(Gilchrist Forest Products, photo courtesy Herald and News)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 and News, and BasinLife.com, and powered by Mick Insurance. Call 541-882-6476.

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Klamath Basin Weather

Around the State of Oregon

Officials at the University of Oregon say they are negotiating with the pro-Palestinian leaders of a student encampment that has grown to about 140 tents over the last week, in hopes of reaching a peaceful resolution.

But students and university leaders are still far apart, according to some faculty observers. And in a Sunday email to students and their families, the university pointedly noted that the encampment in front of the Knight Library is “unauthorized” and said that protesters have been advised that they are in violation of university policies.

The Daily Emerald, the student newspaper at the University of Oregon, reported late Monday that protesters have been told that those who don’t leave the encampment by Tuesday at noon will no longer be eligible for “academic amnesty” and could face other disciplinary consequences.

University spokesperson Angela Seydel would not confirm any details about negotiations to end the encampment.

Planning to travel on an airline? Check your ID. If you don’t have Real ID yet, you should consider adding it to your license or ID card at Oregon DMV.

That’s because, starting May 7, 2025, all travelers must have a Real ID-compliant driver’s license or ID card, or other approved identification, to pass through security checkpoints at airports.

A standard Oregon card will not be acceptable by the Transportation Security Administration.

Oregonians can travel by air after the deadline if they have a DMV-issued Real ID, a passport, or any of the documents.

If you don’t have Real ID yet, we recommend visiting a DMV office soon to apply for one.

Before you go to DMV, make sure you have all the documents you need for Real ID with our online questionnaire.

Oregon credentials are valid for up to eight years. If you upgrade to Real ID at renewal time, you won’t have to come back to DMV and pay another fee to get Real ID before you travel. And if you know you will travel by air before you’re up for renewal, make a plan now to get Real ID before you go.

Passed by Congress in 2005, the REAL ID Act was a 9/11 Commission recommendation that the Federal Government “set standards for the issuance of sources of identification, such as driver’s licenses.”

A 32-year-old Brookings man has died just a day after being booked into Josephine County Jail. 

According to the news release, Zachary Dumont was found “unresponsive” in his single cell at about 5:40 p.m. on May 3. Court records say he was booked for one charge of harassment on May 2.

“Medical assistance was rendered until personnel from the Grants Pass Fire Department and AMR arrived and took over attempting life saving measures. Despite the efforts performed, (Dumont) was pronounced deceased,” the release said. “Detectives from the Oregon State Police are investigating this incident which includes determining the cause of death.”

On Sunday, May 5^th, State Police responded to a single-vehicle crash on Hwy-101, near milepost 250, in Coos County.

The preliminary investigation indicated a northbound Nissan Pathfinder, operated by Ryan Scott Sapp (38) of Grants Pass, left the roadway for unknown reasons, struck the embankment on the northbound side of the roadway, rolled, and came to rest upside down in the ditch.

The operator (Sapp) was declared deceased at the scene.

A passenger in the Nissan, Tasheena Fawn Reyes (33) of Grants Pass, was seriously injured and transported to a local hospital.

The highway was not impacted during the on-scene investigation.

OSP was assisted by Bandon Fire, Green Acres Fire, and ODOT.

An identity thief with a long criminal past has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty.

Fifty-two-year-old Trino Lopez has 40 criminal convictions dating back to 1995. In 2022, Lopez was arrested after stealing eight-thousand dollars’ worth of items from a car. A search discovered 11-hundred ID theft-related items. Lopez was washing checks, in one case writing a check for 92-thousand dollars. Lopez was working with his fiancée, Tyanna Fitzpatrick. She faces more than 40 criminal counts.

The University of Oregon, and its partners at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of California, San Diego, are launching the largest wildfire detection network in the West.

The new ALERTWest system has 12-hundred cameras. They will use artificial intelligence to continuously monitor for new wildfire starts and deliver timely alerts to dispatchers and firefighters. This enables faster response times and helps fire managers better allocate resources when battling multiple fires.

A medical trial at OHSU that uses gene editing had positive results for improving sight in people with a certain type of inherited retinal disease.

The CRISPR [[ crisper ]] gene editing process was used. Around 79 percent of the study participants had improved sight. The study included 12 adults and two children. The inherited retinal disease affects around two out of every 100-thousand people.

Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) deputies responded to a report of a gun shot victim in White City with a suspect running from the scene.

