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# Hello, RANGE. It’s me, Daniel
- URL: https://www.rangemedia.co/hello-range-its-me-daniel/
- Published: 2026-02-24T21:58:39.000Z
- Updated: 2026-02-24T21:58:39.000Z
- Description: Vintage Inlander journalist Daniel Walters is returning to local journalism right here at RANGE.
- Author: Daniel Walters
- Tags: Range Updates

Just a half-hour into my first story meeting with the team of RANGE journalists, I was hit with a wave of joy: the feeling that, after years away, I’d finally returned home. 

*This,* I thought, *this* is what I’ve been missing. 

I’d spent 15 years aggressively covering politics and education for the *Inlander*, Spokane’s alt-weekly. I’d investigated our former columnist, [Rachel Dolezal](https://www.inlander.com/news/the-real-rachel-dolezal/article%5F68524871-dcaf-5ccb-b898-3939ec89125a.html?ref=rangemedia.co). I dug into a mayoral coverup of a police chief’s [sexual harassment](https://www.inlander.com/news/end-of-story/article%5F32f441dc-43ce-54bd-a7cc-f22cad6a839a.html?ref=rangemedia.co). I told the story of a tech executive who came to Spokane to [defraud investors](https://www.inlander.com/news/the-wizard-of-spokane/article%5F835dedd1-cfd8-5007-ac89-5b7e3c86ae76.html?ref=rangemedia.co) and a tech executive who came to Spokane to try to [save his homeless son](https://www.inlander.com/news/a-tech-executive-from-san-diego-wanders-the-streets-of-spokane-with-one-mission-find/article%5F18490772-1008-5c83-917a-59130891cb02.html?ref=rangemedia.co). 

In my last years at the *Inlander*, I was going head-to-head with RANGE, trying to out-scoop them on [Camp Hope](https://www.inlander.com/news/camp-hope-officials-say-they-repeatedly-asked-police-for-help-removing-dangerous-residents-that-help/article%5F2911684a-c086-5da7-aff4-c3382da48042.html?ref=rangemedia.co) and [City Hall](https://www.inlander.com/news/how-a-network-of-politicos-tied-to-u-s-rep-cathy-mcmorris-rodgers-are-pulling/article%5Fafdccfed-bfb0-5802-a9d4-7605045a11e5.html?ref=rangemedia.co). Increasingly, I had a sense that this little upstart publication had turned into my most formidable competitor. 

I left the *Inlander* in 2023 for a remote work position covering “democracy and extremism” throughout the entire Pacific Northwest. For two and a half years, I wrote plenty of deeply and aggressively reported stories about plenty of important topics: [white nationalists](https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/10/25/the-proudest-boy-in-portland/?ref=rangemedia.co) in Oregon, [right-wing lobbyists](https://www.investigatewest.org/secret-recording-shows-how-a-right-wing-idaho-lobbyist-tried-to-keep-a-legislator-in-lockstep/?ref=rangemedia.co) in Idaho, and [unethical plastic surgeons](https://www.rangemedia.co/allegations-gender-affirming-surgeon-stir-fears-trans-patients/) in Washington. 

But I wasn’t happy. The lack of a physical newsroom, the lack of a shared focus on a place — a single community in all its messiness — made it all feel hollow, and frankly, lonely. 

But at RANGE, a week in, I have the opposite feeling. It’s everything I love about reporting: being part of a ragtag band of us-against-the-world writers fighting to reveal the truth about our city. Not because it’s perfect or even because we believe we can fix it, but because it’s *ours.* 

“Local journalist” can sound like you can’t cut it in the big leagues. But for me, I learned that journalism feels the most meaningful when conducted on my own turf, when it’s about the same people we might run into at Rockwood Bakery, or Grocery Outlet, or the Zip's Drive-in.

The “local” part of journalism is what makes weathering all the career’s indignities — the bleary all-night writing blitzes, the stale coffee drips, the coins-from-the-couch-cushions salaries, the profanity-packed voicemails from politicians — worth it. And since RANGE understands that like no other publication right now, I’m more than happy to be working for my former rivals. 

For now, I’ll be working as a freelancer, aiming in particular to cover Spokane County, with inevitable detours into Idaho. Through that all, I want to use the tools of investigative journalism to uncover nuance and challenge our assumptions, not just to stoke outrage. Great reporting, I’ve long believed, should often reveal flaws in heroes and the humanity in villains.

Hit me up on Signal, Facebook Messenger, or my RANGE [email address](mailto:daniel@rangemedia.co) with tips. In the past three years, I’ve heard plenty of stories about Spokane. I can’t wait to start telling them again.