Tag: oregon

Pilots report UFO ‘moving at extreme speeds’ while flying over Oregon

At least four pilots witnessed UFOs, some ‘moving at extreme speeds’ over Oregon this past weekend.

A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson told DailyMail.com that at least one of the aviators ‘reported seeing unidentified lights while flying in Seattle Air Route Traffic Control (ATC) airspace’ during an alarming December 7th episode. 

While the administration would not confirm the presence of any FAA radar data that could corroborate the sighting, FAA ATC audio reveals the pilots in a state of shock.

An ambulance pilot stated he saw a bright light, ‘red in color,’ barreling towards his plane at ‘extreme’ speeds, before suddenly reversing course back toward the Pacific.

‘I don’t even know how to describe how fast it was moving,’ the air ambulance pilot, with Life Flight’s Air Medical Transport service, can be heard saying on the tape.

Later on Sunday night, December 8th, a United Airlines pilot reported an unexpected squadron of strange lights above the Eugene, Oregon-area, according to local news, which has long been a UFO hot spot along with the surrounding Pacific Northwest.

‘We’re seeing three or four targets. They’re all altitudes. Up and down,’ the United pilot told Seattle ARTCC (ZSE). ‘It’s pretty crazy.’

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Oregon School Staff Covered Up Pedophile Teachers’ Abuse For Nearly A Decade Until Viral TikTok Video Blew Lid Wide Open

A pair of teachers at St. Helens High School in Oregon were arrested last week on charges of sexual abuse taking place over the past nine years, and school administrators are being lambasted by the public for reportedly covering up the molestation.

46-year-old Eric Stearns, the choir teacher, and recently retired teacher Mark Collins, 64, allegedly sexually abused at least nine underage girls from 2015 to 2024.

According to KGW 8, school officials received complaints of sexual abuse in 2019, but seem to have ignored the allegations and never contacted law enforcement.

Furthermore, Stearns continued teaching after the school was notified police had launched an investigation against him.

The law enforcement investigation began shortly after a former student of the school posted a viral TikTok video in September accusing several teachers of engaging in illegal sexual activities with students when he attended St. Helens.

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National Guard troops on standby in Washington state, Oregon and Nevada as a precaution for ‘potential’ election unrest

Ahead of potential civil unrest due to Tuesday’s presidential election, the National Guard is on standby as a precaution in several states, including Washington state and Oregon, where hundreds of ballots were damaged or destroyed after at least three ballot drop boxes were recently set on fire, officials say.

Almost all the ballots set ablaze on Monday were in a drop box in Vancouver, Washington, while most ballots in a drop box in Portland, Oregon, survived a fire set the same day, election officials said. The incidents are believed to be connected to a third fire on October 8, also in Vancouver. Portland police released a physical description of a suspect but said they’ve not identified him.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee addressed the ballot box fires in a news release Friday announcing the National Guard being placed on standby, saying, “The southwest region of Washington state has already experienced specific instances of election-related unrest.”

Inslee did not disclose how many troops would be activated on Tuesday, but said they will be available to support law enforcement from Monday to Thursday, according to the news release.

The US Department of Homeland Security has warned that threats to “election infrastructure” remain high, Inslee added.

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What to Know About the Suspect Behind Ballot Box Fires in the Northwest

The man suspected of setting fires in ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington state is an experienced metalworker and may be planning additional attacks, authorities said Wednesday.

Investigators believe the man who set the incendiary devices at ballot boxes in Portland, Oregon, and nearby Vancouver, Washington, had a “wealth of experience” in metal fabrication and welding, said Portland Police Bureau spokesperson Mike Benner.

The way the devices were constructed and the way they were attached to the metal drop boxes showed that expertise, Benner said.

Authorities described the suspect as a white man, age 30 to 40, who is balding or has very short hair.

Police previously said surveillance video showed the man driving a black or dark-colored 2001 to 2004 Volvo S-60. The vehicle did not have a front license plate, but it did have a rear plate with unknown letters or numbers.

