May 19, 2016 OSL eClips
State Library eClips
* Oregon primary ballots on pace for record: more than 1.2 million
* Oregon hospitals will give consumers quick estimates on procedure costs
* Oregon’s anemic higher education funding — Guest Opinion
* Controversial neck-and-neck race for Legislature may head for recount
* Vertical housing subsidy doesn’t focus on affordability, and that’s OK — Opinion
* Josephine County GMO ban struck down because it conflicts with Oregon law
* Klamath and Grant county voters reject efforts to overturn local pot bans
* State orders boaters parked on Willamette River to move or be moved
* Portland is the 26th largest city in the U.S., new census figures show
* Kuebler on-ramp closure extended
* Severe wildfire season is the new normal, officials say
* Cleanup underway at former dry cleaners in downtown Eugene
* Barely one out of every two Lane County voters filled out their ballots
* Damascus voters say yes to disincorporation
* Big primary matchups? Big voter turnout? Meh, not so much
* Grant County government phones, internet back
* Bend’s population hits 87,104
* OHSU expert: U.S. culture encourages pregnancy cravings
* Election results in Central Oregon mirror state as a whole
* Experts discuss future for Redmond Airport
* Rule would give salaried workers overtime
* Editorial: Congress needs to help O&C counties — Opinion
* Column: You’re going to need a license for that job — Guest Opinion
* Column: More focus needed on medical mistakes — Guest Opinion
* Are African-Americans Really Leaving Portland?
* NW Dungeness Crab Fishery Could Be A Carbon-Emissions Casualty
* Oregon School Districts Miss Out On $9.45M In State Money
* Port Of Portland’s Terminal 6 Loses Its Last Container Service
* Klamath, Grant Counties Say ‘No’ To Recreational Marijuana Businesses
* EPA water quantity report worries farm groups
* State offers up to $750 rebate for organic certification costs
* Right to farm law questioned in Oregon pesticide dispute
* Vote totals top 1.2 million, set new primary record
* Drug court a path for second chances
* Transportation committee coming to Hermiston
* Our view: Crash the party by welcoming more voters — Opinion
* Hoopa plan suit to increase Klamath flows
* Port sets development, financial goals for coming year
* Port aims to untangle knot of heavy debts
* As I See It: Research suggests tablets in K-12 improve learning outcomes — Guest Opinion
* Timber execs: Innovation and rebounding economy good signs for industry
* What’s in Oregon’s air? New infographic maps it out
* Oregon settlement points to emergency alert device issues
* Millennials Now Rival Boomers As A Political Force, But Will They Actually Vote?
* Health Insurers Post Financial Losses as Oregon’s Commercial Plans Report Losing Thousands of Members
* CCOS Very Profitable in 2015
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OREGON PRIMARY BALLOTS ON PACE FOR RECORD: MORE THAN 1.2 MILLION (Portland Oregonian)
Oregon is on pace to eclipse its 2008 record for turnout in a primary election, with officials expecting to count more than 1.2 million ballots by the time Tuesday’s dust settles.
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OREGON HOSPITALS WILL GIVE CONSUMERS QUICK ESTIMATES ON PROCEDURE COSTS (Portland Oregonian)
Oregon hospitals took a step toward price transparency on Wednesday, promising to provide cost estimates for scheduled procedures within three days.
The initiative aims to give uninsured patients and those who are out-of-network a better idea of what a procedure will cost.
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OREGON’S ANEMIC HIGHER EDUCATION FUNDING — GUEST OPINION (Portland Oregonian)
As one of the advocates for creating separate governing boards for Oregon’s universities, I was pleased to note the apparent success The Oregonian/OregonLive reported about the initial operation of these boards. The article also noted that the Legislature had allocated a “record $665 million in general state support … for the 2015-17 biennium.”
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CONTROVERSIAL NECK-AND-NECK RACE FOR LEGISLATURE MAY HEAD FOR RECOUNT (Portland Oregonian)
A neck-and-neck primary race for a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives may be headed for an automatic recount.
