STATE
6A — THE OBSERVER
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2019
O regOn in B rief
From wire reports
Trial to begin in
$1.4B forestry
management lawsuit
ALBANY — A trial in
a $1.4 billion breach-of-
contract lawsuit brought
against the state of Oregon
over forestry management is
scheduled to begin Thursday.
The Albany Democrat-
Herald reported Linn County
and 150 other counties and
taxing districts sued four
years ago, claiming the state
has not managed forests for
the most long-term, sustain-
able income as required in a
decades-old contract.
A management plan en-
acted by the Oregon Board of
Forestry in 2001 was based
on a definition of greatest
forest value that includes
factors such as recreation,
wildlife enhancement and
water quality.
The plaintiffs say their
share of forestry revenues
have decrease by $35 million
per year.
The state claims it has an
obligation to amend forest
management when those
changes affect the environ-
ment and wildlife.
Leaking pipe in
Northeast Portland
releases sewage
PORTLAND — A sewer
pipe in Northeast Portland
leaked an estimated 1,000
gallons of untreated sewer
water into an embankment.
The Oregonian/Oregon-
Live reported the Portland
Bureau of Environmental
Services plugged the leak
Saturday near I-84 and
Northeast 21st Avenue.
The 1,000 gallons is a
rough estimate.
Bureau spokeswoman
Diane Dulken says crews
believe the pipe has seeped
for some time and it’s impos-
sible to determine the exact
volume.
A complaint of a foul odor
prompted a search.
The bureau oversees 2,500
miles of sewer and stormwa-
ter pipe. Dulken says a third
of the city’s sewer pipes are
80 years old or older.
Video shows coach
disarming, embracing
Oregon student
PORTLAND — Authori-
ties have released a video
that shows part of a former
Oregon football star’s suc-
cessful effort to disarm a stu-
dent who brought a shotgun
to a Portland high school.
The video released Friday
by the Multnomah County
District Attorney’s Office
shows Keanon Lowe and
the student emerge from a
classroom and into a hallway
at Parkrose High School with
Lowe in possession of the
shotgun.
Lowe recalled lunging at
the armed student on May
17 as other students ran
screaming out a back door.
The video shows Lowe
hand the gun to a teacher
and then wrap the student
in a hug. Lowe works as a
coach and security guard at
the school.
The suspect, 19-year-
old Angel Granados-Diaz,
pleaded guilty to possessing
a firearm in a public build-
ing.
Parents guilty of
starving 5-year-old
daughter to death
BEND — A jury has
convicted a Redmond couple
of starving their 5-year-old
adopted daughter to death.
The Bulletin reported by
unanimous jury verdicts Fri-
day after a weekslong trial,
Sacora Horn-Garcia and
Estevan Garcia were found
guilty of murder by abuse
and criminal mistreatment.
Garcia and Horn-Garcia
were charged for the death of
Maliyha Hope Garcia.
She weighed 24 pounds at
the time of her death.
They both faced two
counts each of first-degree
criminal mistreatment under
the theory they intentionally
withheld food and medical
care.
Instead of murder, the jury
could have opted to convict
the couple of manslaughter.
Maliyha was adopted by
the couple shortly after the
girl was born and tested posi-
tive for methamphetamines.
In-N-Out Burger
starts hiring in Keizer
KEIZER — The wait is
almost over.
In-N-Out Burger fans are
serious, and so those who live
within striking distance of
Keizer no doubt are ready for
the California-based chain
to open its restaurant in the
small town near Salem.
An opening date hasn’t
been announced — indeed,
construction on the build-
ing is still going on. But
they must be getting close,
because the chain has
started hiring for the Keizer
restaurant.
In-N-Out Burger has
locations in Grants Pass and
Medford.
The Keizer eatery will be
the closest to the Portland
metro area.
In 2015, when the first
Oregon In-N-Out Burger
place opened, company
president Lynsi Snyder let
Oregonians know that the
chain’s beloved burgers soon
would be widely available in
the Beaver State.
Lost Pacific Crest
Trail hiker rescued in
snowstorm
SALEM — Searchers
in the Oregon mountains
have saved a hiker who got
lost while hiking the Pacific
Crest Trail in a snowstorm.
Robert Campbell, who
is 50 and originally from
the Philadelphia area, was
found wet, cold and ex-
hausted Friday in the only
shelter he could find — a
pit toilet in a closed camp-
ground.
Campbell credited the
Marion County Sheriff’s
Office with saving his life,
saying he could not have
made it through another
night. Heavy snow was
forecast through Saturday
evening in the Cascade
Range.
Bobcat that entered
school euthanized,
another released
SALEM — A young bobcat
that entered a private school
in Eugene with students
still in the building has been
euthanized while a second
young bobcat found outside
the school has been released
into the wild.
The Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife says
the bobcat captured outside
Oak Hill School earlier this
week was released Friday on
federal, forested land in Lane
County.
Officials say blood tests
and X-rays on the 6-month-
old male found it was
healthy.
Laurie Isola/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Washington Park and Zoo Railway is a star attraction for adults and children alike. The State Advisory Committee
on Historic Preservation Friday recommended that the railway be nominated for the National Register of Historic
Places, though with a revision first.
