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, December 6, 2022
Willamette Valley Weather
St. Vincent de Paul Closing Food Pantry In NW Eugene to Use The Space For Unhoused
St. Vincent de Paul is closing its Atkinson Food Room at the Lindholm Center on Highway 99 North in Eugene. They plan to re-purpose the space to serve the ever-growing homeless population.
According to St. Vincent de Paul, the food pantry they operate in north Eugene has seen a steady drop in the number of families coming in for food boxes supplied by FOOD for Lane County. Meanwhile, there’s been a dramatic rise in homelessness.
Terry McDonald, the director of St. Vinnie’s says, “as we move into the winter months now, the demand for homeless services— we continue to see— escalating. Both for singles and for families.”
“So, at any given time, all of these programs have a waiting list for any shelter activities of up to 50 to 100 people,” McDonald added. “Day services are also limited because there’s only a limited space available for homeless individuals or families to come in.”
The Atkinson Food Room will close on December 31, when the space will be re-purposed for the production and delivery of prepared meals and expanded daytime respite for the unhoused.
Over the past year, St. Vincent de Paul has served more than 300,000 meals through a variety of day and night shelter programs serving the community. These include the Eugene Service Station; the Night Shelter Annex, serving families experiencing homelessness; the Dawn to Dawn congregate overnight tent shelter for individual adults; the SVdP-managed 410 Garfield Safe Sleep site; and Egan Warming Centers, which give the unsheltered a safe indoor place to sleep and warm meals during periods of life-threatening cold.
Woman Fights Off Attacker While Walking Her Dog In West Eugene
Monday morning, a Eugene Police officer was dispatched to a report of a woman who had been attacked by an unknown man while walking with her dog on the sidewalk on W. 18th Avenue. The officer contacted her at a local hospital where she was receiving treatment for non-life-threatening injuries.
According to police, the victim reported she was walking her husky around 6:15 a.m. on a W. 18th Ave. sidewalk near the bus stop, west of Brittany Street, when a man grabbed her face from behind and covered her mouth.
“She was thankfully able to fight his hands from off her face, but he then punched her in the face and she fell to the ground and was struck in the back,” EPD reported. “The dog, in defense of its owner, bit the suspect, possibly on the leg, and the suspect left eastbound.”
- The suspect is described as a light-skinned man, possibly in his 30s, and last seen wearing a dark grey or black hoody, dark blue jeans, a black mask over his nose and mouth, and light grey gloves.
- He smelled like a campfire and was wearing hiking boots with one boot torn near the toe, leaving some sock showing.
If anyone has tips regarding this case, call (541) 682-5111.
Eugene Man Arrested After Standoff That Triggered Alert For Residents To Shelter In Place
Residents in the area of the 2000 block of Roosevelt in Eugene received a message to shelter in place Monday night when a man wanted for domestic assault barricaded himself inside an apartment and told officers he had a firearm.
Eugene Police say they were called out to the apartment at 7:45 p.m. December 5 for a physical dispute between a man and a woman. The woman left the apartment and when officers arrived, 34-year-old Andrew Tyler Strong came out, saw officers and went back inside.
Strong refused to answer phone calls but communicated through the door. As officers negotiated with Strong through the door, he escalated and told them he had a semi-automatic rifle. According to police, Strong had, in the past, threatened the assault or kill officers and their families.
To make the arrest safer for all, including Strong, says EPD, SWAT, Crisis Negotiation and Drone Teams were called out and a CENS (community emergency notification system) message went out just before 10:00 p.m. advising people in the area to shelter in place.
Strong refused to negotiate after multiple attempts by phone and a hailer. Strong exited once EPD deployed pepper ball and gas rounds. He was taken into custody safely without further incident and lodged at Lane County Jail around 11:15 p.m. December 5, on a charge of Assault in the Fourth Degree APA (Abuse Prevention Act).
Suspects In Tillamook Homicide Investigation Arrested In Hawthorne Nevada
Two women who were named persons of interest associated with a homicide in Tillamook Oregon have been apprehended in Hawthorne Nevada.
