BEAVERS, DUCKS BOTH GET BLOWOUT WINS: PAGE A5
TUESDAY
In SPORTS, A6
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
September 21, 2021
Local • Home & Living • Sports
IN THIS EDITION:
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Marty
Lien of Baker City.
Local, A3
PORTLAND — The
Wallowa-Whitman National
Forest will soon have a new
leader. Shaun McKinney
will take over as supervi-
sor for the 2.4-million-acre
Wallowa-Whitman, which is
based in Baker City.
Glenn Casamassa, Pacifi c
Northwest Regional Forester
for the U.S. Forest Service,
announced Monday, Sept.
20 that McKinney will start
his new job in late October.
BRIEFING
Baker City seeking
candidates for
vacancy on Council
$1.50
ODFW kills 3 more Lookout Mountain wolves
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife employees,
fi ring from a helicopter, shot
and killed three wolves from
the Lookout Mountain pack in
eastern Baker County Friday
morning, Sept. 17, including
the pack’s breeding male.
In addition to the breed-
ing male, ODFW employees
killed a yearling male, born
in the spring of 2020, and
a fi ve-month-old pup from
the pack’s spring 2021 litter
of seven.
The wolves were killed the
day after ODFW announced
that the agency intended to
kill up to four wolves from the
pack, which has killed at least
six head of cattle, and injured
two others, since mid July.
According to a press re-
lease from ODFW, agency em-
ployees saw six wolves during
the Friday helicopter fl ight.
The three wolves that were
killed were near a dead calf,
and on private land. ODFW
biologists are investigating
to determine whether wolves
killed the calf. “Initial indica-
tions point to another depreda-
tion” by wolves, according to
the press release.
ODFW announced on
Thursday, Sept. 16 that agency
workers intended to kill up to
four wolves from pack, includ-
ing the breeding male. ODFW
is not targeting the pack’s
breeding female. In addition,
four ranchers who have lost
cattle to the pack are autho-
rized to kill up to two other
wolves total.
ODFW estimates the pack
consisted of nine wolves, a
count prior to Friday’s killing
of three wolves.
ODFW employees killed
two other pups from the 2021
litter on Aug. 1.
By targeting the breeding
A taste of fall
as summer wanes
Baker City continues to
accept applications from
people interested in fi lling
a vacancy on the seven-
member City Council. To
be eligible, you must be a
registered voter who has
lived within the city limits
for at least 12 months.
Applications are available
on the city’s website, www.
bakercity.com. The person
appointed would serve the
remainder of the term for
Lynette Perry, who resigned
in August due to health
issues. Her term continues
through the end of 2022.
Cooking, warming
fi res allowed in
city, but not debris
or burn barrels
Baker City continues to
prohibit debris burning and
burn barrels, but outdoor
cooking and warming fi res
are allowed.
WEATHER
Today
74 / 35
Sunny
Wednesday
75 / 38
Weiser
handles
Bulldogs
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
A little late summer snow still clung to the Wallowa Mountains on Monday morning, Sept. 20 in this view
from Baker City that takes in the Baker Tower, at right, and Baker City Hall, left.
The high temperature at the Baker
City Airport on Sunday, Sept. 19 was
58 degrees. It was the coolest day at
The clouds parted only briefl y dur-
the airport in almost four months. The
ing an autumnal weekend in Baker
last time the high temperature was
County, but they revealed a sight not
lower was May 22, when it topped out
seen on the peaks of the Elkhorn and
at 53 degrees.
Wallowa mountains since spring.
The average high temperature for
New snow.
Sept. 19 is 72 degrees.
It was just a dusting, and on the
On Friday morning, Sept. 17, the
Elkhorns, at least, the sight was about
as ephemeral as the retreat of the cloak temperature dipped to 25 at the air-
port, the chilliest since April 21, when
of clouds.
But the view confi rmed, along with the low was 20.
Rain — and snow at the highest
the chilly temperatures and wide-
elevations — arrived Saturday morn-
spread rain, that summer is nearly
ing along with a cold front that caused
over.
temperatures to tumble. And possibly
The season’s fi nal weekend was a
other things tumbled about, propelled
preview of fall.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
by the gusty northwest wind.
The heaviest precipitation was
mainly confi ned to the mountains.
The Baker City Airport recorded
0.18 of an inch of rain on Saturday,
and 0.01 on Sunday.
As is typical when one season gives
way to the next, the weather will con-
tinue to fl uctuate.
The National Weather Service is
forecasting summer-like conditions
for the season’s fi nal two days and
continuing into the fi rst weekend of
autumn.
The forecast calls for sunny and dry
weather, with temperatures rising into
the low 80s for late in the week and
into the weekend.
male, ODFW hopes to still
allow the breeding female to
raise any remaining juveniles.
Reducing the number of
juveniles the breeding female
will need to feed increases
the likelihood that some will
survive, according to a press
release from the agency.
The group Defenders of
Wildlife criticized ODFW’s
decision to kill the wolves.
See, Wolves/Page A3
September
tops for
COVID cases
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
September has surpassed
August as the month with
the most COVID-19 cases
in Baker
County.
