KWSO News for Mon., May 31, 2021

On Friday the Warm Springs community COVID-19 Update reported 8 active cases of COVID-19 and 12 close contacts receiving daily monitoring.  There will be no testing today with the Health & Wellness Center closed for Memorial Day.  The next COVID-19 Community Report will be out tomorrow morning.

Oregon will soon raffle off nearly two million dollars in cash prizes. The lottery is meant to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates. And in Central Oregon, Jefferson county’s leadership wants to sweeten the deal. OPB’s Emily Cureton reports that Jefferson County Commissioners want to give even more cash prizes to local residents– of whom 60 percent remain unvaccinated.  The contest automatically enters all Oregonians who get at least one dose of a vaccine by June 27th. As it stands, one person from each of Oregon’s 36 counties will win ten thousand dollars each, and one winner statewide takes home a one million dollar grand prize.  Jefferson County commissioners approved diverting a chunk of local CARES Act Funding back to the state. They want that money to create 11 additional local prizes. County Commissioner Kelly Simmelink said the plan still needs approval from state regulators.   In May, Governor Kate Brown tied rules on economic reopening to vaccination rates.

A heat wave is coming for Oregon this week.  OPB’s Bradley Parks reports that high temperatures combined with dry conditions are raising fire danger across the state.   Forecasters expect temperatures to climb early in the week before reaching their peak around Tuesday or Wednesday.  That will mean highs in the low- to mid-90s across most of Oregon and Southwest Washington, while Southern Oregon will approach triple digits.  Miles Bliss with the National Weather Service in Medford says the region usually doesn’t get that hot until early July. “So while it won’t be the earliest, it will be sooner than normal.”  Emergency managers are reminding Oregonians to check weather forecasts, fire restrictions and road conditions before traveling somewhere to beat the heat.  In addition, people should keep kids and pets out of hot cars, drink plenty of water and find shade whenever possible to keep cool.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked Sunday that flags at all federal buildings be flown at half-staff to honor more than 200 children whose remains have been found buried at what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school — one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.  From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their Native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.  The Kamloops school operated between 1890 and 1969, when the federal government took over operations from the Catholic Church and operated it as a day school until it closed in 1978.. The National Truth and Reconciliation Commission has records of at least 51 children dying at the school between 1915 and 1963. The remains of 215 children have been found buried on the site of the former  school confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar.