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.
Monday, March 15, 2021
Klamath Basin Weather
Today Scattered snow showers before 11am. Mostly
Tuesday Areas of frost before 8am otherwise, sunny, with a high near 45. Calm wind. Overnight, clear with a low around 24.
Wednesday Mostly sunny, with a high near 54. Overnight, cloudy, with a low around 30.
Thursday A slight chance of snow before 8am, then a slight chance of rain and snow between 8am and 11am, then a chance of rain after 11am. Snow level rising to 5500 feet in the afternoon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 30%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.
Friday A chance of snow before 11am, then a chance of rain. Partly sunny, with a high near 48.
See Road Camera Views:
Lake of the Woods
Doak Mtn.
Hiway 97 at Chemult
Hiway 140 at Bly
Hiway 97 at GreenSprings Dr.
Hiway 97 at LaPine
Today’s Headlines
There are no new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon. The state’s death toll remains at 2,322. The Oregon Health Authority reported 234 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of today bringing the state total to 159,617.
Today marks one year since we lost our first Oregonian to COVID-19. We would like to remember the 2,322 Oregonians who lost their lives and acknowledge the immense grief felt by their families, friends, coworkers and neighbors. Our thoughts go out to everyone who has experienced a loss to COVID-19.
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 100, which is four fewer than yesterday. There are 21 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is two fewer than yesterday
Despite a February court opinion that vacated the quantified water rights of the Klamath Tribes, the Oregon Water Resources Department announced Friday that they will continue to enforce the Tribes’ water calls until a judge orders otherwise.
The Klamath Tribes maintain senior water rights in the Klamath Basin, which were affirmed by the Klamath County Circuit Court last month, but Judge Cameron Wogan wrote in his proposed order that those rights need to be re-quantified.
Until the court issues a final order to that effect this spring, OWRD said they would continue enforcing calls in accordance with the adjudication of the Tribes’ water rights, which grant them instream flows in the Williamson, Sprague and Wood River Basins, all of which are tributaries to Upper Klamath Lake.
The Tribes regularly make calls on that water to support fish, including endangered C’waam and Koptu (Lost River and shortnose suckers), during dry periods. In a news release, OWRD said they expected that the court’s final order would provide further direction on how the department should (or shouldn’t) proceed with enforcing the Tribes’ adjudicated claims.
A Klamath Falls man was sentenced to 9 years and 9 months in prison after he pleaded guilty Wednesday at the Klamath County Courthouse to three counts of encouraging child sex abuse.
According to the Klamath County District Attorney’s Office, Jerrold Don Hanson, 50, duplicated images and recordings of sexually explicit conduct involving children. Hanson was facing 30 counts of encouraging child sex abuse, but 27 of those charges were dismissed. Hanson had already been convicted of seven counts of encouraging child sex abuse in Klamath County in 2002.
Bill Leary will always be known for his smile, his love for his family, and the love for the kids at school. He always gravitated to the kids that needed him the most and his mission was to provide a safe, healthy and happy place at school.
In Bill Leary’s honor, his family is awarding a $1,000 scholarship each year to a graduate of Klamath Union High School. Bill loved kids and he always gravitated to the kids that had to work a little harder or needed a little extra help. Each year one lucky student will be chosen by the Leary family to be the Bill Leary Memorial Scholarship recipient.
The application is on the Pelican Education website: www.pelicaneducationfoundation.com Minimum requirements include: 3.0 cumulative high school GPA, attending junior college or a 4-year college in the fall and a completed essay. This essay, less than 250 words, must address the following: What are your dreams, your challenges, how will this scholarship help you accomplish your dreams? After learning about Bill Leary, what can you do in your life to honor his legacy?
The Bonanza Lions Club awarded four Student of the Month awards in February. Because of COVID and the school schedule, the organization had been unable to present its monthly awards through much of the previous year.
The Lions Club said that recognizing students is a special honor for the club and they were happy to return to the tradition. Each student receives $50 and a certificate.
Klamath Outdoor Science School recently received a $1,266 grant from the Klamath Basin Audubon Society to purchase 40 pairs of compact binoculars that will be used in KOSS programs and will also be available for loan to area educators.
The 8×21 binoculars will be just the right size for small hands and faces, lightweight, easy to focus, and brightly colored. They replace older and heavier binoculars purchased by KBAS more than a decade ago for the Klamath Basin Birding Trail Kits. Most of those binoculars are now in disrepair. The class sets of binoculars are one of the most popular of the Klamath Basin Environmental Education Kits that are managed by KOSS. Classroom teachers and outdoor educators can check out any of these kits for use with students.
