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Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Klamath Basin Weather

MAZAMA, HENLEY TO OFFER MEDICAL ASSISTANT PRE-APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM

Klamath County School District will offer a new medical assistant pre-apprenticeship program at Mazama and Henley high schools starting in the 2024-25 school year.

The new program partners with Sky Lakes Medical Center to provide students with a full year of medical assistant college-level courses. Lauren Lorenz teaches CTE (career and technical education) health occupation courses at Mazama High School and will be teaching the medical assistant pre-apprenticeship course there next year.

“We will be teaching the same curriculum that medical assistants are taught at Sky Lakes,” she said. “The medical center wants to build a bridge and have students continue their training at Sky Lakes.”

Students who complete the pre-apprenticeship will be eligible for a one-year post-graduation certified medical assistant training program at Sky Lakes Medical Center that prepares students for national certification. The students also will have an opportunity while still in high school to join a newly launched Clinic Ambassador Program at Sky Lakes that provides on-the-job paid learning opportunities at its primary care clinics.

“We are excited to help build the next generation of health care clinicians,” said Dr. Erin Gonzales, Sky Lake’s chief medical officer. “These programs help to expand access to care and change the lives of students through exposure to lifelong learning in the medical field.”

The new program adds to an already robust CTE health occupations line up. Students in Health Occupations 1 class visit and shadow medical professionals at Sky Lakes once a week to learn about job options in the medical field. Health Occupations II provides students an opportunity to earn their certified nursing assistant (CNA) certification. The new medical assistant course will be Health Occupations III.

Mazama High School juniors Mada Lee and Rylee Blaschke plan on taking the medical assistant pre-apprenticeship courses as seniors next fall.

Lee is interested in a career in the medical field and plans to study to become a physician’s assistant (PA). Blaschke is planning for a career as a firefighter. Both say studying to be a medical assistant is a stepping stone to their goals.

Lee has taken Health Occupations I and says the ability to shadow medical professionals at Sky Lakes helped her decide her career path.

“When I graduate, I should be able to work at a hospital,” Lee said. “College is expensive so I feel getting a job right after graduating high school is a big deal.”

Blaschke said being able to see how a medical center operates is valuable knowledge as she pursues her career as a firefighter.“I think anyone interested in the medical field should take these courses,” she said. “The medical field is just so broad. There are so many options, and a lot of people end up paying for college and going through all the training before they really know if it is the career field they want.”

Medical assistant will be the second pre-apprenticeship program offered at Mazama and Henley. Currently, Henley offers construction pre-apprenticeship, and that program is expanding to Mazama, Lost River, and Bonanza next school year.

Mazama also is exploring a pre-apprenticeship pathway in manufacturing for the future, said Vice Principal Sergio Cisneros.

“Our commitment is to educate and help students by providing opportunities that are tangible,” Cisneros said. “Students are still in high school, yet have a hands-on chance to see what they are learning in action so they can make educated decisions on what they may or may not want to do in the future.”

The key to these programs is the support of local businesses and organizations. Sky Lakes Medical Center, for example, currently partners with the school district to offer on-the-job training opportunities to high school students through its Unit Ambassador Earn to Learn program. That program provides students with hands-on experience in non-clinical roles while earning wages for their time.

“The amazing part about our community is health care professionals want to partner with us,” Lorenz said. “They see the need. They see the value.”

Jennifer Hawkins, principal at Mazama High School, says pre-apprenticeship programs give students a chance to explore career options and learn skills before they graduate and make a career decision.
“I think it’s a way to serve students and serve the community. We’re growing our own,” she said.

 

Around the State of Oregon

The Oregon Department of Justice on Monday said it would not pursue criminal charges against the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission director and other managers who used their positions to access prized Kentucky bourbon.

The Justice Department’s 18-page report on its investigation underscored challenges state investigators encountered: Investigators weren’t able to locate anyone who could identify specific OLCC employees who had completed particular purchases, sales records at one store where many of the transactions took place were no longer available and bank records did little to confirm specific sales of the Kentucky bourbons at the heart of the inquiry.

The announcement comes nearly a year and a half after Justice Department lawyers opened the investigation at Gov. Tina Kotek’s request.

In a letter to Kotek, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Udland emphasized that the agency limited its review to possible crimes and did not “separately address whether the conduct of any OLCC employee violated Oregon’s civil ethics laws.”

