The latest news stories and stories of interest in the Willamette Valley from the digital home of Southern Oregon, from Wynne Broadcasting’s WillametteValleyMagazine.com
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Willamette Valley Weather
Today– Rain. High near 57. Southwest wind around 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
Wednesday– A chance of showers before 5pm, then a chance of rain after 5pm. Cloudy, with a high near 61. South southwest wind around 6 mph becoming calm. Chance of precipitation is 50%.
Thursday– A 50 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 67. South wind around 6 mph. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.
Friday– A 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 61.
Saturday– A slight chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 58.
Deputies Investigating Pickup Truck Pulled from Willamette River in Eugene
Deputies are investigating a truck submerged in the Willamette River near the Division Avenue boat ramp along Beltline in Eugene.
No one was inside the truck. Deputies are now working to determine who owned the truck and how it wound up in the river. Tow trucks pulled the vehicle out of the water around 2 p.m. on Oct. 25, 2021. Deputies will investigate how the truck wound up in the water.
The Lane County Sheriff’s Office does not believe there is anyone in the truck. However, the sheriff sent a boat to check it out.
“We’ve had deputies on scene including marine patrol resources,” Sgt. Tom Speldrich said early Monday afternoon. “It is not believed that there is anyone inside of the vehicle but they are working to confirm this and will more likely than not utilizing some divers. We will then be working to get the vehicle removed and start investigating how it happened.”
Lane County Sheriff’s Office Seeks Public Help For Missing Person
Authorities are requesting the public’s assistance in a missing person investigation. Guy Vernon Knight was last seen outside of Dallas, Oregon on the morning of October 15th, 2021 driving his Jeep Wrangler (pictured).
On October 18th, 2021 Mr. Knight’s Jeep was located unoccupied in the parking lot of the South Jetty staging area south of Florence. This is within the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Lane County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue teams searched the area but Mr. Knight was not located.
Mr. Knight is diabetic and has some underlying heart conditions which require medications. Mr. Knight may be found in medical need. His vehicle is a two-door yellow Jeep Wrangler. It is lifted with oversized tires, a soft top and a portion of the hood is black.
Investigators are looking for any information leading to Mr. Knight’s whereabouts. Anyone that saw him or his vehicle on or between 10/15/21 and 10/18/21 are asked to contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 503-623-9251 and ask for Deputy Knudson or contact the Lane County Sheriff’s Office at 541-682-4150 opt. 1.
Mr. Knight’s Jeep has been returned to his family. Any sightings of his vehicle after 10/24/2021 are not necessary to report. Lane Co. Sheriff’s Office
Oregon reports 2,293 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 12 new deaths
There are 12 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 4,295. The Oregon Health Authority reported 2,293 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 bringing the state total to 359,733.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (6), Benton (53), Clackamas (203), Clatsop (8), Columbia (34), Coos (42), Crook (21), Curry (7), Deschutes (231), Douglas (79), Gilliam (2), Grant (2), Harney (5), Hood River (19), Jackson (108), Jefferson (38), Josephine (46), Klamath (61), Lake (9), Lane (203), Lincoln (43), Linn (150), Malheur (16), Marion (187), Morrow (7), Multnomah (329), Polk (31), Tillamook (10), Umatilla (32), Union (17), Wasco (24), Wallowa (7), Washington (223) and Yamhill (40).
More than 300 individuals in Oregon who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 have died of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the state’s health department.
- The majority of vaccinated people who died of COVID-19 in Oregon were aged 80 and older
- No fully vaccinated individuals aged 12 to 29 died of COVID-19 in the state
- Oregon has recorded more than 359,700 total COVID-19 cases
Health officials say that COVID-19 deaths among fully vaccinated residents in Oregon are still rising even as infection rates continue to drop across the United States. As of Oct. 21, 325 fully vaccinated people in the state died of COVID-19 and the deaths represent 1% of Oregon’s fully vaccinated population, according to the state Health Authority’s weekly breakthrough report.
