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Erin Sellers

@merrywanderer.bsky.social
3.6K followers 729 following 1.2K posts

She/they Queer artist 🦋😈💕 Journalist at @rangemedia.co Lover of Spokane Washington politics Wannabe goth 🦇🩸⚔️ Slide into my DMs with those news tips 👀 Secure comms on Signal: 509-850-0488

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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 16h
Fyi if u send me an email that’s clear produced with generative AI, I will ignore it
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 10/10/2026
The workers allege the layoffs were in retaliation for unionizing and have filed seven Unfair Labor Practice Charges with the the National Labor Relations Board. Read the story here:
rangemedia.co
After union effort, WA immigration nonprofit lays off deportation hotline and rapid response staff
The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network laid off workers trying to unionize. Now the National Labor Relations Board is looking at charges alleging that the nonprofit refused to recognize their union demand and instead retaliated.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Hungerstone, Someone You Can Build a Nest In, The Starving Saints, Manhunt and Rouge have been my favs of the last year!
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Alexandra (Alex) Duggan @alexdugganreports.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
A small North Idaho scoop from me today: Rathrum’s former mayor may have been ineligible for the role for a period of time after police reports from an alleged DV incident stated he was living in Spokane. Officials have asked the prosecutor to investigate. www.spokesman.com/stories/2026...
spokesman.com
Rathdrum's former mayor, who resigned amid a police investigation into domestic violence, may have been ineligible for role anyway
Former Rathdrum Mayor Mike Hill may have been ineligible to serve as the North Idaho city’s top elected official this year, a discovery gleaned from police reports after he was accused of domestic vi...
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Still thinking about this story almost a week later…A thriving news ecosystem needs a good daily. I couldn’t do the longform journalism I want to do without reporters at the Spokesman doing the independent daily reporting they do.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Never trust a Disney adult or an amateur magician.
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Mr. Bible Lore Podcast @haydentank.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I don't know a ton about newsrooms but is it bad when the executive editor is lying to the entire newsroom about some of them being community-funded?
Excerpt from the quoted RANGE article:

"It wasn’t until after Curley’s suspension that reporters were told news that called the Comma plan into question. In a meeting days after Curley had been kicked out of the building, Spokesman-Review management shared that despite public claims by Curley that several reporters were paid for by community donors — a source of optimism for the Comma plan — none of the paper’s reporting positions were currently community funded. 

There were “audible gasps,” according to several reporters in the room. The paper had been promoting its community-funded reporters online, removing paywalls for stories written by those journalists. One reporter remembered how at fundraising events, Curley would point to a journalist’s face on a big screen and tell donors that their money paid for journalists’ salaries. Even the reporters took pride in sharing the claim with readers. 

