Government

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is abandoning the president's nearly $1.8 billion "weaponization" fund, U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday, after a rare backlash from Republican senators.

Spokane can be a quiet town at night – aside from the occasional, roaring interjection of a race barreling down a street or across a downtown bridge, and the revving engines echoing across the river canyon.

OLYMPIA – Women in Washington going through menopause could get workplace assistance, following an executive order signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson.

WASHINGTON − The Trump administration signaled it is retreating from a heavily criticized $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund that was designed to compensate Americans who say they were unfairly prosecuted during the Biden and Obama presidencies.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Jerome Powell on Sunday warned about the impact of a politicized Fed and made a broader call for the defense of democratic institutions in his first public remarks since the ​end of his eight-year stint as head of the central bank.

Ken Paxton, the Texas Republican Senate nominee, will visit Senate GOP leaders in Washington to ease their concerns about his viability in the most populous red state in the U.S. Top Senate Republicans backed fellow Senator John Cornyn over Paxton, the state attorney general who settled a criminal securities-fraud charge and was impeached by the GOP-led Texas House. But President Donald Trump ...

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump unveiled yet another purported justification for his controversial plan to build a massive new ballroom and bunker under the East Wing of the White House he demolished: a rooftop "DronePort" that he says is needed to defend the nation's capital from modern threats.

President Donald Trump said he’s expanding the scope of his special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, to include Iraq. Barrack, the U.S. ambassador to Turkey, became Trump’s Syria envoy in 2025, soon after President Ahmed al-Sharaa took power. His now-renewed appointment to that post had expired on Friday. 

The price at the pump in Washington is too high, some residents argue — a feeling that’s spurred multiple pushes asking officials to help lower gas costs. Fuel prices have been higher nationwide amid the war in Iran. Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst with the gas station-search service GasBuddy, said Thursday that Washington is currently home to the second-highest gas prices in the nation, ...

Spokane Valley City Councilman Al Merkel wore his signature bright orange tie to court Friday, waiting to hear a judge’s ruling regarding whether he has conducted city business on his personal social media accounts and then withheld those records from the city.

COEUR D’ALENE – The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to elect Ron Jacobson as its new chairman, after the retired banker and former mayor of Post Falls called for unity between the party’s moderate and hard-line factions.

OLYMPIA – The Washington state Department of Licensing has refused to issue confidential license plates to some federal law enforcement agencies that conduct immigration enforcement, according to a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice Thursday.

Sen. Maria Cantwell on Wednesday unveiled a bipartisan bill she negotiated with Sen. Ted Cruz that proposes a sweeping set of regulations for college sports that address athlete pay, transfers between schools and more.

Republican Sen. Shelly Short is facing three challengers in her run for re-election.

The Department of Justice acknowledged that it has removed webpages that detail charges, convictions, and other information related to the myriad defendants involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Washington State Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer picked a fitting venue to share what she’s learned wading through the quagmire of home insurance in a wildfire-prone state.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office will receive a federal cash infusion to help cover security costs associated with being a World Cup host city.

Legislators from North Idaho appear likely to shift further to the right after Republican voters in the northern-most district ended the re-election campaigns of two incumbents.