Washington will extend the moratorium on evicting tenants for non-payment of rent through the end of the year as the state continues to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Washington state Department of Commerce is making grants available to organizations, nonprofits and government entities to help solve the shortfall in child care, which is an industry particularly hard hit during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers postponed her traditional campaign kickoff in the district last month, while Democratic challenger Chris Armitage has shifted to online outreach in his upset bid in the November election. Rob Chase, the latest entry into the contest, said he hopes to resume normal campaigning this summer.

Some late fees and penalties have been waived, and requirements for workers to receive unemployment benefits have changed during the pandemic, Brown said as part of the ongoing series of virtual forums during the “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order.

Washington will offer grants to small businesses with as many as 10 employees to help them “weather the storm” of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Jay Inslee said Tuesday.

The primary concern is workers who “fall through the cracks,” said Lisa Brown, who is co-chairing Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 Economic Impact Task Force .

The decade saw the visit of presidential hopefuls, the death of an elder statesman and voters’ creation of a completely new industry. Meanwhile, local governments have been grappling with their responsibility to shelter the homeless and how to respond to changing state formulas on funding for basic education. The 2010s were defined by landmark individual accomplishments by local lawmakers, as well as continuing challenges that future lawmakers will still be tackling in the next decade.

Chris Armitage, 27, is making his first run for political office and says voters in Eastern Washington are looking for a candidate with some distance from the political establishment. Armitage will try to do what seven other Democrats, including Lisa Brown in 2018, have failed to do since 2004 – defeat the long-tenured McMorris Rodgers, who’s held positions of power within the GOP. Brown said Thursday she may yet enter the 2020 fray.

Upward of 500 people turned out for Tuesday’s official opening of the University District Gateway Bridge – six months after Spokane’s $15.4 million pedestrian bridge opened.

Lisa Brown named director of the state Department of Commerce.

Here are five major news stories that made a splash – in some cases immediately, in others over weeks and months – this past year in and around Spokane.

Despite near-record turnout for the midterm, tens of thousands of Spokane County voters didn’t vote and that has implications for future elections.

The one bright spot for Lisa Brown in a decisive defeat by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Tuesday was the City of Spokane, where she earned a double-digit victory. Still, Brown says she’s going to take a break to examine her options and said the future of the Democratic Party looks bright in Eastern Washington.

It wasn’t a wave, it was the tide. The regular, recurrent tide.