The latest news stories and stories of interest in Eugene-Springfield area and around the state of Oregon from the online digital home of the valley, WillametteValleyMagazine.com
Monday, February 22, 2021
Willamette Valley Weather
Today- Rain likely, mainly after 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 53. South southwest wind 8 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.
Tuesday- A 20 percent chance of showers after 11am. Snow level 2200 feet. Partly sunny, with a high near 48. Calm wind becoming west southwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Wednesday- Mostly sunny, with a high near 49. Calm wind becoming north around 6 mph in the afternoon.
Thursday-A chance of rain before 11am, then showers likely, mainly between 11am and 5pm. Snow level 1200 feet rising to 3300 feet. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 48. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Friday- Showers likely. Snow level 2600 feet. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 47.
Oregon reports 111 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 1 new death
There is one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,155. The Oregon Health Authority reported 111 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 bringing the state total to 152,818.
***Note: Due to OHA server error, a large number of electronic lab results (ELR) were not processed yesterday. As a result, today’s case and ELR totals are lower than usual and the total for tomorrow is expected to be higher than usual. The backlog of ELRs is currently being processed.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Benton (3), Clackamas (4), Columbia (9), Coos (9), Curry (3), Deschutes (11), Douglas (21), Jackson (2), Jefferson (3), Josephine (1), Klamath (1), Lake (1), Lane (13), Lincoln (1), Linn (1), Marion (11), Multnomah (8), Polk (4), Umatilla (1), Washington (3), Yamhill (1).
On Friday, Governor Kate Brown said Oregon has the third-lowest infection rate for COVID-19 in the nation.
During a press conference, Brown said, “Oregonians continue to make smart choices, and the numbers speak for themselves”. Brown said “…while this is great news, we must remain vigilant in the face of the challenges ahead with the new variants”. Brown advised Oregonians to continue to follow safety measures.
Brown was joined by a number of officials from the Oregon Health Authority. She also provided updates on the number of students returning to in-person instruction in schools and vaccination efforts during the recent severe weather in parts of the state.
Vaccinations in Oregon
Today, OHA reported that 21,202 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 17,894 doses were administered on Feb. 20 and 3,308 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Feb. 20.
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
Oregon has now administered a cumulative total of 802,404 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 924,575 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA’s dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.
Lane County Opens Up a New Mass Vaccination Site
Lane County opened up a new mass vax site this weekend to vaccinate seniors and planned to simultaneously use the original site to give second doses to those in the 1a group. They held another mass vaccination clinic for seniors 75 years and older at a new site this weekend.
Two clinics this weekend were the original plan. But unfortunately, severe weather in the Midwest delayed those shipments, so that 1a clinic is being rescheduled for next weekend.
Over the weekend at the new site, about 3,000 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were given out. Those went primarily to those 75 and up, but also included 525 vaccines for educators.
Even though the County has started vaccinating those 75 and up, that doesn’t mean everyone 80 plus has been vaccinated. Each week a new age group becomes eligible, and public health tells us that just broadens the pool of people who get invitations to clinics, based on their preregistration.
“So through the preregistration process people share their information with us how they want to get contacted as well as their age and so we’re able to use that information to generate the list against which were able to send out invitations,” said Steve Adams with Lane County Public Health.
Public Health urges everyone, not just seniors, to preregister online so they can contact you when it’s your turn to get vaccinated. You can find that preregistration form on lanecounty.org.
Now, after scheduling issues last week, including many people showing up without an appointment, Adams says this weekend’s clinic ran a lot smoother. Next weekend the county plans to hold two clinics, once those second doses arrive for the 1A population.
Lane County Health and Human Services: https://www.lanecounty.org/government/county_departments/health_and_human_services
UO Deserves Praise for Stepping Up and Playing Key Role in Local Vaccination Efforts
In keeping with its role as a community leader, the University of Oregon has mobilized resources across campus to help Lane County fight off COVID-19.
Most recently, the UO helped organize 10 vaccination clinics that provided more than 12,000 vaccines to eligible Lane County residents since the COVID-19 vaccines first became available in late December.
The UO is a member of the Lane County Regional COVID-19 Vaccination Collaborative, a group of local health and education agencies that has joined forces to assist Lane County Public Health in providing vaccinations countywide.
The UO is drawing from its experience in staging large events and holding meningococcal vaccination clinics several years ago to help the county meet the logistical challenges of trying to vaccinate thousands of individual as quickly as possible.
“The University of Oregon’s expertise in event planning and project management has been absolutely critical in getting our mass vaccination drive-thru clinics and phase 1b group 1 clinics up and running,” said Steve Mokrohisky, the county administrator. “Vaccinating hundreds of thousands of Lane County residents with a vaccine that is in relatively short supply requires all of our community partners working together and bringing their respective strengths to the table. We are very fortunate to have the University of Oregon at that table and working hand in hand with Lane County on so many different facets of the COVID-19 response.”
Responding to and recovering from COVID-19 is a shared responsibility, and the UO is doing its part to help the county with vaccine rollout, said Krista Dillon, the UO’s director of operations in Safety and Risk Services.
“This is a monumental effort, and no entity can do this work alone,” Dillon said. “Relationships and partnerships are a cornerstone of emergency management, and that is why we offered up our emergency management program staff to help develop a sustainable and effective vaccination program for all of Lane County.”
At one recent event, Vicki Strand, the UO’s continuity and emergency manager in Safety and Risk Services, helped plan and organize a drive-through clinic that administered doses. She was among the workers and volunteers who weathered snow, sleet and rain to ensure it went smoothly.
Days earlier, Dillon helped organize a three-day, 2,000-dose vaccination clinic for area child care providers and educators that was planned and completed in only seven days.
Those efforts are on top of the large-scale and free public testing and contact tracing programs UO staff and faculty quickly developed and implemented last summer. Combined, they leverage the university’s expertise across a range of disciplines to benefit residents of Eugene, Springfield and Lane County.
“We’ll need this for at least the remainder of 2021, and the goal is setting up mass vaccination systems that are transferable and scalable to other locations within the county,” said Andre LeDuc, associate vice president for safety and risk services and chief resilience officer. “Our whole emergency management staff is now unified and embedded with Lane County Public Health and we’re working together to build these systems.”
The shot itself is only one part of the process.
“It’s not just putting a vaccine into somebody’s arm,” LeDuc said. “It’s making sure data is loaded into the state alert program, it’s the scheduling for second doses and making sure we’re setting up systems to ensure that community members complete the vaccine series.”
That also includes storing vaccines properly, determining the right amounts to deliver to a site, ensuring that shots go to people who are eligible to receive the vaccine, and implementing a standby system to ensure any excess doses of vaccine aren’t wasted.
Lately, Dillon and Strand have been on the front lines of those vaccination sites, drawing on their years of experience to ensure they run smoothly.
Dillon has been working with public and private K-12 schools and local child care providers to get their staffs vaccinated. That included a recent event where the UO helped secure a vendor to administer vaccines. Not a single dose went to waste.
“The clinic was a huge push in a short amount of time,” Dillon said. “It ended up working really, really well. We got lots of positive feedback.”
Learning from the experience she gained helping coordinate the university’s meningitis clinics in 2015-16, she’s been able to take charge of coordinating vaccination of the entire education sector so the county could focus on other needs.
“If we get our child care providers and educators vaccinated, there are more opportunities for kids to get back into child care and school settings, and more opportunities for people to get back to work,” Dillon said.
Prior to her job at Safety and Risk Services, Strand worked for 22 years in the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, coordinating event logistics for football, basketball, track and field, and the U.S. Olympic track and field trials as well as the meningitis vaccination clinics at Matt Knight Arena. Now she’s assisting Lane County set up drive-through clinics and possible walk-up sites.
The expertise throughout the university in large-scale logistics — whether it’s helping the community stage the U.S Olympic Team trials or coordinating a resource hub for wildfire victims within 48 hours, as happened last summer — also comes with a responsibility to step up early and assist with such a communitywide need.
“It would be ridiculous to sit on the sidelines until they said, ‘Higher ed, it’s time for you now,’” Strand said. “That’s being a poor partner. There’s so much we can do to help, and why not?”
LeDuc, Strand, Dillon and others from within the UO and the collaborative are developing plans that will be needed two and three months from now, while the county addresses the most immediate needs. That includes scaling up the drive-through clinics to high-volume, 16-lane capacities, with one already in the works for Autzen Stadium. They’re coordinating with coastal and rural communities for clinics there as well.
