The latest news stories of interest in the Rogue Valley and around the state of Oregon from the digital home of Southern Oregon, Wynne Broadcasting’s RogueValleyMagazine.com
Monday, March 21, 2022
Rogue Valley Weather
Today– A 20 percent chance of rain after 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 57. Calm wind.
Tuesday– Sunny, with a high near 79. Calm wind.
Wednesday– Mostly sunny, with a high near 72. Calm wind becoming northwest around 6 mph in the afternoon.
Thursday– Patchy fog before 10am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 71.
Friday– Mostly sunny, with a high near 72.
Large Structure Fire Near on Old Military Road
Crews responded to a large structure fire at 3072 Old Military Road in Central Point on Saturday afternoon. The fire has been extinguished.
Jackson County Fire District No. 3 and Medford Fire Department were on the scene.
A nearby car was also on fire and power to the house was shut off. As this is a breaking news story, the cause of the fire is unknown at this time and is under investigation.
Missing Man’s Dog Found Near Crowfoot Road in Trail – Search for Man Ongoing
TRAIL, Ore. – JCSO Search and Rescue is assisting Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office with a missing person case in Northern California. The missing man was believed to be traveling with his dog. The dog (pictured here) was located off Crowfoot Road near Trail, Ore.
The missing owner was not found with the dog and his vehicle was located in California. We are seeking the public’s help in determining how the dog ended up off Crowfoot Road.
If you had any contact with the missing man, picked up the dog, or have seen her in Jackson County, please contact JCSO Sgt. Shawn Richards at (541) 591-1843. Any information would greatly assist our efforts.
Man Recovering From St. Patrick’s Day Auto-Pedestrian Duii Hit-And-Run
Medford, OR — A local family says it’s watching the recovery of a family member hospitalized after a St. Patrick’s Day auto-pedestrian hit-and-run crash.
The family of 20-year-old Ryan Bartush says he is “still in IMCU with traumatic injuries, very much pain” after he was hit on his way to Chick-fil-A around 7:30pm Thursday. Court records say that’s when 33-year-old Daniel Stephen Rodger Keim of Gold Hill hit Bartush at the Chick-Fil-A entrance before driving away.
The police probable cause affidavit says the incident brought responses from a restaurant employee, an off-duty firefighter and a witness with a truck who pursued Keim, who returned to the scene. He faces charges of felony assault, failing to render aid to an injured person, driving under the influence of intoxicant/s, reckless driving and recklessly endangering another person.
The police account says, “Multiple witnesses told dispatch that vehicle hit pedestrian then drove off,” leaving Bartush lying in the middle of the of Chick-Fil-A entrance. He was transported to Rogue Regional Medical Center and treated for a broken clavicle, concussion, brain bleed (hemorrhage) and several scrapes and cuts.
Medford Police Officer Joshua Marshall’s report says an off-duty firefighter provided first aid to Bartush, and “The firefighter later told Ofc. Mailand that he observed the vehicle that struck Bartash [sic] leave at high rate of speed. During the investigation, Daniel Keim arrived at the location and told me he was the driver. While speaking to Keim, another male in white pickup truck told me he was the one to chase Keim down after he hit Bartash [sic].”The officer’s report continues, “Keim told me he pulled into the entrance and thought he hit cone, which was why he drove off. He told me he might have been going 15 mph as he entered the drive way. He told me he went to Starbucks, which was were he was told he hit person. Keim told me he smoked marijuana everyday, but he had not smoked for the past five hours.
A fresh dent was located on the right side (passenger side) of Keim’s hood. The reports says Keim was arrested and taken to Medford Police Department before a trip to Providence Hospital on his way to Jackson County Jail.
Meth Arrest in Canyonville
On Thursday, March 17th, 2022, detectives with the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team (DINT) arrested two men on drug trafficking charges.
DINT detectives contacted two men in a vehicle in the parking lot of a business in the 100 block of Gazely Bridge Road, in Canyonville. The men were detained in relation to an ongoing investigation. Drug detection K-9 “Trapper” sniffed the area around the vehicle and alerted to the presence of narcotics coming from inside.
