An overwhelming series of fierce, wind-driven wildfires in Oregon have all but destroyed five small towns, leaving a potentially high death toll in their wake, Governor Kate Brown said on Wednesday, as initial casualty reports come in.
Winds of up to 50 miles per hour sent blazes moving tens of miles within hours, engulfing hundreds of homes as firefighters fought at least 35 large blazes across Oregon.
The town of Detroit in the Santiam Valley, as well as Blue River and Vida, and Phoenix and Talent in southern Oregon, were substantially destroyed, Governor Kate Brown said during a press conference.
“This could be the greatest loss in human lives and property due to wildfire in our state’s history,” Brown said.
Wildfires in Clackamas County have destroyed 22 houses and structures since Sunday night and are threatening more than 600 other houses and structures as thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes. The entire county is under some level of evacuation warning, with about half the county, including Estacada and parts of Molalla, under a Level 3 evacuation order, meaning residents are asked to leave immediately.
“Everyone must be on high alert,” Brown said.
The blazes are extremely destructive around Medford, in southern Oregon, and near the state capital of Salem.
At least three people were killed in Oregon fires and a small child died in blazes in Washington state. Brown said some communities were substantially damaged, with “hundreds of homes lost.”
Vancouver, WA — The Vancouver Police Department announced Monday evening they made an arrest in the investigation of a hit-and-run incident that happened Saturday evening following the Aaron “Jay” Danielson memorial at Esther Short Park.
According to Vancouver Police, Charles R. Holliday-Smith, 30, turned himself in, and he was booked into the Clark County Jail for Assault 1 and Felony Hit and Run. The report says Saturday’s hit-and-run indicates the victim, identified as Shane Moon (as indicated by his friends) and a group of friends, identified as the pro-Trump Proud Boys, traveled from downtown Vancouver to Charlie’s Sports Bar & Grill, located at 3315 NE 112th Avenue, where the assault later occurred. The report says the group had reportedly attended the Danielson memorial earlier Saturday. Danielson was killed August 29 in downtown Portland following a pro-Trump rally.
Holliday-Smith allegedly followed the victim’s group from downtown Vancouver and began filming them, which made them feel uneasy. No verbal confrontation occurred inside the bar. Holliday-Smith was asked by security staff to stop filming, and he then he exited the bar. As he left the bar, there were several Proud Boys in the parking lot smoking cigarettes, who had just arrived from the memorial service.
The victim and his friends also went outside where both parties talked to each other, and got combative. Vancouver Police said the suspect got into his vehicle, drove toward the victim, hit him, and then fled from the parking lot. Eyewitnesses say the suspect is a member of ANTIFA.
The victim has sustained serious injuries, including bleeding on the brain, but is expected to survive.
The police say the investigation is continuing and aren’t releasing anymore information at this time.
https://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/09114835/D3DF6B7C-DE83-49DE-B67E-4E53AB5122E1.jpeg9601280Ernest Geigenmillerhttps://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/07074147/lacamas_white_2-300x300.pngErnest Geigenmiller2020-09-09 11:54:192020-09-09 11:54:26Vancouver Police Make Arrest in Hit-And-Run Incident Following Danielson Service
Vancouver, WA — Hundreds gathered peacefully Saturday at Esther Short Park to honor the life of Aaron “Jay” Danielson, the man who was murdered last Saturday in downtown Portland following a Donald Trump re-election rally and caravan.
Organizers of Saturday’s two events — a 4 pm memorial service, and an 8 pm candlelight vigil — said attendance far exceeded the planned 600 for the event. The candlelight vigil had approximately 250 supporters. T-shirts and stickers calling for justice for Danielson were handed out while people grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and friends waved flags.
Danielson, 39, who died just six days shy of his 40th birthday, was a supporting member of the controversial Patriot Prayer group. The group’s leader, Joey Gibson, addressed mourners at both events.
Gibson encouraged people to remove hate. He spoke of Danielson’s love for life, and vowed to keep his memory alive.
“They got everything going up against us, but it doesn’t matter, guys. It doesn’t matter if you fight for what you believe in. If you fight for what you believe in, God will have your back,” Gibson said.
