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News >  Military

Northwest lawmakers won’t attend military parade in D.C. on Army’s 250th anniversary, Trump’s birthday

UPDATED: Thu., June 12, 2025

WASHINGTON – Thousands of Americans are expected to descend on the nation’s capital on Saturday to see the city’s biggest military parade in decades, but members of Congress from the Northwest won’t be among the crowds.

News >  WA Government

As Washington Democratic lawmakers slam ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’ NW Republicans back it while acknowledging imperfections

UPDATED: Mon., June 9, 2025

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers return to the Capitol on Monday with less than a month before Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline to pass President Donald Trump’s signature bill, extending tax cuts and increasing spending on immigration enforcement and the military while cutting spending on health care and food assistance.

News >  WA Government

As Trump administration aims to boost mining, drilling and fishing, Spokane office dedicated to workers’ safety remains in jeopardy

Sun., June 8, 2025

WASHINGTON – Among the more than 150 executive actions President Donald Trump has taken since assuming office in January are orders that aim to boost oil and gas drilling, mining and commercial fishing in the United States.

News >  Nation/World

Four ways NIOSH’s Spokane Research Lab, now facing closure, has improved workers’ safety

Sun., June 8, 2025

Spokane is home to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s biggest facility in the western United States, where researchers have worked to prevent harm to workers in mining, commercial fishing, wildland firefighting and other dangerous jobs.

News >  WA Government

Cathy McMorris Rodgers launches leadership institute after leaving Congress

UPDATED: Tue., June 3, 2025

WASHINGTON – In her first public move after retiring from Congress at the end of 2024, former Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers announced Tuesday that she is launching a nonprofit foundation that aims to cultivate a new generation of American leaders.

News >  WA Government

After Trump administration axes $500 million from Washington dam project, Patty Murray says she won’t let it happen again

Sun., June 1, 2025

WASHINGTON – The most fundamental job of Congress is to fund the government each year, typically through a bipartisan process that distributes dollars more or less evenly between red states and blue states. But a dustup over a dam construction project in Washington state has thrown a wrench into that process and raised the stakes of a government funding showdown in September.

News >  Nation/World

Inland Northwest contestants eliminated in National Spelling Bee’s first two days

UPDATED: Wed., May 28, 2025

WASHINGTON – The 100th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee continued for a second day on Wednesday, with some especially tough words eliminating the remaining contestants from the Northwest.

News >  Washington

100th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee: Four-time returning speller from Pullman to compete with Spokane Valley home-schooler

UPDATED: Tue., May 27, 2025

Brogue, osprey, drumlin, gastronome, eucalyptus, rapscallion, lithophone.

News >  Sci/Tech

Union representing laid-off Spokane occupational safety workers rallies outside HHS, calling on RFK Jr. to reinstate researchers

UPDATED: Thu., May 22, 2025

WASHINGTON – A labor union representing employees of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health rallied outside the Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, protesting the department’s efforts to close NIOSH offices dedicated to workplace safety for miners, wildland firefighters and other workers in Spokane and other cities.

News >  Nation/World

Baumgartner, Newhouse help House pass Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ after GOP state lawmakers warn of Medicaid cuts

UPDATED: Fri., May 23, 2025

WASHINGTON – Two Republicans from central and Eastern Washington voted on Thursday to pass President Donald Trump’s signature bill to cut taxes and boost spending on immigration enforcement, after their fellow GOP lawmakers who represent the same areas in Olympia warned against the legislation’s cuts to Medicaid.

News >  Nation/World

Baumgartner calls on RFK Jr. to reopen Spokane research lab focused on safety for miners, wildland firefighters

UPDATED: Tue., May 20, 2025

WASHINGTON – Rep. Michael Baumgartner sent a letter to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Tuesday asking him to reverse course and reopen an office in Spokane that conducts research on workplace safety for miners, farmworkers and wildland firefighters.

News >  Nation/World

As Trump seeks to defund NPR and PBS over ‘woke propaganda,’ Inland Northwest public broadcasters appeal to Congress and the public

Tue., May 20, 2025

WASHINGTON – Nearly 200 representatives of public radio and television stations from around the country converged on the Capitol last week to appeal to members of Congress for support amid President Donald Trump’s effort to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the broadcasters it supports.