Partial returns as of 11:31 a.m. Wednesday show that Roberta Phillip-Robbins’ lead over opponent Tawna Sanchez has shrunk to a mere 16 votes in the Democratic primary for House District 43, which encompasses a swath of North and Northeast Portland.
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VERTICAL HOUSING SUBSIDY DOESN’T FOCUS ON AFFORDABILITY, AND THAT’S OK — OPINION (Portland Oregonian)
A number of mixed-use projects in Portland’s suburbs and elsewhere enjoy hefty property tax breaks, yet their owners are under no obligation to make any residential units affordable to low-income people. Observers, including some neighbors, have questioned the use of public subsidies for such projects, especially given the high price of housing in the Portland area.
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JOSEPHINE COUNTY GMO BAN STRUCK DOWN BECAUSE IT CONFLICTS WITH OREGON LAW (Portland Oregonian)
A Josephine County judge said Monday that a ban on growing genetically modified crops is invalid. The ruling clears up the legal limbo county officials have lived with for that last two years.
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KLAMATH AND GRANT COUNTY VOTERS REJECT EFFORTS TO OVERTURN LOCAL POT BANS (Portland Oregonian)
Ilo and Melissa Ferroggiaro, longtime medical marijuana growers who planned to enter the recreational market, took a decisive step after Klamath County voters refused to overturn a pot ban: The couple put their home on the market.
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STATE ORDERS BOATERS PARKED ON WILLAMETTE RIVER TO MOVE OR BE MOVED (Portland Oregonian)
Rix Miles Chapman estimates that he’s paid landlords enough in rent throughout his life to equal the full mortgage on a house or the price of a mid-sized apartment building.
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PORTLAND IS THE 26TH LARGEST CITY IN THE U.S., NEW CENSUS FIGURES SHOW (Portland Oregonian)
Portland is moving on up.
The city is now the 26th largest in the country, according new estimates released by the U. S. Census Bureau Wednesday night. Between July 2014 and July 2015, Portland’s population increased 1.9 percent, or by 11,889 people, enough to rise two positions in the national population estimate rankings.
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KUEBLER ON-RAMP CLOSURE EXTENDED (Salem Statesman Journal)
Inclement weather caused the southbound Kuebler Boulevard on-ramp at Interstate 5 to have an additional five days tacked on to its closure, officials said.
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SEVERE WILDFIRE SEASON IS THE NEW NORMAL, OFFICIALS SAY (Salem Statesman Journal)
This year should bring a “normal” wildfire season in most of the U.S., Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Tuesday.
The problem, Vilsack said, is that the new normal wildfire season is longer and includes tens of thousands of fires burning millions of acres of forest and destroying thousands of homes.
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CLEANUP UNDERWAY AT FORMER DRY CLEANERS IN DOWNTOWN EUGENE (Eugene Register-Guard)
The government-funded cleanup of a prime piece of property in downtown Eugene is finally beginning.
After years of planning by the state Department of Environmental Quality and searches for money by Lane County government, an excavator Monday cracked the concrete covering the former site of McAyeals Wardrobe Cleaners along Olive Street.
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BARELY ONE OUT OF EVERY TWO LANE COUNTY VOTERS FILLED OUT THEIR BALLOTS (Eugene Register-Guard)
-Unaffiliated voters largely tossed their ballots, data show-
For all the hoopla surrounding this primary election, barely half of Lane County registered voters bothered to fill out and return their ballots, election data show.
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DAMASCUS VOTERS SAY YES TO DISINCORPORATION (Portland Tribune)
-Judge denies request for injunction from Damascus Councilor Jim De Young-
After 12 contentious years as a city, voters in Damascus have approved a measure to disincorporate 2,570 66 percent to 1,268 32 percent, according to returns released by Clackamas County at 7:30 a.m. today.
