Spokane Wildfires: Three fires north of downtown Spokane have burned 10,000+ acres, destroyed 600+ structures, and driven mass evacuations of about 65,000 residents, with an arson suspect arrested as crews push for containment. Water & Agriculture: A growing dispute over central Washington water rights centers on groundwater permitting delays tied to farmworker housing plans, with irrigators urging state leaders to intervene and speed up approvals. Cloud & AI Investment: Amazon crossed the $3 trillion valuation mark as investors bet on AWS, advertising, and AI demand. AI Infrastructure Deal: Anthropic reportedly signed a $10 billion computing-capacity agreement with a cloud infrastructure startup, underscoring the arms race for AI compute. Retail Pharmacy Restructuring: Walgreens is closing fewer stores than originally planned—under 100 in 2026 across at least a dozen states—after earlier projections suggested hundreds more. Federal Funding: The U.S. Senate advanced a bipartisan continuing resolution to avert a government shutdown and pause new grant criteria, extending highway and transit authorization. Local Homelessness Funding: Yakima County approved an extra $200,000 for Camp Hope to stabilize a low-barrier shelter after a major funding cut. Business & Sports Trade Spillover: Seattle’s MLB deadline move added outfielder Taylor Ward from Baltimore, while the broader deadline featured major pitching swaps including Tarik Skubal to the Dodgers.