Local government

Staying in a Spokane Valley park overnight could now result in jail time.

Spokane County property owners will pay a slight tax increase next year.

Voters may one day get the opportunity to weigh in on whether the city of Spokane should increase property taxes to make significant investments in the park system – but that day likely won’t come this February.

Spokane’s most dangerous intersections, where hundreds of collisions have occurred in the past seven years, fall along the city’s major north-south arterials. Current and future city leaders argue the most effective way to make them safer is to make them slower.

Spokane may soon reconsider its 32-year partnership with Spokane Community Oriented Policing Services, or C.O.P.S., examining whether it’s still worth the investment or if another organization could better fill that role.

Homelessness in Spokane Valley parks and public spaces is about to come with more stringent penalties.

There are dozens of abandoned or disabled RVs littering Spokane’s streets, and for the past two months, the city has had no way to have them hauled off and destroyed.

As the city of Spokane continues to weigh joining the regional 911 communication system, the Spokane County Commission Tuesday voted to satisfy at least one of Mayor Lisa Brown’s prerequisites – while rejecting another.

The Spokane County Republican Party will reject “cronyism” and consider applications from anyone eligible for appointment as the county treasurer after Congressman-elect Michael Baumgartner vacates that seat in January, said Rob Linebarger, a member of party leadership.

Al Merkel’s first year on the Spokane Valley City Council has been expensive.

A judge who previously unseated an incumbent eight years ago was unseated himself by a Washington Court of Appeals attorney in the 2024 election.

More than a decade after Spokane’s city arts department was dismantled by former Mayor David Condon, Mayor Lisa Brown has announced that she plans to rebuild it in partnership with the independent nonprofit created in 2012 from the ashes of the former department.

Spokane women see Vice President Kamala Harris’ run for president as making history.

Voters in Spokane County Tuesday overwhelmingly renewed a longstanding sales tax that funds the county’s juvenile justice system.

Voters split their choices over two Spokane County Superior Court judge incumbents Tuesday night.

Second only to the presidential contest, the most anticipated race in Spokane County was too close to call after Tuesday’s initial tally.

Most Spokane County voters already have voted.

The Trent Avenue homeless shelter, which formed the backbone of former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward’s approach to homelessness for two years, has closed.

Thousands of households in Spokane County are eligible for a tax credit that they aren’t applying for, according to Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, who helped design the credit when she served in the state Senate.