Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us May 3, 2005 Around the Valley County Commissioner Jack Walker recovering County Commissioner Jack Walker’s voice sounds strangely disembodied as he participates from home in the weekly Jackson County Board of Commissioners meetings. Walker has been attending meetings by watching the proceedings on television while his voice is broadcast over a little triangular-shaped conference calling box. Walker, recovering from surgery to remove a 6-inch length of intestine two months ago, said, “I’ve got a job to do and I need to do it.” Walker attended an executive session last week and plans on sitting through a potentially lengthy public hearing Wednesday to discuss a proposed rock quarry near Butte Falls. Walker has Crohn’s disease, which can cause a wasting of the intestines and afflicts about 1 million Americans. After his surgery, Walker developed an infection that forced surgeons to open him up again so that they could keep the area clean. The 6-inch open wound also allows a fistula — a little leak in his intestine — time to heal. The wound will take about another month to close up, having to heal from the inside out. Trial delayed for man accused in Greenway rape A trial for a man accused of kidnapping a teenage girl on the Bear Creek Greenway in early March and raping her at a transient’s camp has been delayed while prosecutors await the results of a DNA test. Christopher Richard Valdez, 33, of the 1100 block of North Rose Street in Phoenix, was scheduled to go to trial today in Jackson County Circuit Court on charges of first-degree kidnapping, first- and third-degree rape, first- and third-degree sodomy and third-degree assault. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Prosecutors on Monday asked to postpone the trial until lab results are returned and Valdez agreed. Trials must be set within 60 days of an arrest to ensure a person’s right to a speedy trial, unless the defendant waives that right. Such a waiver is common, especially in serious felony cases, attorneys noted. Rape and sexual abuse cases often must be delayed until laboratories return DNA evidence, prosecutors said. Police are still seeking two other men suspected in the March 4 kidnap and rape of the 15-year-old Rogue River girl on the Bear Creek Greenway near Rogue Valley Mall. Anyone with information about the suspects is asked to phone Medford police at 770-4783. Grants Pass man dies after allegedly being beaten by his wife A Grants Pass woman faces a murder charge after her husband was bludgeoned to death early Sunday in their home, authorities said. Wendy Maldonado, 35, was arraigned Monday in Josephine County Circuit Court on a charge of murder constituting domestic violence following the death of her husband Aaron Maldonado, 36. Josephine County Circuit Court Judge Gerald Neufeld refused to grant her bail, and Maldonado remained in the Josephine County Jail Monday. The case unfolded when Wendy Maldonado telephoned police shortly after 5:30 a.m. Monday. She reported that her husband had been assaulted and needed assistance, according to the Grants Pass Department of Public Safety. Police, firefighters and medical-response crews went to the couple’s home at 2921 Elmer Nelson Lane, where they found Aaron Maldonado with blunt-force wounds to his head, police said. He was taken to Three Rivers Community Hospital, where he later died from his wounds, police said. April sees 12 days of measurable rain April 2005 felt more like March for most of its 30 days, and water users all over Jackson County should be grateful. Precipitation was 65 percent above average for the fourth month of 2005, and it helped Southern Oregon dodge what was shaping up at midwinter as a nasty water shortage for the summer to come. Cool damp weather may allow Lost Creek reservoir to fill despite a relatively dry winter. The lake stood at just 4.5 feet below full pool Monday, said Steve Watkins, assistant project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Watkins said the water level has been rising by a half-foot per day, and the reservoir could fill by May 10 if agencies that have a stake in summer flows agree to continue to impound water. April’s rainfall (2.16 inches) set no records, but it helped swell a meager winter snowpack to about 50 percent of the normal average as May introduced Southern Oregon’s warm-and-dry season. The snowpack at the end of March held only about 40 percent of the normal water content. Relatively cool days and plenty of clouds held temperatures down, slowing early-spring melt. There were just five days of clear skies, no 80-degree temperatures and only seven days with temperatures in the 70-degree range. Measurable rain fell on 12 days and a trace of moisture on six more. The average snowpack figures conceal the wide variation in snowfall across the region during the winter. Storms that pummeled California came as far north as the Siskiyou Mountains, dropping enough snow to give many areas near-average snow depths. As of Monday, an automated measuring station at Big Red Mountain, west of Mount Ashland, had 86 percent of its average snow-water content and 88 percent of its average precipitation for the winter. Three measuring sites on Mount Ashland had a combined average of 89 percent of the normal snow-water content late last week. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams