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.
Friday, May 21, 2021
Klamath Basin Weather
Today A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 2pm. High near 55. Tonight a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Some of the storms could produce small hail.
Saturday A 20% chance of showers. Snow level 5200 feet rising to 6900 feet in the afternoon. Partly sunny, with a high near 57. Cloudy and possible showers overnight, low of 38.
Sunday A 20% chance of showers before 11am, then partly sunny with a high near 67. Snow level 6100 feet.
Monday A 20% chance of showers after 11am, then sunny, with a high near 72.
Today’s Headlines
After the names and addresses of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees were published on social media, the Klamath Water Users Association on Wednesday urged its supporters to stop the intimidating and inappropriate behavior immediately. KWUA Executive Director Paul Simmons said that ““Reclamation is the messenger for bad news, but rarely the cause of that bad news … blaming them for our problems reflects a lack of understanding, and will get no more results than blaming President Nixon for signing the Endangered Species Act.”
“The personal health and safety of every individual and their families is paramount,” added KWUA vice president Ry Kliewer. “I will protest, I will demonstrate, but I will be peaceful. And I will respect others the way I expect them to respect me and my family.”
With precious little water available for farmers and other stakeholders in the Klamath Basin this year, two Congressmen who represent large areas of southern Oregon and northern California are pushing for millions of dollars in relief funding for the region.
U.S. Representatives Cliff Bentz and Doug LaMalfa, of Oregon and California respectively, have put forward a $57 million proposal to assist the Klamath Basin. Much of the funding would take the form of monetary aid for farmers, with some elements going toward infrastructure, wildlife refuges, and Tribes.
The lawmakers pointed to a decision from the federal Bureau of Reclamation earlier this month to halt diversions of water from Upper Klamath Lake for irrigation, which leaves the majority of farmers without a water supply. Particularly amid a severe drought year, the Bureau faces competing demands for the water stored in Upper Klamath Lake, governed by a complex web of laws and court rulings that stretch back years.
Farmers in the Basin require diversion of the water for irrigation needs, Tribes along the Klamath River have fought for flows downstream to spare native salmon species from disease, and the Klamath Tribes want to preserve water stored in Upper Klamath Lake in an attempt to save the Lost River and Shortnose sucker species.
The severity of the 2021 drought is such that none of the major stakeholders are particularly pleased with the outcome. The Yurok Tribe reports that low spring flows have resulted in a die-off in young salmon due to rampant disease, and the Klamath Tribes worry that low water levels in Upper Klamath Lake will exacerbate the decline of sucker species even with irrigation curtailed.
There are five new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,606. The Oregon Health Authority reported 603 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of today, bringing the state total to 197,356.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (6), Clackamas (73), Clatsop (3), Columbia (7), Coos (10), Crook (8), Curry (1), Deschutes (42), Douglas (25), Harney (7), Hood River (1), Jackson (19), Jefferson (5), Josephine (18), Klamath (15), Lane (36), Lincoln (2), Linn (46), Malheur (4), Marion (51), Morrow (3), Multnomah (90), Polk (9), Umatilla (24), Union (1), Wasco (5), Washington (74) and Yamhill (17).
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 301, which is five fewer than yesterday. There are 77 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is one fewer than yesterday.
There were 15 new cases were reported in Klamath County yesterday.
Oregon has now administered a total of 2,019,003 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,502,574 first and second doses of Moderna and 127,500 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of today, 1,656,783 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 2,114,580 people who have had at least one dose.
Cases of COVID-19 in Oregon are down over the last week, but deaths and hospitalizations are up. The Oregon Health Authority reports the number of new cases declined 16-percent last week over the previous week. New hospitalizations increased by ten to 265, and COVID-19-related deaths rose from 31 to 57, which is the highest weekly death toll in ten weeks. The number of positive tests increased from six-point-one to six-point-four-percent.
After seeing and hearing Hunter Noack play classical music on a nine-foot Steinway concert grand piano propped atop a flatbed trailer at Fort Rock, Gayle Yamasaki wondered if a Klamath Falls performance was possible.
Two remote Lake County settings, Fort Rock and Playa in Summer Lake, are on Noack’s summer schedule. And, because of Yamasaki’s efforts, a first-ever “In A Landscape” performance in Klamath Falls is set for 6 p.m., Tuesday, July 27, at the Conger Heights open space site. Fittingly, it’s a place where the landscape overlooks the Link River and Upper Klamath Lake.
