KWSO News for Thu., Aug. 18, 2022

Tribal officials say two people were shot as an armed man and police exchanged gunfire at an Oregon casino. The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation said Wednesday that police intercepted a man with a gun near the door of Wildhorse Casino and Resort after he tried to rob the casino in the small northeastern Oregon city of Pendleton. A bystander and alleged gunman were struck by gunfire during the shootout. Both were taken to a local hospital. Officials say the suspect was taken into custody and the site was secure. No further information was immediately available.

Five people brought a lawsuit against electric power company PacifiCorp this week, alleging the company caused the destructive McKinney Fire, which is still burning near the Oregon-California border. Jefferson Public Radio’s Jane Vaughan reports. “The lawsuit alleges that the circumstances surrounding the ignition of the fire were foreseeable and PacifiCorp “negligently, recklessly, and willfully” failed to properly maintain its equipment. The complaint was filed in Sacramento County Superior Court by San Diego law firm Singleton Schreiber. Gerald Singleton, the firm’s managing partner, says the firm has evidence that an event occurred with PacifiCorp’s equipment in the approximate time and location that the fire began. Plaintiffs are seeking damages for loss of property, wages, medical expenses, and personal suffering. According to the Klamath National Forest, the cause of the McKinney Fire is still under investigation. Tom Gauntt, a spokesman for PacifiCorp, declined to discuss the ongoing litigation. I’m Jane Vaughan reporting.”

The U.S. Department of Education has implemented temporary changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program rules that make it easier for federal student loan borrowers to receive credit for past periods of repayment that would otherwise not qualify for forgiveness. Millions of government and private, non-profit employees have federal student loans and may now be eligible for loan forgiveness or additional credit toward forgiveness under these time-limited PSLF changes. Help is needed to spread the word about PSLF and ensure all who are eligible have access to this loan forgiveness and know what they need to do to apply. In order to achieve this, a White House Public Service Loan Forgiveness Day of Action for Federal/State/Local/Tribal Governments’ Employees is being hosted on August 24^th. To participate, you are asked to not only promote the day of action but to encourage participation by, Amplifying the PSLF program on social media, sharing the website at pslf.gov with your networks send a personal email to your networks. The PSLF website includes a simple 3-Step Eligibility Tool that borrowers can use to determine eligibility, a one-page explainer document for borrowers, and social media graphics that you can use.

Oregon’s unemployment rate is low, and job numbers have largely recovered since the start of the pandemic. But, as OPB’s Meerah Powell reports, state figures show local schools are still struggling. “The Oregon Employment Department says the state has regained 94 percent of the jobs lost at the beginning of the pandemic. But, that recovery isn’t the same for every sector. Private employers have regained 99 percent of lost jobs, but the government sector has only regained 49 percent. Within that sector, local schools have taken a specific hit. State Employment Economist Gail Krumenauer says OED only has anecdotal information on which job types are most affected.  “From last real check-in I had at the beginning of the school year, there was difficulty getting several positions but that bus drives was certainly a shortage and instructional assistants was difficult as well.” According to OED, there were about 11-thousand fewer jobs in local education this July compared to July of last year, about a 10 percent drop. Meerah Powell, OPB.”