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, April 5, 2022
Willamette Valley Weather
Today– A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly before 11am. Snow level 2000 feet rising to 3000 feet. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 52. Calm wind becoming north around 6 mph in the afternoon.
Wednesday– Areas of frost before 9am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 64. Light north northwest wind increasing to 5 to 9 mph in the morning.
Thursday– Mostly sunny, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming north northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Friday– Mostly cloudy, with a high near 59.
Saturday– A chance of showers, mainly after 11am. Snow level 2000 feet rising to 2500 feet in the afternoon. Partly sunny, with a high near 53.
Motorcyclist Dies in Crash on W.11th and Bailey Hill in Eugene
A motorcyclist died in a crash on West 11th Avenue near Bailey Hill Road, according to the Eugene Police Department. It happened around 7:40 p.m. Monday evening.
EPD said the motorcyclist and a car were involved in the accident, the motorcyclist died at the scene and the driver of the car was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The road was re-opened just before 11:20 p.m. Investigation ongoing.
Fatal Shooting in NW Eugene
Eugene Police are investigating a fatal shooting early Monday morning during a dispute outside a home.
The victim arrived at the hospital in a private car but later died from their wounds. According to Eugene Police, a resident in the 1900 block of Taft Street called just after 12:30 a.m. to “shots fired and what sounded like a dispute outside a nearby home.”
“Eugene Police responded and also meanwhile found that a person who had been shot arrived by personal vehicle to a local hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds but subsequently died,” Eugene Police said..
Eugene Police Violent Crimes Unit also responded to the scene and is continuing to investigate. There’s no word yet from police on a suspect description.
Linn County Sheriff Asking Public’s Help Identifying Body Left In Harrisburg Cemetery
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office is asking for the public’s help in identifying the body of a man left at a rural cemetery in the Harrisburg area.
The body was discovered on March 31, according to a news release from the agency.
Deputies responded to a report of a suspicious wooden box at a cemetery in the 24000 block of Powerline Road, and discovered that the box appeared to be a hand-built casket left behind a tree.
Investigators spoke with the board of directors for the cemetery, who stated there were no scheduled burials and they could not explain why a casket was left at the location, the news release states.
The man’s body had no obvious signs of trauma, according to the news release.
The unidentified man is described as a white adult between 30 to 60 years old, 5-foot-10, weighing 350 pounds and with brown and gray hair. He wore size 10.5 shoes and had a healed surgery scar on his lower back.
The investigation is ongoing. Linn County Detectives are working in conjunction with Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office to determine the identity and cause of death of the deceased. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Detective Division (541) 967-3950.
Over the weekend, the Oregon Health Authority recorded 604 new COVID-19 cases and 67 more virus related deaths.
99 Oregonians are currently hospitalized with COVID-19.
16 of those patients are in the ICU.
Oregon’s current test positivity rate is 2.7 percent.
Starting 4/4, OHA is introducing a new data dashboard that highlights COVID-19 data and trends. Updated every weekday, the dashboard includes links to related dashboards for more detailed information. We will be sharing a preview of this dashboard every weekday on OHA social media channels. You can visit the dashboard here: http://ow.ly/FPTS50IAibeFor more information, including COVID-19 data by county, visit our dashboard: https://public.tableau.com/views/OregonCOVID-19Update/DailyDataUpdate?:language=en-US&:toolbar=n&:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link
Tax season coming to a close – many Oregonians still need to file tax returns, others awaiting refunds
The deadline to file state and federal personal income tax returns—April 18—is just two weeks away, and the Oregon Department of Revenue estimates that it will receive a few hundred thousand more returns between now and then.
More than 1.1 million Oregonians have already filed their state personal income tax returns. Of those 1.1 million taxpayers, more than 928,000 have received refunds, with other refunds still pending. A Where’s My Refund? tool is available on Revenue’s website for personal income tax filers now.
The department is expecting over 2.2 million total returns this year, said Megan Denison, Administrator of the Personal Tax and Compliance Division.
Don’t forget about the kicker
The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis (OEA) confirmed a nearly $1.9 billion tax surplus, triggering a tax surplus credit, or “kicker,” for the 2021 tax year.
