Role of news media
Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.
Hockey Night in Canada: A cultural tradition forever changed
4 minute read Preview Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2026A Serbian town is known for raspberries that are exported around the world
3 minute read Preview Thursday, Jun. 25, 2026One Extraordinary Photo: What it takes for inclement weather to become the news of the match
2 minute read Preview Tuesday, Jun. 23, 2026‘Whatever it takes:’ Indigenous group seeks help repatriating items from Switzerland
4 minute read Preview Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2026Troubled Reflecting Pool faces fresh scrutiny over vandalism claims and duck deaths
6 minute read Preview Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2026Prosecutors are declining to charge more felony domestic violence cases, citing staffing issues
15 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2026In April, Spokane police arrested a man for grabbing a woman by the neck and pushing her to the ground. A neighbor had called 911 worried that the yelling next door was a domestic violence situation, and the woman told an officer through tears that she was sick of her boyfriend putting his hands on her, according to the police report.
The next day, Spokane County prosecutors sent an email to police. There was probable cause that the man had committed a felony-level assault, since he had prior domestic violence convictions for assaulting and strangling other women he was dating. But the prosecutor’s office decided to decline the case because the victim didn’t want to pursue charges.
It used to be rare that prosecutors declined to bring such charges, said Sgt. Dave Adams, who has worked at the Spokane Police Department for over three decades and has led its domestic violence unit since August 2024. But starting last summer, Adams said that similar emails started trickling into his inbox, until October, when it was like a spigot had opened. The Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office went from declining one or two felony domestic violence cases referred by law enforcement per month to declining over a dozen, peaking in March at 25 declined cases, according to the prosecutor’s office’s data. People who were arrested for crimes like strangulation, assault and no-contact order violations were being released within days, with no new criminal charges on their record.
“It was a little bit of a shocker,” Adams said. “Suddenly my inbox starts getting filled up, and I’m like, ‘What have I missed here?’”