Washington

The Spokesman-Review

The Spokesman-Review is a family-owned, daily newspaper in Spokane, the second-largest city in Washington state and the largest northern city between Minneapolis and Seattle. For the past 135 years, the newspaper has served readers across eastern Washington, the northern Idaho Panhandle and north to the Canadian border. Its focus is local and regional stories, including community news, government issues, health, business, entertainment, sports and the outdoors. In addition to a partnership with KHQ, a sister television station in Spokane, The Spokesman-Review also has a unique cooperative agreement with newspapers across the area, including the Seattle Times and The Idaho Statesman, to share stories. This arrangement helps provide robust daily reports and greatly benefits all readers across the Pacific Northwest.  

Laurel Demkovich

Laurel Demkovich reports for The Spokesman-Review based in Spokane, Washington, and covers the Washington Legislature and state government. After graduating from Indiana University in May 2019, Demkovich completed an internship at The Washington Post where she covered cops and courts for the Post’s local desk. Demkovich also completed internships at the Tampa Bay Times and the Daily Hampshire Gazette in Northampton, Massachusetts, covering local government, breaking news, and general assignments. While at Indiana University, Demkovich served as managing editor of the school’s student newspaper, the Indiana Daily Student. She has won several awards for her writing from the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Indiana Collegiate Press Association named her Brook Baker Collegiate Journalist of the Year in 2019. She also won first place in feature writing from The Hearst Journalism Awards Program.

Ian Davis-Leonard

Ian Davis-Leonard reports for The Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, and focuses on issues facing the working-class citizens of Snohomish County, including mental health, transportation, education and addiction. Davis-Leonard hails from Everett and spent three years working for the student newspaper at Gonzaga University, a Catholic college in Spokane, Washington. He also has had student summer internships covering local news for Beacon Publishing in Mukilteo, Washington, and The Herald. Davis-Leonard earned praise for his collegiate journalism including winning three Society of Professional Journalism Mark of Excellence awards for news reporting and sports reporting.

Brandon Block

Brandon Block reports for The Olympian in Olympia, Washington, focusing on homelessness in and around the state capital and the factors that contribute to homelessness, such as mental illness and drug addiction. Block is a reporter and filmmaker who, for two years, has covered criminal justice, immigration and the environment in Baltimore. His writing has appeared in WYPR 88.1, the DCist, and the Baltimore Beat, and he fact-checked the book “I Got a Monster: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Corrupt Police Squad.” He spent the last year in Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked for an education nonprofit on a Princeton in Asia fellowship. He holds a B.A. in Political Science and Film & Media Studies from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Block got his start in journalism by writing film and theater criticism for Baltimore City Paper.