foreign 2 News begins now thank you for joining us on krem2 plus I'm Tim Pham this is your KREM 2 News week in review join us as we take a closer look at some of the biggest stories in the Inland Northwest this past week [Music] in a unanimous vote Spokane City Council Members passing an emergency ordinance several weeks before the state's existing drug laws expire now anyone possessing or using drugs like meth heroin or fentanyl in public could be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor after J
uly 1st the penalty becomes a gross misdemeanor or up to nearly a year in jail however the law gives officers discretion they can offer someone treatment or Community Resources instead of a citation or jail time we're not trying to ruin anybody's lives you're going to notice that it is a gross misdemeanor and not a felony because a felony does have the ability to ruin somebody's life and if somebody needs some help we want to help them and we want to keep our community safe is it perfect you kno
w but it's the best that we have at this time it gives our offices a tool I hope it will be applied fairly as they go forward council members heard testimony from business owners and citizens who say they're fed up finding needles and Fentanyl foil on sidewalks late tonight Spokane mayor Nadine Woodward reacting to the new law saying in part quote criminalizing The Possession and use of drugs sets the critical expectation that we have prioritized the health and safety of our community this actio
n establishes tough boundaries for drugs and leaves every opportunity for treatment Governor Jay Inslee has called lawmakers back to Olympia to pass new state drug laws before they expire at the end of June if that happens the city's ordinance will likely be amended to match state law in Spokane Kyle simcha KREM 2 News the claim's been popping up all over online including in this newsletter from Eastern Washington representative Kathy McMorris Rogers which claims that fentanyl is now the leading
killer of Americans aged 18 to 45. our sources to verify this claim are the CDC the non-profit families against fentanyl the Washington Department of Health and Trooper Seth Green with the Idaho State Police let's start with the CDC according to their 2021 mortality data the leading cause of death for American adults was unintentional deaths which includes accidental drug overdoses due to synthetic opioids like fentanyl the non-profit families against fentanyl using 2020 CDC data reports that f
entanyl is the leading cause of death for American adults when we analyze the 2020 data unintentional injuries accounted for slightly more than 78 thousand deaths with drug overdoses accounting for nearly 50 000 deaths of those fifty thousand thirty five thousand drug overdoses can be attributed to the use of synthetic narcotics which which includes fentanyl but here's where it gets tricky the CDC doesn't track fentanyl death specifically it only categorized them under synthetic opioids which co
uld include other drugs too so let's look at Washington and Idaho what are you guys seeing in terms of fentanyl in the state of Idaho well we're seeing a massive increase over the past few years Corporal Seth Green with the Idaho State Police says in the Gem State fentanyl has overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of death for adults in the state we have seen actually Eclipse crashes actually so we saw 353 ODS uh majority of which were fentanyl last year and then only 265 fatal crashes so w
e've seen the numbers between crashes used to be the least cause of death now it's obviously ODS it's a similar story in Washington the chief science officer for the State Department of Health said fentanyl is the leading cause of death among adults accounting for 765 overdose deaths in 2021 more than car crashes and suicides so while fentanyl may be the leading cause of death for Americans the claim needs context but we can verify according to our sources the drug is the leading cause of death
for adults in Idaho and Washington [Music] thank you Kootenai County Prosecutors Stanley Mortensen says it was blatantly obvious Dean's level of force was reasonable and proportional to the threat at the time just over one month ago CDA police officers responded to a deadly shooting at the Silver Lake Plaza parking lot KREM 2 News was there and spoke to Witnesses about what they saw and heard are loud shots like like a gun or fireworks and and louder than I've ever heard before CDA police spent
weeks on the investigation before bringing the case to the Kootenai County prosecutor after weeks of his own review County prosecutor Stanley Mortensen determined James Dean would not be charged for killing Shane Brown Dean responded to Mr Brown's escalation in Idaho citizens have the right to defend themselves and to prevent themselves from becoming victims and so Mr Dean was acting lawfully allegedly Brown drove his car toward Dean putting him on the hood that's when Mortensen says Dean fired
