largely because Congress failed to renew federal subsidies that helped keep insurance costs down for middle income households.
She says, on average, people who lost these tax credits are now paying more than $700 a month for health insurance.
LAURA KATE ZAICHKIN: “It's really dramatic. What we're seeing here is really an affordability crisis for folks, this is driven largely by the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits.”
MB: Zaichkin expects more people will end up dropping their insurance, which could end up increasing healthcare costs across the state.
I’m Mitch Borden reporting.
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OH: Despite bringing some of the world’s top teams to Washington, the World Cup may not bring the economic impact that Spokane, Seattle or the state expected this June and July.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Belgium just announced that its national team will train at the Seattle Sounders’ facility in Longacres.
But that’s been one of the only recent exciting World Cup announcements for the Northwest.
The American Hotel and Lodging Association released a report this week showing that 80% of Seattle hotels aren’t just experiencing fewer bookings than expected—they’re seeing fewer bookings overall than a typical summer.
So many FIFA room blocks have been released that some hotels are calling the World Cup a “non-event”—that is, the competition isn’t having any effect on their income.
According to SPR’s research, plenty of hotel rooms in Spokane are available and at near-normal summer prices, despite the Egyptian national team’s imminent arrival.
The AHLA report says international travelers have a bigger economic impact than domestic travelers. But visa and safety concerns, plus fuel prices, are discouraging those foreign visitors.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: The ban on selling kratom is spreading further in Eastern Washington.
Medical Lake is the most recent town to ban the substance, soon after Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Cheney did the same.
Kratom is federally unregulated. It can have opioid-like effects, especially if it has high concentrations of a compound called 7-O-H.
Since there are no nationwide regulations, labeling can be misleading and there is no age limit for buyers.
Here’s Medical Lake Mayor Terri Cooper.
TERRI COOPER: “I think it sends a strong message to our community that we're protecting our kids; we know, we're aware, we care, and we're going to be on the cutting edge of watching for the new stuff coming.”
OH: The retail ban goes into effect in Medical Lake in 30 days.
The ordinance only prohibits the sale and distribution—not the possession—of kratom.
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The push to build a new jail in Latah County faces significant headwinds despite a survey showing more than half of respondents supportive of the project.
James Dawson has more.
JAMES DAWSON: Latah County closed its jail last year after failing two inspections. The local sheriff’s office, which ran the jail, said its electrical and fire suppression systems had problems. Inmates are currently being held in Lewiston about 45 minutes south of town.
Consultant Jace Perry told county commissioners this week that they should plan for the new jail to last the next 100 years and to size it appropriately.
JACE PERRY: “Doing a long-term solution that meets your needs now and in the future is actually more cost-effective over time than trying to Band-Aid it or do a little bit or do the minimal amount.”
JD: Commissioners will decide how big of a jail they want to propose over the coming weeks. People who testified on Tuesday were largely supportive, like county treasurer BJ Swanson.
But she says the 66% majority needed to pass a bond is too hard to get and that commissioners should instead lobby state lawmakers to let them increase the local sales tax to pay for it.
BJ SWANSON: “We’ll accomplish that faster than running a direct bond. A direct bond that directly competes with school bonds? Please don’t do that.”
JD: Counties across the state, like Ada and Canyon, have failed repeatedly to pass jail bonds in recent years.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
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OH: An eastern Washington town will soon have more housing for seasonal farm workers.
The project comes after federal policy changes that allow employers to pay foreign-born workers with H-2A visas less and deduct housing costs from their wages.
Documents show that Central Valley Housing bought Sunnyside’s FairBridge Inn in December.
A new website tied to the property describes it as group housing for H-2A and seasonal workers with bunkbed accommodations and self-service kitchens.
Labor activists have questioned how much workers will be charged for the housing—and raised concerns that the housing project indicates companies will hire fewer local workers overall.
Central Valley Housing declined SPR’s request for comment.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
In recent years, the Idaho legislature has passed or considered a number of bills regarding parents’ rights when it comes to their kids’ education.
There’s now a tax credit that parents can use for private school tuition, and parents now must choose to opt their kids in on lessons that address human sexuality.
But a group of Idaho parents says the state is actually disempowering them with a law passed last year.
The “Idaho Medical Freedom Act” bans vaccine mandates and prohibits businesses, governments and schools from requiring customers, employees or students to get medical treatment.
