Ferry County

(Runtime 0:55)Some people in northeastern Washington aren’t hooked up to the power grid. Now, a new $5 million federal grant will help more than 200…

The Northeast Tri-County Health District on Friday announced that it has moved Ferry County back a step because of an outbreak, brought upon, at least in part, by two maskless parties at an Eagles’ Lodge in Republic in mid-April.

On Wednesday, the Seattle Times reported former Republican gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp filed paperwork to run against incumbent Rep. Dan Newhouse. Along with his fellow Washington Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, Newhouse was among 10 House GOP members who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump in January.

After losing the governor’s race last week, Loren Culp announced that his police chief job had been eliminated — a move he said felt like a “knife in the back” by the city council in Republic. He’s not actually out of work — and the city of Republic didn’t exactly 'defund' its police department, as the Republican candidate claimed.

Washington state has killed the last two known wolves in the so-called Wedge pack in Stevens County, which had been preying on livestock, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said Monday.

The Ferry County sheriff is asking for $138,000 to cover the costs of filling in for Republic Police Chief Loren Culp while he campaigns for governor. The sheriff's office is located in Republic, a town of about 1,100 people, but Republic has its own police force. Culp is the chief and only member of the force.

The state of Washington on Tuesday ordered that more endangered wolves be killed in a pack that continued to prey on cattle in Stevens County even after one member was eliminated. The decision was criticized by conservation groups who want the state to stop killing wolves. The state has killed more than 30 wolves since 2012.

A lawsuit filed in 2017 claims that Loren Culp and two other law enforcement officers didn’t properly investigate the claims of a 17-year-old girl, who said she’d been molested by a relative since she was five.

A petition that called for new rules to limit when the state can kill endangered wolves that prey on livestock was rejected by the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission.

Nine rural counties are eligible to apply to the state Secretary of Health this week to move to the next stage in Gov. Jay Inslee's four-phase reopening plan. Lincoln, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Columbia and Wahkiakum counties wasted no time and submitted the necessary paperwork and letters of support on Wednesday to advance from Phase 2 to Phase 3.