The Tillamook County Sheriff’s Office posted on their Facebook page that they were conducting a suspicious death investigation where a 52-year-old deceased male was located in a campsite in the Tillamook State Forest.
Officials say while making campsite visits in the East Fork of the Trask area of the Tillamook State Forest on Friday, December 2, a Tillamook County Sheriff’s Deputy located a deceased 52-year-old male in a campsite and his barking dog tied to a nearby tree.
Evidence found on scene indicated the man had been shot and his vehicle had been stolen. Spent cartridges and a firearm were also located on scene.
Later that day, the sheriff’s office announced the suspicious death was being investigated as a homicide.
The persons of interest were identified as Alyssa Z. Sturgill, 40, and Lisa M. Peaslee, 41 and it is believed Sturgill and Peaslee had taken the victim’s light blue 2002 Toyota Sienna minivan.
On Sunday, December 4, 2022, Sturgill and Peaslee were stopped in the victim’s minivan by Sheriff’s Deputies in Mineral County, Nevada.
Peaslee and Strugill were taken into custody on local Nevada charges, including Possession of a Stolen Vehicle, and were held on a no-bail hold.
Detectives have traveled to Hawthorne to begin the extradition process of returning the duo to Tillamook County, Oregon, to face charges of Murder in the Second Degree, Assault in the First Degree, Unlawful Use of a Firearm and Theft in the First Degree.
On Monday, December 5, officials with the Mineral County Sheriff’s Office said Sturgill, Peaslee and the victim’s vehicle were apprehended in Hawthorne.
“We are extremely grateful for the professionalism and the cooperation of all of the agencies involved that led to the quick apprehension of these two criminals,” said Detective Sgt. Michelle Brewer. “Those agencies include Tillamook 911, Oregon Department of Forestry, Tillamook Police, Oregon State Police and Crime Lab, Tillamook County District Attorney’s Office, and Mineral and Washoe County Sheriff’s Offices in Nevada.”
Oregon DOJ Cracks Down On Unwanted Phone Calls From Company Selling Extended Car Warranties
The Oregon Department of Justice is cracking down on a company selling extended car warranties. As part of a settlement, Endurance Warranty Services will be banned from making unwanted phone solicitations in Oregon for the next five years and be forced to pay up to $550,000 in fines.
The Oregon DOJ opened the investigation into the Illinois-based company after receiving more than a dozen consumer complaints, records indicate. Endurance sent hundreds of thousands of mailers to Oregonians from 2016 to 2019 and sold more than 1,600 extended car warranties, according to the Oregon DOJ.
The state investigation found the company’s mailers contained multiple false claims, according to the Oregon DOJ. For example, Endurance pretended to know when someone’s car warranty had expired or was about to expire.
During the investigation, Endurance stopped sending the mailers, according to the Oregon DOJ.
The Better Business Bureau has also had issues with the company’s advertising. “Since May 2019, the BBB serving Chicago and Northern Illinois has requested on multiple instances for Endurance Warranty Services, LLC to modify, or discontinue their promotional mailers being distributed nationwide,” the BBB wrote on its website. “The businesses mailers contained aggressive and confusing language, that often intimidated consumers.” The BBB posted an update in April 2020 indicating the mailers meet the BBB Code of Advertising.
As part of the settlement filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Endurance is banned from making unwanted sales calls in Oregon for the next five years. Additionally, the company will have to implement an independent review process for all advertising direct toward Oregon residents and pay a fine of up to $550,000.
Oregon Job Openings Slow Down Signaling Economic Shift
The pandemic’s aftermath has been unusual in many ways, but one of the most remarkable has been what happened to the job market.
The number of Oregon job vacancies has outnumbered the number of unemployed people for more than a year, an extraordinary situation that has left schools, hospitals, fast-food restaurants and nearly every other kind of organization scrambling to fill openings.
Now, there are signs that Oregon’s labor squeeze is finally beginning to ease.
