Today's headlines:
- General election ballots hit the mail this week in Spokane County. What you can expect to see…
- The city of Spokane is helping survivors with homeowner wildfire recovery at Shadle Park, but they’re not just providing logistical support.
- Immigrant rights advocates in Washington state want leaders to take more action to limit federal immigration officials' access to driver's information. What they’re asking Governor Bob Ferguson to do…
- And S-P-R’s Lisa Leinberger talks to the director of a new movie called “Capturing Bigfoot” - and has the details on when and where it’s playing tonight.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
________________________________________________
Since mid-September, the city of Spokane’s remote Development Services office has helped homeowners navigate wildfire recovery.
The office is set up at the Shadle Park Library in North Spokane. Planning department staff are on hand weekdays from 9 to 5 to help survivors check city code, review plans and submit permits.
Donna Pontarolo is a principal planner for the city. She says her team has offered emotional as well as logistical support.
DONNA PONTAROLO: "I think they do want to feel validation that what they’re going through is extremely difficult and that we would never expect them to know how to do this. And I think that’s kinda what we want them to know, is — this is why we’re here. We’re here to help. We do not expect you to understand or know how to do all of these things."
Pontarolo and her team have worked with about 50 clients so far. Many of them have removed hazardous materials, received a clean asbestos survey, and are now working on getting demolition or rebuilding permits. The city has already issued 12 rebuilding permits.
This is the last week the Shadle Park office will offer regular services. But Pontarolo says her team will return to the library on Saturday, October 24th. They’re also considering doing evening pop-ups several times a month.
________________________________________________
In Spokane County, around 375-thousand ballots for the November 3rd General Election will hit the mail this week.
Registered voters will receive a packet that includes a security envelope and a postage-paid envelope.
The United States Postal Service recommends you mail your ballot no later than seven days before the election. After that, you can use one of the ballot drop boxes in the county. You can find a listing of these boxes in your Spokane County Voter’s Pamphlet.
If you don’t receive a ballot by October 23rd, please call the Spokane County Elections Office at 509-477-2320 for a replacement.
________________________________________________
Washington state’s unemployment rate dropped slightly for September. The Washington Employment Security Department says this is the third month in a row of declining unemployment rates.
In a press release, chief labor economist Anneliese Vance-Sherman said there’s two reasons for that decrease.
There’s a lower number of unemployed workers and there’s a reduction in the size of the labor force over the past few months.
________________________________________________
Gonzaga University is addressing the Northwest nursing shortage.
The school’s College of Nursing has developed an accelerated bachelor’s degree program. People with degrees in other fields can earn a bachelor’s in nursing in as little as 15 months.
Susan Edwards is responsible for launching the program. She says it will prepare students for a workforce that needs them.
SUSAN EDWARDS: “I was just yesterday on Providence's employment site and on MultiCare’s. Providence lists upwards of 150, 159 positions. Now that's across their two hospital systems and their clinics. MultiCare lists at least 50, just in their hospital system. And that doesn't include our long-term care or other facilities like CHAS.”
Edwards says the program is now accepting applications. Its first group of 16 students will start class next summer.
She says students will do some of their coursework online and practice their clinical skills in Gonzaga’s simulation labs.
________________________________________________
Bryan Kohberger, the man who pleaded guilty last summer to the killing of four University of Idaho students, will no longer appear in court Thursday.
Boise State Public Radio's Lauren Paterson has the latest.
Bryan Kohberger’s scheduled hearing was vacated and will be rescheduled at a later date, according to an Ada County court order published Wednesday.
He was originally scheduled to try to remove the judge who sentenced him from his post-conviction hearings.
In July, Kohberger told the New York Times he wanted to retract his guilty plea and have a trial. He says he was coerced into confessing to the murders and his legal team misrepresented what life in prison would be like.
Kohberger is currently serving four consecutive life sentences at Idaho’s Maximum Security Institution in Kuna.
I'm Lauren Paterson, reporting.
________________________________________________
Washington state has taken action to limit federal immigration officials' access to driver's information, but immigrant rights advocates say it's not enough. They want Governor Bob Ferguson to review who the state is sharing information with.
KNKX reporter Freddy Monares has more.
A new report from the University of Washington Center For Human Rights shows ICE and DHS agents continue to use the state's Department of Licensing databases to make arrests.
Guillermo Rivera is a community organizer with Eastside For All, an advocacy group based in east King County. He says people of color are likely being profiled by agents.
“We're afraid to go to the supermarket, to take the kids to the doctor, to take our childrens to school.”
Rivera wants governor Ferguson to review how information is being collected and shared.
In a statement to KNKX, governor Ferguson says the state has already taken steps to block federal immigration agencies access to many systems, including for vehicle and driver's license data. His office says that since November the state has blocked more than 174,000 queries from federal agencies.
In Seattle, I'm Freddy Monares.
________________________________________________
Washington state’s schools superintendent Chris Reykdal is urging Governor Bob Ferguson to reject a new federal education tax-credit program.
Beginning in January, taxpayers in participating states could receive credits for donating to organizations that provide private-school scholarships and other educational assistance.
The scholarships could also pay for books, tutoring and disability services for *public* school students.
Supporters say it could bring in $1.5 billion dollars to Washington schools, if a third of taxpayers contributed the full amount.
But Reykdal argues the program would divert federal money to the private sector ... without addressing public-school funding gaps.
