RANGE

This week, Valerie Osier and Aaron Hedge go through many (though certainly not all) of the prominent immigrant arrests carried out by federal agents in the Spokane area since the Trump administration took power and embarked on a dramatic and widespread immigration crackdown. They also chat about the many ethical and journalistic considerations we make when covering these stories.Relevant reading:Immigration officials are arresting people in Washington and warehousing them in IdahoSpokane city reaffirmed its support of the Keep WA working ActSpokane Valley did the oppositeGhanaian immigrant, Bismarck Avornu, was detained after church; He’s one of few to get out on bond and he shared about what it’s like in the Northwest ICE Processing CenterICE agents with no warrant violently arrest migrants in Spokane Valley - Jeison and Cesar Ruiz RodriguezMartin Diaz arrested without warrant.That arrest revealed to us that ICE is reportedly surveilling immigration activists 

It's the KYRS Fund Drive this week (go support community radio!), so things were a little wild in the studio! Erin was flying solo, but was joined by two guests. First up was Maeve Griffith, who runs the show Out and About on KYRS and made headlines herself when she transitioned late in her career as a Spokane firefighter. Then, we were joined by Council Member Paul Dillon (and former KYRS DJ) who talked about the LGBTQIA2S+ ordinance that passed this week and some legislation on the horizon. Relevant reading: ‘Be explicit in your advocacy or risk complicity.’4/28/2025 City Council Live Log: 2SLGBTQIA+ Protection Ordinance

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 MediaRequest a location for a bike rackSubmit 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 Patrol00:57 Discussing the Latest Story01:43 Background on Police Accountability03:54 Details of the Police Shooting and Aftermath11:51 Legislation and Police Accountability Efforts19:34 Current Legislative Proposals and Budget Issues25:20 The Case of Donald Hagle32:51 Spokane Valley’s Police Funding Proposal38:24 Sanctuary City Resolution in Spokane Valley42:19 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 attendedHow 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

Luke is back and a rare RANGE reporter appearance unlocked! Our split-custody Murrow Fellow who works out of Newport, WA came to talk shop on the pod about rural journalism in a border community. And our City Hall reporter Erin dove in to homelessness statistics and an arrest at council.

Former crime reporter Valerie Osier interviewed two of RANGE’s reporters about local news gone national. She talked to Erin Sellers about their story on a restrictive Idaho law and the future of gender-affirming care nationwide, and the other Aaron about his easy-to-digest breakdown on the now viral Coeur d’Alene Town Hall that ended with men in black dragging a woman out of the building for voicing her dissenting views. Relevant reading: Red states could preview gender-affirming care under Trump: An Idaho law banning state insurance from covering gender-affirming care could foreshadow a national ban on Medicaid spending for transgender care, by Erin SellersA debrief of the now-infamous CDA town hall: A local extremism reporter’s guide to what happened in the viral video of a woman being dragged out of an Idaho town hall by a group of men with no official uniforms, by Aaron Hedge

Erin and Aaron practiced one of a journalist’s most important skills — interviewing — by asking questions about each other’s coverage of the 2025 Washington State Legislative Session. Erin talked about a bill that would require doctors to give patients increased information about pain management options before IUD procedures, and Aaron talked about fiscal notes and how they can be weaponized to kill important bills. Relevant reading:‘Scissors, scissors’: Washington patients could soon have informed consent for IUD insertions, by Erin Sellers20+ WA state bills to keep an eye on: Workers’ rights, protections for undocumented immigrants and queer kids, reproductive justice, voting access for incarcerated people, and a whole lot more this Washington legislative session, by the RANGE staffDo 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!

Erin and Aaron welcomed on guest Eliza Billingham, The Inlander’s City Hall reporter, for an hour of Journos on Journos, interviewing each other about some of the biggest stories of the week: Billingham’s piece on Community Court and Sellers’ story on a City Council resolution in solidarity with undocumented immigrants, recommitting the city to following state law. Relevant reading linked below!Spokane’s Community Court handles most nonviolent offenses downtown. While arrests increase, founders say improving quality of life is “not an easy fix.” – Eliza Billingham, The Inlander.Solidarity, if not sanctuary: The Spokane City Council showed their solidarity with the immigrant community by promising to continue to follow state law, but opposition feared it created a false sense of security. – Erin Sellers, RANGE

