Orion Donovan Smith

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News >  Federal Government

With Trump in attendance, Supreme Court justices voice skepticism of his attempt to end birthright citizenship

UPDATED: Wed., April 1, 2026

WASHINGTON – In an unprecedented scene at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, President Donald Trump sat in the audience while the nine justices considered his administration’s attempt to overturn the constitutional right to citizenship for children born in the United States.

News >  Agriculture

Inland Northwest farmers face rising fertilizer, diesel costs from Iran war

Sun., March 29, 2026

WASHINGTON – A month after the United States and Israel launched a war with Iran that has sent the price of fertilizer and other agricultural input costs skyrocketing, President Donald Trump told hundreds of farmers gathered outside the White House on Friday that he had their backs.

News >  Federal Government

Official who oversaw VA computer system that caused havoc in Spokane charged with accepting gifts from government contractors

Fri., March 27, 2026

WASHINGTON – A former top official at the Department of Veterans Affairs, who oversaw the purchase and deployment of a flawed computer system that led to patient harm after it was launched in Spokane, was charged on Wednesday with hiding thousands of dollars in cash and other gifts he received from government contractors.

News >  Washington

Chewelah mayor travels to D.C., seeks nearly $1 million to upgrade rural town’s 50-year-old water system

Thu., March 26, 2026

WASHINGTON – Two years after his town lost funding to upgrade its aging water infrastructure, the mayor of Chewelah flew more than 2,000 miles to the nation’s capital to ask members of Congress for another shot.

News >  Federal Government

‘Déjà vu all over again’: Ending Senate filibuster to advance election reforms unlikely to succeed

UPDATED: Sat., March 21, 2026

WASHINGTON – In 2021, Democrats in the nation’s capital seized a rare opportunity.

News >  Federal Government

SAVE America Act would require Washingtonians to mail photocopies of official IDs with ballot to vote

Sun., March 15, 2026

WASHINGTON – A controversial election-reform bill backed by President Donald Trump would cost Washington state taxpayers at least $35 million to implement but wouldn’t provide federal funding to cover those costs, according to a new report from Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office.

News >  Military

Pentagon confirms all six crew members died in KC-135 crash in Iraq; three based out of Ohio

UPDATED: Fri., March 13, 2026

WASHINGTON – Three of the six U.S. service members aboard a KC-135 Stratotanker that crashed during a refueling mission in Iraq were from Ohio, the state’s governor said on social media Friday.

News >  Military

Fairchild’s 141st Air Refueling Wing activated to support Iran war

UPDATED: Mon., March 9, 2026

WASHINGTON – About 100 members of a Washington Air National Guard unit stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base have been activated to support the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, the Washington Military Department confirmed Monday.

News >  Federal Government

Baumgartner makes the case for attacking Iran, citing 47 years of violence. Crocker has seen that first-hand but fears the war’s consequences

Sun., March 8, 2026

WASHINGTON – On the morning of April 18, 1983, a young diplomat named Ryan Crocker had a meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon with Bob Ames, the CIA’s chief Middle East analyst.

News >  Federal Government

As national debt nears $39 trillion and Trump promises to balance budget, Americans spend more on interest payments than on defense

Fri., March 6, 2026

WASHINGTON – In his address to a joint session of Congress in March 2025, President Donald Trump set a bold goal for the U.S. government.

News >  Federal Government

Trump’s firing of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem draws bipartisan support from Washington’s congressional delegation

UPDATED: Thu., March 5, 2026

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem drew bipartisan support from Washington state’s congressional delegation on Thursday, as a partial government shutdown of the agency continues amid controversy over its crackdown on immigrants.

News >  Federal Government

Northwest senators vote along party lines as Senate rejects Democrats’ resolution to stop Iran war

UPDATED: Thu., March 5, 2026

WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled Senate voted largely along party lines on Wednesday to reject a Democratic measure to halt President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, effectively endorsing the U.S. strikes that continued for a fifth day as the conflict expanded across the Middle East.

News >  Federal Government

Trump wants Republicans to ‘take over’ elections. Maria Cantwell fears their ‘SAVE America Act’ could do that.

Fri., Feb. 27, 2026

WASHINGTON – After finishing a close second in a state considered key to winning the presidency, Donald Trump claimed on social media that his opponent had “illegally cheated” and said the results should be nullified because the winner had committed “fraud.”