You’re eligible to claim the kicker if you filed a 2020 tax return and had tax due before credits. Even if you don’t have a filing obligation for 2021, you still must file a 2021 tax return to claim your credit. File electronically to get your refund the fastest way possible, or if you prefer, 2021 paper forms and instructions are available-
Form OR-40 for full-year Oregon residents, Form OR-40-P for part-year residents, and Form OR-40-N for nonresidents. Composite and fiduciary-income tax return filers are also eligible.
A What’s My Kicker? calculator is available on Revenue’s website for personal income tax filers. You can access the calculator from Revenue Online. To calculate your kicker, enter your name, Social Security Number, and filing status for 2020 and 2021.
Keep in mind that the state may use all or part of your kicker to pay any state debt you owe, such as tax due for other years, child support, court fines, or school loans.
Do you still need to file your return?
File electronically. E-filing is the fastest way to get your tax refund. On average, taxpayers who e-file their returns and request their refund via direct deposit receive their refund sooner than those who file paper returns and request paper refund checks.
See if you qualify for free tax help. Oregon personal income tax return filers with an adjusted gross income of $73,000 or less may qualify to file both their state and federal taxes electronically for free.
There are four approved tax preparation software products that partner with Oregon to offer free electronic filing:
- Tax Act
- OLT
- 1040Now
- FreeTaxUSA.com
Each vendor has different free filing criteria, so filers should do their research and choose the best vendor to fit their needs. Read about the free options listed to see if you are eligible.
Groups including the AARP, CASH Oregon, and the United Way also provide free tax preparation services to qualifying taxpayers.
See if you qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit. You may be missing out on a bigger refund if you’re not claiming the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Eligibility information is available at www.irs.gov. Taxpayers who are eligible for the EITC can also claim Oregon’s Earned Income Credit (EIC).
Filing an extension. Individuals who are not able to file by April 18, 2022 can file an extension directly with the Oregon Department of Revenue or with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). If the IRS extension is granted, the Oregon extension is automatically granted. A timely filed extension moves the federal tax filing deadline and the Oregon filing deadline to October 17, 2022.
Only request an Oregon extension if you:
- Don’t have a federal extension.
- Owe Oregon taxes.
- Can’t file your return by April 18, 2022.
Remember that having a filing extension is not an extension to pay any tax you owe.
Visit www.oregon.gov/dor to get tax forms, see a list of approved tax preparation software products, check the status of your refund, or make tax payments, call 800-356-4222 toll-free (English or Spanish) or 503- 378-4988 or email questions.dor@oregon.gov. For TTY (hearing or speech impaired), call 1 800-886-7204. Due to the number of calls Revenue receives during tax season, you may experience extended wait times.
Oregon Expands Eligibility For Unemployment Benefits
The Oregon Employment Department now has more flexibility to award benefits when people face barriers to work.
People who have received unemployment benefits in Oregon are probably familiar with the triple A’s — a bedrock of the benefits system. Job seekers must attest they are able, available and actively seeking work to get unemployment on a week-to-week basis.
The Oregon Employment Department temporarily relaxed those rules when the coronavirus pandemic forced mass layoffs.
Now the agency says it has learned a lesson from the pandemic. It recently updated its availability requirements so that more people can get unemployment.
“The world of work has changed,” said Lindsi Leahy, director of the unemployment insurance division. “The child care crisis definitely put an exclamation point on it.”
To get benefits under the old rule, a job seeker would have to be available to work any schedule, on any days, that an employer in their field would normally require. In other words, they had to be completely available.
The amended rule lets the agency consider barriers such as lack of transportation, lack of child care or other caregiving responsibilities before denying benefits to someone with more limited availability.
For example, say a parent looking for a manufacturing job can’t work during the day because their kid’s child care provider closed.
“You don’t have child care for day shift,” Leahy posited. “Are you available for swing shift and graveyard? Yes.”
Under the revised rule, as long as a worker is available 40 hours per week during times when an employer in their area would typically offer work, they may now be eligible for benefits. A person doesn’t need to be available around the clock.
The same could be true for job seekers caring for an elderly parent or attending classes during certain hours. Or for people whose availability depends on public transportation.
About 19,000 people are currently receiving unemployment benefits in Oregon.
Leahy said the agency doesn’t know how many more people will be eligible for benefits because of the rule change. She said some employers raised concerns their tax liabilities could rise if more claimants were paid benefits from the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund.
