Garfield County

(Runtime 1:35) After years of struggling to maintain financial viability, the Garfield County Hospital District is laying out a five-year plan they hope…

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.

Washington’s Commerce Department has announced about $10 million in coronavirus relief grants for some of the state’s smallest businesses. Nearly 200 businesses in rural eastern Washington towns are among the recipients.

Health officials in Kittitas County have found at least one new positive case of COVID-19: a worker at a Twin City Foods processing plant in Ellensburg. The news came Friday after more than three weeks of no new confirmed cases. That plus the county’s low population made Kittitas County eligible to lift social distancing measures earlier than other parts of the state.

Given the opportunity to accelerate the restart of shuttered businesses and social activities, six counties in central and eastern Washington wasted no time this week in submitting the necessary paperwork to the state government. Kittitas, Garfield, Columbia, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille County officials hope to hear an answer back from the Washington State Secretary of Health before the end of this week. Lincoln County joined the queue on Wednesday.

As expected, the initiative’s passage prompted legal action, led by Seattle-area governments and public transit supporters protesting a projected $4.2 billion cut in revenue for transportation and transit projects over the next six years. But there has been an unexpected addition to that Puget Sound-centric group: the Garfield County Transportation Authority.

A superior court judge in southeastern Washington who was arrested in April on multiple charges involving sexual misconduct could face more charges. Nine women have reported some degree of sexual misconduct by Asotin County Superior Court Judge Scott Gallina from the time he took the bench in 2014.