Regional News

There will be no Hoopfest in downtown Spokane this year.

The huge three-on-three basketball tournament had already been postponed once. And now Hoopfest officials say it’s time to concede that it won’t be safe even later in the fall.

This week we’re interviewing candidates running for the Fourth District state House seat that Representative Matt Shea is vacating.

On Monday we heard from Spokane Valley businessman Mike Conrad, one of the three Republicans in the race. Today [Tuesday] we talk with Democrat Lori Feagan. She’s a nurse practitioner who specializes in internal medicine.

This week we begin interviewing candidates running for the state House seat that Representative Matt Shea is vacating in the Fourth Legislative District. Technically it’s an open seat, but because of some late maneuvering during candidate filing week, an incumbent, Representative Bob McCaslin, is running for the seat.

One of the candidates in the race is Republican Mike Conrad. Conrad is the CEO of The Savory Butcher, a Post Falls company that sells bulk meat products that its customers order and pick up. The company operates not just in this area, but in several states around the country. We asked Conrad why he’s running for the legislature.

Last fall, we brought you the story of Feast World Kitchen, a new Spokane restaurant featuring a rotating menu from immigrant and refugee chefs. As part of our occasional series, Refugee Stories, we followed up to see how Feast is faring amid the coronavirus crisis. 

Twenty-four year-old Carter Hudson is a musician and songwriter known during non-COVID times for his weekly performances at The Drinkery, a bar located in Spokane’s historic Garland District. His submission to this year’s NPR Tiny Desk Contest is an intimately shot video featuring Hudson alone in his bedroom, surrounded by guitars. The lyrics to the song, titled “I Can’t Hear You Anymore,” are personal.

Today [Friday] we present the last of four candidates running for a state House seat in Washington’s Fourth Legislative District. It’s an open seat that has drawn three Republicans and one Democratic candidate.

We’ve heard from two of the Republicans, Rob Chase and Leonard Christian and Democrat Lance Gurel. Today, we talk with the third Republican, Spokane Valley nurse Nathan Sybrandy.

A federal appeals court has ruled an Idaho initiative campaign can move ahead with collecting online signatures for its school funding measure.

Reclaim Idaho hopes to put its initiative on the November ballot. It would require the state to raise state income taxes for corporations and people who make more than $250,000 a year. The money would be routed to public schools.

Idaho Governor Brad Little today [Thursday] announced the Gem State will stay where it is in its recovery from the coronavirus.

“Over the past two weeks, Idaho did not meet the criteria to advance past the final stage of the Idaho Rebounds plan. We will remain in stage four for at least another two weeks," the governor said.

State epidemiologist Christine Hahn cited the rise in Covid cases in Idaho over the last two weeks.

Today [Thursday] we present the third of four candidates running for a state House seat in Washington’s Fourth Legislative District. It’s an open seat that has drawn three Republicans and one Democratic candidate.

We’ve heard from two of the Republicans, Rob Chase and Leonard Christian. Today, we talk with the one Democrat in the race, Lance Gurel. Gurel ran last year for a city council seat in Spokane Valley and now he’s trying to win an open seat in the legislature.

Here’s part of Doug Nadvornick’s interview with Lance Gurel.

Today [Wednesday] we present the second of four candidates running for a state House seat in Washington’s Fourth Legislative District. It’s an open seat that has drawn three Republicans and one Democratic candidate.

On Tuesday, we heard from one of the Republicans, Rob Chase. Today, we talk with Leonard Christian. Christian is a Spokane Valley realtor and Air Force veteran. He served one year in the legislature, 2014, after then-Representative Larry Crouse retired.

Here’s part of Doug Nadvornick’s interview with Leonard Christian.

Divers have recovered three more bodies from Sunday’s mid-air collision and crash into Lake Coeur d’Alene.

That means six of the eight people believed to have killed are now accounted for, says Kootenai County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Ryan Higgins.

Today [Tuesday] we present the first of four candidates running for a state House seat in Washington’s Fourth Legislative District. It’s the seat now held by Representative Bob McCaslin. McCaslin has switched and is now running for the other seat in the district as part of some late maneuvering in the last few hours of the candidate filing period.

Today we hear from former Spokane County treasurer Rob Chase, who came into 2020 planning to challenge Cathy McMorris Rodgers for her congressional seat.

Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-Idaho) is seeking his second term as the congressman representing Idaho's First Congressional District.

He's challenged by a first-time candidate, Democrat Rudy Soto, who recently toured the Panhandle to introduce himself.

Here are a few excerpts from his interview with SPR's Doug Nadvornick.

For years, Idaho’s Silver Valley has had skies that have failed to meet federal air quality standards. But the air has gradually improved and may soon get an official thumbs up from the government.

For years, pollution belched out of the stack at the Bunker Hill lead smelter. But during the last generation, the real issue has been smoke emitted by wood stoves.

Avista is looking for new renewable energy projects to add to its portfolio.

It will be one of the utilities in Washington required, by the year 2045, to create electricity using only sources considered to be “green.”

Each year since 2014, NPR has invited musicians from around the country to submit video performances of original songs for its Tiny Desk Contest. It’s an offshoot of the popular Tiny Desk Concert video series in which well known and obscure musicians perform at Bob Boilen’s desk at NPR headquarters.