At least 48% of the vaccinated people who died of COVID-19 had received the two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, 24% received the two-dose Moderna vaccines and 13% got the single-dose Janssen shot by Johnson & Johnson, the report said.
Of the 325 total breakthrough COVID-19 deaths, 51.3% occurred in individuals aged 80 and older, 26.4% were in people aged 70 to 79, 16.3% were in people aged 60 to 69, 3% occurred in people aged 50 to 59, 2.1% were in residents aged 40 to 49 and 0.6% occurred in residents aged 30 to 39.
As of Oct. 21, no fully vaccinated residents in Oregon belonging to the 12 to 19 and 20 to 29 age groups died of COVID-19.
In the week beginning Oct. 10 and ending Oct. 16, Oregon health officials recorded 1,977 new breakthrough COVID-19 infections, putting the state’s overall number of coronavirus cases among the fully vaccinated to 32,954. At least 848 cases were recorded in people aged 12 to 17.
Statewide, the health department recorded a total of 359,733 COVID-19 cases and 4,295 deaths among the unvaccinated and vaccinated as of Monday. However, the agency said the totals may still increase after they experienced server issues on Friday and Saturday.
Across the U.S., the daily case average has dropped by nearly 43% over the past month. Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana, have reported their average number of cases dropping by nearly 90% since August.
Despite the drop in COVID-19 case rates in most U.S. states, several areas in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest are still experiencing surging numbers of infections, including Minnesota and Michigan, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has so far reported 45,544,939 coronavirus cases and 737,316 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, data from Johns Hopkins University stated.
Wyden and Merkley Call For Investigation Of Oregon’s Chemawa Indian School
Chemawa Indian School, Oregon’s only federally-run boarding school for Native American students, may be facing a federal investigation at the urging of the state’s U.S. senators.
In a pointed letter to the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Interior, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Democrats from Oregon, lay out a series of concerns about Chemawa Indian School. The letter highlights numerous problems and questions that have not been adequately addressed, in the senators’ view.
Wyden and Merkley cited multiple previous inquiries, dating back to a 2013 Government Accountability Office review, and a GAO follow-up in 2014, as well as previous Interior Department investigations released in 2015.
Wyden and Merkley tie the school’s difficulties back to student achievement, noting that a July 2015 investigation by the Interior Department inspector general — the same investigating unit the senators want looking at Chemawa again — “determined that ‘the Chemawa Indian School was not properly assessing the academic needs of its students,’ and that the school was ‘unable to effectively prioritize its resources to ensure the successful educational achievement of its student population.’” In their letter, Wyden and Merkley say that the inspector general’s reviews in 2008 and 2014 found “merely ‘adequate’” measures in place to prevent violence at the school, involving staff and students.
Wyden and Merkley are calling for the inspector general investigation after their own efforts left them with what they consider too many unanswered questions. Among the questions the senators’ letter seeks answers to are seemingly basic issues, such as “does Chemawa’s budget receive audits?” and “does the school have a functioning school board?”
It’s not the first time the senators have asked for information that seems like it should be easy to get. In 2019, Merkley had to make a written request for a map of the school’s campus along Interstate 5 in Salem.
The letter sent to the inspector general on Monday acknowledged that since OPB’s reports on Chemawa in 2017, and in response to the GAO report from five years earlier, the Bureau of Indian Education released its “2018 Strategic Direction” which included a policy to “provide technical assistance to […] high risk schools.” The senators asked if Chemawa is among the schools considered “high risk” given that “our offices have continued to receive complaints about alleged misuse of financial resources at the school.”
The senators’ request of the inspector general concludes with what they would like to be the two main areas of investigation: financial transparency and outside oversight. The letter essentially asks whether Chemawa gets routinely audited, and if not, then it asks “what financial oversight has BIE conducted?”
