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Ferguson signs ‘historic’ income tax as efforts to stop it begin

As a sea of supporters celebrated inside the State Reception Room on Monday morning, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a personal income tax on millionaires to end the most closely watched legislative discussions in state politics in recent history.

Public Safety

Two arrested at No Kings protest appear in court

Overpass may be renamed in honor of Spokane County deputy killed while helping driver last summer
Man gets no jail time for threatening to put a family's 'heads on poles'
Spokane public defenders are at a 'critical moment' as homelessness crackdown stresses courts and caseloads

Local Government

Spokane public defenders are at a ‘critical moment’ as homelessness crackdown stresses courts and caseloads

Local Business

Wingstop opening downtown Spokane location

National Business

Apple at 50: How a garage startup became a $3.5 trillion titan

Nation

Trump signs order on mail ballots, escalating election overhaul push

World

Despite month of bombing, Iran retains some missile capability

Washington

Cities in Washington ban new ICE detention centers amid Trump push to expand

Idaho

Idaho political races will get more expensive with proposed campaign law changes

WA Government

Ferguson signs ‘historic’ income tax as efforts to stop it begin

ID Government

Idaho bill criminalizes use of bathrooms that don’t match sex assigned at birth

Education: K-12

This day in history: Mead, Colbert and Green Bluff residents backed news high school. Kingdome opened to crowd of 49K

Higher Education

Spokane historian weighs in on Cesar Chavez after allegations of sexual abuse: ‘His legacy will be revised’

Health

Scientific review finds e-cigarettes likely cause lung and oral cancer

Transportation

Getting There: Spokane officials consider building a peanut on the Palouse Highway

Science & Tech

Why are we going back to the moon? NASA Artemis campaign targets Mars

Military

US federal law enforcement to be present at Marine Corps graduation

Weather

Severe weather risks dot central U.S. as calendar flips to April

Columnists

This day in history: Experts issued warnings on Spokane Valley aquifer. Coeur d’Alene woman inherited a fortune.

History

This day in history: A Teamsters strike loomed, and 100 years ago, a downtown jewelry theft livened up the streets of Spokane

12:15 a.m.

Religion

Idaho priests, religious workers get small immigration win – but hundreds still at risk

Latest Stories

News > WA Government

Ferguson signs AI protection bills as public increasingly embraces the technology

Wed., April 1, 2026

OLYMPIA – Gov. Bob Ferguson has signed a trio of bills to provide additional protections when using artificial intelligence amid increased use of the technology.

News > Spokane

This day in history: A Teamsters strike loomed, and 100 years ago, a downtown jewelry theft livened up the streets of Spokane

Wed., April 1, 2026

From 1976: Spokane was feeling the impact of a nationwide Teamsters Union strike.

News > Idaho

Little signs Idaho bill criminalizing use of bathrooms that don’t match birth sex

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Gov. Brad Little has signed the Legislature’s anti-transgender bathroom bill into law, making it a crime to use a restroom or changing room that doesn’t align with a person’s sex at birth. The law, which will apply to government-owned buildings and places of public accommodation, makes it a misdemeanor if someone “knowingly and willfully” uses such a restroom. A second offense within five ...

News > Pacific NW

Working together for wildlands: Dishman Hills Conservancy and Inland Northwest Land Conservancy consider merger

Tue., March 31, 2026

The Dishman Hills Conservancy and Inland Northwest Land Conservancy leadership are discussing merging nonprofits in the name of improving land protections.

News > Nation

U.S. Forest Service to relocate headquarters from DC to Utah

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

The U.S. Forest Service is relocating its headquarters to Salt Lake City, citing the move as a "sweeping restructuring" of the agency, the Agriculture Department said. The agency's move from its current location in Washington D.C. to Utah's capital city is part of a broader strategy to place the forest service closer to the Western states that comprise the majority of the 193-million-acre forest system, the USDA announced March 31.

News > World

Trump says the U.S. could end the Iran war in two to three weeks

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said the United States could end its military attacks on Iran within two to three weeks and Tehran did not have to make a deal as a prerequisite for the conflict to wind down.