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BIG PRIMARY MATCHUPS? BIG VOTER TURNOUT? MEH, NOT SO MUCH (Portland Tribune)
More than a million Oregonians cast ballots in Tuesdays primary, meeting expectations set early this week by election officials that a record number of voters would participate.
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GRANT COUNTY GOVERNMENT PHONES, INTERNET BACK (Bend Bulletin)
The Oregon Secretary of State’s office reported that as of almost noon Tuesday, the Grant County’s government phone lines and internet were running again.
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BEND’S POPULATION HITS 87,104 (Bend Bulletin)
-New Census Bureau population estimates have cities in the region growing faster than most others in Oregon-
The populations of Bend and other Central Oregon cities are continuing to outpace growth in most other cities around the state.
The U.S. Census Bureau released population estimates today that place Bend as the seventh-fastest growing city in Oregon. The city’s population as of July was estimated to be 87,014, a 3.4 percent increase from 2014.
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OHSU EXPERT: U.S. CULTURE ENCOURAGES PREGNANCY CRAVINGS (Bend Bulletin)
-Pregnancy can spur body image issues, food anxiety-
Carrots topped with peanut butter and pickles.
Hot Cheetos and Dr. Pepper.
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ELECTION RESULTS IN CENTRAL OREGON MIRROR STATE AS A WHOLE (Bend Bulletin)
-Regional political divides have faded since the 80s, expert says-
Central Oregon election results for state races closely mirrored what happened statewide, according to the unofficial numbers from Tuesdays primary.
Straight down the ballot, the results for both Republican and Democrat races statewide and in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties came in largely the same as far as which candidates took what place, and also in regard to vote percentage give or take a few variations. Jim Moore, director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation at Pacific University, said the parallel comes as no surprise.
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EXPERTS DISCUSS FUTURE FOR REDMOND AIRPORT (Bend Bulletin)
-Larger jets with first-class service may fly out of Redmond-
As Central Oregon continues to grow, Redmond Airport will most likely continue to grow with it.
But whether that will involve more destinations, larger aircraft, more frequent flights or all of the above remains an open question, according to the assembled panel at the Redmond Economic Development Inc. annual luncheon.
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RULE WOULD GIVE SALARIED WORKERS OVERTIME (Bend Bulletin)
-Federal regulation would make millions eligible for overtime-
The Obama administration, in a far-reaching effort to improve the lot of workers that has ignited criticism from business groups, announced Tuesday that it was making millions more employees eligible for overtime pay.
Under the regulation issued by the Labor Department today, most salaried workers earning as much as $47,476 a year must receive time-and-a-half overtime pay when they work more than 40 hours during a week. The previous cutoff for overtime pay, set in 2004, was $23,660.
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EDITORIAL: CONGRESS NEEDS TO HELP O&C COUNTIES — OPINION (Bend Bulletin)
The Bureau of Land Management says its new plan to manage forests in mostly Western Oregon will create a sustainable yield of timber, help wildlife and protect watersheds.
But the federal government has made a long, slow walk away from the initial commitments made for the so-called O&C lands.
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COLUMN: YOU’RE GOING TO NEED A LICENSE FOR THAT JOB — GUEST OPINION (Bend Bulletin)
When my mother retired from selling real estate, she toyed with the idea that she a talented cook who had long made her own croissants might make a little money on the side by selling homemade baked goods. Its the sort of business that people have started from time immemorial, letting them share what they love with someone willing to pay for it. A quick investigation, however, revealed that the thing was impossible.
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COLUMN: MORE FOCUS NEEDED ON MEDICAL MISTAKES — GUEST OPINION (Bend Bulletin)
First, do no harm. Doctors get that. They embrace it. Its nevertheless the conclusion of a major study that medical mistakes kill at least 250,000 Americans a year, trailing only heart disease and cancer as a threat to human life. Heres an overly hushed horror that needs massive attention, and scurrying loudly to the scene are John Hopkins University and a professor there, Martin Makary.
