Drought agency reimbursement — The federal government has agreed to reimburse the Drought Response Agency for water given to the Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge and the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge at a rate of $360 per cubic meter of water. The 2018 Klamath Project Drought Response Agency on Wednesday approved the terms and conditions of the reimbursement from the Bureau of Reclamation. Legal counsel for the Drought Response Agency, Nathan Ratliff, says negotiations with Reclamation about the contract have been ongoing for months. After the agency identifies the water that would go to the local refuges and it’s been made available to do so, it will start the process of asking for individuals to claim that they are eligible for funding.

A new morgue after mass shooting — A rural southern Oregon county has a new morgue facility, three years after its two-body capacity became an issue following a mass shooting at the local community college. Douglas County’s new morgue in Roseburg has expanded its capacity for investigating deaths tenfold. Douglas County’s Chief Medical Legal Death Investigator Craig Kinney said he vowed to see changes following the 2015 mass shooting at Umpqua Community College, which left nine dead. The county successfully bypassed funding hurdles in part because of the shooting response. It now has an $11,500 walk-in cooler to support the county’s 400-plus body count caseload each year. Previously, the county drove bodies about three hours each way in order to process them.