The incendiary devices were marked with the message “Free Gaza,” according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

A third device placed at a different drop box in Vancouver earlier this month also carried the words “Free Palestine” in addition to “Free Gaza,” the official said.

Investigators are trying to identify the person responsible and the motive for the suspected arson attacks, which destroyed or damaged hundreds of ballots at the drop box in Vancouver on Monday when the box’s fire suppression system didn’t work as intended. Authorities are trying to figure out whether the suspect actually had pro-Palestinian views or used the message to try to create confusion, the official said.

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Oregon Democratic Congressional Candidate Accused of Not Disclosing Child Sex Abuse Allegations: Report

A Democratic politician and candidate running for the House of Representatives in Oregon is accused of assisting in covering up child sex abuse allegations related to one of her former campaign staff members.

A complaint states that Janelle Bynum is accused of not disclosing allegations that a campaign field organizer reportedly sexually assaulted a volunteer, who was a minor while campaigning in 2022.

Bynum, who is running in Oregon’s most competitive district and is a Democratic representative, dismissed the claims when an unidentified individual informed her of their concerns. She also allegedly threatened them, according to the complaint, which was obtained by Fox News recently.

The new report disclosed that Bynum is not the only politician mentioned in the controversy. Democratic Speaker of the House Julie Fahey and Democratic Attorney General Dan Rayfield were also accused of not reporting the reported abuse to authorities.

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Oregon mom, daughter indicted for trafficking Haitians in ‘indentured servitude’ at adult care home: DOJ

An Oregon mom and daughter have been indicted by the Department of Justice on human trafficking and forced labor charges. The pair allegedly put three Haitians, including a minor, in “indentured servitude” at an adult care home they owned and operated in Tigard, a city located southwest of Portland, according to a press release from the Justice Department.

Marie Gertrude Jean Valmont, 66, and Yolandita Marie Andre, 30, are accused of using violence and threats to force their victims to work long hours for little or no pay. The seven-count indictment charges both of them with conspiring with one another to commit forced labor, committing forced labor, and benefitting from forced labor.

Court documents state that Valmont and Andre, the owners and operators of Velida’s Care Home in Tigard, began their human trafficking scheme in Sept. 2023, when they convinced two adults and a child from Haiti to travel to the United States to work at their care home.

After arriving in the Portland area, the victims were immediately taken to Velida’s where they were allegedly forced to work long, arduous 17-hour days for little or no pay. Valmont and Andre are alleged to have taken the victims’ immigration paperwork and forbade them from leaving Velida’s under any circumstances. Additionally, Valmont is alleged to have thrown items at the victims, threatened to send them back to Haiti and have them killed, and threatened to call police to make false theft allegations against them, according to the indictment.

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Oregon DMV admits to illegally registering hundreds of non-citizens since 2021 via motor voter program

More than 300 non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote in Oregon over the past three years due to errors by the state’s Driver and Motor Vehicles (DMV) services. The issue arose after Oregon passed a bill allowing individuals to obtain driver’s licenses without needing to prove US citizenship. Oregon’s elections are conducted via mail-in ballots.

According to Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, the error occurred when DMV staff mistakenly selected “US passport” or “US birth certificate” instead of foreign equivalents while entering documentation data for individuals applying for driver’s licenses. This error led to non-citizens being added to the voter registration system.

Griffin-Valade noted that of the more than 300 improperly registered individuals, only two are believed to have actually cast ballots. It remains unclear whether those individuals were citizens at the time of voting. Once the error was identified on Thursday, the affected individuals were notified by mail that they would not receive ballots unless they are eligible voters, according to a report by KGW8.

