Today's headlines:
- The Washington Attorney General's Office sues Providence Health & Services, the largest healthcare provider in Washington, for illegal treatment of pregnant employees.
- Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, fuel costs, health insurance premiums, dam relicensing and inflation are just some of the reasons Spokanites will likely see their utility rates increase next year.
- Republican State Sen. Shelly Short is facing three challengers in her run for re-election in northeast Washington.
- Washington cities are increasing public transit frequency for World Cup festivities.
- Sandpoint's century-old Panida Theater needs grant money to become ADA and fire code compliant.
Plus, a key account for the Department of Natural Resources is expected to go into the negative this summer. Some industry groups say the solution is more logging.
As Aspen Ford from the Washington State Standard explains, DNR leaders say its more complicated.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Anna Boiko-Weyrauch, Aspen Ford 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 Thursday, May 14, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington’s attorney general is suing the state’s largest healthcare provider, alleging Providence has repeatedly refused to offer reasonable accommodations for pregnant or nursing employees—and retaliated against workers who spoke up.
Plus, utility rates are likely to go up next year for Spokane residents—for a LOT of reasons.
And a key account for the Washington Department of Natural Resources is expected to go into the negative this summer. A timber industry group says the agency needs to increase logging. DNR leaders say it’s not that simple.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Washington’s attorney general is suing Providence Health & Services.
In a suit filed yesterday, the state claims Washington’s largest healthcare provider hasn’t given pregnant or nursing employees the legally required reasonable accommodations.
The AG alleges, over the last five years, Providence routinely denied nurses and others a private space to pump breast milk and wouldn’t limit the amount of standing and heavy lifting required of employees.
The lawsuit filed in King County also claims Providence retaliated against employees who insisted on their rights, by forcing them to go on leave, firing them, or assigning them more difficult duties.
In a statement, Providence said it is “committed” to “supporting caregiver health and workplace accommodations.”
The AG is asking anyone who experienced pregnancy discrimination while working for Providence to email the office’s civil rights division.
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Inflation, Washington’s Climate Commitment Act and fuel costs are just some of the reasons Spokanites will likely see their utility rates increase next year.
Public Works director Marlene Feist told City Council this week that her department will likely be proposing fee increases later this summer.
MARLENE FEIST: “We have the CCA compliance for waste and energy, which we expect to be around $2.8 million a year over the next two years. Personal costs are still under development. We have negotiations ongoing with both local 270 and M&P. And then our employee health insurance costs haven't been finalized yet.”
OH: Feist also mentioned relicensing Upriver Dam, issues with contaminants like PFAS, infrastructure growth, and gas prices as other expenses to consider.
Feist did not give hard numbers for how much she expects fees to rise.
She says those figures are likely to come before council in late summer or early fall, as the city enters budget-writing season.
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Republican State Sen. Shelly Short is facing three challengers in her re-election bid.
SPR’s rural reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas has more on the race to represent northeastern Washington in Olympia.
MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS: It’s been almost ten years since Sen. Shelly Short took the Legislative District 7 seat.
Short was initially appointed to replace Brian Dansel, who resigned to take a job with the Trump Administration.
Short was elected to that same seat in 2022, despite facing three challengers during that year’s election.
She is facing another three opponents this year: Brandon Ray Medina and David Swoap, both Republican candidates from Okanogan County, and Ronald McCoy is an independent candidate from Stevens County.
None of the challengers have run against Short before.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
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OH: Washington cities are beefing up public transit service for the World Cup—which is about a month away.
Local transit networks are adding more frequent trips on match days.
In Seattle that includes more frequent light rail service.
Public officials and tournament organizers want to make Lumen Field the most accessible stadium possible, so the vast majority of fans don’t have to drive their cars to get there.
ZAHILAY: “Plan ahead, take transit, leave the car at home, and let’s get ready to welcome the world to the greatest region, the Pacific Northwest.”
OH: That’s King County Executive Girmay Zahilay speaking to reporters at Lumen Field yesterday.
Next week, free waterfront shuttle service resumes for the summer.
Shuttles will run every 15 minutes between the Space Needle and the International District.
On match days they will run every ten minutes.
For June and most of July, Spokane Transit will increase frequency of buses from the airport, as well as the Downtown/North Bank Shuttle and the City Line.
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The Panida Theater in Sandpoint is so old, it’s compliant with neither fire code nor the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Its caretakers want to change that.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham has more.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: The Panida Theater will be 100 years old next year.
It recently got a new roof and a new ceiling thanks to a $450,000 grant from the Sandpoint Urban Renewal Agency.
Now, the theater’s executive director Heather White is coming back to the agency to ask for more help.
HEATHER WHITE: “We are not up to code with our fire suppression. And so, we do host hundreds of community members every month, family, children, elderly, artists and visitors. And without a suppression system, both our audience and our building itself are unnecessarily at risk in the event of a fire or any other kind of emergency.”
