New Oregon license plate celebrates pollinators
Oregon is taking pre-orders for its newest license plate design, and it’s already generating buzz with some people. “I think it’s a big deal,” said Sarah Kincaid, faculty research assistant in Oregon State University’s horticulture department. That big deal is a colorful new “pollinator paradise” plate featuring a honey bee, a native bumble bee and hives in a field of clover. If 3,000 of the plates are ordered, the state will begin official production of the plates. Kincaid wants to see it happen. “In a state like Oregon where so many people are passionate about bees, we should have a license plate celebrating that.” (Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press)
Waste incinerators’ contract with Marion County sparks concerns
Oregon’s only municipal waste incinerator may soon be subject to more study and stricter regulations. Under a new contract with Marion County, the incinerator operator, New Jersey-based Covanta Holding Corp., is allowed to burn up to 18,000 tons a year of medical waste, much of it from other states and Canada. Its 36-year-old facility, located north of Salem in Brooks, can also accept an unlimited amount of industrial waste. Covanta also no longer has to tell the county, or the public, exactly what it’s burning. That has health and environmental groups, as well as some legislators, worried. (Tracy Loew/Salem Statesman Journal)
Clatsop County to lift its moratorium on vacation rentals
A moratorium on new vacation rental licenses will likely be lifted by the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners. The moratorium, which applies to all unincorporated areas in the county, was extended by six months in December and has been in effect since the summer of 2021. The county began regulating vacation rentals in 2018 but due to an omission in the development code, they were never formally legalized. (Nicole Bales/The Astorian)
Fire department sued over Klamath Falls woman’s death from COVID
Teresa Vaughn died the day after Christmas at 62. Her family and domestic partner are now suing Klamath County Fire District 1 over her death and paramedics’ handling of a call to Vaughn’s apartment on Homedale Road. The wrongful death lawsuit alleges negligence, says that the local fire agency violated Vaughn’s civil rights, and contends that the paramedics failed and refused to provide medical care to Vaughn. (Mike Sunnucks/Herald & News)
Vancouver’s school levy under attack
Voters in some parts of Clark County will return to the polls for a special election on Feb. 14 to decide on a handful of local measures. Among those measures: a replacement education and operations levy for Vancouver Public Schools, the second-largest public school district in Southwest Washington. The proposed three-year levy is not a new tax. It would replace the district’s current education and operations levies after they are set to expire on Dec. 31 of this year. It’s also prompted the erection of a handful of “Vote No” signs across Clark County, which ask voters to oppose the levy and highlight low test scores and a handful of other internal issues in the district. (Griffin Reilly/The Columbian)
