RANGE

Dept. of Corrections says people who tested positive for illicit substances decades ago still require treatment if they want early release. A private behavioral health contractor stands to make millions of dollars by referring more patients into their treatment program — even if they don't need it.

Luke and Erin got together for what might become a regular segment: “I Doomscroll so you don’t have to,” where Erin caught Luke up on all the big local news from this week. The Washington Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Spokane’s voter-approved Prop 1, which made camping illegal in most of the city, new safe streets measures and an ordinance to make the city safer for queer and trans people w...

Erin and Val talked urbanism and city bike parking + an update on our reporting about the local Planned Parenthood's anti-union actions. Relevant reading: 50 new bike racks coming to a spot near you, by Lauren Pangborn at RANGE Media Request a location for a bike rack Submit an existing bike rack to the community-generated list of racks across the city.   What we know after three months of re...

This week Aaron Hedge and Val flew solo and learned how to use the KYRS sound board, and talked police accountability from a few different angles. The first story centers on death of Donald Hagle, who was killed by Spokane County Sheriff’s deputies in 2024. We delved into him sister’s ongoing quest for answers and transparency, the complicated legislative landscape around police accountability, an...

Val was out of town last week, so Erin and Aaron filled her in on the biggest stories she missed: A Ghanaian immigrant detained by ICE who has been allowed to return home to await trial, the scoop on Congressman Michael Baumgartner's first Town Hall in Spokane since Trump's inauguration, a political drama out of Spokane Valley that could impact statewide public record access and a very brief updat...

A track record of poor labor conditions, a deep dive into executive compensation, ghosted donors, an upcoming merger that could spell trouble for unionization efforts and a 20-year-old discrimination case that shows tactics similar to the ones described by our sources have been happening for a long time.

It was a classic Luke/Erin messaround as they talked about two political, pro-business newsletters and the stories they spawned this week + Congressman Michael Baumgartner's Town Hall.

Erin Seller's reads their latest story on varying responses to downtown Spokane homelessness.

FāVS News reporter and editor Cassy Benefield joined Luke and Aaron Hedge on the pod this week to talk about her story about World Relief Spokane, which partly focused on the story of Ukrainian immigrant Julie Horbenko, who thinks President Donald Trump might, with the flick of a pen, make it illegal for her to be here. Refugees in Spokane at risk as World Relief navigates changing U.S. policies

Luke is back and a rare RANGE reporter appearance unlocked! Our split-custody Murrow Fellow who works out of Newport, WA came to talk shop on the pod about rural journalism in a border community. And our City Hall reporter Erin dove in to homelessness statistics and an arrest at council.

Former crime reporter Valerie Osier interviewed two of RANGE’s reporters about local news gone national. She talked to Erin Sellers about their story on a restrictive Idaho law and the future of gender-affirming care nationwide, and the other Aaron about his easy-to-digest breakdown on the now viral Coeur d’Alene Town Hall that ended with men in black dragging a woman out of the building for voici...

Erin and Aaron practiced one of a journalist’s most important skills — interviewing — by asking questions about each other’s coverage of the 2025 Washington State Legislative Session. Erin talked about a bill that would require doctors to give patients increased information about pain management options before IUD procedures, and Aaron talked about fiscal notes and how they can be weaponized to ki...

Erin and Aaron welcomed on guest Eliza Billingham, The Inlander’s City Hall reporter, for an hour of Journos on Journos, interviewing each other about some of the biggest stories of the week: Billingham’s piece on Community Court and Sellers’ story on a City Council resolution in solidarity with undocumented immigrants, recommitting the city to following state law. Relevant reading linked below! S...

The whole RANGE team sat down to discuss how they're approaching news coverage during the Trump administration, ongoing immigration cases they're following and County Commissioner Al French's commitment to divesting his stocks in PFAS chemical manufacturers. Relevant reading linked below! Know your immigration rights : Spokane is within 100 miles of a border, which puts our community at greater ri...

