Today's headlines:
- Washington faces more cuts this budget season...but the state superintendent continues to say that public education can't take any more hits.
- Spokane County hasn't installed a public safety sales tax yet. But it's taking steps to make sure it can be an option in the future.
- Gov. Ferguson joins the call to ban phones in public schools statewide.
- Former Spokane health officer Bob Lutz settles with health district for $1.65 million.
- What's Spokane's 'queer agenda'? Spectrum Center wants input from the Inland Northwest's LGBTQ+ community.
Plus, the World Cup kicks off tomorrow with a game between Mexico and South Africa. Egypt’s national team landed in Spokane this week before its first match against Belgium on Monday in Seattle.
Today, the team is opening up its training session at Gonzaga University to a few lucky fans who won free lottery tickets. SPR’s Eliza Billingham has more on what it takes to bring some of the best footballers in the world to a liberal arts school in Spokane. Spoiler alert: it has a lot to do with grass.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, Freddy Monares and Doug Nadvornick
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 10, 2026.
On today’s show, both Washington state and Spokane County face uphill battles to balance their budgets.
And Gov. Bob Ferguson is joining the chorus of policymakers pushing for a statewide public school cell phone ban.
Plus, Gonzaga is one of just a handful of American universities to host a national team for this summer’s World Cup. And today, a few lucky fans will get to watch the Egyptian players train ahead of their first match in Seattle.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham walks us through what it took to get the small school’s facilities ready for the Pharaohs.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
The Office of Financial Management is warning Washington agencies that a “business as usual” approach won’t be enough to balance the ledger next year.
The Office usually sends a memo out during summer budget season.
CHRIS REYKDAL: “It's not unusual for OFM to tell agencies it's a tough year, revenues are challenging… This definitely had a different tone.”
OH: State Superintendent Chris Reykdal criticized this year’s spending cuts, and now he’s worried education will lose more state funding.
OFM’s memo blames inflation and population growth for driving up costs.
Meanwhile, forecasts show revenue likely won’t cover maintenance of current programs.
CR: “So my first thought was ‘They have huge cuts to make, and it's going to be really hard.’ And secondly, ‘They can't touch basic education.’”
OH: Reykdal says much of the spending growth comes from the state backfilling human services that the federal government used to provide.
He argues one way to cut overall costs while maintaining constitutionally mandated education spending is by asking counties to provide some of those human services.
Outgoing House Appropriations Committee Chair and Spokane Democrat Timm Ormsby says it’s also possible the legislature could explore further taxes on the ultra-wealthy—if the new income tax on high earners survives its legal battles.
TIMM ORMSBY: “Those that have the ability to pay should help their fellow Washingtonians as they need services just to be able to go on, carry on with their life.”
OH: Next year will mark the third legislative session in a row where Washington lawmakers have faced a significant deficit.
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Looking ahead at their own tough budget season, Spokane County Commissioners want to keep all options open for funding public safety.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: The commissioners voted yesterday to authorize an application to the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission.
The application details the sheriff’s department compliance with things like model use of force policies and data sharing agreements with the state.
Sheriff John Nowels says if the state approves the application, the county commissioners would be allowed to install a point-one percent sales tax without approval from voters to help fund public safety.
JOHN NOWELS: “I wanted to ensure that should the board want to have all options available to close the funding gap that we have, that it wasn't the sheriff's office that was preventing you or precluding you from taking that option should you choose to.”
EB: The county isn’t obligated to install the tax if the application is approved.
The application is also required from any agency applying for a slice of the 100 million dollars the governor promised to grant to local law enforcement.
Nowels says the sheriff’s department is recently fully staffed, but it might not stay that way.
JN: “If the board of county commissioners were to apply a straight across the board percentage in reduction, that could mean a loss of anywhere from 27 to some estimates as high as 40 plus FTEs… That would be FTEs that we lost just in unincorporated Spokane County, that would not affect any of our contract cities such as the city of Spokane Valley, Deer Park, Millwood.”
EB: Spokane County needs to close an estimated 30 million dollar deficit next year.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Gov. Bob Ferguson wants to ban cell phone use in Washington state public schools.
He made the announcement at a North Seattle middle school that’s already trying the policy.
KNKX reporter Freddy Monares has more.
FREDDY MONARES: As kids change class at this middle school, they’re walking around and something is notably missing: cellphones. Robert Eagle Staff Middle School prohibits cell phone use during school hours.
Zoe Taggart is a 7th grader here. She says she's less focused on social media.
ZOE TAGGART: "Like, I'm not worried about the latest Beyonce concert. For me, it's just like I'm worried about what's going on here, and, and it's maybe just for seven hours a day, but when I get home, it's like after school everybody's hanging out with each other, and then again, it's still phones away, because we know there's better things to do."
FM: Gov. Ferguson says more than half the states in the U.S. are banning cell phones in schools.
BOB FERGUSON: “Washington state is not one of them, and that must change in the next legislative session.”