EB: White says the theater also needs to repair masonry on its south exterior wall.
HW: “And for our third, if you come in and you look at our stage, we've got two stairs that go up to that theatre, but we don't have any kind of a ramp or any kind of a lift for our patrons or our artists that would need such accommodations. And so, we'd love the opportunity to bring that to compliance.”
EB: Sandpoint’s urban renewal department currently has roughly $300,000 dollars in its spending accounts.
It will likely take action on the Panida’s requests in coming months.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: Washington’s Department of Natural Resources is heading for budget trouble. A key DNR account is expected to go into the negative next month.
The American Forest Resources Council is warning that could lead to agency workers being laid off.
The industry group says the solution is selling more timber and reopening the 77,000 acres of older forest Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove had removed from logging rotations. Agency leadership says it’s more complicated than that.
Aspen Ford has been following this for the Washington State Standard. Thanks for joining us.
ASPEN FORD: Thanks for having me.
OH: So lay some groundwork for us. How did we get here?
AF: Yeah, so there are a lot of reasons that are being talked about, about how the agency got to this place. Agency leadership, such as the Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove, he's saying the budget shortfall came from a lot of things, one being tariff uncertainty, the housing market. Dave Upthegrove's predecessor, former Commissioner Hillary Frond, the sales that she approved while in office are just now beginning to come to the agency, meaning the agency gives loggers up to three years to harvest the trees. And that's when they're paid, when the trees are harvested. So it can take a bit for the agency to actually see the revenue.
OH: This isn't the first time DNR has seen this account run low. So I imagine they have practices in place. What's the playbook they're following?
AF: So the uplands manager—his name is Duane Emmons—he told a bunch of DNR employees in February to limit practices on the land that they manage. So now these foresters are not allowed to do things like pre-commercial thinning, where they cut down competing saplings to help one grow, or they can't do land surveys, and they're ending civil culture contracts. They're taking this approach to kind of limit what they're spending this money on in this account.
OH: And so why does having a deficit in this particular account matter? Where does this money go?
AF: Yeah, so the forest development account is supplied solely by timber sales on state forest lands. And the money in that account is used to pay at least partial salaries of hundreds of DNR employees, think loggers, foresters, people who are out in the field doing the work to manage the lands. This account also funds junior taxing districts, like school districts, like fire districts, libraries, like local government services. Counties have been, they are really part of this conversation too, and they've been showing up at the DNR board meetings every month and advocating for them to sell more timber because that's what can help them out of these budget deficits that they face from other areas, such as the state legislature not funding them enough.
OH: So these taxing districts, the counties, schools, and people whose salary money is coming from this account, what are they saying about the impending deficit?
AF: The foresters at DNR are really scared for their jobs and for the future of the agency. I had the two unions who represent employees at DNR reach out to me and send me statements about what they think about this. And what they've said is ‘It's unacceptable what the agency's leadership is doing.’ They think they're putting the blame on factors outside of their control, when actually it's at least partially their fault, is what the union says. The logging industry counties, especially counties in timber country in Washington, are saying we need to log more. It's really controversial what Commissioner Dave Upthegrove has done since taking office, which is he paused timber sales for eight months and then he decided to set aside 77,000 acres of state lands out of the forest rotation. Counties in the logging industry are saying by doing that, you're taking money away from counties. But Dave Upthegrove has been clear that he has not limited or canceled timber sales in any meaningful way, and that he has a solid plan going forward. But for people who depend on the revenue like schools, they're definitely very scared right now.
OH: Well, if Commissioner Upthegrove says he has a plan, what is it? How do the folks at DNR say we can fix this? And how are groups like the timber industry saying we can fix this?
AF: The agency comes out with something called the Sustainable Harvest Plan. And Dave Upthegrove says, ‘We have this plan. We have five years of stability coming’ because they've developed a plan that will work and they will keep selling timber. And he's saying, ‘Just because I set aside all these acres of timber, it's really not that much’ compared to all of the land that they manage and that they can still make revenue and still support the beneficiaries. And one thing that is unique about the Department of Natural Resources is that it is an agency that has historically funded itself, unlike most other state agencies. And so one other thing that Dave Upthegrove pointed out when I was speaking with him is that the timber market hasn't really risen with inflation like almost everything else. He said, ‘You know, I'm questioning whether we're starting to sell timber at a loss because the agency's operating costs continue to increase while timber doesn't really increase with it.’ And so that's kind of a broader structural issue that the agency will have to deal with at some point.
OH: Aspen Ford covers politics and environmental issues for the Washington State Standard. Aspen, thanks for sharing your reporting with us.
AF: Thanks for having me.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Anna Boiko-Weyrauch, Aspen Ford and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
