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Wednesday, February 26, 2024

Klamath Basin Weather

Today
Sunny, with a high near 52. Calm wind. Overnight, clear with a low near 26 degrees. Light northeast wind.

 

 

Pet of the Week from Klamath Animal Shelter

This week’s pet is a dog named ” Dutton “

 

 

 

Around the State of Oregon

A son was charged with the murder of his parents in Lane County yesterday.

 

Lane County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a home Sunday and found two people dead. They’re identified as 89-year-old Paul Turner and his wife 84-year-old Beverly Turner.

 

Their son, Christopher Turner, was arrested at the house and charged with murder. No further details have been released.

 

Providence Hospital Nurses Strike Over-Contract Ratified

In a major victory for the nearly 5,000 ONA-represented frontline nurses at Providence, all eight registered nurse (RN) bargaining units voted overwhelmingly to ratify their contracts and end the strike.

The historic agreements come after 46 days on the strike line and more than a year of bargaining, and will set a new standard for wages, staffing, and patient safety at one of Oregon’s largest healthcare systems.

“These contracts represent a major victory for frontline caregivers, but more importantly it’s a victory for Providence patients and the communities we serve,” said Virginia Smith an RN from Providence Willamette Falls and leader of the ONA bargaining unit. “As RNs, we believe that these contracts will lead to greater recruitment and retention of frontline nurses as wages become more aligned with other health systems, and we have staffing language that will allow us to spend more time with the patients that need the most care.”

Key Highlights of the Contracts Include:

• Major Wage Increases: Nurses will receive substantial wage increases ranging from 20% to 42% over the life of the contract, with an immediate 16% to 22% raise upon ratification. 
• Smarter Staffing for Safer Care: Patient acuity will now be factored into staffing plans, helping to improve nurse workloads and the quality of patient care. 
• Retroactive Pay and Bonuses: For nurses at bargaining units with contracts that expired before December 2024, retroactive pay will cover 75% of all hours worked in 2024 (including education, meetings, PTO, and vacation used for low census). Nurses at Providence Portland Medical Center and Providence Seaside will receive a $2,500 bonus. 
• Unified Contracts for Stronger Solidarity: An overwhelming majority of contracts (10 bargaining units) now align with expiration or wage reopener dates within three months of each other; strengthening ONA’s collective voice.  
• Stronger Health Benefits Advocacy: A new Statewide Health Benefits Workgroup will be established to evaluate current plans and explore the creation of a statewide health benefits trust, ensuring comprehensive coverage for nurses. 
• Guaranteed Break & Meal Pay: Nurses will now automatically receive penalty pay–equal to one hour of wages–for every missed break or meal, with payment included in the next paycheck. 

Nurses will return to work starting on the night shift of Wednesday, February 26.

 

Following directives from President Trump, thousands of U.S. Forest Service employees have received termination letters in the mail last week, in some cases ending decades-long careers.

The firings are part of a wave of federal cost-cutting measures, which have caused uncertainty for many.  Here in Southern Oregon the Siskiyou Mountain Club lost more than $400k of federal funds which had previously been assigned for trail maintenance work in the Marble Mountain Wilderness and along portions of the Pacific Crest Trail One former Forest Service employee who spent the last six years working in the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest said the termination came as a shock. 

The lack of maintenance also raises concerns for fire danger in the coming years.

 

After years of increased state funding to address homelessness and ever-growing numbers of homeless Oregonians, lawmakers and Gov. Tina Kotek are pushing for more state oversight and coordination for homeless shelters. 

Gov. Kotek’s office and Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, have spent months working on plans for a statewide homeless shelter program. The result, House Bill 3644, would require regional coordination and a focus on getting homeless Oregonians into their own homes, formalizing the regional approach shelter providers and local governments scrambled to put into place after Kotek declared a homelessness state of emergency in 2023. 

The proposal — which accounts for almost $220 million of the $700 million Kotek wants lawmakers to spend to help shelter homeless Oregonians and prevent people living on the brink from falling into homelessness — comes as the state continues to grapple with a growing crisis. 

Nearly 23,000 of Oregon’s roughly 4.2 million residents were homeless in January 2024, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. About 62% of those individuals lacked shelter. 

More Oregonians were homeless in 2024 than when Kotek took office in 2023, despite the state’s record spending on shelter programs, eviction prevention and other homelessness prevention efforts. But Kotek and legislative allies say things are better than they would have been without her actions: By July, they estimate that 3,330 families will have moved off the streets and into permanent homes, 24,000 families will have received state aid to keep them from becoming homelessness and 4,800 new shelter beds will exist across the state as a direct result of her emergency order and state funding. 

