Oregon’s big buck settlements
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Wednesday, January 4, 2023
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St. Helens looks to the future WILL LOHRE Country Media, Inc.
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s with any year, 2022 has presented its challenges and highlights. In St. Helens, the year included both, but there is much to anticipate in the new year. St. Helens City Administrator John Walsh has been at the center of many projects in St. Helens for over a decade.
There is great potential in our waterfront. ~ John Walsh, St. Helens City Administrator
Waterfront development Among the city’s accomplishments, Walsh especially emphasized the progress made on the Waterfront Redevelopment project. After years of planning and securing several state and federal grants, the city broke ground on transforming the Columbia Riverfront downtown. “One of the city’s biggest accomplishments in 2022 was the start of construction on the St. Helens Waterfront Redevelopment Project. It’s taken nearly a decade of planning efforts to get to this point,” Walsh said. “City staff worked closely with the St. Helens City Council, professional consultants, and the community to
Courtesy photo
This sky-high view shows the planned area of the St. Helens Riverwalk along the Columbia River.
develop a vision for the St. Helens waterfront that reconnects the community to the Columbia River and supports the future growth of our economy. There is great potential in our waterfront, and the city is working hard to create a cohesive connection between our historic riverfront district and the
new development that’s to come.” The project, which was launched in 2021, will set the groundwork for future public amenities and private development on the riverfront property. The city is interested in partnering with private developers who can build a mix of commercial and residential
uses on the site. The waterfront redevelopment will improve the safety of existing intersections, create inviting pedestrian connections in the Riverfront District, and increase parking in the area, according to St. Helens Public Works Director Mouhamad Zaher.
The City of St. Helens leadership has been very intentional, open, and transparent about the downtown and waterfront master planning, according to Columbia County Economic Team Executive
See ST. HELENS Page A6
FBI issues national financial sextortion scheme alert STAFF REPORT Country Media, Inc.
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he FBI, in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is issuing a national public safety alert regarding an explosion in incidents of children and teens being coerced into sending explicit images online and extorted for money—a crime known as financial sextortion. Background Over the past year, law enforcement has received over 7,000 reports related to the online financial sextortion of minors, resulting in at least 3,000 victims, primarily boys, and more than a dozen suicides. A large percentage of these sextortion schemes originate outside of the United States, and primarily in West African countries such as
Nigeria and Ivory Coast. As many children enter winter break this holiday season, the FBI said the agency and its partners implore parents and caregivers to engage with their kids about financial sextortion schemes so the schemes can be prevented. “The FBI has seen a horrific increase in reports of financial sextortion schemes targeting minor boys—and the fact is that the many victims who are afraid to come forward are not even included in those numbers,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said. “The FBI is here for victims, but we also need parents and caregivers to work with us to prevent this crime before it happens and help children come forward if it does. Victims may feel like there is no way out—it is up to all of us to reassure them that they are not in trouble, there is hope, and they are not alone.” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the U.S. Justice
Department’s Criminal Division said the protection of children is a society’s most sacred duty. “It calls on each of us to do everything we can to keep kids from harm, including ensuring the threats they face are brought into the light and confronted,” he said. “Armed with the information in this alert message, parents, caregivers, and children themselves should feel empowered to detect fake identities, take steps to reject any attempt to obtain private material, and if targeted, have a plan to seek help from a trusted adult.” Financial sextortion schemes occur in online environments where young people feel most comfortable—using common social media sites, gaming sites, or video chat
applications that feel familiar and safe, according to the FBI. On these platforms, online predators often use fake female accounts and target minor males, between 14 to 17 years old but the FBI has interviewed victims as young as 10 years old. “The sexual exploitation of children is a deplorable crime. HSI special agents will continue to exhaust every resource to identify, locate, and apprehend predators to ensure they face justice,” HSI Acting Executive Associate Director Steve K. Francis said. “Criminals who lurk in platforms on the internet are not as anonymous as they think. HSI will continue to leverage cutting-edge technology to end these heinous acts.”
Deception
Through deception, predators convince the young person to produce an explicit video or photo. Once predators acquire the images, they threaten to release the compromising material unless the victim sends money or gift cards. Often the predators demand payment through a variety of peer-to-peer payment applications. In many cases, however, predators release the images even if payments are made. The shame, fear, and confusion that victims feel when they are caught in this cycle often prevents them from asking for help or reporting the abuse. “This is a growing crisis and we’ve seen sextortion completely devastate children and families,” National Center for Missing & Exploited Children CEO Michelle
See SEXTORTION Page A4
Oregon construction employment at record highs DAVID COOKE Chronicle Guest Article
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regon’s construction industry reached another record high number of jobs in recent months, employing 121,200
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on a seasonally adjusted basis in November. The industry bounced back quickly from the COVID recession in which it dropped to about 100,000 jobs in April 2020. It has risen rapidly in 2022, as one of Oregon’s strongest industries this year. Prior to that, the industry added jobs steadily and rapidly during 2013 through 2019, following a prolonged slump in 2009 through 2012, when employment remained near 70,000 for several years after the 2008-09 recession. Looking back more than 30 years, clearly the industry has been highly cyclical – experiencing booms and busts over the course of multi-year expansions that were followed by briefer, but potentially precipitous contractions. In the late 1990s the industry hovered close to 80,000 jobs for several years, dropped some jobs in a mild recession and then resumed its climb. Just before the 2008 recession, Oregon’s construction industry was slightly below today’s employment total, at about 104,000 jobs. Oregon’s economy and population have been on a generally expansionary trend since the late 1980s. Population typically grew
Metro Creative Connection
Construction employment in Oregon bounced back quickly following the COVID recession and is now charting new record highs.
about 1% per year, primarily due to net in-migration – more people moving into Oregon compared with the number moving out. Because the population has been steadily expanding, it can be helpful to look at the construction industry’s total jobs relative
to overall employment. Over the past 30 years, construction has employed between 4% and 6% of Oregon’s total nonfarm payroll employment. The lowest share during this period occurred in 1992, when 4% were employed in construction. Not far behind was the period from 2010 through 2012
when about 4.2% of payroll jobs were found in construction. The housing-price boom leading up to the 2008-09 recession coincided with one of the largest
See EMPLOYMENT Page A8