KWSO News for Thu., Jul. 7, 2022

In Warm Springs, Road Construction continues on the Highway 3 Pedestrian Project. They continue to lay down concrete for the sidewalk, that work takes place on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, and they will continue to be cut down to 1-lane of traffic for 4 days a week until the work is complete. There has been no given timeline at this moment, but continue to make plans to leave a little bit early if you are going this route as there are delays, but they usually last only a few minutes at this time.

People in 24 Oregon counties and 15 counties in Washington State should resume mask-wearing indoors in public and on public transportation, according to recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data from the CDC shows the counties are considered high risk for COVID-19 infection as of June 30. Included in those Oregon counties in Central Oregon are: Deschutes, Crook, Jefferson and Wasco. In Washington, the counties include many like Pierce county where the City of Tacoma lies, but doesn’t include King County which houses the City of Seattle. More than half of the Washington State Counties range from Central to Eastern Washington. In Warm Springs, Tribal Council met with the Warm Springs COVID Task force yesterday, Katie Russell talks about the recommendations. “Our community and the region actually is in high COVID transmission, the COVID team met and is recommending that we wear masks indoors now, so that would be anytime that you go inside one of the tribal buildings or if you’re indoors of somewhere that’s not your household, we are recommending that you wear a mask during this high transmission period.” Democratic candidate for Oregon governor Tina Kotek says she has tested positive for COVID-19. KOIN-TV reports that Kotek said she will be resting for a few days and she’s grateful to be vaccinated and boosted. Kotek posted photos to Twitter over the holiday weekend showing her campaigning, hiking in Silver Falls State Park and enjoying Portland Pickles baseball. If you have an at-home rapid COVID-19 test kit that expired, or is about to, don’t throw it away just yet.  The expiration dates for many tests have been extended. Some rapid test kits can be used as much as six months after the expiration date on the package.The Food and Drug Administration said that’s because the companies that make them provided data showing the tests are effective longer than originally thought.

The town of Madras could be getting a new brew pub to the downtown mix by fall of 2023. As reported by the Madras Pioneer, the owners of Initiative Brewing are planning to take their brewing operation from their Redmond location to Madras, where plans are to remodel what used to be the Jefferson County Public Health offices. Initiative opened its Redmond location in 2019 and the move to Madras would bring a commercial kitchen, a tasting room, indoor dining and a family friendly/pet friendly patio with fire pits. Chris Brumley co-owns Initiative Brewing with his partner Ryan Churchill and they expect to hire 47 people at the Madras location. They estimate the project cost at $1.55 Million and if everything comes together they hope to begin construction this fall.

Some weather experts say the recent flooding that devastated Yellowstone National Park underscores an urgent need to update how the government issues forecasts as extreme weather becomes more frequent. The National Weather Service had warned of rising rivers but failed to predict the calamitous June flooding that occurred in the park and neighboring areas of Montana. Weather experts say forecasting models based on historical records have become inadequate as climate change bakes the planet and massive rain events and heat waves become more common. No lives were lost in the Yellowstone floods but hundreds of homes were damaged and more than 10,000 people had to be evacuated.