Man found guilty of rigging Williams property with booby traps
A man accused of injuring an FBI bomb technician with a shotgun-rigged wheelchair booby trap faces decades in prison after a jury found him guilty of federal charges Friday. Gregory Lee Rodvelt, 71, of Williams, was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Medford on charges of assaulting a federal officer and using a firearm in a crime of violence, for the numerous booby traps he was accused of setting in the summer of 2018, in response to a property dispute at 1000 Dreamhill Drive in Williams. The jury deliberated for less than two hours Friday, following a five-day trial involving more than 150 evidence exhibits, including physical exhibits named as “shotgun trap device,” “metal trap with chain,” and photos of homemade spike strips, rat traps and a trap made from a van hood latch. The case was not the defendant’s first offense. Rodvelt has been serving prison time in Arizona on convictions of aggravated assault, resisting arrest, misconduct involving explosives and interfering with judicial proceedings in Maricopa County. (Nick Morgan/Grants Pass Daily Courier)
It’s Fleet Week in Portland
Portland’s Rose Festival will celebrate Fleet Week by welcoming ships from the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy, starting on Tuesday. The Broadway, Steel and Burnside bridges will be lifted at times as the ships come in over the next few days. Three ships total will arrive on Tuesday and Wednesday, likely between 2 and 4 p.m. Then on Thursday, there will be intermittent lifts from 2-6 p.m. as seven more ships arrive. Commuters can expect delays in the area during those afternoon hours. Tours of U.S. Navy ships will be available Friday through Sunday. The ships begin departing next Monday. Fleet Week has been a Rose Festival tradition for more than 80 years. (OPB staff)
State social services office in Astoria has a history of environmental problems
The Oregon Department of Human Services in Astoria, which closed indefinitely in late March, sits above petroleum contamination that has been the subject of testing and investigation for more than two decades. Public documents, including a fact sheet by the state Department of Environmental Quality from 2021, show that petroleum in the soil produces vapors that can affect the air inside the office building. (Nicole Bales/The Astorian)
Toxic blue-green bacteria blooming in Clark County lakes, rivers
As spring gives way to summer and temperatures begin to rise, so have reports of increasing toxic blue-green blooms in Clark County’s lakes and rivers. Those blooms look like algae but officials say it’s actually something called cyanobacteria, a microscopic aquatic and photosynthetic bacteria that can cause rashes, abdominal pain, diarrhea, respiratory illness, seizures and even death. Animals who come in contact with it can become sick or die. Officials say the blooms vary in color — blue, green, gold and reddish-brown — and can look slimy, foamy or clumpy. James Morrill, Clark County Public Health environmental health specialist, advises swimmers, boaters and paddleboarders to keep their distance from it. “When in doubt, stay out.” (Lauren Ellenbecker/The Columbian)
Hundreds of North, South Salem high school students walk out of class
Hundreds of students from North Salem and South Salem high schools walked out of their classes and held a rally on Friday in a protest they say was aimed at district inaction on student complaints about an educator. The students leading the walkout allege they were sexually assaulted and harassed over several years by Trever Ball, a licensed teacher at North Salem High School who previously coached girls’ basketball at the school. (Tracy Loew/Salem Statesman Journal)
