Friday at 4 p.m., the news came down the pike: the Post Street Bridge near Spokane City Hall was closed. A structural analysis had deemed the 102-year-old bridge unsafe for cars, and barricades were erected allowing just pedestrians and bicyclists to pass.

State elected officials would have to wait a year to become lobbyists under a House proposal.

President Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington.

Lobbyists for New Jersey’s largest utility worked with former Gov. Chris Christie’s administration to craft a $300 million bailout for nuclear power, while adding language to shield the company’s financial information from the public, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.

Anti-deficit activists Alan Simpson, the former GOP senator from Wyoming, and Erskine Bowles, the former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, spoke out against the GOP tax plan when it was on the verge of a vote in the Senate last week, warning, “Real tax reform can provide a boost to the economy, but higher debt works in the opposite direction.” The Senate tax bill would add $1.4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury is investigating a prominent Democratic lobbyist and a former GOP congressman for their involvement in an influence campaign on behalf of Ukrainian interests tied to Paul Manafort, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation.

Despite Donald Trump’s campaign vow to “drain the swamp” of lobbyists and special interests, Washington’s influence industry is alive and well – and growing.

All three major GOP candidates for governor were sitting at the same table on the Fourth of July, at the big Idaho Falls fireworks extravaganza hosted by Melaleuca owner Frank VanderSloot.