Any impact should be softened, however, by legislation Oregon lawmakers passed last summer cutting employer taxes by roughly $2.4 billion through 2029.
Leahy said the Employment Department would evaluate the rule change after a year, to see how often it gets used and measure its effect on the unemployment trust fund. She said additional changes could be made in the future.
Oregon’s Drug Decriminalization In Question
Oregon voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 to decriminalize hard drugs after being told it was a way to establish and fund addiction recovery centers that would offer people aid instead of incarceration.
Yet in the first year after the new approach took effect in February 2021, only 1% of people who received citations for possessing controlled substances asked for help via a new hotline.
With Oregon being the first state in America to decriminalize possession of personal-use amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs, its program is being watched as a potential model for other states.
Some are questioning whether the approach is proving too lenient, but others say the new system has already had a positive impact by redirecting millions of dollars into facilities to help those with drug dependency issues. The funds come from taxes generated by Oregon’s legal marijuana industry and savings from reductions in arrests, jail time and probation supervision.
Under Ballot Measure 110, possession of controlled substances is now a newly created Class E “violation,” instead of a felony or misdemeanor. It carries a maximum $100 fine, which can be waived if the person calls a hotline for a health assessment. The call can lead to addiction counseling and other services.
But out of roughly 2,000 citations issued by police in the year after decriminalization took effect, only 92 of the people who received them called the hotline by mid-February. And only 19 requested resources for services, said William Nunemann of Lines for Life, which runs the hotline.
Almost half of those who got citations failed to show up in court.
State health officials have reported 473 unintentional opioid overdose deaths from January to August 2021, the most recent month for which statistics are available, with the vast majority of those occurring after decriminalization took effect. That narrowly surpasses the total for all of 2020, and is nearly 200 deaths more than the state saw in all of 2019. The state reports that opioid overdose visits to emergency rooms and urgent care centers have also been on the rise.
The Oregon Health Authority cites as possible reasons the greater presence of fentanyl, which has increased overdose deaths across the country, as well as a downturn in reporting during the pandemic in 2020.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, chair of the Oregon Senate’s Judiciary and Ballot Measure 110 Implementation Committee, said he’s surprised more of those ticketed weren’t taking advantage of the recovery options. Still, he believes it’s too early to judge how the new approach is going.
“It’s a different model, at least for the U.S.,” Prozanski said, adding he’d want to wait at least another half-year before considering whether steps should be introduced to compel people to seek treatment.
Decriminalization advocates argued putting drug users in jail and giving them criminal records, which harms job and housing prospects, was not working.
“Punishing people and these punitive actions, all it does is saddle them with barriers and more stigma and more shame,” said Tera Hurst, executive director of Oregon Health Justice Recovery Alliance, which represents more than 75 community-based organizations and is focused on implementing Measure 110.
The Drug Policy Alliance spearheaded Oregon’s ballot measure. With no U.S. states to serve as examples, the New York-based group, which calls itself the leading organization in the U.S. promoting alternatives to the war on drugs, studied Portugal, which decriminalized drug possession in 2000.
Portugal’s approach is more vigorous than Oregon’s in getting people to treatment.
There, “dissuasion commissions” pressure anyone caught using drugs — even marijuana — to seek treatment. Those pressure points include fines, prohibiting drug users from visiting certain venues or from traveling abroad, seizure of personal property, community work and having to periodically report to health services or other places.
Drug Policy Alliance intentionally sought an approach that did not compel people to seek treatment, said spokesperson Matt Sutton.
“We have seen that when people voluntarily access services when they are ready, they have much more successful outcomes,” Sutton said.
Some 16,000 people accessed services through the ballot measure’s “Access to Care” grants in the first year of decriminalization, according to the Oregon Health Authority.
Most — 60% — accessed “harm reduction services,” like syringe exchanges and overdose medications, the health authority said. Another 15% were assisted with housing needs and 12% obtained peer support. Only 0.85% entered treatment.
Critics say that’s simply not enough.
“The Oregon ballot initiative was presented to the public as pro-treatment but it has been a complete failure in that regard,” said Keith Humphreys, an addiction researcher and professor of psychiatry at Stanford University and former senior adviser in the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Brian Pacheco of the Drug Policy Alliance, though, said people with drug problems need a range of options, including harm reduction services, housing assistance, peer support and, for those who can’t get insurance or Medicaid, access to treatment centers.
