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.
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Klamath Basin Weather
Today Sunny, with a high near 83. Light winds to 10 mph at times.
Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 76.
Saturday Sunny, with a high near 68.
Sunday Sunny, with a high near 65.
Monday Sunny, with a high near 70.
Today’s Headlines
The faculty strike at the Oregon Institute of Technology continues, while students struggled to know if their classes would take place and who would teach them. Oregon Tech administrators told students that there was a plan in place, which would mean minimal disruptions to classes if faculty chose to strike.
But students said Monday and Tuesday that they arrived to empty in-person and online classes without instructors on both days.
Vice President of Institutional Advancement Ken Fincher said they are working “around the clock” to get classes covered, but administrators had no way of knowing how many and which faculty members would participate in the strike until it began.
Some students have joined the picket line and said they do not blame faculty for the disruption to their educations.
Oregon Health Authority also reported 888 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the state total to 182,916.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (4), Benton (21), Clackamas (109), Clatsop (2), Columbia (12), Coos (3), Crook (10), Curry (10), Deschutes (67), Douglas (8), Grant (5), Harney (1), Hood River (2), Jackson (58), Jefferson (6), Josephine (22), Klamath (55), Lake (4), Lane (57), Lincoln (3), Linn (45), Malheur (5), Marion (103),Morrow (2), Multnomah (153), Polk (13), Tillamook (4), Umatilla (17), Union (1), Wallowa (3), Washington (73) and Yamhill (10).
On Wednesday, OHA reported that 40,769 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. The 7-day running average is now 34,906 doses per day. The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 326, which is two fewer than day prior. There are 64 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit beds, which is seven fewer than Tuesday. The total number of COVID-19 positive patient bed-days in the most recent seven days is 2,118, which is a 34% increase from the previous seven days.
Oregon has now administered a total of 1,543,640 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,257,015 first and second doses of Moderna and 93,001 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of today, 1,209,607 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 1,773,928 people who have had at least one dose.
Healthy Klamath in partnership with the city of Klamath Falls and now Klamath County, are making strides in fundraising efforts for a new ADA-accessible destination playground in Moore Park.
At the recommendation and request of Klamath County Developmental Disabilities Services Director Myles Maxey, the Klamath County Commissioners recently voted to approve a $12,000 sponsorship from Klamath County Developmental Disabilities Services. The donation will be put toward purchasing an all-access merry-go-round, designed to allow children of all abilities an opportunity to experience the benefits of play.
A focus of the project is to create a playground that is accessible to all families, with rubber surfaces and play structures that are ADA-friendly.
The Klamath Falls City Schools will host a virtual Board of Education candidates forum on Tuesday, May 4th at 6:00 PM. Members of the community are encouraged to attend this forum.
Current superintendent Paul Hillyer says voter interest locally is usually apathetic. Many people do not vote. Countless others know little about those running for office. And still, fewer actually care enough to run for open positions.
KFCS is very fortunate this year as many people care enough about our school district to seek open school board positions. For questions about the forum, or for assistance in registering please contact Teri Leeper Taylor at the Superintendent’s office at Klamath Falls City Schools.
A Peoria, Arizona man is in the Klamath County jail on several felony charges that date back to 2015 and it being held without bail.
52 year old Bradley Zinner is held on two charges of Burglary I, Rape I, Assault, Tampering with a witness, and a charge of failure to appear in 2018. A current charge of harassment is also listed by the Klamath County Jail.
Around the state of Oregon
A year into the Coronavirus pandemic, resolving a problem with your jobless benefits in Oregon remains an arduous task.
The state remains well below the national average in timely benefits payments, according to federal data, though the employment department says the figures don’t fully capture its progress and performance.
Thousands of Oregonians had their jobless benefits lapse after 12 months on the unemployment rolls. In many cases they can still receive aid, but they need to switch to new programs – which means they need to sort through the department’s byzantine website, which in turn puts more pressure on the agency. It’s still nearly impossible to reach the agency by phone, Oregon is still among the slowest states at paying new benefits claims, and the department expects it will continue to be hobbled by its obsolete computer system until new technology arrives in 2025.
When claims run into trouble it can take weeks or months to untangle the issues – leaving vulnerable, laid-off workers without any income at all and scrambling to make ends meet.
A Beaverton-based real estate firm is finishing up the purchase of a fourth hotel in Medford, promising to convert the buildings into long-term housing.
Some of these sites are currently occupied by people displaced by the September wildfires. Fortify Holdings purchased Inn at the Commons from the locally-owned Neuman Hotel Group early this year, with plans to transition the building into a 123-room apartment complex. Inn at the Commons was just the beginning for Fortify Holdings in the Medford area. The company purchased America’s Best Value Inn on N Riverside Avenue and Econo Lodge on S Riverside Avenue at the end of February. Sale of the Ramada on Biddle Road to Fortify was finalized on Friday.
The city of Portland liberal officials has agreed to waive $11 million in fines against the U.S. government for a fence around the federal courthouse that was blocking a bike lane, city officials said.
Portland Bureau of Transportation spokesman Dylan Rivera said Tuesday the city will forgo the fines as long as the fence is kept off the street,. Last summer during protests sparked by a white police officer killing George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, the federal government put up a fence around the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse to protect it. It blocked a bike lane that the city called “one of the busiest bike routes in the country.
Clackamas County Commissioner Chair Tootie Smith is criticizing Governor Kate Brown’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Smith released a statement on Twitter calling the governor’s lockdowns “unacceptable” and accusing her of throwing businesses into bankruptcy. Smith says county health officials should determine how to handle the pandemic for their communities.
Governor Brown announced that 15 of Oregon’s counties, including Klamath County, will move backwards into the “extreme risk” category due to surging case numbers and hospitalizations as Oregon experiences a fourth wave of the ongoing pandemic.
Oregon legislators considering the boundary lines for another Oregon U.S. Representative’s district might have to draw on a “sixth sense.”
This year, Oregon’s legislative special committees for redistricting are adjusting U.S. House districts in the state as its seats increase from five to six. That official effort has an unofficial endorsement this week. U.S. Census Bureau figures Monday show Oregon’s steady population growth, 10% during the past decade, to more than 4.2 million is enough to give Oregon an another congressional district for the first time in 40 years.
When lawmakers craft legislative districts, the practice called “gerrymandering” generally suggests they use political party lines to draw district boundary lines in ways to favor the party in power. This year Democrats, who control the state politically and hold all but one of the State’s Congressional seats, agreed to give up their advantage in redrawing political boundaries in a deal to stop Republicans from blocking legislation. State legislature members of both parties comprise House and Senate Special Committees on Redistricting, and both committees meet simultaneously Friday to advance their course toward remapping Oregon’s U.S. House districts to include a sixth district.
Students and staff members at the University of Portland will need to get their COVID-19 vaccinations before returning to campus for the fall.
The university announced yesterday it’s requiring all students, faculty and staff members to prove they’ve been fully vaccinated no later than August 1st. Exemptions for religious and health-related reasons may be requested.