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Thursday, April 3, 2025

Klamath Basin Weather

 

Chi-Town Family Festival Returns June 27–28 — Sponsors Needed to Help Make the Magic Happen

The City of Chiloquin is gearing up for the 4th Annual Chi-Town Family Festival, scheduled to take place on Friday, June 27, from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, June 28, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Chiloquin Rodeo and Events Park.

This free, family-friendly celebration brings together community, culture, music, food, and fun for all ages – and we’re calling on community-minded businesses and individuals to help make it possible.

The event will feature crowd favorites, including the annual bike rodeo provided by Ninja Mountain Bike Performance, live music, a local farmers and craft market, and numerous kids’ activities, such as bounce houses, obstacle courses, and water slides, provided by 541 Jump. This year, thanks to the generosity of the United Way of Klamath Basin, the event will feature a new activity: the mobile escape room Shaky Grounds Cafe.

While the festival is free to attend, it’s only possible thanks to the generosity of local sponsors. We are
currently seeking sponsorships at all levels, ranging from $150 for Bronze Sponsors to $1,500 for Platinum
Sponsors. Every dollar raised helps cover the cost of family activities, equipment rentals, and infrastructure
needed to keep the event safe and enjoyable.

“We’ve seen tremendous support already from sponsors like, Adkins Engineering, KLA-MO-YA Casino, Crossover Church, and Pacific Crest Federal Credit Union,” said Festival Chair Robert Cowie. “But we still need a few additional sponsors to ensure we can bring the full experience to life for our community.”
Businesses and organizations that sponsor the event will receive valuable recognition, including logos on eventbanners, shoutouts from the stage, and visibility on printed and online promotional materials. It’s a great opportunity to connect with hundreds of families and show support for Chiloquin’s growing community spirit.

In addition to sponsors, volunteers are also still needed to assist with event setup, kids’ activities, and
teardown. To become a sponsor or volunteer, contact Robert Cowie at (541) 783-2717 or email
familyfestival@cityofchiloquin.org. For more information, including sponsorship details, please visit www.chitownfamilyfestival.com.

 

Around the State of Oregon

A mistake by the Oregon Employment Department means up to 12-thousand people who received unemployment last year might need to file updated tax forms.

The problem happened during the switch from the old computer system to Frances Online. Incorrect 1099-G forms were sent to some people who received unemployment benefits last year. The department is going through a process to identify all errors, validate tax forms and contact affected customers.

The Oregon Employment Department has details on its website.

 

Warm temperatures and rain are causing rapid snowmelt in Southeast Oregon that has caused flooding. Governor Tina Kotek declared an emergency in Harney County and the Burns Paiute Reservation.

Flooding overwhelmed the sewer system causing environmental hazards in the flood water and health concerns. Floodwaters covered roads, bridges and properties over the weekend. Congressman Cliff Bentz says he’s reaching out to FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for help.

 

Warm temperatures and rain are causing rapid snowmelt in Southeast Oregon that has caused flooding. Governor Tina Kotek declared an emergency in Harney County and the Burns Paiute Reservation.

Flooding overwhelmed the sewer system causing environmental hazards in the flood water and health concerns. Floodwaters covered roads, bridges and properties over the weekend. Congressman Cliff Bentz says he’s reaching out to FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers for help.

 

Two bills are coming to the Oregon Legislature that can help protect residents before and after a wildfire happens.

Thats according to State Representative Pam Marsh who is one of the sponsors for House Bill 3666 and House Bill 3917. HB 3666 would institute a safety certification that the Public Utility Commission could grant to utilities, like Pacific Power, after reviewing the utility’s wildfire mitigation plan.

HB 3917 would set up a fund available for fire survivors, but how much coverage the fund would provide and who pays for the fund is still being discussed. Marsh says right now, utility’s wildfire mitigation plans are open-ended and after a wildfire happens, many people without insurance are left with little to no options. Some trial lawyers say these bills are a way to limit wildfire liability for utilities.

Marsh refutes this, saying neither bill is intended to provide any kind of immunity.

 

FBI launching ‘surge’ in Oregon, other states to investigate unsolved crimes in Native American communities

The FBI, now headed by Cash Patel says information they’ve gathered has seen a surge in unsolved crimes in Native American communities, including Oregon.

The FBI is sending extra agents, analysts and other personnel to field offices in Oregon and nine other states over the next six months to help investigate unsolved violent crimes in Indian Country, marking a continuation of efforts by the federal government to address high rates of violence affecting Native American communities.

The U.S. Justice Department announced Tuesday that the temporary duty assignments began immediately and will rotate every 90 days in field offices that include Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, and Jackson, Mississippi.

The FBI will be working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, tribal authorities and federal prosecutors in each of the states.

