Today's headlines:
- The state of Washington prepares to transfer land on Spokane’s West Plains to the city for a new park.
- Washington U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell says many of the state’s voters didn’t have their ballots counted during last month’s primary.
- Rabid bats are on the radar screen of Idaho health officials.
Rachel Sun reports Dolly Parton has left quite a legacy in the Palouse.
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Spokane’s fight to preserve a biodiverse property along Thorpe Road propery on the West Plains has hit a crucial milestone. The Washington Department of Natural Resources, which currently holds the land in trust, will seek state legislature funding next year to transfer it to Spokane’s parks department.
In 2024, DNR made plans to transfer the Thorpe property to a private developer. Community pushback was swift. Ultimately, the Spokane City Council passed a six-month pause on land transfers, halting the sale. Since then, efforts have been underway to preserve the space for permanent public access.
Dave Upthegrove is Washington’s commissioner of public lands.
DAVE UPTHEGROVE: At a time when the state is facing cuts to recreation, this is a great way to expand recreation access to benefit the people in this community. This is also about improving park access for underserved communities.
Upthegrove says his office will ask the state legislature for a total of $30 million dollars to fund 6 different land transfers across the state. The Thorpe transfer is estimated to cost $3.9 million.
City Councilman Paul Dillon helped pass the pause that kept the Thorpe property in trust.
Dillon says he sees a trust land transfer as the only option to keep the property in public ownership.
PAUL DILLON: At a time so often when we see public lands are for sale, they are devalued, for profit, you are witnessing Spokane stand up, work with partners, listen to community, act, then tell a different story.
The transfer is contingent on funding from the state. If it does go through, the city plans to turn the Thorpe property into a public park.
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Spokane County’s prosecutor has cleared officers of wrongdoing in two fatal shootings.
One involved a man who was shooting a firearm from his apartment in north central Spokane near the end of 2024. Officers spotted the man – identified as Joshua Musselman -- talking to himself on his balcony. As they communicated with him, they saw him raise the weapon. Four officers fired. Musselman went down just inside his apartment. Investigators determined he had been carrying a pellet rifle and under the influence of drugs. The prosecutor’s office says, given the circumstances, the officers were justified in shooting.
The second case – in June 2025 – involved a man who was shot by officers after committing several crimes around the Liberty Lake/Stateline area. Investigators say Ryan Tietsort went on a crime spree one morning, including several carjackings. They say he shot and killed a man who tried to stop him. Tietsort led police on a chase, crashed his vehicle, exited with a rifle and was eventually shot and killed. The prosecutor again sided with the officers who fired their weapons.
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A new report in Washington state says a record number of ballots went uncounted in the August primary. Officials are blaming changes the Postal Service introduced last year. Reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs and U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell released new data showing more ballots were rejected for being late than in past elections.
Cantwell blamed postmarking standards that went into effect in December.
CANTWELL: The post office is taking your ballot as a piece of mail but not stamping it that day. They are waiting and going to a distribution center, and then later postmarking that and may thereby be delaying your actual vote.
Some rural counties saw quadruple the rate of disqualified ballots. But more populated places – like King County, actually saw fewer ballots disqualified.
Officials say voters in the November election should put ballots in the mail as early as possible, or use official county drop boxes.
I'm Sarah Mizes-Tan reporting.
____________________________________________________On a related note, in Oregon, elections officials are asking the state to install more 20 ballot drop boxes in high need areas before the November election.
Secretary of State Tobias Read says the boxes are the most reliable way for Oregonians to submit ballots.His request comes during a national fight over vote by mail. An executive order issued by President Trump would give the postal service an increased role in determining who is mailed a ballot. That order is currently held up in court. Read says he expects the November 3 election will play out normally.
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Idaho health officials say it’s been an unusually active year for human interactions with rabid bats.
The state Department of Health and Welfare confirms 24 captured bats have tested positive for rabies this year. That’s the highest number in at least four years. Officials say local public health districts are receiving more reports of encounters between bats, people and their pets.