News >  Local business

Trump administration withdraws $48 million from Spokane-Coeur d’Alene aerospace ‘tech hub’

UPDATED: Mon., May 19, 2025

WASHINGTON – Inland Northwest leaders from both parties on Friday objected to the Trump administration's decision to withdraw a $48 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce to create an aerospace manufacturing hub in Spokane.

News >  Nation/World

With Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill,’ Idaho’s Mike Crapo aims to make tax cuts permanent

UPDATED: Thu., May 15, 2025

WASHINGTON – Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has wasted no time in remaking the federal government while largely sidelining the legislative branch, but there are some things only Congress can do.

News >  ID Government

White South Africans given refugee status by Trump to resettle in Idaho, while other refugees remain barred from U.S.

UPDATED: Mon., May 12, 2025

WASHINGTON – Two families of white South Africans whom President Donald Trump has designated as refugees arrived in the United States on Monday, en route to their new homes in southern Idaho.

News >  Nation

Patty Murray grills VA secretary over planned layoffs, handling of computer system rollout

UPDATED: Tue., May 6, 2025

WASHINGTON – New Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins faced tough questions on Tuesday about his plans to lay off 70,000 to 80,000 employees and speed up the nationwide deployment of a troubled computerized patient medical record system that first launched in Spokane in 2020.

News >  WA Government

Baumgartner, Crapo and other NW lawmakers weigh in on Trump’s first 100 days of deportations

UPDATED: Mon., May 5, 2025

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans won control of the House, Senate and White House in 2024 on a campaign promise to conduct “mass deportations” unlike the United States has ever seen.

News >  Washington

Spokane’s Afghan community grapples with more uncertainty as Trump administration ends Temporary Protected Status

Mon., April 28, 2025

Local leaders report a growing wave of anxiety among Afghan families in Spokane after the Department of Homeland Security announced plans to strip protections for those with Temporary Protected Status.

News >  WA Government

Returning from the Middle East, Michael Baumgartner reflects on Iraq’s progress since he left in 2008

Wed., April 23, 2025

WASHINGTON – When Rep. Adam Smith asked his counterpart from across the Cascades to join him on a trip to Iraq, the Democrat from Bellevue got a response he hadn’t often heard before.

News >  WA Government

Spokane Valley’s Ryan Crocker decries Trump administration defunding ‘America’s voice in the Middle East’

UPDATED: Mon., April 21, 2025

WASHINGTON – In early 2024, Spokane Valley native and retired diplomat Ryan Crocker knew the U.S.-funded, Arabic-language news organization he had championed for years needed help.

News >  Military

‘A healing time’: Honor Flight brings veterans of Vietnam, Korea and World War II to D.C.

UPDATED: Thu., April 17, 2025

WASHINGTON – Charlie Pase considers himself “unusually lucky.”

News >  Agriculture

Proposed port fees could have ‘devastating consequences,’ Washington wheat growers warn

Sun., April 13, 2025

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has escalated his trade war, raising tariffs on Chinese goods to 145% last week even as he paused some taxes on imports from other countries. But another part of his administration’s plan to compete with Beijing’s influence could hit Washington state farmers even if they don’t send their crops to China.

News >  Nation/World

Adams County sheriff opposes Washington’s ‘sanctuary’ law in heated congressional hearing

UPDATED: Fri., April 11, 2025

WASHINGTON – The sheriff of Adams County took his legal battle with Washington state’s attorney general to the halls of Congress on Wednesday, headlining a House subcommittee hearing on so-called “sanctuary” jurisdictions that limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

News >  Nation/World

Baumgartner aims to transform college sports with bill that would dissolve NCAA

UPDATED: Wed., April 9, 2025

WASHINGTON – The morning after the Florida Gators took down the University of Houston to claim the men’s college basketball championship, Rep. Michael Baumgartner on Tuesday introduced a bill that would replace the National Collegiate Athletic Association and dramatically reshape the nation’s college sports landscape.

News >  Nation/World

Baumgartner, in bipartisan letter, asks Trump to continue protections for Ukrainian refugees

UPDATED: Mon., April 7, 2025

WASHINGTON – Rep. Michael Baumgartner on Monday asked President Donald Trump to preserve protections for the estimated 240,000 Ukrainians who have fled the Russian invasion of their country to live in the United States.