KWSO News for 1/17/20

There are more than 57-hundred missing and murdered indigenous women across North America. As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, a new Oregon law has launched a series of statewide conversations on the issue. “State police and government officials are visiting tribal communities on reservations and in urban areas to discuss House Bill 2625. Signed into law last year, it directs police to find ways to improve investigations of missing and murdered native people. The bill’s sponsor, State Representative Tawna Sanchez, was at a recent event at the University of Oregon in Eugene. She says it’s important tribal communities get support. Tawna Sanchez: “We know every day when people go missing in urban areas or even in rural areas, there’s an all-out force to find them. There are people’s faces who show up on the news all the time, but that doesn’t happen in Indian Country. And we want that to change.” Sanchez says some tribes even lack jurisdiction to investigate crimes on tribal lands. The listening tour will inform a final report that’ll be submitted to the state legislature in September. [I’m Brian Bull reporting in Eugene.]” In Warm Springs, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Initiative meeting is scheduled for January 28^th at the Agency Longhouse, with a light dinner at 5:30 and meeting at 6pm.

The Central Oregon Women’s march is back for its 4^th consecutive year at Centennial Park in Redmond tomorrow starting at 10am. There will be activities and music performances after the march back at Centennial Park. Joanne Mina is a Volunteer coordinator with the LatinX community association and she talks about a little history of the March. “This will be the 4th women’s march, it actually got started back in 2017 the truth is that the women’s march is a white women’s movement that got started when trump took office. What a group of folks in the community have done this year is brought to the forefront the fact that many times feminist movements have left women of color behind. So for this year, it’s a core group of people of color that are leading these and we have a great support of allies in the community. But our intentions is to center the needs priorities, perspectives and values of black, indigenous, immigrant, latinx, queer and disabled women with the hopes that we bring these issues to the forefront. Because we believe that in order for all of us to have liberation, we need to center those impacted by injustice.”  Joanne is inviting any artists or vendors to come to centennial park to showcase their work and to support the march.

A county judge in Oregon has ordered the secretary of state to process two clean energy ballot initiatives that environmentalists want to bring before voters in November, after the state official had rejected them. Secretary of State Bev Clarno, a Republican, had earlier said the ballot initiatives violated a state requirement that legislative measures stick to one subject. But a Marion County judge said she was wrong. Backers of the initiatives said they will move full steam ahead with gathering signatures for the proposed measures after they undergo a required step with the attorney general.

In Sports: NFL Championship action takes place on Sunday to determine who’s going to represent each conference in the Superbowl. First up Sunday, the AFC Championship will see the surging Tennessee Titans riding on the legs of Running Back Derrick Henry in to Kansas City. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes led Kansas City last week to a 51-31 victory over the Texans after falling down 24-0. Kickoff is at 12pm. In the NFC, The Green Bay Packers are traveling in to San Francisco to avenge a regular season beating handed to them by the 49ers. Packers Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is looking to make his 2^nd Superbowl appearance as the 49ers are looking to make their 1^st Superbowl appearance since they were last led to the Superbowl by former Quarterback Colin Kaepernick 7 years ago. In Local Sports: The Madras High School Buff Boys and Lady Buffs basketball games against Valley Catholic have been canceled this evening.  The Warm Springs K-8 Girls Basketball tipped off yesterday at Sisters. The 7^th Grade girls won 31-10, leading scorers were Chamille Smith with 13 points and Onalesiah Johnson with 10. The 8^th Grade girls got the victory 43-33 led by Sasha Esquiro with 18 points and Talise Wapsheli with 15. The Girls team wants to thank Skyn Style for their new uniforms this season.