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from The Spokesman-Review
Newspaper in Spokane, Washington
The Washington Department of Enterprise Services has a new draft Supplier Diversity policy out for public comment until October 31. The stated purpose is to use “race and gender neutral strategies to increase the amount of contracts that are awarded to small, diverse, and veteran-owned businesses.” It then goes on to rationalize surreptitious ways of using race and gender to award contracts, in violation of the will of the voters.
A Spokane County Superior Court judge has rejected a citizen initiative attempting to ensure protections for natural gas hookups within the city of Spokane. After lengthy arguments from attorneys representing both proponents and challengers to the Spokane Cleaner Energy Protection Act, or Proposition One, Judge Charnelle Bjelkengren ruled Wednesday the ballot initiative overstepped by effectively changing municipal code if it were to pass.
Durham School Services, which provides transportation to thousands of students in Spokane Public School, is facing a $7,000 fine for ‘serious’ COVID-19 violations last winter during the height of the pandemic. According to documents from the Washington state Department of Labor and Industries, the company “did not provide a workplace free from recognized hazards that are causing, or are likely to cause, serious injury or death.” Durham is appealing the fine, L&I officials said Thursday.
“We understand that people are feeling pandemic fatigue, and this might feel like a step back,” said Dr. Francisco Velazquez, interim health officer for the Spokane Regional Health District. “But with this new variant and our current vaccination rates, masking is a simple and effective tool that adds another layer of protection for our community.” Providence Medical Group concurs with Velazquez via a statement. “Masks are a crucial part of protecting both ourselves and others from COVID-19 infection, including illness caused by the delta variant. With this deadly virus once again overwhelming the Inland Northwest, it is imperative that most people utilize all layers of protection, including masking, social distancing and, most importantly, vaccination.”
The campus-wide mask mandate issued by North Idaho College President Rick MacLennan officially lasted four days. The college’s Board of Trustees moved Thursday to rescind the mandate after a majority of members voted to amend college policy, giving the board powers as the final authority on preventative measures for communicable diseases. The move effectively takes away that authority from the college president.
he U.S. government said Thursday it is shutting down an embattled federal jail in New York City after a slew of problems that came to light following disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there two years ago. The federal Bureau of Prisons said the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan will be closed at least temporarily to address issues that have long plagued the facility, including lax security and crumbling infrastructure. The facility, which has held inmates such as Mexican drug lord and escape artist Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Mafia boss John Gotti, currently has 233 inmates, down from a normal population of 600 or more. Most of them are expected to be transferred to a federal jail in Brooklyn. The decision to close the Metropolitan Correctional Center — billed as one of the most secure jails in America — comes weeks after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco toured the jail and saw the conditions firsthand.
California weather was heating up and winds were shifting Thursday as more than 14,000 firefighters battled wildfires up and down the state, including a major blaze they hoped to keep out of the Lake Tahoe resort region. Onshore winds from the west and southwest were changing direction to offshore, blowing out of the north or northeast, and fire weather watches were to take effect in Northern California by the end of the week, the National Weather Service said. The Caldor Fire, the nation’s top priority for firefighting resources, grew to more than 213 square miles southwest of Lake Tahoe but containment remained at 12%, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
As the federal government releases historic sums of pandemic aid to the nation’s schools, it’s urging them to dream big, to invest in seismic changes that will benefit students for generations to come. But many districts say they have more urgent problems to tackle first.
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United States who said they faced eviction in the next two months, according to Census Bureau data from early August. The court said in an unsigned opinion the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reimposed the moratorium Aug. 3, lacked the authority to do so under federal law without explicit congressional authorization. The justices rejected the administration’s arguments in support of the CDC’s authority. “If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court wrote.
President Joe Biden vowed Thursday to complete the evacuation of American citizens and others from Afghanistan despite the day’s deadly suicide bomb attack at the Kabul airport. He promised to avenge the deaths of 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack, declaring to the extremists responsible: “We will hunt you down and make you pay.”
Mexico’s president again sidestepped questions Thursday about the reinstatement of the U.S. “Remain in Mexico” policy. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico will continue helping the United States on immigration. But he noted “it can’t go on forever,” and said attention must turn to development in Central America so people don’t have to emigrate.
Kentucky and Texas joined a growing list of states that are seeing record numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a surge that is overwhelming doctors and nurses and afflicting more children. Intensive care units around the nation are packed with patients extremely ill with the coronavirus — even in places where hospitalizations have not yet reached earlier peaks. The ICU units at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Georgia typically have room for 38 patients, and doctors and nurses may have only two or three people who are very sick, said Dr. Jyotir Mehta, medical director of the ICU. On Wednesday, the ICU had 50 COVID-19 patients alone, roughly half of them relying on ventilators to breathe. “I don’t think we have experienced this much critical illness in folks, so many people sick at the same time,” Mehta said.
