KWSO News for Mon., Oct. 25, 2021

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Election Day is next Tuesday November 2^nd.  Jefferson County voters will decide two items on their ballots.  There is a 509J Bond measure that would fund improvements at all 509J schools AND there is a Jefferson County Five Year Jail Operations Levy. Jefferson County Sheriff Marc Heckathorn talks about the Jail Levy. “So Our proposed Jail Levy, if passed, What is it going to do? The Levy is our primary source of revenue, so in the next 5 years, the proposed Jail Levy is going to account for 77% of our operating fund. That means that I’ve only got 23% revenue to run a jail if this operations Levy was to fail for example. That would greatly reduce the ability and effectiveness of our county jail if I only have 23% of my funding to actually operate the jail. I do want to let people know that the new levy at the new rate, replaces a levy that’s going to expire. So we’re not double dipping, there’s not a part of one levy on one year and another levy on the next. Future renewals or increases to the levy will not occur without voter approval. I think that’s important for folks to know is that the very first levy was passed in 2000 after the new jail was constructed. And that thing has increased 5 times since 2020, we’ve done levies at 5 years and done levies at 3 years.” On this week’s Warm Springs Program you can learn about the 509J Bond measure. Oregon Mail in Ballots need to be at the County Clerk’s office or in an official ballot drop box by 8pm on November 2^nd.   Drop Boxes are located in Warm Springs on campus across the street from the post office and also at Three Warriors Market in Simnasho.  There are also drop boxes at Culver City Hall, Metolius City Hall, the Crooked River Ranch Admin Area and the Jefferson County Clerk’s office at 66 SW D Street in Madras.

Conflicts over water are as old as history itself, but the massive Google data centers on the edge of a small Oregon town represent an emerging 21st century concern. Now a critical part of modern computing, data centers help people stream movies on Netflix, conduct transactions on PayPal, post updates on Facebook, store trillions of photos and more. But a single facility can also churn through millions of gallons of water each day to keep hot-running equipment cool. Now, Google wants to build at least two more data centers in The Dalles. But some residents are uneasy, worried there won’t be enough water for everyone.

A Trump era change to the Clean Water Act which restricted state and tribal input on large water projects has been overturned. JPR’s Sophia Prince reports. “In 2019, the Trump administration gave sole control of large water projects to the federal government. Yesterday, a federal court in California struck down that rule. Now, states and tribes can once again have input on projects such as fuel pipelines, hydropower and industrial plants. The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought against the Environmental Protection Agency. Sangye Ince-Johannsen (SAN-jay INCE-Joe-HAN-sun) is an attorney at the Eugene-based Western Environmental Law Center, which brought the lawsuit. He says that reversing the Trump-era changes means that local authorities will have much more say in a range of projects.  Cut1- A major application for section 401 is to hydropower, so relicensing of dams that cut off native fish runs. Also, you know just things like development of wetlands. If a property development company is looking to fill and develop wetlands they would need a permit for that, that permitting process would also be subject to section 401. In Oregon, this means that hydropower projects, in particular, will undergo a much fuller environmental review before being able to move forward. Sophia Prince, JPR News.”

A Bend police officer is facing criminal charges after being accused of slamming a man’s head into the ground during an attempted arrest. The Bulletin reports Bend Police Officer Kevin Uballez was charged Friday with fourth degree assault and harassment. Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel said in a news conference Friday that two of his colleagues reported Uballez’s alleged conduct to supervisors. Uballez is a police dog handler hired by the department in 2014. The alleged excessive force incident happened around 1 a.m. June 6 near Sunset View Park. It wasn’t immediately known if Uballez has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.

In Sports: Local Sports on Friday had the Madras White Buffalo football host the Cowboys of Crook County in the 4A Special District 2. The White Buffaloes came away with the victory on Homecoming night 21-12. The White Buffaloes are up next on the road as they travel to Gladstone this Friday, who the Cowboys fell to 21-15.

In Major League Baseball: The world series is set to begin tomorrow in Houston as the Astros will take on Atlanta for the right to be named the best team in Baseball. Atlanta overcame a tall task in defeating the defending world champion LA Dodgers in 6 games as the Astros took out the Red Sox to advance to the World Series. The Astros are the favorite to win it all, but Atlanta will have something to say about that as this is the first world series they’ve been in in more than 20 years.