The whole RANGE team sat down to discuss how they're approaching news coverage during the Trump administration, ongoing immigration cases they're following and County Commissioner Al French's commitment to divesting his stocks in PFAS chemical manufacturers. Relevant reading linked below!

• Know your immigration rights: Spokane is within 100 miles of a border, which puts our community at greater risk of mass deportations. It’s time to brush up on your rights, and how to protect your neighbors.
• Immigration officials are arresting people in Washington and warehousing them in Idaho: At least four people arrested in Spokane County, one for unlawful border crossing, were transported and held for several days at the Kootenai County Jail.
• ‘Daunting’: Uncertainty in Spokane as Trump threatens local officials who don’t aid deportations, but state law is clear for schools, hospitals and police
• Hundreds of refugees set to resettle in Spokane could be stopped by day-one executive orders from Trump administration.
• ‘Our communities are truly at risk’: Washington advocacy groups urge state leaders to defy federal deportation policies following surprise immigration raids in California.
• Commissioner French pledges to sell family stock in ‘forever chemicals’ manufacturers: The county commissioner, who says the investments belonged to his mother and were willed to him, has been the target of outcry in public meetings over nondisclosure of PFAS contamination.

Do you have questions about local government? Wondering who to complain to about an issue in your neighborhood? Wondering which agency governs certain things? Wondering why something is happening or how much it costs? Email us at [email protected] with your questions, and we’ll try and answer them next week!

On this week’s episode of the pod, Luke, Erin and Aaron Hedge sat down with Sam Smith of Manzanita House to do a civics-for-adults training on your immigration rights and how to exercise them. Then, we played a pre-made package by Erin on a group of local teens who traveled to Olympia to lobby the state legislature for policies to shield transgender students, update reproductive care Medicaid rates and protect people who lose pregnancies from criminal prosecution. Relevant reading from both us and other outlets linked below!

• Know your immigration rights: Spokane is within 100 miles of a border, which puts our community at greater risk of mass deportations. It’s time to brush up on your rights, and how to protect your neighbors.
• On day one, Trump pits his administration against transgender people: Trump’s administration will likely run into legal trouble as it implements policies on federal identity documents and housing in federal prisons.
• The teens are alright: Five local teens made the long trek down to Olympia to lobby state legislators for policies to shield transgender students, update reproductive care Medicaid rates and protect people who lose pregnancies from criminal prosecution.
• ‘Daunting’: Uncertainty in Spokane as Trump threatens local officials who don’t aid deportations, but state law is clear for schools, hospitals and police
• Hundreds of refugees set to resettle in Spokane could be stopped by day-one executive orders from Trump administration
• ‘Our communities are truly at risk’: Washington advocacy groups urge state leaders to defy federal deportation policies following surprise immigration raids in California

Val, Luke and Aaron Hedge talked about deconstructing from Christianity, TikTok (and the potential ban) and how those two wildly different things relate — and the lessons on community that these reflections can give us.

03:49 Brief overview of the latest TikTok news

07:16 Defining Deconstruction in Christianity

13:26 Personal Stories of Faith and Doubt

25:20 Navigating Faith and Doubt Without Social Media

32:00 Community in Rural Spaces

37:12 Political Influence in Church

42:06 Discovering TikTok and New Perspectives

47:28 Challenges and Reflections on Deconstruction

Additional reading:

BBC: What does Trump's executive order mean for TikTok and who might buy it?

AP News: How TikTok grew from a fun app for teens into a potential national security threat

User Mag: The Great Creator Reset

This week on Free RANGE, Luke and both Erin/Aarons discussed an unexpected nationalist rabbit hole Hedge dove down, the contours of a new bike box program for people biking to City Hall (Spoiler alert, it's not all it's cracked up to be) and a Sellers deep-dive into numbers for the city's new homeless scatter sites, focusing on one that's opened beds for 30 medically fragile unhoused people at Westminster United Church of Christ.

Luke was out doing ~boss-coded things~ so co-host Erin interviewed fellow RANGE reporter Aaron Hedge on his newest big story: “A burning question for police: Does ‘deescalation’ mean ‘up to lethal force’?

If you’re not a big fan of reading 4k word stories, but you want to know about how Spokane’s police force — the third deadliest per capita in the nation — thinks about use-of-force and deescalation techniques, listen now!