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 policeHundreds 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 policeHundreds 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 news07:16 Defining Deconstruction in Christianity13:26 Personal Stories of Faith and Doubt25:20 Navigating Faith and Doubt Without Social Media32:00 Community in Rural Spaces37:12 Political Influence in Church42:06 Discovering TikTok and New Perspectives47:28 Challenges and Reflections on DeconstructionAdditional 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 threatUser 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 Intro01:03 Holiday Break Recap04:33 Personal and Team Goals for the Year06:39 Labor Reporting and Community Engagement21:05 Connecting community desires with coverage27:38 Focusing on police accountability30:02 Forever Chemicals31:19 Rural reporting, union busting, and rural union busting reporting38:22 Engaging with Art and Culture40:24 Once more re: community connections and support48:28 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 meanAaron and Erin’s stories on the Liberty Lake Library saga, and the national context of obscenityThe new homelessness data dashboardOur coverage on the Spokane Regional Health District’s Feasibility Study on privatizing opioid treatmentStories on the downtown fires from The Spokesman’s Alexandra Duggan and Nick GibsonDo 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: Political Engagement ChallengesWorking-class individuals often feel disconnected from political processesService industry workers face scheduling barriers to traditional civic participationMany people are unaware of local political developments that affect them directlyThere's a perception that political engagement doesn't lead to material improvementsRenter Rights Web Tool ConceptProposed tool would allow renters to check if landlords are registered and compliant with local lawsFeatures could include:Form letters for renters to use when communicating with landlordsExplanations of next steps if landlords don't complyCity Council contact information for further assistanceOptional data collection on rent prices and housing conditionsTool aims to provide tangible benefits while potentially increasing civic engagementOutreach StrategiesUtilize existing community spaces and events (e.g., bars, trivia nights)Create physical flyers and place them strategically around the cityPartner with local businesses to display informationHost launch parties or social events to introduce the toolLeverage word-of-mouth and personal networks for distributionBuilding Community and SolidarityFocus on creating "third spaces" that are neither work nor homeAvoid demonizing those with different political viewsRecognize the importance of coalition-building in worker movementsAddress root causes of political disengagement rather than symptomsNext StepsDevelop the renter rights web tool with suggested featuresPlan outreach strategy using multiple channels (events, flyers, partnerships)Consider hosting a launch party or series of events to introduce the toolExplore ways to create more "third spaces" for community building in Spokane

Luke, Erin and guest Aaron Hedge — the environmentalism and County reporter at RANGE Media — talked about the city’s will-they-won’t-they relationship with the C.O.P.S. contract, CEO Larry Krauter’s departure from the Spokane Airport and a short Civics round-up of all the biggest pieces of news that came out of local municipal meetings this week. If you listened to our episode and want to learn more, here are the stories we referenced:Our live post thread on Bluesky of the Spokane City Council meeting, including comments from C.O.P.S. volunteersEliza Billingham’s story for The Inlander on the C.O.P.S. contractAaron Hedge’s story for Spokane FAVS on Tactical CIVICS, the group one of the C.O.P.S. volunteers coordinates.Thomas Clause’s story for the Spokesman on Larry Krauter leaving the Spokane airport.Aaron Hedge’s coverage on Larry Krauter’s involvement with PFAS nondisclosure.Our weekly CIVICS coverage, which you can sign up to receive every Monday!Elena Perry’s story for the Spokesman on the CVSD’s decision to advocate against transgender athletes.Nick Gibson’s story for the Spokesman on Spokane Valley’s decision to further criminalize homelessness.Emry Dinman’s story for the Spokesman on the delay of the parks levy.Erin Sellers story for RANGE Media on the details of STA’s Connect 2035 plan.

RANGE Media’s Luke Baumgarten and Erin Sellers pay attention to news in Spokane and the Inland Northwest so you don’t have to.Join them Thursdays at 3 pm on KYRS Thin Air Community Radio for a round-up of the serious (and not so serious) local news of the week, behind the scenes drama at public meetings and deeper dives on important stories with the journalists who broke them.If you want to learn more about RANGE Media (or support us financially!) click here!~ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE~Luke and Erin discussed the closure of City Hall due to threats of violence, the most recent Spokane election results (and what they actually MEAN) and an update on gender-affirming healthcare options in Idaho. If you listened to our episode and want to learn more, here are the stories we referenced:Emry Dinman’s story for The Spokesman on the closure of City Hall and the threats that caused it.KUOW’s podcast Lost Patients that Luke referenced.Ellen Dennis’ story for The Spokesman on the Democrat legislative majorityEllen Dennis’ (now out-of-date) story for The Spokesman on Washington’s leftward shiftLuke Baumgarten’s story for RANGE on the wealth tax initiativeErin Sellers’ story for RANGE on being queer in IdahoA story from The Idaho Capital Sun on the law in Idaho banning state funds for gender affirming careA story on Trump’s campaign promises to end federal funding for gender affirming care.

