Oregon
Lawmakers approve $19.4 million for program for cash-strapped children’s program – Oregon Capital Chronicle
For hundreds of Oregon’s most vulnerable children and youth, a state program gives them a chance to heal.
Some have been homeless, abused or arrested. Others bounced from foster home to foster home, becoming calloused and fearful of abandonment.
Their families cannot take care of them, and traditional counseling has failed. In one case, a teenage boy’s parents had to leave their house and call for help, fearful their son may harm them. In another, a boy calmly told his mother how he would kill his family and bury them in the backyard.
For these children and about 300 others, Oregon’s Behavior Rehabilitation Services program is a final option. Children who enter this program receive psychiatric residential care and mentoring and attend classes to learn about anger management, forming proper relationships and overcoming trauma.
State lawmakers decided the program needed more money to continue operating. As a result, they’ve allocated $19.4 million to providers to raise staff pay and cover other costs.
The providers, often nonprofit organizations, serve children who enter the state-funded program through the Oregon Department of Human Services or the Oregon Youth Authority. The children’s only other options are juvenile jail or a hotel room staffed with child welfare workers.
The money was tucked into the Legislature’s end-of-session budget bill, which has more than $1.1 billion in state funding for various purposes. The last-minute infusion of cash demonstrates the wide reach of lawmakers’ decisions in the final scramble of the legislative session, which must adjourn by Sunday.
Before the budget bill came out, managers at Parrott Creek Child and Family Services in Oregon City were uncertain whether they could continue operating the program, which serves about 20 children there.
“They’ve dodged that bullet, which is fantastic,” Simon Fulford, Parrott Creek’s executive director, said in an interview with the Capital Chronicle. “The difference for Parrott Creek is we would have really considered closing down 20 beds for kids. We’ll be keeping those beds.”
Parents: Program serves a key role
The service is often a last resort for parents after attempts to resolve issues with their children through other programs, parents told the Capital Chronicle.
In one case, a 14-year-old boy from Portland is in a foster home after years of problems with his parents, who adopted him in 2017. He went through several traumatic experiences, including the suicide of his adoptive mother’s first husband.
He also tried to light his family’s house on fire and spent nearly 12 weeks in a hospital’s psychiatric treatment wing, his mother said in an interview. The Capital Chronicle agreed not to name the child or mother to protect their privacy as he recovers.
The family tried grief counseling after the suicide, as well as equine therapy and enrollment in a military school.
At times, he ran away. At others, he told his mother how he would kill her, his father and his sisters, clean up the blood and bury them in the backyard.
“He was very calm and matter of fact,” his mother said.
After a trip to the hospital, the Oregon Department of Human Services got involved. First, he went into a foster home with an elderly woman who complained to caseworkers about a potentially homicidal kid in her home.
He spent time in a hotel room and was shuffled around to different facilities and programs. He’s now in a foster home in the program.
“He’s not just a number in a bed like he was in the psych ward,” the mother said. “He still needs the hand holding, the support that comes with being one-on-one, but he doesn’t need to be locked away from society.”
In another case, a Portland couple needed the program for their 15-year-old son, who they adopted when he was 13. By then, he had been in and out of foster homes for years. That trauma, in turn, triggered behavioral problems, his father said.
He stole and hoarded food. He attacked people if he believed they were abandoning him. At times, the parents had to abandon him in their home for their own safety. Once, he gave his mother a concussion. Another time, he punched holes in the drywall.
“This was not because of a lack of love for him or his lack of love for us but because he can’t control his emotions,” the father said. “After years of physical injury and all kinds of violent trauma against us, it just became clear that if we stayed any more, it could be like a game-ender.”
Now, the boy is in the program and the parents have weekend visits with him. The environment allows the family to enjoy time together with less stress, and they plan an eventual reunification.
The father sees the potential of his son to have a bright future – as long as the state funds the program.
Money will help recruit and retail staff
For Parrott Creek, time was running out.
In 2022, Parrott Creek received nearly $400,000 in additional state funding when lawmakers approved a package of incentives for different behavioral health providers. At the time, federal pandemic-related dollars propped up the state budget. But that extra money will run out at the end of this month and until this week, the provider and dozens of others were looking at a budget cliff.
