This is KGW news
at noon. Good afternoon and thanks
for joining us for the news at noon.
I'm Drew Carney and we start today's
newscast in Salem where Governor Tina
Kotek is speaking at the State Capitol,
outlining her top concerns when
it comes to Oregon's next budget.
Right now, state budget planning
is in the second of three phases.
State agencies already made their proposals.
Now the governor is weighing in with what
she considers to be the top priorities when
it comes to spending taxpayers dollars.
Governor cotek.
Just to focus funding on three main issues,
you see some of the issues
right there on the screen,
housing and homelessness,
mental health and addiction,
and education are those top three areas.
So she's proposing that $765 million
that would have been added to the state's
reserve fund instead go into targeted
investments in those three areas.
The governor also says she's aiming to
strike a balance with her proposal.
While my top priority priorities will
be the focus of today's conversation,
I want to emphasize that this
proposal represents a balanced
budget that includes investments
in every agency to tackle other
pressing issues across the state.
Enhancing our historic investment
in the in the States water supply,
fixing the public defense crisis,
supporting Main St.
revitalization across rural Oregon,
implementing essential climate change
policies and making college more affordable.
The third phase of Oregon's budget planning
comes when the budget is presented to state
legislative committees for their review.
The deadline to get the budget to
the state legislature, by the way,
is tomorrow, February 1st.
Meanwhile, in Portland,
the Union representing hundreds of city
workers is back at the bargaining table.
They're having this discussion,
of course, with the city.
And the big issues continue to be pay,
specifically a cap on
cost of living increases.
So if the two sides can't reach an agreement,
600 workers are poised to
strike starting this Thursday.
The Union represents city employees who
work in a variety of different areas,
including sewer and wastewater,
transportation,
and Parks and Recreation.
Last week, Mayor Ted Wheeler
issued an emergency declaration,
which allows the city to use
emergency money to hire replacement.
Workers Declaration also allows
the city to reallocate members of
its staff who aren't on strike.
Portland police are still looking
for the driver,
who they say hit a tow truck
operator and never stopped.
It happened last week on an I-84.
The tow truck operator was actually
outside of his truck at the time,
getting ready to tow a vehicle
when he was hit,
and police say they think he was
hit by another tow truck driver.
KGW Mike Benner spoke to the
recovering driver from the hospital.
Physically, I'm fairly. Clearly beat up
from his hospital bed, Arthur Walker
recalls the hit and run crash on I-84
that could very well have killed him
physically. Hard to move. My legs.
Amount of swelling and pain.
The 27 year old Walker is a tow
truck operator for northwestern,
towing around 6:45 Sunday morning
along I-84 westbound near Cesar Chavez.
Walker was prepping a vehicle
for tow when he saw another
vehicle coming towards him.
Closer to me. Eventually hit me
and threw me out into the lane,
Walker says. He mustered up enough
strength to move himself to the
shoulder as the driver who hit
him continued down the Interstate.
I I don't know what type of
person could just leave somebody.
On the side of the road like that,
James Jerome is the operations
manager at Northwestern Towing.
He says what makes this crash so
troubling is 1 specific detail
about the suspect vehicle.
Police say it's a tow truck.
We don't think
it was intentional, but.
Yeah, you messed up.
You made an accident. Own up to it.
Jerome is using this opportunity
to remind all drivers to slow down
and move over if you see emergency
vehicles, including tow trucks,
on the side of the road.
It is Oregon law, by the way.
We don't want to bury our own.
We don't want to bury anybody.
We want to continue going home
and continue doing what we do.
Arthur Walker will get to do just that,
having escaped the crash with only a broken
arm and broken leg, among other injuries.
Say that. Someone in my industry
gives us half as lucky as I did.
I'm Mike Benner for KGW news.
Starting in March,
the only birthing center in the
Gresham area will close its doors.
KGW Catherine Cook spoke with
current and former employees at
legacy Mount Hood Medical Center
who say they're most concerned for
patients in that area who are already
struggling to access healthcare.
Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center sits on
southeast Stark near 257th drive in Gresham,
on the outskirts of Troutdale.
When its birth center closes March 17th,
community advocates say many
in this area will suffer.
By e-mail, Gresham City Council
President Sue Piazza told KGW.
This is a huge loss and
disappointment to our city. Today.
Gresham is the 4th largest city in Oregon.
We are the most diverse and have
a large underserved population.