his gun five times Mr Dean's subjective belief that he felt threatened was reasonable and objective at that time and that's the reason why what he did was justified and his level of force his response was reasonable and proportional to the deadly threat deadly response more says he had only one side of the story but additional evidence helped fill in the gaps there were two cell phone videos that captured a fair amount of the confrontation and so when I had Mr Dean's statements and I had to ask
myself is he to be to be believed I was able to review the cell phone videos and corroborate almost everything he you know told the officers Mortensen says social media comments have talked about what Dean could have or should have done in the situation he says his office doesn't determine charges based on theoreticals only on what actually happened Mortenson says charging someone in a situation like this varies Case by case evidence at the scene police findings and witness testimony all play a
part in determining whether or not someone should face charges in Coeur d'Alene Janelle Finch KREM to news foreign we also asked Washington about the latest timeline when will this thing finally be finished they told us it all depends on if Governor Inslee approves the state budget the legislature just passed if that happens the north-south corridor should be done by 2030. how should the north-south freeway connect to Interstate 90 the Department of Transportation asking the public to weigh two
options the Department of Transportation is more concerned about the flow on the freeway but we are advocates for the flow of the neighborhoods Barbara Woodbridge president of the east Spokane Business Association passed out flyers tonight telling people to push for option one which keeps many of the existing on and off ramps to I-90 option two would take away the eastbound ramp to I-90 from Hamilton traffic would be diverted onto Third Avenue cause more congestion in the neighborhood areas and
as we know that's not safe I'm leaning towards item one or option one because I think that that is better for traffic flow option two is roughly 30 million dollars more expensive but officials say it could save drivers two minutes getting onto I-90 compared to option one it also includes an additional access point to I-90 both options discussed at a packed meeting tonight it's good to see the turnout we weren't sure it tells me how important this project is this is a significant project that a l
ot of people have been waiting for for a long long time people art Mel who's lived in Spokane since 1975. my ex-boss has told me many times that when this Project's done he's going to drive me through it and I keep telling him I'll be dead long before that ever happens his son-in-law James Faulkner is more optimistic what I took out of it is progress because we're seeing two options now he's thankful washdot is taking the time to listen it feels more thought out it feels warm like they're consid
ering how it's truly going to impact this neighborhood and why am I coming here because I'm in the neighborhood so washdot is encouraging people to take an online survey to comment on the two options there's a lot to consider here more than we could fit into this story so I'll have a link to the survey in this article on krem.com [Music] it's rising it's getting pretty high it's getting up higher every day it looks like right now the Spokane River is spilling onto parts of the Centennial Trail t
his water may only be just a few inches deep but don't be fooled this isn't something you want to play in most Trail goers say the current state of flooding doesn't phase them but Wayne Lucas isn't taking the situation lightly we walk around it stay out of it yeah you know food around water Norman bone Camp watches the River from his home every day he says Nature's Beauty overshadows the minor inconvenience of water on the trail glad I live in this condo so we can watch the river we really enjoy
it it's different every day Richard Finley agrees with bone Camp he says even out of place the river is beautiful walk this Trail every day that's what I was doing right now and this is the first day that I had to go around because of the water I walk walk it every day it's a beautiful place here although it may be pretty the city of Spokane says you should be cautious around the river as levels continue to fluctuate the city of Spokane has closed off several portions of the trail that are curr
ently underwater for the safety of Trail goers in Spokane Janelle Finch currency news find the word Lake being in its name the city of Moses lake has a water problem according to City officials the city gets its water from two deep Basalt aquifers those aquifers are starting to get Tapped Out the aquifer is over pumped that's water division manager Chad streevy with the city of Moses Lake according to him the city gets its water from two aquifers the water pump and the Grand Ronde however they a
re not recharging at a rate equal to or above pumping rates for the Basin as one of the bread baskets of Washington demand for water is high in the Columbia Jason strevy says the winner demand can be between and four to five million gallons of water a day in Moses Lake but when summer rolls around he says that number can jump up to 16 million gallons of water a day majority of the summertime is to irrigate grass that's the word that's where the water goes it's why the Moses Lake City Council is
considering some changes to their water ordinances part of it would include extending conservation to being year-round rather than just in the months of June through September another proposed change is switching from an odd even irrigation calendar to designated days that would allow people to irrigate three days a week that would also prohibit irrigation on Mondays and restrict it between 10 in the morning to 7 in the evening on Tuesday the Moses Lake City Council decided to table the ordinanc
es street view hopes they'll get them passed soon however he says these are just short-term solutions to a long-term problem we're trying to make the water we do have last as long as possible city council is expected to go over the water ordinances again on June 13th in Moses Lake Cody Proctor KREM 2 News on a sunny day in Riverfront Park it's easy to see Spokane is springing back coming out of the pandemic we are stronger than ever new numbers from visit Spokane show that in 2022 visitors spent
1.4 billion dollars generating 616 million dollars in labor income from tourist employees adding up to a little over 17 000 jobs and that also created 219 million dollars in state and local taxes tourism is not only something that we get to show the best and brightest of Spokane but it also makes a difference to the well-being of our citizens Beyond those numbers there are other tourism benefits for Spokane like increasing the exchange of cultures ideas and even a little fun okay then we'll get
you some trout Robert hettner's hot dog cart has pulled in tourists near Riverfront Park for 11 years or maybe it's the hats very much so I've been wearing this for almost 10 years now and if I don't put the Hat on somebody will stop and wonder why something's wrong but during the height of the pandemic even that couldn't help him very painful with the loss of Tourism and half his season about half of each year 2020 and 2021 I was allowed to be out here how you doing brother good how are you so
Robert's doing good yes business is better now than it was before the pandemic especially since Spokane is coming back by planning ahead for big events like the 50th celebration of Expo 74. all sorts of convention businesses and obviously the 50th anniversary is going to be another big thing downtown big things ahead let's hope he's got enough dogs Shannon Maudie that's what I'm afraid of crim2 news thank you I'm standing by the clock tower in Riverfront Park it's one of the few remaining struc
tures left from Expo 74 and it might be surprising to hear about the group of people that built the World's Fair it's been almost 50 years there's a lot of pain that is associated since Expo 74 took over Spokane Asian Americans helped build what Spokane is and especially our historical landmarkers that we have now being a Cathcart has lived in Spokane her whole life she wonders why more people don't know about the group of people that made Spokane's World's Fair possible a lot of the Asian Ameri
cans were not included in that story Asian Americans were responsible for most of the work to create the World's Fair most labors worked on the railroad even before Expo 74 when everything we're standing there was a rail yard but when the World's Fair arrived those same labors transitioned to build Expo 74. that group of people really came into the hard labor the city announced plans for a two-month lawn celebration for the 50th anniversary of the World's Fair all of our community the chance to
to tell the story of the impact of the fair program manager Matt santangelo hopes to tell those lost Stories part of the World's Fair is recognizing the impact good bad an indifferent and that's part of our goal for this next year the 50th celebration in 1974 Spokane was the smallest Metropolitan City to host a World's fair Chinese immigrants work hard to provide for their family even though they aren't widely recognized Wei Ling Zhu says Spokane's Chinese population should be proud the Expo was
one of the testimony of the success of our community and I'm so proud that the Chinese Community has been a significant part of it as verbena she's excited to see kind of how we Rectify history a little bit not necessarily rewrite it but acknowledge all of these past voices some of the structures from the World's Fair still exist including the Clock Tower and the Pavilion the 50th anniversary celebration starts in May of next year and for two months Riverfront Park will be transformed to honor
Expo 74. in Spokane Nathan Hyun KREM 2 News this is one we've been following for you for a while a bill that allows cities to build multi-family units like duplexes and Townhomes in more places it's something Spokane was actually first to do in Washington and now the entire state is looking to follow the city's example I was happy to sign this bill congratulations to everybody [Music] after more than a year of work in the legislature Governor Jay Inslee has signed a bill aimed at filling Washing
