KWSO News for Tue., Mar. 15, 2022

In Warm Springs, the state protocols for the WS K-8 Academy will be followed when it comes to the lifting of the mask mandate. Reports from the 509-J board say there were concerns with lifting the mask mandate and for now they are moving forward with the State protocols and are recommending masks but not requiring them. They will make changes as needed based on direction from the Warm Springs Tribal Council. For anyone exposed to COVID-19 or with symptoms – you can pick up a home test kit during the work day at Warm Springs Emergency Management. Call 541-647-9001 when you arrive and they will bring your test kit out. Weekends and evenings you can get a home test kit at Fire & Safety on campus and at the fire hall in Simnasho. Don’t forget, you can also order 4 free home test kits online at USPS.com/testkits. If you have any COVID-19 questions or concerns, you can call the COVID-19 Nurse Hotline at 541-553-5512.

The Elections for the 29^th Tribal council are coming up on Wednesday March 30^th and will take place at the Warm Springs Community Center Social hall from 8am-8pm. Absentee Ballot boxes will be set up at the Simnasho longhouse and the Seekseequa Fire Hall. Off reservation Tribal members can mail in their absentee ballot. In the Agency District there are 18 candidates looking to fill 3 positions, there are 6 candidates in the Simnasho district trying to fill 3 positions and in the Seekseequa district there are 6 candidates for the 2 positions there. You can check out the Warm Springs Program everyday as candidates who have come in for an interview at KWSO are on a continuous rotation until Monday March 28^th.

A La Pine man is suing St. Charles Health System in Bend for $43.5 million after complications from brain surgery left him paralyzed. The Bulletin reports Jackie Dale Yeley filed the lawsuit Thursday in Deschutes County Circuit Court, through his attorneys with the Barton Law Group. The lawsuit alleges medical malpractice and also names Bend-based surgery provider Northwest Brain and Spine. St. Charles was served with the lawsuit on Friday, according to spokeswoman Lisa Goodman. Goodman said they feel compassion for Yeley and his family but believe St. Charles caregivers provided excellent care, and are confident that any factfinder will agree.

Fish researchers worldwide now have an inexpensive and effective way to study fish passage in dams. That’s because Northwest researchers are releasing reams of data to broaden the understanding of fish behavior at dams. Correspondent Courtney Flatt has more. “Researchers use tiny devices, smaller than a couple grains of rice, to gather this data. The data track juvenile chinook salmon around Northwest dams. The small tags send out pings every three to five seconds, which allow researchers to see how fish move downstream. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are releasing for free more than five million raw data points from tagged salmon. Jayson Martinez is a mechanical engineer at the lab. He says he hopes other researchers can take the data and go beyond the research in the Northwest. Martinez: “If somebody were to try and recreate this dataset on their own in order to test different hypotheses they might have. It would be very expensive and difficult to pull off.” Next, researchers plan to study the health of tagged fish, as well as their location.”