KWSO News for 10/16/19

The 10^th Biennial Oregon Summit is coming up this weekend, starting on Friday Oct 18^th and continuing through Sunday the 20^th. Kansas Congresswoman Sharice Davids, a member of the Ho-Chunk people as well as one of the first of two Native American women elected to Congress last election cycle, will be the keynote speaker. The event will be taking place at the Sunriver Resort near Bend.

A murder trial in Redmond is winding down this week as the co-defendant took the stand in her defense on Tuesday.  Sacora Horn-Garcia and her Husband Estevan Garcia have been accused of intentionally starving their 5-year old daughter to death. Horn-Garcia and her husband, face murder and manslaughter charges in the death that happened a few days before Christmas 2016. KTVZ.com reports that 5 year old Maliyha Garcia weighed 24 pounds at her time of death. Withholding food from the child was the mother’s way of punishment and she testified that that was the only way she could get the girl to listen. During his time on the stand, Garcia placed most of the blame on his wife, saying he assumed Maliyha was being fed while he was working. The several week trial is expected to move to closing arguments and jury deliberations in coming days.

Oregon’s ban on flavored vaping has already shown its effect on local businesses. KTVZ.com reports that High Mountain Mist in Bend has already made adjustments due to the ban. Steve Johnson, the Operations Manager of High Mountain Mist, stated that Vaping had helped him quit smoking.

Johnson told NewsChannel 21 that in the six years the shop has been in business, they’ve never had a reported issue or sickness – something they’d be required by law to report to the FDA.

Crook County high school has recently received a $200k donation from Social Media Giant, Facebook, for new equipment and programming. The Bend Bulletin reported that the donation will be divided among the high school’s seven career and technical programs. According to William Marks, a community development Manager for Facebook, they have donated more that $700k in funding to Crook County’s schools since 2011. Marks said much of the donation went toward new computers for computer science and graphic design courses but FB also bought something for each of Crook County High’s CTE programs.