Mourners at the candlelight vigil had the opportunity to speak of their memories of Danielson, and were joined by a local Christian singing group.
“If anybody wants to say anything, we are going to keep this an open forum,” said Gibson. He then opened the vigil with a prayer asking God for peace.
“We are so tired of all the lies, hatred and division, we are asking you to humble us as a nation, humble us an individuals, we apologize for the way we’ve acted as a nation. We apologize for the way we have treated one another. Give us the strength to forgive, and give us the strength to stand up as a voice in this nation … and guide us in the right direction.”
Several people spent the next 45 minutes sharing their experiences with Danielson.
Candlelight vigil at Esther Short Park.
“Jay could light up the day like today at noon with the sun straight above us, bright as hell, he could light that room up, just with his smile,” said one friend.
“I honor him because there was never a dull moment just being around him,” said another friend. “He was very intelligent. A smart man. A patriot. A God-fearing man. What I remember the most is he didn’t have to try to fit in. He would go wherever he wanted to go. I told him he was accepted and the he was my friend. A lot of people turn from others because they are not the same as us. I just want to say that he will be missed …”
The man believed to have killed Danielson was himself killed by law enforcement Thursday when he pulled a gun during an arrest attempt, according the U.S. Marshals Service.
The alleged shooter, Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was present in Camas at the BLM rally held on Friday, August 28 described himself in a social media post as “100% ANTIFA.”
This sticker was handed out to supporters.
What is Patriot Prayer?
Patriot Prayer is not an official organization, but the group does attract controversy. Gibson was accused of starting a Portland riot last year and is a frequent target of ANTIFA and other groups.
A close friend of Gibson’s, who was attacked by an ANTIFA group following last week’s Trump rally, explained what the group is about.
“Patriot Prayer is a fight to bring God back into this country,” he said. “This country is founded underneath God. He’s given us all our liberties and rights and freedoms. We have these rights because we were born as human beings because of God. Patriot Prayer is exactly that. We stand up for this country under God because all of us are created equally and we need to remember where that glory goes to. It all goes to God.”
The group says it attends these political events to help persuade to stop hating and to turn to Christianity.
Gibson’s Facebook and Instagram pages were removed by Facebook earlier this week.
“Antifa groups murdered my friend while he is walking home, and instead of the multibillion dollar company banning Portland antifa pages they ban Patriot Prayer and myself,” Gibson said in a statement.
Facebook confirmed the pages were removed due to its “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations” policy.
“They were removed as part of our ongoing efforts to remove Violent Social Militias from our platforms,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement, who pointed to the policy that was expanded last month.
Joey Gibson was charged with felony riot for his alleged involvement in a 2019 May Day brawl at a Portland bar called Cider Riot.
The Downtown Camas Association (DCA) officially dedicated the Mill Photo Collage Friday afternoon with a ribbon cutting at the Universal Martial Arts building at the corner of 4th Avenue and Adams.
The collage honors the history of the Camas Paper Mill with original images.
DCA Board President, Caroline Mercury, emceed the event, which was mostly a live-streamed virtual ceremony, providing context about the public art project from concept to construction.
“It’s just our pleasure to dedicate this beautiful photo collage to the city of Camas as a wonderful public art project that the DCA has executed to honor the huge role that the paper mill played in making Camas what it is today.”
Mercury was dressed in a paper dress to honor the occasion and the history. The dress is a replica from a 1940s Paper Festival, which was the precursor to the contemporary annual Camas Days event.
“About four years ago, the design committee at the DCA began incubating the idea for a large-scale mural, collage, of vintage photos from the mill collection, and then entered Anna Fry,” said Mercury.
Former and longtime mill employee Fry was involved in community relations and was the champion of this project through the GP Foundation process.
Big Hook Graphics was the company who put together the giant photo collage following direction from the talented artist, Allan Jeffs.
The Clark County Historical Museum also contributed to the project. Kitchen Electric added dusk to dawn lighting to illuminate the strumming mural. Additional funding came from Riverview Bank and the Clark County Historical Commission.