In 2023, the Justice Department established its Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons outreach program, dispatching more attorneys and coordinators to certain regions to help with unsolved cases. In past years, the FBI’s Operation Not Forgotten had deployed about 50 people. This year, it’s 60. (SOURCE)

 

Jackson County is gearing up to welcome visitors to Emigrant Lake this summer, with the lake nearly replenished after several years of low water levels.

Steve Lambert, the Roads and Parks Director for Jackson County, shared exciting updates about the upcoming season, which promises a mix of outdoor recreation, new concessions, and renovated park facilities. The resurgence of the lake will also help the popular non-motorized watercraft rentals, including paddleboards and kayaks, which had struggled during the low-water years. 

The county is actively seeking new business partners to provide food, beverage, and non-motorized watercraft rentals, a service that was previously offered when the lake had better water levels. The last concessionaire at Emigrant Lake was successful in offering rentals and lessons for paddleboards, and Lambert is optimistic about finding a new partner to continue this tradition.

In preparation for the influx of visitors, Jackson County has also been working on improving park facilities. New infrastructure, including replacement sidewalks, staircases and a renovated Oak Slope Tent Campground.

 

Governor Tina Kotek has proclaimed April 2025 to be Oregon Arbor Month throughout the state.

This year’s proclamation recognizes the importance to neighborhoods of urban trees as cities add housing and rapidly densify. The proclamation states that “Trees play an integral role in fostering healthy communities,” adding that urban development and the preservation of trees demands a careful balance.   

Oregon Dept. of Forestry Urban and Community Forestry Program Manager Scott Altenhoff said “Replacing those trees will require us to pick up the pace not only of planting but also of ensuring nurseries have the capacity to grow the numbers and types of trees needed that are resilient to climate change and resistant to serious pests and diseases.” He added that it is equally important to grow and diversify the workforce in urban forestry.

Altenhoff said there is growing recognition, as cited in the proclamation, that the benefits of tree canopy have been unevenly distributed in the state. “Many low-income areas and those with large populations of people of color have fewer large shade trees than more affluent neighborhoods. Research has shown that having fewer large shade trees in those lower-canopy neighborhoods is strongly associated with increased deaths from heart disease and poor health outcomes.”

 

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley says a plan to fire more than half of the EPA’s Office of Research and Development will increase risks from pollution.

The left-leaning Merkley is the leading Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees the EPA. He says the change is illegal without the approval of Congress.

Merkley says the scientists are conducting research into PFAS chemicals, support for natural disaster responses, and environmental monitoring. He’s urging the EPA’s administrator to stop the plan.

 

 

With the belt tightening of the federal government, according to the Oregon Health Authority, every county in Oregon and all nine federally-recognized tribal communities will feel the $117 million in funding cuts for OHA programs from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The OHA says the funding is being pulled through the Center for Disease Control and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Some of the COVID-era funding and grants were supposed to continue for another year or more.

The OHA says grants to support vaccine-preventable disease work as well as five grants that helped establish the 988 crisis line and were intended to aid in community substance use treatment, prevention, and recovery are among the programs experiencing a loss of funding in Oregon.

Nationwide, over $11 billion of pandemic-response funds are being pulled back by the CDC.

 

A federal judge in Portland found a Tigard, Oregon man guilty Wednesday for shooting a United States Postal Service (USPS) letter carrier.

Kevin Eugene Irvine, 34, was convicted of one count each of attempted murder of a federal employee, aggravated assault on a federal employee with a firearm, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. Irvine raised an insanity defense in the bench trial held before a U.S. District Judge. The District Judge found that Irvine had failed to establish legal insanity and was guilty of all three counts in the indictment.

According to court documents, on December 24, 2022, while driving a white van through a Milwaukie, Oregon neighborhood, Irvine made eye contact with a letter carrier delivering mail on foot dressed in a USPS uniform. Irvine threw his arms in the air, which the letter carrier mistook as waving, and waved back.  

A short time later, on an adjacent street, the letter carrier noticed the same van and again made eye contact with driver, later identified as Irvine, as he drove past. Irvine stopped the van several houses away, got out of the van with a rifle, knelt on the street and fired three rounds, striking the letter carrier once as the letter carrier ran for cover. After the shooting, Irvine picked up his shell casings and drove off.

On December 28, 2022, officers spotted the van in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where they stopped the vehicle and arrested Irvine. Later, investigators sought and obtained a search warrant for Irvine’s van and found three rifles, ammunition, spent shell casings, a knife, shooting targets and ballistic gear.

On February 8, 2023, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment charging Irvine with aggravated assault on a federal employee with a firearm, attempted murder of a federal employee, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

Irvine faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release for each count of attempted murder of a federal employee and aggravated assault on a federal employee with a firearm, and a mandatory minimum of ten years of imprisonment with a maximum sentence of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years of supervised release for discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. He will be sentenced on July 17, 2025.