On this week’s episode of the pod, Luke, Erin and Aaron Hedge sat down with Sam Smith of Manzanita House to do a civics-for-adults training on your immigration rights and how to exercise them. Then, we played a pre-made package by Erin on a group of local teens who traveled to Olympia to lobby the state legislature for policies to shield transgender students, update reproductive care Medicaid rate...

Val, Luke and Aaron Hedge talked about deconstructing from Christianity, TikTok (and the potential ban) and how those two wildly different things relate — and the lessons on community that these reflections can give us. 03:49 Brief overview of the latest TikTok news 07:16 Defining Deconstruction in Christianity 13:26 Personal Stories of Faith and Doubt 25:20 Navigating Faith an...

This week on Free RANGE, Luke and both Erin/Aarons discussed an unexpected nationalist rabbit hole Hedge dove down, the contours of a new bike box program for people biking to City Hall (Spoiler alert, it's not all it's cracked up to be) and a Sellers deep-dive into numbers for the city's new homeless scatter sites, focusing on one that's opened beds for 30 medically fragile unhoused people at Wes...

Luke was out doing ~boss-coded things~ so co-host Erin interviewed fellow RANGE reporter Aaron Hedge on his newest big story: “A burning question for police: Does ‘deescalation’ mean ‘up to lethal force’? If you’re not a big fan of reading  4k word stories , but you want to know about how Spokane’s police force — the third deadliest per capita in the nation — thinks about use-of-force and dee...

The whole gang discusses our news year resolutions, including but not limited to: striving for better work-life balance, engaging more deeply with community, and doing more labor, rural and culture reporting. 00:00 Intro 01:03 Holiday Break Recap 04:33 Personal and Team Goals for the Year 06:39 Labor Reporting and Community Engagement 21:05 Connecting community desires with coverage 27:38 Focusing...

Luke was out sick, so Audience Editor Valerie Osier joined Erin to talk about RANGE’s newest labor story: a timely expose on union-busting at the local Planned Parenthood affiliate. If you’re not a big fan of reading 4,000 word stories, but you want to know about the CEO’s crazy-high salary, the high cost of union-busting ($425 an hour) and the employees caught in the crossfire, listen now! Editor...

Luke and Erin did a 2024 Wrapped, running through the interesting (and often depressing) coverage RANGE did in the last year. You can find all of our coverage  here ! And, shameless plug, we just launched a merch line, which you should  shop ! Help us get sustainable, show your commitment to civic engagement, and look hot doing it. Do you have questions about local government? Wondering...

Luke, Erin and guest Aaron Hedge — the environmentalism and County reporter at RANGE Media — chatted Spokane City Council rule changes (and the consequences for conservatives), the continued saga of Liberty Lake City Council’s growing control over their library and a grab-bag of other local news items! If you listened to our episode and want to learn more, here are the stories we referenced: Erin’...

Welcome to our very special Thanksgiving episode of Free RANGE, where Luke and Erin convened a panel of local notables Joni Harris, Sara Dixit and Kai Teo — a cook, an organizer and a data journalist, respectively, to discuss the political disconnection felt right now by working people in Spokane and one idea the nerds at RANGE have had to try to help struggling renters feel more protected by and...

Luke, Erin and guest Aaron Hedge — the environmentalism and County reporter at RANGE Media — talked about the city’s will-they-won’t-they relationship with the C.O.P.S. contract, CEO Larry Krauter’s departure from the Spokane Airport and a short Civics round-up of all the biggest pieces of news that came out of local municipal meetings this week. If you listened to our episode and want to learn mo...

RANGE Media ’s Luke Baumgarten and Erin Sellers pay attention to news in Spokane and the Inland Northwest so you don’t have to. Join them Thursdays at 3 pm on KYRS Thin Air Community Radio for a round-up of the serious (and not so serious) local news of the week, behind the scenes drama at public meetings and deeper dives on important stories with the journalists who broke them. If you want to lea...