A search of the vehicle revealed almost 6 pounds of suspected methamphetamine, which is a very large amount. 40 year old Luis Pacheco-Lopez, of Medford, Oregon, and 22 year old Daniel Velarde-Medrano, of Huntington Park, California, were both lodged at the Douglas County Jail on charges of Possession and Delivery of Methamphetamine. Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team (DINT)
Oregon reports 289 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 11 new deaths
PORTLAND, Ore. — There are 11 new COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 6,971, Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported Friday afternoon.
OHA reported 289 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 bringing the state total to 701,198.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (1), Clackamas (22), Columbia (5), Coos (3), Crook (2), Curry (1), Deschutes (29), Douglas (7), Grant (3), Harney (3), Hood River (3), Jackson (17), Jefferson (3), Josephine (8), Klamath (6), Lake (2), Lane (25), Lincoln (2), Linn (5), Malheur (1), Marion (15), Morrow (3), Multnomah (76), Polk (4), Sherman (1), Tillamook (3), Wallow (2), Wasco (3), Washington (27) and Yamhill (6).
Staying informed about COVID-19 cases in your community is essential for navigating the next phase of the pandemic. The CDC’s COVID-19 Community Level tool (http://ow.ly/gCva50IneJ7) can help you decide what prevention measures to take based on the latest data. Every county in the U.S. is classified into low, medium or high based on hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and COVID-19 case rates in an area.
Oregon’s COVID-19 Community Transmission dashboard (http://ow.ly/zLt450IneJ8) tracks the spread of disease in Oregon counties. This dashboard shows the level of community transmission by considering COVID-19 case rates (the number of new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days per 100,000 people) and test positivity (the percentage of new COVID-19 tests that came back positive in the past 7 days) for Oregon counties in the previous week (Sunday to Saturday).
APPLICATION DEADLINE: The Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program will close to new applicants on Monday, March 21 at 11:59 pm
Oregon’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program is keeping its applicant portal open through Monday.
The state extended the program a week longer than originally planned after receiving additional federal money that was not used in other states.
The Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) said it has received more than 24,000 applications since January after the state allocated an additional $100 million.
The agency in charge of the funds anticipates the newly available $16 million will help more than 2,000 households.
“The great news is that most of it has come through. A lot of money has poured in, a lot of delinquent rents have now been paid. But not enough and we still have a lot of ledgers, a lot of tenants that are still way behind,” Ron Garcia of the Rental Housing Alliance of Oregon.
OHCS said it will begin processing and paying out 2022 applications as early as this week.
Fentanyl Trafficking and Money Laundering Ring That Used Oregon Beauty Salon to Conceal Proceeds Busted
The organization is accused of laundering millions of dollars of drug proceeds through the small Mazatlán Beauty Salon in Tualatin, even after the business had been officially dissolved.
One woman is accused of smuggling more than a pound of counterfeit oxycodone pills made with fentanyl and two kilograms of heroin in the luggage she carried on a passenger bus from California to Portland in early December.
Another person met up with a man outside a McDonald’s restaurant in Hillsboro at the end of December, allegedly handing over a stash of counterfeit oxycodone pills to sell.
In early January, a man known on the street as “Mugsy” went to a motel room in Wilsonville to pick up two bags full of counterfeit oxycodone pills from a couple and drop off cash from his earlier drug sales, according to court records.
The drug transfers, federal prosecutors allege, were all directed by a former Portland man leading a large-scale drug-trafficking organization that distributed more than 100,000 counterfeit prescription pills with fentanyl across Oregon and Washington for at least three years.
It also concealed the drug profits through the outright purchases of nine residential properties valued at more than $4.6 million in Portland, Beaverton, Vancouver, North Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, over eight months, prosecutors say.
The alleged leader of the organization, Luis Antonio Beltran Arredondo, 32, who had recently moved to Las Vegas, and 10 others have been indicted, accused of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and heroin.
Beltran Arredondo and his live-in girlfriend Jacqueline Paola Rodriguez Barrientos, 41, also are accused of laundering millions in drug proceeds, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland announced Friday.
