News Stories Fri., Apr. 13, 2018

The 509-J School District Board hired a new principal for the Warm Springs K-8 Academy at its meeting on Monday. Greg Cole has 14 years of experience as an principal with the Salem-Keizer School District where he served as an elementary and a middle school principal.  He was also an assistant principal in Sweet Home and Woodburn schools.

The Oregon Department of Transportation will begin to replace and retrofit eight bridges on Highway 97. The project will replace the existing Spanish Hollow Creek Bridge, south of Biggs Junction, and the Trout Creek Bridge, 17 miles north of Madras, to new seismically resilient bridges. Additional work will be done to seismically retrofit six other bridges over Spanish Hollow Creek near Biggs junction. Crews will also be extending some acceleration lanes of US 97. ODOT says the $15 million dollar project is essential to assist with traffic mobility in the case of a major seismic event. Motorists can expect to see temporary signals at both Spanish Hollow & Trout Creek bridges which will reduce traffic down to one lane. Oregon State Police will be enforcing the work zone for the duration of the project, which is scheduled to be complete by fall 2019.

The Warm Springs K8 Academy has implemented a new reward program that students are excited about. Students can earn Eagle Bucks as a positive incentive that they can then use to shop in The Nest. It is a store set up between the commons and the hallway to the gym.  There is a schedule of when different grade levels can shop posted at The Nest.

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced the bipartisan Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which would legalize and clearly define hemp as an agricultural commodity and remove it from the list of controlled substances. The legislation will also give states the opportunity to become the primary regulators of hemp, allow hemp researchers to apply for competitive federal grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and make hemp farmers eligible to apply for crop insurance. Congressman James Comer (R-KY) will introduce the companion version in the House of Representatives.

A federal judge heard arguments from attorneys representing Klamath Basin tribes, irrigators and government agencies on Wednesday in a case that is challenging the need for dam water releases meant to protect threatened fish species on the Klamath River from deadly parasitic outbreaks like those that occurred in 2014 and 2015. The same judge that ordered two federal agencies to make the yearly dam water releases in 2017 — Judge William H. Orrick — also presided over Wednesday afternoon’s hearing at the U.S. District Court of Northern California. Yurok Tribe General Counsel Amy Cordalis told the Times-Standard after the hearing she is hesitant to be optimistic, but said she was encouraged that Orrick affirmed the best available science supported that dam releases work to prevent the spread of fish disease.