Kotek told lawmakers on the House Housing and Homelessness Committee that the framework created by the bill would help make sure that when someone experiences homelessness anywhere in the state they’ll know where to go for help finding shelter and get the services they need to move back into housing. 

 

A Bend couple and their daughter have been placed in custody after hiding out at a hotel in Coos County, after being indicted on a sweep of child abuse charges, including attempted murder.

A nationwide warrant for their arrest had been issued, law enforcement thanks the public with their assistance in locating the trio, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said. After a lengthy investigation, a grand jury in Deschutes County indicted the family on a combined total of 28 charges, relating to alleged abuse of a minor relative. 

Sarah Session, 33, has been charged with 19 of those counts, which includes attempted murder, assault and criminal mistreatment. The alleged crimes took place between June 2023 and February 2024, when the child was under the age of 10. The 33-year-old was professionally responsible for the child who has specialized education and training required for care, which the court documents said Session disregarded.

On multiple occasions, Session allegedly knowingly caused harm to the child through physical injury by hitting them on the head or leg, and in some cases, involving a curtain rod and window stopper. In one instance, Session is accused of compelling the child to eat their own vomit in fear of physical harm, according to the court documents.  Other charges relate to Session’s allegedly withholding medication, treatment and food. In many instances, the court documents call Session’s actions “deliberately cruel.”

 

The long-delayed deadline for REAL ID is now just three months away. There’s a chance that full enforcement may get gradually rolled out, but May 7, 2025, is the changeover deadline.

Starting then, state-level ID cards, such as driver’s licenses, won’t be accepted for federal purposes, namely getting through airport security, unless it’s REAL ID-compliant. If you plan to catch a domestic flight on or after May 7, you will be required to use a REAL ID. A little gold or black star in the upper right-hand corner is one of the easiest ways to know you’re holding a REAL ID.

In Oregon, it’s a black star. A REAL ID is an identification card that serves all of the same purposes of a standard drivers’ license or state-issued identification card. A federally-mandated switch to REAL ID for federal purposes, such as flying domestically, was originally signed into law by Congress in 2005.

The purpose is to establish “minimum security standards for license issuance and production,” according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security website. The law, established four years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, came in response to federal calls for higher security standards in the U.S. Originally, the law mandated the switch to REAL ID by 2008, but it has been pushed back for various reasons due to logistical hurdles and later the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Oregon judges preside over some of the highest stakes matters in life — ranging from murder trials to multimillion dollar lawsuits to whether children will be allowed to stay with struggling parents.

Yet they are sometimes the lowest paid lawyer in their courtroom.

They can earn far less than some of the senior prosecutors and privately retained attorneys who appear before them, leading judges to leave the profession for higher paying legal jobs or would-be judges to shun the idea of ever becoming one, a panel of judges told a state legislative committee Monday. 

A bill before the Legislature aims to solve that problem by boosting the salaries of more than 200 state judges by nearly 30%. That would amount to raises of about $55,000 to $60,000 per year. It’d also put the compensation of Oregon judges in the ballpark of salaries paid to their peers in Washington and California. 

When adjusted for cost of living, Oregon ranked 43rd in pay to its circuit court judges, according to a 2024 salary survey by the National Center for State Courts.

A chart of salaries compiled by the Oregon Judicial Department also shows lawyers with 16 to 20 years of experience make nearly double the salaries of the state’s circuit court judges.

 

More than 200 firefighters from departments across the state participated in the Winter Fire School this past weekend at the Oregon Public Safety Academy in Salem.

The two-day event, held on February 22-23, provided both classroom instruction and hands-on training exercises designed to enhance firefighters’ skills and improve their ability to protect lives, property, and natural resources within their communities.

The 20th annual event, hosted free of charge by the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training (DPSST), featured eight National Fire Academy courses covering topics such as community risk reduction, incident command, leadership and company operations, and wildland urban interface operations. These specialized courses provide expert-led training in advanced topics, ensuring accessibility for departments with limited training budgets and strengthening the fire service statewide.

A highlight of the Winter Fire School was the hands-on training sessions, which allowed participants to gain experience in a variety of real-world scenarios. Firefighters engaged in training on search and rescue techniques, forcible entry, hose handling and water mapping application, and pump station application.

A vehicle extrication course, led by Dallas Fire & EMS Department, provided critical experience in safely removing victims from wrecked vehicles using cars placed in various positions to simulate real-life accident scenes.  Winter Fire School is strategically scheduled during a time of year when fire activity is typically lower, making it easier for firefighters to attend. It is held on the weekend to accommodate the schedules of the volunteer firefighters that comprise the bulk of Oregon’s fire service.

