As temperatures in Spokane dropped as low as 8 degrees early Monday morning, with a windchill as cold as minus 8 degrees, the city of Spokane has asked the two shelters that form its 24/7 shelter system not to turn anyone away overnight.
The frigid temperatures are expected to stick around all week with tonight's low expected to be 7 degrees and Tuesday's forecast showing a high of 28 and a low of 8, according to the National Weather Service.
House of Charity will not be turning anyone away and will be open 24 hours a day for anyone without children, aside from the few short hours they need for cleaning, says Tija Danzig, the city's homeless services program manager.
Open Doors Family Shelter also will be open 24 hours, and though they've been nearly full at night, they've still got some space if more families need shelter, says Joe Ader, Open Doors' director.
"We've been running right at or over our 50-a-night mark, which is our contracted amount," Ader says. "For the night shelter, depending on how many kids there are, we can expand up to just a little over 60."
The city has come to an agreement with the family shelter to open more sleeping space in its day center if needed, Danzig says.
Other resources for people without a place to stay, as compiled for the city's pocket service guide:
Councilwoman Kate Burke says she'll oppose any City Council amendments introduced the night an ordinance is being voted on
It's not unusual for Councilman Mike Fagan to vote no on amendments to City Council legislation. As the sole conservative on the Spokane City Council, he's often not in favor of watching city policy lurch further in City Council President Ben Stuckart's direction.
What is unusual is for him to have backup.
Last Monday, the newest city councilwoman, Kate Burke, voted no with Fagan twice, both on amendments regarding the city's historic preservation ordinance.
But it wasn't an act of District 1 solidarity. It wasn't that Burke had been convinced by Fagan that the city's historic preservation ordinance chipped away at constitutional property rights.
Rather, it was Burke's personal rule: She'd vote no on any substantive late-breaking amendments. If the City Council hadn't been briefed on the new amended language, if it hadn't been posted on the city's website, she was going to oppose it.
That's why she also was the sole vote against a third amendment on the historic preservation ordinance last week. After all, trying to follow City Council isn't always the easiest thing for the average citizen. Typically, it means reading the advanced agenda, sometimes stretching hundreds of pages long, finding the proposed ordinances — often accompanied by confusing codes and jargon — and then interpreting what they mean. "If I don't know what's happening the night of the council meeting, you can assume that citizens don't," Burke says. "We need to be listening to our constituents."
Consider, Burke says, the fact that citizens may show up to testify in favor of an ordinance, only to watch the council amend the ordinance to something they may end up opposing.
So she's looking at introducing an ordinance of her own that prevents the council from voting on an amended ordinance the same night as its changed.
"If the ordinance is being changed the night of and voted on, it doesn't give a lot of leeway for constituents to weigh in to support or oppose it," Burke says. She says her proposal would only apply to actual policy changes, not minor grammatical or clarifying language.
Additionally, Burke says the city should upgrade the council's website to make it easier for citizens to figure out who introduced which amendments and how the council voted for it. As it stands, much of the council's discussion around the details of ordinances happens at the Monday briefing sessions while many residents are at work.
"Who can logistically come to a 3:30 briefing meeting?" Burke says. "If we have an updated website, then we can make sure that we keep the citizens updated if they can't attend."
At one point during Anthrax's headlining set Saturday at the Knitting Factory, I found myself marveling at how these dudes — mostly in their 50s — were able to deliver such a pummeling, physical show.
They then promptly ended the gig after about 70 minutes and 11 songs, and you'll hear no complaints from me considering those 70 minutes were filled with some of the favorite songs of my childhood, and some new tunes that hold up easily to the thrash-metal pioneers' older material.
Hitting the stage after sets by Killswitch Engage and Havok, Anthrax promptly had the floor erupting in a swirl of mosh-pit insanity, bodies flying toward the security guards lining the front of the stage as the band tore into "Among the Living" and "Caught in a Mosh."
Should Spokane tax guns to prevent gun violence?
Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart is floating the idea of a local gun tax that could charge $20 per gun purchase and a few cents per bullet in order to pay for services such as mental health, suicide prevention and gun safety courses.
Florida students speak out after school shooting
Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a shooter killed 17 and injured more than a dozen last week, are outraged and have started making speeches, calling out politicians on social media, announcing "we are going to be the last mass shooting."
Senior Emma Gonzalez' speech Saturday has been shared widely across social media:
"Maybe the adults have gotten used to saying 'it is what it is,' but if us students have learned anything, it's that if you don't study, you will fail. And in this case if you actively do nothing, people continually end up dead, so it's time to start doing something."
Pullman psychologist found dead in jail cell after sexual assault arrest
Pullman psychologist Dr. Dean Funabiki, who turned himself into police Friday after a patient accused him of raping her during a therapy session, was found dead of an apparent suicide in the Whitman County Jail late Sunday. (Washington Post)
Spokane elementary students suggest rewards for safe driving
Instead of just ticketing speeders through school zones, Regal Elementary School students are suggesting a reward for drivers who stick within the limit. (Spokesman-Review)
Photographer Bertie Gregory is the focus of this week's Nat Geo Live! at the INB
A bevy of entertaining options await in our event listings and Staff Picks, so get out there and brave the cold for some fun. Here are some highlights from the week ahead:
Monday, Feb. 19
MUSIC | It's President's Day! Celebrate with some quality folk-rock courtesy of Northwest native Mat Kearney. Read our interview with the man, then hit The Knit.
Spokane City Council President Ben Stuckart raises the possibility of taxing gun sales, similar to Seattle.
The night before starting a nine-day, no-work vacation, City Council President Ben Stuckart floated a potential bombshell on Facebook. He was looking at taxing guns.
"I have the ordinance ready to increases taxes on gun purchases in the city," Stuckart wrote on Facebook. "We could put the money towards mental health services. If not now, when?"
But for Stuckart, the idea isn't new. In fact, he says, by text message, that he's had an ordinance on the issue written since January 2016.
Stuckart says that several citizens, including an Eastern Washington University professor and applied social and community psychologist Olga Lucia Herrera, had been floating the initial stages of a proposal a few years ago. But the citizens abandoned the proposal due to busyness, the possibility of a competing state proposal and — in particular — the desire to avoid inadvertently stigmatizing mental illness.
"I don’t want to be the author of a solution that creates more problems,” Herrera says.
For her, details matter.
But now, in the aftermath of yet another mass slaughter of yet another public school, Stuckart has resurrected the proposal.
The proposed Gun Violence Prevention Ordinance (as currently written) would charge a $20 fee per firearm purchase, $0.01 per small rounds of ammunition and $0.03 for ammunition above a .22 caliber.
The money, according to the 2016 framework of the ordinance, would only go to programs that "prevent gun accessibility to children and those suffering from mental illness, prevent gun violence ... promote recreational gun safety," and address the public health costs associated with gun violence.
It would not apply to those who only sell one gun per quarter or to licensed dealers simply facilitating gun sales between unlicensed sellers for the purpose of conducting background checks.
While Stuckart was not available by phone — as he was packing for vacation — he did answer a few questions with TheInlander by text message.
"I think that is a reasonable amount for people to pay for safety education and suicide prevention work. And mental health services," Stuckart wrote in a text about the $20 charge. "Guns cause issues and those that buy them can pay for some solutions."
Reaction to his Facebook post varied.
"Great move," wrote the Center for Justice's Rick Eichstaedt.
"We knew it was coming eventually," the 8th Man Facebook page posted. "Stuckart wants to punish gun owners in the city of Spokane with more taxes."
Herrera says that her support depends on the fine print, for how the proposal is worded and where it directs the funds.
The proposal, however, isn't a new idea. Seattle passed a similar ordinance in 2015 — intending to put the revenue toward gun research at Harborview Medical Center — and ended up getting sued by the National Rifle Association because of it.
While the NRA argued that the tax violated a state law preventing local gun regulations, the Supreme Court overwhelmingly ruled last year that it didn't — the tax was a fee, not a regulation.
