Today's headlines:
- Washington gas prices continue to climb, but a gas tax holiday seems unlikely.
- Septic systems can threaten groundwater quality. New revenue from Spokane's Aquifer Protection Area could help fund residents' septic-to-sewer transitions.
- Spokane is supposed to collect more compost soon. But there's nowhere to put it.
- Adams Elementary School, the oldest school in Spokane, breaks ground on a new chapter.
- Stevens County resident could soon weigh in on the location of a new jail.
Plus, RANGE's Erin Sellers joins to talk about what to expect from the upcoming "Spokane 3" trial—that is, the trial for three remaining defendants charged with conspiracy during last summer's anti-immigration enforcement protest.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Carrillo-Casas, Erin Sellers 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 15, 2026.
On today’s show, Washingtonians keep seeing new record high gas prices. So why does the Evergreen State have the second highest fuel prices in the country?
Plus, Spokanites produce the most organic waste per person per year in Washington. But unless the region’s only commercial composting facility can expand, the city will miss a state deadline to collect food and yard waste from all its residents.
And Monday kicks off the federal trial of three Spokane protestors charged for their actions during an anti-immigration enforcement protest last summer. We’ll walk through what you need to know before jury selection starts.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Gas prices in Washington state are persistently hitting record highs.
It’s the second most expensive state for a gallon of fuel, behind California.
State Government reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more.
SARAH MIZES-TAN: War in Iran has been driving up fuel prices for all states, but Washington’s prices in particular have ballooned to over 6 dollars a gallon in some areas. And that’s making drivers worried.
SCOTT MONTGOMERY: “Once it gets above $5 a red light goes on in many minds.”
SMT: Scott Montgomery is a geoscientist and professor at the University of Washington. He studies oil and gas trends.
And he says Washington’s lack of an income tax also puts upward pressure on prices. The state gas tax is relatively high.
The state also has a carbon-emissions program called the Climate Commitment Act that adds another 50 cents to every gallon.
While some states consider a gas tax holiday, Washington is unlikely to do so because taxes fund so much of the state’s transportation budget.
In Olympia, I’m Sarah Mizes-Tan.
OH: According to Triple-A, the average price for a gallon of regular in the Spokane Metro Area today is about $3.39, about a cent down from yesterday’s new record high.
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Revenue from Spokane’s new aquifer protection area could help local residents transition their septic systems to city sewer service.
Faulty septic systems can threaten groundwater quality.
The Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie aquifer is the region’s primary source of drinking water.
Public Works director Marlene Feist says that’s why her department wants to use APA dollars to help pay for septic-to-sewer transitions.
Those usually come with a connection fee of around 8 thousand dollars.
MARLENE FEIST: “We're proposing $3,600, so about half of what today's charge is for that. And we're estimating that it's about $10,000 to actually do the physical work. So we're looking at $13,000 to do a connection versus maybe $20,000 if they waited and didn't take advantage of this program.”
OH: Any home or business within 200 feet of city sewer service is required by code to connect to it.
Feist says at least 180 of those properties have been identified.
City Council will vote on whether to designate the APA funds in the coming weeks.
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Spokane is supposed to start collecting compost from all residents by next April.
But as SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, there’s nowhere to put it.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Spokane residents produce an average of 170 pounds of food and yard waste per person per year—that’s the highest rate in the state.
The city currently collects compost from about 60% of city residents and takes it to Barr-Tech, the region’s only commercial compost facility.
State mandates say 100 percent of city residents should get compost collection every other week starting on April 1, 2027.
But Solid Waste director Trace Bradburn says Barr-Tech is already full.
TRACE BRADBURN: “They in 2025 collected 107,000 tons of organic material. They have a capacity of 105 to 110,000 tons a year of organic material. So in other words, they're at capacity currently.”
EB: The Spokane area is already exempt from the state mandate to collect organic waste from businesses, since Barr-Tech told the Department of Ecology it can’t take any more.
Bradburn says Barr-Tech bought more land to eventually increase operations. But Spokane may need to request more exemptions if the private facility can’t expand in time.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Spokane’s oldest school has been leveled, and crews have begun building its replacement.
For nearly 20 years, Spokane School District officials have been making plans to replace the 117-year-old Adams Elementary.
Yesterday, district officials joined Adams families in the middle of the dusty work site to celebrate a symbolic groundbreaking.
Adams Principal Beth Nye says she is often asked if she’ll miss the old school.
BETH NYE: “My quick answer is no. But, yes, it is a little bittersweet to see it come down. But, as I’ve always said, the building is not the stones, it’s the people that make the building.”
OH: Nye’s students are now based about two miles away at the former Jefferson School, temporarily dubbed Camp Adams.
The new version of Adams Elementary is expected to be ready by the fall of 2027.
The project is the first to be funded by the bond issue Spokane voters approved last year.
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The Stevens County Commissioners could finalize a decision within a few weeks about where to build the county’s new jail.
The planned $73 million facility is set to be a 55,000 square foot building in Colville.
County grant administrator Dean Davis says the current jail doesn’t have enough space.
DEAN DAVIS: “The commissioners are hopeful to land on the final site location, but it just depends on the analysis of the team, meaning the architect team, the engineer team, the general contractor team, things like that.”
OH: A county committee that includes seven volunteers has been reviewing which locations would best fit the new facility.
The committee chose four options that will be reviewed in a public hearing on June 1.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
Nearly a year ago, protesters gathered in downtown Spokane over Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers' detention of two Venezuelan men who were in the U.S. legally. The federal government ended up charging nine demonstrators for their actions during that protest.
