The JPR news team gathers for a roundtable discussion of the top news stories they've been working on this week. Top stories include:
Tuesday's City Council special meeting was the first conducted by Grants Pass's new leadership, elected in November and sworn in on Monday. The council made several big decisions that will change how the city addresses its homelessness crisis.
Two new county commissioners sided with outgoing Commissioner John West to ax the county’s lease with its biggest library. The library has been paying only $1 a year to rent the county-owned building in downtown Grants Pass, which has housed the library since 1959.
Final maps were released Tuesday by the Oregon Department of Forestry showing the wildfire hazard for every property in the state. This is the second time a statewide wildfire map has been released. The first one in 2022, called the wildfire risk map, was promptly withdrawn after public outcry over a lack of information about the map’s development.
President Biden established two national monuments on Tuesday, spanning over 800,000 acres. One of those protected areas is located near Mt. Shasta. The recently designated Sáttítla Highlands National Monument covers over 224,000 acres within Northern California’s Modoc, Shasta-Trinity and Klamath National Forests.