Tim Burgess, former Seattle councilman and (briefly) the former mayor of Seattle, says the proposal came out of an effort in Seattle to try to answer very basic questions about gun
"We were meeting and talking to police and community folks," Burgess says. "We realized we had very little research information about what happens to victims of gun violence."
As the city and the University of Washington began researching common traits victims of gun violence who came to the hospital, they realized that past victims of gun violence were far more likely to become victims of gun violence in the future.
In the 1990s, Burgess says, the Harborview Medical Center successfully cut reoccurrences of alcohol-related injuries by more than half by giving them short counseling sessions before they were released from the hospital.
"Let’s do the same thing with gunshot victims and see if we can have the same impacts," Burgess says. "How do we pay for that? Let's tax guns."
But was it effective?
"Yes," Burgess says. "It is raising money that covers the city’s contribution to the Harborview intervention [program.]"
It did not, however, raise as much money as the city hoped it would. According to the Seattle Times, the city expected to raise $300,000 to $500,000 a year. In its first year, it raised less than $200,000.
And gun violence didn't drop in Seattle last year either. Gun violence rose slightly in 2017. In King County, 54 of 75 homicide victims in 2017 died from gunshots — and 11 died from officer-involved shootings.
But Burgess says the goal wasn't necessarily to reduce the number of guns. The goal was to raise money for research into gun violence.
"Our focus was, let's begin to treat this as a public health crisis and do the research," Burgess says. Whether the interventions — which includes a case manager who works with the gunshot victim for a year — helps prevent shootings in the long term remain to be seen.
For now, it has seemed to impact the gun-selling business though. Outdoor Emporium, which sells about 80 percent of the guns in Seattle, threatened to move outside the city limits, noting the tax has cost them more than $2 million in its first year. (So far the company appears to have stayed put.)
In last year's Seattle City Council elections, two candidates suggested looking at doubling the city's gun tax — to $50 a purchase — in order to raise more revenue.
Burgess supports Stuckart's proposal — which would spend the money on mental health and suicide prevention. He notes that firearm injuries and death by suicide attempts are far more common than criminal assaults with firearms, and that suicide rates are higher in Eastern Washington.
"It sounds like Ben’s doing it well," Burgess says.
But ultimately, because of laws limiting local gun regulations in the state of Washington, cities' hands are largely tied. Burgess and Stuckart have been frustrated with the lack of state and national action on gun regulations.
"It’s just very frustrating to people that really, simple common sense measures cannot seem to get past the legislature or Congress," Burgess says.
An 11-year-old boy was arrested this morning for alleged threats he made on Instagram yesterday that targeted two elementary school students, according to the Spokane County Sheriff's Office.
Spokane Valley deputies learned of the threats last night. According to a news release, the kids were on an Instagram Live broadcast when the 11-year-old started threatening the other two, saying he knew where the victims lived and where they attended school.
The victims "were very scared the suspect may carry these threats out, especially due to the recent school shootings," the news release says.
Mark Gregory, the public information officer for the Sheriff's Office, says he can't provide further detail on what was said specifically. But he said the victims felt the suspect could possibly carry the threats out.
"In today's world, with what the suspect was saying, they felt there was a possibility," Gregory says.
The victims attend Trentwood Elementary and South Pines Elementary in the East Valley School District. East Valley Superintendent Kelly Shea announced this morning that the 11-year-old was "angry at someone who has a relative at Trentwood," so Trentwood and nearby East Valley Middle School were placed on modified lockdown.
"We are taking this very seriously," Shea wrote. "We are striving to find the balance between taking action to ensure the safety of our students and our staff while ensuring the normalcy of life."
The 11-year-old suspect was located at 9 am this morning and taken into juvenile detention for threats to bomb or injure property and for two felony counts of harassment.
The Sheriff's Office urges parents to tell children to immediately report all threats and to caution them about what they post on social media.
"The school districts, Spokane Valley Police Department and the Spokane County Sheriff's Office take these threats very seriously," the Sheriff's Office says.
Mayor David Condon talks about the ongoing Riverfront Park construction
ON INLANDER.COM
Food's good too
Yet another Spokane chef has been named a James Beard semifinalist — this time, Italia Trattoria's Anna Vogel.