The whole gang discusses our news year resolutions, including but not limited to: striving for better work-life balance, engaging more deeply with community, and doing more labor, rural and culture reporting.

00:00 Intro

01:03 Holiday Break Recap

04:33 Personal and Team Goals for the Year

06:39 Labor Reporting and Community Engagement

21:05 Connecting community desires with coverage

27:38 Focusing on police accountability

30:02 Forever Chemicals

31:19 Rural reporting, union busting, and rural union busting reporting

38:22 Engaging with Art and Culture

40:24 Once more re: community connections and support

48:28 Final Thoughts

Luke was out sick, so Audience Editor Valerie Osier joined Erin to talk about RANGE’s newest labor story: a timely expose on union-busting at the local Planned Parenthood affiliate. If you’re not a big fan of reading 4,000 word stories, but you want to know about the CEO’s crazy-high salary, the high cost of union-busting ($425 an hour) and the employees caught in the crossfire, listen now!

Editor's Note: The Faviola Lopez working at UFCW 3000 is actually a different Faviola Lopez than who worked at PPGWNI. Additionally, Paul Dillon was demoted from his role at PPGWNI shortly before going on parental leave, not after.

Luke and Erin did a 2024 Wrapped, running through the interesting (and often depressing) coverage RANGE did in the last year. You can find all of our coverage here!

And, shameless plug, we just launched a merch line, which you should shop! Help us get sustainable, show your commitment to civic engagement, and look hot doing it.

Do you have questions about local government? Wondering who to complain to about an issue in your neighborhood? Wondering which agency governs certain things? Wondering why something is happening or how much it costs? Email us at [email protected] with your questions, and we’ll try and answer them next week!

Luke, Erin and guest Aaron Hedge — the environmentalism and County reporter at RANGE Media — chatted Spokane City Council rule changes (and the consequences for conservatives), the continued saga of Liberty Lake City Council’s growing control over their library and a grab-bag of other local news items! If you listened to our episode and want to learn more, here are the stories we referenced:

• Erin’s write-up for RANGE of Spokane City Council rule changes and what they mean
• Aaron and Erin’s stories on the Liberty Lake Library saga, and the national context of obscenity
• The new homelessness data dashboard
• Our coverage on the Spokane Regional Health District’s Feasibility Study on privatizing opioid treatment
• Stories on the downtown fires from The Spokesman’s Alexandra Duggan and Nick Gibson

Do you have questions about local government? Wondering who to complain to about an issue in your neighborhood? Wondering which agency governs certain things? Wondering why something is happening or how much it costs? Email us at [email protected] with your questions, and we’ll try and answer them next week!

Welcome to our very special Thanksgiving episode of Free RANGE, where Luke and Erin convened a panel of local notables Joni Harris, Sara Dixit and Kai Teo — a cook, an organizer and a data journalist, respectively, to discuss the political disconnection felt right now by working people in Spokane and one idea the nerds at RANGE have had to try to help struggling renters feel more protected by and connected to community:

• Working-class individuals often feel disconnected from political processes
• Service industry workers face scheduling barriers to traditional civic participation
• Many people are unaware of local political developments that affect them directly
• There's a perception that political engagement doesn't lead to material improvements

• Proposed tool would allow renters to check if landlords are registered and compliant with local laws
• Features could include:
• Form letters for renters to use when communicating with landlords
• Explanations of next steps if landlords don't comply
• City Council contact information for further assistance
• Optional data collection on rent prices and housing conditions
• Tool aims to provide tangible benefits while potentially increasing civic engagement

• Utilize existing community spaces and events (e.g., bars, trivia nights)
• Create physical flyers and place them strategically around the city
• Partner with local businesses to display information
• Host launch parties or social events to introduce the tool
• Leverage word-of-mouth and personal networks for distribution

• Focus on creating "third spaces" that are neither work nor home
• Avoid demonizing those with different political views
• Recognize the importance of coalition-building in worker movements
• Address root causes of political disengagement rather than symptoms

• Develop the renter rights web tool with suggested features
• Plan outreach strategy using multiple channels (events, flyers, partnerships)
• Consider hosting a launch party or series of events to introduce the tool
• Explore ways to create more "third spaces" for community building in Spokane