“Measure 110 funding has strengthened organizations in myriad ways, including getting mobile vehicles to provide services in communities, helped programs keep their doors open, and aided other organizations to purchase and distribute Naloxone (which reverses opioid overdose),” Pacheco said in an email.
The $31 million in grants distributed so far paid for thousands of doses of naloxone, thousands of syringe exchanges, recovery housing, vehicles and the hiring of dozens of staffers for care centers, including recovery mentors, according to the health authority.
An example of where some of the money is going is Great Circle, a nonresidential treatment center in Salem owned by the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, which was awarded a $590,055 grant.
On a recent day, two Salem police officers checked on a homeless woman who had been assaulted days earlier. Still bearing a black eye, she confided she had a drug problem and needed help. Police Lt. Treven Upkes called Great Circle to see if they could help. Bring her right over, he was told.
“Just the fact that they had an open door for us at the moment that someone was saying they were ready for help, that’s such an incredible step for us,” Upkes said. “That’s the kind of thing that we would hope comes out of Measure 110.”
If the response had been to schedule an appointment two weeks down the road, Upkes noted he might have been unable to reconnect with the woman.
At Great Circle, a staff doctor and nurses check a person’s vital signs and do a urinalysis with an in-house lab. A nurse dispenses doses of methadone, which can relieve terrible “dope sick” symptoms a person in opioid withdrawal experiences.
Peer specialists like Nick Mull describe their own life experiences to those with substance abuse disorders, and inspire them. Mull’s parents were addicts and he fell into drug use himself at a young age.
“About six years ago, I got in some trouble and … I started to want to change my life,” said Mull, wearing a black hoodie and jeans. “So I just started doing treatment, more treatment and more treatment. I learned a lot.”
Jennifer Worth, Great Circle’s operations director, said Mull plays an important role.
“What Nick brings to the work is a sense of hope,” Worth said. “And the patients who are struggling with where he was can see that hope is possible.”
But with so few people seeking help after receiving citations, the Legislature might need to consider requiring they do more than call a hotline or pay a small fine, Prozanski said.
Humphreys believes people should be pressured to seek treatment if they’re committing crimes like shoplifting and burglary, but not if they’re simply using drugs.
“It’s about the threats to public safety that some people pose because of their problematic drug use,” Humphreys said. “And in those cases, pressuring people to seek treatment is absolutely legitimate.”
Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan’s office will be auditing Oregon’s program. Fagan said she has a personal interest: Her own mother had a lifelong battle with addiction and homelessness.
US Forest Service Looking to Hire for Oregon National Forests
The US Forest Service is looking to hire hundreds of positions in recreation and archaeology across the country.
That includes national forests in Oregon and Washington, and the Columbia River Gorge scenic area.
Recreation specialists and technicians perform most of their duties outdoors officials said, which could include trail repair, campground maintenance, visitor information, wilderness protection and even patrolling on skis.
Archaeologists work to learn about, interpret and protect the historical and cultural treasures of our country and are often involved in field investigations, site evaluation, and coordination with American Indian Tribes.
The Pacific Northwest Region is hosting a live webinar on Tuesday about the open positions. A link to the webinar can be found here.
Applications will be accepted beginning April 6 through www.usajobs.gov.
Grants Pass Missing Person
The Grants Pass Police Department is seeking assistance from the public in locating 30 year old Noah Baker. Baker was despondent after an argument and left his residence in Grants Pass driving a silver Ford Fiesta with Oregon Plate 671MUR.
Baker is described as a white male adult, 5’09”, 170 lbs, brown hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing black sweats, black shirt, black shoes and a black hat.
If anyone knows of his whereabouts or sees Baker, please call your local law enforcement agency or the Grants Pass Police at 541-450-6260. Reference case #2022-14203 Grants Pass Police Department
Klamath County Sheriff’s Office Asks for Public’s Help in Search For Trucker Suspect
The first real clue to come in on all the missing person cases in the area. Help Klamath Falls Oregon Sheriff Office ID this trucker. He was the last to see this woman alive and could be the key to not only solving this woman’s disappearance but a number of the hundred other women missing in PNW. IF you have any information, please call (541) 883-5130
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Have-You-Seen-Me-Southern-Oregons-Missing-People-161249961222839/posts/