Up next is building a “vaccination corps” of students, similar to the UO’s Corona Corps and COVID Monitoring and Assessment Program testing team, that will assist at the mass clinics.
For LeDuc and his team, it’s their part of the multiagency effort to get the job done, with the university contributing resources as a citizen of its community.
“Out of all the things we’ve done in my career at UO, this will be the most impactful,” Dillon said. “I try and tell my daughter, this is bigger than the UO, bigger than the community. This is huge, but it’s also about problem-solving. There are going to be little problems to solve and big problems to solve, and if we think about it from that perspective, we can be successful together.”
Story Courtesy of OU: https://around.uoregon.edu/content/uo-teams-are-playing-key-roles-local-vaccination-efforts
AROUND the STATE of OREGON
After the Storm; Resources and Guidance for Oregonians
Issued by: Oregon Office of Emergency Management
Many Oregonians face new challenges in the aftermath of the recent severe winter ice storm, while first responders, utility workers and state agencies continue to prioritize life-safety in their response efforts. The sun is peeking out in parts of the state and warmer temperatures are melting ice and snow but this leaves many residents with considerable debris and other rubble to clean up, while others still remain without power.
Many community resources are available, and in true Oregon fashion, others are standing up to assist neighbors as residents emerge after being shut in by the storm. Below are some resources and guidance to help you, your family and fellow Oregonians recover safely:
- Save 911 for emergencies only: OEM is receiving reports of an increase in 911 calls related to downed power lines and outages where there is not a threat to life-safety. This takes away valuable resources from priority work and lengthens the overall restoration timelines.
- Check with your local emergency management office: Many hard-hit counties have gathered information and posted online; those without power may be able to address issues by phone.
- Marion County has posted resources on its website, from debris management (including drop off locations for woody storm debris) to where to find a warming or charging station and how to dispose of spoiled food.
- Clackamas County has storm resource centers for community members without power to access warming or charging stations and food resources.
- Homeowner’s insurance: Before submitting a claim, determine if the benefits of filing a claim for the damage outweigh the costs (often called a cost-benefit analysis). Make sure to consider your deductible as part of that analysis. The Oregon Division of Financial regulation has posted Storm Insurance Resources, covering wind, cold, loss of electricity, etc.
- Fallen tree and debris removal:
- DO NOT remove trees, branches or debris that are in contact with a powerline. For all powerline related debris removal, contact your utility provider.
- Do not put propane tanks or cylinders in the garbage or recycling bin.
- Contact your local hauler to see what and how much extra debris they can take, the best way to bundle it and if extra fees will be charged.
Wherever possible, consider alternatives to debris burning. Other options include:
- Recycle paper products when possible
- Dispose of waste at a landfill
- Compost yard debris and kitchen scrap
- Rent a chipper and use chips for mulch and compost
- Cut tree debris for firewood. Don’t need firewood? Check with neighbors or local social service agencies. Low-income seniors and others too frail or disabled to cut their own might appreciate a donation of firewood.
If burning debris is the only option, protect your home and your neighbors’ properties by building the fire correctly, staying with it from start to finish, and making sure it is completely out when done. These key steps apply to any open fire, whether it is a debris pile, a burn barrel, or a backyard campfire. Also:
- Call before you burn. Burning regulations are not the same in all areas of the state. Check with your local fire agency or air protection authority first to learn if burning is prohibited or if a permit is required.
- Never use gasoline or other accelerants.
- Keep your open fire small and manageable. Debris piles should be no bigger than 4 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter. Add debris in small amounts as existing debris is consumed by the fire. Burn barrels with screened lids offer a safer method of burning yard debris.
- Create a fuel break around the pile: Remove all flammable material and vegetation down to mineral soil within 10 feet of the outer edge of the pile. Make sure there are no tree branches or power lines above and no structures, outbuildings or wood fences nearby. Wet down the surrounding area before and during the burn to prevent spot fires from embers.
- Always have water and fire tools on site: Have a charged water hose or large bucket of water, and a shovel on hand to quickly extinguish any escaped embers or escaped flames. These tools will also be needed when you are ready to fully extinguish the fire.
- Extinguish the fire completely: Drown the fire with water, stir the coals, and drown again. Repeat these actions until the fire is completely out.
