The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com
Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Oregon Beach Weather
Today– Showers. High near 51. South wind 3 to 7 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Thursday– A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51. South southwest wind around 5 mph becoming light and variable.
Friday– Mostly sunny, with a high near 51. Northeast wind 6 to 8 mph.
Saturday– Sunny, with a high near 55.
Sunday– Mostly sunny, with a high near 56.
2022 Newport Seafood & Wine Festival Cancelled Again
For the third year in a row, the pandemic has affected one of the major festivals along the entire coast of Oregon. The Newport Visitor Center and Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that they will cancel the event.
“After much communication with city, county and state officials, the Greater Newport Chamber of Commerce has decided to announce the cancellation of the 2022 Newport Seafood and Wine Festival with heavy hearts,” the agency said on social media yesterday. “While we were keen to welcome people back to a much anticipated in-person festival, as well as put in place all necessary precautions to ensure the health and safety of all attendees, suppliers, volunteers and staff, this does not outweigh the level of safety and protection from COVID that is first and foremost for the participants and the community.”
The chamber said that even a mini version of the event wouldn’t work, as they recently saw a huge drop in vendors and volunteers due to COVID concerns. Many of them have pulled out even for a smaller incarnation of their favorite Oregon coast.
“We hope to hold the festival in the coming years,” the chamber said. “In the meantime, we’ll be exploring ideas for another community event and putting our efforts into something that can be implemented in a safe way.”
The festival began in 1977 and quickly grew in size and importance, even spawning a fall liquor festival for a period in the 1990s
With most medical experts agreeing that the Omicron variant has yet to peak in Oregon, that should make the end of February a worrisome time for many.
In the meantime, the Chamber expresses its sympathy to those who have been greatly disappointed by the cancellation of the festival. She promised further developments in the future regarding next year’s event and other related announcements on www.seafoodwine.com and the Newport Seafood & Wine Festival Facebook page.
“We will work with each ticket purchaser to ensure a successful refund,” the chamber said. “If you prefer, you can apply the refund as a donation to advance the seafood and wine event. It is greatly appreciated. Please contact Afton Tickets to request your refund. www.aftontickets.com.”
Keep an eye on the Seafood & Wine Festival’s Facebook page and website for future announcements. www.seafoodandwine.com
Questions? Contact the Newport Chamber of Commerce at (541) 265-8801 or info@newportchamber.org.
https://www.newportchamber.org/seafood-wine-festival/
Man Arrested for Throwing Rocks at Several Coos Bay Businesses
Jordan Skylar Jones faces 4 counts of felony Criminal Mischief I and 2 counts of misdemeanor Criminal Mischief II, the Coos County Sheriff’s Office said.
The investigation started January 14 at 2:30 a.m. with a report to dispatch of an audible alarm at the Human Bean coffee in the Bunker Hill area.
A deputy responded and found a window shattered by a rock.
“While the deputy was on scene; it was learned that Coos Bay Police had received a call for a subject throwing a rock through a window at Fred Meyer a few minutes later. The Sheriff’s Office and Coos Bay Police began searching the area for the suspect,” the sheriff’s office said.
Law enforcement located Jones and took him into custody.
“During the investigation, it was determined several vehicles in the area where Jones was located had also been damaged,” the sheriff’s office said. “The following day, 4 other businesses in the Bunker Hill area contacted the Coos County Dispatch center to report damage to property done in a similar manner as the night before. This investigation is still ongoing.
Coos Bay Police is investigating several similar incidents within their city as well.”
Oregon reports 28,037 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 10 new deaths
There are10 new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 5,893, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported 28,037 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 bringing the state total to 541,415. Today’s total also reflects the weekend and MLK Jr. holiday Jan. 17.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (82), Benton (792), Clackamas (2,617), Clatsop (134), Columbia (197), Coos (339), Crook (228), Curry (121), Deschutes (2,081), Douglas (398), Gilliam (2), Grant (23), Harney (15), Hood River (43), Jackson (1,835), Jefferson (239), Josephine (453), Klamath (514), Lake (32), Lane (2,561), Lincoln (187), Linn (873), Malheur (75), Marion (2,764), Morrow (67), Multnomah (4,995), Polk (542), Sherman (2), Tillamook (81), Umatilla (703), Union (106), Wallowa (58), Wasco (30), Washington (4,093) and Yamhill (755).
Community Transmission Report and Public Health Indicators Dashboard update
Tuesday, OHA updated the Community Transmission Report links to downloadable data published to Tableau. The most recent full week’s community transmission data are displayed on a map of Oregon’s counties on the associated Public Health Indicators dashboard. These data will be published weekly on the first day of the week.
In the face of rapidly rising Omicron cases, public health authorities are focusing more on outbreaks in high-risk settings and less on interviewing individual cases and conducting contact tracing. With the transition to an opt-in model of case reporting, the most recent Public Health Indicators: Public Health Response data from Jan. 11 will be archived in OHA’s COVID-19 Data Reports.
