From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Doug Nadvornick. It’s June 30, 2026.
—We’ve just experienced a cooler-than-usual weekend with a little bit of precipitation, but wildfires started anyway. We’ll have a roundup of Washington fires.
—Conservation groups are working to save a rare wetland in Okanogan County. Owen Henderson will have more on that effort.
—We’re waiting for a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could have some effect on the mail in voting systems in Washington and Oregon. Could the states be required to make changes?
—Hoopfest brought joy for a lot of players, but pain to others. We’ll have a rundown of what medical professionals saw over the weekend.
—And Washington State University is using basketball to expose students to health care careers.
—Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
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Crews took advantage of favorable conditions to stop a fire that forced people in and around Winthrop to evacuate their homes yesterday.
Okanogan County officials say firefighters have managed to stop the flames from advancing. They’re extending the lines they have around what they’ve called the Hamilton fire and looking for hot spots to douse. That fire is estimated at about 300 acres.
Officials had issued level 2 and 3 evacuation orders Sunday morning. Those have since been reduced to level 2 and 1. The West Chewuch Road is still closed because of firefighter presence. The Red Cross evacuation center in Twisp has been closed.
State emergency officials say they will send resources to help local
crews work that fire. The state is also sending crews and equipment to two other fires that ignited over the weekend. One is a 15-hundred acre fire burning grass and brush near the town of Lyle in Klickitat County. It’s threatening homes, farm fields and powerlines. Level 2 and 3 evacuations are in place.
The state is also sending resources to a new fire in Yakima County. It’s burning about 150 acres and threatening homes. Officials have ordered level 3 – or go now – evacuations.
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A coalition of conservation groups wants to buy and conserve a large stretch of rare wetland in eastern Okanogan County.
And as SPR’s Owen Henderson reports, the group only has a month to get the money to do it.
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Bonaparte Meadows, known locally as “the peat bog,” is technically a calcareous fen.
It’s a rare type of wetland that supports a wide array of vulnerable plants and wildlife.
Kate Miller heads the Okanogan Land Trust, which is leading the conservation charge.
MILLER: “This spring it has just felt like we're learning something new every time anybody on our team goes out there. A new species, a new dimension to what's there to protect, so it's been quite an exciting period of discovery, even as we're, you know, running this fundraising campaign, applying for grants, and moving through the steps to make the acquisition.”
If the effort is successful, Miller says the land trust hopes to work with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation to eventually transfer the land to their care.
MILLER: “Now that we're kind of coming into the homestretch here, we've started to engage in that process of reaching out to tribal members and tribal leadership to invite them to the site to begin to compile that cultural knowledge of the site and of the species present and begin to prepare for that bigger conversation about the future.”
The Okanogan Land Trust needs to raise $1.5 million to buy the land as one parcel, something the late owner had wanted.
But Miller says his sons have set a deadline of July 31 for the nonprofit to get the money. Otherwise, the land could be sold in smaller parcels to other buyers.
I’m Owen Henderson, reporting.
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The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a case challenging a law that allows mailed ballots to arrive after Election Day.
The Supreme Court case focuses on Mississippi, one of 14 states that allow voters a grace period when it comes to mail-in ballots, but Washington and Oregon have laws that are similar.
In Mississippi, ballots must be postmarked by Election Day and arrive no more than five days after Election Day. Oregon requires ballots to arrive within seven days. Washington has no time limit.
Katie Owens-Hubler from the National Conference on State Legislatures says it’s unclear how the Supreme Court ruling will affect the states that provide grace periods. She spoke recently to the Washington House State Government and Tribal Relations Committee.
Katie Owens-Hubler: “If federal law does prohibit this practice, like Mississippi's or like some of the other states, these state laws allowing post-election day ballot receipt would likely be preempted and unlawful, at least for federal elections. And, so there are some conversations happening in states that if this is the case, if this case comes down as such, that they could continue to allow post Election Day receipt potentially for state and local races and you could have sort of a bifurcated system in some way or another.”
Owens-Hubler says an additional 16 states provide grace periods for their military and overseas voters.
In Idaho, mailed ballots must arrive by 8 pm on Election Day.
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Washington state’s finances may be in rocky shape next year. Officials expect a big hole in the budget. And it’s unclear how they’ll plug it. State Government reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more.
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The state’s latest economic forecast shows revenue in the red. Job and wage growth are down. And the war in Iran hasn’t helped.
Republicans say majority Democrats are also to blame.
