OREGON
A8 — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2022
Early start to western wildfi re season likely
April precipitation expected to be
above normal in Northeastern Oregon
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
BOISE — Drought and
low snowpacks in the West
likely mean an early start to
wildfi re season, meteorolo-
gists at the National Inter-
agency Fire Center predict.
“Due to below-average,
and in some cases record-low,
snowpack from the Sierra
into the Oregon Cascades, we
are anticipating an early and
active start to fi re season,”
said Nick Nauslar, a fi re
meteorologist at the center in
Boise.
The risk of large wild-
land fi res will be above
normal in parts of Cen-
tral Oregon from April to
June. Nauslar said extreme
to exceptional drought, and
low snowfall and snowpack,
are factors.
The Fire Center’s Pre-
dictive Services unit said
in an April
1 report that
above-normal
potential for
large fi res
is expected
in Cen-
Nauslar
tral Oregon
through June before
expanding into Washington
and southwest Oregon in
July. Nearly normal poten-
tial is expected in the rest of
the Northwest into July.
March brought near-
normal temperatures to the
Northwest, and more con-
sistent rain and snow to
western Washington, parts
of eastern Washington, and
northern Oregon.
Drought continues in cen-
tral and southwest Oregon
and much of eastern Oregon,
where precipitation has
stayed below normal for
more than a year. April pre-
cipitation is expected to be
Bootleg Fire Incident Command/Contributed Photo, File
A DC-10 tanker drops retardant over the Bootleg Fire in southern
Oregon, Thursday, July 15, 2021.
above normal in western
Washington and northeast
Oregon, and below average
elsewhere in the region, the
report said.
Near-term risk in the
Great Basin is mixed, fi re
forecasters said. Major
long-term drought has
improved but remains
across much of the area.
Above-normal precipitation
in late fall and early winter
could have increased the
likelihood that the crop of
grasses and other fi ne fuels
got bigger from western
Nevada into southern Idaho.
But recent drier condi-
tions stunted some of the
grass growth, so shorter
grass overall will limit the
risk at lower elevations.
Forecasters said the
Great Basin fi re poten-
tial is expected to remain
normal through April and
increase in May and June.
Weak storms are likely to
move through in April and
drier, warmer conditions
are expected headed into
fi re season. Early snowmelt
likely will lead to a faster
start to fi re season in higher
terrain from May through
July.
Large-fi re risk in the
Northern Rockies should
remain normal through May.
In June, risk could be
above normal if spring
rains do not come and
temperatures are higher
than outlooks suggest, the
report said. The La Nina
weather pattern has helped
snow-water equivalents
stay near or above normal
for most of northern Idaho
and Montana west of the
Continental Divide.
Risk in Northern Cal-
ifornia is expected to
be normal in April, and
above normal in May in
San Francisco Bay, mid-
coast-Mendocino and Sac-
ramento Valley-foothill
areas. Above-normal risk
is forecast at most eleva-
tions in June and July.
2022
I
Northeast Oregon
Report: No spike in recidivism for prisoners
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — A prelim-
inary report released last
month by the Oregon Crim-
inal Justice Commission
found some people released
early from prison because
of the COVID-19 pandemic
were not more likely to
commit crimes.
Gov. Kate Brown com-
muted the sentences of
963 people during the
COVID-19 pandemic
between July 2020 and
October 2021. The majority
were considered medically
vulnerable or near the end
of their sentences.
The Criminal Justice
Commission, a nonpartisan
state agency, looked at the
fi rst 266 people granted a
release between July and
November of 2020.
The agency found 18%
were arrested within one
year of their commuta-
tion, 8% were convicted of
a new crime and 2% were
reincarcerated.
CJC executive director
Ken Sanchagrin said those
numbers are similar to fi g-
ures from 2019 involving
people granted release or
parole.
This chart comes from
a March 2022 report by
the Oregon Criminal Jus-
tice Commission. It com-
pares recidivism rates from
people who got out of prison
in 2019 with those who were
released in 2020 after their
sentence was commuted by
Gov. Kate Brown.
“It doesn’t appear that
being let out early for these
folks had any type of nega-
tive impact as far as higher
rates of recidivism that we
would normally expect,”
Sanchagrin told OPB.
Sanchagrin said his
agency will issue another
report sometime in the next
year.
The report found of the
commuted people who reof-
fended, 10 involved a crime
against another person.
“Of these 10 individuals,
the most common person
crime was menacing, fol-
lowed by recklessly endan-
gering another person,
assault in the fourth degree,
and robbery in the second
degree,” the report states.
“There was one arrest for
assaulting a public safety
offi cer and one arrest for
robbery in the fi rst degree.”
The report also states
one person who received
a commutation was later
convicted of and incar-
cerated for second degree
manslaughter.
Brown has faced criti-
cism, and a lawsuit, over
Oregon to pay $1.3M to home
care workers who received
late or partial payments
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
SALEM — Oregon will
pay a combined $1.3 mil-
lion in late fees to more
than 4,000 home care
workers who received late
or incomplete payments
over the last seven months
due to glitches in a state
software system.
Rebecca Sandoval,
vice president of Service
Employees International
Union Local 503, which
represents home care and
personal support workers,
said the union is aware of
more than 8,600 instances
over the last seven months
where Oregon failed to pro-
vide home care workers
employed by the state with
their full paycheck on time.
The glitches have
impacted 4,366 workers,
nearly a sixth of the state’s
home care workers, who
care for seniors with phys-
ical disabilities, according
to the state.
“It’s not acceptable,”
Sandoval said. “It’s quite
negligent in terms of ser-
vicing a workforce.”
Elisa Williams, a
spokesperson for Oregon’s
Department of Human
Services, said the state is
working on a fi x that will
allow hours to be entered
entirely electronically.
Williams said the state
hired an outside vendor to
implement the new system
in order to meet federal
law, which required the
state to use an electronic
visit verifi cation system to
approve hours. In light of
the issues with incorrect
payments, Williams said
the state has hired addi-
tional technical staff to
help home care workers,
reached out directly to
workers who are expe-
riencing problems with
the system and provided
access to computers where
workers can enter their
hours at agency offi ces
around the state.
The union fi led a griev-
ance against the state in
November.
The settlement between
the union and Oregon’s
Department of Human
Services requires the
state to pay providers who
received partial or late
payments since August
$150 for each incident
when they were incor-
rectly paid, in addition to
the pay they were owed
for their time worked. The
money will start going out
to workers in May. The
state agency also agreed to
pay late fees when home
care workers receive late
paychecks and partial pay-
ments going forward, the
union said.
The Oregon Home
Care Commission has also
agreed to investigate any
late pay complaints within
30 days, the union said.
the pandemic-related
commutations.
In January, two dis-
trict attorneys in Oregon
fi led a complaint, alleging
the governor went outside
the bounds of her exec-
utive powers to issue the
commutations.
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