Emry Dinman

Most Republican candidates running to represent Eastern Washington in Congress have made border security one of, if not the defining issue of their campaigns, and both Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner and Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle have made trips to border states as part of their campaigns. 

The City Council has until early August to approve a measure for the November ballot but likely only effectively has until July 22, the last council meeting scheduled before the body takes two weeks off.

As the Spokane City Council works with the mayoral administration to come up with a balanced, now biennial budget that the council has sole responsibility to approve, the city’s legislative body has hired a new budget director to replace the one hired away earlier this year by incoming Mayor Lisa Brown.

The city of Spokane has agreed to pay a local homeowner nearly $60,000 six months after a broken water main flooded the basement of his South Hill home.

Spokane is moving to a two-year budget cycle, emulating the state Legislature, after a 6-1 vote Monday by the Spokane City Council.

Ferry County Commissioner Brian Dansel has been endorsed by the Spokane County Republican Party in his run to represent Eastern Washington in Congress, following a vote Thursday night among 96 precinct committee officers.

Lacrecia “Lu” Hill has resigned from her various roles with the Spokane County Democrats, arguing that her “ principles and beliefs no longer allow me to support a party that so often falls short of its professed ideals.”

The Spokane County Democrats are investigating a heated exchange during the June 7 Spokane Pride Festival between the party’s chair, Naida Spencer, and Natasha Hill, a local attorney, activist and interim editor of The Black Lens who is running for a state House position as a Democrat.