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, your local health and Medicare agents.
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Klamath Basin Weather
Today Sunny, with a high near 63. Overnight, mostly clear, with a low around 33. North northwest wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm after midnight.
Wednesday Possible overnight and early morning frost then sunny, with a high near 73.
Thursday Partly sunny, with a high near 82.
Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 80.
Saturday Mostly sunny, with a high near 70.
Today’s Headlines
BREAKING NEWS, 12PM, TUESDAY
Fifteen Oregon counties will be moving back up to the extreme risk level on Friday.
Gov. Kate Brown made the announcement on Tuesday.
The change comes as hospitalizations are surging in many parts of the state, meaning several counties qualify for the highest COVID-19 risk level.
“If we don’t act now, doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other health care providers in Oregon will be stretched to their limits treating severe cases of COVID-19,” said Brown. “Today’s announcement will save lives and help stop COVID-19 hospitalizations from spiking even higher. With new COVID-19 variants widespread in so many of our communities, it will take all of us working together to bring this back under control.”
On Friday, the counties moving to extreme risk are Baker, Clackamas, Columbia, Crook, Deschutes, Grant, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk and Wasco. Nine counties will be in high risk, four at moderate risk and eight at lower risk.
For the full list, click here.
There is one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,486, the Oregon Health Authority reported today. Oregon Health Authority reported 630 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of today, bringing the state total to 181,321.
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 319, which is 28 more than yesterday. There are 77 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is 11 more than yesterday.
Klamath County did not report any new cases yesterday.
Last week the Governor’s Office announced counties will not move into the Extreme Risk category unless both of the following criteria are met statewide: The peak daily number of beds occupied by COVID-19-positive patients from the previous seven days (including the current day) is more than 300, and the percentage increase in total number of COVID-19-positive patient bed-days is 15.0% or greater when comparing the most recent seven-day period with the previous seven-day period. Both metrics are exceeded in today’s report setting the stage for the many county changes to come.
At 6 a.m. Monday morning, Oregon Tech’s faculty union went on strike. It’s the first time that a faculty wide strike has occurred in Oregon higher education history.
Picket lines are in place at both Klamath Falls and Wilsonville campuses, but classes will continue as scheduled, according to the school. According to both sides, negotiations were held throughout the weekend and up until the 6 a.m. deadline, but no deal was reached. Negotiations are expected to continue throughout the week as needed.
Erin Foley, dean of students at OIT, said that classes will be covered by full-time faculty who have chosen not to go on strike, part-time faculty and other instructors
In an outdoor ceremony on Friday, Mazama High School inducted 21 current freshmen into the school’s STEM&M program, which partners with Oregon Institute of Technology to offer academic pathways in science, technology, engineering, math and medicine.
Those who complete the program qualify for more than $12,000 worth of OIT scholarships as well as other incentives and perks. The early evening ceremony was set up on the campus lawn so parents could watch students sign contracts and take pictures. COVID-19 restrictions limit the number who can attend indoor gatherings.
Representatives from the school district and OIT attended to congratulate the students. Students were asked to choose a pathway though they are allowed to change their focus as they progress through the program. Jonathan Laitinen signed up for engineering.
Around the state of Oregon
The Oregon Health Authority is updating its mask guidance for non-contact sports, just days after a high school runner collapsed on a track in Bend, Oregon.
The new guidance will allow non-contact sports athletes to remove masks during competition. Maggie Williams runs for Summit High School. On Wednesday, Williams set a goal to break the school record in the 800-meter race. She ran the first lap in 61 seconds.
Her head coach, Dave Turnbull, ran to the 200-meter mark to give her guidance on the last half lap. Williams had collapsed.
Steady population growth, driven by newcomers from other states, is giving Oregon greater national political clout. U.S. Census Bureau figures released Monday show the state’s population expanded over the past decade enough to give it an additional congressional district for the first time in 40 years.
Expanding its U.S. House seats from five to six won’t necessarily be a win for Democrats, who control the state politically and hold all but one of the current seats. Democrats agreed to give up their advantage in redrawing political boundaries in a deal to stop Republicans from blocking legislation. The once-a-decade head count shows where the U.S. population grew during the past 10 years and where it shrank. Fast-growing Texas got enough people to merit two new House seats.