The number of job openings in the state plunged by 11% in the summer, according to the most recent survey data from the Oregon Employment Department.
That’s the biggest drop since the pandemic began, at a time of year when the number of job vacancies usually increases. And at the same time, the number of people seeking work has been creeping up. Job openings still outnumbered the unemployed, but by fewer than 8,000. And the gap may continue to shrink.
Oregon had more than 90,000 unemployed in October and a jobless rate of 4.1%. That’s low by historical standards, but well above the 3.5% unemployed the state recorded last spring.
Similar trends are playing out nationally. Fewer job openings and rising unemployment aren’t good for workers, of course, but modest changes could still be a positive sign for the broader economic outlook.
That’s because the worker shortage has been one factor pushing up inflation, raising labor costs and straining supply chains.
An ease to the labor crunch could be a sign that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cool the economy and constrain prices are beginning to have some effect. It’s far too soon to know if these trends will continue or how painful the job losses might get.
In their most recent forecast, Oregon economists predicted the state will fall into a “mild” recession next summer, with unemployment rising to 5.4% in 2024.
One positive sign in their report: It appears most of the decline in job vacancies is because employers are hiring fewer workers who already have jobs.
“The decline in job openings so far this year, both nationally and here in Oregon, is coming from the poaching component and not the unemployed portion,” the state’s economists wrote. “This is encouraging that unemployed workers are still able to find jobs quickly, and that overall workforce churn may be slowing as well.”
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas across the West, and for the parched mega-drought region, the December snow is a welcome gift
With back-to-back-to-back winter storms across the West, the snowpack is thriving. Parts of the Sierra and the Pacific Northwest are seeing above-average snowpack for this time of year.
In Central California, the Sierra stands at 200% of normal for snowpack average to date.
The drought monitor released some of the numbers Thursday, which showed some of the driest areas in the West with decent snow. Here is where the West stands as of right now for snowpack:
- Great Basin 157%
- Lower Colorado 152%
- California 135%
- Pacific Northwest 134%
- Upper Colorado 98%
“We’re looking fairly good up here at this point,” Andre Schwartz, research scientist at the University of California-Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory said. “We’re definitely above average, as far as how much snow we have on the ground.”
But Schartz also urged us not to get too excited. If we’ve learned anything from last year, anything can happen. Take December 2021 as the perfect example.
“We had this record-breaking number of 18 feet of snow or just under that, and then we had a January through March period, that was the driest on record,” Schwartz explained.
This year, more frequent, smaller storms – in combination with colder temperatures – have allowed the snow to stick better, as opposed to last year, when the snowpack completely melted between snowstorms, exposing dry ground again.
“The snow lover in me is very excited to see the snow come in, and I’m hopeful it means that we’re going to have a good season. The skeptic in me, and the person that worked through last year, is a little bit more hesitant,” Schwartz admitted.
Schwartz explained the key to a successful season is to have consistency.
“We don’t have to have every storm drop feet of snow. They could still be four to six inches at a time. But we just can’t have those super long dry periods where we see midwinter melt that doesn’t normally set us up with a whole lot of success,” Schwartz pointed out.
More snow expected this week —- Both the Sierra and the Rockies will get hit with more snow this week as multiple storm systems traverse the West.
Snowfall totals for the highest elevations could end up in the one- to two-foot range this week. More widespread snow totals will be less than a foot.
After a snowy end to last week and a snowy weekend, another round is affecting the Rockies today through Wednesday.
“Snow totals from this second system are still favoring widespread 6+ inches of accumulation, with the highest terrain seeing upwards of a foot,” the National Weather Service office in Grand Junction said.
The Colorado River Basin and Sierra will need a lot more snow to end with an average season, but the steady stream of snow has been a good sign so far.
“I think there’s optimism because we’re starting with a really good foundation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to translate into help with a drought,” said Schwartz. “We still have time where it may not snow, and we may still wind up with below average precipitation, but so far, we’re looking pretty good.”
