Today's headlines:
- We’ll have an update on the fires burning in the Inland Northwest.
- Tenants in Washington looking to stay cool at home during this heat wave have a new tool to help them.
- A Boston company is testing a new product it hopes will help pull harmful P-FAS chemicals out of the human body. It’s looking for people, including Spokane residents, to participate in its research study.
- We’ll continue our series of conversations with Spokane area legislative candidates whose names are on the August primary ballot. Today we turn our attention to the Sixth District and Republican Sueann Davis.
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News from several fires in the Inland Northwest.
The Modrite fire burning on the Colville Indian Reservation in southern Ferry County has expanded to nearly 8,000 acres, up about 1,500 from yesterday. Level 3 evacuations are in place for area between the fire and the Columbia River. Just north of that, level 1 evacuations are in effect.
Officials battling the Kaiser Canyon fire to the west say they’ve reduced the evacuation level for the town of Nespelem from level 3 to level 2. Parts of Highway 155 are closed, between the Park City Loop road and Mile Post 61. Some of it is open just to local residents. Segments of the Columbia River and Buffalo Lake roads are also closed. The fire has grown slightly over the last 24 hours to about 63,000 acres. Fire officials say the weather conditions over the next few days may help them to improve their lines around the fire.
In southeast Washington, crews are making progress on several fires that began last week. That includes the Lyons Ferry fire near where Franklin, Columbia and Whitman counties meet. It’s at about 34,000 acres and considered more than half contained. Some level 1 evacuations remain in place.
Last night, Forest Service officials in Bonners Ferry held a community meeting to share the latest news about their work to control the Upper Smith and Turner fires. The Upper Smith fire is burning nearly 900 acres in a mountainous area. Crews on the ground are getting help from planes dropping retardant and heavy equipment working to create fuel breaks. That fire is still considered zero percent contained. It’s a little different on the Turner fire, which is about two-thirds contained. Level 2 evacuations are still in effect there.
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The Inland Northwest is facing a heat advisory beginning at 9 am this morning and extending through Wednesday evening.
Many people will head for cooler places. Some will look for air conditioners to install at home. A new law in Washington aims to make it easier to install portable AC units.
State Government reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more.
The law helps make air conditioning a tenants right. State Senator Vandana Slatter co-sponsored the measure. She says landlords used to be allowed to prevent AC installation.
“If you had a landlord that'd allow it, that would be fine, but if you didn't, there was no way that you could put in a portable AC unit," she said.
The law went into effect last month. But there are still some exceptions. Landlords can deny AC units in a lease. There are also restrictions around the type of unit that can be installed.
Indoor cooling used to be a luxury in the Pacific Northwest. But a changing climate has made it more necessary. Over half of homes in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties now have AC.
The Spokane City Council is considering a similar measure. Opponents argue this state law means there’s no need for a local ordinance.
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Election officials around the region are installing new ballot drop boxes ahead of Washington’s primary election on August 4th. KUOW’s Scott Greenstone has more on why.
Election officials in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties have installed fifteen new ballot dropboxes since May.
Though the drop boxes ARE an alternative to voting by mail, officials say they do NOT anticipate any issues with the post office delivering ballots.
The president has used USPS to push for vote-by-mail regulations. Those are tied up in court. Any changes to postal service rules can’t take effect before November, meaning Washington’s primary will not be affected. That’s according to a spokesperson for Washington’s secretary of state.
In King County, election officials hope to install nine more drop boxes before November, bringing the countywide total to 100. Right now, King County Elections estimates only 3% of voters live more than three miles away from a drop box.
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A Boston company is looking to recruit Spokane-area people who ingested PFAS “forever chemicals” for a new study.
Grain Laboratories is exploring whether a modified type of oat fiber can remove a type of contaminant that can remain in a person’s body.
Its president, Trevor Klee, says the modified oat fiber, called “Neutra Oat,” contains tiny holes containing coconut oil.
"What happens when the PFAS comes into contact with the Neutra oat in the gut it gets stuck in these tiny holes and then the PFAS comes out with the oat fiber,” he said.
