KWSO News for 1/14/20

Warm Springs has a new WIC coordinator, her name is Kathleen Boxx. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children or WIC provides federal grants to states for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk. You can Call the Health & Wellness Center or stop by for the WIC calendar.

Several Officers with the Madras Police Department, JC Sheriff’s Office, Oregon State SWAT and the Central Oregon Emergency Response Team served a search warrant shortly before 3pm yesterday and arrested a fugitive, who was arrested on attempted murder and other charges. Reported from KTVZ.com the combined raid was successful three months after a failed raid couldn’t locate Troy Minson Jr after the shooting of a Madras woman. In October 2019, police had responded to a reported gunshot victim at the St. Charles Madras emergency room, where a detective met with the woman, who had a gunshot wound to the right side of her chest. Anyone with information in the case is asked to contact madras Police Detective Brent Schulke at 541-475-2424.

The Oregon Cascades got a lot of snow this weekend and blizzard conditions led to road closures in some areas. Forecasters say snow will continue in the mountains this week. People heading to the mountains are advised to “know before you go”. Angela Beers-Seydel [sigh-dell] is with the Oregon Department of Transportation. “The best advice right now is slow down. Slow down. Give yourself lots of time. Give yourself lots of room between vehicles. Drive for conditions and expect that things may not be what you expect around that corner.” You can check road conditions at trip-check dot com or by calling 511.  The snow level is predicted to drop this week and the National Weather Service says the forecast is not definite. But, for now, they expect the northern part of the state to see more low-elevation snow than in the southern Willamette Valley.

In recent months California’s biggest electric utility has been taking the unprecedented step of shutting off power to millions. The move is meant to prevent power equipment from sparking catastrophic wildfires. Jefferson Public Radio’s Erik Neumann reports on a renewable energy microgrid that’s proving to be one solution to this ongoing problem. “The Blue Lake Rancheria Tribe lives just north of Eureka, California. Behind the tribe’s casino and hotel, Jana Ganion opens a chain-link fence. Inside, are more than 1,500 solar panels, slanted toward the noonday sun. Ganion: We’re up on a little platform that can oversee most of the array. Ganion helped build this solar microgrid as part of the tribe’s goal to have climate-resilient infrastructure and to be ready for earthquakes and tsunamis.  But then beginning in October, it became useful in a whole new way. The utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, shut off power to more than 30 counties in Central and Northern California on October 9th.  Ganion: We had probably 30-45-minute gas lines. People that were fueling up vehicles, but also their home generators. That continued basically for the duration of the 28-hour outage. As one of the only gas stations with power they gave diesel to United Indian Health Services to refrigerate their medications and to the Mad River Fish Hatchery to keep their fish alive. The tribe built the microgrid with help from the Schatz (shots) Energy Research Center at Humboldt State University.  Microgrids keep the electricity flowing to customers even after disconnecting from the overall power grid. The Blue Lake microgrid goes into “island mode” and a large Tesla battery system balances energy supply and demand. Last month PG&E announced it’s soliciting bids to build 20 new microgrids near utility substations that could be affected by future power shutoffs. They’re hoping to have them running by next fall, I’m Erik Neuman reporting”

In Sports: NBA action saw the Portland Trailblazers host the Charlotte Hornets and come away with the 115-112 victory behind the scoring of Damien Lillard with 30 points, CJ McCollum with 27 and Carmelo Anthony with 17. The Los Angeles Lakers hosted the Cleveland Cavaliers last night and ran away with the victory 128-99. LeBron James led all scorers with 31 points and 8 assists. The College Football Championship saw the Battle of the Tigers as #1 LSU faced off against #3 Clemson.  Clemson started out by jumping to a 17-7 lead early in the 2^nd quarter, but Heisman trophy winner Joe Burrow, brought his team back to take a 28-17 halftime lead. Clemson brought it within 3 points at the start of the 3^rd quarter, but LSU scored two Touchdown’s to end the scoring and getting the National Title with the 42-25 victory over the defending champs. Burrow ended the game with 5 Touchdown passes and 1 Touchdown run.