DCA Executive Director, Carrie Schulstad, explained the collage has a QR code that visitors can scan to get more information. Schulstad thanked Mercury for her daily commitment to making this project come to fruition.
“Her love of the mill is just incredible as you can tell, and we are so lucky to have her in our community,” said Schulstad. “The town is fantastic and it grew up to serve the mill so if you would like to learn more there is a QR code that’s right there on the legend and you can click that and it takes you on a tour of downtown.”
Camas Mayor Barry McDonnell was there, accompanied by the brand-new City Administrator, Jamal Fox.
“Anytime you ask anyone in Camas who has been here for a while they have some sort of connection to the mill, whether they work there, they knew someone that was there … or maybe they just like to catch the toilet paper rolls that get thrown out at the Camas Days parade.”
Following his speech, McDonnell cut the official ribbon.
The photo collage was originally scheduled for its official dedication in April, but due to the pandemic that was delayed.
Clark County Public Health issued a statement today regarding last week’s Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) provisional death data update. Here is their statement:
We’re seeing a lot of misunderstanding around new data from the CDC, and we need to set the record straight. Provisional death data updated by the CDC last week shows that for 6 percent of COVID-19 deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. The remaining 94 percent of deaths were among people with other underlying conditions.
This does not mean that only 6 percent of deaths are due to COVID-19. It means that for the other 94 percent, there were underlying conditions that likely made their COVID-19 illness worse and made them more at risk for serious illness and death.
There are different types of cause of death: immediate, underlying and contributing. For COVID-19, a common example might be an immediate cause of death of acute respiratory distress syndrome (which is what actually killed them), and an underlying cause of death would be COVID-19 or pneumonia from COVID-19 (which are the triggering factors that lead them to get the thing that actually killed them), and then contributing factors could be asthma, COPD, or diabetes (something that may have made their illness worse than it would have been).
As an underlying cause of death, COVID-19 is the thing that triggered the cascade of events that eventually leads to death. For example, older adults are more likely to have more contributing factors, but if they don’t get COVID-19, then they don’t start this cascade of events that lead to death.
Monday COVID-19 update: Since the last update on Friday morning, another 76 people have tested positive for COVID-19 and two people have died – a man in his 60s (unknown whether he had underlying health conditions) and a man in his 70s with underlying health conditions.
Over the weekend, Clark County had an average of about 25 new cases per day (Fri-Sun). To date, 2,610 Clark County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 and 51 people have died.
Nineteen COVID-19 patients are hospitalized and five persons under investigation (PUIs) for COVID-19 are hospitalized.
https://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/31201647/17E2C573-2D33-496A-9317-F8509455FBED.jpeg12801920Ernest Geigenmillerhttps://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/07074147/lacamas_white_2-300x300.pngErnest Geigenmiller2020-08-31 20:37:102020-08-31 20:37:20Clark County Public Health Clarifies CDC COVID-19 Provisional Death Data
PORTLAND, OR — Aaron “Jay” Danielson, aka Jay Bishop, a Patriot Prayer supporter, was fatally shot Saturday night in Portland following a pro-Trump caravan.
Bishop attended Friday’s dueling Camas pro-police and #BLM rallies and was seen riding around and talking with supporters and protestors on both sides.
Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson, a controversial local public figure, who arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting, issued the following statement today:
“1st- We love Jay and he had such a huge heart. God bless him and the life he lived.
“2nd-I am going to wait to make any public statements until after the family can.
“3rd- If you planned on going to the boat cruise, please go! I know that Jay would love to look down from heaven and see tons of American flags on the Columbia river today. I will not be attending but I hope all of you enjoy yourselves out there. Fly them high for Jay.
“God Bless all of you.”
Matt Robins, a protest medic near the shooting scene, said he heard two pops.
“We thought someone had lit fireworks off or something, and when we looked, we saw a guy run for like two seconds and then plop on the ground,” Robins said.
Robbins said he and his partner help treat people injured at protests.
“There’s a guy standing over top of him saying this is my friend, help him please,” Robbins said.