A complete list of kits available is on the KOSS website at www.klamathoutdoorschool.org.
Around the state of Oregon
Oregon officials announced Friday that, while President Joe Biden’s pledge to make all adults eligible for vaccines by May 1 is welcome news, the eligibility timeline in the state will not change until weekly shipment allocations increase.
Ever since the vaccine became available in December, officials in Oregon have been methodical about who receives the shots and when. Currently in Oregon, those who can receive the vaccine include health care workers, first responders, teachers and residents over age 65.
People who are 45 or older with a pre-existing condition, seasonal and migrant farmworkers, food processors, the homeless and those affected by last summer’s wildfires are scheduled to become eligible on March 29. In addition essential workers and people with underlying conditions between 16 and 45 are scheduled to become eligible May 1.
All Oregonians over 16 who wish to receive a vaccine will be eligible no later than July 1, based on the state’s current timeline.
COVID-19 Cases Surge 38.2% in Oregon in the past week
New coronavirus cases leaped in Oregon in the week ending Sunday, rising 38.2% as 2,332 cases were reported. The previous week had 1,688 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.
Oregon ranked 49th among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week the United States added 375,140 reported cases of coronavirus, a decrease of 10% from the week before. Across the country, 18 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.
Within Oregon, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in Grant, Coos and Curry counties. Adding the most new cases overall were Multnomah County, with 369 cases; Washington County, with 309 cases; and Marion County, with 235. Weekly case counts rose in 20 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week’s pace were in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.
Oregon ranked 32nd among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 20.6% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 21%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows.
In the week ending Sunday, Oregon reported administering another 193,631 vaccine doses, compared to 178,437 the week before that. In all, Oregon reported it has administered 1,366,471 doses.
Across Oregon, cases fell in 13 counties, with the best declines in Lane, Douglas and Jefferson counties. In Oregon, 26 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 88 people were reported dead. A total of 159,617 people in Oregon have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 2,322 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 29,438,222 people have tested positive and 534,880 people have died.
Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, reintroduced legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent across the country.
The bipartisan legislation, if enacted, would apply to states that currently participate in DST, which Oregon and most states observe for eight months out of the year. Standard Time, from November to March, is only observed for four months out of the year. The bill would simply negate the need for Americans to change their clocks twice a year, and could have benefits for nation’s health and economy. Officials say there are dozens of potential national effects of making Daylight Saving Time permanent that would make a positive impact.
Spring break is almost here, and with it scores of cooped-up Oregonians who are itching to get out on vacation. Oregon schools will be on spring break from March 22 to 26, and while many families may have dreams of sunnier locales, the Oregon Health Authority still recommends that Oregonians stay in their regions and not travel to other states or countries, to prevent further spread of COVID-19.
Those recommendations might result in an influx of travelers in local tourist towns and popular outdoor recreation areas. What those travelers are actually able to do, however, will be dictated by state officials, who assign each Oregon county a risk level based on the current spread of COVID-19. Those risk levels determine things like indoor dining and capacity in museums and other attractions.
That’s a big change from last year, when the coronavirus pandemic effectively canceled spring break. While vacations are back on for 2021, the invisible threat remains.
Some prisoners who helped fight the destructive Oregon wildfires last year could be released early. Gov. Kate Brown commended adults in custody who “bravely fought these wildfires and helped prevent further destruction and loss of life across the state,” according to the March 5 letter provided to the news outlet.
The governor in the letter said these adults in custody should be rewarded and acknowledged for their contribution to this historic firefighting response. Marion and Polk county district attorneys say they’re opposed to the early release of violent offenders who helped fight the fires.
Redistricting Could Have Oregon Getting a 6th Congressional District
One message that came across during Wednesday’s hearing on redistricting, it is that there needs to be an independent special commission to redraw Oregon’s Congressional and legislative district lines.
This process is required after the Census every 10 years to balance the populations between districts, with the goal of creating a more balanced representation in Congress and in the Legislature between political parties.
Currently, in Oregon’s five U.S. Congressional districts, four of the representatives are Democrats and there is only one Republican, Rep. Cliff Bentz, who took over from Greg Walden, when he retired. In the state Legislature, there are super majority of Democrats in both chambers. In addition participants wanted to see less partisanship.
