I'm Tracci Dial, and this is NWPB Weekly News Now.

It's hunting season, and we're learning a case of the plague has been confirmed in a blind mule deer in Idaho.

The Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory discovered the case after an early June report from someone in Custer County.

If you're not familiar, that's a rural mountain area of Idaho, just northeast of Boise.

We talked to a pathologist at the Washington State University lab, Kyle Taylor.

“Realistically, in most cases, an animal like that would not survive long in the wild.

And so the chances of coming across that kind of animal is very slim to begin with.” That deer was euthanized.

This marks the fifth case ever documented of a deer with ocular plague.

Taylor said it was a and I quote, ‘a horrendous inflammation in the eyes.

Experts say if you see a wild animal that's blind and there's any unusual behavior, you should report it to your state wildlife agency.

The full story in what the same disease does to humans is online and NWPB.org.

From hunting season to fire season, it's still going strong in the northwest and around the country.

But let's take a look at a win for the year.

Washington has a new law that basically makes it easier for big fires to get state air support called in.

They no longer have to go through several chains of command to get clearance.

Central Washington is one area that typically deals with a lot of big fires.

We talked to Wenatchee Valley Fire Department Chief Brian Brett.

He tells us his department used that new law at least 20 times this year.

“We made significant strides in the ability to order air assets, of which that has paid off enormously for the whole state.” The state Department of Natural Resources is also calling this change a success.

Crews with DNR report they were able to keep most of the potentially big fires this year under ten acres with early attacks from the air.

How this new law went into effect is in this story online.

Check it out.

Also on the website, it's October and we love a good ghost story around here.

Let's take you first to an old hotel in Othello.

It's now the Old Hotel Art Gallery, but it once had a seedier past.

Once rumored to be a brothel, once the scene of a murder, and maybe, maybe, something akin to Casper.

“I don't think we were ever afraid of the ghost.

In fact, I think the ghost was rather good company.” Casper, if you recall, was an alleged friendly ghost.

You just heard from a former gallery director, Nancy Briggs, who says people go to the basement of the old hotel in pairs.

Read the full article on what paranormal investigators found there in 2010 on our website, plus more on what the space is today a beloved community arts facility.

Now you can also find NWPB on Instagram, Facebook, and on YouTube.

I'm Tracci Dial with your NWPB Weekly News Now.