“I’ve been lying on his behalf without even knowing it,” one reporter said. "
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Sylvester lingered in the newsroom, with staff increasingly unclear of his role. Employees described Sylvester as a disorganized and unproductive editor who often shopped online for magician supplies while in the office. He was tasked with managing the summer internship program, they said, but his involvement was so marginal that other staff had to pick up his slack.
“If you ask what his job entailed, I wouldn’t be able to give you an answer,” one staffer said. Sylvester did not respond to requests for comment.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Incredible reporting from @bydaisy.bsky.social and @wilsonc.bsky.social
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Scott A. Leadingham @scottleadingham.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Spokane police shot + killed Joshua Musselman in 2024. Texts between the officers show them aligning their stories + their thoughts on the city's newly hired police chief. Kudos to @aaronhedge.bsky.social + @rangemedia.co on this reporting ⬇️ www.rangemedia.co/im-hoping-we...
rangemedia.co
‘I’m hoping we hit him at least once each lol’: SPD texts from 2024 killing show lack of probable cause
In messages, SPD officers hoped they inflicted maximum damage when they shot Joshua Musselman, mocked the police chief’s response to the killing.
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 02/10/2026
The messages in which officers Daniel Valencia and Matthew Stewart strategized their reports were part of a longer string of texts that started one hour and 14 minutes after they’d killed Joshua Musselman from more than 100 feet away as he was fleeing into his apartment.
rangemedia.co
‘I’m hoping we hit him at least once each lol’: SPD texts from 2024 killing show lack of probable cause
In messages, SPD officers hoped they inflicted maximum damage when they shot Joshua Musselman, mocked the police chief’s response to the killing.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I have not, this is a great suggestion! Thank you!
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Bumping this because I’ve been able to find some teenagers to talk to (thank you!) but no girls sports athletes who might want to chat about how the trans sports initiative would impact them. Any parents of WA girls athletes?
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 30/09/2026
AI slop is invading Spokane op-ed pages. RANGE tested over 1,00,000 locally published words using Pangram, the world's best AI detector, and found that half of the guest op-eds in the Spokesman are now heavily AI-written:
rangemedia.co
AI slop is invading Spokane op-ed pages
Half of the guest op-eds in the Spokesman are now heavily AI-written
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
It has yet to pass the bechdel test (made even more wild by the fact that this is a show about a town where almost all the men died in a tragic mining accident) but I know she plays a gender nonconforming bisexual and so I’m sticking it out
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Watching a stupid western on Netflix just because Merritt Wever is in it…I’m down bad
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Hoping to talk to actual teenagers/students about the Parents Bill of Rights and trans sports initiatives in Washington. Do I have any followers on here with school aged kids who would be down to talk to me?
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 17/09/2026
Spokane School District's test scores continue to trail the county and state averages. But some local educators say that these proficiency scores don't tell the whole story about student progress. RANGE took a look at the data. Read more here:
rangemedia.co
Spokane educators say there's more to lagging test scores
State data shows Spokane students still trailing state and county averages. Some educators say proficiency scores miss the progress that kids in schools are making.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
My op has discovered vibe coding 😠
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Vauhini Vara @vauhinivara.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I profiled the startup behind Pangram, the AI detector everyone’s talking about. It works really, really well. I wanted to understand how they did it. and also: why people still don’t trust them. (also, news: Penguin Random House is using it.) gift link! ✨
bloomberg.com
The World’s Most Reliable AI Detector Has a Human Problem
Armed with a near-perfect detection tool, Pangram is fighting to convince the public AI cheating can be caught.
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Alexandra (Alex) Duggan @alexdugganreports.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Journalists all across the PNW laid off by McClatchy today, a damn bloodbath. Some are people I’ve worked with, some are calling me crying because their mentors no longer have jobs. Journalism is so needed. Cutting investigative reporters, city reporters… Idaho & Washington will be worse off.
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Valerie Osier @valerieosier.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
The kinds of sentences you're missing when you don't subscribe to @rangemedia.co's Friday newsletter: "The surveillance state is all one big artificially intelligent circlejerk." Don't miss todays! www.rangemedia.co/newsletter/
rangemedia.co
Newsletter – RANGE Media
Sign up for the RANGE newsletter to get our latest news, analysis, and conversations from the Inland Northwest.
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 04/09/2026
The cases will just keep piling up, tenant rights lawyer Hannah Swenson said. “ There's no moratorium on filing new evictions, and there's no change in timeline as far as how quickly they could be heard by the court. It's just all getting smashed in.”
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 04/09/2026
In an average week, Judge Candie Dibble’s unlawful detainer docket would receive around 40 eviction filings. But in the third week of August, 138 eviction cases were heard in her courtroom. The sharp increase was a direct result of the Spokane Complex fires
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 04/09/2026
The Other Way People Are Losing Their Homes In The Fires: Tenant rights lawyer warns of impending eviction crisis as renters face long-term repercussions of the Spokane Complex fires.
rangemedia.co
The Other Way People Are Losing Their Homes In The Fires
Tenant rights lawyer warns of impending eviction crisis as renters face long-term repercussions of the Spokane Complex fires
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Not activists on the local liberal organizing page fear-mongering about density…things are getting a little too Seattle NIMBY for my liking
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Lauren @lpangborn.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
📣 I’m starting a new project with my wife and a few friends called Inland Discovery Trails. We’ve been selected as one of four projects to compete for a grant from a community event called Spokane SOUP. Winners are selected by the attendees, so we’d love your support! www.spokanesoup.com/attend
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Hard to pick just 1 fav line from this story because it’s chock full of great writing but here’s my attempt: “Freedom isn’t free, but at $8.99 a month for Amazon Prime Video, you can stream Sons of Liberty for $91 less than the GOP charges for press access.”
