A2 THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021
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Deschutes County cases: 5,952 (6 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 59 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 1,958 (3 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 28 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 155,597 (292 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,208 (zero new deaths)
GENERAL
INFORMATION
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
129 new cases
COVID-19 data for Sunday, Feb. 28:
Crook County cases: 775 (zero new cases)
Crook County deaths: 18 (zero new deaths)
PHONE HOURS
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
130
(Dec. 4)
What is COVID-19? It’s an infection caused by a new coronavirus. Coronavi-
ruses are a group of viruses that can cause a range of symptoms. Some usually
cause mild illness. Some, like this one, can cause more severe symptoms and
can be fatal. Symptoms include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
108 new cases
120
(Jan. 1)
90
new
cases
110
*No data
available on
Jan. 31
due to state
computer
maintenence
(Nov. 27)
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 cloth
face covering or mask. 6. Cover a cough or sneeze with a tissue or cough into
your elbow. 7. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
100
90
80
70
60
47 new cases
50
(Nov. 14)
541-382-1811
7-day
average
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
28 new cases
(July 16)
ONLINE
(Oct. 31)
30
16 new cases
(Sept. 19)
9 new cases
www.bendbulletin.com
40
31 new cases
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
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Gray whales learn
a daring feeding strategy:
DIGGING FOR
GHOST SHRIMP
AT HIGH TIDE
BY LYNDA V. MAPES
The Seattle Times
E
very spring, a small group of
about a dozen gray whales
pauses along an epic migra-
tion from calving lagoons
in Baja California to their feeding
grounds in the Arctic. They travel
more than 170 miles off their coastal
migration route, to stop off in north-
ern Puget Sound. There, they linger
from about March through May.
Now scientists think they know
why the Sounders, as this beloved
group of regulars is known, likes to
visit — and hang around.
New research confirms these
whales have figured out a brilliant
feeding strategy.
Combining drone photography
with long-term data on the Sound-
ers has enabled scientists to track the
body condition of these whales from
when they first enter Puget Sound,
until their departure to rejoin the
migration north along the coast.
Last year was the first year of
observations in a long-term study
launched into the Sounders — and
the results astounded scientists.
Within three weeks of arrival, the
regulars they tracked with drone
photography plumped up almost be-
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ý
Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
Holly Fearnbach and John Durban via The Seattle Times
Aerial images of the same gray whale, known as “Earhart”, taken 18 days apart in May
in Washington state’s northern Puget Sound. Changes in body condition are evident
as the whale fattens up during this important feeding stopover during migration.
Calambokidis, senior research
biologist at Cascadia, has compiled
observations of some of the visiting
whales since 1990. That data, com-
bined with the new drone photog-
raphy and tags he is deploying on
whales, is opening a whole new win-
dow onto the Sounders’ world.
Theirs is a high-risk strategy, they
are learning.
The whales are quite daring, trav-
eling up to a mile into the intertidal
zone in the Snohomish River delta
offshore of Everett. They have to re-
ally know where they are, and how
to get out of there as the tide drops.
“Any boater knows to be in an in-
tertidal area can be a very precarious
thing,” Durban said.
The tags that track the whales’
movement show the Sounders synch
their feeding precisely to the high
tide. They will bide their time for
hours in deeper water, waiting for the
tide to turn to give them just enough
water at high tide to move in on ghost
shrimp burrowed in the mud flats.
The amount of effort the Sound-
ers deploy is remarkable. When the
tide drops, thousands of feeding pits
about 6 feet long and 2 feet wide typ-
ically are revealed.
Notably, the Sounders have not
in 30 years of record-keeping suc-
cumbed to any of the downturns in
the overall gray whale population in
the northeastern Pacific .
“These are empowering stories
where these improvements are the
effects of changes in human actions,
not just a nice story about a whale
doing well,” Calambokidis said. “It
shows it is possible to make these
sorts of changes.”
COVID-19 | Federal relief
Earlier bill gave Oregon over $1B; how much exactly is unclear
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.
fore their eyes, as the whales fed, day
after day, on ghost shrimp, which
the Sounders have taught themselves
to target in near-shore waters.
Scientists had long thought these
whales must be on to something im-
portant for them to bother traveling
so far off course from their migra-
tory route, and stay so long. When
they show up, many of them might
not have eaten for seven months.
Their ribs are showing.
But not for long.
Snuffling up ghost shrimp in hun-
dreds of pounds per day, scientists
estimate, the Sounders within weeks
are looking robust indeed, said John
Durban, senior scientist at Southall
Environmental Associates. He is a
member of the research team along
with Holly Fearnbach, marine mam-
mal research director at SR3, a Seat-
tle-based science research nonprofit,
and John Calambokidis of the Cas-
cadia Research Collective, who has
studied the Sounders for decades.
