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.
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Klamath Basin Weather
Today Sunny, with a high near 69
Thursday Mostly sunny, with a high near 67.
Friday Rain showers likely before 10am, then rain and snow showers likely. Snow level 4700 feet. High near 44 degrees. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Little or no snow accumulation expected. Overnight low 28.
Saturday A 20% chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 42.
Sunday A slight chance of snow showers before 10am. Partly sunny, with a high near 40. Cloudy overnight, with a low around 18.
Monday Mostly sunny, with a high near 40. Winter is here!
Today’s Headlines
Election Results for the Klamath Basin and Southern Oregon
Alycia Kersey wins the seat she was appointed to, as judge for the 13th District.
Klamath County Sheriff Chris Kaber was running unopposed in the general election after winning the primary by more than 50% in May.
Phil Sudenberg is re-elected to his city council seat in Klamath Falls.
Klamath Falls Mayor Carol Westfall was re-elected to another term by city voters.
Cliff Bentz easily won the 2nd Congressional District for Oregon, a seat vacated by the retiring Greg Walden. Bentz won the decisive victory over challenger Alex Spenser.
Dennis Linthicum has won re-election in his effort to return as State Senator representing our area.
E. Werner Reschke remains State Representative winning his seat back with 70% of the vote.
Voters in Oregon voted to raise taxes on cigarettes and cigars.
Oregon will become the first state in the nation to allow, the psychoactive ingredient of hallucinogenic mushrooms, in therapy use.
Oregon also becomes the first state to decriminalize small amounts of heroin, cocaine, and other drugs in lieu of a program to accept pre-paid help paid for by marijuana tax revenue.
In the U.S. Presidential election, it is at the moment still very close in several battleground states as vote counting continues. Both President Trump and Joe Biden have several paths to victory in the days ahead. Stay tuned.
COVID-19 has claimed nine more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 701 . Oregon Health Authority reported 495 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of yesterday, bringing the state total to 46,460.
Klamath County added 7 new cases yesterday.
Jackson County, according to the OHA, reported a record 70 new cases. Three new cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Josephine County, bringing the county’s total number of cases to 281. One of the nine deaths reported yesterday was from Douglas County in Roseburg, with underlying conditions.
Covid cases around the state are in the following counties: Baker (8), Benton (9), Clackamas (56), Clatsop (8), Columbia (4), Coos (1), Deschutes (12), Douglas (10), Grant (4), Hood River (1), Jackson (70), Jefferson (1), Josephine (3), Klamath (7), Lane (26), Linn (21), Malheur (16), Marion (64), Morrow (1), Multnomah (61), Polk (13), Sherman (2), Tillamook (2), Umatilla (16), Union (8), Wallowa (2), Wasco (1), Washington (57) and Yamhill (11).
Klamath County School District announced Monday plans to reopen all schools and grade levels for in-person hybrid instruction Nov. 16 while some grades of Klamath Falls City Schools will begin in-person on Thursday.
County school district administrators met Monday to discuss 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 kindergartners, first-, second-, and third-graders districtwide. 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.
Representative Greg Walden (R-OR) applauded President Trump signing into law a critically needed fix to the 2018? Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) that would provide relief to Klamath Basin irrigators who have been hard-hit by drought.
The legislation was passed by the House on October 1, and was signed into law on Friday, October 30, 2020. In 2018, the WRDA included language that was essential for irrigators in the Klamath Basin to effectively use $10 million in drought relief funds that the lawmakers had previously secured. This new law provides clear flexibility in how the relief may be used, enabling irrigators to access the funding when there is a severe shortage of water.
The original language authorized up to $10 million a year for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to work with the farming and ranching community to develop and implement strategies to align water demand with available supply.
This technical correction clarifies the authority for irrigators to access the funds for strategies such as land idling and groundwater pumping in times of drought. This announcement comes a few months after Walden brought Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt and Commissioner of Reclamation Brenda Burman to meet with key stakeholders in the Klamath Basin.
Earlier this year, the Trump Administration made good on an April commitment to deliver 140,000 acre feet of water for farmers in the Klamath Basin.
Recent legal testimonies assert that the Oregon Water Resources Department has not taken exclusive charge of stored water in Upper Klamath Lake, despite court orders requiring it do so.
In Klamath Irrigation District v. Oregon Water Resources Department, Judge Channing Bennett ruled in August that OWRD failed to comply with Oregon water law by allowing the Bureau of Reclamation to release flows down the Klamath River to improve habitat quality for endangered salmon. This case builds on a 2018 case that formally transferred control over stored water in Upper Klamath Lake from Reclamation to OWRD.