Robbins said once Portland police arrived he and his partner were told to leave.
“We were forcibly pushed down,” Robbins said. “My partner, a field medic, tried to get her gear, because like I said, they rushed us so fast that some of our gear had fallen down.”
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said the shooting is under investigation, however, and a 48-year-old man who was accused of carrying a loaded gun at an earlier Portland protest is under investigation in the fatal shooting of Bishop.
Michael Forest Reinoehl refers to himself as an anti-fascist and has posted videos and photos of demonstrations he attended since late June, accompanied by the hashtags #blacklivesmatter, #anewnation and #breonnataylor.
More than 300 Camas Rally For The Blue supporters, and approximately 150 Black Lives Matters (BLM) squared off Friday night mostly at 3rd Avenue and Dallas Street to express their beliefs.
The BLM rally started off at Camas Public Library at 4 pm and within about 20 minutes the group migrated to the ARCO station where they stayed for the duration — until just past 10 pm. The pro-police rally was scheduled as a stand-alone event, but Tuesday night local students organized a counter BLM protest.
The Camas Rally For The Blue began a little before 5 pm at two locations — between Camas Safeway and Dairy Queen — but eventually migrated to occupy three of the four corners at 3rd and Dallas.
”We just want to stand up and say Black Lives Matter,” said Cindy Graham, a Camas resident who rallied with the BLM team. “Middle class white people care about black lives and I don’t want to say anything negative about the police because I know a lot of Camas cops are good friends of mine and they are great guys. But that doesn’t negate the fact that we need to stand up and do something to help African Americans. In my opinion the BLM movement doesn’t stand for socialism like some of these people are saying, it just stands for black people have been oppressed and we often don’t understand how oppressed they are so we need to make more of an effort. All lives matter, but black lives matter needs to be said when this is happening in our country.”
She said this is a vote for Black Lives Matter.
“We need more white middle class people to stop screaming at their televisions and get out here and stand peacefully on the corner and say that,” Graham added. “Actually all classes of white people need to do this.”
The interview was interrupted by a BLM supporter in blue hair who told this reporter to “get out of my face.”
BLM supporters at ARCO station.
”I just wanted a rally to support our police,” said Blue Rally organizer, Helen Sudbeck. “It’s a fabulous town and we have a great police department. They need to know how much we care about them and appreciate them. It’s been a rough couple months for police across the country and I think there are a lot of people in Camas who really care about our police. That’s it. We are just here to support the police. I realize there’s a counter demonstration and that’s fine. It’s a group of kids and that’s their First Amendment right, and that’s fine. They chose to have the rally at the exact same location, and that is their right, as well.”
Was it a bad idea to have this Blue rally today given the historic anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech”?
“I just picked a Friday night after work hours to show the police we care. I didn’t have any grand plan. We know police morale is low these days. Most cops are good people who have families,” she said. “We know reforms need to take place, and I encourage people to learn more about Project 21.”
It was a lively night, tensions were high, and it wasn’t entirely peaceful.
Blue Rally supporters filled trucks and cars chanting “Blue Lives Matter” while circling city streets for hours. BLM supporters chanted “All cops are bastards,” “I see racists,” and “Black Lives Matter.”
Police supporters.
Here are some of the things this reporter witnessed:
One man was carrying an assault rifle, which was intimidating to many. Police stayed close to him throughout the evening.
One Blue Rally supporter went over to speak with BLM supporters to simply express admiration they were being vocal in their beliefs. He knew the teens there and while addressing them, a professional BLM organizer got in his face with a camera demanding he wear a face mask. Another BLM supporter challenged him, as well. The video will be posted on Saturday.
A Trump supporter threw coffee at an elderly lady while driving by. It stained her jeans.
Joey Gibson, of Patriot Prayer, had a very nice conversation with a BLM supporter about religion and removing hate from our lives. There was a lot of good dialogue between the two individuals. But, his presence also intimidated protestors.
Several BLM supporters didn’t want this reporter to conduct interviews and chanted “racist” to my face multiple times.