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yazikus @yazikus.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
"Even at a badass publication like RANGE, where journalists do cool and rebellious things like get tattoos and use contractions, we have ethical codes too: and one of them is, don’t donate to a political party we’re covering" Lots of humor in this piece. I laughed out loud.
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⛈️ NAN⚡NET ⛈️ @slimecloud.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Expecting fictional queer people to be perfect roles models means dooming real queer people to be unfairly judged for their imperfect humanity
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Alexandra (Alex) Duggan @alexdugganreports.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
NEW: The girlfriend of the suspected Spokane arsonist, Aaron Farinacci, told me she had no idea about any previous behavior with fire until he spoke to a therapist about it. Plus, court records shed some more light on his mental health. Here’s what we know: www.spokesman.com/stories/2026...
spokesman.com
'I was shocked': Aaron Farinacci's girlfriend says she struggles to understand his history with fires. Court documents shed some light
Four days before Spokane’s most devastating inferno in history, arson suspect Aaron Farinacci confided in his therapist about setting 25 past blazes.
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Scott A. Leadingham @scottleadingham.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
This Spokane case (and many others in recent past) has raised the question of when protests cross from protected First Amendment activity to (possibly) illegal action. Here's a helpful explainer on the legal issues at play #1A ⬇️ www.freedomforum.org/when-does-pr...
freedomforum.org
When Does Protesting Become Illegal?
The First Amendment doesn't protect protests that turn violent, become unsafe, involve trespassing or violate other laws.
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Alana B. Sedated @alana-be-sedated.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
The general-purpose handyperson is poised to make a major comeback. People who can keep old stuff working and hack "smart" gadgets into dumb ones are about to be in serious demand.
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 21/08/2026
Wildfires swept through parts of Spokane County just days before the August primary, forcing thousands to evacuate. A RANGE analysis found turnout fell more in fire-affected areas compared to the 2022 primary, as voters faced disruptions to casting their ballots.
rangemedia.co
Election turnout fell in Spokane wildfire evacuation zones
A RANGE analysis found larger turnout declines in areas affected by wildfire evacuations than elsewhere in the county compared with the 2022 primary.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This is also super helpful! Thank you so much 🫶🫶🫶
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Thank you!! This is really helpful. Everything I’ve drafted just keeps feeling weirdly passive aggressive even though that’s certainly not how I mean it
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Fellow journalists - looking for a nice, empathetic way to respond to story tips that are interesting and markers of injustice, but that you don’t have the time to cover because they don’t rise to the same level as other, more pressing stories on your list. Plz help
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 19/08/2026
After weeks of relentless criticism from constituents accusing county officials of secrecy, the Spokane County Board of Commissioners reversed course on data center development Tuesday, unanimously approving a four-month pause on new permits for the centers:
rangemedia.co
Spokane County approves four-month data center pause
After public criticism, county commissioners unanimously approve a short moratorium on data center development.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Back to work after the weirdest two week vacation of my life! My email is back open for business, baby
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Jim Leighty @jdleighty.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
This vigil is happening today at the Federal Courthouse in Spokane.
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 06/08/2026
On August 3, the state insurance commissioner issued an emergency order temporarily barring insurers from canceling or not renewing property and auto policies across all Washington ZIP codes affected by wildfire damage or evacuation orders, through September 30.
rangemedia.co
Spokane area homeowners could lose insurance, adding insult to injury
A state emergency order has offered temporary relief, but data after past wildfires shows problems may follow — whether or not a home actually burns.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I got a bunch that were flagged as spam and it was xfinity and Avista telling me things like: the wifi is out! The WiFi is back on! The power is out! The power is back on!
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
That means with his current 45% of the vote - if it stays around there - Baumgartner has had an extremely bad primary. Unclear how much of that loss of ground is potential Republican voters defecting to Powell and how much is a turnout thing at this point
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Ok ok one more interesting tidbit!!! In the 2018 primaries (Trump’s first midterm) McMorris Rodgers got only 49% of the vote and other republicans combined for another 5%. In 2022, she got 52% and another Repub got 8%. And in Baumgartner’s first year, republicans got around 60% of the vote.
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
And yes - I am checking election results from vacation 🫢
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Still a lotta ballots left to count in the STA tax renewal vote, though the yesses have it for now
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Erin Sellers @merrywanderer.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Interesting election tidbit: In the 6th LD, Republican Jonathan Bingle only has 51% of the vote. In the other 6th LD race republicans got about 58%. Independent Aaron Croft definitely won some Republican votes, although he’s still losing by 3% to Dem Julia Payne
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Spokane Rising @spokanerising.com · 05/08/2026
WOW! The race for Spokane County Prosecutor is ON! Danny Tarkenton: 35,583 (49.01%) Preston McCollam 36,639 (50.46%) Tarkenton is an independent with endorsements from local Democrats, who is running on a smart justice platform. This would be an absolute SEA CHANGE in our Prosecutor’s Office.
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 05/08/2026
With the news that one of the fires in Spokane may have been caused by an arsonist, online pundits have slammed former Governor Inslee’s assertion that fires show danger of climate change.
rangemedia.co
If the Old Trails Fire was arson, climate change was its accomplice
Because of arson arrest, online pundits are mocking former Gov. Inslee's argument that fires show danger of climate change.
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RANGE Media @rangemedia.co · 05/08/2026
Less than 3 hours to get your ballots in! Voting info here 👉 www.rangemedia.co/sp...
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