The latest and most comprehensive coverage of local News, Sports, Business, and Community News stories in the Klamath Basin, Southern Oregon and around the state of Oregon from Wynne Broadcasting’s KFLS News/Talk 1450AM / 102.5FM, The Herald & News, and BasinLife.com, and powered by Mick Insurance.
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 Election Day
Klamath Basin Weather
Today, Election Day Mostly sunny, with a high near 68.
Wednesday Sunny, with a high near 69.
Thursday Mostly sunny, with a high near 67.
Friday Cold. A chance of rain or showers at times with a high of 46. Snow level 6000 feet lowering to 4700 feet in the afternoon .
Today’s Headlines
Voter turnout continues to surge in Klamath County, far outpacing turnout rates in 2016. More than half of registered voters in Klamath County have voted in the general election ahead of today’s deadline, along with more than half of Oregonians statewide.
As of Friday, 59% of Klamath County voters had turned in their ballots. By this time in 2016, 51% of ballots had been received.
Statewide, turnout has reached 61% with the most votes counted out of Benton, Wallowa and Grant counties. Sixty-nine percent of Benton County voters have turned in their ballots, along with 67% each in Wallowa and Grant counties.
Klamath’s turnout percentage is still on the lower end, however, compared to the rest of the state. Jefferson and Josephine counties have had 55% voter turnout by Friday morning. Umatilla County had 52% turnout, and Malhuer was the lowest at 51%.
This time in 2018, Klamath County had a voter turnout of 38%. The total turnout in 2018 midterm was 65%. Total Klamath County turnout in 2016 was 78%. Klamath County also has nearly 10,000 more registered voters this year than in 2016. Ballot boxes close at 8 p.m. tonight.
Liberal Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Monday put the National Guard on standby for a 48-hour period around Election Day and used her executive authority to activate a unified command of state troopers, sheriff’s deputies and Portland police to handle any protests. On standby say some legislators, will be too late for what might happen.
Portland has seen near nightly protests for five months after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and many demonstrations end in vandalism, arson and violent clashes with officers. President Donald Trump’s call for a crackdown on protests in Democratic-led cities has attracted right-wing groups to the city for “law and order” rallies and pro-Trump events.
The unified command will begin at 5 p.m. Monday and end at 5 p.m. Wednesday. It can be extended if necessary, Brown said.
Klamath County Public Health officials reported eight new cases of COVID-19 in the community on Monday. The local case count is 443.
One case was assigned to last week, bringing that week’s total to 26. This week’s total is 7. The single case reported for today and added to last week’s total was in the statewide communicable disease database on Saturday, Oct. 31.
Under new school metrics, two-week increments now will be evaluated for number of Covid-19 cases and test positivity rates.
Specific weekly totals are important. The week runs from Sunday to Saturday. To move to full on-campus instruction, the two-week total would need to be less than 34. To have on-site of hybrid of on-site and distance learning, the two-week total would need to be less than 68.
Official numbers for Klamath County will be released by Oregon Health Authority this week.
Over the span of three days — Saturday, Sunday and Monday — officials from the Oregon Health Authority have reported more than 1,600 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state. The rise in case numbers, transmission and positivity rate have been occurring in Oregon since mid-September.
As of Monday, the state’s total COVID-19 case count, since the start of the pandemic, has reached 45,978. The death toll is 692.
In another sign that the numbers are going the wrong way, on Saturday authorities reported that 14 people in the state had died from COVID-19, matching the highest death toll reported in a single day as the state struggles to contain the coronavirus. Most recent data from the health authority, released last week, shows that Oregon’s positivity rate remains at 6.5%.
The new cases are in the following counties: Benton (1), Clackamas (93), Clatsop (3), Columbia (1), Coos (1), Crook (2), Curry (4), Deschutes (30), Douglas (6), Jackson (17), Jefferson (1), Klamath (8), Lake (1), Lane (12), Lincoln (1), Linn (11), Malheur (7), Marion (60), Multnomah (199), Polk (11), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (13), Union (1), Wasco (5), Washington (71) and Yamhill (4).
KCSD plans to return all students to classrooms starting Nov. 16th
Klamath County School District plans to reopen all schools and grade levels for in-person hybrid instruction on Monday, Nov. 16.
District administrators met today (Nov. 2) to discuss the new state COVID-19 metrics and to decide when the district could reopen its larger and suburban schools to 4th-12th-grade students. Klamath County Public Health tentatively approved the Nov. 16 date based on current 14-day metrics and the district’s success in fully reopening its small, rural schools and providing hybrid in-person instruction to kindergarteners, first-, second-, and third-graders districtwide.
