KWSO News for 4/21/20

The COVID-19 Pandemic continues to affect how people are living their lives today. Currently in Oregon there have been more than 40 thousand tests administered with more than 38 thousand returning negative and over 1950 positive with 75 deaths. In Warm springs there have been 29 individuals tested with 29 tests returning negative and 0 pending results. Children and teens react, in part, on what they see from the adults around them. When parents and caregivers deal with the COVID-19 calmly and confidently, they can provide the best support for their children. Parents can be more reassuring to others around them, especially children, if they are better prepared.

The Warm Springs K-8 Academy has announced they are sending postcards for parents of new Kindergarten students to notify of enrolling the children for Kindergarten. The registration is for students who turn 5 years old before September 1st, 2020 for the 2020-2021 school year. The packets will be available at meal drop sites beginning today and needs to be completed by June 1st, 2020 with all required documentation for the students to start school. The required forms are the Registration form, 506 form, Home language survey and a copy of guardianship paperwork (if you are not the parent). If your student attended ECE, ECE will provide a copy of the birth certificate as well as the Immunization record. For questions or more information you can call Heilan Gonzalez at 541-553-1128 ext. 6000.

A lengthy list of landowners and conservation groups – as well as several Oregon state agencies — is looking to reverse the recent federal approval of the Jordan Cove Energy Project. Jefferson Public Radio’s Liam Moriarty explains. “The groups want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission – or FERC – to withdraw or re-hear its conditional decision last month to allow the Jordan Cove pipeline and liquefied natural gas project in southwest Oregon to proceed. The Klamath Tribes and more than two dozen landowners along the 2-hundred-29-mile pipeline route are joined by a slew of environmental groups from the Sierra Club to Rogue Climate. Also asking FERC to reconsider are the Oregon departments of Energy, Environmental Quality, Fish and Wildlife and Land Conservation and Development. All claim the FERC approval decision was procedurally flawed and violated multiple federal environmental laws … FERC’s go-ahead is contingent on Jordan Cove getting all necessary state approvals, as well. So far, the project has received none of them. I’m Liam Moriart reporting.”

The frustration of parents is mounting as more families across the U.S. enter their second or even third week of total distance learning. And some say it will be their last. Amid the barrage of learning apps, video meet-ups and e-mailed assignments that make up pandemic home school, some frustrated and exhausted parents are choosing to disconnect entirely for the rest of the academic year. Others are trying to keep up while working long hours and have resorted to cramming all their children’s school work into the weekends or are taking days off work to help their kids complete a week’s worth of assignments in a day.

Under a draft plan, the Oregon governor’s office is circulating its own version of a three-phase plan to lift restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic, including allowing childcare facilities to reopen in phase one and possibly restaurants. The Trump administration plan says there first needs to be downward trajectories, during a 14-day period, of influenza-like illnesses, COVID-19-like cases, of documented cases or of positive tests as a percent of total tests, as well as “robust testing and contact tracing.” Oregon, however, has some counties where there no or few COVID-19 cases. The draft says Oregon will likely use modified metrics, especially for rural counties who have small numbers.

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