 

A Coos Bay woman who has been missing since April has been found.

Coos Bay Police Department confirmed that 28-year-old Baylee Campo was located following a tip provided to her family and forwarded to authorities.

Officers spoke with Campo and say she is in good health. She had been declared missing on April 14. No other details were given.

 

Human remains found in the Fieldbrook area in Northern California back in 2006 have been identified.

According to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, DNA technology helped to identify Freddie Earl Long of Big Bar, California.

Police say in October of 2006, a human skull was found on property owned by a timber company. Detectives located additional skeletal remains as well as clothing and other various personal items nearby.

At the time investigators said there was no evidence to indicate foul play, nor could the coroner’s office find any identifying features to identify the remains even with the use of DNA or dental records.

However more recently with the use of forensic genetic genealogy and genome sequencing, police were able to determine that the remains belonged to Long. With a DNA sample, Long’s closest living relative was located and confirmed he had gone missing around 1993 but had never been reported missing.

Long would have been 50-years-old at the time of his disappearance and sometimes went by the alias “Cowboy Fred.”

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information to contact them.

 

The Portland bureau of the FBI is investigating an emerging social media scam.

Hackers take over a person’s Facebook account, then post big-ticket items for sale that don’t exist, like trucks, trailers and ATVs. They claim to be selling the possessions of a relative forced to move into “aged care” and can only communicate through online messaging apps. In just one Oregon incident, around a dozen people lost more than $10,000.

FBI Portland Cybersquad Supervisory Special Agent Yaqub Prowell says the first step to protecting yourself is to try to avoid getting hacked….. and, one should start by using strong, unique passwords, as just kind of the basics of cyber hygiene.

Agent Prowell also says you also want to enable multi-factor authentication, wherever that’s available. You want to avoid unsecure wifi networks. Also limit oversharing..  Be mindful of what you post on social media, because personal information can always be used against you.

 

MEDFORD, Ore.—A Medford man was sentenced to federal prison Monday for distributing fentanyl that caused the overdose death of a local teenager.

John Rocha, 31, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison and four years’ supervised release.

According to court documents, on September 7, 2021, officers from the Medford Police Department responded to a report of an overdose death of a local 17-year-old high school student. Investigators soon learned that the teenager had taken counterfeit Percocet pills containing fentanyl. Within days, investigators identified Rocha as the victim’s fourth-level drug supplier and, when confronted by law enforcement, he admitted to having recently sold counterfeit pills.

On February 3, 2022, a federal grand jury in Medford returned a five-count indictment charging Rocha and four others with distributing fentanyl, possessing with intent to distribute fentanyl, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

On February 20, 2024, Rocha pleaded guilty to distributing fentanyl.

This case was investigated by the FBI and the Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement Team (MADGE). It was prosecuted by Marco A. Boccato, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.

MADGE is a multi-jurisdictional narcotics task force that identifies, disrupts, and dismantles local, multi-state, and international drug trafficking organizations using an intelligence-driven, multi-agency prosecutor-supported approach. MADGE is supported by the Oregon-Idaho High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) and is composed of members from the Medford Police Department, the Jackson County Sheriff and District Attorney’s Offices, the Jackson County Community Corrections, FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The Oregon-Idaho HIDTA program is an Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) sponsored counterdrug grant program that coordinates with and provides funding resources to multi-agency drug enforcement initiatives.

 

Jackson County Fire District 5’s Chief Charles Hanley has been put on administrative leave. This comes as an investigation into complaints about Hanley are underway.

The complaints include allegations of general misconduct, bullying and more. They were brought to the attention of Fire District 5 board members by the union that represents the district’s firefighters, back in January. The complaints submitted by IAFF Local 2596 led to a motion filed to put Hanley on administrative leave, in February. Then in March, three out of five board members resigned.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Hanley was placed on administrative leave immediately, pending the outcome of the investigation. Hanley argued that the terms and conduct of his contract were not being followed.

Assistant Fire Chief, Aaron Bustard will take over Hanley’s duties, as Interim Fire Chief.

 

Gov. Tina Kotek abruptly pulled back this week on a pair of nominations to the board that oversees Oregon forest policy, after blowback from environmental groups over one of her picks.

Kotek had planned to tap two men for the state Board of Forestry who have often been on opposite sides of debates over how much of Oregon’s forests should be open to logging.