Behold the first episode of RANGE's new radio show, Free RANGE, produced at KYRS Thin Air Community Radio. Hosts Luke Baumgarten and Erin Sellers are joined by Aaron Hedge to talk about the week in news.

Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) is amid a months long process to determine if it should privatize its treatment services division, which currently serves 1,000 patients, connecting them with methadone and mental health services to manage opioid addiction. The process, which began last spring has been a tense one led by SRHD Administrative Officer Dr. Alicia Thompson. Thompson recently completed Phase One of the Feasibility Study, which is what they're calling the process to determine if the division should move forward towards privatization. During phase one, Thompson gathered and analyzed feedback from a variety of stakeholders, including patients, employees, and service providers identifying the impacts privatization could have on them. At the September board meeting, Thompson presented her findings and two separate recommendations: One to end the process now and keep the division, establishing a designated fund for it within SRHD to ensure it can save and invest money in its future to grow. And another to continue the process and start looking into the legal ramifications and physical process of converting the division to private or selling it off to a private provider. The board of health was scheduled to vote on those recommendations during the September board meeting, but after community feedback against privatization and a robust discussion among board members, they decided to postpone the ultimate decision until the October board meeting, which is set for Thursday, October 31. Prior to the September board meeting, we sat down for a Q&A with Susie Saunders, the representative of Protec 17, the union for SRHD’s Treatment Services Employees. We asked Saunders to weigh in on the potential privatization of the division and what it could mean for employees. What follows is that conversation lightly edited for clarity and time.

This week, we’re telling you exactly how you can live your nosy dreams with public records. Join host Luke Baumgarten and reporter Erin Sellers as they explore the vital role of public records in holding our electeds accountable. First we have a lively roundtable with local reporters Nate Sanford of the Inlander and Daniel Walters of InvestigateWest (but formerly at the Inlander too!), who both submit a ton of records requests. We learned their best tips and tricks and how they use records to crack open stories that are crucial to our community. We also get to hear their stories from the journalism trenches. Walters recently finished an investigation into just how long 15 different Northwest governments take to respond to public records and — spoiler — it turns out the city of Spokane is the slowest. Next we talk to local dad (and Spokane Reimagined founder) Erik Lowe, who shares how public records play into his work as a traffic safety and urban planning advocate. Plus, in this episode we celebrate Sellers’ one year RANGE-iversary! Be sure to congratulate them on an absolutely stellar year in journalism and support their work!12:44 Journalist roundtable with Nate Sanford & Daniel Walters54:41 Public records with local Dad (and transit advocate!) Erik Lowe01:10:00 OuttakesThis is now our THIRD episode in this new season of RANGE (see we can be consistent) and we’re still taking feedback. We’re the press for the people, and the pod for the people so you tell us: what do you want to hear? Submit feedback here! We’re also still taking voicemails at 509-508-1055.

The Pod stays back, baby! Episode two is out and only a few hours late. We’re still nailing down our format and process, so in the future, you can expect the pod a little earlier than 8 pm whatever time Luke actually gets this uploaded to the website…Join host Luke Baumgarten and some of the RANGE team, Val Osier, Erin Sellers & our intern Holly VanVoorhis. Luke plays nature documentary voiceover artist to narrate a day in the life of a journalist navigating the treacherous waters of ethical audio use, then switches hats to lead a bit of reporter therapy. Unfortunately, it was virtual, so no one really knows what his couch looks like yet. Next, we did a bit of self-plagiarism and stole a segment from our Wide Range newsletter: Luke, Val and Erin each brought in a piece of good news, a piece of bad news and a piece of embarrassing news. We all learned about: Statewide AI oversight Local transportation and traffic calming Some Idaho reproductive health newsand Ellen Degeneres’ visit to Spokane (whether that one is good, bad or embarrassing is a bit subjective, but Val has thoughts.) Finally, Luke sat down for a short interview with our intern Holly, who wrote a story this week about the facts and fiction of fentanyl. She debunked some myths, gave some additional context and answered some burning questions on the top of our minds like, can cops actually get a contact high?We’re just starting to get our wobbly baby deer legs under us, but we’re still taking feedback. We’re the press for the people, and the pod for the people so you tell us: what do you want to hear? Submit a feedback form here! We’re also still taking voicemails at 509-508-1055.And we continue to want to take your questions about civic government, rumors you may have heard that you want us to fact check or inquiries about our reporting (or reporting in general), send them to us at [email protected] with “Mailbox” in the subject line. We may answer your questions or fact check your rumors on upcoming segments of the pod 👀

