KWSO News for 1/20/20

The 2020 Central Oregon’s Women’s March took place this past Saturday at Centennial Park in Redmond. It was the 4^th Annual march and Local resident Katherine Quaid spoke before the march  “Today I am marching alongside the women who raised me. My mother, my auntie and cousin and sister. We come from a family of strong women, Women who inspire me to take action to address the inequalities that plague our societies, to resist the systems that attempt to colonize and destroy us. To flourish and bring joy to a world on fire. I come to this place as a climate organizer, for me I am called to this work for a just world that acknowledges the rights and sovereignty of indigenous communities and seeks to build a future no longer dependent on the colonial structures of capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacy. I do this work for all living beings. For the berries that grow in our mountains, for the salmon that swim up the river, for the elk beyond the prairie, for the roots that grow across the plateau. Climate change is taking this away, it’s torching our lands, and displacing communities world wide.” Roughly 200 participants were there for the march, which was moved to Redmond from Bend to include more women of color.

In a split decision, a 3-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says a youth led lawsuit over climate change should not go to trial. KLCC’s Rachael McDonald has more. “Juliana v United States claims the government has long known about the effects of climate change and that it is human caused. The lawsuit asks the courts to order the government to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry and make a plan to reverse the effects of climate change. In its decision, the court agrees with the premise of the case. But says it is beyond the power of the courts to order or implement the plaintiffs’ requests. It says the young people should take their case to the political branches or the electorate. An attorney for the 21 young plaintiffs says they will ask the full court to review the panels’ ruling. I’m Rachael McDonald in Eugene.”

The cities of Madras and Prineville were recently awarded with Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for upgrades to public facilities and housing improvements for people with low to moderate incomes.  According to The Bulletin, Madras was awarded just over $470 thousand in CDBG funding to start designing a more efficient water system. In 2015, the city updated its water master plan and discovered the system needed about $5 Million in upgrades. The CDBG grant will go toward designing every upgrade outlined in the master plan and once in place, the city will pursue more grant funding to complete the projects.  In Prineville, they plan to use the $1.5 Million to completely renovate Prineville Soroptimists Senior Center, which has seen severe deterioration and hasn’t been upgraded since 2004.

The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe is offering a five-thousand dollar reward to help catch whoever looted an archeological site in the North Cascades. KUOW’s John Ryan reports. “National Park police are investigating the illegal excavation of an ancient mountain-goat hunting camp. They discovered someone had dug up part of the site outside the town of Newhalem last summer. The park service says the dig caused “irretrievable damage.” Scott Schuyler is with the Upper Skagit tribe. Schuyler: “Whatever artifacts were taken probably didn’t have a lot of monetary value to folks. But to the tribe, they’re priceless and irreplaceable because they’re in an essence, they’re our culture.” The site was used for at least fifteen-hundred years. Schuyler: “It’s an overhanging cliff, and my ancestors used to process the game or fish that they got from Newhalem area right under there and cook.” Today, there’s a trail to the site and a platform with interpretive signage. Schuyler says the tribe wants people to know about its rich history, as long as they respect it. [Archeologists have identified more than 160 pre-contact archeological sites in the upper Skagit valley, going back at least 10,000 years.] I’m John Ryan, reporting.”