“We are excited to be able to reopen all of our schools to in-person learning,” said Glen Szymoniak, superintendent of the Klamath County School District. “We’d like to do it even sooner but we need some time to make the transition.”
Schools must meet all ODE Ready Schools, Safe Learners requirements and guidelines. Challenges include organizing transportation, managing student cohort sizes, and providing 35-square-foot of space per student in classrooms. Students and staff will need to follow all safety protocols, including wearing face coverings and following social distancing rules.
Schools will be contacting families about transportation and other details in preparation for reopening. Students will be assigned a cohort and attend under a hybrid model (in-person classes two days a week and distance learning the other days).
The district also needs to determine if any of its KCSD Online students plan to return to the classrooms. KCSD Online programs will continue.
Under new state guidance released Friday, Klamath County COVID-19 metrics qualify districts to bring back elementary students for hybrid and on-site instruction. That guidance also allows districts to phase in junior high and high school in-person instruction once they demonstrate the ability to limit transmission in the school environment.
Klamath County Public Health officials say the district has already done that. KCSD has offered in-person instruction since Sept. 8, when all its K-3 students returned to classrooms under an A/B hybrid model (two days in-person instruction; three days distance learning). All students (K-12) in its smaller, rural schools started school Sept. 8 under a hybrid model, and four of those schools have now reopened fully with students attending four days a week.
Lost River Junior/Senior High School and Merrill and Malin elementary schools have reopened fully, offering in-person instruction four days a week. Bonanza Junior/Senior High School transitioned from hybrid to four days a week today (Nov. 2). Chiloquin Junior/Senior High School and Chiloquin Elementary School will continue plans to reopen to in-person hybrid instruction Tuesday.
Fairfield Inn and Suites, together with the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce, has announced a grand opening celebration on November 19, 2020 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
This event will celebrate the opening of the newly built 92 room Fairfield Inn & Suites located in downtown Klamath Falls along Lake Euwana. The hotel is operated and managed by True North Hotel Group from Overland Park, Kansas.
The hotel is expected to become a top choice for travelers in the Klamath County area. The hotel was developed by the Ferguson Hotel Group and adds more lodging to downtown Klamath Falls. Julie Matthews, Project Manager with Klamath County Economic Development Association (KCEDA) said, ““After being involved with the site location, market research, permitting assistance & incentives for the company, KCEDA is thrilled to see the completion of the beautiful Fairfield Inn in our downtown. The hotel brings 20 new jobs & $13.8 million investment to our tax base ” For more information, please contact the Chamber at (541) 884-5193.
Oregon Main Street announced its 2020 “Excellence in Downtown Revitalization” award winners, including Klamath Falls and the Klamath Falls Downtown Association for the outstanding partnership award. KFDA and the city have long partnered in revitalization efforts in downtown, according to the organization.
Klamath Falls contracts a number of downtown activities to KFDA, including management of banners and flowers, programming and scheduling for downtown parks, and marketing and promotion. Oregon Main Street’s Excellence in Downtown Revitalization Awards were created in 2010 to recognize the efforts of those who work day-in and day-out to revitalize Oregon’s historic downtowns and traditional commercial neighborhoods. Six other towns in Oregon were honored with awards this year. Oregon Main Street is part of Oregon Heritage, a division of Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.
Klamath County Public Heath has issued a yellow air quality advisory. The advisory started yesterday at noon and goes until today, at noon. Here’s what this means: 1. Only certified woodstoves, pellet stoves, and fireplace inserts may be used inside the air quality zone. 2. Individuals with approved exemptions may use their wood burning heat source inside the air quality zone. 3. Use only seasoned dry wood. 4. Outdoor burning is prohibited countywide. If you have any questions call 541-883-5118.
At Ross Ragland Theater this weekend…On Saturday, November 7th at 12:30, Katie Harman and Christine Eggert are thrilled to present a concert that will livestream around the world!
In collaboration with Klamath Film and the Ross Ragland Theater, the Virtuosa Society cofounders Eggert and Harman have crafted a musical and visual experience which will be simultaneously performed on stage and on screen. “We want to shine a spotlight on the unsung female composers whose works span classical to Classic Hollywood Era… and everything in between!” says Harman.
