PORTLAND (KPTV) — In March, Amariah Jacobs was on a hike with her husband along the Oregon coast when she found a rare fossil of an extinct animal.
“I happen to be walking on a long, long stretch of sand in the middle of nowhere and found a tiny, tiny patch of cobble,” Jacobs said. “I just thought I saw a snail and looked down but then on second thought, was like ‘what the heck are these – teeth?’”
Matthew Miller, a Smithsonian Museum specialist in paleobiology, says yes – they are teeth, and most likely of a desmostylian – a hippo-like animal that is closely related to elephants and sea cows.
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“They mostly lived in the water, they were swimming around,” Miller said. “They’re eating vegetational at the bottom of the seafloor and shallow coastal environments, coming back on land to have their children.”
Miller said the tooth is estimated to be 20 to 23 million years old.
“Based on its rounded nature, like the fragment of bone that it’s in it probably weathered out of a much larger skull,” Miller said. “It’s very likely that the sea basically eroded the skull out of the rock underneath the waterline and broke it up into various fragments and just so happened that the teeth are a little bit more robust, and this fragment just happened to survive the rest of the skull broke apart.”
Miller said the find is rare because only about 1% of all living animals become fossilized.
Jacobs said she is in talks with the University of Oregon to donate the fossil.
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“I just picked something up off the ground that the ocean would’ve scooped away in the next two hours and we wouldn’t have seen it again for another 20 million years,” Jacobs said. “I would love to see it be on display if it’s of quality, good enough, to be on display. And I would certainly like to see it be available for study.”
Until then, the preschool teacher wants to make the rare find a teachable moment for her students.
“The physics they need exist in the world around them, the biology they need to learn at that age exists in the world around them,” Jacobs said. “So, take the children outside, let them touch the natural world, and whenever you can, bring the natural world back inside for the children.”
Oregon State’s season came to an end in Eugene on Sunday evening, after a rocky 7th inning doomed them against the 11th-ranked Oregon Ducks. The Beavers put up a valiant effort to try and fight their way back from the loser’s bracket, but they couldn’t accomplish this incredible feat that they pulled off in 2025.
A Bad Start Changed Everything
Winning the first game of a regional is almost a must if you want to advance, and this is where things started to go south.
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After a nearly two-week layoff (since they didn’t have a conference tournament), OSU’s bats were rusty against a very solid left-hander in WSU’s Nick Lewis. Though the Beavers were able to put up a run early on, Lewis rolled with the punches and ended up throwing a complete game against the country’s seventh-ranked team. Though their bats came to life the next day, the uphill climb proved to be too much.
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Pitching Wasn’t the Issue
Oregon State came into this tournament with the nation’s best ERA, and their starting rotation was exactly as advertised.
After a good outing from Kleinschmit on Friday afternoon, Eric Segura threw a 6.2 inning gem in an elimination game against Yale. True freshman Trey Morris threw 117 pitches in the rout of WSU early Saturday, and Wyatt Queen was excellent against the Ducks off of short rest later that evening.
The Power Just Wasn’t There
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In today’s era of baseball where starting pitchers are so talented, it’s crucial to have guys that can get you runs with just one swing of the bat, especially when the man on the hill is striking a lot of people out.
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Throughout the entirety of this season, the Beavers have not been a club that hits for much power, and this makes things difficult in the postseason. In four games across the Eugene regional, Oregon State didn’t hit a single ball out of the park. In 2026 they only hit a total of 55 homers, a stark contrast from the 107 of 2025’s Omaha year.
They Ran into a Good Team With a Deep Pitching Staff
In Mark Wasikowski’s tenure with the Ducks, his team’s pitching has often been a crutch that holds them back from big postseason runs. This certainly doesn’t seem to be the case this year.
Throughout the regional that they hosted, Oregon starters looked nearly untouchable. Will Sanford struck out 14 batters and didn’t allow a run against Washington State. Yesterday against the Beavers, left-hander Miles Gosztola was phenomenal, bouncing back after allowing a run in the second inning. The Ducks also have great relievers in guys like Tanner Bradley and Devin Bell. With a lot of reliable arms to go to, it would’ve been difficult to beat Oregon twice.
PORTLAND, OR — A federal task force targeting fentanyl dealers in downtown Portland has led to nearly 100 federal charges over the past two years, and one of the leaders behind that effort is now being recognized with a national honor.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon announced FBI Special Agent Bobby Gutierrez as the Freedom 250 Hometown Hero, an award that honors individuals whose courage, generosity and public service reflect the ideals of liberty and civic responsibility.
The Freedom 250 initiative was created to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States and recognizes Americans who make lasting contributions to their local communities.
Gutierrez was selected as the District of Oregon’s Hometown Hero for his leadership, collaboration and dedication to joint downtown fentanyl enforcement missions. For the past two years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, working with the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and the Portland Police Bureau, has targeted fentanyl dealers in Portland.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Gutierrez has helped coordinate dozens of investigations focused on fentanyl distributors in downtown Portland. Through those efforts, nearly 100 fentanyl distributors have been federally charged.
“As we celebrate America’s 250th birthday, I am honored to present Special Agent Gutierrez as Oregon’s Hometown Hero. Special Agent Gutierrez’s dedication, selfless service, and unwavering commitment have made a lasting impact on the safety and well-being of our community,” U.S. Attorney Scott E. Bradford said.
“Two years ago, Portland had notorious open-air drug markets, rising crime, and frequent overdoses. Thanks to Special Agent Gutierrez’s efforts, dedication, and coordination with local, county, and state partners, we are reducing fentanyl trafficking, violent crime, and overdoses downtown,” Bradford said.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Gutierrez has been a “tireless investigator and steadfast partner” in efforts to restore downtown Portland to a safe and vibrant community.
Kam Wah Chung and Company was a home, a general store, a community center and a medical clinic, where co-owner Ing Hay served as a beloved doctor to residents across the region.
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Courtesy of the Oregon Historical Society / OPB
Listen to audio from OPB journalists
In Eastern Oregon’s John Day, a 160-year-old building holds one of the biggest collections of traditional Chinese medicine in the world. Kam Wah Chung and Company, once part of a thriving Chinatown, was owned and operated by Lung On and Ing Hay for over half a century. It was a home, a general store, a community center and a medical clinic where Ing Hay served as a beloved doctor to residents across the region. His practice included herbal remedies, noninvasive treatments, essential women’s healthcare and more.
Archaeologists and historians are continuing to deepen our understanding of the legacy of Kam Wah Chung and traditional Chinese medicine in Eastern Oregon. We join them to learn more about Ing Hay’s important contributions to rural communities in John Day and beyond, as part of our special series in collaboration with OPB’s “Oregon Experience,” the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology and Jefferson Public Radio about unearthing Oregon history.
Listen to all episodes of “The Evergreen” podcast here.
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