The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service with assistance from the Milwaukie Police Department and the Lake Oswego Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Gary Y. Sussman and Eliza Carmen Rodriguez, Assistant U.S. Attorneys for the District of Oregon.

 

Oregon public schools would have to consider installing a panic alarm system under a bill that unanimously passed the state House.

Alyssa’s Law is named after Alyssa Alhadeff, a student who was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2017. Schools that have installed these systems find that about 80 percent of the alerts are for medical purposes.

In 2023, the Oregon Legislature approved two-and-a-half million dollars to help pay for the systems. The bill now moves to the Senate.

The federal government would prioritize use of mass timber in construction projects under a bill in Congress.

Senators from Oregon and Idaho are leading the bipartisan effort to pass the Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act. Mass timber involves a process that makes wood strong enough for high rise construction, and more fire resistant.

The bill would make it a preference to use mass timber in federal construction projects.

 

A new bill in the Oregon legislature could result in a sales tax on beer, wine, and cider in Oregon.

House Bill 3197 proposes a 2% tax starting in 2026, eventually climbing to 8% in 2032. The tax would impact consumers at restaurants and at the grocery store. A majority of the funds collected, 85%, would go toward funding youth alcohol and drug abuse prevention programs. 

The Oregon Beverage Alliance opposes the tax, citing a Monitoring the Future survey that claims youth drinking and drug use is at an all-time low.  a spokesperson with the Oregon Beverage Alliance said. “Lawmakers should not be raising prices through a regressive sales tax on constituents when they’re already at record highs.

Additionally, the beer and wine sectors are seeing record closures with 70 breweries, taprooms, and brewpubs and 60 wineries and tasting rooms shuttering in the past two years as fewer people are drinking.

 

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s office has heard from thousands of Oregonians concerned with utility rate increases that have gone up for most by about 50% in the last five years.

Kotek detailed this and her own concerns in a March 20 letter to the three governor-appointed chairs and executive director of the Oregon Public Utility Commission, which is charged with regulating the rates of investor-owned, monopoly electric and gas utilities operating in the state.  She also laid out her expectations for the commission in the letter, including honoring the state’s climate commitments while considering requests for rate increases from utilities.

She asked that members provide information by Aug. 1 about their ability going forward to keep electricity and gas services affordable for Oregonians, handle the impacts of new heavy users such as data centers and ensure sound investments are being made in modernizing grid and distribution systems so Oregonians get reliable energy deliveries. 

Kotek acknowledged both electric and natural gas utilities have and continue to face increasing insurance costs from the threat of catastrophic wildfires, inflationary pressures and volatile fuel prices. Everyday customers face those challenges, too.  NW Natural, the state’s largest private gas utility, turned off gas to 376 Oregonians in 2024 – a 30% increase since 2023.

In the last five years, residential rates for customers of all three utilities have risen by about 50%, and the Oregon’s Public Utility Commission has approved rate hikes requested by the utilities nearly every year.

 

The Portland Public School District and the Oregon School Activities Association is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for allowing a transgender student athlete to compete in track events against girls.

Former NFL star quarterback Brett Favre is critical of the decision, that led to the athlete setting two records. Favre tells FOX NEWS, “It shouldn’t be okay and shame on all the officials who would allow this.”

The liberal OSAA says they’re complying with state anti-discrimination law which is different from federal law. Expect the Trump Administation to see Oregon in court on the issue.

 

Big changes are coming to Mega Millions next month. Players will pay more for an increased ticket price but can also expect adjustments to prizes, higher starting jackpots and higher winning odds.

The new cost of a single-play Mega Millions ticket will rise from $2 per play to $5 per play, starting with the April 8 drawing.

Players who had won $2 in the old game will now take home $10, $15, $20, $25 or $50 under this game.  Those who had won $500 under the old rules will now take home $1,000; $1,500; $2,000; $2,500 or $5,000 in this new game. Non-jackpot prizes at every level are going up by 2X to 10X. 

These changes will take effect next week, according to a press release, after the last drawing on the current game April 4. The first drawings under the new system will begin April 8. It’s the second time in the game’s history that a price adjustment has been made, and the first since 2017.

Mega Millions is played in Oregon and 44 other states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

 

Seems like every week there is new license plate design in the works. Last week, we told you about the new Dungeness Crab license plate option. The Oregon Dungeness crab commission currently selling vouchers in hopes of it becoming a reality.

Here is yet one more new license plate, this time aimed at sports fans. Now you can finally merge your passions for driving on the green and driving on the road. The Oregon Golf Association launching this new ‘Golf Oregon’ license plate effort.

The design features a golf ball texture background with a golf ball overlooking a sandy beach. The Association says the money raised from plate purchases will go directly toward youth golfing programs across the state. It also says Oregon is a golf paradise with over 200 courses covering more than 20,000 acres of the state.

 

The long-delayed deadline for REAL ID is weeks 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.

 

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