Le Soleil Child Care, a private daycare in Boise, and a group of parents are suing Idaho officials, arguing that the law’s vague language bans a range of health protections—from hand washing to sending home sick kids.
The debate over this law isn’t new—several Republican lawmakers raised similar concerns during last year’s legislative session.
Supporters of the law say the text doesn’t prohibit employers from asking someone who is sick to leave.
As the case winds its way through the court system, I called up Nick Marquiss.
He’s an assistant professor at Gonzaga University’s Law School, where he studies health and antitrust law. And I asked him what he made of the parents’ lawsuit.
NICK MARQUISS: Yeah, you know, it's kind of an interesting argument. So there's a fundamental right to raise your kids how you want.
This goes back almost 100 years now. This right is ground in the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. And generally speaking, this right applies to preventing the state from intruding on the custody and care of the parents.
So this right originated in cases that involved mandating that parents send their kids to public school instead of, like, a private school or religious school or something like that. And generally speaking, the right is about preventing that kind of really interpersonal relationship between a parent and their child related to their upbringing.
And so the parents in this case are going to have to really, I mean, in my view, stretch the contours of that right a little bit to argue that saying rather than the state is mandating that they do something with their children and that impacts the raising of their children, instead they're saying the state is regulating some sort of, I mean, in my view, it's really economic activity.
And, you know, the parents say they’re now, you know, depriving their children of a right, depriving their children of the right to go to a daycare where kids aren't sick or aren't vaccinated or whatever.
And to me, that sounds to me like a bit of a stretch on the read of the constitutional right. But, you know, obviously we'll see how the case progresses in court.
You know, it's kind of interesting too, because it seems to be that this law doesn't prevent schools from sending home kids who are sick, is my understanding of the law.
OH: That is the reasoning that the governor's office at least has pointed to in the bill that says we vetoed an earlier version of this bill because it didn't let schools send home sick kids. And so this one specifically says that schools can. But there's, to my understanding, there's not an analogous phrase or component to the law that opens that up for other businesses.
NM: You know, one of the arguments that the parents and the daycares raise is, you know, without getting too into the constitutional weeds on this, if they are bringing this fundamental right to raise their children however they want under the due process clause, if the court does view that as a right, if the court does say, look, this fundamental right to raise your kids however you want includes sending them to daycares that can choose whether or not kids are vaccinated or sick or whatever, then that fundamental right gets much higher review by the court.
The court is going to say, look, the bar that the government has to pass is a lot higher than it would be if this is not viewed as a fundamental right.
So if it's viewed as a rational basis, which is the alternative to strict scrutiny, which strict scrutiny is at higher right, if rational basis review applies, then it probably does matter that schools are kind of exempt and daycares aren't because, you know, the parents in the daycares will probably say, look, there's no rational basis by which to distinguish between schools and daycare centers on this. They should be treated the same. You know, rational basis review is really, really hard for plaintiffs to win.
So the parents have a tough, a tough go of it if the court does view this as rational basis rather than fundamental right that gets strict scrutiny. So it's hard to know how the court would come out there. The thumb is on the scale for the state if we get rational basis, but hard to say.
OH: I think people might know there have been court cases previously that established the right of the state to require things like vaccines for public school kids. But how do these so-called medical freedom laws fit into this picture when you consider, you know, this is a private business of a daycare, not a public entity like a public school?
NM: The state is given broad powers to regulate these sort of medical things generally under their police powers. States can mandate vaccine requirements and things like that. So here, it's kind of almost the opposite where the state is saying you can't mandate a vaccine requirement.
Even then, I think, assuming there's some sort of rational basis analysis, then I think the court's going to say, look, the state has really, really, really broad powers to regulate this type of activity. You know, we require that daycares have licensed practitioners. We require that in some states, you know, daycares have certain ratios between providers and children. And so the court might just view this law as no different from any of those other laws that regulate daycares. And if that's the case, then it's, you know, it's a tough hill for the plaintiffs to climb.
OH: Assistant Professor Nick Marquiss studies antitrust and health law at Gonzaga University. Professor Marquiss, thanks so much for your time this morning.
NM: Yep, no problem.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Mitch Borden, Eliza Billingham, James Dawson, Monica Carrillo-Casas and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening, and have a good weekend. We’ll be back in your feeds next week.
It’s SPR.
