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, June 7, 2022
Klamath Basin Weather
Today Partly sunny, with a high near 78. Southwest wind 5 to 9 mph. Overnight mostly cloudy, with a low around 49.
Wednesday Partly sunny, with a high near 79. Calm wind becoming west 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Overnight, cloudy with a low of 45.
Thursday Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. Calm wind becoming west southwest 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon.
Friday Mostly sunny, with a high near 85.
Saturday A chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 79.
Today’s Headlines
Tens of thousands of residents were left without power Monday morning after a widespread outage in the Klamath Basin.
Pacific Power indicated the problem was due to a probable animal getting into the main power line causing the massive disruption. Both the city and suburban areas were without power, as were areas like Keno, Dairy, and Bonanza.
As of Monday noon, most power had been restored after being rerouted. Klamath County Schools started two hours late today with the exception of some in the outlying areas, and city schools were able to try to maintain a normal schedule.
Further information is expected to be released regarding the specific cause and the amount of damage caused at a later date by PP and L.
PP and L estimates that about 31,000 people were affected by the outage in the area Monday.
A 27-year-old Oregon man who initially identified himself as a movie character portraying a Batman villain has been sentenced to up to life in prison for a fatal shooting during a Zombie Crawl in Reno.
Juan Hernandez was convicted earlier of second-degree murder with a deadly weapon in the October 2019 killing during the annual Halloween celebration that draws thousands to Reno’s downtown casino district.
Police said he shot 22-year-old Luis Torres-Mederos twice in the head. He’ll have to serve at least 16 years in prison before he can be considered for parole.
Police said when Hernandez was taken into custody he initially said his name was Arthur Fleck, the character who became the Batman villain played by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2019 movie the “Joker.”
Hernandez, who previously had lived in Reno, moved to Klamath Falls, Oregon, prior to the shooting, police said.
Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Michael Bolenbaker previously said during an earlier court appearance a visibly intoxicated Hernandez was seen fumbling with a gun among a group of people before abruptly turning to shoot Torres-Mederos. Hernandez had a blood alcohol level of .22% when he was arrested, Bolenbaker said.
Around the state of Oregon
A recent study by Oregon State University’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences found that COVID-19 patients had a 25% increased risk of developing a psychiatric disorder in the four months following their infection.
The study compared people with a COVID diagnosis with patients with other respiratory tract infections.
According to the university, researchers limited the study to patients with no previous mental illness and looked at two time periods following COVID diagnosis: from 21 to 120 days and from 120 to 365 days.
The researchers looked specifically at anxiety and mood disorders.
Researchers say the results show that patients and health care providers need to be more proactive addressing mental health concerns following a COVID infection.
The study’s lead author, Ben Coleman from the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, is already working on a follow-up paper which seeks to assess the association between symptoms of long COVID and new-onset mental illness.
The former top leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group and other members have been charged with seditious conspiracy for what federal prosecutors say was a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory, authorities said Monday.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, the former Proud Boys chairman, and four others linked to the group are charged in the latest indictment against them. All five were previously charged with different conspiracy counts.
Tarrio, the group’s top leader, wasn’t in Washington, D.C., when the riot erupted on Jan. 6, 2021. Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot and charged him with vandalizing a Black Lives Matter banner at a historic Black church during a protest in December 2020. Tarrio was released from jail on Jan. 14 after serving his five-month sentence for that case.
The new riot-related indictments against Proud Boys members are among the most serious filed so far, but they aren’t the first of their kind.
The Rose Festival Fleet arrives along Portland’s seawall this week.
Three ships arrive Wednesday afternoon with the rest of the fleet arriving Thursday afternoon. Drivers should expected extended bridge lifts of the Broadway, Steel, and Morrison bridges while the ships move upriver.
Oregon State University is expected to announce its next president this week.
The Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting tomorrow to consider the appointment and the employment agreement. The candidate will succeed OSU Interim President Becky Johnson. She replaced Ed Ray in 2020 who retired after serving as president since 2003.
Oregon’s Rental Assistance Program Expects To Run Out Of Money By End Of June
More than 55,000 Oregon households have avoided eviction thanks to the state’s rent assistance program and they say the money is quickly running out.
The $406 million program, funded by the federal and state governments, will be mostly out of money by June 30, representatives from Oregon Housing and Community Services told legislative committees last week.
“While we were able to get a lot of money out, we know that the need is still great,” said Andrea Bell, the agency’s executive director. “We’re going to have to be relentless in building and creating more access to affordable housing.”
Since the program launched in May 2021, more than 55,000 households have received a combined more than $363 million to cover unpaid rent and stave off evictions. The average payment was about $6,400.
It typically costs three to four times more to help a family out of homelessness than it does to help a family stay housed, according to Jill Smith, the agency’s interim director of housing stabilization.
The majority – 85% – of the Oregonians who received assistance made less than half the median income in their area. That means a family of four in the Portland area was making less than $53,250, while a family of four that received aid in rural counties in eastern Oregon likely earned less than $35,900 a year.