Gresham and our neighboring cities of Sandy,
Troutdale,
Fairview and Wood Village need legacy
Mount Hood to reconsider this decision.
Legacy Health announced their decision to
close Mount Hood's birth center on Monday.
They said they're facing a
concerning trend of financial
losses in the aftermath of COVID-19,
much like hospitals across the country.
After months of researching options,
hospital officials zeroed in
on the family birth center,
which they said maintains a low volume
of births with an unusually high.
Cost care model through September
of last year,
you can see legacy Mount Hood
delivered 562 babies.
That's about 100 less than legacy
Good Sam and less than half the number
of babies born at legacy Emanuel.
In a statement from legacy
health officials said.
We explored all possible options
to continue operating the family
birth center to deliver safe,
quality care in a cost efficient
and sustainable model.
Unfortunately,
we could not identify a model that
met all the criteria for legacy and.
The providers. Catherine Cook, KGW news.
Alright, we'll take a break from the news
headlines here to bring in Rodney Hill.
Rod, what do you have going on
behind you in the weather center?
You know, still not a bad day.
Remember though yesterday.
Remember Sunday? Ohh my goodness,
the sky was perfectly clear.
Was that beautiful deep blue color.
We're not getting that today.
But as I look out the window
which I can do to my left,
I can see that here in downtown Portland
the high clouds that were fairly thick
for awhile are now starting to thin out.
You can see on the satellite picture
all this cloudiness doing what I call.
Kind of spilling overhead,
caught up in the northwesterly flow a lot.
There's no moisture in any of it.
And this afternoon,
the clouds could we thicken at times?
So maybe a little cat and mouse.
But right now we're thinning out somewhat.
Here's our still not stoler.
I'm sorry.
This is the Chinook winds casino
resort camera, Lincoln City.
They're doing what
Portland's currently doing,
and that's thinning out a little.
But here's Stoller down in wine country.
The family stayed down there,
kind of mostly cloudy to partly
sunny and a little bit of a brighter
blue patch over the Dundee.
Well, that's domain serene winery anyway.
I don't see any change this afternoon.
High clouds in the sky, thinning at
times for partly sunny conditions.
We're currently at 36.
That's 1 degree warmer than we
were at this time yesterday,
43, the high 38.
Tonight I am tracking the fact
that tomorrow is the day that we
say goodbye to the cold weather
and start to warm up.
That's in my 7
day forecast. All right,
Rod, thanks for that update.
One of our top national stories this
afternoon is the ongoing investigation
into the beating of Tyree Nichols
by 5 Memphis police officers.
Nichols wound up dying in the
hospital and now two more members
of the Memphis police force have
been relieved of their duties and
three EMT's have also been fired.
NBC's Priscilla Thompson brings
us the latest from Memphis.
Do anything to Memphis police
officers on leave this morning as
the department investigates their
actions in the death of Tyree Nichols.
Memphis police declined to
name one of the officers,
but identified the other as Preston Hemphill,
A5 year veteran of the force.
During the altercation,
Hemphill is seen on his body camera
helping pin Nichols down and pointing
a Taser that authorities say he fired.
I hope they stop.
Lawyers for Nichols family
are now asking why Hemphill,
who was White,
has not been fired.
He should be terminated
like the other five black
officers that were terminated.
Hemphill's attorney says his client
was never present at the second
scene and is cooperating with
officials in this investigation.
In all, seven Memphis police officers are
off the job following the brutal beating,
including the five ex officers
now charged with murder.
The District Attorney says
more charges could follow.
We will be looking at everybody. They're
doing it in a in
a in a thorough and fair manner.
This comes as others who are on the scene
are also facing disciplinary action.
EMT's Robert Long and Jim Michael
Sandridge and Lieutenant Michelle
Whitaker have all been fired.
The Memphis Fire Department says an
internal investigation found they
violated numerous MDF policies and
protocols and that the two responding
EMT's failed to conduct an adequate
patient assessment of nickels.
About 10 minutes after arriving at the scene,
poll camera shows EMT's walking
away from Nichols.
And leaving him as he rolls
around on the ground in pain.
2 Shelby County sheriff's deputies
remain under investigation.
A spokesperson confirms
they either failed him
by using excessive force.
They failed him by not intervening.
They failed by not rendering aid.
Candles, teddy bears and balloons
now marked the street corner where
things went so wrong overnight.
Vigils held around the country
for the 29 year old dad.
He really did want to change the world.
And he did change the world,
you know. His name
will never be forgotten.