PFAS chemicals are found in many wells on Spokane’s West Plains that are suspected of causing cancer and other illnesses.
Klee says his study will include 15 adults. He’s recruiting nationally, but hoping to include people from Spokane.
"So we’re looking specifically for people who were drinking from contaminated wells and were told by the Department of Health that they are specifically at high risk. The people in the most need, basically," Klee said.
He says subjects involved in the 12-week pilot program will consume the modified oat fiber. Participants will receive two PFAS blood panels and two wellness panels, before and after the study, to test whether the fiber is effective in removing PFAS.
More information can be found online at pilot.neutraoat.com.
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One of the most crowded races on Spokane County’s August primary election ballot is for a seat in the Sixth Legislative District.
Republican Mike Volz is vacating the seat and running for Spokane County treasurer.
Four Republicans and two Democrats are competing for that spot. One is Sueann Davis, a Republican, a former Deer Park school board member who lives with her husband on their farm.
Sueann Davis: We used to be a dairy farm, sold the cows back in the ‘90s and now we're just tried beef cows for a while, but then we just hay and we have a wedding venue now.
DN: Before the latest round of redistricting, Davis lived in the Seventh Legislative District. Now she’s in the Sixth. At one time, she served on the school board in Deer Park. Now she’s ready to serve again.
SD: What made me want to do it this time is it's just Washington state is broken right now. We have way too big of a spending problem. They're sending us the bill, raise our taxes over and over and over again and I mean, if it's affecting me then it's affecting everybody else too. I'm not unique.
DN: So I've been asking people what they think about the state's tax system and should the state's tax system be studied again and for the chance of maybe revamping it a little bit. What do you think about the state's tax system?
SD: That's putting it in a really nice perspective, to say let's study it and see if it should be revamped.
I think a lot of things need to be cut dramatically. Our gas taxes. I mean, that affects everybody regardless of what your income level is and It's awful and it's worse over on the west side of the state. That's not something that should be studied. That's something that should be reduced. Our payroll taxes are, that's right off the top for everybody and I was just reading about WA Cares.
DN: The state's long-term care program.
SD: Yes. They've now generated in their three years, $3.3 billion and they're just now starting to pay some of that out. I thought you had to be 10 years before you were eligible to even get anything. That's a whole nother…Why are they doing what they're doing with it?
The CCA money...
DN: Climate Commitment Act.
SD: ...went into the general fund. What do they do with the money? Well, it went in the general fund. We don't know exactly where that money went It just got spent.
It's that kind of stuff. It's you know, give me a concrete, this tax does this and then I may or may not like it, but pay all these taxes and you don't get to really know where the money goes. That's not okay.
DN: So what kind of influence do you want to have in Olympia if you're elected and you go over there? What are the things you would work on the most?
SD: The common sense and logic approach to things because I don't think we have that right now. It's very chaotic. Very definitively party line.
There's a lot of things that I don't think meet the letter of the law and the response is, well then, take us to court. Challenge it in court and then we'll let the judge decide and, even when they get rolled back, well, we'll just come at it from a different approach then.
I'm very common sense logical. Let's look at what the law says and work within the guidelines of the law. Let's save a lot of money in the long run of not going to court all the time and, which again, would be saving us taxpayers money?
DN: I'm assuming you were referring to the millionaires tax or an
income tax for folks who are making a million dollars or more.
SD: Not just that, but, yes, that one, because if they really wanted it to be the millionaires tax that codified the million dollar deduction, but since they don't want to put that into law either, then it's a state income tax with a million dollar threshold today, but what's going to be tomorrow?
We already know the state's going to be in another shortfall. We've heard the promise of no new taxes and that didn't go anywhere. So to say we're not going to raise taxes again, which is what the governor has said, can't trust that. We'll see what happens come January.
Sueann Davis is running for the Washington state House of Representatives in the Sixth District. She’s a Republican. Tomorrow we’ll hear from one of the two Democrats in the race, Michaela Kelso.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting was contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, Scott Greenstone, Steve Jackson and Doug Nadvornick.
Doug Nadvornick hosts and produces the show.
