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A2 THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021 The Bulletin How to reach us LOCAL, STATE & REGION DESCHUTES COUNTY CIRCULATION Didn’t receive your paper? Start or stop subscription? 541-385-5800 COVID-19 data for Monday, Jan. 25: Deschutes County cases: 5,212 (21 new cases) Deschutes County deaths: 40 (zero new deaths) 6 a.m.-noon Tuesday-Friday 7 a.m.-noon Saturday-Sunday and holidays Jefferson County cases: 1,738 (zero new cases) Jefferson County deaths: 25 (zero new deaths) Oregon cases: 138,587 (435 new cases) Oregon deaths: 1,882 (2 new deaths) GENERAL INFORMATION LOCAL VACCINATIONS 14,799 Number of people vaccinated in Deschutes County 108 new cases 90 new cases 110 (Nov. 27) 100 90 80 70 47 new cases 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 50 (Nov. 14) 7-day average 28 new cases (July 16) 40 31 new cases (Oct. 31) 30 16 new cases (Sept. 19) 9 new cases 20 (May 20) 1st case 120 (Jan. 1) 60 541-382-1811 ONLINE 130 (Dec. 4) What is COVID-19? It’s an infection caused by a new coronavirus. Symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath. This virus can be fatal. 7 ways to help limit its spread: 1. Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds. 2. Avoid touching your face. 3. Avoid close contact with sick people. 4. Stay home. 5. In public, stay 6 feet from others and wear a mask. 6. Cough into your elbow. 7. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces. COVID-19 patients hospitalized at St. Charles Bend on Monday: 24 (1 in ICU) www.bendbulletin.com BULLETIN GRAPHIC 129 new cases Crook County cases: 662 (1 new case) Crook County deaths: 13 (zero new deaths) PHONE HOURS SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY, DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES New COVID-19 cases per day 10 (March 11) EMAIL bulletin@bendbulletin.com March April May June July August September October November December January AFTER HOURS Newsroom ................................541-383-0348 Circulation ................................541-385-5800 COVID-19 vaccines NEWSROOM EMAIL Business ........business@bendbulletin.com City Desk .............news@bendbulletin.com Features.................................................................. communitylife@bendbulletin.com Sports ................. sports@bendbulletin.com NEWSROOM FAX 541-385-5804 OUR ADDRESS Street .............. 320 SW Upper Terrace Drive Suite 200 Bend, OR 97702 Mailing ........... P.O. Box 6020 Bend, OR 97708 B ADMINISTRATION Publisher Heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341 Editor Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166 DEPARTMENT HEADS Advertising Steve Rosen ................................541-383-0370 Circulation/Operations Vitto Kleinschmidt ...................541-617-7830 Finance Anthony Georger ....................541-383-0324 Human Resources ................541-383-0340 TALK TO AN EDITOR City Julie Johnson ...................541-383-0367 Business, Features, GO! Magazine Jody Lawrence-Turner ............541-383-0308 Editorials Richard Coe ...........541-383-0353 News Tim Doran .......................541-383-0360 Photos .........................................541-383-0366 Sports ..........................................541-383-0359 Shots now available for area residents 75 and up Bulletin staff report R esidents of Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties age 75 and older can now make appointments to re- ceive their COVID-19 vaccinations at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center, starting Tuesday. Health officials announced the surprise availability Monday evening. According to state vaccine eligibility guidelines, indi- viduals in this group were expected to be eligible for vaccines starting Feb. 14. People in vaccine phases 1A and 1B — Group 1, can now schedule an appoint- ment at www.stcharleshealthcare.org or by calling 541-699-5020. Expect to leave a message and receive a call back, health officials said. “The community vaccination clinic at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Cen- ter is incredibly successful,” said Dr. Jeff Absalon, St. Charles’ chief physician ex- ecutive, in a statement Monday night. “Since Wednesday, St. Charles and De- Feds reassess Klamath water obligations TALK TO A REPORTER Bend/Deschutes Government Brenna Visser .............................541-633-2160 Business Suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117 Calendar .....................................541-383-0304 Crook County ..........................541-617-7829 Deschutes County ................541-617-7818 Education Jackson Hogan ...........................541-617-7854 Fine Arts/Features David Jasper .................................541-383-0349 General Assignment Kyle Spurr ...................................541-617-7820 Health Suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117 Jefferson County ..................541-617-7829 La Pine ........................................541-383-0367 Music Brian McElhiney .......................541-617-7814 Public Lands/Environment Michael Kohn ............................541-617-7818 Public Safety Garrett Andrews ......................541-383-0325 Redmond Jackson Hogan ...........................541-617-7854 Salem/State Government .. 