Both the Senate and House have special committees that are on redistricting and they are holding virtual public hearings for each Congressional District, two for each one for a total of 10, with the first Second District hearing held Wednesday, and a second one scheduled for March 20, starting at 2 p.m.
State lawmakers had the first opportunity to speak, with Rep. Mark Owens, R-Crane, leading off. “Keep communities whole,” he said. “Give people more of a voice.” Recognizing that his House District 60 has been losing population, and its boundaries will be expanded to approximate the right number of people, Owens added, “It’s going have to get larger.”
He was followed by Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, who said he wants to see a fair and non-partisan process and was the first to bring up the need for an independent commission to decide the new boundaries. Several people followed him. “We need to be sure every citizen is counted fairly,” said Findley.
Peter Hall, from Baker County, said he would like to see his county connected with Wallowa and Union counties in a district, having common interests. In the last two redistricting cycles, Baker County has been included with Malheur, Harney, Grant, and part of Lake County this last cycle.
Nathan Seltz, said the Second Congressional District could change drastically with the possible addition of a sixth district.
Barbara Klein suggested the formation of an independent citizens advisory committee, commenting there is not a lot of representation for a diverse population. The Second District is one of the largest in the country, larger than some states.
Todd Nash, Wallowa County Commissioner, said the committees should consult with county commissioners who represent local communities. Paul Anders suggested that redistricting be held off until the census figures are available, which is not expected until sometime in September.
Oregon Has a Lot To Do With the New Stimulus Package Allocating Over $28 Billion for Restaurants
On Thursday, March 11, President Joe Biden signed into law a new stimulus package with significant help for the nation’s restaurant industry. The American Rescue Plan has allocated $28.6 billion in relief grants for food businesses, including restaurants, food carts, and bars. Of that funding, $5 billion has specifically been set aside for food businesses whose annual gross receipts were below $500,000, and grants will not exceed $10 million for restaurant groups and $5 million for individual businesses. The first 21 days of the period that these grants are distributed, businesses owned by veterans, women, and marginalized groups will be prioritized.
This restaurant relief package is a version of the Restaurants Act, a bill drafted and brought to congress by Portland’s own Rep. Earl Blumenauer. That bill — a $120 billion grant program — eventually was tacked on to the second version of the Heroes Act, which never passed the Senate. This restaurant relief package was salvaged from the remains of the restaurant act, added to the American Rescue Plan in a more limited form.
Although it’s not $120 billion in grants, this restaurant relief package is significant, nationwide assistance specifically focused on the foodservice industry, which has been absolutely decimated by the coronavirus pandemic. Although Oregon has seen a handful of small-scale grant programs over the last year, the American Rescue Plan allocates aid specifically for this industry on a national scale, without the financial hang-ups or debt of the Paycheck Protection Program. And, in many ways, this specific package would not exist without the specific work of Oregon’s food industry.
When Oregon restaurant owners and food service workers watched coronavirus creep into the state in early March 2020, they knew to call Erika Polmar. Now the executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, Polmar was living a very different life two years ago. The founder of Plate and Pitchfork, a business organizing farm dinners and agritourism opportunities in Oregon, Polmar isn’t exactly green to legislative work; she has advocated for farmers with state and local government, and served as an agritourism and land use policy consultant for Travel Oregon since 2016.
On March 13, 2020, a group of 70 Oregon industry professionals, including people like chef Naomi Pomeroy and then-Submarine Hospitality partner Luke Dirks, met at the event space within Ava Gene’s building in Southeast Portland to discuss a plan moving forward for the restaurant industry in the face of novel coronavirus.
They knew they needed help from the local government, but they weren’t sure how to get it. Chefs like Doug Adams of Bullard reached out to Polmar for help, knowing her legislative background. Polmar drafted an open letter to Gov. Kate Brown, asking for things like a moratorium on commercial evictions, a ban on onsite dining, unemployment insurance for furloughed restaurant workers, and grant programs, specifically set aside for businesses with fewer than 125 employees to help with the loss in profits. More than 150 food service workers and business owners signed the open letter.
That letter, in many ways, was a starting point for a massive wave of grassroots activism on the part of the restaurant industry. That initial meeting of restaurant workers was an early version of the Portland Independent Restaurant Alliance; that organization, in turn, shifted into the Independent Restaurant Alliance of Oregon, which advocates for local restaurant owners across the state.
