On this day, May 5, 1903, James Beard, US culinary expert, author (Delights & Prejudices), was born in Portland, Ore.
Also on this day, May 5, 1945, A Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing Mrs. Elsie Mitchell, the pregnant wife of a minister, and five children after they attempted to drag it out the woods in Lakeview, Oregon. The balloon was armed, and exploded soon after they began tampering with it. They became the 1st and only known American civilians to be killed in the continental US during World War II.
Also on this day, May 5, 1945, Bly minister Archie Mitchell, his pregnant wife Elsie, and five children from Mitchell's Sunday school class were on a Saturday morning picnic. Thirteen miles northeast of Bly, or about sixty miles northeast of Klamath Falls, Mitchell parked the car, and Elsie and the children headed to Leonard Creek. Mitchell later remembered: "As I got out of the car to bring the lunch, the others were not far away and called to me they had found something that looked like a balloon. I heard of Japanese balloons so I shouted a warning not to touch it. But just then there was a big explosion. I ran up there--and they were all dead." It was a Japanese balloon bomb. They were 70 feet tall with a 33-foot diameter paper canopy connected to the main device by shroud lines. Balloons inflated with hydrogen followed the jet stream at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
Long-term future is unknown
Despite a government-lockdown-driven COVID recession, Oregon's Treasurer is projecting strong general fund and lottery revenues over the next nine-year period. It's not known how dependent these revenue projections are on the influx of federal money. According to the
report from the State Debt Policy Advisory Commission, the December revenue forecast permits the issuance of $1.139 billion general fund backed debt in 2019-21 biennium.
Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read said in a
letter to Governor Brown and the Legislature, "In addition to the human costs, the pandemic has dramatically affected our economy, leading to financial uncertainty and commensurate challenges to the State’s budget in both the current and upcoming biennia. This makes long-term funding plans more difficult for important State and local government capital projects."
The debt capacity has a target of using 5% or less of state revenue to do debt service, and at that rate, the state will be able to issue over a billion dollars in debt during the next biennium.
Treasurer Read points out the uncertainty in the economy as well as the uncertainty of federal aid. "For these reasons, we continue to advise caution and patience when planning for capital projects," Read added.
--Staff Reports| Post Date: 2020-12-14 21:18:19 | Last Update: 2020-12-14 22:09:40 |