541-617-7829 Sisters .........................................541-383-0367 Sunriver .....................................541-383-0367 REDMOND BUREAU Mailing address ..................P.O. Box 6020 Bend, OR 97708 Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829 CORRECTIONS The Bulletin’s primary concern is that all stories are accurate. If you know of an error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367. TO SUBSCRIBE Call us ......................541-385-5800 • Home delivery and E-Edition ..........................$7 per week • By mail .................................$9.50 per week • E-Edition only ...................$4.50 per week To sign up for our e-Editions, visit www.bendbulletin.com to register. TO PLACE AN AD Classified ......................................541-385-5809 Advertising fax ..........................541-385-5802 Other information ....................541-382-1811 OBITUARIES No death notices or obituaries are published Mondays. When submitting, please include your name, address and contact number. 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They may not be reproduced without explicit prior approval. ý Lottery results can now be found on the second page of Sports. schutes County have vaccinated 4,600 individuals in 1A and 1B — Group1 Phases. We’ve been able to move through these two groups so quickly that we are able to expand eligibility to residents 75 and older ahead of the state’s vaccination schedule.” Between Tuesday and Saturday this week, St. Charles and Deschutes County plan to administer about 10,000 more doses, with the help of the Oregon Na- tional Guard, according to a release from St. Charles Health System and county health departments. “Our most recent allotment of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is going to allow us to make a significant push to vaccinate residents who are 75 and older, and thus at a higher risk for hospitalization and complications if they acquire COVID-19, as well as to continue vaccinating Phase 1A and 1B — Group 1,” Dr. George Con- way, Deschutes County Health Services director, said in a statement. BY GEORGE PLAVEN Capital Press KLAMATH FALLS — The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has no legal right to curtail water deliveries contracted for irrigators in the Klam- ath Project to protect endangered fish, according to an analysis spearheaded by outgoing Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. The findings, outlined in a 41-page “reassess- ment” of Klamath Project operations under the Endangered Species Act, could prove to be a game-changer for basin farmers, said Paul Sim- mons, executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. “When this is carried out on the ground and incorporated into actual operations, it should translate into a situation where the bureau is not imposing the same severe (water) shortages as it has in the past under the ESA,” Simmons said. “It is a pretty basic, fundamental and I think im- portant change in that way.” 2020 was a painful year for the Klamath Proj- ect, as irrigators saw their water allotment re- duced to less than half of normal demand. Bernhardt, the Interior secretary under for- mer President Donald Trump, visited the basin in July to discuss long-term water solutions after more than 2,000 people attended a tractor con- voy and rally, voicing farmers’ frustrations. “He understood what the issue was,” Simmons remembers of the meeting. “I’ll say that we had been pushing the need for this kind of reevalua- tion for a while.” The bureau operates the Klamath Project, which provides water for more than 200,000 acres of irrigated farmland in Southern Oregon and Northern California — powering a $1.3 bil- lion agricultural economy in Klamath, Siskiyou and Modoc counties. The ESA requires the bureau to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Ma- rine Fisheries Service to ensure operations do not harm endangered fish, namely shortnose and Lost River suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and coho salmon in the lower Klamath River. The bureau’s allocation is still subject to state and federal water law, including senior rights of tribes in the Klamath Basin. Nor does the guidance