“Safeguarding the integrity of our elections is my top priority,” said Griffin-Valade. “When my office was made aware of this error, we moved quickly to update the voter rolls. I am also personally calling on the DMV to take immediate action to improve its processes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek reassured the public that the error “will not impact the 2024 election in any way,” and added that the DMV was taking “urgent corrective action” to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

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No, Oregonians Are NOT Being ‘Hit Hard’ By Climate Change

A recent article posted by Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), titled “Climate change will keep hitting Oregonians hard, but the exact impact will depend on where you live,” claims that Oregon will be impacted severely on multiple fronts by climate change. Areas of concern include increased wildfires, sea level rise, and water shortages, among others. [emphasis, links added]

This is mostly false, as many of the problems listed are not worsening, and those that are have nothing to do with climate change.

OPB writes that different regions of Oregon will face different effects from climate change, which is reasonable; coastal communities will have to worry about sea levels more than those in Eastern Oregon, for example.

But the caveats listed by OPB are interesting. The story doesn’t just discuss geographic and natural climate differences, but also differing effects based on demographics, such as, “how many people live there, and how much money their local governments have on hand.”

Those two variables, and others like population growth and relative incomes, are independent of long-term climate change and even short-term weather events.

Regardless, the article goes on to make several false claims regarding the direct effects of climate change:

“The Oregon Coast faces sea-level rise, algal blooms and shellfish biotoxins. The northern Willamette Valley faces heat waves, higher landslide risks and increased water demands as the population grows. Northeastern Oregon faces longer fire seasons, scorched crops and increasing numbers of destructive pests.”

For the sake of brevity, we will not go into each assertion made in this post, but almost every one of these supposed hazards is overblown at best, and or simply not occurring, at worst.

Beginning with sea level rise, the average absolute sea level rise globally is about 1.7+/-0.3 millimeters per year.

Two out of the five available National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sea level monitoring stations in Oregon are slightly above that rate, at 1.78 +/- 0.58 and 2.52 +/- 0.61 mm/year, or the rest are below the average global rate. These rates equate to a rise of about 0.58 ft and 0.83 ft over 100 years, respectively (See chart below).

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Oregon Voters to Consider Approving Nation’s First Universal Basic Income

Oregonians will vote in November on a controversial ballot measure that would give every resident, regardless of age or income, $1,600 each year—as long as they live at least 200 days in the state.

A family of four would receive $6,400 annually, with no strings attached. The money would be non-taxable and would not affect other benefits.

If voters approve Measure 118, the Universal Basic Income (UBI) program would be funded by a tax on the gross receipts of corporations that generate more than $25 million in annual sales.

Oregon would be the first state to roll out such a comprehensive UBI.

As of June 2024, no U.S. states have a UBI program, though several states and cities have run pilot programs.

However, the “Oregon People’s Rebate” proposal is meeting with stiff bipartisan resistance from elected officials and pushback from the business community.

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2,400 Patients May Have Been Exposed to HIV and Hepatitis at Oregon Hospitals: Officials

Health care providers in the Portland, Oregon, area said Thursday that 2,400 patients should get blood tests because an anesthesiologist may have exposed them to HIV as well as hepatitis B and C in recent months.

In a statement, Providence Health said that it “recently learned that Providence’s comprehensive infection control practices may not have been followed by a physician during some procedures” at several hospitals, including Providence Portland Medical Center, Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center, and “other non-Providence hospitals.”

The individual who was allegedly responsible is a physician previously employed by the Oregon Anesthesiology Group, said Legacy in the statement. The unnamed person is no longer employed by Oregon Anesthesiology Group and the company is no longer contracted by Providence, it said.

Providence said in its statement that the physician “might have put patients at a low risk of exposure” to hepatitis B and C as well as HIV for 2,200 patients who were seen at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center. Two patients seen at Providence Portland Medical Center were also exposed, it said.

As a result, the medical group said that the potentially affected patients will receive a letter with more information, but it encouraged those patients to get a blood test to determine whether they were infected with hepatitis or HIV “out of an abundance of caution,” and “at no cost,” according to the statement.

“If a patient tests positive,” the statement said, “Providence will reach out to discuss their test results and next steps.

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