DPSST provides on-campus lodging at no cost for participants traveling over 75 miles. DPSST’s Fire Program is responsible for maintaining state fire certification standards and providing entry-level, specialized leadership and maintenance training for Oregon’s fire service professionals. For more information, visit https://www.oregon.gov/dpsst/FirePrograms.

 

Democratic members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation are fighting to restore the traditional hunting and fishing rights of the Grand Ronde Tribe.

It’s the only tribe in the nation limited by a consent decree to where, when and how much members are allowed to hunt and fish on their traditional lands. They’ve sponsored bills in the House and Senate to restore those rights. They call the nearly 40-year-old limitation “shameful” and an injustice.

 

 

Cases of avian influenza continue to rise across the nation with the United States Department of Agriculture reporting over 21 million birds have been impacted in the last 30 days.

In December, Wildlife Images of Grants Pass increased safety protocols to protect its birds. The rehabilitation and education center gave some updates, saying everything that touches a bird has to be disinfected. They also continue to disinfect their feet before going into an area.

Executive director, Dave Siddon gave advice on what to do if you see a dead bird in the wild. “If people see a group of dead birds or whatever out in the wild, it may be effected by avian influenza. Don’t go start picking them up, use gloves, plastic bags — whatever it is — to isolate the birds.”   Be sure to call the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and they can process and test these birds for avian influenza,” said Siddon. That number is 1-866-968-2600.

 

SALEM — As the state transitions from winter to spring, now is a good time to talk to your insurance company or agent about flood insurance coverage. Recent heavy rains and the anticipated snow melt are reminders that parts of Oregon are flood-prone, and the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation urges homeowners and businesses to consider protecting their properties with comprehensive flood insurance. It is worth noting that most homeowners, renters, and business policies do not cover flood damage.

Flood insurance provides peace of mind to property owners that they are protected from the financial devastation that often accompanies natural disasters. Floods can cause extensive damage to homes and businesses, including structural damage, loss of personal property, and even displacement from the home. With flood insurance, property owners can focus on recovering and rebuilding without the added stress of financial burden.

You can buy flood insurance through some private insurers as well as the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Flood insurance policies can be tailored to meet the specific needs of each customer, providing options for building coverage, contents coverage, and replacement cost coverage. When purchased, a typical flood insurance policy has a 30-day waiting period, so it should be purchased before flooding concerns.

“Typical homeowners insurance doesn’t cover damages from floods, and many people may not know that their home isn’t covered in the event of a flood,” said Andrew Stolfi, Oregon’s insurance commissioner and director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services. “In Oregon, flood insurance is a separate policy that provides coverage for damages caused by flooding, and it is important for homeowners and businesses to evaluate whether to have this coverage to protect their investments.”

DFR encourages property owners to consider flood insurance as a crucial part of their disaster preparedness plan and to talk to their insurance company or agent.

“Don’t wait until it’s too late to protect your property from flooding, or any kind of disaster,” Stolfi said. “With a flood insurance policy, you can have peace of mind knowing you are prepared.”

For more information on flood insurance and other natural disaster preparedness, check out DFR’s website.

 

Salem, OR–The Oregon Department of Revenue has begun distributing refunds for the 2024 tax year. 

Each year the department employs a refund hold period as part of the agency’s fraud prevention efforts. The hold period has been completed and most taxpayers can expect to receive their refunds within two weeks of the date their return is filed. Some returns, however, require additional review and can take up to 20 weeks before a refund is issued.

Taxpayers can check the status of their refund by using the department’s Where’s My Refund? tool. The Department of Revenue recommends that taxpayers wait one week after they have electronically filed their return to use the Where’s My Refund tool.

The Where’s My Refund? tool has been updated for 2025, providing more information about the status of their return to taxpayers who are signed into their Revenue Online account. Taxpayers who don’t already have a Revenue Online account can create one by following the Revenue Online link on the department’s website. Taxpayers who don’t have a Revenue Online account can still use the Where’s My Refund? tool but won’t be able to see the updated features.

A video outlining the refund process and timelines is also available to help taxpayers understand the process.

The department also offered a list of do’s and don’ts for filing to help with efficient processing and avoid unnecessary delays.

Do file electronically and request direct deposit. On average, taxpayers who e-file their returns and request their refund via direct deposit receive their refund two weeks sooner than those who file paper returns and request paper refund checks.

