Okanogan County

(Runtime 1:01) This year, Washington state faces a significant budget shortfallsomewhere between $10 and $12 billion. As lawmakers meet for the…

(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…

(Runtime 1:15) Neary 150 people packed into the annex building at the Okanogan County Fairgrounds to give federal leaders a piece of their minds about…

Crews made progress over the weekend on the Eagle Bluff fire burning in Okanogan County. The fire was 80 percent contained on Monday and crews said there has not been new growth for 48 hours.

n incendio forestal en el condado de Okanogan, cerca de Oroville, en el noreste de Washington, está activo y cubre una amplia zona a través de la frontera entre EE.UU. y Canadá. Los niveles de evacuación se redujeron al nivel 2 en el condado de Okanogan.

A wildfire in Okanogan County, near Oroville, in Northeast Washington is active and covers a large area across the U.S/Canadian border. Evacuation levels were reduced to level 2 in Okanogan County.

Farmworkers’ families in Central Washington need more smoke safety information, accessible childcare, and other resources to be prepared for future smoke events. Those are the results of a recent study where researchers asked parents how they cope with wildfire seasons.

This year in north-central Washington has echoes of 2015, when the complex of fires across Okanogan County burned tens of thousands of acres on the reservation, closer to Omak, and shut down Highway 155 across the reservation for long stretches. What was true then is very possible now: The fires took out a lot of timber that the tribes harvest and use for revenue.

Rural America has been the site COVID hotspots this year: prisons, nursing homes and meat packers. But there are few doctors, ICU beds and little backup when health care workers also get sick. Ken Roberts died Nov. 29, just one person among many who died in an outbreak of COVID-19 at North Valley Extended Care in the Okanogan County town of Tonasket — population about 1,000. So far, at least 16 people at the facility have died since Thanksgiving.

Some of the hardest hit places have been long-term care facilities in rural areas like Tonasket in Okanogan County, and in central Washington. At least three care facilities in Grant County have reported outbreaks and deaths since a large wedding near Ritzville last month attended by some care facility staff who later tested positive for COVID-19. But a definitive connection between those outbreaks and the wedding remains unclear.