Oregon’s congressional delegation has taken several close looks at Chemawa over the last few years, starting with a visit in May 2018, which included representatives from several Oregon tribes. That visit was followed a year later by an emotional and occasionally combative congressional hearing. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Beaverton, and Kurt Schrader, D-Canby, have visited Chemawa more recently, including in 2019, when they emerged to say they felt encouraged that the school was making changes.
Students arrived back at the Salem campus last week, a year and a half after COVID-19 closed the school. According to Schrader, the school’s dorms are operating at diminished capacity due to pandemic protocols.
Redmond Beef Producer Sued For $2.7m Over E-Coli Outbreak
Lawyers representing New Seasons Market have filed a $2.7 million lawsuit against a Redmond beef producer accusing the company of negligence for delivering beef tainted with E. coli in 2019, court records show. Several people were sickened by the bacteria, prompting a wide recall.
The suit, filed this week in Multnomah County Circuit Court by the Portland-based company, names Country Natural Beef, based in Redmond.
On Nov. 8, 2019, officials from the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Department of Agriculture told New Seasons three cases of E. coli had been connected to ground beef sold in Portland-area stores of the grocery chain.
The chain took samples from meat cases and sent them to a state-run lab for analysis. Two came back positive for E. coli and both were determined to have come from Country Natural Beef, the lawsuit said. New Seasons pulled ground beef from shelves in all of its stores and recalled ground beef products it had sold, according to the suit. The suspension of ground beef sales lasted three months, the lawsuit says.
Many customers returned products and received refunds, and New Seasons disposed of the unsold beef products, according to the suit. New Seasons seeks money to recover costs from paying refunds, cleaning, issuing and carrying out the recall and investigating the outbreak source. The chain also seeks damages for a loss of goodwill with customers, according to the suit.
The lawsuit said Country Natural Beef has examined its internal procedures and implemented a new beef testing policy.
Open enrollment – the time to sign up for health insurance for 2022 – has been extended this year.
It runs from Nov. 1, 2021, to Jan. 15, 2022. More than 75 percent of Oregonians who enrolled through the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace for 2021 qualified for financial help, which lowered their monthly premium to as low as $1 per month.
The Marketplace estimates that thousands of Oregonians throughout the state could see significant savings by enrolling in health coverage through the Marketplace for 2022.
Trained health coverage experts are available to help with applying for financial assistance and choosing health plans. This help comes from licensed insurance agents and community groups and is completely free to you.
You can prepare for open enrollment by going to OregonHealthCare.gov/WindowShop to browse plans and find out how much savings for which you are eligible. This year, the tool has significant enhancements to help consumers wade through plan options. To start, go to OregonHealthCare.gov before Jan. 15 and answer a few questions to preview plans and savings available to you.
Extreme Drought Effects Christmas Tree Supply for Future Years
Extreme heat and significant drought posed serious challenges to local Christmas tree farmers this year. You may have a harder time than usual finding a live Christmas tree this holiday season.
Christmas tree growers in the Pacific Northwest have seen their crops decimated this year due to drought and the heat waves we’ve experienced. One grower estimates he’s lost 90% of his Christmas tree crop this year due to extreme heat.
Oregon is the nation’s leading grower of Christmas trees, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. But the drought, and the wildfires that follow, have wreaked havoc on growers: Since 2015, the acreage growing trees decreased by 24%, and the total number of trees sold dropped 27%, according to data from the US Department of Agriculture.
Christmas trees typically take between eight and 12 years to reach maturity, meaning that the decimation of this year’s seedlings could be felt as late as 2029 and beyond.
The impacts of the drought will not be too visible to the public this year, but Christmas tree prices are expected to rise because the cost of fuel has gone up, the cost of fertilizer has gone up, and the cost of labor has also gone up
However, if dry, hot summers like the one that engulfed much of the state this year persist, fewer trees will survive long enough to be harvested and those prices may increase even more.
Christmas tree sales typically begin the day after Thanksgiving.
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