Don’t send a duplicate paper return. Taxpayers should file just once unless they need to make a change to their return. Sending a duplicate return will slow processing and delay your refund.

Do make sure you have all tax records before filing. Having all necessary records is essential to filing a complete and accurate tax return and avoiding errors.

Don’t get in a hurry and fail to report all your income. If income reported on a return doesn’t match the income reported by employers, the return, and any corresponding refund, will be delayed. If taxpayers receive more or corrected tax records after filing a return, they should file an amended return to report any changes.

Do make sure you have a Revenue Online account. Before beginning the filing process, taxpayers should make sure their information is current in Revenue Online, the state’s internet tax portal. Those who don’t have a Revenue Online account can sign up on the agency’s website.To get tax forms, check the status of their refund, or make payments, visit our website or email questions.dor@dor.oregon.gov.

You can also call 800-356-4222 toll-free from an Oregon prefix (English or Spanish) or 503-378-4988 in Salem and outside Oregon. For TTY (hearing or speech impaired), we accept all relay calls.

 

Egg prices have many families scrambling nationwide to find reasonable egg prices.  Rent The Chicken comes to the rescue.

One company is thinking outside the box with their Rent The Chicken company. The company offers several different packages in both the Vancouver and Portland area that give families, chickens, and everything they need to care for them, so they can produce the eggs themselves. They also work with one local affiliate partner in the Portland/Vancouver area.

According to the company’s website, the standard package provides families with 8-14 eggs per week.  According to Homestead Jenn, the company will provide everything you need to raise the chickens, including organic and non-GMO feed that will last the entire rental period.

Rentals are for up to six months. But if you chicken out, workers will come pick up the chickens and take them back to the farm. According to Homestead Jenn, with the price of eggs and the Avian bird flu, many people are flocking to Rent The Chicken to raise their own. 

In addition to the standard package, Rent The Chicken also offers a Standard Upgrade package for $675 and a Deluxe rental package that includes four chickens for $775.

 

Oregon Dept of Forestry Planting 2.3 Mil. Seedlings

Tillamook State Forest, Ore.–More than 6,100 acres of harvested timber areas in Oregon’s state forests are getting nearly 2.3 million seedlings planted this year.  Planting is underway or soon to be started in the Tillamook, Clatsop, and Santiam, while planting on the Sun Pass and Gilchrist State Forests will start in May.

“Depending on weather, soil conditions, and planting crew availability each state forest typically gets their planting done in six-to-eight weeks,” said John Walter, Oregon Department of Forestry’s (ODF) State Forests Silviculturist.

A long planning timeframe

Although the planting window is short, the planning and coordination to get those trees in the ground by ODF’s experts is much longer.

“We are looking at our seedling needs about two to three years out,” said Walter.  “We come up with the number of seedlings needed and then contract with several nurseries to get them grown at the time we need them.”

It sounds simple enough; however, the way the timber sale contracts are set up makes coming up with an accurate number tricky.  

“Winning bidders have two to three years to harvest that sale,” said Walter.  “That means we may need to replant in that area after year one, two, or three.  So how do we come up with the number of seedlings each year?  We get with each ODF district folks and make a best guess based on past performance of the winning bidder, operator availability, and market conditions.”

One time rule changes challenging

Another issue in 2023, especially for ODF’s Tillamook District, was the implementation of the Private Forest Accord and the resulting changes to the Forest Practices Act (FPA).   Some of the small forestland owners who infrequently harvest decided they wanted to harvest under the old rules. This created an increase in the demand for the limited number of timber operators in the district.

“Nearly all the operators were working on private forestland in 2023,” said Nick Stumpf, Unit Manager for ODF’s Tillamook District.  “In a normal year we would have 10-12 harvest operations, but that year we had one.”

Private timber operators are the ones who run the harvest equipment and are typically contracted by the winning bidders of a state forest timber sale. 

“For state forests our contracts already met or exceeded the requirements of the FPA changes in many areas so there was no rush to harvest on state sales,” said Stumpf.  “The operators were focused on getting timber out of private lands before the rule changes. This one-time shift changed the prediction of how many seedlings we would need to plant in our district.”

Costs increase, revenue sharing static

Not only are they taking an educated guess at the number of seedlings needed, but they are also having to project the costs of the seedling itself but the labor and contract costs to plant them.

“Those combined costs used to be fairly consistent,” said Walter.  “However, over the past five years or so those combine costs have climbed from around 50 cents a tree to more than $1 a tree.”