The pod is back for the next time, for the last time. And this time, we are pulling back the curtain! The old format was a lot to pull off each week, so we’re brainstorming ways to make it happen consistently.Join host Luke Baumgarten and the rest of the RANGE crew, Val Osier, Erin Sellers & Aaron Hedge, as they go on a fantastic voyage into the life of the journalistic mind, brainstorming new segment ideas and discussing the unique powers of audio journalism to engage with listeners, inform our community and do atmospheric storytelling — which is to say we talk about podcast stuff we like and how to make it happen with the small, mighty team we have. We also discuss a shift we’re trying to make across everything we do at RANGE to get more reader and listener engagement, and more directly let your questions and concerns shape our reporting. Scroll down for more on that. Next, we tested out one of our segment ideas, The Fact Check, before concluding with a quick interview with Howl Hall on the Mifepristone Supreme Court case and what it’s been like for Hall, a graduating senior at The Community School to team up with RANGE to produce journalism that is important to him and his classmates. This episode is half brainstorm, half experimentation, two-thirds Luke remembers how to edit audio and 3/5ths he learns a new software. We aren’t mathematicians, but that’s like over 2 podcasts for the price (free) of 1.It turned out … better than expected? We’ll let you be the judge.LET US KNOWSeriously: we really want to know what you think of the new ideas and plan. Send us an email (or a voice clip!) at [email protected] Luke a voicemail at 509-508-1055. Fill out our survey in the show notes RIGHT HERE. We cannot stress this enough: We want your ideas for segments. We want you to ask us questions. We will answer them. We might even turn them into stories. We want to know what you want to know. If we know about what you want to know, we'll tell you about it. If we don't know about it, we might report it out!We're a small team, but we care about the things that you care about. And we're going to do it all. We're going to talk about it all because from here on out, Range is living out loud.CHAPTERS00:00 Cold Open 00:09 Intro05:18 Segment 1: How do we want to do this thing?08:17 Belated Introductions36:06 Segment 2: Pride mural good-faith fact check43:43 Segment 3: Mifepristone explainer feat. Howl Hall44:52 Segment 301:06:53 Outro01:07:52 ???

Welcome to a place where dead dogs, communion wafers, pipe diameters and fluoride in the water live alongside important ongoing public testimony about the conduct of public officials and the ramifications of legislation passed by Spokane’s City Council.The Open Forum period at Spokane City Council meetings is a land of contrasts, playing host to a number of topics that, at first glance, might seem random or irrelevant. But for some activists and community members, the open forum period exists as a critical method of engagement with the city officials who hold power in Spokane. Last Monday, the council voted through a new set of rules for 2024, which included some sweeping changes to the way open forum is conducted. Council members say the goal of these changes is to prioritize time-sensitive city business and increase civic engagement, but activists fear they will limit free speech. Join host Luke Baumgarten as he interviews two city hall journalists, The Inlander's Nate Sanford and RANGE's own Erin Sellers, about the ins-and-outs of the controversial new rules and their possible implications.

With temperatures climbing into the 90s in May and wildfire smoke already fouling air quality in some areas of the Northwest, RANGE wanted to learn more about what this unseasonably warm weather means for the rest of summer, the risks of heat-related illness in our community and the role climate change plays in driving extreme weather. So, RANGE out to Dr. Brian G. Henning, the Director of Gonzaga Center for Climate, Society, and the Environment and a professor of Philosophy and Environmental Studies at Gonzaga University.You’ll hear Dr. Henning talk about the importance of a healthy urban canopy — a dense urban canopy — to reduce what scientists call heat islands. Heat islands are hotspots in cities where rather than sunlight being absorbed by trees and used to power photosynthesis, which creates oxygen, and keeps ground temperatures cool, there are fewer or perhaps zero trees. So the heat reaches the ground, is absorbed by the concrete and asphalt, and that heat radiates, creating temperatures that are 14 degrees hotter in say, Hillyard than the tree-lined streets of the South Hill. Trees in Spokane will not fix climate change. Climate change is a global crisis that will require a global solution. But trees can help mitigate the local effects of that global crisis. And we need to do it now, because trees don’t grow to maturity over night. So then the obvious question is: what can we do today to help our neighbors survive and make our neighborhoods more resilient while we wait 20 years for that tree cover to grow? And what other steps can we take?All that and more in this episode.