Planned Parenthood hits back
Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho is suing the federal government for cutting off its teen pregnancy prevention program grant two years early.
Closing down death row We get Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell's take on the Washington State Senate's decision to end the death penalty.
IN OTHER NEWS
A true NIMBY opposes even the richest developments
Citing traffic concerns, Eagle Ridge neighbors don't want a proposed 240-home development to be built nearby. (Spokesman-Review)
Around and around we go Get the latest on the city's plans for the Looff Carrousel. (Spokesman-Review)
They were warned
The FBI admits it screwed up in not investigating tips about this week's school shooting in Florida. (Washington Post)
Total hack job
Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is indicting 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for interference in the 2016 presidential elections. (NBC)
Mental problems
Trying to take away guns from the mentally ill is a challenging prospect. (New York Times)
By the power of Zuckerberg!
Remember that piece we wrote on how Facebook's new algorithm was destroying journalism? Here's how to harness the power of that algorithm to torture your friends.
A man after God's own heart Donald Trump had a whole system for concealing affairs during his first (1st) year of marriage to his third (3rd) wife. (New Yorker)
Posted
ByMitch Ryals
on Thu, Feb 15, 2018 at 4:24 PM
Washington state senators narrowly passed a bill yesterday that would put an end to capital punishment in the state. Following a passionate debate, the bill passed by a vote of 26-22 and now awaits consideration in the House.
"Since the death penalty was brought forward by the people of this state via an initiative (albeit quite some time ago), it would be best for the people to speak to the issue via the referendum process," Haskell writes via email. "I am in support of that."
During this legislative session, lawyers, researchers, victims, family members and advocates have given compelling testimony for and against capital punishment.
Washington's Attorney General Bob Ferguson testified before the Senate Law and Justice Committee in January that 75 percent of death penalty cases in the state get overturned on appeal.
"Where else in government are we satisfied with a 25 percent success rate for a program that costs taxpayers millions of dollars?" Ferguson asked.
King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg has been an outspoken opponent of capital punishment, arguing in part that it's too expensive. In smaller counties, for example, prosecutors may not have the budget to pursue the death penalty, which means it is unevenly applied across the state, Satterberg wrote in an op-ed for the Seattle Times.
A 2015 study out of Seattle University found that death-penalty cases costs taxpayers an average of $1 million more than cases where prosecutors seek a life sentence.
Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe, however, testified in January that he believes the debate should not focus on economics, but rather on moral objection or support for capital punishment.
Haskell has declined to say whether he morally supports or opposes the death penalty. But says he believes execution should never be held over the head of a defendant as a tactic to elicit a guilty plea to a lesser sentence.
"However, if death is charged and a plea to [life without parole] is offered, I would give great deference to family members in reaching my decision of how to go forward," he writes via email.
Sen. Andy Billig (D-Spokane) voted in support of the bill. Republican senators Mike Padden, Mark Schoesler and Shelly Short voted against. Sen. Michael Baumgartner was excused from the vote due to a family emergency.
There are currently eight men on death row in Washington. Gov. Jay Inslee placed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2014, which means no executions will be carried out while he is in office. But inmates continue to appeal their cases.
"If a referendum were to go to the people and they were to affirm their belief that the death penalty should remain, I would ask for it in only the most egregious cases," Haskell writes. "Also, if the bill to eliminate the death penalty as a charging option becomes state law, as always, we will follow the law."
In complaints filed simultaneously around the country this morning, Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho joined other organizations in suing the federal government for dropping Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs two years before their grants were set to end.
The action stems from last June, when the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) abruptly announced in routine annual award letters that 5-year grants would be cancelled starting in June 2018.
The money has been funding sexual education for teenagers most at risk. Importantly, the plaintiffs say, it's paying for the research and data analysis of those programs, which is meant to ensure they are measurably preventing pregnancy and improving teens' sexual health. The analysis can be used to improve and target programs to specific groups.
Cutting the funding short will mean no education for some of the estimated 1.2 million young people the programs were expected to serve across the country and can jeopardize the ongoing research, effectively wasting millions of taxpayer dollars, the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane, alleges.