News >  Federal Government

Trump touts ‘winning’ in State of the Union address as Washington Democrats decry ‘costs, chaos and corruption’ of his administration

UPDATED: Tue., Feb. 24, 2026

WASHINGTON – In his first official State of the Union address since returning to office a little more than a year ago, President Donald Trump touted his administration’s accomplishments on Tuesday while Washington state Democrats accused him of being responsible for chaos, rising costs and unprecedented corruption.

News >  Federal Government

Baumgartner reflects on being sole House Republican at Munich Security Conference amid crises in Iran, Ukraine and beyond

Sun., Feb. 22, 2026

WASHINGTON – Since its inception in the Cold War-era Germany of 1963, the Munich Security Conference has become the premier gathering of U.S. and European elected leaders and military officials, so Rep. Michael Baumgartner wasn’t going to let a little lapse in federal funding stop him from attending for the first time.

News >  Federal Government

Murray, other Democrats to skip Trump’s State of the Union while Baumgartner invites Walla Walla teacher

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 20, 2026

WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump speaks to House and Senate lawmakers on Tuesday for his first official State of the Union address since returning to office, some Northwest Democrats plan to skip the spectacle and counter it with their own messaging efforts.

News >  Federal Government

Northwest lawmakers weigh in on ICE conduct as impasse leads to Homeland Security shutdown

Sun., Feb. 15, 2026

WASHINGTON – Before senators and House members left the Capitol on Thursday with funding for the Department of Homeland Security guaranteed to lapse at week’s end, Northwest lawmakers illustrated just how tough it could be to bridge the gap between the parties over the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

News >  Federal Government

Newhouse helps House rebuke Trump’s tariffs on Canada, while Baumgartner opposes move despite concerns over import taxes

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 12, 2026

WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to overturn President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods from Canada, as a Washington state Republican broke with GOP leaders to help pass the largely symbolic resolution.

News >  Federal Government

House Republicans pass ‘SAVE America Act’ to require proof of citizenship to vote while acknowledging it could disenfranchise Americans

UPDATED: Thu., Feb. 12, 2026

WASHINGTON – The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass a bill that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, after Northwest GOP lawmakers acknowledged that implementing such a requirement may disenfranchise Americans.

News >  Federal Government

Baumgartner highlights violent crime decrease as attorney general ducks questions on Epstein files

UPDATED: Wed., Feb. 11, 2026

WASHINGTON – Near the end of a four-hour hearing on Wednesday that focused largely on the Justice Department’s handling of its investigation of the deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Rep. Michael Baumgartner credited the agency with a sharp decrease in violent crime over the past year.

News >  Federal Government

‘We’re redefining who we are in the world’: Cardinal Blase Cupich, former bishop of Spokane, weighs in on U.S. foreign policy, immigration crackdown and more

UPDATED: Fri., Feb. 6, 2026

CHICAGO – Sitting in the rectory of Holy Name Cathedral, Cardinal Blase Cupich recalled how he started celebrating mass in an unfamiliar setting after he arrived in Spokane as the city’s new bishop in 2010: in the fields and orchards of Eastern Washington, where farmworkers labored on Sundays.

News >  Federal Government

Rep. Michael Baumgartner accepting nominations for Eastern Washington teacher to attend State of the Union address

UPDATED: Tue., Feb. 3, 2026

WASHINGTON – For the second consecutive year, Rep. Michael Baumgartner is inviting an Eastern Washington teacher to attend the State of the Union address as his guest.

News >  Federal Government

How can someone in midst of legal process to stay be deported? And other questions about America’s confusing immigration laws

UPDATED: Sun., Feb. 8, 2026

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump campaigned in 2024 on a promise to crack down on illegal border crossings and conduct a “mass deportation” of unauthorized immigrants unlike anything the United States had seen before.

News >  Federal Government

Spokane Aerospace Tech Hub gets new life after Washington’s senators add $70 million to government funding package

UPDATED: Fri., Jan. 30, 2026

WASHINGTON – The Senate passed a sweeping government funding package on Friday that includes two provisions that could make up to $70 million available to the Spokane Aerospace Tech Hub, a consortium of nearly 50 companies, agencies and schools working to make the Inland Northwest a global leader in manufacturing advanced composite materials.

News >  Federal Government

‘One of our own’: Employees, patients at Spokane veterans’ hospital honor Alex Pretti, the VA nurse slain in Minneapolis

Tue., Jan. 27, 2026

Employees at Spokane’s veterans’ hospital observed a moment of silence on Monday morning, and some affixed photos of Alex Pretti to their own ID badges in a show of solidarity with the VA nurse shot dead by Customs and Border Protection agents while being restrained in Minneapolis two days earlier.