Police broke up a couple altercations before they escalated.
Confederate flags were brought in, which disturbed a lot of people.
Some of the BLM teens felt intimidated by Blue Rally supporters.
Camas Police asked everyone to break up the events shortly after 9 pm. The Blue Rally crowd quickly dispersed, while the BLM group lingered past 10 pm with about 30 people.
The evening ended with a very positive conversation between a BLM/Joe Biden supporter, who is a teacher in the Evergreen School District, and a Blue Rally/Donald Trump supporter, who had a 7-minute conversation about how to make things better. They found common ground. Initially, both sides agreed to be recorded, but after it ended, the teacher withdrew her permission for us to post it.
“I just want our cops to know we do appreciate them, but we also need to help our black people right now,” she said. “They need a voice to know that we don’t want them to be oppressed.”
The Trump supporter agreed, and then the night ended.
https://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/28232413/AF619BCB-8E2D-4408-9A3C-19998C2DCDF8.jpeg6711280Ernest Geigenmillerhttps://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/07074147/lacamas_white_2-300x300.pngErnest Geigenmiller2020-08-28 23:32:212020-08-29 23:57:41Camas Rally For The Blue Supporters Square Off With Black Lives Matter
Vancouver, WA — The Clark Regional Emergency Operations Center (CREOC) issued their latest COVID-19 update. Here’s the report by the numbers, as of August 24, 2020:
Clark County
Number of Positive Tests: 2,435 (cumulative since March 2020)
Current COVID-19 Cases Hospitalized: 17
Number of Deaths: 47
Rate of new cases per 100,000 population: 74.7 (goal is to get to a rate of 25 new cases per 100,000).
COVID-19 persons under investigation (PUI) hospitalized: 11
Percent licensed hospital beds occupied: 67.5%
Percent licensed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and PUIs: 4.5%
Washington State
Number of Positive Tests: 71,012 (cumulative since March 2020)
Number of Hospitalized: 6,530 (cumulative since March 2020)
A team of state agencies hosts a monthly webinar series with experts who discuss information specific to Washington small businesses. A panel of state and federal partners respond to live Q&A regarding unemployment insurance, returning employees to the workplace, small business relief funding, workplace safety measures, and other topics important to employers. The next webinar will be held on September 9 at 1:30 p.m. There is also a Spanish-language webinar on August 27 at 4 pm. Click here to register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/small-business-requirements-and-resources-sbrr-covid-19-impact-webinar-tickets-105298340170?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch%5C
Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) are available to help rural areas struggling with the costs of the pandemic. Washington State Department of Commerce is now accepting applications from CDBG non-entitlement (rural) city and county governments for the first round of these CDBG-Coronavirus (CDBG-CV1) funds. Visit Commerce’s CDBG-CV website for details on eligible activities and how to apply. Applications are due by September 3, 2020. Here’s the link: https://www.commerce.wa.gov/serving-communities/community-development-block-grants/cares-act-community-development-block-grant/
The Washington State Department of Commerce is distributing approximately $100 million in state Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding through its existing network of homeless services grantees and organizations serving homeless youth to operate a new rent assistance program launched Aug. 1. The program will focus on preventing evictions by paying up to three months of past due, current and future rent to landlords for eligible participants. Here’s the link to the site: https://www.commerce.wa.gov/news-releases/community-grants/100-million-rental-assistance-headed-to-washington-communities/
To address student learning gaps happening during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to sharpen minds during summer vacation, several local teens have created a non-profit learning and tutoring organization called Youth Hand in Hand, which offers free online classes and tutorials on a wide range of topics.
The organization, which is comprised of talented student teachers, hosts weekly 40-minute ZOOM class sessions, teaching topics that include Coding (Scratch and Python), SAT tutoring, Chemistry, Biology, Math, National History Day, Creative Writing and Cartooning.
“A lot of these classes are things we are passionate about,” said Ares Zhang, a Camas High School senior, and one of the group’s student teachers. “We know a lot of people who have missed out on opportunities over the summer. This all started out as friends trying to help each other, but it’s turned into something bigger. There’s no cost! All of it’s free. All you have to do is sign up.”
