James Hanlon

All Stories

Sandpoint asks voters to OK $130 million bond for wastewater treatment plant

Tue., Oct. 28, 2025

Sandpoint voters will decide Nov. 4 whether to approve a $130 million bond to replace the city’s aging wastewater treatment facility. The bond would be paid through utility rates, not property taxes.

News >  Washington

Welcome to the smallest town in Washington, population: 50

Sun., June 22, 2025

MARLIN/KRUPP, Wash. – In this community near the middle of the state, 10% of the population is on the town council.

News >  Transportation

Record travel expected this weekend and this summer at Spokane airport

UPDATED: Fri., May 23, 2025

Highways and airports will be especially busy during this Memorial Day weekend as lower gas prices help fuel the traditional start of the summer travel season.

News >  K-12 education

School levies pass with strong margins in North Idaho

UPDATED: Wed., May 21, 2025

Voters approved levies for five North Idaho school districts Tuesday, reversing a trend for some districts that have struggled to pass funding measures in recent years.

News >  ID Government

Victoria Bauman wins Community Library Network seat

UPDATED: Wed., May 21, 2025

The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee completed a takeover of the Community Library Network Tuesday when its preferred candidate won a fifth seat on the board of trustees.

News >  Pacific NW

U.S. tribes bolster caribou recovery and restoration in British Columbia

UPDATED: Sun., May 18, 2025

NAKUSP, British Columbia – Six years after the last wild caribou in the Lower 48 was relocated to Canada, conservationists and Inland Northwest tribes see a glimmer of hope less than 100 miles north of the border.

News >  Sci/Tech

‘You can’t fire 90% of the people and assume the work gets done’: Sen. Murray questions RFK Jr. over Spokane mine safety lab cuts

UPDATED: Wed., May 14, 2025

Federal research on mine safety will continue despite job cuts, including at a facility in Spokane, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a Senate hearing Wednesday.

News >  Religion

Spokane Catholics rejoice for America’s first pope

UPDATED: Fri., May 9, 2025

Word of the new pope’s ties to Chicago spread quickly, and with bated breath, some Spokane residents hoped to hear Cardinal Blase Cupich’s name called. Cupich served as bishop of Spokane from 2010 to 2014, when he was tapped by Pope Francis to become Archbishop of Chicago.

News >  WA Government

Washington state auditor’s reports find fraud, lack of financial controls at small towns in Franklin and Adams counties

UPDATED: Wed., May 7, 2025

Employees of a pair of small towns in central Washington misappropriated tens of thousands of dollars from taxpayers, according to reports by the Washington State Auditor’s Office.

News >  Spokane

‘The city is so welcoming’: The tales of Bloomsday 2025 in Spokane

UPDATED: Mon., May 5, 2025

It was the perfect spring morning for a run as people lined up by the thousands for the 49th annual Lilac Bloomsday Run. Beautiful blue skies, not too cold to wait for the starting gun, but crisp enough to keep someone from overheating on the seventh mile.

News >  ID Government

Voters will select a new Community Library Network trustee while Post Falls waits for adults-only room to open

Sun., May 4, 2025

A former Post Falls School Board member and a former nonprofit communications director are running for an open seat on the Community Library Network Board of Trustees in North Idaho.

News >  Higher education

EWU graduates first class of nursing program

UPDATED: Fri., May 2, 2025

The first cohort of a new nursing program at Eastern Washington University flipped their tassels from the right to the left during a commencement ceremony Friday morning.

News >  Pacific NW

Withering on the vine? Hardly. Canada’s wine industry thrives as restrictions on U.S. alcohol market take effect

UPDATED: Fri., May 2, 2025

FRUITVALE, B.C. – Trevor Miller paused a moment in the April sunshine to wipe his brow before kneeling in the dirt to bury another plant stem and pat it down with wood chips.

News >  Pacific NW

Trump and tariffs are (kind of) on the ballot today in Canada. Here’s how the race is shaping up in the district north of Spokane

UPDATED: Mon., April 28, 2025

NELSON, B.C. – Voters across Canada go to the polls Monday in what some are calling a referendum on U.S. President Donald Trump.

News >  Pacific NW

Northern exposure: How Canadians are feeling about America as tariffs and threats of a ‘51st state’ loom

UPDATED: Sun., April 27, 2025

NELSON, B.C. – An uncertain trade war and threats of annexation have Canadians shaking their heads.

News >  Crime/Public Safety

Missing Pend Oreille man found dead in woods near property

UPDATED: Tue., April 22, 2025

A 69-year-old man who was reported missing last week was found dead Saturday in Pend Oreille County after a four-day search.

News >  K-12 education

St. Maries parents won’t know which teachers will have guns next year

UPDATED: Tue., April 15, 2025

ST. MARIES – Parents won’t be notified if their child’s teacher is carrying a gun in the classroom next year in eastern Benewah County.

News >  K-12 education

St. Maries School District will allow staff to carry concealed firearms

Tue., April 15, 2025

ST. MARIES – A rural North Idaho school district will allow teachers to carry guns in the classroom beginning next school year.

News >  Washington

Harvest Hills wind project will seek approval from the state rather than wait for Whitman County ordinance

Wed., April 9, 2025

Impatient with hostility from neighbors and a lack of progress from Whitman County, Harvest Hills plans to apply for permits for its big wind turbine project from the state instead.

News >  Transportation

Traffic cameras on I-90 near Idaho state line will mail speeding notices instead of tickets

UPDATED: Wed., April 9, 2025

Speeders leaving Washington for Idaho will get a friendly reminder in the mail to slow down.

News >  Pacific NW

‘It helps to know you’re not alone’: Small towns in ‘ruby-red’ counties joined Saturday’s Hands Off! protests

UPDATED: Mon., April 7, 2025

As thousands gathered in Spokane and Coeur d’Alene to protest the Trump administration Saturday, hundreds more assembled in smaller towns across the region.

News >  K-12 education

Man appointed to write a voter pamphlet statement against the Mary Walker school levy argued for the levy instead

Mon., April 7, 2025

SPRINGDALE, Wash. – The voter pamphlet for the Mary Walker School District levy this month includes an argument in favor of the measure, but the argument against it is conspicuously missing.

Sports

Spokane hosts women’s wrestling national championships this weekend

UPDATED: Fri., April 4, 2025

The match was over quickly.

News >  Spokane

Spokane mining safety lab loses staff as part of 10,000 federal health job cuts: ‘I don’t believe the administration understands the work being done at these sites’

UPDATED: Tue., April 1, 2025

The wave of federal firings by the Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday included workers at a specialized laboratory in Spokane that studies mining and wildland firefighting safety.

News >  Nation

Baumgartner and House Judiciary Committee investigating Washington AG, state’s sanctuary policies

UPDATED: Mon., March 31, 2025

Rep. Michael Baumgartner and other members of a House oversight committee sent a letter to Washington Attorney General Nick Brown claiming the state’s “sanctuary law” is preventing local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials.