The Inlander13%
NEWS BRIEFS: Spokane Behavioral Response Unit expands its hours 22%
7/23/2026, 8:30:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Optimism Bias, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 13.9% saturation with 68 hits. Analysis detected 424 faulty-reasoning hits from 488 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 35.6% and a BS Rank of 22% (17,155 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 78.40% of the article peer group.
To address the city’s most complex calls to 911, Spokane Fire Department and Frontier Behavioral Health have teamed up for years to send a co-response team to offer access to services and de-escalate situations.
This month, Spokane expanded the hours of its Behavioral Response Unit, which pairs a mental health professional with a paramedic to help those in crisis.
With another mental health worker and two more paramedics on the BRU team, Spokane now responds to overdoses, psychiatric emergencies and other complex calls Monday through Saturday, from 9 am to 9 pm.
Spokane County’s mental health sales tax is funding the expansion, and this is the first time the fire department has hired paramedics who aren’t cross-trained as firefighters.
“This program helps connect people experiencing behavioral health or substance use crises with the resources they need while ensuring emergency responders remain available for critical incidents,” said Fire Chief Tom Williams in a July 7 announcement.
“We’re proud to continue growing a service that improves outcomes for individuals and our community.”
(SAMANTHA WOHLFEIL)
Earlier this year, Washington lawmakers worked to pass Senate Bill 6346, commonly known as the millionaire’s tax, to fix inequities in the state’s tax code.
Signed by Gov.
Bob Ferguson on March 30, the law enacts a 9.9% tax on any taxable income above $1 million.
Although the law doesn’t go into effect until 2028, voters are already poised to decide its fate.
Last week, the secretary of state certified Initiative 645, which, if passed in the Nov. 3 election, would repeal the law.
Let’s Go Washington, the conservative, millionaire-backed political action committee that collected signatures for the initiative, argues that the tax has no “guardrails” and could apply to every earner in the state (even though the state constitution wouldn’t allow that).
“We are proud to lead the fight to protect families and small businesses from Olympia expanding their state income tax on all Washingtonians,” Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood says in a press release.
As near and distant wildfires rage throughout the summer, Spokanites have had to navigate the waves of ensuing smoke pollution and anxieties about where the next spark might fall.
Over the years, there’s been a number of federal bipartisan efforts to prepare rural communities for response time and resources for wildfires.
Most recently, Chelan County Fire District 6 received a $1 million grant from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development Program to buy two fire trucks.
The fire district serves around 7,300 residents across its 45-square-mile coverage area.
At the beginning of July, the central Washington county battled the Chelan Hill fire that burned around 10,000 acres, resulting in one death, 500 evacuations, and the destruction of 19 homes.
“With wildfires in Central Washington becoming more frequent and dangerous, investments like these can help save lives and property,” U.S.
Sen.
Maria Cantwell stated in a press release.
(DORA SCOTT)
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