OPB’s First Look: Detained child, data center facts, and pennies

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Good morning, Northwest.

Today’s newsletter starts with OPB reporter Holly Bartholomew’s story about a Gresham 7-year-old girl, Diana Crespo, and her family, who immigrated from Venezuela over a year ago. They were detained at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas after taking her to Portland Adventist Health for urgent care last week.

Plus, after officials in The Dalles publicly criticized an OPB investigation into data centers, Google, and water that was published last week, OPB’s April Ehrlich lays out the facts underpinning the story and explains why OPB stands by its reporting.

And although the U.S. Treasury stopped minting pennies after more than 230 years, that hasn’t stopped a Stayton collector’s passion for Lincoln cents. OPB “All Things Considered” producer Donald Orr has the story.

Here’s your First Look at Saturday’s news.

— Winston Szeto

Gresham family detained by immigration officers while seeking medical care for their 7-year-old

Seven-year-old Diana Crespo loves to paint and play with friends.

On Thursday, Jan. 15, she suffered a nosebleed that lasted most of the night. The next morning, her parents said they were taking their daughter to urgent care at Portland Adventist Health, but they only made it to the medical center’s parking lot before they were detained by immigration officers.

Now the Alder Elementary School second grader, her father Yohendry De Jesus Crespo and her mother Darianny Liseth Gonzalez De Crespo are being held at U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, according to family friends.

It’s the same detention facility where 5-year-old Liam Ramos of Minnesota — whose bunny-hatted photograph in the hands of an immigration officer made nationwide headlines this week — is reportedly being held. (Holly Bartholomew)

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3 things to know this morning

• Officials in The Dalles issued a public statement criticizing an OPB investigation into data centers, Google and water. Here are the facts underpinning that story, and why OPB stands by this reporting. (April Ehrlich) 
• A second helicopter almost crashed into a slackline near Superior, Arizona, on Jan. 2, an hour after a helicopter with four Oregonians on board had collided with the valley-stretching cable, according to witnesses’ testimonies included in the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary investigation report released yesterday. (Troy Brynelson and Conrad Wilson) 
• The National Weather Service has issued a cold weather advisory from Southwest Washington all the way down the Willamette Valley for the next couple of days, but the whole Pacific Northwest will be cold this weekend. (Kristian Foden-Vencil)

Headlines from around the Northwest

• As Eastern Oregon Republican Greg Smith faces ethics complaints, he seeks another term in Salem (Antonio Sierra) 
• Woman shot by Border Patrol in Portland pleads guilty to improperly entering US in 2023 (Conrad Wilson) 
• Bend police seek wire-cutting suspect after brief power outage (Kathryn Styer Martínez) 
• OHSU board contemplates closure of primate research center; its scientists plead for support (Amelia Templeton) 
• Oregon unemployment rate flat, but unexpected sectors lost jobs in December (Zac Ziegler) 
• Oregon governor chooses new head of public defense agency (Lauren Dake) 
• Pressure campaign by Oregon unions targets Democratic lawmakers (Dirk VanderHart) 
• Mamukelashvili’s 22 points lead Raptors past Blazers, snapping Portland’s win streak (Erik García Gundersen)

The penny is on its way out. But the love for it endures for this Stayton coin collector

If you’ve been paying in cash recently, you might have noticed the loose change in your pocket is starting to feel a little bit different.

The pennies aren’t there.

In November, the U.S. Treasury stopped minting pennies after more than 230 years because the coins cost more than three times their own value to make.

The end of the penny is also a nostalgic goodbye for longtime coin collectors. It was a rare penny that started Monte Mensing’s love for coins.

Decades later, Mensing is a cornerstone of the Northwest’s coin collecting communities, and leads multiple coin clubs throughout the region that celebrates their history. He owns Monte’s Coins and More in Stayton, Oregon. (Donald Orr)

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