| Oregon update
Today Wednesday Thursday
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IN BRIEF
NW Natural asks for
more time for cleanup
PORTLAND — A gas company
responsible for a toxic tar reef that
juts into the Willamette River near
downtown Portland has asked that
it be allowed to delay cleanup for
three years.
NW Natural’s request in a May 6
letter comes a year after it agreed to
remove the tar body suspected of re
leasing cancer-causing chemicals
into the river. The Environmental
Protection Agency wanted the tar
body, the most visible feature of in
dustrial pollution that has made a 6
mile stretch of the river a Superfund
site, removed last summer.
NW Natural said it is looking for
a way to remove the tar and nearby
ground pollution all at once, and
needs time to form a comprehen
sive and cost-effective cleanup plan.
“We said we don’t understand it
well enough to remove it right
away,” said Bob Wyatt of NW Nat
ural regarding last year’s delay. NW
Natural has suggested covering the
tar with sand while it conducts fur
ther study.
In its 2004 annual report to the
Securities and Exchange Commis
sion, NW Natural estimated costs
for removing the tar body and
cleaning pollution at the neighbor
ing site ranged from $4.3 million to
$12 million. The company expects
insurance to pay $8.3 million, and it
will ask the state for permission to
charge ratepayers the rest.
The request for further delay frus
trated groups seeking a speedier
cleanup.
“It’s been too long already,” said
Travis Williams, Willamette River
keeper executive director and one of
the community advisers monitoring
the Superfund cleanup. “This site
has been known about for years,
there was a commitment to do it a
year ago and NW Natural is a
healthy, robust company that has
the ability to get it done.”
Black bears in Southern
Oregon sign of summer
MEDFORD — The best sign that
winter is finally over in the Rogue
Valley is the reappearance of some
unwelcome guests: black bears, who
have emerged hungry from months
of hibernation.
Because it’s not yet berry season,
many of the bears find their way
into human homes to scavenge for
birdseed and garbage. In the
process, the animals can cause seri
ous damages, tipping over garbage
cans, destroying chicken coops and
taking dips in ponds.
So far this month, 28 people in
Jackson and Josephine Counties
have called the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife to complain
about the bears.
“If you don’t stop them at the
trash-can stage, they often get more
assertive in getting their food,” said
agency wildlife biologist Rosemary
Stussy in Central Point. “The next
thing you know, they’re standing on
your porch looking through the win
dow thinking, ‘What do you have in
that kitchen?”’
A black bear with muddy paws
recently climbed on Maus and
Marianne Bailey’s porch in
Ashland to swat down a hanging
hummingbird feeder.
The bear also munched another
one hanging on a manzanita in the
Baileys’ idyllic hillside yard.
“We’re more intrigued than con
cerned,” Marianne Bailey said.
“We’re so close to the woods that we
get all sorts of wildlife. It’s just this is
the first time we had a bear.”
The wildlife agency has a policy
against trapping and relocating
nuisance bears. Doing so could
shift the problem elsewhere, dis
rupt bears in the relocated areas or
transmit diseases.
Instead, Stussy said residents who
spot a garbage-lunching bear should
turn the animal’s intense sense of
smell against it.
Fill a balloon with ammonia,
smear a little peanut butter on it and
place it on your garbage can lid, she
said. One bite into the balloon and
the bear will think twice before rav
aging a trash can.
Another defense against back
yard black bears is to rid property
of bear magnets, like compost
piles or greasy barbecues.
Supreme Court won't
hear Nader challenge
SALEM — The U.S. Supreme
Court on Monday announced it
won’t consider whether Oregon
election officials wrongly kept Ralph
Nader off the presidential ballot
last November.
Without comment, the court de
clined to hear Nader supporters’
appeal of an Oregon Supreme
Court decision that denied the
consumer activist a ballot spot
because of flawed petition
signature sheets.
Nader turned to a statewide peti
tion drive after failing at two mini
conventions in Portland to get the
1,000 voter signatures needed
to qualify for the ballots as an
independent candidate.
He needed 15,306 signatures to get
on the ballot under the alternate
method, and petitioners turned in
more than 18,000 signatures.
But Secretary of State Bill Brad
bury said after checking, Nader fell
218 signatures short of being on the
ballot. Bradbury disqualified thou
sands of signatures for not conform
ing to technical rules, such as peti
tion circulators not having properly
signed each sheet.
Nader supporters accused Brad
bury, a Democrat and backer of De
mocratic presidential nominee John
Kerry, of using trivial concerns and
applying unwritten rules to keep
Nader off the ballot.
Nader drew 5 percent of the Ore
gon vote in the 2000 presidential race,
which many Democrats argued was
mostly at former Vice President A1
Gore’s expense.
The state Supreme Court ruled
that Bradbury acted within his pow
ers in checking the petitions. Using
some unwritten procedures to do
that did not make them illegal, the
court said.
— The Associated Press
Universities fail
to reveal sexual
harassment cases
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SALEM — Students at Oregon’s
public universities are vulnerable to re
peat cases of sexual harassment be
cause schools fail to tell them about
confirmed cases of sexual harassment,
according to the results of an investiga
tion published in the Statesman
Journal of Salem.
The newspaper’s investigation also
found that punishments for con
firmed harassers are usually kept
from the general public, and that
public universities have not done
comprehensive surveys on the
number of students who get sexually
harassed by professors and peers.
And according to the newspaper,
many students do not know how to
file a sexual harassment complaint.
The newspaper began investigating
the issue of sexual harassment on
campus after it reported on a case at
Western Oregon University, in which a
former professor was accused of sexu
ally harassing his graduate student.
In that case, Western Oregon offi
cials refused to release details about
disciplinary action taken against pro
fessor Gary Welander.
Officials said the records are part of
the professor’s confidential personnel
file and exempt from public disclosure.
The Statesman Journal asked Ore
gon Attorney General Hardy Myers to
order the university to release the doc
uments, citing a public right to know.
But the newspaper’s request was
denied on grounds that the records
are not subject to disclosure under
Oregon’s public-records law.
Sexual harassment is part of a hid
den, mostly unreported, wave of vic
timization that occurs on college cam
puses and mostly targets young
women, said Phyllis Barkhurst, execu
tive director of the Oregon Attorney
General’s Sexual Assault Task Force.
“Talk to somebody who’s being sex
ually harassed — they see no benefit
in reporting,” Barkhurst said. “They
feel like it targets them.”
As it stands now, repeat harassers
can remain invisible within campus
communities, said Kathleen Moore, a
professor of philosophy at Oregon
State University.
“The thing that is most troubling for
us is how we fail in our duty to warn
students because of all the personnel
rules that sustain all this secrecy and
silence,” she said.
Still, sexual harassment complaints
are relatively rare at Oregon’s
seven public universities, according to
school statistics.
Since 1999, the schools have re
ceived 39 student complaints of sexual
harassment against faculty or staff, ac
cording to public records obtained by
the Statesman Journal.
Harassment was found in 22 of
those cases, resulting in sanctions
ranging from written reprimands to
firings and formal apologies.
Moore said complaint data doesn’t
reflect the reality of campus harass
ment because it reveals only “the tip of
the iceberg.”
Moore instead uses a simple meas
urement technique: a show of hands.
“Our faculty women’s network had
a meeting recently, for example, and
people asked a question: How many of
you know about sexual harassment
that is going on right now? I would
guess about a third of the people raised
their hands,” Moore said.
Still, change could be on the way.
After the Western Oregon University
story broke last winter, Gov. Ted Ku
longoski ordered a systemwide re
view of sexual harassment policies
and procedures at the state’s seven
public universities.
On June 2, reports from the seven
universities, along with recommenda
tions for change, are due to come be
fore the governor and the state Board
of Higher Education.
1996220
THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON DEBATE TEAM
RESOLVED:
The University of Oregon
should not conduct research
funded by the military
7:00 PM,Webneoday, May is
i8iLillii) [BuoineM School, 955 E. 13^)
Admwmon: FREE
COME EARLY
Debatora: jaton Lear, Laurel Moeolien,
Kara Borden,Jenny) Mcbride
Sponooro: UO Honors College Foremko Program,
UO Concerned Faculty for Peace and Justice
Volunteer
Fair
May 24th EMU Ampitheatre 10am - 3pm
Participating Organizations:
• SASS • Red Cross
• Kidsports • Looking Glass
• Child Advocacy Center • Greenhill
• Women Space • PeaceCorps
• Souljourn • CASA
Find out how you can get involved, then stop by the
CIP office in the EMU Breezeway to find out how you
can get upper-division credit for volunteering!
Special thanks to our sponsor: & Q) •<=»•