Bloglander

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Despite a USA Today map that said otherwise, Pioneer Human Services is not housing immigrant children separated from their families in Spokane. Neither, for that matter, is Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Center.

NEWS: State law requires juvenile courts to notify school principals when a student commits a crime. But an audit found no evidence that Spokane County Juvenile Court did so.

IN OTHER NEWS

WSU quarterback had CTE
An autopsy revealed that Tyler Hilinski, the Washington State University quarterback who took his own life earlier this year, had signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE. The degenerative brain disease found in athletes, primarily football players, is the result of repetitive brain trauma. Here are his parents speaking about the results on the Today show. (ESPN) 

“Medical examiner said he had the brain of a 65-year-old, which is really hard to take.” Parents of Tyler Hilinski, the promising football player who took his own life at 21, discuss the findings from their son’s autopsy. pic.twitter.com/UTVcnWNIm3

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 26, 2018

Travel ban upheld
President Trump's travel ban, which barred people from entering the U.S. from five mainly Muslim countries, was upheld this morning by the U.S. Supreme Court. Trump called it a "tremendous victory for the American People and the Constitution" and a "profound vindication following months of hysterical commentary from the media and Democratic politicians who refuse to do what it takes to secure our border and our country." (NPR)

Trade war backfires
In response to tariffs that the European Union imposed from Trump's trade war, Harley-Davidson announced it would move some of its production overseas. Trump lashed out on Twitter. (New York Times)

Housing for parking
With Spokane City Council looking for more housing, the council voted last night to suspend minimum parking requirements. (KXLY)

Pioneer Human Services runs a number of programs in Spokane: Re-entry programs with transitional housing. The Carlyle Care Center. But one thing they don't have in Spokane: immigrant children separated from their families.

"We don’t have any youth programs in Spokane," says Harold Wright, director of Youth and Young Adult Services for Pioneer Human Services.

That's despite a USA Today graphic published last week that set local activists abuzz. A map compiled from "federal contracting records, local news reports and the limited information being released by federal agencies" purported to show that Spokane was one of the communities housing children who'd been separated from their immigrant parents by the the Trump administration's "zero tolerance policy."

With little to go on other than that it was a "facility run by Pioneer Human Services," activists tried to gather as much information as they could.

One possible reason there may have been confusion on USA Today's part? Pioneer Human Services does have a 23-bed facility for unaccompanied immigrant minors at Selma Carson Home, in Fife, Washington, in the Tacoma suburbs.

Wright says they've been operating the facility since about 2003.

"We have unaccompanied youth who are about 16 years old," Wright says. But at Selma Carson Home, Wright says, the goal is to try to reunite unaccompanied minors with their families, or at least find them stable, supportive foster families.

"We're trying to reunify them with their families or a healthy adult," Wright says. "We’re trying to provide support around mental health. Substance abuse. Jobs skills. English."

A recent Tacoma News Tribune article quoted a Seattle-based attorney who claimed that at least one immigrant child separated from their parents had been sent to Selma Carson, but Pioneer Human Services said that was inaccurate. They have kids that crossed the border on their own, but not separated from their parents because of the Trump policy.

"We checked all of the files of our clients and with confidence I can say that up to this point we have not served any youth who have been separated from their parents at the border in the U.S.," Art Tel, Selma Carson's director of programming, told the News Tribune. "Clearly all of the youth we serve are separated from their families in their country of origin by choice, force or out of desperation. Also, their detainment in the U.S. is a separation — but the youth we serve have not been taken from their parents here."

This weekend, some local activists suspected that the facility in Spokane referred to by USA Today was Martin Hall Juvenile Facility, a detention center in Medical Lake. Some even drove out to the area to try to see if Martin Hall — or the nearby shuttered Pine Lodge Correctional Facility  — was a location undocumented children were being held.

But that's not the case with either facility. The former Pine Lodge site is owned by the Department of Social and Human Services. It's the site for Consolidated Support Services, a DSHS office that provides maintenance support for a variety of local DSHS sites.

