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The Oregon DMV acknowledged Friday afternoon that it mistakenly registered at least 306 non-citizens as voters since 2021.

Under state and federal laws, non-citizens are prohibited from voting in national or local elections.

The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019 and the DMV automatically registers most individuals to vote when they obtain a license or ID, according to Kevin Glenn, spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation, which oversees the DMV.

Glenn said an initial analysis by the state transportation agency revealed 306 non-citizens were allowed to become registered voters. Of those, only two have cast a vote in any election since 2021, Glenn said. He also clarified that the issue is statewide, not limited to any specific county.

DMV Administrator Amy Joyce told The Oregonian/OregonLive and OPB in a call Friday that the office is continuing to check for any potential errors and they will likely find more instances of the DMV allowing non-citizens to register to vote. She said her agency had a two-step process for verifying that license applicants had a U.S. passport or birth certificate but added a third step after learning of the data errors.

“It’s basically a data entry issue,” Glenn said. When a DMV worker enters information about a person seeking a driver’s license or state ID, they can incorrectly code that the person has a U.S. birth certificate or passport when they don’t, Glenn said.

Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said in a Friday statement the 306 individuals “will be notified by mail that they will not receive a ballot unless they demonstrate that they are eligible to vote.”

Oregon currently has more than 3 million registered voters, meaning 300 or so would represent an incredibly tiny fraction of potential voters, about one ten-thousandth of those who could cast ballots.

The motor vehicle agency’s lapse in enforcing citizenship requirements in all cases was first reported by Willamette Week.

“While this error is regrettable, the secretary and the Elections Division stand by automatic voter registration and its many benefits,” Griffin-Valade said in the statement, adding that her office learned of the issue late Thursday.

Gov. Tina Kotek said in a statement that she has been fully briefed on the situation and directed the DMV to immediately resolve the issue.

“The error in data entry which may have affected the voter eligibility of some Oregonian’s voter registration was discovered because the Oregon DMV and the secretary of state were doing their due diligence ahead of the 2024 election,” Kotek said. “My office will continue to closely monitor the situation. This situation will not impact the 2024 election in any way.”

Oregon Elections Director Molly Woon told The Oregonian/OregonLive and OPB that the Secretary of State’s office will continue to monitor the situation, “keeping in mind that these folks were registered by no fault of their own. They didn’t do anything wrong.”

In the recent past, the DMV assured reporters for The Oregonian/OregonLive that no non-citizens could slip through its system for offering automatic voter registration to qualified Oregon residents.

In 2019, Driver and Motor Vehicle Services spokesperson David House told the news outlet there was no risk people without proof of citizenship or legal residency would get registered to vote by obtaining a driver’s license.

The DMV required all applicants to show proof of citizenship or legal residency to get a license. Only those who are citizens have their names and information passed along to the Secretary of State for potential voter registration, House said in 2019.

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The city of Ontario will celebrate its legacy this month as the birthplace of one of America’s greatest culinary creations: the tater tot.

In 1953, brothers F. Nephi and Golden Grigg created the very first tater tots in their Ore-Ida factory, located on Oregon’s border with Idaho.

In honor of that history, the nonprofit Revitalize Ontario will hold a two-day event Sept. 20-21 celebrating the tot, including novel tater tot dishes, live music and a car show.

“Tater tots are ubiquitous,” said Terry Dols, president of Revitalize Ontario. “They’re all over the world. They may come under different packaging, different names, but everybody loves tots, and we want to make sure Ontario is recognized appropriately for being the official birthplace of tater tots.”

The idea for a Tater Tots Festival was first proposed, rather tongue-in-cheek, by a local attorney, Dols said.

“And the more we thought about it, the more we said, why don’t we do that?” Dols said.

The first festival in 2021 proved so popular, they actually ran out of tots. In subsequent years – with a steady tater tot supply thanks to sponsor and tater tot producer Simplot – the festival has grown to include a tater tot dish competition among the event’s food vendors.

“Our goal is … No. 1, educate the entire population of the country that those good old tater tots were born right here in Ontario, Oregon,” said Laura Hiramatsu, treasurer with Revitalize Ontario. “You can talk to people right here in town, and they don’t even know that.”

THE TATER TOT STORY

The little-known origin story of the tater tot begins with Golden and Nephi Grigg, brothers who grew up in a family of 13 children.

“They were best of friends,” said Golden’s son, Gary Grigg, in a recorded 2012 presentation to the Malheur Country Historical Society. “They had totally different personalities, but they were absolutely the best of friends. Everything they did in their lives they did together.”