Many have reached out to OEM to inquire about federal assistance for ice storm cleanup and power outages. While FEMA resources are not currently available, county, tribal and local emergency management offices are assessing and submitting documentation of damages to public infrastructure and that of debris removal which eliminate immediate threats to lives, public health and safety and that are a direct result of the severe weather that occurred Feb. 11-15, 2021. Assessments will be compiled and reviewed to determine if a Major Disaster Declaration is warranted. Questions about damage to public infrastructure and debris removal that meet the above criteria may be directed to the State Public Assistance Officer Julie Slevin at Julie.slevin@state.or.us.
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You can get this document in other languages, large print, braille or a format you prefer. Contact David Cardona, OEM Equity, Inclusion & Language Access Program Manager, at 971-719-1183 or email david.cardona@state.or.us. We accept all relay calls or you can dial 711. Oregon Office of Emergency Management
U.S. Attorney’s Office Releases First Annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Program Report
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon released its first annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) program report today, announced U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams.
The report is the first of its kind produced by a U.S. Attorney’s Office since the Justice Department launched a new national strategy to address missing and murdered Native Americans in November 2019.
“For generations, American Indians and Alaskan Natives have suffered from disproportionately high levels of violence. Tragically, this is not a crisis of the past; it’s a crisis of the present,” said U.S. Attorney Williams. “In this report, we look back and forward, summarizing what is known about missing and murdered Indigenous people in Oregon and outlining our plans and goals for the year ahead. While we won’t solve this problem overnight, our office is working closely with Oregon law enforcement partners, other U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and the U.S. Department of Justice to end endemic violence in Indian Country.”
The District of Oregon report provides tribal communities, law enforcement and the public with an overview of current MMIP cases connected to Oregon and the U.S. Attorney Office MMIP strategy for 2021. As outlined in the report, an initial analysis of available MMIP data conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office indicates there are eleven missing and eight murdered Indigenous persons connected to Oregon.
In 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office will conduct formal tribal consultations with Oregon’s nine tribal governments to discuss MMIP issues, develop MMIP community response plans, create a District of Oregon MMIP Working Group, further develop data surrounding Oregon MMIP cases, and increase collaboration among all involved entities who interact with MMIP cases.
MMIP is an important and sensitive issue to tribal communities. Addressing MMIP in Indian Country is particularly challenging due to jurisdictional issues, lack of coordination and inadequate resources. However, for the first time in U.S. history, a national federal strategy—formalized by legislation, executive order, and departmental directive—is in place to address MMIP issues.
If you or someone you know have information about missing or murdered Indigenous people in Oregon, please contact the FBI Portland Field Office by calling (503) 224-4181 or by visiting tips.fbi.gov. If you have questions about the U.S. Attorney’s Office MMIP program, please contact MMIP program coordinator Cedar Wilkie Gillette by emailing .Wilkie.Gillette@usdoj.gov“>Cedar.Wilkie.Gillette@usdoj.gov or by calling (503) 727-1000. U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Oregon
Oregon National Guard Delivers Supplies as Power Restoration from Storm Continues
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has called on the National Guard to go door-to-door in areas hardest hit by last weekend’s ice storm to make sure residents have enough food and water.
Members of the Oregon National Guard delivered supplies to people without power as problems lingered from an ice storm the wreaked havoc on the electrical grid, and a utility official said some communities may not see power for another week.
Almost 39,000 customers remained without power on Sunday, after Portland General Electric said it had restored power to more than 14,000 customers on Saturday. The utility said more than 400 crews were at work trying to restore power to remaining homes and businesses.
Guard members delivered emergency supplies including water and batteries to about 50 residents in Clackamas County, local authorities said.
The utility said more than 400 crews were at work trying to restore power to remaining homes and businesses. The worst ice storm in 40 years knocked out power to more than 350,000 residents at its peak and killed five people, including four who died from carbon monoxide poisoning as they tried to stay warm. It could take as long as seven days to fully restore power, said Portland General Electric spokeswoman Elizabeth Lattanner. Some customers have experienced multiple outages, she said.
2 Earthquakes Strike off the Coast of Oregon Saturday
Two earthquakes struck off the coast of Oregon just minutes apart Saturday afternoon.
The first one was a 5.1 magnitude quake that occurred northwest of Bandon just after 1 p.m. Then, a 4.9 magnitude earthquake struck minutes later, according to the United States Geological Survey.
