Today's headlines:
- Private businesses prepare for Idaho's criminal transgender bathroom ban ahead of July start.
- Washington health and transit officials are working together to strengthen the "transit-nutrient connection."
- Spokane Public Schools' new bus system is just around the corner.
- Preventing youth drug use in Washington might be going better than most adults realize.
Plus, Washington passed a divisive bill last year, capping how much landlords can raise rent in any given year. A year later, how are the new rules working out? We hear from the Washington State Standard's Jake Goldstein-Street.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by James Dawson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Jake Goldstein-Street 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 Wednesday, June 3, 2026.
On today’s show, Idaho businesses are trying to figure out how to comply with the state’s new criminal transgender bathroom ban.
And parents and policymakers want to do more to reduce teen drug use. But research shows that prevention efforts might be more effective than adults realize.
Plus, last spring, Washington implemented a controversial limit on how much landlords can raise rents in any 12-month period. We’ll look at how that new law is faring after its first year.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Idaho’s criminal bathroom law will go into effect in less than a month—barring court intervention.
As James Dawson reports, that means private businesses are considering how to adapt to the new anti-transgender regulations.
JAMES DAWSON: The law will make it a misdemeanor for anyone using a restroom that doesn’t match their biological sex and a felony if multiple violations occur within five years.
Cody Earl, a lawyer for St. Luke’s Health System, spoke on a panel in Boise yesterday to give business owners general advice on complying with the law.
Converting all bathrooms into single-use, gender-neutral facilities is one option, though it could be costly for larger businesses.
Earl says companies could take other steps to make the transition more affordable.
CODY EARL: “Even if it is a gender-specific restroom, signage that indicates where the closest gender-neutral restroom is. So you could at least show that you’re giving employees an option or a choice.”
The panel, sponsored by Idaho Employment Lawyers, also suggested businesses adopt workplace policies around recording and harassing co-workers or customers.
The new law will take effect July 1.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
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OH: Eastern Washington public health and transportation officials are trying to help residents navigate public transit so they can eat healthier food.
Evelyn Whitmer leads the federal Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program.
She’s working through the Washington State University extension office alongside Spokane Transit Authority to address the “transit-nutrition connection.”
WHITMER: “So transportation barriers, they limit overall choices. Families have a hard time with getting groceries home because it's really heavy to carry. Fresh produce is obviously heavier.”
OH: Whitmer says she’s working with STA to make sure people know there’s no bag limit on the bus and to map out how to get to farmers’ markets on public transit.
Speaking to County Commissioners this week, Whitmer said at least half of someone’s overall health is based on socioeconomic factors and built environment.
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Spokane school students will ride different buses next fall.
They’ll still be yellow, but they’ll read “Spokane Public Schools, No. 81” on the side, not “Zum.”
The district is in the process of buying its own buses, rather than paying a company that owns a fleet.
SPS will, for one year, hire Zum to drive its new buses, then hire its own drivers beginning the next year.
Superintendent Adam Swinyard says owning the buses has become a more cost-effective option for the district.
ADAM SWINYARD: “We're just working on finalizing what the fleet size is going to be. When we're completed and fully transitioned, we do think it'll be somewhere between 140 to 150 yellow school buses. In addition, we're going to be utilizing a fleet of vans.”
OH: Those vans will serve routes that don’t have enough students to fill buses.
The district is asking parents to register their children now for bus service in the fall.
You can do that at the district’s website.
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Schools, politicians and parents across Washington are talking about how best to reduce youth drug use.
But, as SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports, prevention might be going better than they think.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Spokane City Council member Michael Cathcart asked Police Chief Kevin Hall this week why the police department isn’t running a drug prevention program in schools, like D.A.R.E.
Hall said he couldn’t find a program that’s proven to work—and that programs like Scared Straight might even make things worse.
KEVIN HALL: “When they went back to take a look at it, they found out that the kids who went through that program were actually more likely to end up incarcerated.”
EB: But according to Washington’s most recent Healthy Youth Survey, all substance use by tenth graders is decreasing. Most students report never having used marijuana, cigarettes, vapes or alcohol—let alone harder stuff.
Sarah Mariani with the Washington Health Care Authority told the Liquor and Cannabis Board this week that students and adults tend to perceive youth drug use as more prevalent than it actually is.
SARAH MARIANI: “It's almost societal pressure…there isn't necessarily still that pervasive piece that's showing up in the data that as a rite of passage by 10th grade, you must have used substances. Quite frankly, most youth haven't. And so the more we can reinforce that, the more that youth can feel agency in their choice.”
EB: Her team also pointed to the correlation between decreasing substance use and improving mental health.
In 2025, more tenth graders than any other study years said they have an adult they can turn to when they feel sad or anxious.