One was Bob Van Dyk, a conservationist who formerly spent a dozen years with the Portland-based Wild Salmon Center. The other: Heath Curtiss, vice president of government affairs for Hampton Lumber.

The dual appointment would have left the balance unchanged on a seven-member board that is closely scrutinized for where its volunteer members stand on forest issues.

Van Dyk was slated to take the place of Chandra Ferrari, an environmental attorney who works for the state and recently began a stint in Kotek’s office. Ferrari isn’t attending meetings or taking part in votes while working in the governor’s office.

Curtiss would have stepped in for Karla Chambers, a farmer and board member of Hampton Lumber. Chambers is one of three members with financial interest in the timber industry — the maximum amount that can serve on the board under state law.

But Kotek’s office wound up scrapping both nominations. A lengthy list of board and commission nominees released by the governor’s office Wednesday contained no appointees for the forestry board, meaning lawmakers will not consider them when they meet in confirmation hearings later this month.

Van Dyk and Curtiss separately told OPB the governor’s office told them this week their names wouldn’t be on the list.

The groups also attempted to get Kotek to rethink the balance of the forestry board, writing that Curtiss’s appointment “would also lock in the troubling notion that the Board of Forestry must always have three members who derive income from forest practices.”

“The statute allows for a maximum of three members to derive income for logging related activities, but for too long this provision has, in practice, been used as an excuse to have a minimum of three members with direct conflicts on the board,” the letter said.

 

Oregon State lawmakers will embark on a 12-stop tour of the state this summer, to hear Oregonians priorities for transportation.

Members of the Joint Committee on Transportation will hold hearings in each of the 12 cities, which include Albany, Eugene, Coos Bay, Hermiston and Bend. They say they’ll use information gathered to craft a transportation package for the 2025 legislative session. The tour starts in early June and runs through the end of September.

 

Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has a new Director. Dr. Debbie Colbert is the first woman to be appointed to the permanent role.

She’s been ODFW’s Deputy Director for Fish and Wildlife Programs for several years. Prior to that, she was Deputy Director for Administration. She’s also worked for Oregon Water Resources and Oregon State University and, at one point was a researcher at sea. Colbert was selected by unanimous vote Friday, by the Fish and Wildlife Commission.

 

The Oregon International Airshow is coming up this weekend at the Hillsboro Airport.

Performers include the Air Force F-16 Viper Demo Team, the Navy’s F/A-18 Super Hornet Demo Team. Flybys with Air Force F-35A Lightnings and historic aircraft. There is also static displays on the tarmac. Friday night features a new drone display after the sun goes down. You can buy tickets online in advance.

 

Less than a month after he was granted compassionate release during COVID-19 and let out of federal prison early in a drug-and-money laundering case, Johnell Lee Cleveland schemed to make money through insurance fraud, a government benefits scam and pushed a woman to sell sex and turn over the proceeds to him, a prosecutor said.

Last Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced Cleveland, nicknamed “Bankroll Johnny,” to nine years in prison, accepting the recommended sentence reached in a negotiated plea deal.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman called it a “very troubling” case for both the breadth of crimes Cleveland committed and how quickly he returned to committing them after his release from custody.

Cleveland, 42, made no statement.

Twenty-four days after his release, he and an alleged accomplice submitted a bogus application to State Farm Insurance for a policy to cover nine pieces of jewelry, providing written appraisals.

The insurer issued a policy for $105,800 for 12 months, ending in late August 2021, without examining the watches, rings or necklaces. If the insurer had, it might have learned that the jewelry had been seized by federal agents years earlier in Cleveland’s 2018 drug trafficking case.

 

There’s less than a month left for Oregon’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program. It closes June 3.

Those drivers in the market for an electric vehicle can get thousands of dollars back on their purchase through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

This year the fund has just under $8 million to give out with two rebate offers.

First the standard rebate, which is up to $2,500, applies to anyone buying or leasing a new eligible vehicle. Second the charge ahead rebate, which is up to $5,000, is geared toward low and moderate income households.

For the rebates to apply, vehicles must be purchased at a licensed dealership. Applicants have six months from the date of their lease or purchase to apply.

More information can be found on the program’s website.

 

Tillamook Police Chief Raymond Rau had just learned someone in his department discovered drugs missing from a property storage locker.

He immediately rushed into the office and approached the desk of his evidence technician. But instead of launching an investigation, he made a remarkable confession.