Federal narcotics agents, along with the FBI, Oregon State Police and Tigard police, used wiretaps, confidential sources and surveillance to identify and arrest Beltran Arredondo, Rodriguez Barrientos and accused drug runners in an investigation that began last fall.
They also seized about 115,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills stamped “M30,” suspected to contain fentanyl, along with about 41 pounds of methamphetamine and 57 pounds of heroin, according to court documents.
The alleged leaders imported the drugs from Mexico into California for distribution throughout the Pacific Northwest, prosecutors say.
Police arrested Beltran Arredondo and Rodriguez Barrientos in Las Vegas on Feb. 17 and they made their first appearances in federal court in Portland this week. Their attorneys entered not guilty pleas on their behalf.
Federal agents seized a 2021 Land Rover Range Rover Sport and a 2013 Dodge Viper from the house and receipts from the home revealing $4,360 in cash purchases at the Gucci store in Pioneer Place Mall in April, $9,850 in cash purchases from the downtown Nordstrom in Portland in fall 2019 and a credit card payment of $9,683 for tickets to a professional Canelo Alvarez boxing match, according to court records.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter Sax said Beltran Arredondo and Rodriguez Barrientos lived extravagantly in a fancy house with a luxury car on the profit of fentanyl pills that have helped fuel an opioid epidemic “so ruinous to so many members of our community.”
Counterfeit prescription pills are being made with fentanyl because its more potent and cheaper. In 2019, there were 280 unintentional overdose deaths in Oregon. In 2020, there were 472. And in the first 8 months of last year, there were 473 unintentional overdose deaths, with many of these deaths caused by counterfeit oxycodone pills made from fentanyl, according to prosecutors and the Oregon Health Authority.
During one intercepted wiretap conversation, an agent from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration picked up talk about a fentanyl overdose and hospitalization of a Portland-area child under 14, according to Sax. An investigation continues to determine if the source of the child’s fentanyl poisoning was Beltran Arredondo’s alleged drug trafficking group, Sax wrote in a court memo.
Rodriguez Barrientos, federal prosecutions contend, was the organization’s chief money launderer.
She is accused of making cash deposits ranging from $10,000 to $373,771 into bank accounts in her own name and in the name of the Mazatlán Beauty Salon, which dissolved in May 2020, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s records. At times, she listed herself as “owner/operator” of the salon, even more than a year after it has been dissolved, according to court records.
Financial records show, for example, that she deposited $70,100 into the Bank of America account of Mazatlán Beauty Salon on Jan. 11, 2021, and made a second deposit that same day of $31,620, according to court records.
On March 9, 2021, she deposited $282,471 into her own Bank of America account, identifying herself as a hair salon owner, according to the records.
In total, she made more than $3.5 million in cash deposits into both accounts between Jan. 11 and Oct. 12, 2021, far exceeding the plausible legitimate cash flow earned by a single beauty salon during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to IRS agent Scott McGeachy.
McGeachy noted that cash deposits in round, whole numbers also aren’t consistent with legitimate earnings from such a business as a hair salon, according to court documents.
Rodriguez Barrientos further made cash deposits to fund wire transfers to buy eight different properties with no mortgages between February and October 2021, records indicate. They included a $1.3 million four-plex in Beaverton and a $691,618 home in North Las Vegas, court records show. A ninth property was bought by another alleged member of the drug-trafficking ring, according to prosecutors.
Law enforcement officers stopped couriers transporting drugs to Oregon and executed search warrants on residences in Portland, Hillsboro, Tualatin, Wilsonville in Oregon and Fresno and Hawaiian Gardens in California, according to prosecutors.
The other defendants named are Conrado Beltran Quinones, Yvonne Michelle Beltran, Gregory Arthur Higgs, James Franklin Greason, Virginia Del Gastelum Montes, Javier Avila Sandoval, Eloy Gonzales Sr., Lizbeth Tanairis Arredondo Lopez, Isabel Reyna Lopez Ramirez and Zalin Requejo Lopez. Most were arrested in California and Oregon.
Most are accused of selling the drugs as part of the conspiracy.
Assistant Federal Public Defender C. Renee Manes entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Beltran Arredondo during his appearance before a magistrate judge in Portland on Tuesday. Manes did not contest his continued detention but reserved the right for him to challenge it in the future.