JCSO White City deputies were on scene within minutes to provide life-saving measures to the victim and capture the suspect attempting to flee.

Last night at 11:15 p.m. ECSO Dispatch received a call for shots fired and someone running from the scene. At 11:23 p.m. JCSO White City deputies located the victim near the intersection of 29th Street and Falcon and began life-saving measures. Nearby on Falcon Street, another White City deputy located the suspect attempting to flee and detained him without incident.

The victim was transported via Mercy Flights to a local hospital and is in serious but stable condition. The suspect, Romualdo Balero, 33, of White City, is charged with second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, felon in possession of a firearm, menacing, and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon. Balero is also known as Romualdo Angulo Llanes. He was booked and lodged in the Jackson County Jail.

JCSO detectives arrived on scene and took over the investigation. This case is open and ongoing with detectives following additional leads. There is no more information available at this time.

A large tree fell and stuck an emergency firefighting vehicle Sunday morning carrying four passengers to the Little Yamsay fireline. No injuries were reported.

South Central Oregon Fire Management Partnership safety Officer Cory Thompson said, in a news release, it “could’ve been a lot worse.”

“The employees are good, just a little shaken up,” Thompson said, adding, “It was a green tree, and it was rotten in the middle. If you looked at (it), you probably could not identify it as a hazard tree.”

All four passengers were evaluated by medical personnel, none were injured.

Electricity demand in the Northwest is expected to grow more than 30% in the next decade, or about 5% more than estimated last year and triple the prediction three years ago, industry experts said in a new report.

Large data centers, an increase in high-tech manufacturing and growing electrification in homes, buildings and transportation are key factors in the forecast.

The projections are in an annual report published Wednesday by the Portland-based industry trade group Pacific Northwest Utilities Conference Committee. For more than 70 years, the group has analyzed annual demand projections from utilities in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana to paint a larger picture of future demand for electricity throughout the region.

In 2022, the committee projected demand would grow about 1% each year to 2032. In its latest report, the committee projects demand in the Northwest will grow at least 3% per year until 2034.

The report said that the rapid expansion of data centers is one of the chief drivers in increased electricity use. Oregon’s data center market is the fifth largest in the nation, according to Chicago-based commercial real estate group Cushman & Wakefield. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and X, formerly named Twitter, have massive data centers in eastern Oregon as well as in The Dalles, Hillsboro and Prineville that require enormous amounts of energy to operate. Amazon is planning to build at least 10 more data centers in eastern Oregon.

Pacific Power will host a public forum in Central Point on Tuesday, May 7 to discuss our latest efforts to mitigate the threat of wildfire.

During this conversation, company representatives will detail the important steps we take during wildfire season to keep customers and communities safe. This forum is an opportunity to learn about our comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan in Oregon.

Key Topics: 

• Ongoing efforts to strengthen our system.
• Advanced weather monitoring capabilities.
• Enhanced vegetation management practices.
• Enhanced safety settings for wildfire season.
• Public Safety Power Shutoffs– an important tool when wildfire risk makes it necessary to turn off power to ensure customer and community safety.

Event details:  

Tuesday, May 7 – 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Mace Watchable Wildlife Memorial Center at the Expo

1 Peninger Rd., Central Point, OR

Livestream:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81129751782?pwd=FNy8LTdnewzXbBDtaSZoaJtfiSYzda.1

Protecting our customers and communities while providing safe, reliable power is our highest priority. If you have any questions or would like to request a reasonable accommodation to attend this event, please contact us at 1-888-221-7070.

This is Wildfire Preparedness Week through the 11^th of May. Cal Fire is reminding residents to work ahead of fire season to prepare for warmer weather.

Fire season hasn’t started yet, but the weather has started to warm up. Cal Fire is encouraging residents to get rid of extra yard debris and create a defensible space around their homes.

Brady said besides creating defensible spaces and getting rid of dead and dying plants and debris, residents should also be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice. This means having a go bag ready and knowing evacuation routes including a meeting spot with family and friends.

Brady encouraged Siskiyou County residents to sign up for the county’s emergency alert system, Ready Siskiyou. The link to sign up is below:

Brady also encouraged residents of Oregon to sign up for their local wildfire alert systems.

Last week, voters in Crook County began receiving their printed Voter’s Guide for the upcoming election in the mail. Missing from those guides were two pro-Greater Idaho arguments.

The county has admitted that the submissions were made on time and that the error in printing was entirely the county’s fault.