Today, on a brief trip to Spokane to visit Thrive International and the Podium sports complex, Gov. Jay Inslee visited the RANGE office for a half-hour interview. The interview, like much of our coverage, focused on key areas of concern for Spokane: homelessness, affordable housing and behavioral health.Gov. Inslee repeatedly called for increased investment in home building from the state legislature and even direct housing development by the state. He also touted his connections to Eastern Washington, called for additional investments and initiatives to bolster the state’s behavioral health workforce, and called attention to conflict with neighboring Idaho over the state’s support of the women’s right to abortion.

We’re back at you with a whole new podcast episode and it’s only been … five months? We’re still figuring out how to carve a sustainable podcast with all of our reporting work and limited staff, but we’ve missed you — and we know you missed Luke’s buttery podcast voice — so we have a special episode!In November, we hosted our first-ever live podcast recording at the Central Library, where we got a panel together to talk about Ranked Choice Voting, and the attendees got to ask questions. Marilyn Darilek from League of Women Voters Spokane and Trenton Miller from FairVote WA joined Luke on stage to explain the ins and outs of Ranked Choice Voting and share about the process to get it adopted in municipalities all over the state. We even held a mock Ranked Choice Vote election on quality seasonal pies. Given how strongly people feel about pumpkin, apple and pecan, it was remarkably civil!Real quick: what is Ranked Choice Voting?In our current voting system, you get to place one vote for one person in any given election. Your only alternative to voting for one person is to vote for no one. Plenty of political scientists believe this system all but guarantees a two-party dominant system — and that is certainly how it has played out in America. In ranked choice voting, though, as we’ll hear explained in detail, you get to pick several candidates in order from the person you like the most to the person you like the least. And if you loathe someone so much, you can just not rank them at all.If your top choice has a chance of winning, that vote stays. If your top choice gets eliminated, your second choice gets your vote and so on, until one candidate has 50% plus 1 vote. It’s up to each of us to decide if RCV is something we want to fight for, but at the very least we should recognize the shortcomings of our current system. If you hear yourself saying “I like this person, but they can’t win, so I won’t vote for them” — then our system of voting is not working for you. Of course that doesn’t mean your candidate will always win. But shouldn’t we have a system where the best thing you can possibly do as a citizen is say, “I believe this is the best person to lead us, and that’s who I’m going to vote for?”People who study ranked choice voting elsewhere believe that it leads to more pluralistic elections: there’s room for more parties and more political viewpoints when you can rank your favorites rather than voting for just one.And even if the two parties stick around for a while, the immediate benefit of ranked choice voting is that you still get to have a vote be a truer and more nuanced representation of your opinion about a race — and therefore a more nuanced representation of how you think this city, this county, this state, this nation, ought to be run — without feeling like you’re throwing away your vote on a candidate who is too good to be elected. The event went off without a hitch, and we look forward to doing many more.MASSIVE THANKS to our guests Marilyn Darilek from League of Women Voters and Trenton Miller from FairVote WA, and our friends at the Spokane Public Library who made this event possible: Shane Gronholz, Vanessa Strange, Andy Rumsey and Jason Johnson.

We’re back with the third installment in our RANGE of Care miniseries on productive disagreements at an interpersonal level and a societal level through the lens of family therapy and restorative justice.This began as a conversation about how to have productive disagreements and quickly became a discussion about how do we change our criminal legal system, and maybe on our way to that needing to change our entire society and how we relate to each other—a small order, right?Meg and Luke are joined again by Inga Laurent, Professor of Law at Gonzaga who studies, theorizes and helps implement restorative justice practices in court systems and schools.Inga and Meg talk about tools we can use in order to reconcile with one another and keep ourselves mentally safe.

