If you don’t already get our email newsletter, you haven’t seen quite possibly the funniest and easy-to-read digest of Spokane news around town. It’s called Wide RANGE, and we started it a few months ago as a special Friday newsletter to highlight the most important stories that may impact and interest our subscribers.
Think of it as a cheat sheet for impressing your friends and co-workers with your knowledge of local current events.
Think of it as helping you wade through the BS and noise on the internet.
Think of it as a digital way of hanging out and chatting with some of your favorite local journos.
But to keep our workload reasonable(ish) each week for our team of 3.5 (plus two interns), it’s only available through email. So make sure you subscribe to our free newsletter here to get it!
Happy Friday and welcome to Wide RANGE, where we keep track of (and joke about) the news, in case you didn’t have time to.
This week, we’re shooting some hoops, checking out street art and traffic calming around the city and learning how Supreme Court rulings will impact us. Don’t know what the hell we’re talking about? Read on!
The Pod
The Pod stays back, baby! Episode two is coming out and only a few hours late. Check here in a bit. We did a little reporter therapy, talked through the Good, the Bad and the Embarrassing of Spokane news this week and Luke interviewed our intern Holly about her recent story on fentanyl facts and fiction. Listen on our website, on Spotify or wherever you do your podcast listening, and don’t forget — we’re still soliciting feedback on the style, the segments and your thoughts on what we should do on our resurrected pod.
Mailbox
This is our last June Wide RANGE, which means we’re publishing our last few queer love letters this weekend. On Tuesday, we shared a letter by Adir Blüm addressed to “the proud polyamorous punks, gender failures and queers for Palestine.”
“This is for you: my comrades, my friends, my lovers. We create our own spaces. You’ve all shown me that it is possible to hold multiple (sometimes contradictory) truths at once,” Blüm wrote. “You inspire me and energize me, you keep me going.”
Our Mailbox is still open, and we’re accepting a few different kinds of letters:
- Love letters to Spokane and its community: Share what you love about Spokane, or what you want to make better about it. Tell us your hopes and dreams for the city. Write about your favorite memory from Spokane.
- Questions that you have about civic government, rumors you may have heard that you want fact-checked, inquiries about reporting. We may answer your questions or fact check your rumors on upcoming segments of the pod!
Send submissions to team@rangemedia.co with “Mailbox” in the subject line.
In Case You Missed It
Forum for four police chief finalists
Yesterday, the city held a public forum for the top four candidates in Spokane’s national search to find a new police chief. Residents and journalists alike were able to ask questions of each candidate in four separate areas of the room and then share their thoughts with the city in a survey. RANGE had reporters there for *science* but we didn’t end up live tweeting anything, so for all the deets on the candidates, check out Alexandra Duggan’s story here. And as a bonus, here’s a photo our intern Pascal Bostic took at the forum of Matthew Murray, one of the candidates who most recently worked as a police chief in Yakima!
Street art: it’s not just for us gays
The Pride mural downtown has been the star of the show for street art conversations, but a fact that’s kind of flew under the radar: neighborhoods across the city could be getting their own street mural as part of the Asphalt Arts program, which falls under traffic-calming efforts. Nate Sanford at The Inlander wrote about the mural in the Hillyard neighborhood, created under the program, and the other projects in the works.
EMTALA verdict and Washington impacts
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court released its decision on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which requires hospitals to stabilize patients, which had important impacts on pregnant patients. They sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit, which puts some of Idaho’s strictest abortion rules on hold. Cascade PBS broke down the case and what it could mean for Washington, as the state continues to receive airlifted pregnant patients from hospitals in Idaho who are unwilling to treat them in situations that may result in the death of a fetus.
City Council Live Tweet
This week’s Spokane City Council was long, sweaty and honestly, kind of wild. The body voted on The Janet Mann Safe Streets Now! resolution, a few settlements, homelessness funding allocations and an emergency ordinance to move the city to biennial budgeting, among other things. It was all less dry than it sounds at first blush. Read the full thread here, and as always — Editor’s note: our reporters are working fast during these meetings. There may be typos, misspelled names or small errors in quotes that don’t impact meaning or intent.
The Good, The Bad & The Embarrassing
The Good: The Janet Mann Safe Streets Now! resolution passed, which primes the city to move quickly on traffic-calming measures intended to reduce traffic fatalities in Spokane. We covered what exactly this means and what kind of adaptive design strategies the city could use to accomplish this earlier this week.
The Bad: We woke up to some bad news this morning as the Supreme Court decided to allow cities to enforce camping bans. Justice Sonia Sotomayor put it best in her dissent: “Sleep is a biological necessity, not a crime.”
The Embarrassing: Last night’s presidential debate. Need we say more? (and if we do need to say more, we’ll just quote what local experts told The Spokesman: “it was an unmitigated disaster.”)
Things you can do
It’s a busy weekend, folks! Our intern Holly VanVoorhis has some recommendations for how you can fill your dance card.
Hoopfest
It’s the last weekend of June, so hoopers of all ages are pulling on their tube socks while basketball hoops fill downtown intersections. Road closures begin today for the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament, which will shut down 45 city blocks for its thirty-fourth year in Spokane. Tomorrow marks the start of the tournament with a site-wide 8 am tip-off and games beginning throughout the day. Attendees also have the chance to partake in activities like competing in the Toyota Shootoff competition, visiting the EWU Adaptive Athletics Exhibition, and more. Many downtown restaurants and food trucks will also be open for the tournament. For a map and more info on events, click here.
Our Stories: Black Families in Spokane
Our Stories: Black Families in Spokane, will celebrate Spokane’s Black community and family history today at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The event will take place throughout the MAC campus, including the Campbell House, and run from 11 am to 4 pm. Activities include documentaries and youth-created films, art-drop assemblage in the museum’s Create Space, and motown music playing on the museum side lawn.
Pride in Perry
Tonight, Odyssey Youth Movement will kick off Pride in Perry festivities with an evening concert in Meeting House Cafe featuring the musical talents of Betsy Rogue and DINK. From noon to 5 pm tomorrow, the Perry District will hold its annual Pride celebration, where attendees can celebrate Pride month with local businesses and affirming organizations, as well as the Perry District’s signature rainbow crosswalk.
Indigenous & Environmental Film Festival
The Garland Theater will host an Indigenous and Environmental Film Festival this weekend, with showtimes on Friday and Saturday. Visiting filmmakers will present works surrounding themes like environmental stewardship, climate change, salmon conservation and reintroduction, and human rights. Friday and Saturday will showcase different films, including Smoke Signals, Bones of Crows, Inhabitants, Covenant of the Salmon People, and more. For more information on showtimes, costs and the film lineup, click here.
“The Immigrant Resident” Showings
Latinos En Spokane presents “The Immigrant Resident” at the Garland Theater on July 3 and the Magic Lantern Theatre on July 10. The film, created through collaboration with Latinos En Spokane and On the Horizon Films, documents the experience of Latino immigrants who are separated from their loved ones as they challenge legal injustice and tell a story of resilience in the face of systemic barriers. Proceeds from the two showings will support the establishment of a legal department for Latinos En Spokane, which works to provide accessible legal services and educational workshops.
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