The Greater Idaho movement has asked the county to issue a supplemental page to the guide.  Leaders of the movement asked that the mailer be sent before ballots begin going out to voters, just as the voter’s guide did.  In a meeting held last week, the county declined to issue that supplemental, with Commissioners Brian Barney and Susan Hermreck arguing against the action.  Commissioner Seth Crawford voiced his support for sending the mailer, citing fairness and transparency as his key points. The board’s discussion and proposed remedy can be found at their youtube page,

Crook County is voting this election on measure 7-86, which is an advisory question that asks voters if they want elected leaders to pursue joining the state of Idaho.  Crook is the 13th eastern Oregon county to vote on the idea.  Twelve other eastern Oregon Counties have already passed Greater Idaho measures.

Nearly a third of Oregon households consist of someone living alone.

That’s more than a half-million people with no one else in their household. It is a record high, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

Oregon’s shift mirrors national trends, according to Josh Lehner, a state economist who wrote an analysis of the state’s single-person households earlier this year.

Relatively few adults live alone in their 20s and 30s, Lehner noted. People often have roommates to help cover their housing costs, then form couples as they age. Many start families.

The number of people living alone is much higher among seniors. That’s partly because some have divorced, Lehner wrote, and partly because some of their spouses have died. The rate of Oregonians living alone rises sharply after age 75, and nearly all that increase is among women, who tend to live longer.

The number of Americans living alone has more than doubled since 1960, when just 1 in 8 households consisted of someone living by themselves, according to a federal report last year.

The Klamath National Forest has completed the May 1^st snow surveys.

These measurements are a part of the statewide California Cooperative Snow Survey program, which helps the state forecast the quantity of water available for agriculture, power generation, recreation, and stream flow releases later in the year.

Generally warm daytime temperatures in April have well advanced the spring snow melt, with the lowest elevation snow course – Dynamite Meadow – already snow-free. The snowpack at higher elevation locations, however, continues to persist, although perhaps for not much longer. According to measurements taken for the May survey, the snowpack is at 94% of the long-term average snow height (snow depth) and at 97% of the long-term Snow Water Equivalent (“SWE”, measure of water content) across all survey points (see results table).

Snow surveys are conducted monthly during the winter and spring months (February through May). Forest Service employees travel to established sites in the headwaters of the Scott River watershed to take measurements. The newest measuring site at Scott Mountain has been monitored for over 35 years; the oldest site at Middle Boulder has been monitored for over 70 years. Some sites are located close to forest roads with good access, while others require hours of travel by snowshoe and/or snowmobile.

The height of snow and SWE are measured by a snow sampling tube with a cutter end that is driven through the snowpack, measuring depth. The snow core is then weighed to determine the water content (SWE). The information is forwarded to the State of California, where the data is compiled with other snow depth reports and becomes part of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys program. 

Teams of students at Hermiston, Silverton, Henley, Parkrose, Crescent Valley, and McLoughlin high schools have earned top prizes in a media contest designed to increase awareness about workplace safety and health for young workers.

High school students across Oregon were invited to participate in the annual contest organized by the Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O[yes]). In its 16th year of putting a spotlight on the importance of young worker safety and health, the 2023-24 media contest challenged participants to create an ad – through either a compelling graphic design or video – that captures their peers’ attention and convinces them to take the O[yes] Young Employee Safety Awareness online training. 

The creative possibilities were multifaceted: Participants got to choose the key message, theme, or tagline they believed would attract their audience and move it to act. Participants were asked to submit either a graphic design or a video that was no more than 90 seconds long. 

Teams of students met the challenge with smart and positive media projects. In attention-grabbing videos and artful graphic designs, students called attention to everything from workplace stress to worker rights on the job. Their projects stayed laser-focused on convincing their target audience – teen workers or teens who are preparing to work for the first time – to take the O[yes] Young Employee Safety Awareness online training to improve their knowledge of how to stay safe and healthy in the workplace.

The first-place teams in each category also earned a matching award for their schools.

A 26-year-old Yreka man has been found guilty of first-degree murder after shooting a man to death in 2019. 

According to a Facebook post from the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office, Timothy Chase McDonald killed 31-year-old Spencer Hodgson in 2019. 

“On the morning of April 8th, 2019, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office was alerted to a possible dead body near Yreka Walker Road in the Klamath River Area,” the post said. “Investigators identified the victim as Spencer Hodgson, and the Sheriff’s Forensic Pathology team determined Hodgson died from multiple gunshot wounds.” 