Mariani said those kinds of relationships seem to end up keeping youth from turning to substances when they feel alone.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: Last year, Washington passed a divisive bill to cap how much landlords can raise rent in any given year.
Leasers can only increase rent by 7% plus inflation, or 10% total, whichever is lower, with some exceptions, like new construction or certain multiplexes. For manufactured homes, the limit is 5%.
So a year later, how are the new rules working out? Jake Goldstein-Street looked into this for the Washington State Standard, and he joins us now. Good morning.
JAKE GOLDSTEIN-STREET: Good morning.
OH: So what did you find out? How has this law been enforced?
JGS: Sure. So it's kind of interesting. And I don't think, you know, talking to supporters of the law, they didn't expect that landlords would just be openly flouting the law and that there'd be millions of dollars in fines assessed. But there have been some cases—the Attorney General's Office has been tasked with enforcing the law.
They've filed around four dozen settlements with various landlords, both of manufactured homes, RV parks, and also your more traditional apartment buildings across the state.
In almost all of those cases, I would say, they deal with rent increases that were notified before the law took effect, but were set to take effect, those rent increases, after the law took effect, so they were no longer legal if they exceeded the maximum that you mentioned.
And then there's been a few cases where the state has levied some fines. But in those cases, they're suspending those, basically saying, ‘If you don't screw up again, if you continue to comply with this law, then you won't have to pay this.’
But those fines can be pretty sizable. There's one case that's about $400,000 based on $7,500 per violation, which can stack up when you've got 50 tenants.
In all these cases, the landlords have had to either rescind these rent increases or refund them if they had collected any unlawful rent based on this. It's unclear how many exactly tenants across the state have been affected by these rent increases.
At one point, the Attorney General said something like a thousand, at least a thousand households, but there's nothing really out there more specific. It's pretty hard to extrapolate from the documents.
OH: You spoke with one Spokane County RV park owner as well. What did you hear from him?
JGS: So this is a Rick Lungo, and he owns an RV park in Spokane County. And he has the pleasure of having the second biggest fine, though it's suspended, so he hasn't had to pay it. And that was about $217,000 for trying to raise rents above that 5% limit for his couple dozen tenants at his RV park. And he was pretty frustrated.
I'll be honest with you, he thought it was a pretty horrible situation. For one, he didn't know about the law and also didn't know that it treated RV parks like manufactured homes. Key difference there.
And the reason that the manufactured home limit is lower than your traditional apartment is because manufactured homeowners are in a pretty sticky situation where they own their home, but they don't own the land and they can't move their home.
And so they're kind of stuck where they are and don't have a lot of choices if they are met with pretty big rent increases. Whereas RVs, they're being treated as subject to that same 5% limit, but those RVs can move.
And so he was pretty frustrated by this and told me that he's working with others that own RV parks across the state, trying to reach out to policymakers to try to get a carve out in the law next year.
I think what the chances are of that kind of remain to be seen. Lawmakers here don't reconvene in Olympia until January, so there won't be any action soon, but that's something that they're pushing for.
OH: Yeah, I would imagine Mr. Lungo isn't alone in his frustration about the limits. This was a very controversial proposal during the 2025 legislative session. So what are other opponents saying after this first year of implementation?
JGS: The common refrain among the housing community of property developers, property managers, landlords, both when the law was being discussed in 2025 and now, is that this is going to push especially your smaller landlords out of the market, that they won't be able to keep up with rising property taxes, maintenance costs.
As those costs increase, they won't be able to then push those costs onto their tenants and won't be able to stay above water financially. What the evidence of that so far is kind of remains to be seen, but that's kind of the argument so far.
And then there's also ongoing legal challenge from manufactured homeowners with a hearing set for July in Spokane County to test the legality of the law as it relates to manufactured homeowners, who say that they, you know, specifically in cases of emergency and those sorts of things, if something comes up and they need, you know, they don't have enough money to cover them and they can't ask their tenants to help them cover those costs through rent increases. And so they'll, they're asking a judge to step in and block that portion of the law.
OH: And we'll be covering that case when that hearing happens in July. But how about supporters? What do they have to say?
JGS: Supporters of the law, when they talk to folks out in their communities, they, you know, they say, like, they're very appreciative of the stability and predictability.
That was the biggest thing with this law. It's not saying that landlords can't raise rents at all, but they say that still gives some predictability. You're not going to be met with this steep, steep rent increase that's going to force you out of your home that you could have seen in past years.
They think it's, it's working as intended and also that it came at a good time. We've now got rising food costs, gas prices are going way up with the ongoing war in Iran. And so they say it couldn't have come at a better time, basically.
OH: Jake Goldstein-Street reports for the Washington State Standard. Thank you for joining us once again.
JGS: Thanks for having me.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by James Dawson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Jake Goldstein-Street and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