Today on the pod, we have the second part of our conversation with Daniel Walters. Last week we spent a lot of time breaking down the chronology of how the June 11 anti-Pride event was conceived and initially promoted locally, but how “local” in the case of North Idaho now includes an increasing number of far-right celebrities. This week we discuss how, just as the pot seemed likely to boil over, all sides took a step back — tweaking their plans to de-escalate — and how that might have been the difference between what actually happened and something deadlier. We also discuss the way these things get covered by the media: does the far-right get over-covered? Or do larger outlets only pay attention to the Inland Northwest when people like Matt Shea are involved? Read Daniel’s story here.

Today on the pod, The Inlander’s Daniel Walters joins us to talk about the many groups, YouTube celebrities, and far-right hype people who brought the June 11 counter-demonstration against Coeur d’Alene’s Pride in the Park near to a boiling point. This event led to 31 Patriot Front members getting arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to riot, including at least two men with ties to far-right pastor Matt Shea.There’s A LOT to unpack here, so we’re cutting the discussion up into two parts. We wanted to go through it methodically as an opportunity to document not just the people actively shaping politics in Kootenai County and the broader Inland Northwest, but the people who are promoting the region to hundreds of thousands of people nationwide. So buckle up for part one of a discussion of all the connections, alliances and squabbles of a region that has real importance for many different ideologies and groups across the spectrum: from conservative to libertarian to far-right. Read Daniel’s story here.

At a lot of media companies, the crime beat is new reporter purgatory. This is probably your first job out of college: listen to scanner traffic and when something newsworthy happens, you run out and report it.  In one sense, it’s journalism on easy mode — the stories literally come to you — and in that sense, it’s understandable to put a young reporter on it. But that inexperience creates a real imbalance between the journalist and power, asking the least experienced writers to hold their own against career law enforcement bureaucrats and professional communicators. And because there’s so much to cover, new reporters often only have time to get the police account of things, and rarely get a chance to actually follow up to see if the person arrested actually ends up facing trial.You’re going to hear from two different young reporters, Rebecca White from KPBX and Valerie Osier, on the effects of this, and why, for the health of our communities and the mental health of young reporters, the crime beat has to go.

The Inland Northwest offers a unique glimpse into the future of the rest of the US in light of the expected overturn of Roe v. Wade & Planned Parenthood v. Casey, two landmark Supreme Court decisions that codified the federal right to an abortion. This is because there already aren’t any abortion clinics in North Idaho, so many abortion-seekers as far away as western Montana need to go over the border to Eastern Washington clinics. For years, over 40% of patients seeking abortions at border clinics run by Planned Parenthood have been from out of state. Recently, that number has jumped to over 50%. We talked to friend of the pod & Inlander reporter Samantha Wohlfeil about her recent cover story, "My Body, State's Choice?" what additional work Washington abortion clinics are preparing for the overturn of Roe v. Wade.Follow Samantha on Twitter.

Video games obviously don’t just come into being. Like any piece of art, they have creators. And we happen to know one right here in Spokane. A couple weeks ago we talked to Justin Baldwin, Creative Lead & Cofounder at Moonlight Kids. He’s one of the creators of a pretty popular indie game called The Wild at Heart. It’s described as cute and cozy, but it introduces important themes to kids and other users, like working through childhood trauma.TrailerFollow Justin on Twitter: @butttoots Or Instagram: @themoonlightkid Follow Moonlight Kids: @moonlightkids_

In today’s RANGE of Care, we’re continuing our talk on productive disagreements. Joining us is Inga Laurent, Professor of Law at Gonzaga who studies, theorizes and helps implement restorative justice practices in court systems and outside of judicial settings like schools.So how does the conversation from our last episode on productive disagreements in interpersonal relationships tie into a legal framework like restorative justice? It’s in the name: restorative. The point isn’t to cast a person out of society or community. The point is to encourage a conversation in which the person or people who were harmed can gain closure and those who did harm can make amends. If you want more of Inga’s insight, she’s an occasional columnist at The Inlander.Don’t forget to share this with a friend and if you’re able, become a member of RANGE for $10 per month.