Chef marketing and talent agent Andrew Chason reached out to Pomeroy — the owner of the now-closed Beast, Expatriate, and Ripe Cooperative — to connect her with the earliest iterations of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, and created a path for initial conversations with celebrity chefs like Tom Colicchio and José Andrés discussing restaurant relief policy and goals on a national scale. Pomeroy decided she couldn’t be on any call or coalition without Polmar. “She understands legislation very well,” Pomeroy says. “I knew I wouldn’t do it without Erika.”
The Independent Restaurant Coalition’s goal, early on, was to figure out how a grant program would work for restaurant owners — one that provided aid with the understanding that COVID-19 was going to be a long-term problem for the food service industry. “[The Paycheck Protection Program] was an eight-week solution, which has become an 18-month problem,” Polmar says. “Not only did it not work for restaurants, it was based on employment. It was a short-term solution.” So they began talking to more restaurant owners around the country, to build some sort of grassroots campaign to advocate for independent restaurants on the congressional level.
Meanwhile, Rep. Blumenauer was trying to figure out the right way to help the restaurant industry. Blumenauer, a Portland-born politician who has represented Oregon’s third district since 1996, has used Portland restaurants and cafes as the setting for conversations with constituents for decades, especially during campaigns. By the spring of 2020, Blumenauer knew he had to do something. “There were a number of late-night anguished text messages I received about challenges in the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program; it didn’t look like it was going to work for them,” Blumenauer says. “Hearing the stories directly was very powerful for me.”
So, Blumenauer’s office began talking to Portland restaurant owners, people like Han Oak’s Peter Cho, Coquine’s Katy Millard, Pomeroy, and Kann chef Gregory Gourdet. The congressman’s team connected with the Independent Restaurant Coalition, who had been gathering their own research. The IRC developed a one-pager of policy recommendations, and began working with Blumenauer as he drafted the Restaurants Act. “Mr. Blumenauer was making calls to constituents early on, but one of the very first calls I had with him related to restaurant relief was via my agricultural relationships,” Polmar says. “I was talking about what we needed, and he straight-up asked, ‘What do you need, how can we help?’ … He listens, but he doesn’t sit back and wait — he jumps into action.”
He announced the plan to introduce the Restaurants Act on May 20, 2020. Now, almost 10 months later, the independent restaurants are finally seeing some form of national aid. But the legacy of the Restaurants Act extends beyond this piece of legislation. In many ways, it was a foundational step forward in how the independent restaurant industry advocates for itself on a policymaking level in Washington, D.C. While industry groups like the National Restaurant Association do have influence in policy-making on the national stage, they don’t necessarily represent the interests of smaller-scale restaurant industry — the foundation of Portland’s food scene and restaurant markets around the country. “My impression is that the Restaurant Association pays most attention to the people who pay the bills, the Olive Gardens and Burger Kings, who are ubiquitous around the country, but don’t have the same impact [that] the independent restaurants have,” Blumenauer says. “The McDonald’s, the Pizza Huts, they aren’t iconic meeting spaces. They could be anywhere.”
Now that the American Rescue Plan has been signed into law, Polmar and Pomeroy have a whole other task at hand: They’re visiting restaurant owners, holding Zoom meetings, and trying to make sure small business owners around the state and country know about the funding that will soon be available to them. “Getting people to know about this is really challenging,” Pomeroy says. “I don’t think a ton of people know that there’s 28.6 billion dollars sitting there … There’s still a lot of work to be done.”
Beyond that point, however, grassroots efforts like the IRC, as well as the countless local independent restaurant alliances nationwide, will still have a significant policy-making agenda to tackle. Once the industry is free of the grips of COVID-19, there are still numerous issues that disproportionately affect small restaurants and food service workers; the hope is, these groups of restaurant owners will still have a voice in their statehouses with their lawmakers. But in many ways, this specific piece of legislation — the restaurant relief in the American Rescue Plan — started with a letter an Oregon food business owner wrote to her governor.
“We used many of the principles that were in the original letter to Kate Brown as a starting point, but I don’t want to overstate here, we had a policy committee of 10 people,” Polmar says. “It’s not a bunch of economists and policymakers; it was a bunch of business owners. What we did was very Schoolhouse Rock: The bill got to Capitol Hill because a bunch of citizens talked to their lawmaker and the lawmaker said, ‘Yes this should be a bill.’”