On October 13, the judge released an order requiring OWRD to “immediately stop the distribution, use and/or release of stored water from the UKL without determining that the distribution, use and/or release is for a permitted purpose by users with existing water rights of record or determined claims to use the stored water in the UKL.”KID filed a motion for contempt last week asserting that OWRD has still not complied fully with the order.
Around the state of Oregon
A Lakeview woman died Monday when the truck she was driving in crashed off Highway 395 in Lake County. The driver of the vehicle has been charged with manslaughter. The passenger, Clarea Lasley, 37, died at the scene. Daniel Decker, 22, also of Lakeview, was driving northbound about 9:45 a.m. when, according to Oregon State Police, he failed to negotiate a corner, overcorrected and rolled his vehicle. Decker was taken by ambulance and later flown to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend for serious injuries.
According to police, Decker will be referred to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for charges of manslaughter and DUII.
Becky Hultberg, President and CEO of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, released the following statement on voter approval of Measure 108:
“Because of the commitment of community hospitals across our state, Oregonians overwhelmingly passed Measure 108, providing critical revenue to fully fund the Oregon Health Plan. Community hospitals drove a winning strategy that included a coalition of more than 270 health care organizations, nurses, doctors, businesses, organized labor and community-based organizations. Together we invested in a comprehensive campaign structure that kept our opponents out of the race and on the sidelines. Our victory shows that from securing funding for vital health care services, to combating the COVID pandemic, to helping our neighbors in need during the fire season, hospitals will always stand up for the health of our communities.”
Nike said Monday it expects to eliminate 700 jobs at its Oregon headquarters near Beaverton by early January as part of a broader restructuring the company announced during the summer.
The footwear and apparel company had previously estimated its Oregon layoffs at roughly 500, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The cutbacks announced Monday, in a brief legal filing with state workforce officials, appear to include that tally. Nike did not immediately respond to a message seeking confirmation. Nike’s layoffs, however, aren’t a response to the coronavirus pandemic downturn – its sales are strong. Rather, Oregon’s largest company is changing strategies.
On Tuesday, November 3, 2020 at approximately 12:15 P.M., Oregon State Police Troopers and emergency personnel responded to a three vehicle crash on Hwy 26 near milepost 112.
Preliminary investigation revealed a Nissan Pathfinder, operated by Bonnie McCoy (71) of Milwaukie, OR. was traveling westbound when it attempted to pass a Dodge Ram towing a travel trailer, operated by Deborah Dunne (65) of North Plains, and collided with an eastbound Infinity operated by Ryan Gile (26) of Vancouver, WA.
McCoy was transported to St. Charles Madras and then to St. Charles Bend via air ambulance. Passenger in the Pathfinder, Barry Barber (71) of Milwaukie, OR. was flown via air ambulance to St. Charles Bend.
Gile was transported to St. Charles Madras where he was pronounced deceased.
Homeownership is becoming less and less attainable due to rising home prices. But while the cost of homeownership is high, renters often face an even heavier financial burden.
New data from the Census Bureau shows that American renters spend a median 31.0% of income on housing, compared to just 16.5% for homeowners. These figures vary widely throughout cities and states across the country. The high cost of rent impacts low-income renter households more than any other group.
Over 75% of households with annual income below $50,000 per year spend 30% or more of their income on rent and utilities. Among renter households with an annual income below $20,000, almost 90% spend over 30% of their income on rent.
At the state level, the proportion of income spent on rent varies from a high of 35.6% in Louisiana to a low of 24.7% in North Dakota. Renters in the Midwest tend to allocate the lowest proportion of their income toward housing costs. The opposite is true for renters in states scattered throughout the Northeast, West Coast, and South. In Louisiana, Florida, California, and Rhode Island, the typical renter spends more than one-third of their monthly income on housing.
To identify the most unaffordable cities for renters, researchers analyzed the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS). For each city, researchers calculated the median share of income allocated toward rent and utilities by dividing median gross rent by median household income for renters.
The Oregon State Police Fish & Wildlife Division is asking for the public’s help with identifying the person (s) responsible for the killing of a wolf in the Pine Creek Wildlife Management Unit, located in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest, on or about October 29, 2020.
This incident occurred in the Grouse Flat area off of the USFS 3990 RD, northeast of Halfway, OR.
An elk hunter found the deceased wolf and reported the incident to OSP. The hunter then led OSP and ODFW personnel to the location of the deceased wolf. The investigation determined the wolf was shot with a firearm.
ODFW stated the wolf was a non-breeding sub-adult female wolf approximately 1.5 years of age. The wolf was in the Pine Creek Pack territory.
Anyone with information regarding this case is urged to contact OSP Sergeant Isaac Cyr through the Turn in Poachers (TIP) hotline at 1-800-452-7888 or *OSP (mobile).