From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
- Washington state’s Department of Health has a new way to track the number of people accessing crisis services across the state.
- We have a look at the candidates in the race for Spokane County Clerk
- And S-P-R’s Ember Braun talks to members of the Lilac City Roller Derby, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
________________________________________________
Washington state’s Department of Health has a new way to track the number of people accessing crisis services across the state. It’s called the 988 suicide and crisis lifeline dashboard.
Mia Parker is the Fatality Review and Prevention Coordinator for the Spokane Regional Health District.
PARKER: “Spokane County has a significantly higher suicide death rate compared to both the state of Washington and the United States overall.”
Parker says Spokane County has the second-highest 988 contact rate out of all Washington state counties.
She says this is a good sign: It shows that people know about this resource, and feel comfortable using it if they need help.
PARKER: “And I know there are many people in our community who are excited to use this information to better understand how we can improve our outreach.”
Parker says now, the goal is to think about which populations might not feel comfortable reaching out for help.
If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call 988 to get connected to support.
________________________________________________
Voters in Spokane Valley can submit their ballots at a drop box located at CenterPlace Regional Event Center. But for two days next week, the facility will also be a Voter Service Center.
On Monday, Nov. 2 and Tuesday, Nov. 3, the Spokane County Elections Office will be on site to help residents register to vote, use an Accessible Voting Unit and answer election-related questions.
On Monday, staff will be available from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. On Tuesday — Election Day — they’ll be at CenterPlace from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Learn more at spokanecounty.gov/elections.
________________________________________________
The city of Hayden says a draft contract for the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office is expected to go before city council tonight.
The previous contract between Hayden and the sheriff's office ended on Sept. 30, when city council decided not to renew it.
The Kootenai County Board of Commissioners will also discuss the contract in a public meeting at 10 A-M this morning.
Here’s Hayden City Administrator Lisa Ailport on tonight’s city council meeting.
AILPORT: “The hope is that staff will be able to present the work that we’ve been doing with the sheriff’s office and to hopefully get them to agree to what we’ve provided to the county. But again, with the county meeting ahead of our meeting, that could all be different by evening time.”
The city took issue with the previous contract’s overtime and overhead costs. The city also wants the sheriff’s office to improve how it reports time spent in Hayden.
Hayden City Council will meet at 5 p.m. at City Hall.
________________________________________________
Two first-time candidates are vying to replace outgoing Spokane County Clerk Timothy Fitzgerald.
The clerk’s office handles the flow of documents in and out of the county and superior courts.
Democratic candidate Elliot Robison works as a business intelligence analyst for CHAS Health. He says he wants to improve how the clerk’s office interfaces with the rest of the justice system.
ELLIOT ROBISON: “Different departments outside the clerk's office that interact with the clerks, they don't have... they are not super well integrated. So that's a huge slowdown for county processes, especially citizens are passed from one office to another.”
Republican candidate Dave Lucas is currently Cheney’s municipal court administrator. He agrees there could be more streamlining. He wants to ensure departments share data and technology.
DAVE LUCAS: And there's some technology, I think, that will benefit all of those agencies if we're able to share information more clearly and ensure that we're serving those citizens to the highest ability that we can.
Both candidates say a constrained budget is the office’s main challenge right now.
The general election is Nov. 3.
________________________________________________
Initiative 645 seeks to remove the so-called “millionaire’s tax” before the state can begin levying it. The legislature approved the tax in March. Seattle initiative sponsor Brian Heywood quickly filed an initiative to overturn it.
Republican state Senator Chris Gildon calls the measure a preemptive strike.
Chris Gildon: “Supporters say it only applies to millionaires, but the law was deliberately written to make expansion easy. And lawmakers have already shown us through their votes, through their own statements, that expansion is exactly where this is headed.”
Gildon spoke at a recent forum sponsored by Braver Angels of Washington and the WSU Foley Institute.
The state will begin collecting the tax from people who make more than a million dollars a year in 2028, unless voters repeal it.
Opponents of 645, such as Annie Kucklick from the Economic Opportunity Institute, argue repealing the tax would lead to big budget cuts.
Annie Kucklick: “It would slash billions going to our state's general fund, which is an important mechanism for how we fund core services like education that we care about, higher education, childcare, healthcare, things that really help lower costs for everyday people.”
Some of the state’s most powerful labor unions are among those formally opposing Initiative 645.
________________________________________________
Everyone six months old and older should get a flu shot, according to CHAS Health and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Flu season starts in early October. The vaccine is safe for pregnant and breastfeeding people.
Of course, there are some exceptions to CHAS’s recommendation — like if you have an egg allergy or an allergy to the other components of the shot or are medically unable to take it.
You can schedule an appointment online at chas.org.
________________________________________________
The US Department of Labor has awarded Washington’s Employment Security Department $13.2 million for job training. The money is split across two grants.
The first is a $6.5 million Rapid Reskill grant. Over the course of three years, it will help workers who lost jobs learn new skills and transition into their next opportunity.