Florida and North Carolina picked up one each. In contrast, Michigan, New York and Ohio each lost a seat. So did California — losing a seat for the first time ever.
The pandemic recession was the steepest, deepest economic collapse in Oregon history.
But not for everyone. More than one in 10 Oregon jobs paying below $35,000 a year disappeared in the early weeks of the pandemic, according to a new report by Josh Lehner, with the state’s Office of Economic Analysis.
Oregon’s jobless rate soared to an all-time high of 13.2%. During the same period, though, Oregon actually added jobs paying more than $64,000 a year. The data underscores the notoriously inequitable nature of the pandemic recession. Frontline workers in restaurants, bars, hotels, gyms, boutiques and many other fields were thrown out of work when the state ordered them shut down to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
This week is focused on reminding motorists of the importance to slow down and move over for emergency and highway workers.
This also coincides with the start of construction season in most states including #Oregon. Many roadway projects take advantage of the nicer weather to upgrade, upkeep, and upscale the Oregon driving experience Oregon State Police implores you to use extra caution in and around work zones. Work zone crashes are often more severe than other types of crashes.
Most work zone crashes are caused by drivers not paying attention. Speeding or driving too fast for conditions is the second leading cause of work zone crashes.
Ongoing statewide wastewater testing and genome sequencing through the collaboration of Oregon State University’s TRACE-COVID-19 project and the Oregon Health Authority suggests the South African variant of the COVID-19 virus is present in Albany and Corvallis.
The South African variant of COVID-19, B.1.351, has a mutation that allows the virus to more effectively latch onto a person’s cells, so someone who is exposed to this variant is more likely to become infected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate it spreads roughly 50% faster than the original COVID-19 virus, just like the United Kingdom variant, B.1.1.7.
With the South African, U.K. and California variants spreading in the state, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising in Oregon and public health officials are urging caution. The South African variant is of particular concern.
According to the CDC, several studies suggest this variant may have increased resistance against those vaccines, and the AstraZeneca vaccine used in other countries did not provide protection from the South African variant.
May is Wildfire Awareness Month. Keep Oregon Green, in partnership with federal, state and local fire agencies and organizations, is promoting May as a great time to encourage the public to create defensible space around homes and prevent careless, unwanted wildfires this summer.
Last Labor Day, Oregon faced a rare and exceptionally strong east wind event during a prolonged dry period and heat wave.
The wind drove explosive growth on wildfires that were already burning and sparked new ones.
One Oregonian in 10 was under some level of evacuation notice, 9 people died, and 4,000 homes and 1,000 other structures were destroyed.
Five fires reached megafire size, burning over 100,000 acres each. Altogether, a million acres burned statewide in a little over a week – twice the average area burned in an entire year. Over 70% of Oregon’s wildfires are started by people, placing the power of prevention squarely in our hands. Public lands were saw large crowds last summer, and land managers expect high numbers again this year. Before heading outdoors, contact the agency or landowner who manages the lands at your destination for an update on current fire restrictions or bans.
Residents staying close to home must also check fire restrictions before building backyard campfires or using equipment that could ignite dry vegetation, such as lawn mowers or weed trimmers.
The Oregon Employment Department is changing its online “Contact Us” form to make it easier for those on unemployment to get the answers they need.
The department says its new form will allow it to better track questions and help users get the answers they want online. The form goes live Wednesday and will be available in English and Spanish.
The University of Oregon has filed a federal lawsuit against a former campus police officer, accusing him of lying in police reports and withholding key evidence in an alleged malicious prosecution of a Latino bicyclist he stopped at gunpoint.
The university fired officer Troy Phillips in 2019 for dishonesty, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Phillips couldn’t immediately be reached by the newspaper for comment. The university agreed last week to pay $115,000 to the family of the bicyclist, Eliborio Rodrigues Jr., who later died in an unrelated encounter with Eugene police. The payment settled a notice to sue the university.
Phillips failed to disclose to a Eugene municipal prosecutor who asked that his Oct. 27, 2018, stop of Rodrigues was videotaped and audio recorded through his police car’s mobile camera, the lawsuit says.