There was no tsunami threat, according to NOAA and USGS.
Starting in March, Oregon will bring online an early earthquake warning system, known as Shake Alert. The app will give people a warning a few minutes or seconds ahead of an earthquake. The system is already operating in California on Bay Area public transportation.
Oregon GOP Changes Leadership
A conservative state senator from Myrtle Creek is the new chair of the Oregon Republican Party, following an event Saturday in which Republicans overhauled their top party leadership.
The Oregon Republican Party is under fire after electing an outspoken populist senator as the new chair of the state GOP, despite concerns over his links to far-right extremist groups and his role encouraging activists to storm the state capitol building in December.
According to multiple Republican sources, state Sen. Dallas Heard handily won the job, beating three-term chair and Adair Village Mayor Bill Currier.
Heard, 35, is just one in a slate of current and former Republican senators who now have a central role in steering the party’s course. Former Senate Minority Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr., now a Josephine County commissioner, won a contested race for vice chair. And state Sen. Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath Falls, will serve as party treasurer.
A third sitting state senator, Chuck Thomsen of Hood River, was unsuccessful in his bid to serve as the party’s secretary. He was defeated by incumbent secretary Becky Mitts, who also serves as chief of staff to state Rep. Mike Nearman, a Republican from Polk County.
“It’s just kind of taking the party in a little different direction, a different type of leadership,” Baerstchiger said Sunday. “No criticism really of the prior leadership. … It wasn’t like there was some kind of coup.”
The in-person election of top party officials was held Saturday at a VFW hall in Salem. Photos sent to OPB from a person who reported attending the event showed a hall packed with people in close quarters, none of them wearing face masks.
The leadership swap comes at a time the Oregon GOP has gained national attention for passing a resolution claiming the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a “false flag” operation by leftist forces — a conspiracy theory that has been debunked in the weeks since the incident.
The statement was denounced by all 23 Republicans in the state House of Representatives. Two Republican senators representing swing districts, Thomsen and Bend-based Sen. Tim Knopp, also took exception to the statement. Knute Buehler, 2018 Republican nominee for governor, changed his party registration to nonaffiliated following the incident.
Baertschiger was less critical. “I didn’t really see an upside to that, even though there’s a lot of questions about the Jan. 6 Capitol incident,” he said. “It’s going to take a while for the facts to get out. They’re starting to come out. I think it’s gonna be a mixed bag.”
The state GOP has also been criticized in recent years for expending resources running two unsuccessful recall campaigns against Gov. Kate Brown, while at the same time failing to recruit competitive candidates for some statewide offices. Democrats currently control every executive office in the state and hold supermajorities in the House and Senate, allowing them to pass any bill without Republican support.
It was unclear Sunday how Heard and others might seek to alter that trajectory. Heard in recent months has repeatedly garnered attention for his strident stance against state rules requiring masks and shuttering businesses to stem the spread of COVID-19.
When the Legislature met in special session on Dec. 21, Heard tore off his face mask in protest on the Senate floor, and he accused Democratic legislators and the governor of a “campaign against the people and the children of God.”
On Jan. 6, the same day as the attack on the U.S. Capitol, Heard addressed supporters of then-President Trump at an “Occupy the Capitol” rally in Salem.
“I’m just kind of at a loss for words as I look at this Capitol building that is yours, the people’s, and is currently being occupied by a group of elitists,” Heard told the crowd. “Sadly I’m not sure that it’s all Democrats that are the elitists, frankly. I am a Republican, but I’m an American first and there are some Republicans that need to go.”
Later Heard told the cheering crowd: “Don’t let any of these punks from that stone temple over there ever tell you they are better than any of you. Trust me. I work with these fools. None of them are half as good as any of you.”
Baertschiger said Sunday he expected the new party leadership to improve its messaging and organization. He said that discussions for mounting a leadership challenge in the party began when he was still in the Senate.
“I think there’s a lot of tremendous people that want to get involved with the Republican Party,” he said. “We’ve seen that with the registration and we’ve seen it with the bipartisan support from both recalls. If there was ever a time to organize a little better than we have in the past, it’s probably now.”