"No undocumented children are housed there," DSHS spokeswoman Mindy Chambers says.

Meanwhile, Robert Palmquist, a juvenile detention facility administrator at Martin Hall, shoots down the idea that Martin Hall holds any separated immigrant children.

“No we don’t,” Palmquist says, “And I’m glad.”

Nine local counties currently contract with Martin Hall for juvenile detention services. It isn't operated by Pioneer Human Services — it's operated by a nonprofit corporation called Community, Counseling and Correctional Services based in Butte, Montana.

Palmquist says Martin Hall used to take in unaccompanied immigrant minors under a contract with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service. But that contract ended, and he says Martin Hall has “not been in that business” since before the Obama administration.

USA Today did not immediately reply to an email from the Inlander asking why the publication had claimed a Spokane facility operated by Pioneer Health Services was housing children separated from their families.

When a student commits a crime, state law says that juvenile courts are supposed to notify public school principals.

But until recently, Spokane County Juvenile Court kept no record to show it had sent schools any notifications at all.

"They didn't have any documentation that we could use to verify they sent notifications," says Lori Garretson, lead performance auditor for the Washington State Auditor's Office.

That's important, Garretson says, because the proper notifications can ensure school safety and help schools smooth the student's return to class.

Garretson led the audit, which looked into the issue of student crime notifications among juvenile courts in Washington. The audit sampled 10 of the state's judicial districts, including Spokane. Spokane was one of two judicial courts audited that failed to record any notifications to schools regarding student offenses.

That doesn't necessarily mean it didn't send them, Garretson says. And Spokane County Juvenile Court, for its part, said it did send notifications, it just didn't retain the documentation to prove it. State law does not require courts to retain the documentation, but keeping a record of notifications could protect the court from a potential lawsuit.

Since the audit, Garretson says, the court has changed that.

"They were very prompt to take corrective action," Garretson says.

The audit looked at data from 2016. It identified more than 330 types of offenses that would require courts to contact school principals. That adds up to an estimated 10,000 notifications per year in the state.

Overall, the courts audited in the state could prove they made notifications to schools about student offenses just 51 percent of the time. In 29 percent of cases, no documentation was kept to verify notifications were sent. Those figures do not include Spokane or the other court that didn't keep records at all.

"The audit found a number of ways notification processes can break down and significant opportunities for improving the flow of information about students who have committed criminal offenses," the report says.

This is the first time the Auditor's Office has looked at this issue, specifically, says Garretson. She says they chose to look into this process because the Auditor's Office "received personal communication that indicated some gaps in overall processes." There was also concern following a court case in which school personnel in Bethel School District were unaware that a student was a registered sex offender. That student then raped another 14-year-old student.

The reasons for juvenile courts not notifying principals about student offenses vary. Lack of staff training contributed to the gaps, the report says. The courts have since committed to improving training and monitoring.

Garretson says this is just the first audit looking at the issue of notification of student criminal offenses. While this audit focused on the court sending information to schools, the next will cover whether or not schools have records of receiving notifications.

The audit report recommends that the state Legislature formalize a workgroup of stakeholders that already began meeting during the course of the audit in order to streamline the process.

You can view the full report here. 

The U.S. Supreme Court will not review the gay rights case involving a Richland, Washington, florist, who refused to provide floral arrangements for a gay wedding.

In 2017, the Washington State Supreme Court unanimously decided that Barronelle Stutzman, the owner of Arlene's Flowers, violated the state's anti-discrimination law by refusing to provide the arrangements. State justices rejected Stutzman's argument that providing flowers for a gay wedding would violate her First Amendment rights.

She appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has now vacated the Washington State Supreme Court's ruling without reviewing the specifics. The case has been sent back to the State Supreme Court for review in light of the high court's ruling on a similar case out of Colorado earlier this year.

The Colorado case involves a baker who refused to make a custom cake for a gay couple's wedding. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the baker, though it did not answer the critical question of whether requiring him to bake a cake violates his First Amendment right to free speech and freedom of religion.