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ARE AFRICAN-AMERICANS REALLY LEAVING PORTLAND? (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
According to a recent L.A. Times op-ed, African-Americans are leaving Portland at a high rate 11.5 percent from 2010 to 2014. This is part of a wider trend of African-Americans leaving West Coast liberal hubs, where restrictive planning regulation is inhibiting growth, said Aaron Renn of conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute.
OPB Think Out Loud coverage: African American Exodus
According to a new article, Portland lost 11 percent of its African American population over a recent four-year period. We talk to PSU urban studies professor Lisa Bates about why that might be.
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NW DUNGENESS CRAB FISHERY COULD BE A CARBON-EMISSIONS CASUALTY (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Increased carbon emissions are putting Puget Sound Dungeness crabs at risk, according to new research from the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.
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OREGON SCHOOL DISTRICTS MISS OUT ON $9.45M IN STATE MONEY (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
More than half the school bonds on Oregon’s ballot passed Tuesday night. But because a number of bond measures failed, the results create a ripple effect when it comes to the state matching funds.
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PORT OF PORTLAND’S TERMINAL 6 LOSES ITS LAST CONTAINER SERVICE (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
The last of Portland’s anemic container service will end Saturday.
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KLAMATH, GRANT COUNTIES SAY ‘NO’ TO RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA BUSINESSES (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Voters in a conservative eastern Oregon county just said no on Tuesday to an effort to allow marijuana cultivation and sales.
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EPA WATER QUANTITY REPORT WORRIES FARM GROUPS (Capital Press)
Agriculture groups are nervous that a technical report released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be used to justify new federal controls over water usage.
The EPA claims its report Protecting Aquatic Life from Effects of Hydrologic Alteration is meant to provide state regulators with technical support about the impact of water management on the health of rivers and streams.
However, farm groups worry its intended to make the case for expanding the Clean Water Acts scope beyond regulating water quality to include water quantity as well.
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STATE OFFERS UP TO $750 REBATE FOR ORGANIC CERTIFICATION COSTS (Capital Press)
With demand for organic products continuing to accelerate, the Oregon Department of Agriculture is stepping in to help growers, processors and handlers meet the cost of USDA certification this year.
The department will reimburse up to 75 percent of certification expenses up to $750 incurred between Oct. 1, 2015, and Sept. 30, 2016.
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RIGHT TO FARM LAW QUESTIONED IN OREGON PESTICIDE DISPUTE (Capital Press)
Questions about the constitutionality of Oregon’s right to farm law, which shields growers from some lawsuits, have been resurrected in a pesticide dispute in Curry County.
Nuisance and trespass complaints against Oregon’s farmers and foresters are barred under the law, which has been challenged in court several times.
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VOTE TOTALS TOP 1.2 MILLION, SET NEW PRIMARY RECORD (East Oregonian)
More than a million Oregonians cast ballots in Tuesdays primary, meeting expectations set early this week by election officials that a record number of voters would participate.
However, the turnout rate was lower than in the presidential primary eight years ago and it was unclear what impact the states new automatic voter registration system had on the election results. Oregon has several hundred thousand more registered voters than eight years ago.
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DRUG COURT A PATH FOR SECOND CHANCES (East Oregonian)
For 10 years, the Umatilla County Drug Court has helped turn fear of failure into second chances.
I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I was afraid. I was afraid of losing my family, of going to jail, afraid that I couldn’t stay clean, Christine Massingale, of Hermiston, said. Drug court saved my life. It really did.
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TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE COMING TO HERMISTON (East Oregonian)
The state legislatures Joint Committee on Transportation Preservation and Modernization will be able to see some of Eastern Oregon’s transportation needs firsthand when it holds one of its meetings in Hermiston this summer.
The committee is tasked with developing a comprehensive package of bills for the 2017 legislative session that will address transportation infrastructure needs including highways, railways, bridges and ports across Oregon.
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OUR VIEW: CRASH THE PARTY BY WELCOMING MORE VOTERS — OPINION (East Oregonian)
Oregonians voted yesterday or at least the government counted our votes yesterday.