It’s not unheard of for sitting state lawmakers to lead the state party. More often, though, elected legislators and party leadership remain distinct from one another and former lawmakers like Baertschiger pursue the chairship. Baertschiger said Sunday that Heard had a “burning desire” for the party’s top spot.
Oregon Bill Proposes Big Shift in Criminal Justice System
A bill in the Oregon Legislature proposes major reforms to the state’s criminal justice system. House Bill 2002 is a sweeping measure that would scale back the system’s reach, from limiting what offenses send a person to jail, to reforming mandatory minimum sentences, to reducing the number of people on parole.
Shannon Wight, deputy director of the Partnership for Safety and Justice, one of the groups that requested the bill, said the changes are needed. “Those are the part of the bill that actually kind of shrink the system, limit its impact because we know it’s grown too big,” Wight contended. “It’s become like the mental health default, the addiction default.”
Wight pointed out the bill came together in the wake of George Floyd’s death. She emphasized it would save money to be reinvested in things like culturally-specific services. Other groups involved in the effort include the Latino Network, Coalition of Communities of Color, and Red Lodge Transition Services. House Bill 2002 has a public hearing scheduled in the House Judiciary Committee Thursday.
Morgan Godvin, a commissioner on the Oregon Alcohol and Drug Policy Commission, spent time in Oregon jails and a federal prison for her opioid use disorder. She said her personal experience opened her eyes because she saw many women churned through the system, being released and re-arrested again and again.
“It was making them less safe,” Godvin argued. “Jail was destabilizing their lives. They were losing their housing, they were losing their job, and then being released back into the exact same circumstances from which they came.”
Godvin helped craft the bill’s parole piece. She stressed the current program negatively incentivizes people, relying on sending them back to jail. The bill would allow for tele-reporting to supervisors and limit the complexities of parole.
Wight added reforming mandatory minimum sentences is important because it unties the hands of judges. She noted, nonetheless, people who commit crimes need to be held accountable.
“Part of what we’re saying with these reforms is, let’s go back to a system that allows judges to look at the individual circumstances of those crimes and make decisions that are based on what accountability makes sense for that person and for that victim,” Wight concluded.
The bill would also increase funding for community-based victim services.
State Rep Hernandez Resigns
Embattled state Rep. Diego Hernandez, D-Portland, has resigned, rather than face the possibility this week of becoming the first person ever expelled from the Oregon Legislature, OPB reported Sunday evening.
“Today I tendered my resignation so my colleagues may focus on serving Oregonians and so I can move forward with my life and focus on my health and family,” Hernandez said in a brief statement sent to OPB on Sunday evening.
Earlier this weekend, a judge rejected Hernandez’s legal effort to stop the vote on his expulsion, OPB said.
Embattled state Rep. Diego Hernandez, D-Portland, has resigned, rather than face the possibility this week of becoming the first person ever expelled from the Oregon Legislature, OPB reported Sunday evening.
“Today I tendered my resignation so my colleagues may focus on serving Oregonians and so I can move forward with my life and focus on my health and family,” Hernandez said in a brief statement sent to OPB on Sunday evening.
Earlier this weekend, a judge rejected Hernandez’s legal effort to stop the vote on his expulsion, OPB said.
At Least One Dead after Fishing Boat Capsized Near Tillamook Bay
At least one of four crew members pulled from a capsized fishing boat on Saturday has died, according to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG).
A 38-foot fishing boat capsized at about 4:40 p.m. at the Tillamook Bay bar entrance, just a few miles south of Rockaway Beach. A representative for the Coast Guard said within about half an hour, rescue crews were able to retrieve all four people who were on board.
Two of the four people were unresponsive when they were pulled from the water. All four of them were taken to a hospital. The USCG confirmed Sunday one had been declared dead soon after the rescue. Another was flown to a hospital in Portland for more care.
The Coast Guard said its personnel was watching the vessel from a tower, at the fishing crew’s request, as their boat crossed the bar to return to port. Then the Coast Guard dispatched rescue crews from a station in Garibaldi when the boat overturned.
“We had crews get on scene immediately via two small boats. And then we had a coast guard helicopter launch from Astoria,” described Steve Strohmaier with USCG. “I know there were some restrictions on the bar crossing at that time, which is probably why the crew was concerned about the crossing.”
Those restrictions were on recreational boats, not commercial vessels. The Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Coast Guard with rescue efforts.