The intrigue of the project captured the attention of Klamath Film, who has come onboard to interweave bespoke footage and mini-documentary elements into the live concert, with multiple live cameras covering the performance. The launch concert takes place at the Ross Ragland Theater, the beloved Art Deco building in downtown Klamath Falls, at a carefully chosen hour: one that is in a “civilized time of day in every time zone for concert watching,” laughs Eggert. The duo has a wide-reaching audience throughout the world, including a hearty Danish fanbase. The mission of The Virtuosa Society is to bring female composers and compositions to the forefront of history. We share the stories and groundbreaking efforts that helped shape the future of music, also serving as a launching pad for the advocacy of more female-composed pieces to be regularly programmed by major symphony orchestras, opera and theater companies.
“This is a first for the Ragland, the ability to stream LIVE premiere entertainment worldwide. A proud moment for us, especially during these challenging times.” said Executive Director of the theater Scott Mohon.
Tickets are $35.00
In-person attendance and online streaming passes are available at rrtheater.org
Around the state of Oregon
The Fremont-Winema National Forest has Christmas tree permits now available, according to a news release. Permits cost $5 and are nonrefundable.
A maximum of five permits can be purchased and can be used through December 25. The permits are available for purchase from several vendors in Lake and Klamath counties, online through www.Recreation.gov, and by mail from all Fremont-Winema National Forest offices.
Each permit is valid to cut one tree and must be secured to the tree in a place visible during transport of the tree from the forest. Christmas tree permits from the Fremont-Winema National Forest are valid for use on the Forest in Klamath and Lake Counties. It is the responsibility of the cutter to ensure they are not getting their tree from private, state or other federal lands. Christmas trees cannot be harvested in Congressionally-designated Wilderness Areas, active timber sales, developed recreation sites or tree plantations.
The number of unemployed Oregonians stuck in the backlog for adjudicating claims may be more than twice as large as the state has said, according to a deposition filed Friday as part of a class-action lawsuit.
In weekly calls with the media, the Oregon Employment Department has claimed that it is steadily whittling down the adjudication backlog from 52,000 at the end of September to about 42,000 in late October. In an Oct. 16 deposition filed in connection with the lawsuit, though, unemployment insurance division director Lindsi Leahy said the actual number may be as high 96,212.
Employment department Director David Gerstenfeld said last week that the state hopes to clear its adjudication backlog by the end of the year. However, the higher tally suggests that at the current pace of adjudicating claims the work may not be done until sometime well into 2021.
Nike Inc. will lay off at least 700 workers, according to a notice filed with local and state officials.
The national sportswear giant said the update reflects “the number of individuals to be permanently separated” from its workforce at its world headquarters just outside Beaverton, Oregon.
None of the workers being laid off are members of a labor union, the notice added.
The notice was submitted under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires the government to be notified of major layoffs. The company also announced layoffs last summer.
In Springfield, authorities said Monday that they were aware of a report of voter intimidation over the weekend.
According to a letter sent to media outlets by Mary B. McCord, legal director of Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, armed groups turned some voters away at a ballot drop box near a water park in Lane County.
In a press conference Monday, state police Superintendent Terrie Davie acknowledged the incident, saying, “There was an incident down in Springfield over the weekend.” She said local law enforcement was “aware of it and they’re working with the state police in that area and so is the county.” Springfield police said a Patriotic Trump 2020/Make Oregon RED Rally was held in Lively Park on Sunday.
PORTLAND, Ore.— a former civilian program manager for the Oregon National Guard’s Oregon Sustainment Maintenance Site (OSMS) was sentenced to federal prison today for making false statements in representing the operational status of military equipment used to maintain the U.S. Army’s war-ready posture and billing for $6 million in repairs that were never done, announced U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams.
Dominic Caputo, 49, was sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison and three years’ supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said “This criminal investigation and prosecution demonstrates why misrepresenting the availability of essential equipment to the Department of Defense is a serious offense and will be punished accordingly”.
“Mr. Caputo’s scheme to defraud the Department of Defense (DoD) violated the trust afforded to him by the Oregon National Guard, threatened the integrity of the DoD acquisition process, and wasted taxpayer money,” said Bryan D. Denny, Special Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Western Field Office. “This investigation is yet another example of our agents and law enforcement partners working together to uncover corruption and protect taxpayers’ dollars entrusted to the DoD.”
“Americans rightly expect that those supporting our armed forces do so with pride and integrity, not indifference and dishonesty,” said Renn Cannon, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon. “We thank all of our law enforcement and military partners for working together to bring a resolution in this case and ensure the future safety of our troops in the field,”
During sentencing, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut ordered Caputo to pay $2.6 million in restitution, the amount of overbillings for labor that was never performed by the Oregon National Guard employees at OSMS.