At a detention hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Rodriguez Barrientos’ court-appointed lawyer Joanna T. Perini-Abbott argued for her client to be released pending trial. She said Rodriguez Barrientos is a mother who came to the United States in 2010 on a visa when she was pregnant with her daughter, who is now 11.
Rodriguez Barrientos wanted to ensure a better life for her daughter and wouldn’t flee now because her daughter is a U.S. citizen and the government has taken control of all the property she owned and frozen her assets, her lawyer said.
Rodriguez Barrientos lived in the Portland area, where she waited tables and then bought her own hair salon, Perini-Abbott said. In 2015, she met Beltran Arredondo and believed he owned a car dealership and bought and traded cars, the lawyer said. Rodriguez Barrientos moved with him to Las Vegas at the end of last year “to escape the Portland rain,” her lawyers said.
Rodriguez Barrientos deposited money that her longtime boyfriend gave her in her own accounts in her name, Perini-Abbott said. She considered Beltran Arredondo her spouse, though they were not legally married, the lawyer said.
Rodriguez Barrientos isn’t charged in the drug conspiracy, her lawyer pointed out. But Sax argued for her continued detention, saying, “Her money laundering is what enabled the drug trafficking organization to carry on with its distribution.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Youlee Yim You ordered Rodriguez Barrientos to remain in custody pending trial. “This is no small case,” You said, noting Rodriguez Barrientos’ alleged involvement in millions of dollars of transactions.
While her alleged offense is money laundering, “it does have to do with drug trafficking,” the judge said, “and I don’t think that can be ignored.”
Man Killed By Semi Truck After Motorized Wheelchair Slips Off Curb In NE Portland
A man was killed after his motorized wheelchair slipped off a curb, causing him to fall under the tires of a passing semi-truck in Northeast Portland.
The crash happened just before after 8:50 p.m. near Northeast Vancouver Way and Gertz Road. The driver did not stay at the scene. Police said the driver may not have been aware of what happened.
The name of the victim was not released. If you know anything about the crash, contact Portland police: (503) 823-3333
Climate Change Shifts Plant Hardiness Zones
The zones are determined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, working with Oregon State University’s PRISM Climate Group, and based on a 30-year period of averaged minimum low temperatures. The latest hardiness map came out in 2012 and is from data collected during the years 1976–2005. Zones are ranked from 1 (-60 degrees) to 13 (70 degrees), though the extremes are rare. To find yours, put in your ZIP code and your hardiness zone will appear
In some cases, cold temperatures are the culprit. It’s a matter of right plant, right place, said Nicole Sanchez, Oregon State University Extension horticulturist. Plants survive to a certain low temperature, a characteristic they developed through evolution in their native habitat. You need to know about hardiness zones to be assured your plants will avoid cold-related death. Plants bought at nurseries should have the hardiness zone on the label.
Oregon’s hardiness zones range from 6a (-20 to -15) to 8b (15 to 20), with pockets of 5b (-15 to -10) in eastern Oregon. The map doesn’t reflect the coldest it has ever been or ever will be at a specific location, but simply the average lowest winter temperature for the location over a specified time.
But with climate change, the zones are shifting, Sanchez said. For instance, the 2012 map zones changed in many areas by 5 degrees—or a half-zone warmer—than the previous map. Already, there’s talk of the Portland area moving from zone 8b to 9a, which has a low of 20–25 degrees.
“We won’t know the specifics about zones changing until we have another 30 years of data to go on, but that doesn’t mean we wait until 2035,” Sanchez said. “They may use an earlier time period. Then we can look and see if there are long-term changes that would be reflected in new zones for particular areas. So, we wait and see.
“I always hear people say, ‘This is the warmest spring ever’ or ‘I’ve never seen a summer so hot.’ Usually, they’re wrong. Weather is a short-term phenomenon and climate is a long-term pattern.”
The map is a guide, not an absolute document. There can be winters when lows dip below your zone minimum, she said. Nature can throw a curve ball; nothing is guaranteed. For now, gardeners should base their plant choices on the current map.
