Today's headlines:
- The Spokane City Council is due to consider a moratorium on data centers today. It’s legislation that has only come up in the last week.
Wildfire season has come to the Inland Northwest. We have information about three fires burning in southeast Washington. - Washington’s lieutenant governor has long worried about the tenor of American political debate. But he says he’s finding positive signs. Eliza Billingham will tell us more about that.
- Community leaders offer their recommendations for balancing public safety and social services in Spokane.
Plus, in her final story of this three-part series on long COVID among Latino farmworkers, SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas highlights Washington doctors researching how the disease affects patients across racial groups—and training primary care physicians how to identify it early.
This story is made possible by the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Commonwealth Fund.
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Spokane City Council is set to hold an emergency vote on a yearlong, citywide data center moratorium.
Council members Paul Dillon, Kate Telis and Sarah Dixit proposed the ordinance a few days after Avista signed a memorandum of understanding with a customer requesting energy service for a 500 megawatt data center.
Avista announced on Friday that it is pausing that process after receiving more public feedback than anticipated.
Avista says it cannot disclose where the requester is considering building the data center, so it’s not clear whether a citywide ban in Spokane would affect this specific request.
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Last week, a task force that has been studying Spokane’s criminal justice and mental health systems made a series of recommendations.
One calls for the creation of a permanent committee – separate from elected officials – to oversee changes.
Task force member Tony Hazel, a Superior Court judge, says the goal is to ensure the momentum during the nine-month project doesn’t get lost in bureaucratic inertia. Hazel cites the memory of past failed Spokane criminal justice initiatives.
Tony Hazel: “The coordination structure in the past has always been temporary. It's always been in the form of a pilot program, or it's a temporary momentum that builds to build that coordination.
It usually doesn't get the composition of the coordination perfectly correct because key stakeholders are missing.”
The expectation is that a group of committed private citizens can continue the work even as elected officials come and go.
You can hear a full report on the Safe and Healthy Task Force recommendations during a special Inland Journal today at 12:30 on SPR News.
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Crews working several eastern Washington fires won’t get much help from the weather this week. Hot, dry conditions will continue today with brisk winds expected tomorrow. Several fires continue to char wildland in the southeast part of the state.
Teams are closing in on full containment of the 700-acre Snake River fire burning in steep terrain a few miles west of Clarkston. Local districts have taken over command there and a few teams have been sent to other fires.
State crews are headed to a new fire, dubbed OIE, that began yesterday in Benton County. It is burning about 500 acres of grass and brush. It is threatening homes, power lines and towers and a dam. Authorities have level 2 and 3 evacuations in place.
One other fire to update: the Highway 730 fire in Walla Walla County continues to burn grass and brush in the Wallula Junction area. The highway is now reopened after it was closed for several hours.
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Despite the growing threat of political violence, Washington Lt. Governor Denny Heck’s Project for Civic Health is making him optimistic about the future of American discourse.
SPR’s Eliza Billingham has more.
20260615_Civility_WRAP
Heck recently received an email from someone threatening to put a pipebomb in his home mailbox.
He told Washington’s Domestic Extremism and Mass Violence Task Force last week that he’s been especially concerned about the growth of political violence since 2020.
He started the Project for Civic Health to understand how rhetoric is spread and why.
HECK: “We came to the conclusion, most of us, that the answer to what is causing this escalation and increasingly toxic political rhetoric, sometimes leading to political violence, can often be attributed to social media.”
Heck’s team has hosted community discussions across the state to research how to listen well, find common ground, and disagree constructively.
Those in person meetings have given Heck a lot of hope.
HECK: “There is a yearning in this country for kinder, gentler politics. There absolutely is. I know this. I’m out there every day. People want this.”
By the end of the year, the task force needs to give the Governor’s office its recommendations on how to reduce domestic extremism.
I'm Eliza Billingham reporting.
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It’s commencement day for students at Spokane Colleges. More than 1,200 students will collect diplomas at the Spokane Falls Community College ceremony. That’s at 3 pm at The Podium.
After a short break, about 2,400 Spokane Community College students will replace them for a 7 pm ceremony. Spokane Colleges has two other commencement events later this week.
Its Pullman Center will give out diplomas tomorrow evening at Daggy Hall on the Washington State University campus. Then on Wednesday, students in Republic, Inchelium and Colville will have a separate commencement ceremony at the Colville Center. Both of those ceremonies will begin at 6 pm.
Last weekend, thousands of Spokane high school seniors celebrated with their families with ceremonies at The Podium.
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Health inequities have long been part of life for disproportionately marginalized communities — and only intensified after the COVID-19 pandemic.
But physicians are laying out partnerships and new curriculums to better serve those communities.
SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas has more in her final story of this three-part series on long COVID among Latino farmworkers.
After years of seeing the initial impact of COVID-19 and its lingering effects in Washington's communities, Dr. Anita Chopra is looking ahead for upcoming generations.
CHOPRA: “The goal is to improve patient care.”
Chopra is the lead physician at the University of Washington Long COVID Clinic. She took on a solo project with Stanford University to develop a curriculum for identifying and diagnosing long COVID.
She says the 13-module curriculum is free and was published last month, supported by the University of Washington and the Department of Health.
CHOPRA: “It's very important to understand what this condition is, what is being done, and what can they do, how to identify.”
Medical students from both UW and Stanford also helped shape the training, Chopra says.
Chopra says the Long COVID clinic rarely sees Latino farmworkers, Native Americans, or rural residents. She hopes this new curriculum will help diagnose long COVID in those underserved communities.
Chopra also says the University of Washington is working toward creating a program to empower primary care physicians to diagnose and manage Long COVID patients.
She said it’s too early to share all the details, but…
CHOPRA: “We are trying to develop a clinical decision making tool
for long COVID which will make things easier for providers.”
Other physicians are also leading research studies that could help expand these efforts.
Dr. Kendl Sankary, also physician at the long COVID clinic, says she is part of an international study on how long COVID has affected several groups. She says this study includes sites in Texas, New York and Argentina.
SANKARY: “Our site is focused on the Asian American, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian population, and then Native Americans as well in the state of Washington. And it's a longitudinal study, so looking at the impact long term on people's cognition over time.”
She’s also looking into the correlation between long COVID and dementia.
Sankary expects the study to take about three years to complete.
In the meantime, she’s volunteering with a University of Washington Native student organization to build trust within that community.
For people like Armida Rivera, those efforts bring a sense of hope.
Rivera was working as a supervisor at Monson Fruit Company near Yakima when workers asked her to strike with them during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She didn't hesitate to say yes. But not long after, she was fired.
RIVERA: "They didn't have any protection against the virus. We didn't have soap for us to wash our hands. I don't regret saying yes. I wholeheartedly would do it again."
Rivera says getting fired didn’t stop her from continuing her work with local farmworkers and now works as a community organizer with the Latino Community Fund.
Rivera says through her new role, she’s been able to help connect farmworkers with resources as they continue dealing with long-term effects of COVID.
She hopes efforts like Chopra and Sankary’s research and training will eventually reach the communities she works with every day.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Eliza Billingham, Monica Carrillo-Casas and Doug Nadvornick, who hosted and produced today's show. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
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