They don’t know exactly why that is. They say part of it could be related to population growth. They also believe wildfire smoke could also be playing a role, changing where and how bats move.
Whatever the reason, state officials urge people to avoid touching bats if they see them, especially if it looks like they’re injured. If you see a bat, report it to a public health agency or veterinarian and let them decide how to proceed. If you do come in contact with a bat, report it immediately to a medical professional. Officials urge pet owners to make sure their animals are vaccinated for rabies.
Health officials say not all bats have rabies, but some do carry it. Once a person or animal shows symptoms, it’s often a fatal disease.
________________________________________________________________Every year, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library serves millions of children, including around 85,000 in Washington state. After the singer’s death, Rachel Sun from Northwest Public Broadcasting reached out to families in Washington and Idaho to ask about the impact those books made on them and their families.
Kaysie Morris lives in Clarkston, Washington, and has three children. She signed the two youngest up for the Imagination Library. Morris says reading together is an important family bonding activity.
MORRIS: “We've been getting to learn more about speech and reading and enjoying book time and everything every night with the books. And with my youngest being deaf, it's a good way to get all that vocabulary into her.”Across the river in Lewiston, Idaho, Lleshea Fuson reads stories from the Imagination Library to her two children, Cirilla and Saren.
FUSON: “Frankly, it was a very instrumental inclusion into our family dynamic … I remember as a kid always loving bedtime stories, and I wanted to pass that on to my children, and her Imagination Library has helped that.”
Wanda Sexton lives in Lewiston, too. She says she signed up her great-granddaughter, Allaina, for the Imagination Library a few years ago.
SEXTON: “...Mail would roll in for her, and she'd just get so tickled over it. And trying to explain to her who it was that was sending her these books -- she had no real concept of who Dolly Parton was or anything …. But she just flat out decided that Dolly Parton must be her cousin, because she was the one sending her the books.
In Blaine, Washington, now-eight-year-old Stella Allison received braille books through the Imagination Library. Here’s her mom, Kyley Gehringer.
KYLEY: “ It gave us that inclusion, and it, and it was a chance for Stella to get things that all other kids could get. But it gave it to her in a way that she could read through braille.”
Stella loves Dolly so much that when the family encountered a cardboard cutout of the singer at a local fair, Stella made an exception to one of her normal rules. Here she is talking with her stepdad, Alex Gehringer
STELLA: “I hate taking pictures.”
ALEX: “That's right. She hates standing still for pictures, but she said, ‘Yes, absolutely. I wanna get a picture with Dolly Parton.’”Another Lewiston mom, Sara Alder, says books from the Imagination Library helped her connect with her son, Bjorn, who has autism and a speech delay.
ALDER: “…You can really see it in his eyes when he's flipping through the pages. He likes to bring the books really close to his face, and he'll point at things, and he'll ask what they are. It just kind of provides a really nice calm interaction, especially when he's not able to articulate all that well how he's feeling about things.”
Alder says some of those books have been helpful in allowing her son to communicate.
ALDER: “… Because he isn't, like I said, always able to articulate, wanting to interact with us, or he kind of wants to do his own thing. But reading's always been that thing that's allowed us to have an activity we can do together.”
Twenty-six-year-old Bree Latimer is a grad student studying computer science at the University of Louisville.She grew up in Cottonwood, Idaho, and received books from the Imagination Library.
LATIMER: “So, I actually struggled a lot with reading when I was a kid … and I think the biggest thing for me was not necessarily that I was the best reader, but I still loved reading. And I don't think that I would have had that love for reading if it weren't for my parents reading those stories to me when I was a kid.”
She says early exposure to those books helped grow her love of learning.
I’m Rachel Sun, reporting.
_________________________________________________________________________SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Audrey Nelson, Sarah Mizes-Tan, Rachel Sun and Doug Nadvornick, today’s host and producer.
Web support is provided by Anna Gyure Havlek.