Rather, the majority decision turned on an unreasonable level of hostility toward the baker from a Colorado civil rights commission, which initially ruled against him.

It is in light of that narrow decision that Washington state justices will review the Arlene's Flowers case.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who brought the case against Stutzman, said in a statement that he is "confident [the State Supreme Court] will come to the same conclusion they did in their previous, unanimous ruling upholding the civil rights of same-sex couples in our state."

In a statement released Monday, the senior vice president for the Alliance Defending Freedom, who has argued on behalf of Stutzman and the Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, says the state attorney general has shown hostility toward Stutzman, similar to the Colorado commission.

"Barronelle, like Jack, serves all customers but declines to create custom art that expresses messages or celebrates events in conflict with her deeply held religious beliefs," Alliance Defending Freedom senior Vice President Kristen Waggoner said in a statement. "The Washington attorney general's efforts to punish her because he dislikes her beliefs about marriage are as impermissible as Colorado's attempt to punish Jack."

If State Supreme Court justices reach the same conclusion as they did in 2017, Stutzman can again appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, a spokesperson for the attorney general's office said.

ON INLANDER.COM

ARTS & CULTURE: Cedric the Entertainer and his openers put on a hilarious show in North Idaho last week, drawing laughs from the most racially-diverse audience Dan Nailen has ever seen in the Inland Northwest.

FOOD/FOR FUN!: Need somewhere to take the doggo during the dog days of summer? Here's a list of some pup-friendly places where you both can relax and grab a drink or bite to eat.

MUSIC: Here's why downtown Spokane is bound to be filled with Juggalos on Aug. 14. 
NEWS: Foster families around Spokane have become the new homes for two dozen unaccompanied refugee minors and youth who've received asylum from Central American conflicts. But while there is likely the support to house more here, the numbers of refugees being admitted to the country has slowed dramatically in recent months.

IN OTHER NEWS

Liberal D.C. is swiping left on young Trump employees
In its current issue, Politico Magazine dives into the world of dating (or, trying to) for young people who've worked for the Trump administration. From all caps messages asking why they're racists after a match Googles their name, to figuring out just the right way to hide their affiliation until they can reveal it in hopes the other person has seen they aren't a total monster, the millennial Trump crowd has had to get creative in a city that only gave him 4 percent of its vote. (Politico)

Casualties of a trade war
Harley Davidson announced it will have to start making more motorcycles outside the U.S. to avoid steep price increases from recently announced European Union tariffs of 31 percent, which in themselves were a response to U.S. tariffs announced earlier this year.  (New York Times)

Florist case bounced back to Washington
For now, the Supreme Court has declined to hear a Washington case involving a florist who refused to provide flowers for a gay wedding, asking that the state review the case for anti-religious bias that the court recently ruled was an issue in a similar Colorado case. (Associated Press)

Another record for WSU
This fall, a record-high number of freshmen will take to Washington State University's Pullman campus. (KXLY)

Connecting rural communities with whatever they need
From digging graves to setting up broadband, rural telecom companies provide a variety of services for the small populations they serve in Washington. (Seattle Times)

On INLANDER.COM

Do you feel unlucky, punks?
Spokane thieves are exacting Trump's tariff's the old-fashioned way — after a Canadian punk band got their equipment stolen from their van near the Pin. If you see a giant banner from 1985, return it for a reward.

Pet projects
Check out the some of the runners-up to the Inlander Pets Photo Contest, including the second-best goat in Spokane. (The best, obviously, being the Riverfront Park Garbage Eating Goat.)

IN OTHER NEWS...

McMorris Rodgers vs. Raúl Labrador
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted against a hardline immigration bill that had been championed by Idaho Rep. Raúl Labrador. (Spokesman-Review)

Hard pill to swallow
The Red Pill expo begins with a tribute to Lavoy Finicum, the Malheur standoff participant killed by Oregon State Police. (Spokesman-Review)

Stamping out food stamps?
House Republicans pass a farm bill that has major new work requirements — and job training funds — tied to the food stamp system. (Politico)

The crying girl on the cover of Time Magazine wasn't actually separated from her mom
But the story is still incredibly sad.  (Washington Post)

The line between discipline and child abuse
A physician says that a boy in immigration detention has been threatened with not being able to be reunited with his parents if he doesn't behave. (New Yorker)

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: U.S. Border Patrol agents began questioning a Latino man getting off a Greyhound bus in Spokane. He showed them a "know-your-rights" card, given to him by his attorney. The agents used that as a basis to detain him, according to a legal claim filed by the ACLU.