The brothers got their humble start growing sweet corn in the 1930s. They would pick the corn at night, using miner’s lamps for light, in order to deliver it fresh to homes and businesses by horse the next morning.

They soon realized they could pack corn on the cob in ice to keep it fresh across longer distances. They purchased transport trucks and grew their customer base from Portland to Salt Lake City.

In the mid-1940s, a frozen food company opened a plant in Ontario, and the brothers started contracting with them to freeze their corn. Now, they could ship coast-to-coast.

“Basically, their sales tripled by 1949,” Gary Grigg said.

After the freezer plant went bankrupt, the Grigg brothers pooled from local investors and started Oregon Frozen Foods company to purchase the plant at auction in 1951.

“They mortgaged everything they owned, their houses, their cars,” Gary Grigg said.

They were able to buy the plant, but it cost $500,000, twice what they had expected, according to a history published by the historical society. The price was higher because another frozen food businessman was also bidding: J.R. Simplot. (More on him later.)

At this point, the Grigg brothers were focused on corn, but the corn season didn’t last very long.

“They began looking for something else that they could process that would keep the plant open year-round and not just two months out of the year,” Gary Grigg said. “And they began looking at potatoes.”

In 1952, the brothers started another company with a name inspired by their location on the Oregon-Idaho border: Ore-Ida Potato Products.

Frozen food at this time was still a novelty. Gary Grigg said his father had trouble securing bank loans because lenders thought “potatoes will turn black if you try to freeze them.”

But the brothers again got locals to invest, and they soon started selling frozen French fries in addition to corn on the cob.

The tater tot was born just a year later. It was Nephi Grigg’s creative solution for French fry waste.

The potato slivers left over after potatoes were cut into fries were being collected and sold as cattle feed, but Nephi wondered if there was a better, more profitable way to use those scraps. He experimented with further shredding the bits and adding flour, parsley and onion powder. That slurry potato mix was pushed through 3/4-inch holes drilled through a piece of plywood.

(That original plywood board — known by locals as “the holy board” – still hangs on a wall inside the plant today.)

“Nephi would stand on one side of the board and shove them through the holes, and Dad would stand on the other side and cut them off as they came through the board,” Gary Grigg said.

The resulting pieces were deep fried into a tasty treat.

Who came up with the name tater tot? While the Grigg brothers didn’t leave official documentation on the subject, the name is believed to have come from Clora Lay Orton, an Ore-Ida employee who entered a factory-wide contest to name the new potato creation.

Tater tots hit the market in 1954, though a search through newspapers.com reveals 1958 as seemingly the first year tater tots received national press. Several New York newspapers wrote about the “new food” with a “delicious, fresh potato flavor.”

A one-pound bag of tater tots then sold for 31 cents.

In 1961, Grigg Brothers Fruit & Vegetable Products, Oregon Frozen Foods and Ore-Ida Potato all merged into Ore-Ida Foods, which then became a publicly traded company.

By 1964, Ore-Ida was grossing $31 million and processing 1 million pounds of potatoes every day, Gary Grigg said.

The next year, the company’s gross earnings doubled, and the brothers sold the company to H. J. Heinz Corp.

“(Golden) told me the growth, in his words, was dizzying,” Gary Grigg said. “They just couldn’t fathom where it was going.”

Golden died in 1991 at age 79, and Nephi died in 1995 at age 81. Nephi’s obituary in the Salt Lake Tribune included a quote that was his life’s motto: “Bite off more than you can chew, and then chew it.”

TATER TOTS TODAY

Simplot, a global food and agricultural company, was founded in Idaho in 1929 by J.R. Simplot — the same man who tried to buy Ontario’s frozen food factory in 1950.

Simplot died in 2008, but in 2022 his namesake company would finally come to own the Ontario factory where tater tots are made.

Kraft Heinz still owns the Ore-Ida brand, but Simplot is the exclusive producer of the brand’s products, which includes tater tots.

The name “tater tot” is actually copyrighted. Other companies may sell tater rounds, tater bites or potato puffs, but tater tots only come from Ore-Ida. The Ontario plant makes 95% of the world’s tater tots, along with other small, fried potato products under various names.

“This plant is 100 percent potatoes,” said Michael Repp, plant director at Simplot’s Ontario location. “More likely than not, if you’ve had a potato product, especially a fried potato product, under a whole host of names, Simplot’s probably making it.”

The tater tot-making process hasn’t changed much since 1952, it’s just done on a much larger scale using industrial equipment rather than plywood. The plant today employs more than 500 people working four shifts around the clock.