The money can help with higher wages for staff. Fulford said an entry-level staffer in the program earns about $18.50 an hour, which is not competitive enough. In comparison, Fulford noted his teenage son is earning $18 an hour at a summer job with the Portland Parks and Recreation Department.
For now, Parrott Creek is working on budget scenarios and making calculations for how much it can increase salaries, Fulford said. The rate structure is complex and depends on the level of services for each child. But on average, the change could allow a $2-an-hour increase for most workers, he said.
The staff include counselors who assist children with life skills and group activities and coordinate trips for them. They tend to them while in crisis and celebrate their victories with them.
At Parrott Creek, children get a chance to still be kids: They shoot hoops, lift weights and go on field trips.
Parrott Creek’s situation – and improved outlook – represents the picture for other children’s providers throughout the state, said Royce Bowlin, chief executive officer with Oregon Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for children and their providers.
The group urged lawmakers to approve the funding, which Bowlin said represents an average 30% increase, varying based on the services provided.
“You have these people who do incredible work and get crappy wages,” Bowlin said. “It’s a huge relief.”
In a survey of its members, the alliance found Oregon’s programs would have lost the ability to serve about 100 children statewide. About 120 staffers would have lost their jobs, the survey found.
Separately, state officials with the Oregon Department of Human Services, Oregon Youth Authority and Oregon Health Authority asked lawmakers to approve the funding in a May 31 letter.
“Without additional funding, we will not have a stable system for agencies to rely on, nor to provide services for Oregon children,” the letter said.
Lawmakers learned about the need well before the session started. In 2022, they directed the agencies to conduct a rate study and recommend changes for providers. That study, finished in February, recommended higher rates.
HILLSBORO Ore. (KPTV) – Oregon’s 36th annual international air show kicked off Friday night in Hillsboro and hundreds of people showed up for the occasion!
For people who show up every year, including Chris Roman, he said it never gets old.
“You know, it’s like a birthday. It’s not quite the same every year but it’s still fun each and every year. There’s always something different and there’s always different stories you hear about the pilots so it’s a great time,” Roman said.
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The show features the U.S. Air Force F-16 Viper and U.S. Navy F/A-18 Rhino demonstration teams which will both fly heritage flights with the P-51 Val-Halla and F6F Hellcat.
People who attended the event also got to see the F-15 Strike Eagles of the 366th Fighter Wing, the Air Force’s C-17 and KC-135 demonstration teams.
“These guys are acrobats, and they are stunt kings,” Perry Manns said.
Some planes even brought back memories for some, including Teresa Busch.
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“I brought my dad the last year, prior to this passing. He was a World War II vet and Korean war vet, and they treated him like royalty,” Busch said.
Another attendee said seeing the planes up close and personal made him regret his own career decision.
“Oh my God…I should’ve joined the Air Force, instead of the Coast Guard,” Perry Manns laughed.
The 2024 Oregon International Air Show will take the skies from May 17-19 at the Hillsboro Municipal Airport at 3355 NE Cornell Rd., Hillsboro, OR 97124.
Tickets can be found here.
Copyright 2024 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.
An Oregon man has been charged in the murders of three women who were found dead under “suspicious circumstances” last year, officials announced Friday.
Authorities have identified one suspect in the deaths of the three women – Charity Lynn Perry, 24, Bridget Leanne Webster, 31, and Joanna Speaks, 32 – the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
Bridget Leanne Webster, Charity Lynn Perry, and Joanna Speaks.
Multnomah County DA/Clark County Sheriff’s Office
Jesse Lee Calhoun, 39, has been charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of second-degree abuse of a corpse in connection with the women’s deaths, the district attorney’s office said, after a grand jury returned the six-count indictment on Thursday.
At a press briefing Friday, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt called the case “complex,” and said it required a “significant investigation” involving multiple law enforcement agencies.
“There’s still more work to be done, investigations are ongoing,” Schmidt said.
Calhoun has been in custody at Snake River Correctional Institution since July 2023 for unrelated charges and was scheduled to be released next month, online Oregon Department of Corrections records show. He is expected to be transferred to the custody of Multnomah County authorities for arraignment, prosecutors said. It is unclear if Calhoun has an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
Multnomah County authorities, citing the ongoing investigation, released few details about the case, including what alleged evidence led them to the suspect and how the women died.
