A4 THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2021
Winter
Continued from A1
“That was unusual,” Cloutier
said. “Very unusual.”
Overall, the outlook for Feb-
ruary in Bend calls for colder
than normal temperatures and
below normal precipitation, ac-
cording to the weather service’s
monthly climate summary.
The normal high temperature
for February in Bend is 44.3
degrees, and the normal low
temperature is 24.2 degrees.
Normal precipitation is 1.09
inches.
The February forecast
breaks a trend of warmer than
normal conditions that have
been recorded each month
since March.
Last month in Bend was no
exception. According to the
climate summary, January in
Bend was warmer than nor-
mal.
The average temperature
in January was 35.2 degrees,
which was 2.5 degrees above
normal. High temperatures
averaged 44.5 degrees, which
was 3.4 degrees above normal.
The highest was 54 degrees on
Jan. 16.
Low temperatures in Bend
in January averaged 26 degrees,
which was 1.7 degrees above
normal. The lowest tempera-
NATIONAL BRIEFING
FBI: 2 agents killed,
suspect dead in Florida
Two FBI agents were killed
and three wounded in a shoot-
ing that erupted on Tuesday
when they arrived to search an
apartment in a child pornogra-
phy case, a confrontation that
marked one of the bloodiest
Abuse
Continued from A1
“Good luck to you, sir. That’s
all for today,” Crutchley told
the defendant at the end of the
swift-moving sentencing hear-
ing.
Hough-Nielsen was arrested
in September 2018 after a girl
who lived in his home confided
to police that he had abused
her in different ways numerous
times from May 2014 to June
2018, when she was between
the ages of 7 and 10, prosecutor
Stacy Neil told the court.
“She reported that he threat-
ened to hurt her mother if she
told anyone about this,” Neil
said.
The victim, now 13, and her
mother both did not wish to at-
tend the sentencing or provide
statements, Neil said.
Hough-Nielsen also declined
to speak, though his attorney,
Karla Nash, said he maintains he
did not sexually abuse the girl.
Grant
Continued from A1
The money would also go
toward buying a small col-
lection of tablets and phones
to help connect families who
need services but currently
may not have access to the
right technology to get ser-
vices via telehealth, according
to county documents.
The grant would help close
a gap that has developed as a
result of the pandemic. Due to
schools being closed and the
limitations some families have
to use telehealth, referrals to
the county from schools for
children have dropped 36%,
said Janice Garceau, the coun-
ture was 10 degrees on Jan. 24.
A total of 22 days last month
had a low temperature below
32 degrees. On Jan. 24, the
high temperature stayed below
32 degrees.
Bend recorded 1.11 inches
of precipitation last month,
which was 0.42 inches below
normal.
Measurable precipitation
of at least 0.01 inches was re-
corded on 10 days. The heavi-
est was 0.30 inches reported
Jan. 13..
January snowfall in Bend
totaled 5.7 inches with at least
one inch of snow reported on
three days. The heaviest snow-
fall was 2.4 inches on Jan. 22,
according to the climate sum-
mary.
In preparation for the
reapportionment, the Leg-
islature created the House
and Senate redistricting
committees.
The numbers for redis-
tricting were supposed to
be delivered by the Census
Bureau to the Legislature
no later than April 1. The
Legislature would then
have until July 1 to draw
the new district maps.
If the lawmakers could
not come to agreement by
then, or if the governor
vetoed the plan, the state
legislative maps would be
drawn by Secretary of State
Shemia Fagan. The con-
gressional maps would be
drawn by a special panel of
five retired federal judges
— one drawn from each of
the current five congressio-
nal districts — that would
be created by the Marion
County Circuit Court.
But the Census Bureau
presentation says not only
will it miss the April 1
deadline, it likely won’t be
able to provide the data un-
til late July — after the Leg-
islature adjourns.
That has created a con-
stitutional quandary. If the
deadlines in the Oregon
Constitution are to be met,
the mapmaking would
have to go directly to Fa-
gan and the federal judges
panel.
“As set forth in Article IV,
Section 6 of the Oregon Con-
stitution, the Oregon Legisla-
ture has until July 1 to com-
plete legislative redistricting,”
Fagan spokesman Aaron
Fiedler said Tuesday. “If it does
not complete/or is unable to
complete redistricting by that
time, the Secretary of State has
until August 15 (also in Ar-
ticle IV, Section 6) to do the
work. If by that point, the Sec-
retary is unable to complete
the work, it goes to the Oregon
Supreme Court.”
Lawmakers are upset with
the idea that they might not
have a say in drawing the
maps.