An all-woman Afghan robotics team known as the “Afghan Dreamers” are now safe in Mexico, and say they want to help others who remain in their country after the Taliban takeover. “We are concerned with what will happen to our home,” said Saghar, who asked that her last name not be used to avoid endangering her family members who remain in Afghanistan. “Many people are leaving, but there are still girls who have dreams, there are also people who have dreams, and we want countries around the world to help Afghanistan to have peace over there so that the girls over there can have the opportunities to continue their path as well.” The four women, accompanied by a sister and another man, arrived Tuesday after travelling through six countries to reach Mexico. They fled Afghanistan after the takeover of the country earlier this month by the Taliban, who have been hostile to women working or going to school after a certain age.
The U.S. is projected to see nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths between now and Dec. 1, according to the nation’s most closely watched forecasting model. But health experts say that toll could be cut in half if nearly everyone wore a mask in public spaces.
U.S. Capitol Police officers who were attacked and beaten during the Capitol riot filed a lawsuit Thursday against former President Donald Trump, his allies and members of far-right extremist groups, accusing them of intentionally sending a violent mob on Jan. 6 to disrupt the congressional certification of the election.
Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops, Afghan and U.S. officials said. The U.S. general overseeing the evacuation said the attacks would not stop the United States from evacuating Americans and others, and flights out were continuing. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said there was a large amount of security at the airport, and alternate routes were being used to get evacuees in. About 5,000 people were awaiting flights on the airfield, McKenzie said.
Providence announced that due to the surge in COVID-19 patients, it is postponing elective surgeries and procedures at Sacred Heart Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are growing this week in Spokane County as the number of overall new cases topped 1,000 in the past four days. There are now 211 people hospitalized in Spokane County with the virus. Statewide, there are 1,346 people hospitalized with the virus as of Tuesday.
The Washington State Department of Commerce awarded Avista Corp. a grant to design a solar- and energy-storage microgrid project in partnership with the Spokane Tribe of Indians. The Spokane-based company received $240,000 from the state’s Clean Energy Fund for the microgrid project, which will provide energy resilience during wildfires, energy independence for critical facilities and billing benefits for customers, according to a department release.
After an attack at the Kabul airport left 13 U.S. service members dead, members of Congress representing the Inland Northwest expressed condolences and pushed for a quick evacuation from Afghanistan. Republicans blamed President Biden for what they called his “failed withdrawal.” ... U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican who represents Eastern Washington, said in a statement that Americans are less safe today because of what she called Biden’s failed leadership. She called the attack “our worst fear becoming a reality.”
Explosions outside the airport in Kabul Thursday killed 12 U.S. service members and dozens of civilians, said a senior U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement from the Pentagon. The attack followed repeated threat warnings from the United States and its allies. “We can confirm that a number of U.S. service members were killed in today’s complex attack at Kabul airport,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement. “A number of others are being treated for wounds.”
The Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute officially changed its name to Mukogawa U.S. Campus and took down the street addresses that used U.S. Army Gen. George Wright’s name. The move coincides with Spokane Falls Community College’s address change from George Wright Drive to Whistalks Way.
Hospital facilities and public health agencies are scrambling to add capacity as the number of coronavirus cases continue to rise statewide. But many Idaho residents don’t seem to feel the same urgency. Volunteers are helping with contract tracing at the Central District Health Department, and health education classrooms are being converted into COVID-19 treatment units in northern Idaho. On Thursday, some Idaho hospitals only narrowly avoided asking the state to enact “crisis standards of care” — where scarce health care resources are allotted to the patients most likely to benefit — thanks in part to statewide coordination.
A school board in central Oregon, where COVID-19 is surging, has passed a resolution protesting statewide mandates that require masks in schools and vaccines for all teachers, staff and volunteers. The resolution that passed on a 3-2 vote in Redmond on Wednesday says the 7,500-student district will fight to regain local control of decisions around mask-wearing and vaccines in its schools The resolution specifies that the board supports the district using medical and religious exemptions to avoid the mandates and includes the possibility of legal action against Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. Board members said Wednesday during debate over the resolution that the district will follow Brown’s mask and vaccine mandates while they pursue legal challenges.
Spokane Valley councilmember decries state COVID-19 mandates; claims rules are ‘destroying our city’
State-issued mandates aimed at stemming the spread of COVID-19 amid the ongoing pandemic are “destroying” Spokane Valley, a member of its City Council alleged Tuesday. Councilmember Rod Higgins aired his concerns about directives announced by Gov. Jay Inslee early in Tuesday’s Spokane Valley City Council meeting during a period scheduled for individual board member reports. “The governor has issued mandates once again threatening businesses and individuals for noncompliance under an emergency declaration that’s extended for more than 18 months,” he said. “His actions are destroying our city and making a mockery of representative democracy. Unfortunately, we here on the dais are powerless to do anything about it. Perhaps it’s time for a little civil disobedience.”
Gunmen have released some of the children kidnapped from a school in northern Nigeria back in May, some of whom were as young as 5 years old, the school’s head teacher said late Thursday. Abubakar Garba Alhassan told the Associated Press that the freed students were on their way to the state capital, Minna, but added he could not confirm the exact number freed. Authorities have said that 136 children were abducted along with several teachers when gunmen on motorcycles attacked the Salihu Tanko Islamic School in Niger state. Other preschoolers were left behind as they could not keep pace when the gunmen hurriedly moved those abducted into the forest.
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