Zoo railway to be recommended
for National Historic Register
By Meerah Powell
Oregon Public Broadcasting
PORTLAND — The Oregon Zoo
Railway is one step closer to being rec-
ognized nationally as a piece of history.
The State Advisory Committee on
Historic Preservation Friday recom-
mended that the railway be nominated
for the National Register of Historic
Places, though with a revision first.
The committee said the railway’s
nomination report, written by Portland
researcher Melissa Darby, must be re-
vised to more accurately reflect a “period
of significance” in the railway’s history.
The currently proposed period spans
the year the railway was built, 1958,
until the end of the baby boom era in
1964.
“The committee felt that the end
date of the period of significance, 1964,
should more accurately associate with
a major event related to the signifi-
cance of the zoo train,” Robert Olguin
with the State Historic Preservation
Office said.
“National Register guidance
explains that period of significance is
the length of time when a property
was associated with important events,
activities, or persons, or attained the
characteristics which qualify it for the
National Register listing,” he said.
Once the revision is made, the
nomination will be forwarded to the
National Park Service to consider
whether to list it as a historical site.
If accepted, the historical listing
would include the full 2-mile route of
the zoo train through the Oregon Zoo
and Washington Park, which was cut
short in 2013 due to landslides.
Since then, the train has been run-
ning a 6-minute trip only through zoo
grounds, and community members
have been trying to gather support to
restore the full route.
According to the State Historic Pres-
ervation Office, some benefits of listing
a property in the National Register
include a federal tax program that can
save property owners 20% of the cost of
rehabilitating their income-producing
property.
Owners of listed properties can also
apply for “Preserving Oregon” grants,
in which the State Historic Preserva-
tion Office will award historic proper-
ties up to $20,000 for rehabilitation
work.
Candidates square off in debate
■ ■ Secretary of
State candidates
debate public trust,
election integrity
By Brenna Visser
EO Media Group
BEND — Protecting
the integrity of voting and
democracy as a whole in
the 2020 election were the
major themes in the debate
among the four Democratic
candidates for Oregon secre-
tary of state Sunday.
State Rep. Jennifer Wil-
liamson, D-Portland, joined
state Sen. Mark Hass, D-
Beaverton, and Ryan Wruck,
of Salem, at the Sunriver
Resort during The 10th Bi-
ennial Oregon Summit this
weekend. Terrebonne resi-
dent Jamie McLeod-Skinner,
who ran and lost the race for
the 2nd Congressional Dis-
trict to Rep. Greg Walden,
R-Hood River, last year, also
joined the debate.
Whoever claims the
nomination will then run
in the November 2020 elec-
tion to replace Secretary of
State Bev Clarno, who was
appointed after Republican
Dennis Richardson died of
brain cancer earlier this
year. Clarno has said she
will not seek reelection.
Much of the debate
focused on what candidates
would do to improve voter
accessibility and keep elec-
tions trustworthy in a time
when election tampering
by foreign governments is a
Ryan Brennecke/EO Media Group
Mark Hass, right, answers a question from the panel as Jennifer Williamson, Jamie
McLeod-Skinner and Ryan Wruck listen as the secretary of state candidates debate
during the Oregon Summit at Sunriver Resort on Sunday.
growing concern.
“2020 is going to be all
about protecting and secur-
ing our democracy, and our
ability to participate in it is
very important,” McLeod-
Skinner said.
McLeod-Skinner, Hass
and Williamson found com-
mon ground in supporting
tactics like same-day regis-
tration, changing postmark
deadlines to make sure
rural votes get counted and
having more election mate-
rials in several languages to
make voting more inclusive.
“Not having restrictions
does not mean you have ac-
cess,” Williamson said.
But Wruck, a 28-year-old
office manager, said easier
registration could come with
modernizing and simplify-
ing the voter registration
website.
For Wruck, having more
people vote in an election is
a crucial part of keeping the
system honest.
“The design of a website
can mean the difference
between voters and nonvot-
ers,” Wruck said.
McLeod-Skinner said if
she were elected she would
appoint an election secu-
rity officer to “think like a
hacker” and protect state
elections from foreign influ-
ence. Hass said that while
paper, mail-in ballots makes
Oregon less susceptible than
other states to attacks, he
would advocate to have the
best technology available to
protect the state’s database
of voters.
Williamson said mak-
ing sure the state election
process is safeguarded is
a priority because people
trusting the system is cru-
cial to making it work.
“We need all Oregonians
to believe it’s the safest
system possible. Because
if they don’t believe it …
they’re not going to vote,”
she said. “(President) Trump
and his actions have called
into question our democratic
system and process, and he’s
abusing this power to keep
people away from voting
… and that’s part of the
problem.”
How ballot initiatives are
written and reviewed was
also folded into the conver-
sation about public trust.
A decision from the secre-
tary of state’s elections divi-
sion to reject the initiatives
to tighten forestry laws be-
cause they related to more
than one subject has raised
the ire of environmentalists
and, for Hass, has called the
initiative review process
into question.