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, October 17, 2022
Rogue Valley Weather
Three Fires in The Valley Under Investigation
Saturday, the Medford National Weather Service issued a Red Flag Warning for Jackson County. That same day, firefighters had to deal with two new wildfire starts several miles apart. Sunday another fire popped up.
According to the Oregon Department of Forestry Southwest District, the first wildfire to spark was found just east of Butte Falls early Saturday afternoon. Firefighters on the scene reported that the fire was kept to about a quarter-acre before it was stopped.
Hours later, firefighters then responded to a second near fire start, near Talent. ODF Southwest says that the grassfire was reported on the 300-block of Staples lane between Talent and Ashland. Firefighters were able to halt the fire to about two-acres before forward movement was stopped. Both fires are under an investigation.
Sunday ODF responded with our structural partners to a grassfire along the southbound lanes of I-5 milepost 15 outside of Ashland. Firefighters have knocked down the fire and caught it at an estimated half-acre. It’s not expected to spread beyond this size. Firefighters remained on scene to begin mopping up. The cause of this fire will be under investigation.
Central Point Man Arrested for Online Sexual Corruption of a Child
On October 14, 2022, Grants Pass Police Detectives arrested Andrew Joseph Cooper, 39, of Central Point, for Online Sexual Corruption of a Child I. Cooper allegedly committed these crimes involving a 15-year-old female juvenile within the City of Grants Pass over the past two days. Cooper was arrested by detectives and lodged in the Josephine County Jail.
Because Cooper is believed to be involved in youth sports and ministry in Jackson County, the Grants Pass Police Department is asking anyone with further information please contact Grants Pass Police Detectives at 541-450-6260 and reference case #2022-45260.
This investigation is ongoing, and further details cannot be released.
Jackson County Sheriff Warns New Phone Scams On The Rise
According to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, officers have received recent reports of new scam calls to local residents, requesting money to resolve warrants for missing jury duty and other supposed offenses.
JCSO says that one of these scam calls claimed to be a Sergeant Weaver from JCSO calling for money to be paid to clear a warrant.
The Sheriff’s Office also says they’ve received reports of calls pretending to be from Pacific Power claiming the victim had overpaid and a refund would be sent via direct deposit. JCSO wants to remind the Jackson County community to never send money to someone representing themselves as law enforcement or a utility company on the phone.
JCSO and other law enforcement entities will never call or text to collect money. When in doubt, JSCO recommends that you hang up the phone and call the department’s official phone number. That phone number is 541-774-6800.
A coach from Hidden Valley High School has been charged with sexual abuse and official misconduct.
A Grants Pass basketball coach was accused of sexually abusing a minor.
Police said between August and September of this year, 34-year-old Vincent Reyes Aguilera allegedly sexually abused a 17-year-old victim while employed as a girls’ basketball coach for Three Rivers School District at Hidden Valley High School.
On October 13, Aguilera was arrested for sexual abuse and official misconduct.
Officers said the reported crimes happened in Grants Pass, but they didn’t give any further information.
Anyone with further information was asked to call GPPD at 541-450-6260.
Oregon State Police seize nearly 9,000 pounds of processed marijuana in a traffic stop near Eagle Point
On Wednesday, October 12, 2022, at approximately 3:00 P.M., an Oregon State Police Trooper assigned to the Central Point Area Command stopped a white Dodge truck out of Texas, pulling a large cargo trailer, for several traffic violations on State Route 62 in Eagle Point, Oregon.
During the stop, reasonable suspicion was developed for the exportation of marijuana. A consent search of the cargo trailer revealed approximately 350 garbage bags containing dried, processed marijuana with a total weight of 8,850 pounds.
The driver, identified as MANUEL RODRIGUEZ PLASCENCIA (30) from Turlock, California, was issued criminal citations and released.
OSP Troopers were assisted during the investigation by the OSP Southwest Region (SWR) Drug Enforcement Section (DES) team and the Interagency Marijuana Enforcement Team (IMET) of the Medford Police Department and Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
Measure 111 Will Decide If Healthcare Should Be A Right For All Oregonians
Oregon voters will decide if health care should be a constitutional right. The Right to Healthcare amendment would be the first of its kind in the nation. Passage of Measure 111 would amend the state constitution to ensure that every resident has access to “cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care.”
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward is a family doctor and was Chief Sponsor of the measure that was referred by the Oregon legislature. She calls the proposed amendment a “guiding principle.”
“It doesn’t create a tax. What it does is, it says ‘here is a value that Oregonians share and hold deeply enough that they want it in their constitution.’”
Private physician Sam Metz passionately supports a single payer health care system and opposes Measure 111. He says one reason is legal liability. “According to legislative legal counsel, any Oregonian who does not receive cost-effective or affordable health care has standing to sue the state.”
If Measure 111 passes in November, it would be the first amendment adopted by any U.S. state to secure the right to affordable healthcare for every resident.
As the measure reads, the state’s obligation to ensure affordable health care would have to be balanced against existing obligations including “funding public schools and other essential public services.”
And it reads that “legal remedies for lawsuits may not interfere with the balance between a right to healthcare and funding other essential public services.”