News > Sci/Tech

NASA officials say Wednesday launch of Artemis II mission is on track, despite solar activity

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

The team behind America’s return to the moon will be all business on April Fools’.

News > Crime/Public Safety

Two arrested at No Kings protest appear in court

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

An 18-year-old woman accused of ripping a Trump flag away from a man and the 32-year-old man who police say jumped on a detective trying to arrest the teen Saturday at a “No Kings” protest near downtown Spokane made their first appearances Tuesday in Spokane County Superior Court.

News > Local Government

Overpass may be renamed in honor of Spokane County deputy killed while helping driver last summer

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

The late Sgt. Ken Salas, and his last act of kindness, may soon be memorialized indefinitely.

News > Nation

Trump signs order on mail ballots, escalating election overhaul push

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at tightening mail-in voting rules nationwide that would direct his administration to create a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in ⁠each state.

News > Federal Government

Judge rules Trump’s NPR and PBS funding cuts violate First Amendment

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

A federal judge said the Trump administration can't enforce the president's order to ax federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, saying in a Tuesday decision that the White House can't "extinguish speech" the president dislikes under the First Amendment.

News > Health

People’s Pharmacy: Does everyone with high LDL cholesterol need a statin?

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Q. I am an 81-year-old woman in excellent health. The only thing that might be worrisome is my LDL cholesterol of 181. I understand that is way over the acceptable level. I have no other risk factors for heart disease.

News > Idaho

Boise takes down its Pride flag after Gov. Little signs new flag bill into law

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Idaho lawmakers got what some of them have been wanting to do since 2025: The city of Boise took its Pride flag down. Idaho legislators first passed a law in 2025 preventing the state and local governments from flying most flags. During debate, supporters shared photos of Boise’s flag as an example of what they hoped the law would target, according to previous Statesman reporting. But the law ...

News > World

An award-winning U.S. journalist was kidnapped in Iraq. Here’s what to know.

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Award-winning American journalist Shelley Kittleson was kidnapped in Iraq on Tuesday, according to multiple news outlets, launching an investigation by the country's foreign ministry.

News > Federal Government

Trump administration exempts Gulf oil and gas drilling from endangered species protections

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Convening a rarely used committee for the first time in more than three decades, top Trump administration officials voted Tuesday to exempt oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from requirements that protect endangered species. It’s a striking move that advocacy groups say could further imperil gulf wildlife like the Rice’s whale, one of the rarest whale species on earth with an estimated fewer ...

News > National business

‘This can’t be real’: Boise pizza delivery man’s gesture earns, oh, 80,000% tip

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Dan Simpson didn’t think anything of it when he veered a few hundred feet off his Domino’s route in Boise on Friday night to pick up a pair of liter bottles of Diet Coke. Little did he know it would lead to a mind-boggling pizza delivery tip. The 68-year-old Boise native, who has spent more than a decade delivering for Domino’s a few nights a week to supplement his day job at the Idaho ...

News > Idaho

Local photographer’s eagle-and-eaglets to be featured on new postage stamp sheet

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Inland Northwest philatelists are in for a treat this May as a Washington photographer’s picture of a Coeur d’Alene eagle family makes it to a post office near you.

News > Transportation

Getting there: Construction to resume in Chewelah, expected to be completed this fall

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

Travelers going through the rural town of Chewelah will see delays and lane closures beginning Wednesday.

News

Meet the Pennsylvania man who hunts meteorites for a living

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

PHILADELPHIA -- Brett Joseph Cohen was manning the only meteorite stall at the Philadelphia Mineralogical Society‘s annual trade show Sunday morning. Chunks of asteroids and lunar rocks glinted on his table. He’d affixed a hand-lettered sign to one display: “This meteorite fell 12 days ago and was recovered by me in Northern Ohio.” And he was desperate to get back there. Two weeks before, ...

News > Nation

Judge blocks Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom plan for now

UPDATED: Tue., March 31, 2026

A federal judge issued an order to halt President Donald Trump's plan to build a $400 million White House ballroom at the site of the since-demolished East Wing, saying no work can proceed "absent ⁠express authorization from Congress."

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