▶️ St. Charles offers new service to track prostate cancer

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
June 1, 2023

St. Charles Health System is offering up a new tool for men in Central Oregon battling prostate cancer.

Men can now get a Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen PET scan. It will see if the cancer has spread out of the prostate area and gives a more precise detection of the cancer.

In the past, this scan was offered in Portland or Boise. It’s something that patients and doctors have been asking for.

“It’s going to help patients by diagnosing that weeks sooner than it would have had to wait to go to Portland to get this study. So it’s going to change their treatment just to become quicker and faster for them,” said Dr. Jonathan Reigle, Nuclear Medicine Manager at St. Charles.

>>> Have you checked out Central Oregon Daily News on YouTube? Click here to subscribe and share our videos.

The scan is available at Cascade Medical Imaging, which is a joint venture between St. Charles and Central Oregon Radiology Associates.

St. Charles officials say appointments are booked through June, but there are spaces available in July and after.

▶️ Mosaic opens medical clinic at Mountain View High School

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
June 1, 2023

The Mosaic Medical Clinic is officially open on the Mountain View High School campus.

Mosaic says it offers a full range of physical, behavioral and preventive health services for anyone 18 or younger — no matter their ability to pay.

The doors opened on May 10. Mosaic just reached its fundraising goal of $200,000 for operations, pushed over the top by a recent donation of $10,000 from First Story.

>>> Have you checked out Central Oregon Daily News on YouTube? Click here to subscribe and share our videos.

“The parents don’t have to miss work. Students can walk over, get care. They don’t need to wait, necessarily. And if you’re really feeling the need from a behavioral health perspective or maybe you hurt yourself, you’re in practice and we’re open, you can come on in,” said Mosaic Pediatrics Clinics Manager Tamarra Harris.

Other school-based health clinics are located at Bend High School, Madras High School, Redmond High School, Lynch Elementary in Redmond and Crook Kids in Prineville.

▶️ Oregon GOP senators facing $325-per-day fine if walkout continues

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
June 1, 2023

With the walkout by Oregon Republican senators in its fifth week, Senate President Rob Wagner announced Thursday he is going to start fining absent members.

Wagner said it will cost members $325 for every day they miss, starting next week. If a fine is levied for each weekday from Monday, June 5, through the end of the session, it would total $4,875.

Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, released a statement following the announcement, criticizing Wagner.

“Senate Republicans don’t feel compelled to entertain his political theater. In fact, we suggest President Wagner pay our fines since it is his behavior that galvanized our protest,” said Knopp.

>>> Have you checked out Central Oregon Daily News on YouTube? Click here to subscribe and share our videos.

Twelve Republicans and one independent senator have boycotted since May 3, preventing the chamber from two-thirds attendance required for a quorum. That means bills which are ready for a final vote are on hold.

Among Knopp’s demands has been the insistence that bill summaries be written at an eighth-grade level. He and other Republicans are citing a long forgotten 1979 “readability” law that a GOP Senate staffer discovered in the archives in April. Knopp has previously said that “every single bill” is unlawful due to the readability rule. He also said the Democratic majority has killed all 37 Republican bills.

Knopp says the boycott will end only on the last day of the legislative session, June 25, to pass “bipartisan” legislation and budget bills. They have also made clear there are Democratic measures they don’t want to vote on, such as a sweeping measure to guarantee abortion rights.

Wagner says Democratic priorities, including the bill on abortion rights, are not negotiable.

After GOP lawmakers boycotted the Oregon Legislature in 2019, 2020 and 2021, voters last November approved a ballot measure by an almost 70% margin that was supposed to stop walkouts. Lawmakers with 10 or more unexcused absences would be disqualified from being reelected in the next term, according to the measure’s title and summary.

But the text of the measure says disqualification applies to “the term following the election after the member’s current term is completed.” Republicans are taking that as meaning that boycotters who are up for reelection in 2024 could be candidates, since their current terms end in January 2025 — with the disqualification coming for the 2028 election.

The wording of the measure’s text — and not the more succinct title or summary — is now part of the state constitution.

A lawyer hired by a political action committee called “Oregon’s 13 Constitutional Defense Fund” — a reference to Oregon’s 12 Senate Republicans and Independent Sen. Brian Boquist — asked Acting Secretary of State Cheryl Myers on Tuesday to rule that Knopp and Boquist can run in the 2024 election, and serve terms starting in January 2025 if they win.

