Today's headlines:
- Washington signs agreement to merge carbon markets with California and Québec.
- Spokane Haitian community leaders ask for support after a SCOTUS decision allowing the White House to TPS.
- Kootenai County will need to undo rules on in-law suites and guest houses before Idaho’s new short term rental law goes into effect July 1.
- USFS proposes storm clean-up in north Idaho and western Montana. A conservation group says the plan is an excuse to rush through logging authorization.
- The Northwest’s energy needs are only growing. Now, Amazon is investing in a new kind of modular nuclear reactor in eastern Washington.
Plus, lots of people dream of meeting celebrities. KNKX's Freddy Monares takes us to meet a Washington barber and massive soccer fan who had to play it cool when he was asked to cut the hair of one of the world’s top players, Mohammed Salah.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by John Ryan, Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, Monica Nickelsburg and Freddy Monares.
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, June 26, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington is linking its carbon market with ones in California and Québec, hoping to make it easier for businesses to invest in greenhouse gas reductions.
Plus, the Northwest’s energy needs are only growing. Now, Amazon is investing in a first-in-the-nation modular nuclear reactor in eastern Washington.
And lots of people dream of meeting celebrities. We’ll meet a Washington barber and massive soccer fan who had to play it cool when he was asked to cut the hair of one of the world’s top players.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
Washington leaders plan to merge the state's market for carbon emissions with those in California and Québec.
Each place has a market where major polluters are required to buy credits for their carbon emissions.
The idea of linking markets is to lower the cost of compliance for businesses.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson praised the merger at the agreement signing in Seattle yesterday.
BOB FERGUSON: “This unprecedented climate partnership means businesses in all three jurisdictions can make more predictable long-term investments in reducing greenhouse gases.”
OH: Under Washington’s Climate Commitment Act, certain businesses need to purchase carbon allowances for their greenhouse gas emissions at regular auctions.
Revenue from the auctions is re-invested into state climate projects.
Washington, California and Québec plan to start operating their shared carbon market next year.
Washington leaders say the joint market creates a framework for other states to join the effort.
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Leaders of Spokane’s Haitian community are asking for support in the wake of yesterday’s Supreme Court decision allowing the federal government to end temporary protective status for Haitian immigrants.
Katia Jasmin runs the Spokane-based group Creole Resources.
She says political instability and extreme gang violence mean Haiti still faces a humanitarian crisis.
More than 600 Haitians live and work in Spokane. More than 100 of them now face losing their jobs and being forced to return to Haiti, Jasmin says.
The U.S. House of Representatives has already passed bipartisan legislation to extend protections for Haitians through 2029, but the Senate has yet to schedule a vote.
More than 110,000 Haitians work in healthcare nationwide, so some policymakers are warning the loss of those workers could put already strained health and aging services at risk.
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Kootenai County will need to undo rules on in-law suites and guest houses before Idaho’s new short-term rental law goes into effect July 1.
Planner Garrett Kenney explained the laws currently on the books to commissioners this week.
GARRETT KENNEY: “The existing Bulletin 77 was created years ago by our director as an option to allow for houses where they otherwise couldn't have, say, a duplex. Allow for those houses to have an additional living area for in-laws, family, guests, maybe that's attached to the primary unit.”
OH: The rules restrict occupancy to family members and limit the owner’s ability to rent property out.
But the new state law prohibits local jurisdictions from creating any regulations around rentals, so the county’s bulletin will need to change.
Commissioner Bruce Mattare is looking for some way to preserve some sense of neighborhood…
BRUCE MATTARE: “...so that we don't turn this entire community into economic units where all we are is economic units and we lose the quality of life because we have people coming and going and we're just going to maximize the value of whatever we can make off of our properties, and who cares about the other people around us.”
OH: Commissioners are currently considering whether to limit the size of secondary dwelling units across all residential zones.
That would effectively limit the number of renters staying on a property at any one time.
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The U.S. Forest Service says it needs to address wind damage from recent storms in the Idaho Panhandle and western Montana.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation nonprofit, says the emergency plan posted this week is an excuse to rush through logging authorization without much time for public comment.
The eight-page public notice doesn’t say exactly which parcels would be logged under the plan, but it says it could involve more than five million acres, including in the Idaho Panhandle, Lolo and Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests.
The proposal, posted Monday, is only open for public comment for another three days.
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The artificial intelligence boom is driving demand for new power sources in the northwest.
As KUOW’s Monica Nickelsburg reports, that’s sparking a revolution in nuclear energy.
MONICA NICKELSBURG: A new type of nuclear reactor is being planned in the shadow of Washington’s only operational nuclear plant.
It’s called a Small Modular Nuclear Reactor. Amazon is funding it.
And when it’s built, it’ll be one of the first in the country.
The new design is meant to be cheaper to build and safer.
Energy Northwest’s Chris Maxwell showed me a simulator near Tri Cities.