PETS: On stands this week is our first-ever Pet Issue, featuring, of course, a photo contest.

ART: Meet the artist who dedicated herself to painting one Spokane-centric scene per week.

IN OTHER NEWS

Immigrant families to stay together now, but how?
President Trump said his administration's practice of separating immigrant parents from their children at the border could not be undone with an executive order. Yesterday, Trump signed an executive order undoing this administration's practice of separating immigrant parents from their children at the border. It's unclear exactly what will now happen to the approximately 2,300 children who were already separated. (New York Times)

Nine children
Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday at least nine children separated from their families at the border are residing in Washington state. He also announced an additional $230,000 in emergency funding, on top of the $1 million set aside by the state Legislature earlier this year to help provide legal services for immigrant families. (KING 5)

MC Shea
An expo for alt-right conspiracy theorists lands in Spokane this weekend with lectures and panel discussions on global warming, vaccines and the deep state. Washington State Rep. Matt Shea will be the "master of ceremonies" and will deliver a talk entitled "The Day I Took the Red Pill," at 8:10 am Friday. (Spokesman-Review)

The Mass Shooter
A new FBI study that analyzed 160 mass shooting incidents between 2000 and 2013 finds that most mass shooters are not loners finally pushed past a breaking point. Rather, they meticulously plan their attacks and almost always show warning signs, sometimes long before. The overwhelming majority purchased their firearms legally. (Mother Jones)

Andres Sosa was given a "know-your-rights" card by his attorney just in case he was ever stopped again by immigration agents. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington says that card asserting his constitutional rights led Border Patrol agents in Spokane to detain him.

U.S. Border Patrol agents were waiting outside last July as Sosa got off a Greyhound bus at Spokane's Intermodal Center. He was on his way home to his wife and kids in Underwood, Washington, a town just east of Portland, when two agents stopped him.

The city-owned Intermodal Center, where Spokane's Greyhound station is located, has recently become a civil rights and immigration enforcement flashpoint. An uptick in the number of reports of Border Patrol agents questioning and detaining bus passengers has drawn outrage and concern from local politicians, activists and attorneys.

The ACLU of Washington and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project has filed a legal claim on Sosa's behalf, accusing the Border Patrol agents of illegally detaining him based on his race and his assertion of his constitutional rights. A legal claim is a precursor to a lawsuit.

"Do you have papers? Where are you from?" one of the agents asked Sosa as he stepped off the bus, according to the claim.

Sosa handed the agents a "know-your-rights" card that said he did not wish to answer any questions without an attorney, the claim says. Looking at the card, one of the agents then claimed to know that Sosa was "illegal" and led Sosa to a nearby parking lot to question him further.

ON INLANDER.COM

NEWS: Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart says he’d like to start a “discussion” with Greyhound in an effort to limit Customs and Border Patrol’s presence at the city’s Intermodal Center.

"More than likely, this isn’t going to be resolving itself until our lease comes up," Stuckart says.

NEWS: Spokane Police Ombudsman Bart Logue is getting pushback from the Police Guild. According to Logue, the union is resisting three things: access to unredacted body cam footage, access to the department’s internal database and the ombudsman assistant’s attendance at the Deadly Force Review Panel. 

"In my mind, when we talk about what the Police Guild should have bargaining rights over, it should be anything that interfaces with the police department," Logue says. "How I work in my office, that's none of the guild's concern. It's not very independent if they control everything I do."

