A “small but growing number” of Spokane’s veterans hospital staff have affixed photos of Alex Pretti, the man killed by border patrol agents in MN, onto their ID badges. www.spokesman.com/stories/2026...

Veteran and VA employees in Spokane honored Alex Pretti, the slain nurse who worked at the Minneapolis VA, with flowers outside Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center and by putting Pretti's photo on their own ID badges. With @alexdugganreports.bsky.social in today's Spokesman-Review.

"A small but growing number" of employees at Spokane's VA medical center are putting photos of Alex Pretti, their fellow VA clinician killed by CBP agents in Minneapolis, over their own name badges, one nurse tells me. They began today with a moment of silence. More to come at spokesman.com

Scoop: Rep. Dan Newhouse won't run for re-election in 2026, leaving Congress after a dozen years representing Central Washington in the House. One of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, his departure will leave an open seat in Washington's most reliably conservative district.

Chris Dawson built an empire off a program that gave him massive no-bid contracts in exchange for the promise of uplifting Native Hawaiians. He’s now accused of cheating it to line his own pockets. Check out my latest with @propublica.org and @civilbeat.bsky.social www.civilbeat.org/2025/12/hawa...

Republicans have seized upon a scandal involving a Native Hawaiian defense contractor to target a civil rights era program meant to help disadvantaged businesses compete in the federal marketplace. www.civilbeat.org/2025/12/frau... (A collab w/ @civilbeat.bsky.social & @propublica.org)

I spoke with Jim Risch, Ryan Zinke & Michael Baumgartner about the U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean & Eastern Pacific. Sen. Risch said there's "no difference" between drugs & weapons. Rep. Zinke said the alternative to strikes is "no enforcement." www.spokesman.com/stories/2025...

Not ready for prime time? via @washingtonpost.com and Spokesman-Review @orionds.bsky.social and Desmond Butler wapo.st/3KGIcKC

This report attributes several deaths of Ohio VA patients in the Columbus area to the glitchy new VA computer system

Five years after the VA launched a new computer system in Spokane, Desmond Butler and I found the $10 billion Oracle EHR is still beset with problems, as the Trump administration gears up to launch it at 13 more hospitals in 2026. 1/ www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

'We are alive:' federal workers get hugs, validation in fraught period of shutdown and layoffs www.baltimoresun.com/2025/10/03/w...

Some news: The Trump administration notified some AmeriCorps programs this week it was reinstating funding that had been abruptly terminated in April, a sudden about-face that came with no explanation for the reversal or clarity on its scope. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/07/17/n...

Senate version of the "big, beautiful bill" would raise the debt limit by $5 trillion, a $1 trillion increase over the $4 trillion included in the House version www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-ne...

Last week, before Trump ordered ICE to stop targeting farmworkers (as the NYT and others have reported), I talked to several GOP lawmakers about the open secret that U.S. relies heavily on unauthorized migrant workers. Could Congress finally reform immigration law for them?

There's plenty of troubling-to-horrifying stuff going on in the world these days, but this @kashhill.bsky.social story stands out. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/13/t...

President Trump wants to boost U.S. mining, commercial fishing and oil/gas drilling. But his administration has closed a Spokane office responsible for protecting workers' safety in those same industries. I spoke with researchers at NIOSH's Spokane Research Lab whose jobs are in jeopardy.

A music and art festival nestled in an Appalachian river valley wouldn‘t immediately seem like a place where DOGE would be top of mind. But when I went, I indeed found a community that feels like DOGE is closing in all around. My dispatch: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/05/09/n...

A Prince George's County community is on edge after Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported from that Maryland county. www.baltimoresun.com/2025/04/19/a...

I'm proud and grateful to work for The Spokesman-Review, a local news outlet with both an illustrious past (second-worst paper in America, per Harry Truman) and a bright future. They also continue to pay me, even though I'm so bad at social media that I'm posting this a day late.