“Yeah, I’ve been taking the evidence and destroying it,” Rau told the technician. “…I’ve been doing it for months.”

A state police audit and investigation obtained by members of the media under a public records request include new details of Rau’s admission and revealed much more widespread instances of evidence tampering than came out in court, as well as actions by Rau to reduce oversight of the department’s evidence area.

Rau, 57, was sentenced in April to 10 days in jail after entering no-contest pleas to two official misconduct charges that accused him of removing drugs from evidence starting shortly after he arrived to lead the department in 2021.

Rau and his lawyer said in court that he destroyed drugs from police evidence storage on only two or three occasions. Rau did it, he explained, to protect the evidence technician who had just returned from maternity leave. He didn’t want her to be exposed to fentanyl, he said.

 

Gas prices have fallen slightly in the past week, according to a news release from the American Automobile Association.

The national average has dropped two cents to $3.64 a gallon, while Oregon’s much higher gas prices decreased by four cents to $4.46. 

AAA of Oregon says falling crude oil prices have helped push pump prices lower. While some refinery maintenance is still underway in the U.S., the seasonal spring run-up in gas prices is settling down.  But crude oil prices are still the big wildcard as global conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will continue to keep oil markets volatile.

The national and Oregon prices are still at their highest prices since October, the release said. Oregon is one of 32 states with lower prices than a week ago. 

In the Southern Oregon region, these are the average gas prices by county:

Klamath County: $4.417

Curry County: $4.743

Josephine County: $4.552

Jackson County: $4.535

Lake County: $4.524

 

The Oregon Health Authority is launching a fentanyl awareness campaign on its social media site.

It’s called “Fentanyl Aware” and will post messages on fentanyl risks, harm reduction strategies, and Oregon’s good Samaritan law that provides legal protections for people using Narcan during an overdose. The messages will be posted over the next five weeks.

 

For the first time, researchers in Oregon have identified a brain syndrome caused by fentanyl.

A man in his 40s was hospitalized after snorting crushed fentanyl. There were no signs he had previously used opioids. An MRI showed inflammation in the white matter of his brain. It’s happened in heroin patients, but this is the first time with fentanyl. Researchers say it can lead to permanent brain damage. The man was hospitalized for nearly a month before going to a nursing home for further rehabilitation. Researchers don’t know how much fentanyl is needed to cause the syndrome..

 

A new OHSU study finds the use of nicotine and cannabis during pregnancy dramatically increases the rate of infant death.

Researchers evaluated hospital data and vital statistics from more than three million pregnant patients with documented substance use. They found that the rate of infant death was four times higher in users of both cannabis and nicotine compared with non-users, and nearly twice as high compared with users of just one of those. Researchers are calling for more research and patient education for better outcomes. The study is published in JAMA Network Open.

 

Portland, Ore. – After selling the winning Powerball ticket worth $1.3 billion, the fourth largest jackpot in the game’s history, Plaid Pantry was presented a bonus check worth $100,000 on Thursday. Oregon Lottery officials celebrated with store representatives at the location on 6060 NE Columbia Boulevard in Portland.

“The excitement and impact of a win like this in Oregon is incredible, not only for our prize winners, but also for our communities and locally owned retailer Plaid Pantry,” said Oregon Lottery Director Mike Wells.

Cheng “Charlie” Saephan of Portland, his wife, and their friend claimed the winning ticket from the April 6, 2024 drawing. The ticket was the only one in the country to match all five numbers plus the Powerball.

“The energy and excitement we experienced from selling the winning ticket has been a big morale boost for the entire Plaid team,” said Plaid Pantry President and CEO Jonathan Polonsky. “We are very proud of our brand, which has been serving the Pacific Northwest for over 60 years. This bonus check will be reinvested in our business to benefit our associates, customers, and local suppliers.”

Oregon Lottery staff also surprised store customers at the Thursday event by handing out free $2 Scratch-its.

Plaid Pantry has 104 stores in Oregon and has sold other sizable wins in recent years, including a $3.3 million Megabucks ticket in August of 2023 and a $1 million Powerball prize in March of 2023.

Since the Oregon Lottery began selling tickets on April 25, 1985, it has earned nearly $15.5 billion for economic development, public education, outdoor school, state parks, veteran services, and watershed enhancements. For more information on the Oregon Lottery visit www.oregonlottery.org. 

 

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