Ferguson has not decided yet whether Washington will participate.
________________________________________________
Washington is now part of a coalition that includes 23 other states, asking the Federal Communications Commission to keep the nation’s E-Rate program.
Washington state Attorney General Brown says this program provides discounts to schools and libraries across the country to pay for internet services. Washington state got 40-million-dollars through the program this year.
Brown says this is happening now because the F-C-C solicited comments on possible changes to the program, and possibly getting rid of it.
The coalition claims that it would be illegal for the F-C-C to throw out the program, because it was created by Congress.
________________________________________________
You’ve seen the footage. It’s a grainy film of a hairy creature walking in the forest before it looks around and walks away. Known as the Patterson-Gimlin film, it’s been around for almost 60 years, seemingly proving a legend that’s been around for thousands — Bigfoot.
A new movie, “Capturing Bigfoot,” goes behind the scenes of this footage, featuring first-time interviews with the family of the man who shot it. The film is playing tonight at the Magic Lantern Theater in Spokane.
S-P-R’s Lisa Leinberger chatted with the movie’s director, Marq Evans.
LISA LEINBERGER: Can you tell me a little bit about the history of Bigfoot?
MARQ EVANS: The history of Bigfoot or Sasquatch or the Hairy Man or Almas or all these different names, it actually goes back not just like tens of years or hundreds of years, but thousands of years all around the world.
There’s been sightings and experiences and stories. So, it’s really this fascinating subject that I didn’t really have much of an idea about all of that history until I got started on this project.
And then kind of that modern day, I would say, Bigfoot that we know it in the United States and North America at least started in 1958 out in the Bluff Creek [Calif.] area where…and that was the first time there was a report of these creatures and it was the first time that it was reported in the newspaper and called Bigfoot.
So, that’s really when everything was born, kind of in the way that we know it. And then fast forward to nine years later, Roger Patterson shoots the Patterson-Gimlin film, which is the most famous photographic evidence as far as some people are concerned, of a Bigfoot. That’s the image we all know, you know, Bigfoot going through the woods, arms spread wide, looks at the camera.
LL: Tell me a little about Roger Patterson. How did he come about filming this?
ME: Well, Roger was somebody that got into the Bigfoot subject in about 1962. And when he did, he went all in on Bigfoot. I mean, his life’s mission at that point was to prove that it existed and to be the one to do it, to be the first to do it. So he really spent the rest of his life, because he died young. He died in 1972, fully committed to the Bigfoot search.
LL: What inspired you to make this film?
ME: June of 2022 I got an email out of the blue from somebody that teaches at the same college where I teach film. She knew that we had a film department and she had…the reason for her email was that she had a piece of 16-millimeter film reel that had been locked in her dad’s safe for 50 plus years. Her parents had passed away and she’d kind of always heard ever since she was a kid, family stories about what was on this film reel, that it was Bigfoot.
It was related to that famous footage of Roger Patterson, how her dad and Roger may have been connected. And at first, she just wanted to see what was on there. She wanted to see if I could help her get it scanned or projected so she can look at it.
And so I helped with that, not really thinking, you know, this is a project I’m going to spend three years on, but just kind of helping. And then when we got the footage bank, and it’s this similar, but not the same Bigfoot, not the same film. And we get information that it predates the very famous film by a year. Then that’s where my curiosity took over and started thinking maybe there’s a film idea to explore here.
LL: Tell me about the screening at the old Spokane Coliseum, the tie to Spokane.
ME: Yeah, that to me is really fascinating. We’ve got some great pictures of that that are in the film. That was a very early screening of a documentary that Roger and an associate put together that showcased this famous film.
So it was like an hour long documentary. And the way I understand, the Spokane Coliseum was full. You know, it was advertised heavily in Spokane. And two people that were at the screening as young boys, probably both around 10 years old were Clint Patterson, Roger’s son, who is one of the main protagonists in my movie, Capturing Bigfoot.
And then also, Dr. Jeff Meldrun, who recently passed away last year. Until then, he was tenured faculty at Idaho State University, and really one of the only academics and scientists that put himself out there strongly for the belief of Bigfoot and the belief of the Patterson Gimlin film.
LL: Tell me about what’s going to happen at the Magic Lantern on Thursday night.
ME: Yeah, Thursday night at the Magic Lantern we’ve got a one-night-only screening in Spokane. It’s part of our roadshow where we’re taking a “Capturing Bigfoot” custom-wrapped van from I’m in San Francisco right now, we go from San Francisco to Portland to Spokane to Montana back to Seattle. So, these one-night-only screenings are all before the film actually is officially released. It’s officially released on Tuesday, October 20. And that’s going to be in theaters in LA, New York and some other places. And then also on Amazon Prime Video.
I’m there for Q&A, my producer’s there and then Clint Patterson is also there. And we’re going to have the van parked out front. So, come by, take some pictures and watch the movie.
That was S-P-R’s Lisa Leinberger, talking with filmmaker Marq Evans about his movie “Capturing Bigfoot.” Evans will be available for questions after the film’s screening at the Magic Lantern Theater tonight. That starts at 7 p.m.
________________________________________________
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Audrey Nelson, Doug Nadvornick, Lisa Leinberger, Boise State Public Radio's Lauren Paterson, KNKX reporter Freddy Monares, and me — Ember Braun, today’s host and producer.
Web support was provided by Anna Gyure Havlek
