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STARBASE Kingsley will be closing its doors to program operations on Friday, March 14th, 2025. This closure is not only impacting Kingsley Field’s site, but all 90 programs across the United States, Puerto Rico, and Guam.STARBASE Kingsley was one of the original seven academies in the nation, opening doors in 1993 and has served our community as a leader in STEM education for 32 years. As a part of the Department of Defense, STARBASE entered the current fiscal year on October 1, 2024, with no budget in place. The federal government is currently operating on a continuing resolution, providing limited funds, which have been fully expended. The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate are navigating the path forward for funding the federal government, disagreeing on how much to allocate for the 90 STARBASE locations. Currently, the House has proposed $60 million; the Senate has proposed $20 million.

Klamath Falls-area students demonstrated their forward thinking and supportive ambitions to make the world a more sustainable place during MESA’s Demo Day held Tuesday on Oregon Tech’s campus. MESA, an acronym for Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement, is an after-school program that empowers middle and high school students through invention education. They tackle relevant issues by designing projects that create and maintain healthy, equitable and diverse communities and ecosystems with this year’s focus being climate action. Paired into teams (five middle school, five high school), the students explained their designs for a panel of judges as they competed for the first-place prize. Seeing representation from area schools Ponderosa, Mazama and Klamath Union, the projects tackled everything from water filtration to fire mitigation.
 

Since the Oregon Legislature voted to ban single-use plastic grocery bags and limit plastic straws in 2019, most Oregonians have grown used to bringing their own bags to the store and asking for straws. Now, lawmakers looking to stop plastic from piling up on the state’s beaches are turning their attention to other plastic utensils, condiment packaging and hotel-issued toiletries. The Oregon Senate voted 22-8 on Tuesday to pass Senate Bill 551, which would expand the state’s plastic bag ban to cover takeout bags provided by restaurants and the thicker plastic bags some stores have offered since the original ban took effect in 2020. The bill would also require customers to explicitly ask for plastic utensils, single-serving plastic packaging for condiments like ketchup, coffee creamer, jelly and soy sauce and plastic-packaged hospitality size shampoos, soaps and lotions, like they already must ask for straws

An Oregon appeals court on Wednesday found that a gun control law approved by voters over two years ago is constitutional, reversing a lower court ruling from a state judge who had kept it on hold. The law, one of the toughest in the nation, requires people to undergo a criminal background check and complete a gun safety training course in order to obtain a permit to buy a firearm. It also bans high-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds. Measure 114 has been tied up in state and federal court since it was narrowly approved by voters in November 2022. It was among the first gun restrictions to be passed after a major 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling changed the guidance judges are expected to follow when considering Second Amendment cases. A state judge in rural southeastern Oregon temporarily blocked the law from taking effect after gun owners filed a lawsuit claiming it violated the right to bear arms under the Oregon Constitution. Circuit Court Judge Robert S. Raschio then presided over a 2023 trial in Harney County and ruled that the law violated the state constitution. The Oregon attorney general's office appealed the ruling.

For full details on these stories and more see the website at  heraldandnews.com