VOLUME 25 ISSUE 40 / OCTOBER , 2021 / THE SOURCE WEEKLY

Noticias en Español Nuevos mapas políticos para el Centro de Oregon

Por Hanna Merzbach / Traducido por Jéssica Sánchez-Millar

Horas antes de la fecha límite, la noche del 27 de septiembre, Oregon se convirtió en el primer estado en rediseñar sus mapas del congreso para la siguiente década, después del boicot de parte de los republicanos de la Cámara de Representantes y de las últimas negociaciones. El proceso fue especialmente polémico cuando Oregon obtuvo su primer puesto adicional en el congreso en 40 años y con el rápido incremento de la población de Bend, el Centro de Oregon fue el centro de la odisea para indicar dónde ubicar esa nueva sede.

Los legisladores del estado finalmente aprobaron los mapas colocando parte del Centro de Oregon en un nuevo distrito del Congreso que se extiende a lo largo de las montañas hasta las afueras de Portland. Y mientras que los mapas del Centro de Oregon capturaron menos atención para la legislatura del estado, los legisladores hicieron importantes cambios con lo referente a la forma en que está representada la región.

Caos en el Congreso

Cada uno de los ahora seis distritos del Congreso de Oregon debe tener una igual proporción de la población de aproximadamente 766,000 personas por distrito. De acuerdo a Judy Stiegler, ex legisladora estatal y profesora de ciencias políticas en la Universidad del Estado de Oregon-Cascades, era inevitable que Bend terminara en un distrito diferente debido al inmenso crecimiento de su población.

Los Demócratas del Estado – que tienen por mayoría Salem, inicialmente propusieron mapas que habrían sido aún más favorables para los demócratas, agrupando a Bend en un distrito que se extiende hasta la frontera entre Oregon y Washington en Hood River.

Ahora, el nuevo quinto distrito une a Bend con partes de Willamette Valley y es visto como un puesto relativamente competitivo, con una inclinación partidista D-3, con tendencia Demócrata. Las afueras de Bend, junto con La Pine, se mantienen en el segundo distrito seguro a los Republicanos, el cual ocupa la mitad del este rural del estado.

Las objeciones a los mapas del congreso deben presentarse antes del 12 d octubre y las de los mapas legislativos deben presentarse antes del 25 de octubre. Todas las decisiones judiciales pueden tomarse antes de la fecha límite de marzo para la postularse a la candidatura del puesto.

Cambiando los sedes legislativas

Comparado con la redistribución de distritos del congreso, los bosquejo de mapas de los distritos legislativos estatales pasaron desapercibidos. Aún así, las sedes cambiaron bastante en el Centro de Oregon, con el distrito de Bend desplazándose hacia el interior alrededor de la ciudad y las áreas circundantes redistribuidas a otros distritos.

Desde los años noventas, los distritos de la cámara de Representantes de la region estatal se a asemejado a una “dona” y a un “agujero de dona.” El distrito 53 de la cámara de representantes, o la dona, constituida en gran parte por Condado de Deschutes, incluyendo las regiones con tendencia más conservadora como Redmond, Sunriver, Tumalo y Deschutes River Woods. El distrito 54, conocido como el agujero de la dona, fue labrado en el distrito 53 e incluía la mayor parte de Bend, con una tendencia a ser más liberal.

En los últimos 10 anos, Bend y sus alrededores han experimentado uno de los mayores crecimientos en el estado: el Distrito 54 de Bend vio un aumento en la población de casi 15,000 personas, llegando a más de 78,000 habitantes. Las zonas aledañas del Distrito 53 vieron un aumento de casi 10,000 personas, aumentando a más de 74,000 habitantes. Ya que cada distrito solo puede tener tan solo alrededor de 69,000 habitantes, los distritos del Centro de Oregon necesitaban desprenderse de algunos de habitantes.

El Distrito 54, que ahora incluye la zona centro de Bend, la mayoría de los vecindarios de la zona oeste al sur de la avenida Newport y partes del lado este, probablemente será una zona Demócrata, explicó Stiegler.

El Distrito 53 ya no abarca todo el alrededor de Bend, desprendiéndose de la mitad de la zona sur, la cual incluye las zonas de Deschutes River Woods y Sunriver y la mitad de la zona este alrededor de Bear Creek Road. Ahora esas regiones se asientan en el Distrito 55, el cual se extiende hasta el sur del Condado de Klamath a lo largo de la frontera entre Oregon y California.

Power Pond

Pacific Power is maintaining the 100-year-old Newport Dam after its lowest power output in decades

By Jack Harvel

A90-foot crane pulled a 20,000-pound generating unit at the Newport Avenue Dam on Mirror Pond last week. Data from the Energy Infrastructure Council show power output at the dam reached its lowest point in decades in 2020, producing just 315 megawatt hours compared to an average of 2,390 MWh over the past 20 years.

“The Newport Dam has been operating for over 100 years and is currently going through a rehabilitation phase. Over the past few years we’ve been refurbishing and making repairs to ensure its long-term viability as a generation resource for our customers,” said Drew Hanson, a spokesperson for Pacific Power, in an email. “As a result, the plant has produced over 600 MWh over summer 2021.”