ton's missing middle housing we've had a million new washingtonians moved into the state in the last decade and we simply have not built enough housing for them to live in the bill allows multi-family units like duplexes and triplexes up to six plexes in areas typically reserved for single-family homes it also prioritizes more affordable units and placing them along Transit routes so that people have choices for different types of affordable housing at their price point it's something Spokane al
ready allows Citywide city council member Zach zapone says Spokane's just running out of lots to build on this new law allows more to be done with less we can create more units and a smaller amount of space it becomes denser which creates better use of infrastructure like sidewalks and bike routes and accessing our local neighborhood business districts since Spokane's local legislation passed last August there are nearly 300 new units in pre-development 19 units have gotten permits ready to be b
uilt these are slow changes but it provides more another tool in the tool kit for people to use to address our affordable housing zappone says in Spokane and many of those units will be either new development or converting large homes that actually used to be multi-family housing back into fourplexes Shannon Maude KREM 2 News council members suspended their own rules tonight passing this ordinance on the very first reading officials say there's a growing number of these illegal businesses and wi
th them drug use prostitution and human trafficking Spokane Valley police will now have the authority to enter massage businesses in the city to verify people providing services are allowed to and hold valid licenses this is about taking care of our citizens and making sure families and citizens and children are safe in our city limits councilwoman Brandi Pete says their intention is not to go after law-abiding businesses however some are not following the law in Spokane Valley police say they'r
e getting more and more reports we have a very flagrant ads that are being put online advertising you know stuff illegal sexual acts Chief Dave Ellis says they're already investigating businesses they believe are unlicensed or engaged in illegal activity like prostitution and human trafficking they've taken action done search warrants and actually conducted investigations are even still going on as we speak according to state law a person running an unlicensed massage practice can be charged wit
h a gross misdemeanor on the first offense a second offense is considered a class B felony business owners could face even more serious criminal charges related to prostitution in human trafficking and we also talked to a person who owns a licensed legitimate massage business in the valley she was very happy about this ordinance and wants the police to go after illegal parlor she says they give clinics like hers A Bad Name today's spell Transit Authority invited people every day Spokane bus ride
rs tell me they felt the battery-powered ride was smoother and quieter compared to sta standard Fleet when people think about their ideal transit system several details can come to mind ease of use safety is probably a big concern for everybody this is what sta wants to hear and consider ahead of the City Line launch in just over two months sta says battery electric zero emission buses will be in full operation this is a great way to move people through the community it's something bus riders sa
y they're looking forward to I've been wanting to ride this bus ever since I've seen it come out me too and then I've I'm a regular bus rider so anything to do with Spokane Transit I would I like to be on board James Vandermeer says he rides the bus often that's why he signed up to test ride the City Line Wednesday I live on the South Hill I live close to the park and ride and I take the bus uh almost every time I want to go somewhere sta says the ride is about an hour from end to end and connec
ts Brown's Edition all the way here to SEC through Gonzaga downtown with high frequency Service Test Riders got off the bus excited about the lines official launch it was quiet it was fast I didn't have to wait very long to get on yeah I like the map in the bus that shows you where it's going that was actually a thing that is nowhere else on other buses sta says it ran over 6 million rides last year it says the City Line will reduce traffic congestion and bring in an estimated 175 million dollar
s can't over the next 20 years SCA is planning to celebrate the launch of its City Line rapid transit system by providing riders with free rides for seven weeks starting July 15th in Spokane Janelle Finch currency news [Music] Spokane native Joanne Ferris it's beautiful is seeing the trentality marker in person for the first time a marker dedicated to remembering Spokane's Japanese American culture so these are the words that my dad and at surikawa wrote many many years in the 60s decades in the