What happens in your garden could very well be different than your neighbor because of what are called microclimates. A microclimate can have an effect similar to moving to a colder or warmer zone. They can be influenced by structures like the orientation of your house to the sun. South will be warmer than north, west warmer than east. Other microclimates may be related to slope: cold air pools at the bottom and the high points are cold, too, because of wind and exposure. So, the middle of a slope is the sweet spot for borderline hardy plants. Microclimates can be created with rock walls and mulches, buildings and fences, and windbreaks created with plants.
“I’m in zone 6,” Sanchez said. “If I wanted to plant dahlias, which are zone 7 plants, I’d plant them on the south side with a gravel mulch that would store heat.”
Zones are essential when choosing a plant. To be successful, plants must fit into your zone, which helps with selection. If you have five plants you like and only two are in your zone, it narrows down your selection. You can’t push the envelope; just be prepared to lose plants periodically.
“Some gardeners get a kick out of out of growing something that allegedly won’t grow in their zone,” Sanchez said. “Sometimes a plant will survive for several years because the weather doesn’t get down to the minimum of your zone. But, then a really cold winter comes along and zaps them. Be careful with woody plants like shrubs and trees. They are investments. You can pay $350 for a tree or $15 for a flat of impatiens.”
New Oregon Coast Rules Allow Taking More Green Crabs But No Sea Stars
Oregon’s coast has a new rule effective this weekend for marine life harvesting. Oregon’s Fish and Wildlife Commission (OFWC) voted yesterday to prohibit harvest of sea stars while increasing the daily bag limit for non-native European green crabs to 35, changes that took effect immediately. OFWC says the Pacific Coast sea star population drastically declined starting in 2013 from Sea Star Wasting Disease deaths.
The allowable harvest had been 10 in aggregate with other marine invertebrates (urchins, shore crabs) before yesterday’s OFWC action. It says, “While incidental or targeted harvest of sea stars occurs infrequently and is likely not a significant threat to the populations, drastic change in sea star populations in intertidal and subtidal habitats warranted attention and management action.” Commercial sea star harvest has not been allowed since 2014.
OFWC says European green crabs were part of the “other marine invertebrates” aggregate daily catch limit of 10 before yesterday’s action. It says, “This crab has rapidly colonized temperate coastlines at several locations around the world where they are an aggressive invader with the potential to disrupt communities of native shellfish (other crab, clams, oysters, etc.).”
The Commission voted to increase the daily bag limit of European green crabs to 35 to encourage greater harvest.It says more recreational shellfishers are reporting catching green crabs, wanting to harvest more of them to remove the growing threat to native shellfish. OFWC says, “Crabbers should know that European green crab can exhibit remarkable variation in color but are easily identified by three prominent bumps between their eyes and five spines along the side of their carapace.”
Information about green crabs including how to identify them is available at https://myodfw.com/crabbing…/species/european-green-crab.
In other actions Friday, OFWC approved additional regulations for commercial bay clam fisheries including a requirement for electronic (rather than paper) fish tickets, and designation of a harvest area and annual landing cap for the commercial gaper clam dive fishery in Yaquina Bay.
Police Ask for Public’s Help in Search For Victim’s Roommate In Albany Homicide – A 42-year-old woman, the roommate of a 75-year-old man whose death was ruled a homicide, is wanted for questioning in the case, Albany police officials said.
Elvin “Al” Pierce was found dead by officers around 9:10 p.m. Friday after a 911 caller reported a man was unconscious and not breathing. Investigators at that time said the circumstances surrounding his death were suspicious.
APD said Pierce’s roommate, 42-year-old Elizabeth Nicole Tyler Jimenez, wasn’t there at the home when officers found Pierce dead and they don’t know where she is. Authorities did not specifically state whether Jimenez is a suspect or if there are any charges against her.
Pierce’s car, a tan 2004 Buick Park Avenue with Oregon license plate 081FAX, is also missing.
Jimenez, who investigators believe is currently without a job, is described as often visiting local soup kitchens. She also has skills as a masseuse and a seamstress, officials said.
Anyone with information is urged to contact APD at 541-917-7680 or APD Lt. Buck Pearce at 541-917-3209.
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/