Two of the dam’s three turbines have been maintained in the past several years, and the newest round of maintenance will refurbish the third as well as replace bulkheads and gates, exchanging the existing transformer and a ground grid replacement at the switchyard.

“This allows engineers and crews to refurbish parts on the turbine and perform overall maintenance. The other two turbines were refurbished over the past few years so this is the last one to be completed,” Hanson said. “Along with refurbishments, upgrades have been made, that allow for improved reliability and match the 100-year-old plant with new technology to continue to bring value to customers.”

Power output at the plant will still vary with the flow of the river, but at 600 MWh at the end of summer, 2021 will be closer to a typical output than during 2020. The upgrades increase the longevity of the dam and could potentially bring the dam closer to its maximum output of 405 MWh a year.

“The Newport Dam’s rated max capacity is producing 1.11 megawatt of electricity,” Hanson said. “These refurbishing and upgrade projects ensures the hydro facility will continue to efficiently produce clean electricity for our customers.”

The fate of the dam has been in flux over the years; in 2015, after much community input and initial excitement about a change for the dam and

Jack Harvel via Rapid Tables

A graph tracing the yearly megawatt hours produced at Newport Dam on Mirror Pond from 2001-2020.

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel called a press conference on Sept. 30 across the street from where Barry Washington, Jr. was shot on Sunday, Sept. 19. Hummel announced that a grand jury indicted the alleged shooter Ian Cranston on six charges, including second degree murder.

Mirror Pond, PacifiCorp reversed its earlier plan to sell the dam and announced its plans to keep it in place so as to continue to generate power for the surrounding homes. Meanwhile, the private citizens who own the land under the adjacent Mirror Pond still hope to garner public funds to dredge the pond and remove the silt accumulated in the Deschutes River upstream of the dam. Officials from Bend Park and Recreation District and the City of Bend, along with others, have put any possible plans for dredging on hold while they explore options for adding a fish passage to Newport Dam.

Accused Shooter Charged With Murder

Deschutes District Attorney John Hummel announced the arrest of and new charges for Ian Cranston, who is accused of shooting 22-year-old Barry Washington

By Jack Harvel

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel announced that Ian Cranston was charged with the crimes of murder in the second degree, manslaughter in the first degree, manslaughter in the second degree, assault in the first degree and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon in the shooting death of 22-year-old Barry Washington on Sunday, Sept. 19. The Bend Police Department arrested Cranston Thursday evening on a no-bail warrant, after a grand jury indicted Cranston.

Hummel said Cranston shot Washington after he complimented Cranston’s fiancé, leading to a brief scuffle between the two. Washington was arguing with one of Cranston’s friends when he was shot. Bend Police Department arrested Cranston shortly after for second degree manslaughter, and he was released after paying 10% of a $100,000 bail on Sunday. Washington’s family and many community members were outraged with Cranston’s initial charge of manslaughter rather than murder, and that he was freed hours after the shooting.

“I’m confident that murder is the correct charge, but if you commit murder intentionally, you’ve also killed someone recklessly,” Hummel said at a press conference on Sept. 30. “We sought the murder conviction in this grand jury, we’ll be seeking a murder conviction at trial. But if you do the greatest crime, you’ve also done the lesser crimes.”

Hummel said he’d received hundreds of calls and emails over the past week regarding parallels the case had with the history of racist violence in America, namely the murder of Emmett Till.

“Our country has a disgraceful history of denigrating, prosecuting and lynching Black men for talking to white women. Over the last week, literally hundreds of people called and emailed me to remind me of this history. I responded to every one of you,” he said. “Racism didn’t only happen back then. And down there. It happens right here. And right now.”

The grand jury did not charge Cranston with a hate crime, but Hummel said there’s an ongoing investigation of Cranston’s motives. He said the public has been helpful collecting evidence, particularly the activist group Central Oregon Peacekeepers, and asked anyone with relevant information to send it to his office or Bend PD.

“If we obtained sufficient evidence to prove that this shooting was at least partially motivated by race, we will go back to that grand jury and ask them to

Jack Harvel

add the charge. I determined we did not have sufficient evidence at this point to present it to the grand jury,” Hummel said. “That was a tactical decision made by myself. If we presented it now and the grand jury said no, the state doesn’t have enough evidence, then that case is done. And if we gathered more evidence later, we couldn’t go back.”

Cranston’s plea hearing was scheduled for Dec. 6 during his arraignment on Friday afternoon, Oct. 1. His lawyer said they are ready to enter a not guilty plea, but Deschutes County Circuit Judge Beth Bagley said that isn’t decided at arraignment.

The arraignment was played on loudspeakers outside of the Deschutes County Courthouse to a crowd. A disturbance erupted between activists and Central Oregon Daily News over the station airing of video of the shooting provided by Cranston’s fiancé. Activists and community members criticized the news station for releasing the video without permission from the family. The station deleted the video off its website on Friday.