“The material we will build
the district on, that we are re-
quired to use, will not get to us
by the required deadline,” said
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, a
member of the Senate Redis-
tricting Committee.
The Census Bureau presen-
tation materials for Wednes-
day’s hearing say the detailed
population count was delayed
because of the COVID-19
pandemic. Other disasters
around the country, such as
Oregon’s wildfires, also put
the count on hold. The bureau
had to deal with directives
from the Trump administra-
tion, which required more
data to be gathered.
While data is delayed to all
states, each has its own way of
drawing districts, with dead-
lines in state statutes or consti-
tutions.
Many states, such as Califor-
nia and Washington, have cre-
ated independent bipartisan or
nonpartisan commissions to
draw the maps.
The commissions are a rel-
atively new trend. The tradi-
tional way has been for legisla-
tures to draw the lines. Oregon
has retained that model and
has deadlines set out in the
Constitution.
Oregon is the only state
in the nation in which both
chambers of the Legislature
and the governor’s office are
controlled by Democrats. Sev-
eral states have such “trifectas”
with Republicans in control.
Hansell said lawmakers
have discussed a possible spe-
cial session for redistricting or
delaying the legislative maps
until 2023, while the congres-
sional redistricting would
move ahead this year with the
federal judges.
“It is all somewhat specula-
tive right now,” Hansell said.
“It depends on how you inter-
pret the Constitution.”
Hansell said the constitu-
tional deadlines were obvi-
ously not written to address
the possibility that the Census
Bureau would fail to deliver.
“It may come down to the
courts to decide,” Hansell said.
“The Legislature would not be
able to do their job through
no fault of their own. It’s not
happening because the Legis-
lature can’t agree on a plan. It’s
because the census numbers
won’t get here in time.”
Oregon has 60 House dis-
tricts and 30 Senate districts.
Each Senate district has two
House districts “nested” inside
its boundaries. That makes
drawing the maps all the more
difficult.
Since the last redistricting
in 2010, there has been ma-
jor growth in the Bend area
and some Portland suburbs.
An indication of how out of
balance districts have become
was shown in the November
election.
More than 96,000 votes
were cast in the race for Sen-
ate District 27, in which in-
cumbent Sen. Tim Knopp,
R-Bend, defeated Democrat
Eileen Kiely. No other Sen-
ate race had even 80,000 total
votes cast.
With each redistricting,
congressional seats are added
to or subtracted from states,
depending on population
changes. Current estimates
show that Oregon will gain a
sixth seat, while neighboring
California is expected to lose
a seat.
Hansell said the impact
of the missed deadlines will
be discussed at Wednesday’s
hearing featuring the presenta-
tion from the Census Bureau.
The Senate Redistricting
Committee has already con-
sulted with legal experts famil-
iar with the census from Wil-
lamette University and Loyola
Marymount University in Los
Angeles.
“We’ll get a better feel for
what is coming on Wednes-
day,” Hansell said.
“over” using this kind of ter-
minology.
He voted against submit-
ting the grant application in a
meeting Monday. His two col-
leagues, Commissioners Phil
Chang and Patti Adair, voted
in favor.
“Either we’re providing
health services for anybody in
our community who needs it
and getting the right service
for the right person or we’re
not,” DeBone said.
Garceau explained that
these communities are be-
ing focused on because they
are more vulnerable than
the dominant population,
which for Deschutes County
is white, straight and cisgen-
der — a term that refers to
someone who identifies with
the gender they were assigned
by doctors and their parents
at birth.
“I think with our LGBTQ
community, it is often a ques-
tion of whether they are feel-
ing safe when they are being
served and feeling like their
needs are understood and be-
ing met,” Garceau said.
Data also show that these
groups are more vulnerable in
general, said Shannon Brister-
Raugust, the county’s interim
behavioral health manager.
About 30% of the LBGTQ
community are more likely
to experience a mental health
crisis, said Brister-Raugust.
Investing more resources
into this population means
the county has the ability to
act sooner to limit hospitaliza-
tions, she said.
“It’s not to say everybody in
the LGBTQ community will
need this service,” Brister-Rau-
gust said. “It’s identifying those
who do and making sure they
know about it.”
Brister-Raugust also said
that it is clear people of color
are also underrepresented. Of
the 112 children in the school-
based health care programs in
Redmond and La Pine, only 13
are Black, Indigenous or peo-
ple of color, which is not pro-
portional to the population in
these areas.
Chang said in the meet-
ing that Deschutes County
already has a high youth sui-
cide rate and that he believes
more robust outreach efforts
at school-based health cen-
ters “could have a huge im-
pact.”