These cost increases are hard for ODF to manage since revenue from state forest timber sales is split, with the host counties getting approximately two-thirds while one-third is kept by ODF to manage the forests.  However, ODF pays for all costs associated with managing state forestlands, including timber sales, post-harvest replanting, trail and campground maintenance and improvements, and improving wildlife habitat. So, when costs increase, like doubling planting costs, it takes funding away from other important work on state forestlands, as ODF must absorb those increases without being able to access more of the sales revenue.

Unique greatest permanent value management

Another cost and planning challenge when replanting is state forests are managed for a concept called greatest permanent value (GPV).  GPV means that the approximately 745,000 acres of forestlands ODF manages across the state needs to provide for economic, environmental, and social benefits to Oregonians. 

Zach Rabe, Tillamook District Operations Coordinator, explained that, although Doug-fir is typically the most valuable species in western Oregon, state forestlands are planted with a mixture of species after harvest to support GPV goals. 

 “We plant about 70 percent Doug-fir and 30 percent other species,” said Rabe. “Our goal is to promote diverse and thus resilient forests to provide environmental benefits.  We mimic what was likely the natural conifer mix of the forests to provide those environmental benefits like wildlife habitat.  This mix also improves social benefits like clean water and seeing more than one species when you are on a state forest trail or road.”

The mix of tree types means ordering seedlings from nurseries is more complex than a one species order.

“We have to consolidate all the needs for each district and then come up with a list of the species and numbers of seedlings we need,” said Walter.  “So again, we are trying to predict our seedling needs nearly three years out, so it is a best guess; however, we want to make sure we have enough seedlings, so we typically have leftover trees.”

Extra seedlings shared

Last year ODF had a lot of seedlings leftover after planting all ODF lands.

“We sold 580,000 seedlings to private and industrial landowners.  We donated 20,000 to non-profits, mostly watershed groups, and gave about 60,000 seedlings to tribal governments,” said Walter.  “We don’t want to come up short because that impacts future activities; however, we do not want these seedlings to go to waste so we try to make sure they all get used.”

Organizations that buy or receive free seedlings still must pay for the planting costs.

“We are still doing final calculations on how many trees we will plant this year, but like last year we will offer up the extras we do not use,” said Walter.

For more information on Oregon’s State Forests see Oregon State Forests. 

 

New Edition of the Oregon Blue Book Highlights John Day Fossil Beds and the Great Comet of 2024

Every odd-numbered year since 1911, the Oregon Secretary of State’s office has published the Oregon Blue Book, our state’s official almanac and fact book. Each edition of the book features beautiful, new cover images of Oregon captured by the winners of the Oregon Blue Book Cover Photo Contest.

The 2025-2026 Oregon Blue Book front cover features a stunning capture from the Painted Cove in the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, near Mitchell. Photographer Matt Straite of Keizer made the image which he titled, “The Many Sides of Oregon.” The back cover includes an amazing astrophotography shot titled “Comet/C2023 A” by Nathan Rohde of Shady Cove.

“The Oregon Blue Book is an invitation to learn more about Oregon, engage with your neighbors, our government and our state’s history. It helps us understand what it means to be an Oregonian. The artists who’ve created these cover images captured some of that spirit, and I’m thrilled they’re a part of my first Oregon Blue Book as Secretary of State,” said Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read.

“So many people look right past the desert areas of the state, but there is so much beauty there,” said Straite. “I have always been drawn to images that show the work of mankind in nature, particularly when that work has been added to help others see the nature, like the work of the Civilian Conservation Corp. The way this trail bends at the end is such a strong draw to want to explore more.” Straite also said that he shot this image from the boardwalk, which is there to take people through the sensitive clay hills without harming them.

Nathan Rohde’s image of Comet/C2023 A3, also known as the “Great Comet of 2024” was made near his home. He said he’s always been fascinated by astrophotography and loved trying to capture the Milky Way and the Aurora, but after seeing posts online of other peoples’ images of the comet, he thought he could capture it too: “Living in Southern Oregon affords access to some relatively dark areas. On a tall clearing not far from Lost Creek Lake, I got set up about an hour before sunset and began scanning the sky with my lens fully extended. About 45 minutes after sunset, conditions were perfect and the pictures started coming through!” Rohde said the rolling hills in the foreground were an excellent way to provide scale and accentuate the sky.

The 2025-2026 Oregon Blue Book is available for presale purchase now at bluebook.oregon.gov/shop. These limited-edition books are $30 for the hardcover and $18 for the paperback, plus shipping and handling. A downloadable copy of the full cover for use by the media can be found in Oregon Blue Book Assets and Information here.

 

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