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
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Rogue Valley Weather
Bomb Threat Suspect Arrested in Grants Pass
Grants Pass, Ore. – Over the weekend, the Grants Pass Police Department received information about a possible bomb threat targeting the Grants Pass area.
Detectives assumed the investigation and determined that 19-year-old Erik Pederson had made the threats. Erik Pederson was apprehended by police on May 16, 2022.
During the investigation and apprehension of Erik Pederson, detectives also discovered other incidents that resulted in a search warrant being granted for Erik Pederson’s residence. Inside the residence police located evidence of animal abuse, chemicals, recipes for destructive devices, and equipment necessary for creating destructive devices.
Erik Pederson was arrested and lodged at the Josephine County Jail. The charges against Erik Pederson include Menacing, Strangulation, Unlawful Use of a Weapon, Aggravated Animal Abuse in the First Degree (4 counts), and Attempted Manufacture of a Destructive Device.
There is no ongoing threat to the community regarding this investigation. The Grants Pass Police Department would like to thank the citizens who assisted in protecting our community and would also like to encourage the reporting of concerning behaviors, such as animal abuse and violence, as they can be indicators of escalating dangers. Anyone having further information regarding this subject and his activities involving chemicals or explosives is asked to call the Grants Pass Police Department at 541-450-6260.
Further media questions should be directed to the Josephine County District Attorney’s Office. Grants Pass Police Department
Invasive Crayfish Found in Ashland Canal
An invasive crayfish, native to the Midwest and parts of eastern and central Canada, has shown up in Oregon for the first time. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife reported Monday that Northern crayfish were found in the Ashland Canal. The canal links into Bear Creek and the Rogue River basin. State officials said the crayfish have also been found in California and Washington waterways.
The crayfish can feed salmon and steelhead eggs, native vegetation and other crayfish species. Crayfish are also capable over traveling over land to other water bodies.
Rick Boatner, ODFW’s invasive species coordinator, is concerned the evasive species will replicate the impacts rusty crayfish had on the John Day River Basin in the eastern part of the state.
The rusty crayfish is native to Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana and showed up in the Oregon river 42 years ago, according to state officials. The rusty species has taken over the river from native crayfish and could enter the Columbia River as soon 2025.
Roseburg Mom Helping Other Parents Find Formula With Facebook Group
Local moms are struggling to find baby formula as the national shortage continues. One mom is taking the initiative to start a Facebook group to help parents in Southern Oregon find the formula they need.
Sheila Ullom was a part of a national Facebook group for moms expecting in March, when her daughter was born. She saw a post from a mom who lives in another state, talking about being a member of a separate group to find baby formula.
When she looked to see if there was one locally, there wasn’t one. So she started her own – Formula Finders DC Oregon. https://www.facebook.com/groups/formulafindersdc/
If parents see formula on the shelves in a store, all they have to do is take a picture and upload it to the Facebook
group.
We want to keep you informed about COVID-19 in Oregon. Data are provisional and change frequently. For more information, including COVID-19 data by county, visit our dashboard: http://ow.ly/NzVU50Jau4z
OHA holds media briefing on COVID-19 today at 11 a.m.
Oregon Health Authority is hosting its monthly media availability to give an update on the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, May 18.
Dean Sidelinger, M.D. MSEd, health officer and state epidemiologist at OHA, will discuss the state of the pandemic and answer reporters’ questions at 11 a.m. via Zoom.
Interested reporters can join via this link. A livestream will be available for the public on YouTube.
State election officials say early signs indicate yesterday’s turnout for the state primary elections may be among the lowest in the last 60 years. Officials say through last Friday, only about 17 percent of ballots that had been sent to voters had been returned.
The figure at this point was a little higher in the last primary four years ago — a little more than 18 percent. Voter turnout in the 2018 primary was almost 34 percent. But voter numbers have also surged during this time. There are almost 285-thousand more Oregonians who are registered to vote compared with four years ago. As of last night: Statewide voter turnout is 29%.
Two Out Of Three Counties Voting On The Proposed Idaho Annex Rejected The Jurisdictional Transfer In Early Returns
Oregonians in two counties appeared to reject a plan Tuesday to annex parts of Oregon into Idaho, while a third county supported the proposal.
The symbolic thumbs down came from voters in Douglas and Josephine counties, while voters in Klamath County backed the measure. The early results indicated the Greater Idaho movement has secured buy-in from slightly less than a majority of the counties outlined in its target areas across Eastern and Southern Oregon, which represents about three-quarters of Oregon’s landmass.
Shooting in Klamath Falls
Details and an official statement from the Klamath Falls City police are yet to come, but we are continuing to follow the story of a chase and a shooting that resulted in the death of one person in downtown Klamath Falls Monday afternoon.
Details and the timeline are sketchy, but the chase was reportedly at one point through several streets in the Mills Addition. It is known that at some point, a bullet had struck at least one Klamath Falls area law enforcement vehicle.
Initial reports indicate a female passenger in the vehicle being chased bailed out of a vehicle near Mills school. According to unconfirmed reports, the chase continued onto commercial near Oak street and ended across the
street from Eagle Ridge High School.
The high school was put on lockdown as a precaution. Unconfirmed reports say at the end of the chase, the suspect driving the vehicle in pursuit ended their own life with a gunshot. Much of the downtown area was roped off and inaccessible throughout the afternoon and late into the night as the investigation continued.
As more information is released from law enforcement, we will update this story.
Oregon FBI Warns of Cybercriminals Using a Reverse Instant Payment Scam
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center recently issued a warning about a rise in payment scams. Victims appear to get a text message from a bank’s fraud alert department. The text asks if the customer initiated an instant money transfer using digital payment apps connected to a bank.
For example, a text may say- Bank Fraud Alert- Did you attempt an instant payment in the amount of $5,000? Reply, Yes or No, or 1 to stop alerts.
The payment amount and financial institution may vary from victim to victim. You may even receive different texts claiming to be from different banks because the crooks are hoping to guess your financial institution.
If the victim responds, they receive a phone call that appears to be from the bank’s legitimate 1-800 support number. The criminals may know a past address, your social security number, and the last four digits of your bank account. This information is used to convince you that the steps being requested are the financial institution’s legitimate process to stop that money transfer.
Once the fraudsters have you on the hook, here is how they steal your money. Using the bank’s legitimate website or application, the crook will instruct victims to remove your email address from their digital payment app and replace it with an email address controlled by the fraudsters. After the email address has been changed, the cyber crook tells the victim to start another instant payment transaction to themselves that will cancel or reverse the original fraudulent payment attempt. Unfortunately, victims are in fact sending instant payment transactions from their bank account to an account controlled by the criminals. Victims often only realize they’ve been scammed after checking their bank account balance.
The FBI recommends the following precautions:
Be wary of unsolicited requests to verify account information. Cyber actors can use email addresses and phone numbers which appear to come from a legitimate financial institution. If a call or text is received regarding possible fraud or unauthorized transfers, do not respond directly.
Instead, contact your bank’s fraud department through verified phone numbers and email addresses on official bank websites or from the back of your credit or debit card, never through a text or email you receive.
Be wary of callers that provide personally identifiable information, including social security numbers. Unfortunately, there have been so many large-scale data breaches over the last decade, criminals may know some of your personal data.
Your best protection, Enable Multi Factor Authentication for all financial accounts, and do not provide those codes to anyone.
If you’ve been a victim of an online fraud, report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.
Sources: https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA220414 —– FBI – Oregon
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Have-You-Seen-Me-Southern-Oregons-Missing-People-161249961222839/posts/