making so and this is the translation in Japanese the plans for this marker started before Expo 74 and are just now coming to life it's a long time coming and I'm glad that there will be this so people can remember remember the influence Japanese Americans have had on Spokane it all started in Trek alley Trent alley was the center of Japanese culture in Spokane but was demolished to make room for Expo 74. it used to be where the Saranac building in Downtown is now and that's where the market wi
ll be as a reminder that there are people who worked and worked hard and suffered it's a story similar to what Chinese Americans lived through too Chinatown also a bustling Hub of culture in downtown Spokane decades ago eventually whittled down to nothing after the Chinese Exclusion Act stopped Chinese people from moving to the U.S tomorrow this marker will be dedicated to Chinatown alongside the trentali marker this is great I'm so proud thank you helping moms and parents like me with the diape
rs helps us tremendously by helping us get like I said new shoes for our kids new clothes it helps tremendously if they could just donate just a little bit oh [Music] this morning when rosars opened its doors they put out these the creme Care's diaper Drive backs we're here at the 29th store on Spokane South Hill it is the very first thing you see when you walk in and if you take one of these to check out they'll ring it up right on your grocery bill for ten dollars and it represents a week's wo
rth of diapers and wipes for local families so we're asking you through May 21st to support the creme Care's diaper drive because parents tell us that these diapers which help keep their babies warm safe or dry are a Lifeline for them and thank goodness they have it because I mean I don't know what Vanessa's would probably do I'm sure they couldn't afford it you know what I mean to just often donations alone it's diapers are expensive you know what I mean this place is awesome I couldn't think o
f a better place for people to donate money to that's for sure you know yeah it's definitely a lifesaver for me also want to mention a big thank you to Washington Trust Bank they kicked off the creme cares diaper drive with a ten thousand dollar check that's a thousand diaper type packs again going to area families through Vanessa B Hannah local Crisis Nursery which helps so many families and what we're told by the folks at Vanessa B hand is that the diapers not only do they of course keep a bab
y happy and dry and healthier but that reducing stress of any kind can help reduce the incidence of child abuse so it's our little part in making sure all our kids here in the community are happy and healthy and can live safe lives so again here are the facts about one in every three families will need assistance throughout the United States with diapers and Vanessa B hen is one of the biggest Distributors of free diapers to local families and the creme Care's diaper drive we Supply those diaper
s with your help so go to any area Rose or Washington Trust Bank make a donation ten dollars by a week's worth of diapers and wipes and we'll make sure they go to local families reporting in Spokane Laura papetti KREM 2 News foreign all the work has paid off nice that was perfect for Russell Grove there's so many good golfers out there and um you know it was just nice to finally kind of have a good few days and breakthrough Grove who is the head golf coach at North Idaho College has qualified fo
r the PGA Championship I was super happy Grove solidified his spot by placing in the top 20 at the PGA professional championships a lot of people have helped me over the years in one way or another and yeah so it was just awesome for them to to know their help has paid off Grove has competed in qualifiers before but this will be the first so going straight to a major here he's been the Head Golf coach at North Idaho College for eight years his players aren't surprised at his accomplishment the t
eam we weren't entirely surprised we had some expectation from going into it so coach said I can give a couple swings I'm going to give it a try now I might not be the very best but Russell Grove has played his entire life Grove says he played pretty much every sport growing up but golf was ultimately his passion trying out for the high school golf team and made it um and then kind of just continued to press before he coached at North Idaho College week in this so you're getting super strong he
was a golf pro at Avondale and Hayden Lake Golf Course it just keeps building off of that who he is as a person putting in the hard work Nic athletic director Sean Noel says he puts 110 effort in everything he does so let's get that ball a little bit back he's had the success that he's had here with our student athletes and our golf teams um and that's why I think he's seeing the success and for what might be the biggest moment of his life not really nervous I would say he just can't wait to soa