The 16
new cases
reported on
Friday, Sept.
17 pushed the
monthly total
Nancy
to 309.
Staten
There
were 300 cases during Au-
gust.
The previous monthly
record was 196 cases in De-
cember 2020.
Ten more cases were
reported during the weekend
— eight on Saturday, two on
Sunday — bringing Septem-
ber’s total, through the 19th,
to 319.
The weekend total of 10
cases was the fewest in a two-
day period since late August,
but Nancy Staten, director of
the Baker County Health De-
partment, is not convinced the
county’s record-setting rise in
infections is dissipating.
“I wish that we could see a
downward trend,” Staten said.
She noted that the some-
what lower weekend case
totals might refl ect a lag in
reporting rather than an
actual drop.
Case numbers generally
have been lower on weekends
recently, Staten pointed out.
See, COVID/Page A3
Mostly cloudy
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
Baker man gets prison for COVID aid fraud
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A 32-year-old Baker City
man who pleaded guilty in
June 2021 to receiving a
$145,200 federal COVID-19
relief loan on behalf of a
fi ctitious company and then
using the money for personal
purposes, including buying a
$49,000 car, was sentenced to
10 months in federal prison
on Thursday, Sept. 16.
Jeremy Michael Clawson
pleaded guilty on June 8 to
one count of theft of public
money.
As part of the plea agree-
ment, Clawson also agreed to
pay $125,200 in restitution to
the U.S. Treasury.
Prosecutors and Claw-
son’s attorney stipulated a
two-year prison term, but
they recommended that U.S.
District Court Chief Judge
Marco A. Hernandez reduce
Clawson’s federal sentence to
TODAY
Issue 57, 14 pages
10 months because he is serv-
ing a 19-month sentence at
the Snake River Correctional
Institution in Ontario.
The state prison sentence
came after Clawson pleaded
guilty on Sept. 29, 2020, in
Baker County Circuit Court
to attempting to elude a police
offi cer and driving under the
infl uence of intoxicants on
Aug. 21, 2020. Baker City
Police offi cer Justin Prevo ar-
rested Clawson at 11:45 p.m.
on Aug. 21, 2020, at the inter-
section of Second Street and
Auburn Avenue, according to
court records.
Clawson, who was driving
the 2016 Dodge Challenger he
bought with part of the fed-
eral COVID-19 loan, failed to
stop and drove south, running
through two stop signs.
The case was investigated
by the U.S. Secret Service in
cooperation with the Small
Business Administration
Calendar ....................A2
Classified ............. B4-B6
Comics ....................... B7
Offi ce of Inspector General
and Baker City Police Depart-
ment. Clawson was pros-
ecuted by Ryan W. Bounds,
assistant U.S. Attorney for the
District of Oregon.
“This case shows the
American people that their
law enforcement and At-
torney’s Offi ce are taking
CARES Act fraud seriously,”
Justin Bourne, resident agent
in charge of the Secret Service
Portland Resident Offi ce, said
in a press release. “This inves-
tigation is a prime example of
the Secret Service’s inves-
tigative mission; to protect
the United States fi nancial
infrastructure. This case illus-
trates the strong partnership
between the Secret Service,
U.S. Small Business Admin-
istration Offi ce of Inspector
General, the Baker City Police
Department and the U.S. At-
torney’s Offi ce.”
Clawson’s arrest in Baker
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B5 & B6
Dear Abby ................. B8
City happened 10 days after
he deposited $145,200 from a
federal loan into an account at
Umpqua Bank that Clawson
and his girlfriend had opened.
Clawson received the Eco-
nomic Injury Disaster Loan
through the Small Business
Administration (SBA), accord-
ing to U.S. Attorney Billy J.
Williams.
That was one of the fi nan-
cial aid programs included in
the CARES Act that Congress
passed in late March 2020.
According to court docu-
ments, shortly after deposit-
ing the $145,200, Clawson
made multiple large cash
withdrawals at the drive-thru
window of the Umpqua Bank
branch in Baker City.
On Aug. 17, 2020, he
received a $49,905 cashier’s
check from the bank to buy
the Dodge Challenger.
Umpqua Bank
investigators noted the
Home ....................B1-B3
Horoscope ........B5 & B6
Letters ........................A4
Lottery Results ..........A2
News of Record ........A3
Obituaries ..................A2
THURSDAY — GO! MAGAZINE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
unusual activity on Clawson’s
account and reported it to
the SBA.
Federal agents seized the
Dodge Challenger and ap-
proximately $50,000 in cash
derived from the fraudulent
EIDL pursuant to seizure
warrants issued by the federal
court and voluntary abandon-
ment of funds in third parties’
possession.
SBA loan documents
showed that the loan was
made to benefi t Halperin
Manufacturing Company in
San Diego, California. Though
there is no record of any such
company, the loan application
listed the company’s owner
and claimed it employed 350
people. Investigators contacted
the person listed as the owner,
but that person denied owning
or being affi liated with any
such company.
See, Fraud/Page A3
Opinion ......................A4
Sports .............. A5 & A6
Weather ..................... B8