“You could look at this as
one more suicide prevention
tool in our toolbox,” Chang
said.
DeBone maintained that he
did not support a grant appli-
cation that uses this terminol-
ogy.
“If I’m missing something,
someone explain it to me,”
DeBone said.
higher education institution,
Oregon State University-Cas-
cades, has kept its residence
hall open throughout the pan-
demic despite moving most
classes to remote learning.
This is because of a variety of
reasons, said OSU-Cascades
spokesperson Christine Cof-
fin.OSU-Cascades used its Or-
egon State University connec-
tions to provide twice-a-week
COVID-19 testing and sample
wastewater for the coronavirus,
Coffin said. And the univer-
sity had a need to support its
students who live outside the
Bend area — 41% of OSU-Cas-
cades students are from out-
side Central Oregon, she said.
Meanwhile, 83% of COCC
students taking credit courses
are from the college’s vast dis-
trict, which includes all three
Central Oregon counties, far-
north Klamath and Lake coun-
ties and the southern tip of
Wasco County, Chesley said.
The COCC board will still
get a chance to provide feed-
back on the reopening plan at
its meeting on Feb. 10.
Oliver Tatom — the one
COCC board member who
voted against COCC’s initial
dorm reopening plan in July
2020 — said he approves of re-
opening the residence hall by
September 2021.
“I am more optimistic about
what the fall is going to look
like, in terms of COVID, than
I have in a long time,” Tatom
said. “There’s a very good pos-
sibility that with sufficient
immunization rates, that we
might be in a position to open
safely.”
Redistricting
Continued from A1
days in FBI history. The sus-
pect is believed to have killed
himself.
FBI Director Christopher A.
Wray identified the two slain
agents as Daniel Alfin and
Laura Schwartzenberger, both
of whom specialized in investi-
gating crimes against children.
— Bulletin wire report
Nash told the judge her client
felt his chances at trial were dim
due to his arrest record, which
features several low-level juve-
nile arrests followed by a major
one in 2005, when he was 16.
That case horrified the Red-
mond community and received
ample coverage in the press.
On Dec. 12 of that year,
Hough-Nielsen, then 16, and
two other boys broke into
a Redmond couple’s home
picked at random while skip-
ping school. They ransacked the
house and burned it down al-
most completely. Before dousing
the inside in gasoline and mak-
ing off with guns and jewelry,
the trio shot three of six pets in
the house, two dogs and a cat.
Two other cats died of smoke
inhalation.
Hough-Nielsen was charged
as an adult, convicted of 23 of 24
counts and sentenced to serve
7½ years in custody.
e e
Reporter: 541-383-0325,
gandrews@bendbulletin.com
ty’s Behavioral Health direc-
tor, in a commission meeting
Monday.
“We are finding kids are not
getting their needs met, and
these groups are particularly
vulnerable,” Garceau said.
But Commission Chair
Tony DeBone took issue with
the grant application includ-
ing terminology like LGBTQ
and BIPOC, which stands for
Black, Indigenous and peo-
ple of color, saying he doesn’t
understand the terms or why
these communities are being
singled out.
DeBone said using these
terms seems to separate the
community instead of being
welcoming, and said he is
COCC
Continued from A1
“We may adjust as we go,
but for now, our hope is to be
as fully occupied as we can be,”
he said.
Many details of the reopen-
ing plan haven’t been hashed
out yet — including whether or
not to require vaccinations for
students who live in the resi-
dence hall, or what COVID-19
testing for residents would
look like, Chesley and Davis
said. The college will make that
decision closer to September,
they said.
COCC also hopes to bring
back many of its classes to
in-person teaching in the fall,
Chesley said. Right now, the
vast majority of courses are
done online, and that will still
be an option for many classes,
Bulletin file
The Residence Hall on the Central Oregon Community College campus.
she said.
The college will lose about
$2.6 million in room and
board revenue from keeping
the residence hall closed for
a year and a half — $567,000
from the spring 2020 term,
and an estimated $2.1 million
from the 2020-21 school year,
according to college spokes-
person Jenn Kovitz.In con-
trast to COCC, Bend’s other
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com
e e
e e
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7820,
kspurr@bendbulletin.com
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
Reporter: 541-633-2160,
bvisser@bendbulletin.com
Michael Jerry Cowger
of Terrebonne, OR
Feb 17, 1962 - Jan 21,
2021
Arrangements:
Autumn Funerals, Red-
mond 541-504-9485 www.
autumnfunerals.net
Services:
Services will be held at a
later date.
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