The latest Klamath Falls News around the Klamath Basin and the state of Oregon from Wynne Broadcasting’s KFLS News/Talk 1450AM/102.5FM, BasinLife.com and The Herald & News.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2019
Klamath Basin Weather
Today Sunny, with a high near 38. Calm winds. Overnight, clear and a low temp of around 23.
Tuesday Partly sunny, with a high near 35. Overnight a 20% chance of snow flurries, low of 27.
Wednesday, Christmas Day A 20 percent chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 36. Overnight low of 22.
Thursday Sunny, with a high near 35. Low of near 20 degrees.
Friday Sunny, with a high near 38.
Road Conditions
Traveling? Check our cameras below for the latest road conditions from BasinLife.com.
Lake of the Woods Hiway 140
Greensprings Drive at Hiway 97
Doak Mountain looking east
Chemult, Oregon
LaPine, Oregon
Bly, Oregon
Medford at I-5 -Biddle Road & Crater Lake Parkway
TODAY’s HEADLINES
The Klamath County Public Health Air Advisory is Green until noon today.
Longtime OFB Board member, Lyndon Kerns, member of Klamath-Lake County Farm Bureau, was honored with the prestigious 2019 Oregon Farm Bureau “Distinguished Service Award” on last week during the 87th Oregon Farm Bureau Convention at the Salishan Resort in Gleneden Beach.
The OFB Distinguished Service Award recognizes outstanding effort, dedication, and leadership in Farm Bureau over the course of multiple years. Candidates for this award are submitted by their County Farm Bureaus to the OFB Membership & Recognition Committee for consideration.
According to OFB President Sharon Waterman for over 33 years as an active Farm Bureau member, “Lyndon Kerns has served our grassroots organization and Oregon agriculture in countless ways. We are proud to recognize Lyndon with the OFB Distinguished Service Award for his decades of hard work, dedication, selflessness, and effectiveness”.
According to Kerns the Farm Bureau is like one big family working together for something positive for Oregon agriculture. When the voices of farmers and ranchers are united, it makes all of us stronger.
Approximately $6.5 million in federal funding has been secured for Klamath Basin sucker fish recovery, and related projects, through the 2020 spending bill which totals $1.4 trillion.
Funding will support continued efforts to help save endangered sucker species from extinction through floating net pens on Upper Klamath Lake. The funds for shortnose and Lost River sucker recovery increased by $2.5 million to support strategies to restore habitat and overall populations of Klamath Basin sucker, according to Sen. Jeff Merkley’s press office. Funding also includes $5 million habitat restoration in advance of the proposed removal of four dams along the Klamath River.
Merkley also announced his New Year’s town hall schedule, which includes a stop in Klamath Falls at 4 p.m. on Friday January 3rd at Oregon Tech. Merkley said he may meet with individuals who attended a previous sucker summit while in Klamath Falls for his January visit, with details surrounding that meeting to be determined.
The Klamath County Chamber of Commerce is accepting business nominations for its 99th Annual Awards Gala.
This Hollywood-style awards show is scheduled for January 11th at the Ross Ragland Theater. Nominations are being accepted for the following awards: Big Idea Innovation Award; Environmental Leadership Award; Commitment to Community Award; Best Place to Work (two categories); Spirit of Entrepreneurism (for-profit business and civil/social categories); Lifetime Achievement; Pathfinder Award.
Each year the Chamber presents awards at the annual gala including the Big Idea Innovation Award, awarded to an organization in any industry that employs new ideas or approaches to doing business; the Commitment to Community Award, awarded to any organization in any industry that demonstrates a successful approach to corporate social responsibility and can show a positive impact on the community; Lifetime Achievement, awarded to an individual who has demonstrated exceptional business achievement and outstanding commitment to Klamath’s business community over their lifetime; and the Pathfinder Award, awarded to presidents, principals or chief executive officers for devoting time and energy to strengthen and transform the organization that they lead.
Around the state of Oregon
Oregon State Police are continuing the investigation into the discovery of human remains yesterday near Interstate 5 in the Roseburg Area.
Preliminary investigation revealed that in June of last year Oregon Department of Transportation personnel were in the area of Interstate 5 near the exit 124 NB off ramp performing maintenance operations. In the course of their work ODOT personnel located human remains and immediately contacted OSP. OSP Troopers and Detectives responded to the scene and with the assistance of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Medical Examiner confirmed that it was human remains.
The remains consisted of a human skull. Douglas County Sheriff’s Office deployed Search and Rescue personnel to further assist in searching the area for additional remains and did not find any. Through DNA testing the remains were determined to be Scott Evenson (44 years of age at time of recovery) from Myrtle Creek.
Early Sunday morning, Oregon State Police Troopers and emergency personnel responded to the report of a vehicle that struck a pedestrian on Hwy 99 near Glenwood Road.
Preliminary investigation revealed that a GMC Yukon, operated by Tyre Jones (32) of Phoenix, was southbound on Hwy 99 when he struck a pedestrian, Anthony Lux (27) of Phoenix, who was in the roadway. A southbound Jeep Cherokee, operated by Jasmine Turk-Bly (37) of Medford, also struck Lux.
Lux was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced deceased.
Hwy 99 was reduced to one lane in both directions for approximately two hours.
