In brief: Macklemore, Ryan Lewis filming music video in Spokane

Hip-hop stars Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are in Spokane this week filming a new music video.

Details are being closely guarded, but the performers have been seen throughout the downtown area and local film company North by Northwest has obtained various street closure permits through Saturday.

Workers at one of Monday’s street closures, where Lewis could be seen on site near the Globe Bar and Grill along Division Street, confirmed that a music video was being produced. Macklemore has been seen at multiple shooting locations as well.

North by Northwest wouldn’t comment on the nature of this week’s filming, and Macklemore’s publicist also declined to comment.

The Seattle-based duo has strong  Spokane connections via Lewis, who grew up here before moving to Western Washington with his family during high school.

Eli Francovich

Commission expansion will be up to voters

Voters will decide in November if Spokane County needs two more commissioners.

Commissioners Todd Mielke and Shelly O’Quinn voted Monday to send the question to the ballot, following a public hearing earlier this month and the announcement of a citizen petition movement in February. Supporters say the sitting three commissioners have too many obligations and can’t speak to each other without holding a public meeting.

“It’s, I think, past time for the voters to consider this,” Mielke said.

Commissioner Al French was absent from Monday’s meeting, conducting county business in Washington, D.C. He did not comment following a public hearing on the ballot measure earlier this month and didn’t return a phone call requesting comment Monday.

If the ballot measure is successful, two new commissioner districts would be drawn in the spring ahead of the November 2016 election. Sitting commissioners would have final approval of the new districts, which would be drawn by the Spokane County auditor’s office.

Kip Hill

Inmate’s suit against Idaho can continue

BOISE – A federal judge says an Idaho inmate can move forward with his lawsuit against the state even though he has already won a six-figure settlement from the state’s prison health care provider.

William Bown, an inmate at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution south of Boise, filed the lawsuit against Idaho prison officials and the prison health care contractor Corizon in 2012 after he had a heart attack.

Bown contended that the prison guards and the medical care providers failed to realize the seriousness of his condition and sent him to an observation cell instead of calling for emergency care.

Bown named several Idaho prison officials, Corizon Inc. and several Corizon employees as defendants in the case. Last year, Corizon agreed to pay Bown more than $670,000 to settle its portion of the case.

The inmate asked to modify his lawsuit to remove Corizon and its employees from the defendant list, leaving just the state officials.

Associated Press