The High Ground: Voices from Eastern Washington

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Grant Fredericks

Far-Right Policy. Local Waters. One Line of Defense.

Far-Right Policy. Local Waters. One Line of Defense.

PFAS levels 5,000% above normal. EPA partners vanishing. And a river still carrying the burden. As federal enforcement fades, Spokane’s defenders are left fighting upstream — against policy rollbacks, toxic runoff, and a system designed to look away.

He Said It Was About Energy Security. Then He Cut the Power to the Future.

He Said It Was About Energy Security. Then He Cut the Power to the Future.

Farmers in Lincoln and Columbia Counties were building a clean energy future — until H.R. 1 cut the legs out from under them. What Rep. Baumgartner voted for is already stalling projects and driving up rural energy costs.

This Is Our Country Too

This Is Our Country Too

A Fourth of July Reflection from WA‑5 On this day, across hills and valleys, city blocks and gravel roads, the sky above Eastern Washington fills with the sound of memory. Flags wave in Republic and Rosalia, in Pullman and Pomeroy. In Spokane’s Riverfront Park, families gather by the

This Land Is Us: A Rural County Fought Back Against Washington, D.C. and Won

This Land Is Us: A Rural County Fought Back Against Washington, D.C. and Won

Where Neighbors Still Show Up At the Republic Library on a weekday morning, someone is always stopping by. A teacher drops off flyers for the summer reading program. A teenager scrolls through job listings on the public Wi-Fi. Children gather around bins of Legos and puzzles while quiet conversation drifts

Birthright Citizenship Makes Washington Strong

Birthright Citizenship Makes Washington Strong

One Birth, Two Futures In a quiet delivery room in Spokane, a baby enters the world. Same nurses, same hospital, same breath drawn into life, as all other babies born here. But under a new federal order, that baby’s right to be American now depends not on where they

The Ground We Tend Together

The Ground We Tend Together

On a soft June morning in Spokane’s Peaceful Valley, the garden is already awake. Dew glints on strawberry leaves. A robin skips between rows of kale. And in a corner of the community plot, not far from the river, two children lift the lid of a cedar box. Steam

The Quiet Liquidation: What the Land-Sale Bill Reveals About America’s Vanishing Stewardship

The Quiet Liquidation: What the Land-Sale Bill Reveals About America’s Vanishing Stewardship

A Premonition in the Pines At the northeastern edge of Washington State lies the Salmo-Priest Wilderness, untouched and elemental. It is one of the last places where the original ecology of the Inland Northwest still breathes: ancient cedars, grizzly bears, the rare echo of woodland caribou. For tribal communities, it