GILDON: 38:11: Our problem with our budgets is legislatively created and it needs to be legislatively fixed, it’s an issue of overspending and we need to get spending under control.
That’s Senator Chris Gildon. He’s a Republican on the revenue council.
One bright spot. The state’s capital gains tax brought in WAY more money than officials thought it would. This is a tax on wealthy people’s sales of stocks and bonds. Without it, the budget hole would be bigger.
State Democrats have taxed and cut their way out of shortfalls the past two years in a row.
But Governor Bob Ferguson says he doesn’t want new taxes next year.
I'm Sarah Mizes-Tan reporting.
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Another Hoopfest is in the books in Spokane.
It was a painful experience for hundreds of weekend warriors. MultiCare says it treated more than 11-hundred people. About half received simple care, such as taping of ankles and other body parts.
About 250 people were treated for wounds, 43 for lacerations. Another 200 were treated for things such as fractures, dislocations, ruptured Achilles tendons and knee injuries that will require surgery.
There were a dozen concussions, six players were dehydrated and four were treated for blisters.
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Thousands of basketball players of all sizes and abilities competed in Hoopfest last weekend. Some prepared by participating in a basketball camp that targeted a particular demographic.
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For years, Washington State University Spokane has sponsored its two-week Na-ha-shnee summer camp for Native American students. It teaches kids what it’s like to work as a doctor, nurse or other health professional, especially in a Native community.
But attendance was spotty, so Jerry Crowshoe and his team thought there must a better way to get more kids interested.
Crowshoe is the director of WSU’s Native American Health Sciences program. The answer was basketball.
Jerry Crowshoe: Since basketball is pretty popular in Spokane with Hoopfest and Gonzaga, all the different AAU teams and stuff, State B. We're using basketball, the trend, especially how popular it is in Indian country, to provide a camp free for families, because we know how camps can be expensive, where we combine health science teachings and basketball. So that way, they get a little exposure of both.
But also, the health sciences contribute to the basketball itself. Doctors teach about anatomy and muscle building. Nursing teaches about injury prevention, speech and hearing about brain trauma. Pharmacy about good uses and bad uses of Tylenol, correct ways and proper ways to do those, vitamins and stuff. So every college is contributing to the intellectual component of basketball, educating their minds.
And then the afternoon, we'll go over to Shaw Middle School with our partnership with Spokane Public Schools. And do the basketball portion, where we have awesome, awesome coaches that will teach them for the afternoon about dribbling and basketball and shooting and all that.
DN: They include Jude Schimmel, a Umatilla tribal member from Oregon, who played at the University of Louisville and professionally in Spain.
DN: So obviously, your timing with Hoopfest three days away was planned and all of that. I'm guessing a lot of your kids are going to be playing in the tournament.
JC: Yeah, so I asked that question this morning when they were all doing orientation. I said, how many of you guys are playing Hoopfest? And the majority of them all raised their hands. And that was kind of the pitch when we started.
It was like we wanted to capitalize on the big Hoopfest week. Because even my kid, who plays basketball, he kind of is done with basketball after Hoopfest. He doesn't really start up till fall. So we thought, well, we better do it in June before then. But we also kind of thought it was good to do our part to kind of contribute to that basketball aura that Spokane has and do our part. We had to turn kids away just because of the capacity that we were at with chaperones and funding and stuff. With Na-ha-shnee, you get like 20 kids for a couple of weeks. We had over 90, probably could have well over 100 if we kept registration open.
DN: Crowshoe says WSU is morphing Na-ha-shnee from a single summer camp into a full program that includes separate events for students of different ages.
JC: We work with the Tribal Advisory Board that's made up of tribal elders, tribal leaders. We work with tribes all around our area and one of the things that they've always been consistent in asking is, working younger and younger with their students. They say, you're matriculating way too late. We say how early should we start working with them? They say, kindergarten, and be consistent.
So finding ways to expose them to health sciences is really important, because there's a big need for doctors and nurses in tribal communities.
DN: And with the success of the Many Medicines basketball camp fresh on their minds, Crowshoe and his team are considering other camps with sporting themes.
JC: So doing volleyball camps in Yakima. You know, we'd love to do these camps in Nez Perce, we'd love to do these camps in Umatilla. And rather than try to bring kids in, we want to take this camp and these messages out to communities.
DN: Crowshoe says those would supplement other new developments in WSU’s program, including the opening of a new Indigenous simulation center this fall.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, Owen Henderson and me, Doug Nadvornick. I’m today’s host and producer.
Thanks for listening. This is SPR News.
