Local Government

Spokane City Councilwoman Lili Navarrete, believed to be the first Hispanic or immigrant member of the Spokane City Council, will step down in the coming months, she said Thursday.

Mica Peak is about to shed the power lines hanging off its back, which should be welcome news to the homeowners near the recreation area.

There’s been talk since 2018 of a downtown zip line that could take tourists and locals alike zooming along the Spokane River. After so long, it may have started to seem to some like a pipe dream.

Private downtown cigar lounge co-owner Cody Arguelles – who’s also an architecture student at Washington State University and medically retired survival, evasion, resistance and escape instructor for the U.S. Air Force – is running for Spokane City Council for a seat held by Councilman Zack Zappone.

Northern Spokane County residents have a slate of new amenities to enjoy while recreating at Bear Lake Regional Park this summer, if they can manage the crowds likely to swarm the freshly renovated public space.

After years of debate over the future of the controversial statue of Ensign John Monaghan that has stood next to a busy downtown Spokane intersection for nearly 120 years, the Spokane City Council has given its final stamp of approval for the statue’s removal.

Fewer power lines soon will be breaking up the views from one of Spokane County’s largest recreation areas, if Spokane County commissioners grant an easement to the region’s largest power utility.

Medical Lake residents will be asked whether to re-elect a mayor determined to see the city grow and further developed, or a former mayor worried growth is outpacing the city’s capacity to pay for it and could start to price out current residents.

Elections are a time for choices, and for many, the only time they learn the names of their local elected leaders, if for no other reason than that boon for local print shops and the bane of everyone else: roadside signs.

While a couple days remain for interested candidates to throw their hats in the ring, it’s already clear the Spokane Valley City Council will look a little different next year.

The town of Millwood is intertwined with its namesake industrial engine, Inland Empire Paper.

Four years ago, after Rob Linebarger and Pam Orebaugh emerged as the top two candidates in a primary election for a Central Valley School Board seat, Linebarger stepped aside, saying Orebaugh was the better choice, especially compared to a write-in candidate they opposed.

Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown on Thursday announced a plan to replace the city’s recently overturned anti-homeless camping law with one that would criminalize camping citywide, but with more emphasis on warnings and outreach and little on criminal enforcement.

Opening a new shop selling alcohol for off-premise consumption is now banned in Spokane within 500 feet of parks, schools, libraries, transit centers and community centers, effective immediately.

The Spokane County sheriff will be receiving a nearly $31,000 raise after county commissioners honored his request to ensure he was the top-paid person in county law enforcement.

After a marathon meeting that occasionally grew fraught, Spokane’s City Council has codified a number of protections for the LGBT+ community.

Rep. Emily Randall, Washington’s other freshman member of congress, traveled to Rep. Michael Baumgartner’s district Friday with other notable local and state Democrats to speak to residents and hear their concerns about “illegal and damaging actions by Trump, Musk and their allies.”

Spokane City Councilman and high school teacher Zack Zappone is running for re-election, saying he wants another four years to work on public safety, homelessness, housing affordability and city infrastructure reforms.

Inside the Republican cloakroom behind the House chamber, then-Rep. Liz Cheney watched on Jan. 6, 2021, as her colleagues walked between tables signing their names to object, state by state, to the certification of the 2020 presidential vote. It was just before the insurrection began.