Thanks to vote by mail, many of us returned our ballot far in advance. Its pretty fantastic that 96 percent or so of those votes can therefore be counted within 15 minutes of polls closing. That sure makes it nice for journalists scrambling to make deadline for the next days paper.
But the real proof in the pudding is voter turnout, and Oregon did better than most this primary season.
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HOOPA PLAN SUIT TO INCREASE KLAMATH FLOWS (Herald and News)
The Hoopa Valley Tribe plans to file a lawsuit to net increased flows in the Klamath River.
The tribe announced Wednesday it has filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration NOAA for violating the Endangered Species Act ESA.
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PORT SETS DEVELOPMENT, FINANCIAL GOALS FOR COMING YEAR (Daily Astorian)
The Port of Astoria Commission voted Tuesday to focus on developing North Tongue Point, improving dredging, expelling sea lions from the East End Mooring Basin and repairing its docks, fixing crumbling piers and further improving the agencys finances as priorities for the coming fiscal year and beyond.
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PORT AIMS TO UNTANGLE KNOT OF HEAVY DEBTS (Daily Astorian)
The Port of Astoria, the agency tasked with maintaining a public infrastructure for local businesses and citizens, is getting it from all sides.
Crumbling docks, storm damage and toughening environmental requirements have the agency needing millions of dollars to fix its problems. Executive Director Jim Knight is looking at all different avenues to find the funds.
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AS I SEE IT: RESEARCH SUGGESTS TABLETS IN K-12 IMPROVE LEARNING OUTCOMES — GUEST OPINION (Corvallis Gazette-Times)
There has been a lot of discussion recently about the use of tablets iPads in K-12 instruction in Corvallis and the need for evidence that they would help in student learning. I thought it might be useful to look at what research to date shows us.
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TIMBER EXECS: INNOVATION AND REBOUNDING ECONOMY GOOD SIGNS FOR INDUSTRY (Douglas County News-Review)
The promise of more homes being built across the country and a new wood product being hailed as a game-changer, has local timber companies excited for the days ahead.
Toby Luther, president and CEO of the Roseburg-based forestry company Lone Rock Resources, spoke to dozens of local business leaders Monday as part of the annual state of the timber and wood products industry. In his speech, Luther expressed hope the beleaguered industry could ride innovation and a rebounding economy back to prosperity.
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WHAT’S IN OREGON’S AIR? NEW INFOGRAPHIC MAPS IT OUT (Oregon Business Journal)
Heart disease. Asthma. Lung cancer. IQ loss.
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OREGON SETTLEMENT POINTS TO EMERGENCY ALERT DEVICE ISSUES (KTVZ Bend)
-Some don’t have vital features for 911 contact, so be sure to check-
The Oregon Department of Justice recently reached a settlement with “Alert911,” a business name of of ConnectAmerica.com, which sells a device that can contact 9-1-1 during an emergency.
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MILLENNIALS NOW RIVAL BOOMERS AS A POLITICAL FORCE, BUT WILL THEY ACTUALLY VOTE? (National Public Radio)
Millennials are now as large of a political force as Baby Boomers according to an analysis of U.S. census data from the Pew Research Center, which defines millennials as people between the ages of 18-35. Both generations are roughly 31 percent of the overall electorate.
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HEALTH INSURERS POST FINANCIAL LOSSES AS OREGON’S COMMERCIAL PLANS REPORT LOSING THOUSANDS OF MEMBERS (The Lund Report)
Please contact the State Library for access to this premium story from the Lund Report. library.help@state.or.us, 503-378-8800
More than 90,000 Oregonians left traditional health insurance plans in the first three months of 2016, a further sign of the continuing turmoil the Affordable Care Act has introduced to the industry.
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CCOS VERY PROFITABLE IN 2015 (The Lund Report)
When all the figures were tallied by the Oregon Health Authority, the 16 CCOs earned a combined profit of $137 million last year.
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