“It appears from the unambiguous text, that if they are to be disqualified from holding the office of senator, it would be for the term that begins in January of 2029,” attorney John DiLorenzo Jr. wrote in his request.

Secretary of State spokesperson Ben Morris said the department is seeking a legal opinion from the Oregon Department of Justice and will follow its advice. The Justice Department is currently working on the legal opinion, Roy Kaufmann, spokesperson for Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, said in an email Wednesday.

Republican senators are expected to file court challenges if the secretary of state’s elections division bars them from registering as candidates in September.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DCSO: Man with multiple nationwide warrants arrested in Sisters

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
June 1, 2023

A man with multiple nationwide felony warrants was arrested in Sisters Wednesday after a woman he was with, also with a warrant, reached out to a deputy. That’s according to the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO).

DCSO said Shawna Elizabeth Myers, 32, contacted a deputy in the Rays Food Place parking lot. Myers allegedly said she had traveled with the wanted man, 31-year-old Jamie Lee Denby, from Marion County.

Myers said she did not feel safe with Denby, the sheriff’s office said, and admitted that she also had an active warrant out on her.

>>> Have you checked out Central Oregon Daily News on YouTube? Click here to subscribe and share our videos.

She allegedly told deputies that Denby was armed with a machete and would likely fight back if police contacted him.

DCSO said Denby was found asleep in a vehicle in the nearly Chevron parking lot. Deputies, including an armored vehicle, pinned Denby’s vehicle in to make sure it couldn’t drive away. Businesses in the area were also told to pause operations during the event, the sheriff’s office said.

Denby was taken into custody without incident, DCSO said.

DCSO said Denby had three active nationwide felony warrants including:

Kidnapping
Coercion
Extortion
Assault 4th Degree
Unlawful Use of a Motor Vehicle
Menacing
Unlawful Use of an Electrical Stun Gun, Tear Gas, or Mace

Myers had a warrant for failure to appear for Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle.

Black Butte Police assisted in the arrest.

▶️ Police: Tip leads to Sunriver, Corvallis graffiti suspect arrest

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
June 1, 2023

A Sunriver man was arrested Wednesday, suspected by police in vandalism incidents in Sunriver and Corvallis.

The Sunriver Police Department claims that Jack Gunderson, 22, was contacted at his home and confessed to both incidents in which the words “Jesus loves you” was spraypainted. Police say he faces two felony counts of criminal mischief.

The Corvallis incident was May 8. The Sunriver incidents were five days later near Ponderosa Road, Fremont Crossing and the Sunriver Village.

Police say they were led to Gunderson following a tip that was received following a recent social media post by the police department that included surveillance photos.

OR Employment Dept. announces weekly benefit amounts for UI, Paid Leave Oregon

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
June 1, 2023

The following is a news release from Oregon Employment Department:

Salem, Ore. — Today, the Oregon Employment Department announced the 2023-24 minimum and maximum weekly benefit amounts for Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Paid Leave Oregon. Paid Leave Oregon is new and will begin paying benefits in September.

By law, the department calculates the minimum and maximum benefit amounts once a year. These calculations are based on Oregon’s State Average Weekly Wage and are effective from July 1 through June 30 of the following year. The State Average Weekly Wage increased from $1,224.82 to $1,269.69.

The minimum weekly benefit amount is the lowest amount the program will pay a claimant for each week they claim benefits, and the maximum benefit amount is the most the program will pay, regardless of income.

2023-24 Unemployment Insurance and Paid Leave Oregon weekly benefit amounts

Program	Minimum weekly benefit amount	Maximum weekly benefit amount
Unemployment Insurance	$190	$813
Paid Leave Oregon	$63.48	$1,523.63

Unemployment Insurance
Starting July 2, 2023, the minimum weekly benefit amount for new unemployment insurance claims will go from $183 to $190 per week, and the maximum weekly benefit amount will go from $783 to $813 per week. This increase only affects claims filed July 2, 2023, or later. People who file new unemployment insurance claims before July 2 will continue to receive the same benefit amount.

This is an increase of approximately 3.8%. The minimum weekly benefit amount is 15% of the State Average Weekly Wage, and the maximum is 64%. During the most recent quarter, 11.5% of recipients received the minimum weekly benefit amount, and 24.5% received the maximum.

For Unemployment Insurance, the weekly benefit amount is usually 1.25% of what a claimant earned during their “base period,” which is roughly the first 12 of the 15 months before the date they filed their claim.

Visit unemployment.oregon.gov to use OED’s UI benefits calculator.