Data on timely public health follow-up (percentage of COVID-19 cases where public health initiated follow-up within 24 hours) and the percentage of COVID-19 cases traced to a known source (cases with an epidemiologic link other than sporadic) will not be collected in the same way moving forward.
The Public Health Indicators: Indicators of Severe Disease tab from Jan. 11 will also be archived as these data are now published daily instead of weekly:
- Data on emergency department visits for COVID-19 like illness (CLI) are now available daily on Oregon’s COVID-19 Update: Emergency Department tab.
- County-level COVID-19 cases by whether they were hospitalized during their illness are now available daily on Oregon’s Epidemiologic Curve here.
Suspect Still On The Run After Robberies At Two Medford Banks
Officers from the Medford Police Department are actively searching for the suspect in two bank robberies that happened Tuesday morning. MPD learned just after 10 a.m. that the First Interstate Bank and Banner Bank, nearby one another in the 2600-block of E Barnett Road, had both been robbed.
The suspect was last seen on foot, heading toward the Larson Creek bike path. MPD indicated that no weapon had been seen in either robbery. St. Mary’s High School temporarily went on lockdown as officers searched around the campus.
Police said that the suspect’s description varies, but he’s believed to be a white male, in his mid-’40s, between 5’8″ and 6’0″ with a medium build. He was wearing a dark or camo-colored hoody, black sunglasses, and a blue-colored or American flag style mask.
Anyone who recognizes this clothing or has any information is asked to call 541-770-4783, or 911 if he is within sight, reference Case #22-980.
The Medford area has had a spate of robberies in recent months. The same First Interstate Bank on E Barnett Road was robbed in mid-November under similar circumstances. In late December, police arrested a man who allegedly robbed a Walgreens and Lumpy’s restaurant in Medford using a BB gun that looked like a real handgun.
Early this month, police were looking for a man who robbed O’Reilly Auto Parts at gunpoint. Police in Medford and Central Point have also been investigating armed robberies at two Purple Parrot locations as seemingly connected. Most recently, Central Point Police were looking for the suspect in a robbery at People’s Bank who was seen on surveillance video but got away before officers arrived.
Natural Gas Rates to Increase Again
Oregonians who use natural gas could see their rates increase by nearly 10 percent if regulators grant a request from NW Natural—its second rate hike in three years. The average residential rates would increase from $63 to $70 a month, according to the Portland Business Journal.
If approved, commercial rates would increase 9.3 percent and industrial customers would pay 3.4 percent more. In a 1,155-page brief, NW Natural asked the Oregon Public Utility Commission for permission for a 9.9 percent rate hike. The $73.5 million raised would pay for long-term investment in technology, seismically secure resource centers, and other distribution and storage system upgrades.
The company’s last increase, which took effect in November 2020, is paying for the utility’s new Portland headquarters and operations center. NW Natural says even with rate increases, the average customer’s bill is lower than before 2008.
Yet, Oregonians already pay more in natural gas prices than the national average according to the Public Policy Institute of NY.
Oregon’s Democratic state lawmakers issued a statement marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day by calling on Congress to pass two bills that would expand voting rights at the federal level.
The two bills — the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the For the People Act — have previously passed in the US House, but face near-certain defeat in the Senate. While Senate Democrats largely support the two bills, they lack the votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster. Democrats see the bills as a remedy for the wave of more restrictive voting laws passed by Republican-controlled state legislatures in the wake of the 2020 election.
Some aspects of the For the People Act are already the law of the land in Oregon, such as universal mail-in voting. Others, like campaign finance reform and efforts to rein in gerrymandering, would be as new to Oregon as they would other states. President Joe Biden called on Democrats last week to overhaul the filibuster in order to pass the two bills, but Senator Kyrsten Sinema signaled her intransigence on the topic. Democrats will be unable to change the filibuster without every party member in the Senate onboard.
Klamath County Sheriff’s Office Asks for Public’s Help in Search For Trucker Suspect
Please share!!! 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
A 17-year-old was reported missing in Salem and detectives say the teen might be the victim of an online catfishing scheme.
Ezra Mayhugh, 17, was last seen on October 15, 2021 after being dropped off in downtown Salem by a friend, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said. He was reported as a runaway the following day when he did not return home.
Investigators say he might be in Washington or California. They hope to reunite Ezra safely with family members.
He’s described as about 5-foot 11-inches tall, weighing 130 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes.
If you have had contact with Mayhugh since October 15 or have other helpful information on his whereabouts, the sheriff’s office asks you to contact Detective M.J. Sphoon at 503-588-6808 or to submit a tip by texting TIPMCSO and your tip to 847411.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Have-You-Seen-Me-Southern-Oregons-Missing-People-161249961222839/posts/