NATION: Governors from five states are recalling or refusing to send National Guard troops to the border. (New York Times)

IN OTHER NEWS

Shame! Shame! Shame!
Protesters with the Democratic Socialists of America heckled the Department of Homeland Security out of a Mexican restaurant (of all places!) where she was dining on Tuesday night. (Slate)

“The triumph of cruelty”
President Donald Trump’s policy on family separation will be one of the defining moments of his legacy, writes Dylan Matthews of Vox.

“It’s not just that the policy is dumb, or wrongheaded, or unjustified. It’s cruel.” (Vox)

The timing on this one…
Amid his controversial policies at the southern border, the Trump administration has pulled the U.S. from the U.N.’s Human Rights Council. Supporters of the decision have said that the council was inept anyway. Ambassador Nikki Haley says the council is biased against Israel and includes major human rights violators on its board.

Either way, the optics in this moment are questionable. (Associated Press)

What say you, Condon?
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is off to Texas to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy along with other mayors. (Seattle Times)

For over a year, City Council President Ben Stuckart has repeatedly raised concerns — and outrage — about the sweeps from federal Border Patrol agents at Spokane's Greyhound bus depot at the city-owned Intermodal Center.

The Border Patrol sweeps are why he's refused to support a new social service center being located at the center and why he was worried about the increased Border Patrol presence in Spokane.

Last Wednesday, Stuckart took it a step further: He sent Greyhound a letter, drafted with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, suggesting that, by allowing Border Patrol to conduct sweeps on their buses without a warrant, the bus company may be violating the city of Spokane's anti-discrimination rules.

"Greyhound's decision to allow [Customs and Border Patrol] agents to access their passengers in Spokane can create and maintain a fearful and hostile environment on buses and at the Intermodal Center for people of color in Spokane," Stuckart writes. "This is the type of situation our anti-discrimination ordinances seek to avoid."

The letter also quotes witness testimony that, at least in one sweep in March, Border Patrol agents allegedly "only spent time questioning individuals that had darker skin or had an accent."

If true, the actions of the Border Patrol agents raise constitutional concerns and may have violated the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency's own policy against racial profiling.

The letter requests a meeting with Greyhound, and notes the nature of the relationship that the city has with the bus depot.

"Greyhound has been a long-term tenant of Spokane's Intermodal Center and I look forward to continuing that relationship," Stuckart writes. "Spokane's anti-discrimination ordinances mean little if the city of Spokane cannot ensure compliance with them on its own property, such as the Intermodal Center."

So far, Stuckart says, he has not heard back from Greyhound.

"I’d like to start with conversation," Stuckart says. "If they don’t answer me, I could talk to [the city legal department] about the potential violation of the law."

Next year, the Greyhound's lease at the city plaza comes up for renewal. Theoretically, Stuckart says, the City Council could put a stipulation in the lease that says the company can't just allow Border Patrol access to the facility without a warrant.

"More than likely, this isn’t going to be resolving itself until our lease comes up," Stuckart says.

In a statement to the Inlander in March, Greyhound argued that they didn't really have a choice in whether or not to comply with Border Patrol search requests.

Greyhound is required to comply with the law. We are aware that routine transportation checks not only affect our operations, but our customers’ travel experience, and will continue to do everything legally possible to minimize any negative experiences. Greyhound has opened a dialogue with the Border Patrol to see if there is anything that can be done to balance the enforcement of federal law with the dignity and privacy of our valued customers.

The ACLU has long argued otherwise — insisting that Greyhound has the constitutional right to refuse Border Patrol sweeps without a warrant.

Stuckart's letter also foreshadows another pending debate, over how far the new human rights section, Title 18 of the city code, can be stretched.

Most of last year's concern over the new city human rights code language had centered on restrictions on income discrimination from landlords.

The language of the bill that Stuckart references could have far-reaching implications: It states that it "is the intent of the city that all people have an equal opportunity to participate fully in the life of the city and that discriminatory barriers to equal participation in employment, housing and public accommodations be removed."

Depending on how future councils or mayors read that, the legal, regulatory or political impact of that language could be considerable.

"It applies to everyone," Stuckart says.