After visiting various sites in Klamath Falls, Noack chose the Conger Heights open space site. During his performances, Noack will probably be accompanied by a to-be announced singer or musician. Concerts typically last 90 minutes to two hours.
Audience members are asked to bring their own low-back chairs or desert-friendly blankets and warm clothing because evenings are typically cool.
Oregon Tech students will use a class project to create bird houses to help raise funds for the expansion of Moore Park.
The group has hand-built 39 bird houses that can house Bewick’s wren and oak titmouse, two birds on the edge of extinction in Klamath County. Ten of the houses will be donated — five to the Klamath Falls city parks to be hung around Moore Park and five to the arboretum at Oregon Tech.
The additional 29 birdhouses will be sold for $25 each and come with a pamphlet of information about the birds. All of the money will be donated to the Klamath Falls parks system at the end of the sale. The sale will be happening both online and in person from May 19-June 2 via facebook @hootieshouses and at the Nutrition Hub, 601 East Main Street.
To make donations, buy bird houses, or learn more, visit their facebook page or contact the group by email: taylorhampton@oit.edu
Around the state of Oregon
Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler held a press conference on Thursday afternoon, covering initial details of an officer-involved shooting near Wimer earlier in the week.
Deputies were dispatched to a house in the 1500-block of Queens Branch Road near Evans Creek Road just after 11 a.m. on Monday, responding to a 911 call for a domestic assault. The victim told dispatchers that he thought the suspect “was going to kill him,” Sickler said. Shortly after that, the suspect returned in a vehicle and was seen holding a rifle. Around 11:42 a.m., one of the deputies reported to deputies that “shots had been fired.”
Sickler said that the shooting was caught on the deputy’s body cam, and the video showed him firing several rounds from his handgun into the vehicle, hitting the suspect several times. The deputy who fired and more deputies who arrived just after the shooting started giving the suspect first aid, Sickler said, but he died at the scene.
Sickler said that the suspect’s .22 caliber rifle was loaded, but declined to comment on whether the man had fired any shots, citing the pending investigation and the coming grand jury proceedings.
The Oregon House of Representatives passed a resolution on Tuesday proposing that health care is a human right, sending the matter on to voters for final ratification.
Originally dubbed the “HOPE Amendment,” Senate Joint Resolution 12 proposes to amend the Oregon constitution by declaring that every resident of the state has a right to affordable health care. Proposals to amend the Oregon constitution have to be ratified by voters in order to take effect, so the matter will appear on ballots in the 2022 general election. SJR 12 passed the House in a 34-23 vote, and was previously approved by the Senate.
Republican lawmakers have broadly opposed the resolution, saying that it comes without a clear system to deliver on its promise while promising “utopian” healthcare coverage. The proposed amendment itself is relatively simple. It would change Article I of the Oregon constitution, adding a subsection that says the state is obligated to ensure that state residents have access to cost-effective, clinically appropriate, and affordable healthcare “as a fundamental right.”
Pursuing satisfaction of that right must be balanced against the public interest for funding schools and other public services, the proposed amendment reads.
On one shining moment on Wednesday, Democratic and Republican state lawmakers were in agreement — the state’s financial outlook is almost shockingly strong, according to the latest economists’ report.
The May Economic and Revenue Forecast was delivered to members of two Senate and House committees on Tuesday, showing near-term economic growth that belied the preceding year of pandemic-related repression — thanks, in no small part, to gobs of federal aid funding. Oregon’s economists reported that household incomes are higher than before the pandemic despite losses in the labor market, and employment is expected to rebound by late 2022.
Tax revenue is more uncertain, due to the late deadline this year, but the report noted that the tax season “is turning out to be a healthy one,” with fewer refunds due to tax payers than last year.
While amazement appeared universal, Democratic and Republican lawmakers differed somewhat in their priorities for how the state’s revenue would be best employed.
The Oregon Employment Department says in July it will start upgrading the obsolete computer system that pays jobless benefits.
That would end a 12-year delay that caused a catastrophic breakdown in distributing aid during the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Oregon’s new system won’t be in place until 2024. Oregon was among the slowest states in the nation at paying jobless benefits during the pandemic, with laid-off workers frequently waiting weeks or months for aid. The employment department was hindered by a rigid computer system from the 1990s, which was unable to adapt to added benefits Congress added last year.