We’re at the end of Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month and hopefully you’ve had a chance to go to one of the many events hosted around town celebrating the rich and almost unfathomably diverse peoples and cultures represented. The majority of those events were put on by a coalition led by two organizations: APIC Spokane, whose mission is advocating for racial, social, and economic justice for Asians & Asian Americans in solidarity with Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and other systematically oppressed communities, and the Pacific Islander Community Association of WA an organization dedicated to establishing a cultural home, centering community power, and furthering the wellness of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities physically, culturally, socially and spiritually.These two partner organizations rallied around using this month to draw attention to their criticisms of the imposed category “Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.”The category groups wildly different cultures that span literally 40% of the globe, lumping together the American diaspora of over 60% of the world’s population – everything from Bangladeshi-Americans to Tahitians — in one category. So it’s like, are we really spotlighting this incredible individual and cultural diversity by smashing them all into one month? And beyond that, you’ll hear our guests, Ryann Louie and Sarah Dixit of APIC talk about how statistical aggregation papers over legacies of colonial violence and completely obscures real disparities in health outcomes and death for many Pacific Islander communities. There is a lot of excess death – unnecessary death, preventable death – happening that is not truly understood because of how we lump people together statistically. In this podcast, you’ll hear about their efforts to push for race data disaggregation and why it’s important. You’ll also hear what you can do to help, like not using aggregated terms, asking aggregated organizations if they do have NH/PI representation and simply following APIC and PICA on social media. ALSO, don’t miss the companion art show called “Hidden in Plain Sight” that is only open for three more days, through May 28 at the new Terrain Gallery at 628 N. Monroe.

In the US, it’s supposed to be “innocent until proven guilty,” but it’s a routine part of our criminal legal system to imprison people while they await trial, causing them to lose their jobs, housing, access to transportation and more.This is a problem across America, and we’ve covered it extensively on RANGE (see links below), but here’s a new wrinkle, courtesy of our friends at InvestigateWest.Whether or not you get access to pretrial services, which often requires home monitoring, drug testing and other costly programs, largely depends on the jurisdiction you’re in. Some counties have no services at all. In others, the defendant is responsible for the cost of those services — such as ankle monitors, which can run $500 per month — effectively keeping the most destitute people in jail. Even in counties where services are offered, the costs can be drastically different depending on what part of the county you’re arrested in. That’s the situation in Spokane, where getting arrested in the City of Spokane gives defendants free access to many more services than people arrested for the same crime in other parts of the county. We talked to Wilson Criscione, a reporter from InvestigateWest, who covered this issue extensively in the first article for their project called “Justice by Geography.”In it, he told us the story of Amber Letchworth, a Washington woman who was pulled over and arrested after a police officer found a dirty baggy containing meth on her car floor. She couldn’t pay for bail, so while waiting in jail for the next few weeks, she lost her home and access to a car. She pleaded guilty to felony drug possession in an effort to get out of jail sooner. But she still left jail homeless and lost her financial aid for college because of her felony record. Amber had been mourning the death of her grandmother and was not in a good place. On paper, she was a good candidate for pretrial diversion, but no diversion took place, and she spiraled, for a time, to an even darker place.Had she been diverted to mental health or addiction treatment, her arrest may not have started her on a path to drug and alcohol addiction, homelessness, and more arrests. There are two bitter ironies in this case, one personal, one systemic: The drug charge that set this whole chain of events in motion has since been vacated after State v. Blake — a State Supreme Court decision last year that ruled Washington’s simple possession law  unconstitutional. But the real kicker is that Asotin County is one of the counties that actually HAS pretrial services — on paper anyway — but the program administrator had retired and the remote, rural county hadn’t been able to find a replacement. This story is crucial as we examine the disproportionate effects of our criminal legal system and what can be done to lift more people out of it.Wilson and Luke talk about the current patchwork system of pretrial services in Washington and how they play out differently in Spokane compared to the rest of Spokane County. Read the full story, republished with permission from InvestigateWest, here.Previous Coverage of Pre-Trial Inequalities:EPISODE 010 | Independence DayEPISODE 011 | Independence Day (cont)EPISODE 025 | No New Jail feat. Jim DawsonAnd Justice for Some feat. Cam Zorrozua & Virla SpencerReferences: Season 3 of Serial, where a reporter sits inside a Cleveland courtroom to highlight the ins and outs of the criminal legal system. (It’s worth a listen, we promise)