If voters pass Measure 111, it would be up to lawmakers to determine how to fulfill the state’s obligation. The measure does not contain any built-in funding.
MORE INFO: https://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Measure_111,Right_to_Healthcare_Amendment(2022)
Measure 113 will decide in November whether to punish state lawmakers who boycott the Capitol, a tactic that Republicans have effectively used in recent years to push back against the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature.
Ballot Measure 113 would amend the Oregon Constitution to prevent lawmakers with 10 or more unexcused absences from serving their next elected term in office. It is aimed at discouraging lawmakers who are in the minority from using walkouts as a tactic to kill proposals with which they disagree. Republicans used walkouts in recent years to kill legislation seen as priorities for Democrats, including greenhouse gas cap-and-trade plans introduced in 2019 and 2020.
They were able to successfully do that because Oregon is one of just four states in the nation, along with Indiana, Tennessee and Texas, that requires two-thirds of lawmakers to be present in order to vote on bills. All other states require no more than half of the lawmakers to be present. Measure 113 would not change Oregon’s high quorum requirement.
Legislative leaders from the majority party, decide when to excuse fellow lawmakers from floor votes and Measure 113 would not change that, either. While some lawmakers regularly miss votes for personal reasons and are excused, the number missing from any one vote is low enough that voting can continue.
Public employee unions and other groups that tend to support Democratic candidates spearheaded and funded the effort to get Measure 113 on the ballot.
Democrats currently hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature, as well as the governor’s office which has allowed them to power through a broad array of progressive priorities, from a minimum wage increase to statewide rent control. But Republicans in the state Senate and House have boycotted votes at the Capitol six times since 2019 in an effort to kill Democratic legislation.
In three cases, they were no-shows for just one day: to push for Democrats to slow down the pace of lawmaking in February 2020, to push for Gov. Kate Brown to return Oregon schools to in-person learning in February 2021 and in a holdout against a compromise congressional redistricting plan in 2021. House Republicans ultimately returned and allowed the redistricting plan to become law.
Senate Republicans’ two lengthier walkouts in 2019 targeted that year’s climate cap-and-trade bill, a proposal to close loopholes in Oregon’s vaccine mandate for schoolchildren and a package of gun policies including penalties for some gun owners who fail to lock up their weapons. Gov. Kate Brown killed the vaccine and gun bills in exchange for Republicans returning and allowing a vote on a new business tax to raise roughly $1 billion annually for Oregon schools. Democrats ultimately gave up on the climate bill that year, conceding that some Senate Democrats also opposed it.
In 2020, Senate Republicans walked out again to kill that year’s version of the climate bill and House Republicans joined in the boycott as a protest since the bill never left the Senate. Those walkouts shut down the legislative session early, around when COVID-19 hit Oregon.
Record Temperatures Around the State But Cooling on the Way
The northwestern United States has had its share of heat waves since early this past summer, and another bout of abnormal warmth reached a peak this weekend, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
Across much of the nation, average high temperatures tend to drop significantly as the autumn season progresses, and the Northwest is usually no exception. But this fall has been a different story.
In the case of Seattle, for example, the average high temperature typically declines from 66 to 56 from the start of October to the end of the month. Yet, so far this month, temperatures have not abided by the consistent downward trend in much of the Northwest.
Another record high temperature was set in Portland on Sunday at 86 degrees, which officially made it the hottest weekend on record in Portland for this late in the year. Records at the Portland International Airport date back to 1940.
Morning clouds will give way to afternoon sunshine and the hot/dry east wind has abated. This is good news for firefighters battling the Nakia Creek Fire in Clark County.
Even though October sunshine and short days will not support anything close to those temperature levels this time, the persistence of the warmth is rather unusual, forecasters say.
Medford, Salem, Portland and other cities in Oregon broke records for high temperatures this weekend in the state.
After the record-setting weekend of heat and strong east wind across the region, we will cool things down from the coast to the Cascades on Monday.
Community Bank Week Oct. 17-22
SALEM – Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has proclaimed Oct. 17-22 as Community Bank Week. The week honors local banks and their employees for their economic and civic contributions in communities across the state.
Oregon community banks provide more than 5,800 family wage jobs through more than 375 branch and loan offices, issue $13 billion in home purchase and refinance loans, and safeguard $37 billion in deposits. They also make 80 percent of all agriculture-related loans.
Oregon’s community banks, most of which are chartered by the Division of Financial Regulation, play an essential role in promoting the economic health and prosperity of the state. In some communities, they are the sole provider of banking products and services and sometimes the largest employer. Community banks donate millions of dollars each year to nonprofits and local organizations.
“Our state banks continue to support small businesses and agriculture in Oregon, as well as provide banking services and create thousands of jobs,” said TK Keen, administrator for the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. “State banks are also invested in their communities through their 64,000 volunteer hours each year and the millions of dollars they have pledged to support nonprofits and other endeavors throughout the state.”
State-chartered banks throughout Oregon are celebrating Community Bank Week in their local neighborhoods. To learn more about Oregon’s state-chartered banks, go to https://www.oregonbankers.com/local.html.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1109674113319848