Speaks’ body was found at an abandoned property in Ridgefield, Washington, on April 8, 2023, authorities said. Police in Portland, Oregon, said in November 2023 that the homicide was believed to have happened in Portland.
The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said in July 2023 that they were investigating whether the deaths of four women – including Perry and Webster – who were found dead throughout Oregon were related. The announcement came weeks after Portland police spoke out against online speculation regarding a possible serial killer in the Pacific Northwest.
This undated photo provided by the Oregon Department of Corrections show Jesse Lee Calhoun, who has been under investigation in the deaths of four women whose bodies were found scattered across northwest Oregon last year.
Oregon Department of Corrections via AP
Perry’s body was found in a culvert near Ainsworth State Park in east Multnomah County on April 24, 2023, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon said Webster’s body was found six days later, on April 30, 2023.
Perry’s mother, Diana Allen, told reporters Friday that it’s been “very, very frustrating” for the families of the victims not to have answers amid the ongoing investigation, but that she has had respect for the district attorney office’s process.
“Even though they wouldn’t give me the answers, I knew they had answers,” she said.
The deaths of two other women – Kristin Smith and Ashley Real, both 22 – initially believed to have been linked, remain under investigation, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office said Friday.
The body of Smith, who was reported missing in December 2022, was found on Feb. 19, 2023, in a wooded area in Portland, police said. Real’s body was found in a wooded area in Clackamas County in Oregon in May 2023, a month after she was reported missing to Portland police, authorities said.
“We keep waiting, we keep praying and stay hopeful,” Melissa Smith, Kristin Smith’s mother, said during Friday’s press briefing. “We stay hopeful that we soon can get justice for them as well.”
No. 14 Arizona (32-19, 19-9) opened their three game series at Hi Corbett Field against No. 6 Oregon State a game and a half ahead of the Beavers in the race for the final Pac-12 regular season championship.
By the end of Thursday night, that lead dwindled to a half-game as the Beavers(40-12, 18-9) used a five-run third inning to defeat the Wildcats 9-2 in the series opener.
“There was not a facet of the game I thought we did very well at all,” Arizona coach Chip Hale said.
Aiden May, Oregon States starting pitcher, happens to be a familiar face for Arizona. The right hander transferred to Oregon State after spending the previous year with the Wildcats.
May pitched 7 innings, had 7 strikes, allowing 6 hits and 2 runs (1 earned) to improve to 6-0 on the season.
Jackson Kent, Arizona’s starting pitcher, opened the game with a strike out of Oregon States lead-off batter and No.2 draft prospect Travis Bazzana on a 96-mph fastball.
Kent pitched two solid innings before the Beavers opened the dam in the third inning including two 2 RBI homers one by designated hitter Gavin Turley and the other by right fielder Brady Kasper.
“First inning he looked dynamite, 95.. his breaking ball was snapping, just ran into a buzz saw there, they did a great job. Haven’t had many of those starts obviously all year he’s been great.” Said Hale.
Arizona, already skinny in the outfield position, with Easton Breyfogle (hamstring) day-to-day and TJ Adams (shoulder) out indefinitely, lost another one when right fielder Emilio Corona was hit in the hand while up to bat in the second inning.
Corona, in obvious pain, took the field in the third and fourth inning before getting pulled.
“The way it got so swollen so quick, it’s not good,” Hale said about Corona’s hand.
With Corona out, pitcher Casey Hintz may see some time in the outfield in Friday’s game.
Arizona’s first run came in the third inning when Brandon Rogers hit a single to the right side. A fielding error by Oregon State’s right fielder Brady allowed Rogers to show his speed, ending up safe at third base.
Richie Morales’ ground out brought Rogers across the plate.
The Wildcats’ second and final score of the night came in the eight inning. Freshman first baseman Andrew Cain doubled down the first base line and Morales hit into a double play, advanced Cain home.
Arizona, needing one win against Oregon State to secure the Pac-12 regular season championship, will start Clark Candiotti on the mound Friday night.
Game two in the series will start at 6:00 p.m. at Hi Corbett Field.
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