Spokane has joined several other communities vying to host the command center of the newest branch of the armed forces – the U.S. Space Force.

Spokane County Commissioners and Mayor Nadine Woodward are no longer advocating for the county to move to Phase 3, after case counts have exploded and hospitalizations have doubled in the past week.

The Spokane County Sheriff Office has asked for $300,000 in federal COVID-19 aid funding for a helicopter thermal scanner, which it says could help with social distancing, responding to protests and reducing manpower needed when policing the county.

Spokane County Commissioners voted Tuesday to ask the state to allow them to move to Phase 2 of the Gov. Jay Inslee’s reopening plan immediately, saying they’ve hit all the benchmarks to safely reopen.

Spokane County property owners now have an additional month and a half to pay their property taxes due to financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Local city councils and the Spokane County commissioners will no longer meet in person, but each has been left to determine how to provide public access to their deliberations.

Local governments have abstained from the extensive layoffs reported in the private sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, but some have already limited hiring and reined in spending.

Spokane County has filed a brief in support of Lincoln County’s case that will determine whether counties can force unions that represent their employees to negotiate wages and benefits in public.

Spokane County is appealing a $2,100 fine after a volunteer was hit by a vehicle while directing traffic for a fallen sheriff’s deputy memorial in August.

The Spokane County Building and Planning director resigned after a county employee accused him of choking her with a cord while she was sitting at her desk.

Camping on public land is now illegal in both the City of Spokane and Spokane County, but Spokane Valley leaders worry they won’t be able to enforce a camping law if they pass one.

A secretary with the Spokane County Prosecutor’s Office resigned this month amid a criminal investigation that alleges she illegally recorded her co-workers discussing sensitive information multiple times.

Spokane County commissioners will receive a 6 percent raise divided over two years, an independent citizen salary commission decided last week.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Spokane County Superior Court. Plaintiffs include the county as well as Commissioner Al French, former Commissioner John Roskelley and the Washington State Association of Counties.

Civic leaders asked the Spokane County commissioners for $3,500 to complete the road to Mt. Spokane.

“The goal is to have something concrete, defined, this year,” said French, who also chairs the Spokane Regional Law and Justice Council and its facilities committee. “This can has been kicked down the road for so many years that we need to get an answer. We need to get a solution.”

Spokane County commissioners will decide Tuesday whether to rehire two men tasked with leading the county’s defense for indigent defendants.

Spokane County commissioners will decide on Tuesday whether to take a one percent property tax increase that could help fund basic county services, road construction and property acquisitions for the Conservation Futures program.

The union representing Spokane County’s deputy prosecutors has launched a public pressure campaign in hopes of rebooting contract negotiations and obtaining wage increases. Mediated negotiations stalled in August when the union, Local 1553-PA, voted to reject the county’s “last, best and final offer,” which would have immediately raised wages for senior attorneys by 2.5 percent and wages for the two lower attorney classifications by 4.25 percent.