🧵 1/6 I spoke w/ former State Department folks and foreign policy aids who raised concerns about the Leahy Law being violated with the State Department paying El Salvador $6 million for a year to detain roughly 300 men the U.S. removed. www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-h...

“Oakland…fine me.” Mariners broadcast some gangsters! 😎

Still got it! In full uniform, Ichiro Suzuki throws an 84 mph first pitch for the Mariners' #OpeningDay.

If successful in their races, Katie Porter and Barbara Lee would be taking on roles with little similarity to their time in Congress — and the likelihood that they will be blamed for anything that goes wrong, even if it isn’t directly their responsibility or fault www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

In 25 years of covering national security, I’ve never seen a story like this: Senior Trump officials discussed planning for the U.S. attack on Yemen in a Signal group--and inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...

This story can be republished under a Creative Commons license thanks to the support of The Spokesman-Review's subscribers and donations from the Spokane community. We're the smallest paper in the country with a reporter in DC, yet my editors were quick to send me to Chicago for this story.

I talked with several of the roughly 1,700 VA employees who were fired in February, supposedly to improve efficiency, and are now being paid not to work as court cases play out. They include an HVAC technician who likely saved taxpayers >$10 million and a pharmacy worker who helped save $775k.

My latest for the @ajc.com: A deep dive into the campaign spending of former U.S. Rep. Drew Ferguson, who after announcing his retirement kept up a busy scheduled that included high-end hotels, thousands of dollars in flights and even concert tickets. (w/ Phoebe Quinton) www.ajc.com/politics/on-...

Ken Kizer, who led a transformation of VA health care in the late ‘90s, told me that the department’s plan to cut >80k jobs is “back-asswards” and doing it while accelerating the Oracle EHR rollout is “lunacy.”

Kind of incredible that, btwn Doug Baldwin and Tyler Lockett, the Seahawks had arguably the two most underrated receivers of their respective generations. Feel fortunate to have watched both for so long.

Behind the scenes of the state Supreme Court race, a 'turf war' simmers between Wisconsin GOP and Turning Point "There’s a war. It’s a quiet war. Nobody’s really paying attention to the war. But there’s a war going on." www.jsonline.com/story/news/p...

“It has to come from [Republicans], b/c when Democrats speak in this environment, it’s like the teacher on the old Charlie Brown cartoon,” a WSU regent and wheat grower said.“No one’s listening. It’s got to be brave Republicans that want to act in the public interest." @amandasullender.bsky.social

Five years ago, Collin Martin's teammates walked off the pitch to protest a gay slur directed at him. Few other male athletes have come out since, and he holds tightly to that scene as proof of what is possible. Here’s what’s happened with him since then: www.baltimoresun.com/2025/01/31/a...

“I think it’s harmful to transparency and it’s also going to impact the accountability of government officials. You’re less likely to be able to hold people accountable if you don’t have truly nonpartisan, independent IG offices.” www.spokesman.com/stories/2025... via @orionds.bsky.social

The FAA people-with-disabilities program President Trump has blamed for the crash - with no evidence, with no investigation, and despite the fact that two air-traffic controllers were having to do the job of four - started under President Trump www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I spoke with former VA IG Mike Missal after he was fired by Trump a week ago along with the IGs at 17 other agencies. The dis-Missal (sorry) came after he led investigations that ID'd $37.6 billion in savings and exposed patient harm related to the new EHR, likely averting more harm to veterans.

Gratified and disheartened, former Jan. 6 police officer Harry Dunn of Maryland is preemptively pardoned. This was his response: www.baltimoresun.com/2025/01/20/g...

As Cathy McMorris Rodgers ends her 20 years in Congress, I spoke with some of the folks who know her best—including Mike Johnson, Paul Ryan, John Boehner & many non-speakers—about the Spokane rep’s legacy and how the House will be different without her. www.spokesman.com/stories/2024...

New from me: As his campaign was floundering this summer, RFK Jr. quietly inked a fundraising deal with Libertarians. The unusual arrangement ended up being a windfall for his campaign -- and Trump's www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/11/n...