Nineteen public safety leaders from throughout Oregon successfully completed the International Public Safety Leadership and Ethics Institute (IPSLEI) on April 25, 2024, at the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST) in Salem.

IPSLEI is an intensive leadership program that involves a variety of learning methodologies, including written case studies, video case analysis, and interactive learning processes. Students explored a number of films, books and articles that inspired a deep exploration of ethical decision-making principles and their application to the students’ own leadership journeys. By simply asking the question “why,” the students developed their critical thinking processes related to leadership and their own self-awareness. 

The 160-hour IPSLEI training program takes place over the course of four months and consists of four modules that highlight:

• Developing a Personal Philosophy of Leadership and Ethics
• Leading Others Ethically
• Ethical Leadership in Organizations
• Ethics and the Challenge of Leadership

Over 350 public safety professionals from the police, fire, corrections and community corrections disciplines have completed the program since DPSST began hosting it in 2008.

A dog is dead and two people are injured following a house fire in Coos Bay.  

Fire officials say crews responded to the home early yesterday morning after a neighbor called 911.  Firefighters arrived to find two people trapped inside the burning home and rescued them, rushing them to a hospital.  Crews also found two dogs inside the home.  One of the dogs was dead, while the other was rescued and is said to be doing OK.  

Police say people who occupied Portland State University’s library caused substantial damage to the fire alarm system.  

The alarm system box was pulled out of the wall, many pull stations were activated, and fire extinguishers were sprayed throughout the building.  

The Portland Fire Bureau says the in-house fire suppression system remains intact.  The pull stations need to be reset and the emptied fire extinguishers will have to be replaced.  The building will be boarded up to prevent access until the repairs are made.

Ten-million-dollars will be spent restoring fish habitat in Oregon.  The Private Forest Accord Grant Program has awarded its first-ever round of habitat restoration project funding.  

It’s going to 25 projects across Oregon that will restore critical spawning grounds, fish passage and habitat improvements for fish and wildlife.  The focus is on helping native salmon, trout and select amphibians. 

Oregon Congressman Cliff Bentz is defending America’s ranchers when it comes HR 764, the “Trust the Science Act”.

Under HR 764, the Gray Wolf would be removed from the Endangered Species Act in the lower 48 states.

Bentz gave a speech on the house floor during a recent discussion on the topic. The congressman said he didn’t think he had encountered such ignorance regarding the nature of a wolf, adding, “a wolf is not a pet dog. It’s not some schnauzer or golden retriever, or a dash hound. It is the truth of the matter, a natural born killer.”

He said he believes those on the other side of the aisle have no idea what ranchers have to go through when they have to get up in the middle of the night to protect their livelihood from wolves. Bentz specifically referred to Highway 395 which bisects his district down the middle, he says on one side a wolf kills an animal it’s protected and on the other side it’s not. He calls this situation hardly ideal especially for a single-ownership ranch that falls on both sides of the highway.

Bentz also went on to ask the question, “how many wolves are enough?” saying there are tens of thousands in Canada, Minnesota, and Alaska collectively. He says in Oregon there are about 250, a number that he says is adequate for survival under the Endangered Species Act.

He argues that wolves need to be removed from the Endangered Species List so that humans “have some means of controlling an apex predator.”

Thanks for reading the the news on BasinLife.com from Wynne Broadcasting.

Ready to Advertise in 2024? Let’s get the word out for Summer! Call BasinLife.com at 541-363-7503. Or email us today at INFO@BasinLife.com with your name, business, and what you’re looking for. We’ll customize a plan fit for your budget.

We offer more local advertising opportunities than any one in the Klamath Basin. We’re ready to help you with the best radio and digital advertising in Southern Oregon.

You can receive Daily Radio Mentions across our 6 stations, Articles, direct link Banner Ads, floating Banner Ads on hundreds of article pages daily, Social Media Posts, geo-fencing and geo-targeting services, and also available are Email Blasts to thousands of local residents. We can also keep you updated with the latest smart digital marketing strategies for 2024 for your business. BasinLife.com is still the best value in the Klamath Basin for advertising, as we celebrate our 8th year promoting businesses!

For information or prices on plans, simply call us today at 541-363-7503 or email us at Info@BasinLife.com.  Let us keep your business top-of -mind!

    CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND ENTER TO WIN!