FM: Ferguson wants to take away cell phones from students for the entire school day.
In Seattle, I'm Freddy Monares.
— — —
OH: A former health officer’s long legal battle with the Spokane Regional Health District has ended.
The health district board has approved a settlement with Bob Lutz, who was fired in October 2020.
He had been criticized by many local officials for being too cautious in moving Spokane through COVID-19 protocols.
Lutz filed a wrongful dismissal claim.
His case was set to be tried in Superior Court last month.
Before the trial began, he agreed with the health district’s risk provider to settle the case.
Health District attorney Michelle Fossum says Lutz will get one-point-six-five million dollars.
MICHELLE FOSSUM: “In addition to the financial piece, it provides that everyone pays their own attorneys’ fees. It’s a full release of claims. Lawsuit is dismissed. No admission of liability and Bob Lutz agrees not to apply for employment with SRHD in the future.”
OH: Lutz hasn’t yet responded to SPR’s request for comment.
— — —
With ballot measures and legislation targeting the Inland Northwest’s queer community, a local LGBTQ organization is asking what area residents need most.
Spokane’s Spectrum Center was founded eight years ago to meet the needs identified by a local queer community survey.
KJ January is Spectrum’s advocacy director.
KJ JANUARY: “We've been through a lot since 2018. That was a lifetime ago. The economy's different. We've been through some trauma with COVID. So what do we need now?”
OH: January says because LGBTQ people inhabit all parts of society, the survey goes through issues from housing and health to childcare and community spaces.
KJ: “We have a section for parents of queer kids… we even have a section to where you can put your email in to actually access and get more direct service of what you need assistance with.”
OH: They say the results will help Spectrum determine where to focus its programming, which ranges from navigating birth certificate changes and health insurance to pop-up pool parties and trivia nights.
You can find a link to the survey on our website, Spokane Public Radio dot org.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
The World Cup kicks off tomorrow with a game between Mexico and South Africa.
Egypt’s national team landed in Spokane this week before its first match against Belgium on Monday in Seattle.
Today, the team is opening up its training session at Gonzaga University to a few lucky fans who won free lottery tickets.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham has more on what it takes to bring some of the best footballers in the world to a liberal arts school in Spokane.
EB: The World Cup is the most watched—and probably the most anticipated—sporting event on the planet. But if you were surprised you didn’t know global superstar Mo Salah was coming to Spokane until a few weeks before the tournament, you’re not alone.
ROB KAVON: “From what I've gathered, this World Cup has been some of the latest selections for sites that they've had.”
That’s Gonzaga’s facilities director Rob Kavon.
RK: “So Lumen Field, once they got selected as one of the host sites for the matches, then what FIFA does is they request that there's so many training sites around the competition site. And so we have one of the few higher level grass playing surfaces in the state of Washington.”
EB: Grass is really important to FIFA. Game pitches and training fields have to be grass.
RK: “We were contacted, I believe, in February… And so the Egypt delegation came and toured our facilities in early March.
EB: Did any other teams contact you?
RK: Qatar did. They ended up canceling at the last minute. Our training site was a little bit too far away for them.”
EB: Egypt’s three group stage games are in Seattle and Vancouver. Between those matches, they’ll stay at Northern Quest Resort and Casino and train at Gonzaga.
But the university wasn’t immediately sure they wanted to be a base camp.
RK: “Of course, we went back and forth on it. And our first priority is our soccer teams. And with their competition season being in the fall, it makes it really hard for us to have a lot of activity on our field in the summer times.”
EB: Again, it’s all about grass.
RK: “Grass in the northwest is really, really challenging, especially when we play all the way into the first part of November… And so having as little use as possible and being able to rehab and renovate and do what we need to do in the summertime is really important for us.”
EB: But in the end, excitement won out.
RK: “It's pretty prestigious to get selected and to be put on an international stage, really, saying that we've hosted international soccer teams on our field.”
EB: Plus, the university did end up getting state and FIFA dollars to upgrade its pitch.
RK: “We took out all of our grass that we had and laid new sod down just the spring in preparation for the FIFA team. And so the grass is actually the same grass that they installed in Lumen field. There's a company out of Moses Lake that did both of the projects… So our surfaces is definitely international soccer standards now.”
EB: The other major lift was upgrading security. Kavon says his team is working with everyone from local agencies to the FBI and Homeland Security to make sure the campus was safe.
Safe from malicious attacks, sure, but maybe even more so from excessive adoration.
RK: “I would say, mostly it's—and I hate to say this—but the diehard fans. International soccer like this is on such a high level that and it's watched by so many millions of people and these athletes are celebrity level. They're here to do a job, they're here to compete in the World Cup and be focused on that. And on the international stage, that's a that's a huge thing.There's a lot of national pride that goes with it. So we're trying to create that environment where they have the least amount of distractions as possible.”
EB: It’s just today at noon that a few lucky fans will get to be somewhat up close and personal with the Pharaohs.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Freddy Monares, Doug Nadvornick and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
