Salem News Journal Page 11

With one week until the Great Eclipse here are some things to plan for.

Traffic should increase as the week progresses and eclipse visitors begin to arrive. Beyond traffic their could be cell phone and atm issues as the numbers grow beyond what the local infrastructure was meant to support.

An Oregon Department of Corrections inmate died unexpectedly late Saturday night at Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla. The Oregon State Police Criminal Investigation Division is conducting an investigation.

On Saturday August 12, at 11:30 p.m., Portland Police Bureau Gang Enforcement Team (GET) officers attempted to stop a driver in a stolen car near 162nd Avenue and East Burnside Street.

The driver pulled into an apartment complex parking lot, exited the vehicle while it was still moving, and ran away. The car continued to roll forward slowly until it crashed. The three passengers were not injured and detained by police.

On Thursday August 10th the Oregon City Police Department took a report of a missing person from the Oregon City Retirement Center, located at 515 10th Street.

Staff reported that 61 year-old Alfonso Rodriguez-Ramirez left the facility on 8/9/17 at around 11:00 am to visit his family in Portland, but never arrived.

ODOT expects many Oregon highways to be very crowded in the days around the Aug. 21 #OReclipse. Many crashes are the result of distracted driving and traveling too fast for conditions. So we’re encouraging you to #DriveHealthy: Keep your hands on the wheel, your mind on the task, and your eyes on the road—not on the sky. It also means you must plan your travel well in advance.

Because of the expected large crowds, please treat the 3-hour eclipse as a 3-DAY event:
Arrive early, stay put and leave late.

On Friday at 12:31 pm, Benton County Deputies were dispatched to a head-on collision on Walnut Boulevard, just west of Corvallis City limits.

The driver of a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am was northbound on Walnut Boulevard at 5500 NW when it veered across the center line and struck a 2010 Ford Escape that was traveling southbound. The driver of the Pontiac, Bradford J Hickswa, 28 years old, of Corvallis was taken by Corvallis Fire Department Ambulance to Good Samaritan Hospital in serious condition.

The driver of the Ford, Douglas Lee Stewart, 75 years old, of Philomath died of his injuries at Good Samaritan.

On Wednesday, at approximately 6:00PM, OSP executed a search warrant at a residence just outside of Biggs Junction off the Biggs-Rufus Highway. The warrant was the result of an assault between the resident and a commercial motor vehicle driver near the Pilot truck stop earlier that morning. The resident was observed by witnesses and was identified as 39 year old, Trevor Patrick Beers.

Beers had been involved in a verbal altercation with the CMV driver, identified as 45 year old Michael Brunette from Salem. During that confrontation, Beers struck Brunette across the face and left the area. OSP Troopers responded to Beers residence and while attempting to make contact with him evidence was observed indicating Beers was involved in the manufacture and extraction of cannabinoids from marijuana into a concentrated form. This process is commonly referred to as a BHO (butane honey oil) laboratory.

Oregon State Police (OSP) Troopers responded to a report of a single vehicle crash on Highway 126E, east of Vida in Lane County on August 9, 2017, at about 4:25 p.m., .

Preliminary investigation revealed that a 2001 Ford Explorer was eastbound when for unknown reasons, left the roadway and struck a large boulder off the south shoulder. The vehicle caught fire after impact and was fully engulfed prior to emergency personnel arrival.

SB 111 allows schools to provide nurses to help keep their students healthy, and to bill Medicaid for those services. The bill passed the Senate and House of Representatives unanimously.

If you would like to know more about Oregon’s financial situation, this newsletter is for you. Every two years, the Secretary of State’s Audits Division compiles and releases the State of Oregon Financial Condition Report. 

The Eclipse Megamovie Project [EMP] is a project that aims to gather as many images as possible over the path of totality. Those images will come from volunteer observers and be incorporated into a summary movie of the event.

The first total solar eclipse visible across the entire contiguous United States since June 8, 1918 first appears over Oregon on August 21st 2017.

Beginning between Lincoln City and Newport at about 10:15 a.m. PDT and exiting the state at 10:27 a.m near Ontario.

The Oregon House of Representatives voted today to join the fight to ensure that every vote is counted equally by passing the National Popular Vote compact.

House Bill 2927, which passed the House by a vote of 34 to 23, was co-chief sponsored by Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer (D-Portland), Rep. Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis), Rep. Brian Clem (D-Salem) and Sen. Brian Boquist (R-Dallas).

The Oregon House approved bipartisan legislation directing the Department of Consumer and Business Services (DCBS) to establish standards for building "tiny homes" in Oregon. HB 2737 is intended to provide tiny home manufacturers and purchasers with certainty surrounding building codes and regulations, and allow the industry to continue to grow and expand.

Under a bill passed unanimously by the Oregon House of Representatives today, the Family Sentencing Alternative Program, a program which works to reduce recidivism rates and decrease prison costs, will be expanded to include more eligible individuals.

The Family Sentencing Alternative Program was created with broad bipartisan support by the legislature and signed by the Governor during the 2015 session. Since it went into effect in January of 2016, 75 individuals with 139 children across five counties have participated.

The City of Salem says that the National Weather Service has issued a flood watch that includes the Salem Area. Minor flooding exists in many flood prone areas.

A new Coastal Playground license plate featuring a gray whale and her calf likely could be available to Oregon drivers as soon as summer 2017.

Preliminary information indicates that an OSP Trooper attempted to stop a white Ford Explorer traveling northbound on Interstate 5 near milepost 250 for speeding.

MCFD1 units are on scene of a working 3-alarm residential fire in the 6200 block of Rambeau Ln SE. One occupant has been injured and is being treated by medics. No additional details are available at this time.

This morning at about 2:40AM, OSP Troopers and emergency personnel responded to the report of a roll over crash on Highway 22 just west of Salem, near Highway 51/Independence Highway.