Working for free at a for-profit business is often illegal and unethical, and it’s clear we need a more effective way to report businesses that are taking advantage of student interns and their desperate search for experience.

Career Connected Learning will help give students – regardless of their economic status – a chance to thrive in a robust economy. It will help keep the greater Spokane area competitive and economically vibrant.

Imagine being a business owner applying for loan and being told in order to qualify for financing you need a male co-signer. Believe it or not, this was legal in some states as recent as the 1980s until the passage of The Women’s Business Ownership Act in 1988. It’s hard to believe practices like this have existed in our lifetime. But if you listen to women entrepreneurs, stories like this are common. They demonstrate the journey for women entrepreneurs is challenging and requires strength, grit and perseverance. During Women’s History Month, we salute women entrepreneurs who take risks in pursuit of their passions and who see setbacks as steps to something bigger and better.

The WSU Health Sciences campus is a place where Spokane’s past and future meet. Once a rail yard, the campus is now the flagship of a statewide health sciences enterprise where more than 1,600 students study medicine, nursing and pharmacy. It’s the workplace for some 940 faculty and staff, and the colleges located there brought in $32.5 million in external research funding last year.

Spokane-area educators believe local voters should have the freedom to make decisions about their local public schools, especially when it comes to funding the unique needs of the children in their community.