Agency leaders are still seeking additional funding from the federal government, which has been reallocating money from states that didn’t use it. Oregon so far has received an extra $17 million of such unused funds.
Separately, the Legislature allocated $130 million over the past several months for eviction prevention programs. The agency is using that for direct rent assistance, as well as legal services, mediation and case management.
The agency struggled for months to get rent payments to tenants or their landlords, prompting the Legislature to convene in a special session in December to extend a “safe harbor” period to protect tenants whose applications for help were pending. The Audits Division of the Secretary of State’s Office is investigating the program this year.
We want to keep you informed about COVID-19 in Oregon. Data are provisional and change frequently. This report covers the three-day period from June 3 to June 5, 2022.
Visit our dashboard, linked below, and hover over the new cases graph to view new presumptive and confirmed case numbers reported to OHA by date.For more information, including COVID-19 data by county, visit our dashboard: http://ow.ly/CAuc50JqTy0
A recent study by Oregon State University’s College of Public Health and Human Sciences found that COVID patients had a 25% increased risk of developing a psychiatric disorder in the four months following their infection.
The study compared people with a COVID diagnosis with patients with other respiratory tract infections.
According to the university, researchers limited the study to patients with no previous mental illness and looked at two time periods following COVID diagnosis: from 21 to 120 days and from 120 to 365 days.
The researchers looked specifically at anxiety and mood disorders. Researchers say the results show that patients and health care providers need to be more proactive addressing mental health concerns following a COVID infection.
The study’s lead author, Ben Coleman from the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, is already working on a follow-up paper which seeks to assess the association between symptoms of long COVID and new-onset mental illness.
Mary & Dick Heimann Cancer Center In Medford Is Now Open To Patients
Asante Medical Center has opened a new regional cancer facility that will provide the full range of oncology care under one roof.
Asante celebrated the donors and volunteers who helped make a new regional cancer center a reality, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 5th. After breaking ground in early 2020 this state-of-the-art medical facility is now ready to help the community.
With over 900 private donors partnering with the Hematology Oncology Associates medical group, the Mary & Dick Heimann Cancer Center has officially opened in Medford. The Heimanns donated $5 million to the new center, which totaled $64 million dollars to build.
“It’s going to be a magnet for expertise, resources for cancer care in the valley so I’m looking forward to improving the quality of care,” said Derek Budd, a lung cancer patient.
The new center came from a growing need among patients who said that they had to travel upstate and some even out of state to receive their treatment and care. This was particularly difficult during the pandemic.
“Previously patients had to get infusions in one location, scans in another, their traveling around probably when they’re not feeling well and this allows them to come and get all of their care in one roof,” said Lindsey Hicks, Cancer Champion Committee member.
Cancer Champions are current or former cancer patients or caregivers who raise awareness of cancer care options by sharing their experience and their knowledge to help other patients.
Part of the in-house treatment that patients can receive through this new facility will be:
- PET/CT for diagnostic imaging.
- TrueBeam and Radixact technology for precise tumor radiation.
- 45 infusion chairs and six private rooms with beds.
- On-site laboratory and pharmacy services.
- A research department for clinical trials.
- Support services for patient navigation, social work and dietary needs.
This is all while not being more expensive on the patient but being more of a resource to Southern Oregon and Northern California.
“We founded Hematology Oncology Associates with the express goal of taking care of any patient who had a positive biopsy regardless of their ability to pay and we held onto that through the whole time I was in practice here,” said Charles Dibb, retired oncologist and member of Hematology Oncology Associates.
This new facility is located at 3011 E. Barnett Road near the campus of Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center in Medford.
More than 300 physicians, psychologists, midwives, and other providers who work at St Charles hospitals in Oregon and clinics around Central Oregon are taking an unusual step.
They say they have filed for union representation. Physician Assistant Erin Butler tells the media about his frustration with the administration came to a breaking point three months ago, when Chief Medical Officer Richard Freeman was let go.
Butler says many feel the health system thinks they’re expendable and left out of important discussions.
St. Charles Medical Group is the employed provider arm of St. Charles Health System. It encompasses about 300 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse midwives, licensed clinical psychologists and other health professionals. Many providers who practice in St. Charles’ hospitals are not part of this group.
“As always, we want to reassure our community that patient care is and will continue to be our top priority,” said Dr. Jeff Absalon, chief physician executive for St. Charles Health System. “We greatly value our employed providers and respect their right to take this step, although we’d far prefer to work directly with them in partnership while navigating these unprecedented times.
The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office is renewing its search for a boy who disappeared more than a decade ago.
The sheriff’s office has released a new age-progressed photo of what Kyron Horman might look like today. The office released the photo over the weekend on the 12th anniversary of Horman’s disappearance from Skyline School in 2010. Horman was dropped off at school by his step-mother, Terri Moulton, before he went missing. Detectives have not identified a suspect in the case. Horman’s mother, Desiree Young urged people to continue searching for her son.
A 50-thousand-dollar reward remains for anyone with information that leads to his location.