Posts published in “Washington”

The probably apocryphal story goes that, close to a century ago, President Harry Truman shot back at an inquiring reporter of the Spokane Spokesman-Review: "How does it feel to be working for the wort newspaper in America?"

It wasn't true, of course, even then (though the editorial page certainly did Truman no favors), and since then it has become quite a good newspaper indeed, for some decades providing the leading news report not only in eastern Washington state but also across northern Idaho and into a slice of Montana.

Like nearly all other newspapers, it has suffered in the last couple of decades, scaling down in size and scope year after year, a victim of changing economic conditions. It has remained more active than many newspapers, in fact, because it has remained locally owned, operated for 132 years by members of the Cowles family. Now that family is making a grand gesture toward securing meaningful journalism for Spokane in the years to come.

On Tuesday, the Cowles family said that it would give the paper, plus a $2 million grant, to a nonprofit called the Comma Community Journalism Lab. Publisher Stacey Cowles remarked, “It’s been a great venture for 132 years, but if you had the chance to extend its viability, as people know and love it, why would you not do that?”

The plan is for the paper to continue publishing in print six days a week and retain its online presence, with some indication that more material (reports produced with non-profit support) may be outside the pay wall. All existing staff are expected to be retained at the same pay levels.

It couldn't have been an easy thing to do. But going non-profit probably is the only way to keep regional and local journalism alive, and news organizations are probably going to be a lot stronger going forward if they can build on the expertise and background of those who have come before.

More broadly critical is this: Local newspapers are looking for models that will allow for informing the public over the long haul, through an approach that provides for both enough funding and stable organization to keep people informed in years ahead. The nation hardly has a more critical need.

If you doubt that, look at what has become of our politics today.

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One of the eerier threads of our authoritarian trend line is local, not national: The arrival of the "constitutional sheriff," who is sharp contrast to the actual constitution believes that he is above every law. No one outranks the county sheriff, some of them will say.

Most sheriffs are not part of this movement, but a significant number are. A book, The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy, written by Jessica Pishko and published last September, outines the growth of the movement, as extreme as anything hanging around national politics (I can recommend reading the book). It's especially endemic (though not limited to) rural western counties.

A summary of the book says, "In recent years there’s been a revival of “constitutional sheriffs,” who assert that their authority supersedes that of legislatures, courts, and even the president. They’ve protested federal mask and vaccine mandates and gun regulations, railed against police reforms, and, ultimately, declared themselves election police, with many endorsing the “Big Lie” of a stolen presidential election. They are embraced by far-right militia groups, white nationalists, the Claremont Institute, and former president Donald Trump, who sees them as allies in mass deportation and border policing."

But guardrails can be placed on the office of sheriff, which is why a new bill in the Washington legislature is of note.

The website InvestigateWest two months ago reported on Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer who had gathered a posse - actually, since the group numbers more than 100, something much more than that. The old tradition is that posses would help hunt down criminals, but that's been less common in recent generations. Volunteers deputized by sheriffs in more recent times have often helped with crowd controls and search and rescues. Songer's apparently goes well beyond that.

The new Washington state legislation, House Bill 399, is aimed at limiting what these non-professional deputies can do. It provides some eligibility requirements, limits their use and a little more tightly describes what a sheriff and his deputies can do.

When the bill came up for committee hearing, almost three dozen people turned up to testify, and nearly all were in favor.

One Klicketat resident, Michelle Nijhuis, said “This large core of volunteers, while it’s intended to increase public safety, the wide variety of training and experience levels has in fact created more fear and distrust of local law enforcement within our communities, and it’s undermined law enforcement’s ability to protect us.”

It's a limited step, but it does send a useful message. We all cam use some guardrails, and law enforcement needs them especially. Most sheriffs probably don't need the reminder. But some evidently do.

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