RANGE

Erin and Aaron chatted through three segments: an in-depth discussion on Aaron's recent story with incarcerated writer Kevin Light-Roth on a treatment program for incarcerated individuals seeking early release, a rapidfire "We Doomscroll So You Don't Have to" segment listing some big headlines from this week, and an update on the case of Teresa Borrenpohl, the woman dragged out of the CDA Town Hall earlier this year.

Relevant reading:

• Want out of prison early? Navigate the drug treatment labyrinth: Dept. of Corrections says people who tested positive for illicit substances decades ago still require treatment if they want early release. Some of them don’t even have a history of addiction, but the prison’s behavioral health contractor places the inmates into their treatment program anyway.
• Doomscroll rapid headlines: Ban the Address passed, unemployment insurance for striking workers is headed to Gov. Ferguson's desk and next week the Spokane City Council will vote on an ordinance to protect LGBTQIA2S+ people.
• Teresa Borrenpohl update: our initial coverage, recent coverage by The Spokesman on the noninvestigation into the sheriff, Borrenpohl's lawsuit and the charges filed against the private security firm members.

Dept. of Corrections says people who tested positive for illicit substances decades ago still require treatment if they want early release. A private behavioral health contractor stands to make millions of dollars by referring more patients into their treatment program — even if they don't need it.

Luke and Erin got together for what might become a regular segment: “I Doomscroll so you don’t have to,” where Erin caught Luke up on all the big local news from this week. The Washington Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Spokane’s voter-approved Prop 1, which made camping illegal in most of the city, new safe streets measures and an ordinance to make the city safer for queer and trans people were on the docket for discussion this week.

Relevant reading:

• Spokane Prop 1 overturned by Washington Supreme Court: Camping ban ballot initiative “exceeds the proper scope of the local initiative power,” court decided this morning.
• Spokane could soon become a shield city for queer people: A new ordinance would include Two-Spirit people in the city’s human rights code, double up on state shield protections and ensure city employees’ insurance covers gender-affirming and reproductive healthcare.
• The people want safer streets — and the electeds are listening: Restricted turns on red, a traffic police unit (finally!) and a plan to get to the root causes of crash fatalities announced at Mayor Brown’s street safety press conference this week.

Erin and Val talked urbanism and city bike parking + an update on our reporting about the local Planned Parenthood's anti-union actions.

Relevant reading:

50 new bike racks coming to a spot near you, by Lauren Pangborn at RANGE Media

• Request a location for a bike rack
• Submit an existing bike rack to the community-generated list of racks across the city.

 What we know after three months of reporting on the local Planned Parenthood:

A track record of poor labor conditions, a deep dive into executive compensation, ghosted donors, an upcoming merger and a 20-year-old discrimination case.

This week Aaron Hedge and Val flew solo and learned how to use the KYRS sound board, and talked police accountability from a few different angles. The first story centers on death of Donald Hagle, who was killed by Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies in 2024. We delved into him sister’s ongoing quest for answers and transparency, the complicated legislative landscape around police accountability, and the efforts (and failures) to introduce new independent investigative and prosecutorial bodies at the state level.

In the second part, we covered this week’s Spokane Valley City Council discussions, including a proposed sales tax to fund more police officers and a resolution reaffirming the city’s desire to not be a Sanctuary City and desire for Valley police officers to help federal immigration officers deport people. Hedge shared with us the public’s sentiment to the somewhat opposing goals.

Relevant reading:

Deputies killed Donald Hegel a year ago. His sister is still looking for answers.

Spokane Valley wants to break state law and direct their cops to help ICE and Border Patrol

00:57 Discussing the Latest Story

01:43 Background on Police Accountability

03:54 Details of the Police Shooting and Aftermath

11:51 Legislation and Police Accountability Efforts

19:34 Current Legislative Proposals and Budget Issues

25:20 The Case of Donald Hagle

32:51 Spokane Valley’s Police Funding Proposal

38:24 Sanctuary City Resolution in Spokane Valley

42:19 Public Sentiment and Council Decisions 

Val was out of town last week, so Erin and Aaron filled her in on the biggest stories she missed: A Ghanaian immigrant detained by ICE who has been allowed to return home to await trial, the scoop on Congressman Michael Baumgartner's first Town Hall in Spokane since Trump's inauguration, a political drama out of Spokane Valley that could impact statewide public record access and a very brief update on a local police accountability advocate's First Amendment case against two regional sheriff's offices. Relevant reading:

• Migrant detained by ICE back with family: RANGE caught up with Bismark Avornu, who’s lived in the Spokane area for 15 years, where he met his wife and is raising two American children, about his 45 days in a Tacoma processing facility.
• Congressman Michael Baumgartner’s Spokane Town Hall: The wildest meeting we’ve ever attended
• How a Washington city’s war with its own council member could chip away at public records access: Legislative proposal would allow agencies to withhold the occupations of whistleblowers in investigations from public records.
• Spokane and Bonner county sheriff’s offices can no longer hide or delete critical Facebook comments after First Amendment concerns, judges rule

A track record of poor labor conditions, a deep dive into executive compensation, ghosted donors, an upcoming merger that could spell trouble for unionization efforts and a 20-year-old discrimination case that shows tactics similar to the ones described by our sources have been happening for a long time.

It was a classic Luke/Erin messaround as they talked about two political, pro-business newsletters and the stories they spawned this week + Congressman Michael Baumgartner's Town Hall.

Erin Seller's reads their latest story on varying responses to downtown Spokane homelessness.

FāVS News reporter and editor Cassy Benefield joined Luke and Aaron Hedge on the pod this week to talk about her story about World Relief Spokane, which partly focused on the story of Ukrainian immigrant Julie Horbenko, who thinks President Donald Trump might, with the flick of a pen, make it illegal for her to be here.

Refugees in Spokane at risk as World Relief navigates changing U.S. policies