Oregonians will have to pay $18 to $110 more per year to register their vehicles come January 1st as the state implements a new tiered fee structure with higher rates for vehicles with better gas mileage.
The change will add the most front-end cost to owners of fuel-efficient hybrids and electric cars, which contribute less money to Oregon’s fuel tax revenues than gas-guzzler vehicles such as sports cars or pickup trucks. The state said the new fees are necessary to comply with Oregon’s constitution that requires everyone who uses the roads to pay their fair share, and electric car owners can avoid costs by allowing the state to track their mileage.
But while some owners support the change, others say the increases contradict the state’s efforts to reduce emissions and have at least 50,000 electric cars registered by the end of 2020.
On Friday, Jackson County Sheriff’s Office Detectives made an arrest in a child pornography case first reported in 2018.
The investigation began in September 2018 with a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The initial report was that child pornography was being downloaded at a residence in the 7300 block of Upper Applegate Road near Jacksonville, Oregon.
The investigation led to a search warrant being served at the home of the suspect. Subsequently, evidence belonging to the suspect was analyzed by the Southern Oregon High Tech Crimes Task Force. Seven hundred images of child pornography were found along with over fifty images of animal sexual abuse.
Detectives arrested Gary Lee Watts, 61 years old, of the 7300 block of Upper Applegate Rd. Jacksonville, Oregon at his home this morning. Watts was lodged at the Jackson County Jail. He is lodged on twenty counts of Encouraging Child Sex Abuse I (ORS 163.684) and ten counts of encouraging Sexual Assault of an Animal (ORS 167.341.) His bail is $250,000.
Salem – The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services released its first report to the Legislature on prescription drug prices in Oregon. The program is the first in the United States to gather and publicly disclose comprehensive data about prescription drugs.
Before the report was finalized, a public hearing was held in November where Oregonians shared stories of how the cost of drugs affects their lives.
One story came from a nurse who helps patients with diabetes:
“I often found my patients would simply go without their diabetes medications because they could not afford them. We had a pharmacy at our safety net clinic that could provide lower cost medications, but even with our lower prices, many patients could not afford insulin and other diabetes medications.”
Another was from an Oregonian who cannot retire because of the cost of prescriptions:
“My spouse needs to take Eliquis, 5 milligrams, twice-a-day. A 90-day supply costs $1,343. Again, why so much? My spouse has nine different prescriptions that have to be taken. Another costs $400 for a 30-day supply. My spouse is retired, and Social Security is only $1,200 a month. I continue to work to receive insurance benefits to cover those drug costs. I cannot retire until my spouse dies; I can’t afford to.”
“The stories we received were heartbreaking, emotional, and insightful,” said Andrew Stolfi, Oregon insurance commissioner. “The data taught us a lot, and the consumer stories confirmed exactly why this program matters for all Oregonians.”
The report reveals several findings and provides recommendations for legislative changes to reduce the effect of rising prescription drug costs.
Findings include:
- U.S. prices are typically five times more than the highest price globally for prescription drugs reported to the program. For example, the median price for cardiovascular drugs reported to the program was $580, while the majority of prices in other countries ranged from $5 to $164.
- Most of the annual price increases reported to the program range from the reporting minimum of 10 percent to approximately 20 percent. Manufacturers attribute these increases to rebates, the use of co-pay assistance programs, obligations to shareholders, research and development costs, and other related factors.
Recommendations include:
- Patient assistance reporting for new prescription drug reports – New drug reports currently do not include any patient assistance information, despite several new drugs coming to market with patient assistance.
- Transparency across the pharmaceutical supply chain – The price of a prescription drug is influenced by several factors, including the interactions and financial negotiations between pharmaceutical supply chain entities. These entities can influence the price paid at the pharmacy counter, the cost of health insurance premiums, and how prescription drugs contribute to overall health care costs.
The program will continue to build upon the information received in the first year to improve the program for the future and to continue to understand the effect of drug prices and costs. As more information is received, the program will engage in analyses to inform policies to reduce the cost of prescription drugs to Oregonians.
All Oregonians can access the report and view the public hearing by visiting the program’s website.
All Oregonians are encouraged to report an increase in the cost of their prescription drugs or share their story one of four ways:
- Email Rx.prices@oregon.gov
- Call 833-210-4560 (toll-free)
- Online consumer price increase report
- Share your prescription drug price increase story
For more information, visit dfr.oregon.gov/drugtransparency.
Last week the Oregon State Sheriff’s Association recognized several members of the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office for their service in 2019. The recipients of the awards were also recognized at the Jackson County Board of Commissioners meeting on December 11.
The Awards received for their service in 2019 were:
Civil Supervisor of the Year: Sergeant Donny Adams.
Meritorious Service Award: Corporal Jesus Murillo.
S.A.R. Manager of the Year: Chris Duran.
Life Saving Award: Deputy Catherine Williamson. (She was serving with Josephine County SO at the time and we are proud to now have her at Jackson County SO.)
Life Saving Award: Team 4 of JCSO: Sgt. Ben Weaver, Detective Lucas Tobias, Deputies Peter Bilden, Evan Westhelle, Cody Ponder, Tom Hohl, K9 Remco and Rogue River PD Officer Ty Darr.
…For complete details on these and other stories see today’s Herald & News. Wynne Broadcasting and the Herald and News…stronger together to keep you informed.