The workers allege the layoffs were in retaliation for unionizing and have filed seven Unfair Labor Practice Charges with the the National Labor Relations Board. Read the story here:

By the end of the month, WAISN laid off 14 people, including most of the workers in the union effort, leaving the entire organization at a lower capacity amid a surge in immigration enforcement.

Employees formed the WAISN Workers Collective in early September, prompted in part by what it described as WAISN’s financial crisis, an earlier round of layoffs, reduced hours and a perceived lack of transparency.

This week in CIVICS: Spokane County is realizing that a good data center zoning policy is going to take more than four months to develop and will consider extending it until June 2027. Read about that and everything else going on at public meetings this week here:

After we published an article on the rising number of guest writers for the Spokesman-Review using AI to write their columns, the paper issued an official policy: No more AI writing on the opinions page.

If the disaster declaration is approved, fire victims will be able to apply for up to $42,500 from FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program. Over the past 5 years, the president has taken an average of 43 days to approve a request for aid from WA, according to a RANGE analysis.

But Friday evening, the department released a statement describing the message as “disturbing” and saying the department has added them to evidence in an internal affairs investigation into the officers’ conduct. Read the update and the full statement in our updated story here.

The police department did not initially comment because the texts were part of a wrongful death lawsuit.

On Thursday, we published text messages in which a Spokane police officer said he was hoping "we hit him at least once each lol," referring to the killing of a man who was having a mental health crisis by the officer and four of his colleagues.

Read the full story here:

Curley declined to comment for this article. His attorney said the claims made by employees were "all inaccurate" and hung up the phone when pressed on which claims specifically he believed were inaccurate.

Current and former Spokesman-Review employees also described workplace complaints involving Curley and one of those editors, including allegations of inappropriate lewd and sexual comments around employees, including teenage interns.

Staffers questioned his financial oversight of Comma, which hired his own son at a salary topping most reporters and recruited out-of-town executives to serve as top editors before Comma had met its fundraising goal.

Employees said stories that may have angered powerful community figures or potential donors were killed or curtailed, and that they felt he retaliated against workers he viewed as disloyal.

More than a dozen current and former employees, along with records reviewed by IW and RANGE, reveal how the newsroom had raised concerns about Curley’s management for years, culminating in his suspension from the paper on Aug. 7 and a vote of no confidence from the union.

The messages in which officers Daniel Valencia and Matthew Stewart strategized their reports were part of a longer string of texts that started one hour and 14 minutes after they’d killed Joshua Musselman from more than 100 feet away as he was fleeing into his apartment.