Eventually, six of them took guilty pleas that allowed them to avoid prison time, but three decided to plead ‘not guilty,’ and after some delays, their trial is set to start on Monday.
Erin Sellers has been following this story since the day of the protest last June for Range Media, and they join me now. Thanks for being here.
ERIN SELLERS: Thanks for having me.
OH: So, let's just start with those three remaining protesters. Who are they?
ES: Alphabetically, Jac Archer is the co-executive director of Spokane Community Against Racism. Justice Forrall—and yes, that actually is their given name—They serve as a human rights commissioner for the city of Spokane, and they also previously worked at SCAR. Bajun Mavawala II is the son of a current congressional candidate, Bajun Mavawala the elder, an Army National Guard veteran. He worked as a Japanese linguist and served a combat tour in Afghanistan.
OH: Who are each of them charged with?
ES: It's an archaic charge. It's conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer. To find these three defendants guilty, the federal government has to prove first that people agreed to use force, intimidation, or threat to keep any federal officer from doing their job, injure any federal officer, or injure a federal officer's property. Meet that first bar, then they have to prove that each individual person currently on trial knowingly joined that conspiracy or that agreement. And so even though the trial is for all three of them at once, each defendant will be considered individually by the jury.
So it is hypothetically possible that like one person gets found guilty and another innocent.
OH: In their attempt to prove that, what do we know what the prosecution is going to argue?
ES: Yeah, just on a Facebook post made by former City Council President Ben Stuckert, who has since taken a guilty plea, he was a guardian for one of the young men detained. He posted on Facebook something to the extent of like, ‘I'm going to sit in front of this bus, I'm going to protest, I'm going to try to keep ICE from taking these two young men to Tacoma. Come down here and join me.’
In the course of the day, a lot of people joined him. One of the questions is could Facebook posts and responding to a Facebook post, like, seeing this call to action and showing up at the ICE office, could that constitute a conspiracy? Is the language in the Facebook post enough of a proof that they intended to force, threaten or intimidate? That’s at the heart of the federal government's case is that this constitutes a conspiracy. Plot the planning and like communication between defendants that happened the day of. They're trying to argue that's a conspiracy.
OH: Briefly on the defense side, what do we know about what they're planning to say?
ES: Yeah, I've gotten a little taste of the defense's arguments in these motion hearings leading up to it. And it seems like what they're trying to make is one, it's not a conspiracy. There are constantly posts on Reddit or Facebook or Twitter that a protest is happening here, here, here, and then people go to that protest.
Does that constitute a crime? The defense is going to say no. I think they're also going to argue that there have been crimes that did occur that day. We've heard one of the defense attorneys be willing to say, ‘Yeah, there was some vandalism. There was some failure to disperse, like all of these things that might constitute local misdemeanor charges. But whether or not those crimes happen does not mean that the crime of conspiracy happened.’ And so I think he's going to argue ‘Our clients maybe did some civil disobedience. They were exercising their free speech rights. They were protesting. Nowhere did they intend to cause harm, threat, or intimidate. They just intended to do civil disobedience. And if some other smaller crimes happened, that's actually not relevant.’
OH: One of the defense attorneys is actually seeking to have you, Erin Sellers, testify as a witness. Why and will you?
ES: There's not a lot I can say about this under legal guidance. But I can tell you what my editor told the spokesman, which is that we will challenge any subpoena that is issued for me. We do not intend for me to testify.
And I think the quote that Luke gave was that our reporting at range, the way that we do it is so that the people who have been covering the story since the beginning are the ones that continue to do that reporting. And if I was going to have to testify, I wouldn't be able to continue reporting on this. So we do intend to fight that.
And I think that's all I can say.
OH: How long do we expect this trial to take?
ES: Two weeks, which came as a surprise to me and also the judge. I think her quote was something along the lines of, ‘This was a nine hour event on one day where basically everything is videotaped. Why in the world do we need a two week trial for this?’
The argument has been that the prosecutors want to call 18 to 20 witnesses. They estimate that it's going to take the full first week just to do jury selection and for the prosecutors to present their case. And the second week will be the defense's case, redirect from the prosecutors and then closing statements and handing it off to the jury who will deliberate for who knows how long.
OH: My last question, how does this case, this prosecution fit into the broader picture of the Justice Department's actions under the current administration?
ES: This protest happened on June 11th. On June 12th, the Justice Department sent out an internal memo ordering federal prosecutors across the country to prioritize and publicize prosecutions of anti-ICE protesters. July 15th, we have these nine people charged.
And in that window of time, Richard Barker, the acting U.S. attorney for eastern Washington, ended up resigning from the federal prosecutor's office. And he said that he couldn't ethically pursue charges against the protesters, sort of implying that he was facing internal pressure to charge these people. He resigned entirely, didn't want to be a part of that.
And this was something that the defense had maybe wanted to talk about. They wanted to maybe use Barker's resignation. The judge ruled anything that happened after June 11th is actually unable to be introduced as evidence.
So they can't call Barker as a witness. They can't talk about him resigning. They can't talk about this memo on June 12th because that was the day after the events of June 11th.
They can talk about anything before this. So if they wanted to talk about the L.A. protests the couple of days before June 11th and make a case for that being relevant to their case somehow, they could. They do have that right.
But nothing that happened after June 11th.
OH: Erin Sellers covers politics for Range Media. Thanks so much for dropping by.
ES: Thanks for having me, Owen.
[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, 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 feed next week.
It’s SPR.