“We’re making tater tots 24/7,” Repp said. “From the point that the potato comes into this factory to it’s a frozen tater tot is less than an hour.”

The Ontario plant produces about 560 million pounds of potato products each year, Repp said. About 160 million pounds of that will be tater tots.

The Grigg brothers’ creation is no longer just something made from waste products.

“The tater tot definitely has its own fans today,” Repp said. “There are times that we’ll shred whole potatoes just to make the tater tots, so the tater tot does not need the French fry anymore.”

IF YOU GO: The fourth annual Tater Tots Festival will be 2-10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 20, and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, at Lions Park, 790 S.W. Third Ave. in Ontario. The free event includes live music, a beer and wine garden, food vendors and kids’ activities, including a splash pad (weather permitting), and a car show Sept. 21. The “Holy Board” Cornhole Tournament begins at 7 p.m. Sept. 20, with entry fees benefiting the F. Nephi and Golden Grigg Legacy Foundation to raise money for child abuse prevention. For more information and a schedule of events, visit tatertotsfestival.com.

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The mother of a 2-year-old girl, who died last week of suspected fentanyl poisoning, attempted to resuscitate her toddler but then ran out of the Northeast Portland home, telling a friend to call 911, according to the victim’s cousin.

The mother fled because she said she faced warrants for her arrest, the cousin said.

The friend who lived in the manufactured Fox Run home in Northeast Portland called 911 Thursday about 2:30 p.m. and performed CPR until firefighters arrived and found the girl in cardiac arrest.

The girl was rushed by ambulance to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead that afternoon.

Portland narcotics enforcement officers are continuing to search for the mother of the girl as they investigate the circumstances surrounding the toddler’s apparent drug-related death. It’s unclear how the girl came into contact with fentanyl.

Meanwhile, relatives of the toddler, who they identified as Aurora Fernandez, are posting the mother’s photo on social media, “trying to get people to keep an eye out for her,” said Isa Smith, Aurora’s cousin. Aurora’s father is Smith’s uncle.

Aurora’s parents had separated a few months earlier. Aurora usually lived with her father but was visiting her mother last week, relatives said.

Aurora was described as a happy child, smart and “super funny,” according to Smith.

“She loved sunflowers and blue flowers, kittens and dressing up as a princess,” Smith recalled. “Her favorite color was yellow.”

A family GoFundMe page to raise awareness about Aurora is titled: “A Life Taken Too Soon.’’

“We are heartbroken to share the tragic news of the loss of 2-year-old Aurora Fernandez,” it said. “Aurora brought joy and light to everyone around her and her untimely death has left a profound void in the hearts of her family and friends.”

Another cousin of the young victim, Dominique Hodges, wrote on the fundraising page that the family wants “to honor Aurora’s memory while raising awareness about the devastating impact of fentanyl and the importance of addressing substance abuse.”

The toddler’s 26-year-old mother, Mary Elizabeth Jacobo, has two older children.

She also has two pending arrest warrants.

At the start of this year, a warrant in Multnomah County was issued when Jacobo failed to report weekly to pretrial services following her release from custody in early October on multiple charges, including felon in possession of a firearm, unauthorized use of a vehicles, possession of a stolen vehicle, reckless driving and failure to perform the duties of a driver.

She was accused of eluding police in a U-Haul pickup truck in June, continuing to drive on it with deflated tires before crashing it in Southeast Portland. Police said she ran from the truck and was stopped when she tried to hide in an apartment. A black backpack she had dropped contained a loaded handgun, police said. Upon arrest, Jacobo told officers she had swallowed “dope,” and was taken to a hospital before she was booked into jail, according to a probable cause affidavit.

In 2022, the mother was questioned by police outside a Gresham market, admitted she didn’t have her driver’s license and attempted to run from officers but was stopped. Police found a single 9mm round on her during a search and a black handgun on the backseat floorboard of the Honda Civic she was driving, according to a probable cause affidavit. In that case, a warrant for her arrest was issued in February of this year when she failed to appear in court on allegations of being a felon with a gun and resisting arrest, according to court records. She also has an unlawful possession of a firearm conviction from Washington state.

The toddler most recently had been living with her father, Jacob Anthony Fernandez, 47, because her mother was in and out of jail, according to his relatives. The mother had been staying at a manufactured home in the Fox Run complex for about five to six months, according to the relatives.

Detectives last week said they had spoken with numerous adults in the girl’s life but wanted to speak with her mother “who left the home as this incident was initially unfolding.”

Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact Detective Jason Koenig at Jason.Koenig@police.portlandoregon.gov, or 503-823-0889 and reference Case No. 24-233352.

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Another wolfpack is under the gun after a series of attacks on livestock.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife approved Thursday the killing up to two wolves from the Onion Creek pack in northeast Washington.

Wolves from the pack have been deemed responsible for three dead calves in Stevens and Pend Oreille counties in the past month.

WDFW said in a news release that the first death was recorded on Aug. 10. The next was on Aug. 15, and the most recent one was recorded Monday.

WDFW said in news a release that the affected livestock producers had tried to deter the attacks with non-lethal measures. Officials believe the cattle attacks would likely continue without authorizing the removal of two wolves.

The authorization for lethal removal lasts through midnight on Sept. 23.

The Onion Creek pack consists of at least 10 wolves, according to WDFW, and it roams a territory northeast of Colville.

It's the third wolfpack WDFW has targeted this year for lethal removal after the killing of cattle. The other two — the Leadpoint and Dominion packs — are also in Stevens County.

Officials killed one wolf from the Dominion pack in mid-August. The Leadpoint pack made it through unscathed, with its lethal removal authorization expiring before a wolf could be killed.

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     (c)2024 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)

     Visit The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) at www.spokesman.com

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CARDIFF, Idaho — Investigators located two bodies while searching the rubble of a remote gas station in north-central Idaho that burst into flames Wednesday in a violent explosion.

The explosion on Wednesday afternoon while a semitruck with two fuel tank trailers was at the station sent at least two people to hospitals, according to officials. It also destroyed a house next door.

Two other people were airlifted to burn units in Spokane and Seattle, Idaho State Fire Mashall Knute Sandahl said Thursday. Further details about the people who died or were injured were not released Friday morning.

Bruce Schulz, owner of the destroyed home, was visiting relatives in a nearby town when it happened. Because the road was closed, he didn't return until Friday morning, when he first saw the wreckage of his home.

The shell of one of the gas station's fuel tanks was lying in his back yard, about one hundred yards  from where it should have been.

"Terrible tragedy," Schulz said. "I'm heartbroken. My heart is with the people that were hurt, and their families."

Two cabins he owns behind the house and his Quonset hut workshop survived.

Investigators from various state and federal agencies continued sorting through the gas station wreckage Friday.

"It is still way too early to even speculate the cause of this tragic event," said Idaho State Fire Marshal Knute Sandahl in a news release. "Piecing together the events leading up to the explosion and fire could take several weeks. We must be methodical and thorough."

A chassis and exhaust pipe were most of what remained of the semitruck and its two fuel tank trailers. The truck was parked along four old fashioned self-serve fuel pumps.

The cinderblock convenience store was in crumbles. Bombed-out frames of a small excavator, two pickup trucks and another vehicle were also in the parking lot.

About five more above-ground fuel tanks, like the one found in Schulz's yard, were scattered in the back of the gas station property. Over a dozen oil barrels were scattered on the side.

The gas station was the only business in the tiny unincorporated community of a few dozen buildings on state Highway 11. The road continues to Montana, but eventually turns into a dirt road.

With few year-round residents, most of the gas station's traffic was from loggers and outdoorsmen, Schulz said.

The station's stockpile of motor oils serviced various logging equipment, said Jeff Fleming, the neighbor on the other side of the station. His wife, Kathy, was home when the explosion happened.

"It rattled me a moment," Kathy Fleming said. "I froze and thought, OK, what do I do? Then I sprung into action."

She called 911, called her husband at work, then evacuated her six dogs to the top of the hill up the road, where she waited for about five hours.

Jeff and Kathy figure their house was saved because the wind was blowing the other direction.

Rosemary Gibbs, who lives a few houses down, said the boom from the explosion rattled the walls and didn't sound like thunder. She knew it must be the gas station. Her friend and housemate Vernon Morris got out the hose and put out sparks approaching his neighbor's shed. The heat was too intense to get any closer, he said.

Morris grew up in Cardiff and recalls the gas station was built around 1960, shortly after he graduated high school.

Gibbs and Morris said the two people who were rescued are the gas station's clerk and the fuel truck driver. The two who were killed were loggers who were regular customers, they said.

The gas station was a local meeting place, Gibbs said, where people liked to chat with the clerk.

Ronnie Anderson stopped across the street in his pickup Friday afternoon to pay his respects to an old friend who he said didn't make it out of the fire. Anderson said the friend was a logger who stopped there every day after work.

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     (c)2024 The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.)

     Visit The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.) at www.spokesman.com

     Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.