Today we’re talking about productive disagreements: why we need them, what they look like and how to have them. It’s not whether or not we agree or disagree that is the issue, but how we do it and how we teach the next generations how they can disagree productively and empathetically. Meg and Ingrid talk about some of our first experiences with disagreements from a developmental perspective: toddlers who disagree with their parents on eating their peas or going to bed, kids who disagree with their classmates that pink is the best when they really like yellow, and teenagers who disagree with their parents that 9 p.m. is a reasonable curfew.What we learn at a developmental level at those ages– what our parents teach us on how much our voice matters and how to have empathy– shapes how we approach disagreements on much bigger issues when we’re older. It shapes if we feel safe disagreeing with others or if we feel safe going against the grain. Disagreement is a fundamental part of our government and democracy. And our ability to disagree directly correlates with our ability to advocate. To be clear: we’re not ever saying that people’s humanity is up for disagreement. Nor are we saying that people of marginalized communities and identities need to be doing this work or subject themselves to being the object of someone’s anger. It’s those in the dominant culture– white, cisgender folks– who’s responsibility it is to be leading this bigger change.Meg and Ingrid talk about a few ways to do this on a micro level. Here are a few, but be sure to listen to the episode to get the full picture:Teach your children how to disagree safely and hold space for disagreements. Start monitoring your own physical and emotional reactions to things you disagree with.Start small, with people you already feel safe with. Take a pause if you start to recognize deregulation in your body.References: “The Dying Art of Disagreement” by neo-conservative Bret Stevens https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/24/opinion/dying-art-of-disagreement.htmlBraving the Wilderness by Brene Brown https://brenebrown.com/book/braving-the-wilderness/RANGE of Care is a series of conversations on the intersections between mental health, the biology of human emotion, our bodies response and the social, cultural and political happenings in our communities. It’s hosted by Meg Curtain Rey-Bear, a Spokane psychotherapist, and Ingrid Price, a Spokane child psychotherapist. Luke usually chimes in too because he can’t help himself. You can support RANGE by becoming a member by going to rangemedia.co and clicking the subscribe link.

Happy birthday to us! Is that weird to say? We hope not because we’re excited to still be going strong a whole TWO years after Luke decided to start a podcast in his attic. We asked you, dear readers/listeners, to send us your questions for our very first reader mailbag– and you all delivered! We got questions about wildfires, climate change, county commissioners, the housing market, crime, and a lot more. We did our best to answer as many as we could in the time we had, but some will need their own original reporting.In this episode, we also shared with you what’s been going on with RANGE, formally introduced our Audience and Membership Editor Valerie Osier and what the heck she does, and told you all about our hopes and dreams for this fledgling publication. Additional reading/listening: AgtastropheThe More Climate ChangesFaith Some More feat. Chris Bovey and Bryce NeusseHousing in Crisis feat. Terri AndersonHouse Money feat. Ben Stuckart

This week on the pod, we talk to Deb Conklin, former Clallam County Prosecutor and current pastor of two churches in Spokane, Liberty Park Methodist in Perry and St. Paul’s United Methodist in West Central. In her almost 25 years as a pastor, Deb has also served rural congregations in Deer Park, Davenport and Rosalia.That’s the sort of resume that Deb had been on our list of people to talk to for RANGE because of her justice work in Spokane, and she got bumped to the front of the queue when she declared her intention late last week to run for Spokane County Prosecutor as a non-partisan candidate.We discussed competing models of justice between retributive and restorative theories of justice, and beyond that, you’ll also hear some pretty big differences between how Deb was trained as a prosecutor – only charging people with crimes you’re certain you can get convictions on – and the way we’re used to we’re used to hearing prosecutorial decisions being made in Spokane. If you think back to our Bail Project episodes and the episode with Cam Zorrozua and Virla Spencer, of the Way to Justice, you’ll remember those advocates talking about prosecutors throwing every charge possible at an accused person as a way of heightening bail and heightening pressure to take a plea.Take a listen and let us know what you think of our first candidate interview.

Poet, Spark Central Executive Director and general purpose badass Brooke Matson joins Luke and special co-host Elissa Ball to discuss the historic (and current) stigma around ADHD and the steps individuals and (hopefully, some day) society itself can take to reimagine and reframe day-to-day life to help people harness and come to love their unique brains, and the tremendous drive for experimentation and incandescent creativity they're capable of, if given the space to flourish.Brooke's recent TEDxSpokane talk is a great primer for this episode.“ADHD Redefined | Brooke Matson | TEDxSpokane”If you want to support Spark Central, April 15th is “Amplify Us,” Spark Central’s annual salon and benefit show. This year’s gala will be a hybrid online and in-person event held at The Knitting Factory. The evening features an interview with best-selling author Jess Walter and a silent auction, plus live musical performances by T.S. The Solution, Atari Ferrari, and other music acts — including one of Spark’s own Girls Rock Lab bands.