The Department of Homeland Security announced that it is delaying the enforcement of REAL ID another two years.
The deadline for residents of states, including Oregon, to become REAL ID compliant was May 3, 2023. DHS now says it will be May 7, 2025, to give states and the District of Columbia the extra time they need to make sure residents get REAL ID-compliant drivers licenses or identification cards.
DHS says the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are to blame for the postponement.
“REAL ID progress over the past two years has been significantly hindered by state driver’s licensing agencies having to work through the backlogs created by the pandemic,” DHS said in a statement. “Many of these agencies took various steps in response to the pandemic including automatically extending the expiration dates of driver’s licenses and identification cards and shifting operations to appointment only.”
Oregon has not been immune to these problems. Staffing issues over the summer forced the temporary closure of the Department of Motor Vehicles office in Redmond.
Once REAL ID goes into effect, a non-REAL ID license or identification card will not be enough to get you through airport security to board even a domestic flight. You’ll need REAL ID, a passport or some other federally-accepted form of identification.
For those in Oregon who don’t have a REAL ID license or identification card, this delay means they can wait for their renewal date — if it comes before May 7, 2025 — to get REAL ID.
The REAL ID Act was passed by Congress in 2005, but the deadline has been constantly pushed back.
Oregon’s Average Gas Price Falls In Past Week; Down 64 Cents In Past Month, Up 42 Cents Over Year
Average gasoline prices in Oregon have fallen 24 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $4.18/gallon Monday, according to GasBuddy’s survey of 1,307 stations in Oregon.
Prices in Oregon are 64.3 cents per gallon lower than a month ago and stand 42.4 cents per gallon higher than a year ago. The national average price of diesel has fallen 13.6 cents in the last week and stands at $5.06 per gallon, GasBuddy says.
According to GasBuddy price reports, the cheapest station in Oregon was priced at $3.35/g Sunday while the most expensive was $5.49/g, a difference of $2.14/g.
The national average price of gasoline has fallen 15.8 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.36/g Monday. The national average is down 43 cents per gallon from a month ago and stands 1.5 cents per gallon higher than a year ago, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million weekly price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country.
Historical gasoline prices in Oregon and the national average going back ten years:
December 5, 2021: $3.75/g (U.S. Average: $3.34/g)
December 5, 2020: $2.52/g (U.S. Average: $2.16/g)
December 5, 2019: $3.13/g (U.S. Average: $2.60/g)
December 5, 2018: $3.04/g (U.S. Average: $2.44/g)
December 5, 2017: $2.79/g (U.S. Average: $2.47/g)
December 5, 2016: $2.40/g (U.S. Average: $2.18/g)
December 5, 2015: $2.31/g (U.S. Average: $2.04/g)
December 5, 2014: $2.97/g (U.S. Average: $2.70/g)
December 5, 2013: $3.27/g (U.S. Average: $3.24/g)
December 5, 2012: $3.42/g (U.S. Average: $3.38/g)
Oregon cities and their current gas prices:
Eugene- $4.07/g, down 31.1 cents per gallon from last week’s $4.38/g.
Salem- $3.90/g, down 22.9 cents per gallon from last week’s $4.13/g.
Portland- $4.31/g, down 23.7 cents per gallon from last week’s $4.55/g.
“For the first time in 670 days, the national average price of gasoline has fallen below its year-ago level, dropping for the fourth straight week to its lowest level since January,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “Every state has again seen average gasoline prices drop in the last week, and it remains very possible the national average could fall under $3 per gallon by Christmas. There has also been a drop in diesel prices, which this week will fall back under $5 per gallon, and could soon thereafter fall to their lowest level since March.
“However, despite all the good news about fuel prices, there may be some concerns coming, as the price cap on Russian oil kicks in. Retaliation is possible, and while OPEC+ upheld production cuts from last month, they could always cut more production. For now, however, we’ll likely see another week of declines at the pump in nearly all areas.” GasBuddy data is accessible at http://prices.GasBuddy.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1109674113319848
