Students and adults clash at Grants Pass High School protest
GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Student demonstrators and adult counter-protesters clashed outside Grants Pass High School in Oregon during a student-led walkout against the reinstatement of two educators who expressed public support for educational policies that favor a student’s biological sex over their gender identity, authorities said.
Students left class Tuesday to protest a Nov. 9 school board vote to reinstate former North Middle School assistant principal Rachel Damiano and former science teacher Katie Medart.
Several adults from religious groups showed up to demonstrate against the students and between 200 to 300 people wound up outside the high school, the Mail Tribune reported.
Police detained several people, including a student who they said spit on a counter-protester and a teen who tried to intervene in another student’s arrest.
In a statement, the Grants Pass Police Department said they sent officers to the high school and middle schools at the district’s request. The crowds at the middle schools were small and peaceful, the department said.
Damiano and Medart were fired last July after an independent investigation found they used district resources to promote a movement they dubbed “I Resolve.” The school board reversed course and reinstated them last week after one board member changed their vote.
Portland switches to emergency water supply
PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland is using its emergency water supply system rather than the Bull Run watershed after a toppled tree damaged a treatment plant east of the city.
The Portland Water Bureau said it began using safe-to-drink groundwater from the Columbia South Shore Well Field on Monday, when a windstorm sent a tall evergreen crashing into the bureau’s Lusted Hill facility in Gresham, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
The impact battered the roof and interior of the building and broke the facility’s corrosion treatment equipment, said bureau spokeswoman Jaymee Cuti.
Cuti was unable to say how much it would cost to fix the damage and didn’t know when they would switch back over to Portland’s primary water supply, which is drawn from Bull Run Lake near Mount Hood.
The city has switched to water from the Columbia South Shore Well Field 43 times since 1985, Willamette Week reported Monday. Water officials said climate change will likely increase Portland’s reliance on its emergency water supply system.
“We can expect more extreme weather events like the recent rains that have impacted the region,” bureau director Gabriel Solmer said in a statement. “Groundwater allows us to reliably provide water to people when severe storms impact the Bull Run watershed or we have other supply disruptions.”
Investigative team finishes probe of fatal police shooting
VANCOUVER, Wash. — An independent regional team in southwest Washington has finished its investigation into the October fatal shooting of Kfin Karuo by Clark County sheriff’s deputies and sent the case to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for review.
Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik said this week he plans to request a panel of outside prosecutors to help assess whether the deputies’ actions were legally justified. The Columbian reported.
The Vancouver Police Department, which led the investigation into the Oct. 17 fatal shooting, was tracking Karuo, 28, before the shooting and said he was wanted for allegedly pointing a handgun at a man in a Sept. 29 incident.
Investigators said deputies were attempting to stop Karuo in connection with the alleged incident in east Vancouver. After the sheriff’s office said he refused to stop and later pointed a gun at deputies, two deputies fatally shot him.
In addition to forwarding the case to prosecutors, investigators gave a briefing to Clark County Sheriff’s Office administration and community members assigned to the investigation.
Wyoming company to pay $2 million in Yellowstone oil pipeline spill
BILLINGS, Mont. — A Wyoming pipeline company agreed to a $2 million settlement for damages caused by a 2015 crude oil spill that fouled a section of the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana and contaminated a city’s water supply, officials said Wednesday.
The agreement with Bridger Pipeline LLC includes a restoration plan that could include projects to restore aquatic habitat and improve recreational sites along the Yellowstone River corridor, Montana U.S. Attorney Leif Johnson said.
Most of the money — more than $1.7 million will go into a state-managed damage fund. The remainder will go to the federal government as reimbursement for its assessment of damages from the 31,000-gallon spill.
Bridger Pipeline is owned by True Companies of Casper, Wyo.
The company was previously fined $1 million over the spill by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
The spill happened after the pipeline split at a weld where it crosses beneath the Yellowstone upstream of Glendive near the North Dakota border.
The river was covered with ice at the time and cleanup crews recovered less than 10 percent of the oil.