k it all in I'll do my best on every shot and ultimately that's all he can do in Quarter Lane Nathan hun super excited to play with the best players in the world KREM 2 News [Music] the college basketball landscape has drastically changed over the past few years and specifically the process for early entrance into the NBA draft and we've been getting a ton of questions of what this means for our local college players and their Futures with the teams so let's break things down let's start with th
e rules back in 2019 the NCAA introduced a new rule where college players can sign with an agent without losing College eligibility now there is a caveat we'll get to that shortly this new rule allows players to essentially get a taste of what it would be like to turn pro and in the process the agent helps the player find out where they stand in terms of the upcoming draft whether they be a first or second rounder or even get drafted at all now here's the catch under the new rule allowing player
s to sign with an agent and remain eligible if a player decides to return to college they must terminate all agreements made with an agent before the rule implemented in 2019 if you signed with an agent you became ineligible now here's another aspect that has changed players can go all the way through the NBA draft process meaning they can participate in draft day and if they go undrafted they are able to return to College of course this is for early entrance the one stipulation being to do this
you must have participated in the NBA draft combine to return the athlete must inform the school's athletic director by 5 PM the Monday after the draft again before the 2019 rule changes if a player entered the draft their college eligibility was lost if a player's enters the draft and is drafted by a team they lose their college eligibility you can't be taken by a team and then decide hey you know what I want to go back to college this protects NBA teams and their draft picks a player can't go
back to college to raise their draft stock if they're unhappy with where they were taken in total a player can enter the NBA draft three times there is a limit set on withdrawing twice so the third time you enter you cannot return to college if you'll remember this was a part of the drama around Malachi Smith entering the draft where reports throughout that this was his third time declaring but this was actually his second time so he can return to college basketball if he decides to the next ti
me he enters the draft it is final so a lot of this boils down to key dates April 23rd being the deadline for early entry that's when we learned about a lot of players around the country entering into the draft May 15th through May 21st is the NBA Combine this is where a lot of players get feedback where they could wind up going in the draft May 31st is the deadline to withdraw from the draft for example this was the day Drew Timmy decided to return to Gonzaga for last season if he were to have
stayed in the draft and was taken in the late second round and wasn't happy with that spot he wouldn't have had the opportunity to return to Gonzaga this is a date a lot of players decide to withdraw from the draft June 22nd is the NBA draft itself and then Monday June 26th at 5 PM is the deadline for undrafted players to in inform their schools they wish to return so those are the rules and key dates to remember ahead of our local players it will all come down to what they decide is best for th
em which likely depends on the feedback they get on if and when they could get drafted foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] saw him on him on the show High School Musical musical the series when I was in like 7th or eighth grade nice I like found out that this was happening I was like like what [Music] Spokane is very special to me you know I grew up going to Coeur d'Alene Idaho for years and years and years my dad is from there my grandparents lived there for 65 years in the same house what's up
what's up one two one two three you know I'm here with my dad and you know speaking about leadership and trying to just hear it with the students um to encourage to help share a few stories about my struggles and my experiences my life and my career that might help them and theirs in the future and uh and also just to have some fun to get ourselves moving have a good time hi I'm Adam Meza and I'm in 10th Grade it was amazing like I've never felt that good like I love this so much it was the most
impressive like words and inspiration or words that I've heard and it just makes me feel like makes me more confident since I do step here and I dance it's a really big thing for me to be here if I could sell something to my younger self it certainly would be you're enough as simple as that sounds but you know the fear of not being enough really stops you from doing certain things the fear of failure the fear of uh of embarrassment all those you know things so for me I would just tell that youn
g boy hey you're enough no matter what [Music] thank you for joining us here on KREM 2 plus for a look at some of the biggest news stories of the past week for the most current news throughout the weekend you can watch our latest newscast right here on KREM 2 plus just look for them in the bottom navigation menu I'm Tim Pham thanks for watching foreign
Comments