“It is remarkable,” Durban said.
“They have stumbled on a strategy
that works for them.
“I was shocked at how quickly
they changed shape from a whale
that looks emaciated … to a whale
that is plumping out.”
BY HILLARY BORRUD
The Oregonian
Two months ago, Congress
passed a $900 billion COVID
relief package to boost un-
employment benefits, deliver
another round of stimulus
payments to households, aid
businesses and schools and
support the rollout of vaccines.
With attention focused on
Democrats’ new $1.9 trillion
relief plan, the December relief
law might seem like a distant
memory.
But the money Congress ap-
proved Dec. 21 has been flowing
into Oregon in huge buckets.
The Oregonian found that state
and local governments in Ore-
gon — particularly school dis-
tricts — will collectively receive
nearly $1.8 billion to spend on
public services or distribute to
struggling Oregonians.
Even experts on government
spending, however, can’t say
for sure how much in total Or-
egon’s state agencies and other
governments will receive, The
Oregonian concluded after
days of reporting aimed at pin-
ning that down.
In February, lawmakers and
state analysts said they were
still figuring out how much
the federal funding might help
fill an estimated $1.6 billion
state budget shortfall caused
by slower than usual tax and
lottery revenue growth and sig-
nificant state spending on pan-
demic and wildfire response.
The Legislative Fiscal Office
had yet to pin down the num-
ber as of Tuesday.
Gov. Kate Brown’s adminis-
tration was also unable to sum
up how much the state expects
to receive. “There are 21 differ-
ent funding streams in the De-
cember federal relief package,
which are distributed directly
both to state agencies and to lo-
cal entities, including counties,
cities, behavioral health clinics,
and higher education institu-
tions,” Deputy Communica-
tions Director Charles Boyle
wrote in an email. “We don’t yet
have a total breakdown of the
funds coming to state and local
entities through those funding
streams, as the state hasn’t re-
ceived all the dollars.”
The Oregonian contacted
staffers for all seven mem-
bers of the state’s congressio-
nal delegation, starting with
Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Jeff
Merkley the first week of Feb-
ruary. Merkley’s office was able
to point to what appears to be
the largest tranche of funding
for Oregon governments, $499
million for K-12 schools. Five
senators’ and representatives’
staffers responded with vary-
ing amounts of information
about the relief funding.
Here are the other Decem-
ber relief package funding
streams identified by contact-
ing various government agen-
cies and other sources.
• $281 million for rental as-
sistance through the state and
six counties.
• $280.8 million in public
health funding for COVID-19
testing, vaccine distribution
and contact tracing work,
some of which will go to local
governments.
• $232.8 million awarded
directly to community colleges
and public and private univer-
sities, according to the Oregon
Department of Education.
• $225 million for tran-
sit agencies, including $190
million for the Portland area,
smaller allotments for other
urban centers and just $2.5
million for rural transit provid-
ers, according to the Oregon
Department of Transportation.
• $124 million in relief funds
for highway infrastructure pro-
gram, according to ODOT.
• $103 million in child care
and development block grants,
administered the Early Learn-
ing Division.
• $41.8 million in educa-
tion funding to be spent largely
at the governor’s discretion,
including $27.6 million specifi-
cally for private schools.
There is also a nationwide
pot of $50 million to support
school-based mental health
programs, but it’s unclear how
much Oregon will receive.
The fuzzy picture of how
much federal aid Oregon is
receiving points to the size
and complexity of these fed-
eral relief bills — $2.2 trillion
CARES Act still being paid out
11 months after it passed. It
sent at least $2.45 billion to Or-
egon governments, plus stim-
ulus payments paid directly to
individuals, aid to businesses
through tax cuts and the Pay-
check Protection Program
and an array of other policies.
Sara Hottman, state commu-
nications director for Merkley,
wrote in an email that “funds
are largely distributed based on
grant applications, and right
now CARES Act grants are still
being awarded to applicants.
So I’m guessing it’ll be some
time before we have state totals
of the December bill.”
In practice, the state was able
to apply $56 million from the
CARES Act to the state police
budget and a number of city,
county and special district gov-
ernments used federal funds
to help cover payroll and em-
ployee paid leave costs, state
auditors found.
Democrats’ latest COVID re-
lief bill, which passed the House
on Saturday and now heads to
the Senate, contains $350 billion
to patch state and local govern-
ments’ budgets, according to
multiple news reports.