As a non-profit, Youth Hand in Hand is able to procure funding to purchase full ZOOM subscriptions for all teachers, and they are accepting old routers to help students to have better WiFi access.
“Technically, we started in April during the pandemic, and my sister wanted to learn scratch coding, and several neighbors were interested,” said Spencer Chang, a junior at Mountain View High School, and the organization’s founder. “I asked if anyone would also want to do it, and other four kids helped us.”
After initial setup, Youth Hand in Hand now has 18 student teachers and offers 15 classes. Most classes have two teachers and typically 15 kids are in each session.
“Last month, we had 250 people sign up,” said Chang. “It’s a month-to-month program. Most classes are 4 weeks long. We provide resources to help kids get through online learning.”
Zhang said they are adapting the curriculum to help kids through the school season, and they will shift toward tutoring.
“We can help them learn concepts since they’re not in regular school,” said Chang. “Our goal for September is to expand curriculum and get ZOOM subscriptions for all our teachers. All teachers are teens. The youngest one will be a freshman this year. We are mostly juniors and seniors.”
Youth Hand in Hand plans to do face-to-face classes and tutoring sessions when life returns to pre-pandemic normal.
“It’s mostly so people can keep on learning throughout the pandemic,” said Chang. “Some people don’t learn as well online, and we’re hoping we can make an impact, to provide people opportunities to learn.”
https://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/19141514/C67D9411-C2D5-477C-BC25-0DD0753117AE-e1597872481377.jpeg6561280Ernest Geigenmillerhttps://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/07074147/lacamas_white_2-300x300.pngErnest Geigenmiller2020-08-19 14:39:012020-08-19 14:39:11Local Teens Organize Online Learning Resource to Help Fellow Students
Clark County Public Health reported Tuesday that another 11 people have tested positive for COVID-19. To date, 2,121 Clark County residents have tested positive. The Health Department says the current incidence of new COVID-19 cases in Clark County is 88 cases per 100,000 residents over 14 days. The target rate is less than 25 new cases per 100,000 residents.
Currently, 12 COVID-19 patients and 13 persons under investigation (awaiting test results) for COVID-19 are hospitalized.
The agency also said today “our efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 by wearing face coverings and maintaining physical distancing appear to be working!”
Data in the latest statewide situation report shows the growth of new cases in the state is likely slowing. And the data in this new report “points to vigilant masking and physical distancing as the reason for the slowed statewide transmission, rather than changes to people’s mobility.”
While case numbers are flat or decreasing statewide among people younger than 40, they are increasing among those 40 and older.
While growth in new cases may be slowing overall, aggregated data masks diverging trends in older and younger populations. In both eastern and western WA, cases are flat or decreasing in the 0 to 39-year age group while increasing in the 40-69 and 70+ age groups.
Suggests that any flattening of new cases is due to non-mobility-related changes in behavior like vigilant masking and physical distancing when out.
The slight deceleration in the growth of new cases is an improvement over the rate of increase noted in their last few reports. However, it is too early to know with certainty whether this represents a real turnaround. Further, the observation at the state level that cases continue to increase in the older age groups and particularly in those 70 and older is concerning. State health experts expect that if the increase in cases in these older age groups continues unabated this will result in an increase in hospitalization and deaths.
The report says “We cannot definitively attribute this trend to the mask mandates because mask wearing is generally accompanied by heightened awareness and physical distancing, but a preponderance of evidence indicates that widespread use of masks significantly reduces transmission.”
Strict adherence to masking and physical distancing policies and limits on social contacts remain necessary to further suppress COVID-19 transmission in Washington state and protect groups at higher risk for severe disease.
https://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/07074101/2447ED53-96CF-45CB-AD64-A98E444B89B8.jpeg455810Ernest Geigenmillerhttps://cdn.lacamasmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/07074147/lacamas_white_2-300x300.pngErnest Geigenmiller2020-08-11 19:46:022020-08-11 20:03:37COVID-19: Latest State Situation Report Shows Slowing of New Cases
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