The second is an Industry-Driven Skills Training Fund grant. It will partially reimburse certain employers who train their employees in shipbuilding, nuclear energy, AI infrastructure and other qualifying industries. The grant provides nearly four years’ worth of funding so the security department can establish a longer-lasting administrative program.
________________________________________________
Idaho and Washington’s attorneys general have signed on to a notice filed in a high-profile AI bankruptcy case.
Character Technologies, the company declaring bankruptcy, is responsible for Character.ai. That’s a controversial platform where users can interact with chatbot characters based on both fictional and real people.
The court filing argues that Character.ai collected large amounts of sensitive consumer data. The coalition of attorneys general behind the filing says that data should be formally protected before the company’s assets are sold.
________________________________________________
Next year’s Apple Cup football game between Washington and Washington State has been moved up a few weeks.
The Cougars and Huskies were scheduled to play in Pullman’s Martin Stadium on Sept. 18. But today WSU announced the game has been moved up three weeks to Aug. 28. It will be the season opener for both teams.
For decades, the Apple Cup was the final game of the regular season for both teams, around Thanksgiving. But now that they’re in different leagues, that has changed. This season’s Apple Cup was played on the Sunday before Labor Day.
________________________________________________
Spokane is about to celebrate 20 years of roller derby, but it might not see another 20 years unless the league is able to solve one particular problem.
Lilac City is Spokane’s flat track roller derby league. There are four teams.
On Monday night at Pattison’s Valley Skate, three teams are practicing. You can hear the clack and screech of quad skates out on the track - as players dash, run into each other, and crash to the ground.
To some, it might seem terrifying. To Alissa Hutchins, also known as Mayday, it’s no big deal.
Mayday started the sport when she was a kid.
ALISSA: “I started playing when I was 10, because one of my mom’s co-workers actually played roller derby for Sin City Roller Derby down in Las Vegas. Every single morning, I had the laptop open onto like the junior roller derby webpage and brought it to my mom every morning until she was ready to sign me up. And yeah the rest is history.”
Now, Mayday is marketing director, a coach, and one of the captains for Lilac City. She started as a kid, delighted by the sport.
ALISSA: “Back then, Sin City was only women skaters, and as a young girl in Las Vegas, I was like, ‘Wow, look at all these awesome, super strong women playing a full-contact sport, and like hitting each other, that’s awesome.’”
Nowadays, Mayday says one of the things that makes the league special is that it’s open to all gender identities - not just women.
Mary Grace Banks agrees. Banks’ skate name is Killadendron - a tough name for a plant lover. Killa is board vice president and a captain for the Yetis.
MARY GRACE: “I moved here in 2020, so like, building a community when you don’t know anyone in the city is very hard. So being able to make friends and make a lot of really deep connections is really wonderful. It’s super accepting and welcoming.”
Killa is decked out in gear for Monday night’s practice - gear that you need if you’re going to be falling.
MARY GRACE: “I have my quad skates and then I have knee pads, elbow pads, and wrist guards specifically. And then I have a helmet on and it’s a little bit more sturdy than, like, we can’t do bike helmets.”
Lilac City is part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association. That means the league competes for rankings, to potentially go to national and international championships. This year’s worlds happened this month in Sweden.
That’s the big picture. In Spokane, the league is facing a more basic challenge. Lilac City President, Sabrina “Trainwreck” Olivares, says they’re trying to find a permanent spot to host home games.
OLIVARES: “We’ve been looking for years, honestly, just because things are so expensive. I currently don’t have any home games planned for this next season because I cannot find us a venue.”
Their last home venue was at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds.
OLIVARES: “We loved it out there, they took care of us, but not a lot of our friends want to drive to Coeur d’ Alene to watch a Spokane team play a game, you know what I mean? And then with the way things are currently with Idaho legislation and things like that, like I said, we are inclusive. We have a lot of trans, gender fluid, non-binary, etc. people on our teams that did not feel safe going out to Idaho.”
Trainwreck says they’ve talked to almost every venue in Spokane, including the Spokane County Fairgrounds. But it’s not an easy fit. For roller derby, venues need to meet certain track requirements so they can get ranked.
Trainwreck says they’re not going to stop looking - and regardless, there’s so much to celebrate.
OLIVARES: “A lot of people are like, ‘oh, Spokane has roller derby?” Yes, my love, we’ve been here for 20 years. Come out, watch us, get hooked, become a super fan. We are celebrating surviving COVID, not a lot of leagues survived COVID unfortunately, a lot of places are losing practice spaces to pickleball, unfortunately.”
Lilac City’s 20th anniversary tournament will be at the Spokane Convention Center on Nov. 7. It’s an all-day tournament that begins at 9 a.m.
_______________________________________________
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Audrey Nelson, Doug Nadvornik, Ember Braun, and me, Lisa Leinberger — today’s host and producer.
Thanks for listening. This is SPR.
Web support is provided by Anna Gyure Havlek.