exempt the Klamath Project from the ESA entirely. “Reclamation has found that it still has duties for species protec- tion, but those duties do not include imposing harmful shortages on irrigation as we have seen in the past,” Simmons said. Simmons said he anticipates there could be political blowback with the transition to Presi- dent Joe Biden and his administration. A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Reclama- tion office in Sacramento, California, said the agency was not prepared to comment. Progressive groups, unions call for Nearman’s expulsion vestigation by the Oregon State Police for the incident. Surveil- Leaders and representatives lance video showed that after of various Oregon progressive Nearman opened a side door groups, the Eugene/Springfield to demonstrators, state troop- NAACP and public employee ers and Salem police were able unions on Monday publicly to push people back outside called for the state until one of the dem- Legislature to expel a onstrators deployed Republican represen- some type of spray tative who let violent against police. far-right extremists It’s unlikely the pri- into the state Capitol vate groups calling for during a Dec. 21 spe- lawmakers to expel cial session. Nearman will have Nearman Rep. Mike Near- much success. Even if man, a Republican all House Democrats from outside Independence, voted to expel him, they would opened a door to armed dem- still need three Republicans to onstrators who entered a Cap- join them. The Oregon Consti- itol vestibule and clashed with tution allows lawmakers to ex- police. A handful of Demo- pel a colleague only with a two- cratic lawmakers, including thirds vote, which means 40 House Speaker Tina Kotek, of votes in the 60-member House. Portland, have already called Democrats hold 37 seats, after on Nearman to resign. He is they lost a net of one House among the subjects under in- seat in the November election. BY HILLARY BORRUD The Oregonian COVID-19 testing OSU’s community sampling program comes to Redmond Bulletin staff report An Oregon State University project to determine the prev- alence of COVID-19 through testing will come to Redmond for three days this week. Between Friday and Sun- day , the university will do TRACE community COVID-19 sampling in Red- mond by sending out two- or three-person field teams to 30 neighborhoods to invite up to 600 residents to take a nasal swab test. A similar testing project happened in Bend in the spring. Deschutes County has so far reported 40 COVID-19 deaths and 5,212 cases , in- cluding more than 2,200 peo- ple who have recovered. Currently there are 2,849 active cases in the county, or one per every 69 residents, according to the university. Redmond public works staff will also gather multiple sew- age samples, which researchers will analyze for genetic mate- rial from SARS-CoV-2, the vi- rus that causes COVID-19. Infected people pass de- tectable genetic components of the virus into the sewer system, which gives an in- dication as to how extensive COVID-19 is in a community, according to the university. “This combined approach of increased testing of asymptom- atic individuals and wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 continues to provide very help- ful insights for our local man- agement of this epidemic,” Dr. George Conway, the Deschutes County health director, said in a statement. Since the project began in April, TRACE Commu- nity sampling has happened in Corvallis five times, in Newport twice, and in Bend, Hermiston and Eugene once each. For more information about TRACE, visit trace. oregonstate.edu. LOCAL & STATE BRIEFING Deschutes sheriff’s office seeks person who shot truck The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help identifying the person who shot at a vehicle at a campsite outside Sisters earlier this month. The unoccupied green mid-1990s Chevrolet Tahoe was hit multiple times while parked at a long-term camp off Forest Road 1510 about five 5 miles west of Sisters. A person reported the incident to the sheriff’s office around 3:40 p.m. Jan. 17. Anyone with information is asked to call 541-693-6911. State gives grants to protect livestock from wolves Two Oregon ranching operations received more than $17,000 total for nonlethal means to protect their livestock from wolves. Krebs Livestock, a company in Morrow County that uses Union County to raise some of its sheep, will use its money to pay for secure night pens, four fox lights, Bluetooth speakers, spot- lights, additional herders and the removal of dead livestock. And Eric Harlow, a Union County rancher, will pay for two additional herders. The Oregon Department of Agriculture provides the funds for the grants, and county commissioners award them. — Bulletin staff and wire reports