Spokane County

Hazel’s decision came less than two weeks before the county’s September 8 deadline to print ballots for the November general election.

The longtime public official says she'll be ready to enjoy personal time with her family. And she offers advice for people interested in succeeding her in 2026.

The $873 million 2023 budget includes funding to address staff shortages at the county sheriff’s department, a host of capital improvement projects, and the basic maintenance and payroll costs the county must shoulder each year.

A group of advocates is asking the county commissioners to increase their support for childcare as the industry shrinks and costs for parents go up.

Law enforcement say they’re chronically understaffed, and need more tools to solve crime. Privacy experts say the model being explored – a more advanced automatic license plate reader system operated by a private company – will lead to information about innocent people being collected and stored.

The task force is asking community members to report incidents of hate crimes or bias.

Voters for the first time weighed in on candidates for five new county commissioner districts.

The three candidates — Wade Nelson, John Nowels, and Mike Zollars — generally agree on criminal justice and building up the department's staff. But they disagree on whether the sheriff's office is transparent enough, and whether there is a morale problem in the department.

An annual census of homelessness in Spokane has found that far more people than in past years are living in their vehicles, or camping outside. City workers and researchers assisting with the count say that increase is likely tied to Spokane’s overpriced housing market, and high rent increases.

This year is the first county commissioners must be elected by district in both the primary, and general election. As of Friday, all five commissioner races were contested, as well as the race for sheriff, county prosecutor and auditor.