MAXWELL: “ What's really special about this design is this pebble bed high temperature gas reactor, and it's called a pebble bed reactor because the fuel comes in the form of billiard ball-sized pebbles. And in fact, got one right here behind you.”
MN: At this point, Maxwell handed me a foam replica of a pebble. And on a screen, he showed me the tank that’ll hold hundreds of thousands of them. Picture a giant gumball machine. That’s very different than a traditional reactor.
CM: “And you saw that concrete containment structure. Famously, Chernobyl did not have a containment structure. In the United States, we put containment structures around our fuel. Well rather than putting that in a big concrete and steel structure, it's all the way down at the particle level for every single one of those pebbles themselves.”
MN: Even with those assurances, this project has its critics. Tribes in the area worry about nuclear contamination and are drafting a policy in response.
OH: That was Monica Nickelsburg, reporting.
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Egypt’s national soccer team, known as the Pharaohs, recently had a hard time getting into Seattle ahead of a World Cup match against Iran today.
FIFA denied the team’s request to train in the city but later reversed course.
The Pharaohs have received a warm welcome from another group in the Northwest: barbers.
KNKX reporter Freddy Monares tells us about a Seattle-area barbershop owner who’s been tapped to cut the team’s hair.
FREDDY MONARES: Maram Hammadi is sculpting and trimming Davud Jusic’s beard at Jazz Barbershop in Shoreline. Jusic just flew in from Philadelphia for the World Cup and came straight here.
DAVUD JUSIC: “Came here to watch my country… The country I grew up in… Go Bosnia, am I right?”
FM: He watched Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Qatar.
The World Cup is definitely on the minds of people inside this barbershop.
It’s decorated with soccer-themed garland, there’s a poster with the tournament bracket in one corner and the TVs are set to show all the matches.
So the conversation between Hammadi and Jusic quickly turns to Egypt’s soccer team. Jusic shares his opinion about the team.
DJ: “They are in a very good place right now, Egypt.”
FM: Hammadi, the shop’s owner who immigrated from Iraq, has a bit of insider information on the Egyptian team.
MARAM HAMMADI: “Yeah, that’s what they promised. They said if we do good, we will come back and give you more stuff.”
FM: One of Hammadi’s clients has connections to the team and called Hammadi to see if he’d be up for cutting the soccer players’ hair while they’re in the U.S.
MH: “He called and he says he had a gada like, ‘my man, like maybe you'd be cutting Mosala’s hair.’”
FM: Mosala is a nickname for Mohamed Salah, Egypt’s star player. Fans call him the “Egyptian King.” More on him later. Hammadi thought the request was a prank.
MH: “In Egypt culture, very funny culture, always joking, always joking. So we thought it was a joke.”
It was not a joke. Hammadi and four of his barbers canceled all their clients for that day and nervously packed their bags to meet the team at a downtown Seattle hotel.
MH: “Two gloves, two brushes, two everything, and I don't know, like, you know, bunch of aprons, we didn't need it, just extra towels.”
FM: This is a big deal for Hammadi. He grew up playing soccer in Iraq, but he fled the country alone because of the war.
He spent three years at a refugee camp in Jordan before moving to Spokane in 2012 when he was 18 years old.
Hammadi washed dishes but wanted a better job, so he tried beauty school.
MH: “Now it's been 10 years, but I have the same passion, same love for what I do. Even on my days off I come here.”
FM: All of this has led to the World Cup when Hammadi and his barbers nervously arrived at team Egypt’s hotel.
Once passing through strict security where even his glasses were checked for cameras, Hammadi says he felt like he became part of the team.
They all ate, hung out and watched soccer together.
MH: “I was talking to one of the players, called Marmosh, and I said, ‘My dream is to see you, and now we're just like talking normal and stuff.’ And he just tapped me, and he goes, ‘Maybe you deserve it, you know?’”
FM: Over the course of eight hours, Hammadi and his barbers cut the hair of 24 players.
Mosala, or the man known as the “Egyptian King,” was last in line.
He checked other players’ haircuts before choosing Hammadi to cut his.
Hammadi was so nervous he says he blacked out at one point.
MH: “I turned around to look at my clipper, it's in front of me. I don't like in the beginning, I couldn't see it, you know? I was like such a blurry, and so I act all like I turn around, I'm like, God, please like give me the come on, this is all I do all life, you know. How come I lost it?”
FM: Hammadi took his time and finished the haircut. Salah, the Egyptian King, approved of his job.
After the haircuts, the Egyptian team won their first-ever World Cup match against New Zealand in Vancouver. The score was three to one. Hammadi was watching the match from his shop.
MH: “Every single game we watch and we pray our haircuts will be good luck on them. Hopefully they can take them somewhere.”
FM: Hammadi and four of his barbers will cut the team’s hair again. Egypt has promised them tickets to their match against Iran at Lumen Field.
In Seattle, I’m Freddy Monares.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by John Ryan, Eliza Billingham, Bellamy Pailthorp, Monica Nickelsburg, Freddy Monares 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 feeds next week.
It’s SPR.