Paid Leave Oregon

For Paid Leave Oregon, the minimum weekly benefit amount is 5% of the State Average Weekly Wage, and the maximum is 120%. When benefits start in September, the minimum weekly benefit amount will be $63.48, and the maximum will be $1,523.63.

Paid Leave Oregon calculates weekly benefit amounts based on how much the employee earns on average in a week and how much leave they take in a week, so the amount is different for every employee. Lower wage earners will generally receive more of their usual wages than higher wage earners.

Paidleave.oregon.gov has fact sheets and guidebooks on its resources page.

Multiple fire agencies attack suspected human-caused brush fire near Sisters

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
June 1, 2023

Multiple agencies were called in to put out a suspected human-caused brush fire near Sisters Wednesday afternoon, the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Rural Fire Protection District said.

The quarter-acre fire was approximately 400 feet off of the Cold Springs Cutoff Road.

Crews from Sisters-Camp Sherman, Black Butte, Cloverdale and the Oregon Department of Forestry moved in to knock down the fire.

The U.S. Forest Service is the investigation into the fire.

Sisters-Camp Sherman is reminding people that the vast majority of wildfires each year are caused by people and that they are preventable.

▶️ Missing Bend man found near Pilot Butte

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
May 31, 2023

UPDATE:

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office announced at 8:34 a.m. that Robert “Bob” Fravel had been found at about 1:50 a.m. near Pilot Butte, in Bend. Fravel was described as being in good health and spirits considering the length of time he was outdoors.

PREVIOUS STORY:

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) is asking anyone between the south end of Redmond to the north end of Bend to check their property and any surveillance cameras for signs of a man who has been missing since late Wednesday morning.

DCSO is trying to find Robert “Bob” Alan Fravel, a 75-year-old white male last seen in near his home in the area of Hunnell Road at 11:30 a.m Wednesday. The sheriff’s office says he has Alzheimer’s.

He is believed to be wearing blue jeans, hiking shoes, a long-sleeve shirt, and an unknown color baseball hat. Bob is 6 feet tall, thin to medium build with grey and white hair and clean-shaven.

DCSO said Fravel knows his name and has a friendly demeanor.

Search and Rescue volunteers and deputies have been searching for Bob throughout the Tumalo and North Bend vicinity.

Contact Deschutes County 911 if you have any information about Fravel’s whereabouts or have seen him. 541-693-6911 is the non-emergency dispatch number.

▶️ Freshman arrested after fires in 2 Sisters High school girl’s bathrooms

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
May 31, 2023

Fires started in two girl’s bathrooms at Sisters High School Wednesday morning, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said. A female freshman student is now facing charges including arson.

“It was self-started and we already have a person identified,” Superintendent Curt Scholl of the Sisters School District said.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office said school staff responded to a girl’s restroom and put out the fire, which was located in the trash receptacle, with a fire extinguisher.

“I made a joke about how once there’s going to be an actual fire and it’s just going to be — we’re just going to think it’s a drill,” sophomore Anthanasios Garrett said.

Shortly thereafter, a second fire was reported in a separate girl’s restroom, DCSO said. This second fire was active and creating a lot of black smoke due to the fuel source being a paper product and a plastic toilet paper dispenser.

“Sure enough there was smoke coming out of the trash can and that’s when someone ran to the office and got staff members who then pulled the alarm,” Addison Nothiger, one of the students who reported the fire said.

“Had some good smoke damage, particularly smoke in the commons and commons bathroom,” Scholl said.

Surveillance video helped identify the student, DCSO said. She was taken to Deschutes County Juvenile Detention on two counts of 1st degree arson, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct charges.

“It is a crime- arson in a school. So we’ll be following the protocol Deschutes County Sheriffs are on it right now,” Scholl said.

There were no injuries. Students were sent home.

▶️ Chance coming for you to score an old Mt. Bachelor Skyliner chair

by Central Oregon Daily News Sources
May 31, 2023

Mt. Bachelor is busy at work replacing the old Skyliner with a new six-seater lift.

So what is happening to the chairs from the old lift? Well, you may be able to get your hands on one.

A Mt. Bachelor spokesperson says the chairs have been distributed around the community.

Some will remain at the mountain as backups and some will go to staff. The others were sold for $500 per chair — there are still a few dozen chairs left.

If you’re interested, it’s a lottery process Mt. Bachelor expects to share details on that process soon.

>>> Have you checked out Central Oregon Daily News on YouTube? Click here to subscribe and share our videos.