2A — THE OBSERVER
D AILY
P LANNER
TODAY
Today is Saturday, March
7, the 67th day of 2020.
There are 299 days left in
the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On March 7, 1965, a march
by civil rights demonstrators
was violently broken up at
the Edmund Pettus Bridge
in Selma, Alabama, by state
troopers and a sheriff’s
posse in what came to be
known as “Bloody Sunday.”
ON THIS DATE
In 1793, during the French
Revolutionary Wars, France
declared war on Spain.
In 1876, Alexander Gra-
ham Bell received a U.S.
patent for his telephone.
In 1911, President William
Howard Taft ordered 20,000
troops to patrol the U.S.-
Mexico border in response
to the Mexican Revolution.
In 1912, Norwegian
explorer Roald Amundsen
arrived in Hobart, Austra-
lia, where he dispatched
telegrams announcing his
success in leading the fi rst
expedition to the South Pole
the previous December.
In 1926, the fi rst success-
ful trans-Atlantic radio-
telephone conversations
took place between New
York and London.
In 1936, Adolf Hitler
ordered his troops to march
into the Rhineland, thereby
breaking the Treaty of Ver-
sailles and the Locarno Pact.
In 1945, during World War
II, U.S. forces crossed the
Rhine at Remagen, Germany,
using the damaged but still
usable Ludendorff Bridge.
In 1975, the U.S. Senate
revised its fi libuster rule,
allowing 60 senators to
limit debate in most cases,
instead of the previously
required two-thirds of sena-
tors present.
In 1994, the U.S. Navy
issued its fi rst permanent
orders assigning women to
regular duty on a combat
ship — in this case, the USS
Eisenhower.
In 2001, Ariel Sharon was
sworn in as Israel’s prime
minister, serving until he
suffered a stroke in 2006.
In 2005, President George
W. Bush nominated John
Bolton to be U.S. ambas-
sador to the United Nations,
an appointment that ran
into Democratic opposition,
prompting Bush to make a
recess appointment.
LOTTERY
Megabucks: $5.6 million
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Mega Millions: $70 million
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Powerball: $100 million
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Win for Life: March 4
16-18-46-58
Pick 4: March 5
• 1 p.m.: 2-7-6-1
• 4 p.m.: 1-3-0-4
• 7 p.m.: 2-2-8-0
• 10 p.m.: 7-9-5-2
Pick 4: March 4
• 1 p.m.: 9-0-2-8
• 4 p.m.: 0-1-2-3
• 7 p.m.: 2-7-9-8
• 10 p.m.: 3-4-2-9
DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer,
please call the offi ce at 541-
963-3161.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In a democracy dissent
is an act of faith. Like medi-
cine, the test of its value
is not in its taste, but in its
effects.”
— J. William Fulbright,
U.S. senator
SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 2020
STATE
Oregon Legislature
DO NOTHING
SESSION
ENDS
■ Oregon’s 2020 legislative session ends
with little to show after GOP walkout
Sam Stites/Oregon Capital Bureau
By Lauren Dake
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — The 2020
Oregon legislative session is
effectively over.
Lawmakers set out with
a hefty policy agenda for
the 35-day session: bills to
prepare the state for an
earthquake, changes to the
way wildfi res are fought,
efforts to address the state’s
housing crisis and an ambi-
tious climate change policy.
None of that happened.
Instead, Republicans in
both the House and Senate
left the Capitol last week
to protest a cap-and-trade
bill. This week, on Thurs-
day, after the two sides
spent days trying to end an
impasse, legislative leaders
unexpectedly adjourned the
session three days before the
constitutional deadline.
The unprecedented move
meant more than one hun-
dred bills perished — among
them, bills to create an
independent public records
advocate, strengthen the
state’s gun laws, and declare
a statewide homelessness
emergency. Several of the
bills were budget related,
carving out money to ad-
dress a mental health and
foster care crisis.
From the start of this leg-
islative session, it was clear
Republicans could stage
another walkout to kill the
cap-and-trade bill.
Now that they have,
what is less clear is how the
Oregon State Legislature
functions in the future.
“I guarantee you other
states are gonna start copy-
ing this and that’s how dan-
gerous this is,” said Senate
President Peter Courtney,
D-Salem.
Courtney, the state’s
longest-serving Senate Presi-
dent, a man who has long
worked to protect the Legisla-
ture as an institution, said the
damage done this legislative
session is heartbreaking.
At this point, Courtney
said, helping the institution
recover is now as “important
of an issue” as any legisla-
tion. The Salem Democrat
said the Republicans’ move
to walk out effectively shifted
the power into the hands of
the governor now and in the
future. Republicans should
expect a signifi cant power
shift to the governor who will
now legislate through execu-
tive order, Courtney warned.
Courtney said he would
consider calling a special
session in the future to
Coronavirus
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, and Senate President Peter Courtney,
D-Salem, each announced the session’s end Thursday on the fl oor of their respective
chambers. No one recalled a legislative session ending with virtually nothing approved.
change the state’s quorum
rules. Currently, two-thirds of
lawmakers must be present
in order to conduct business.
This session, even though
Democrats held super majori-
ties in both chambers, they
needed two Republicans to be
present in both chambers in
order to vote on bills.
Even Sen. Herman Baer-
tschiger, R-Grants Pass, the
Senate Minority Leader who
led the walkouts, said deny-
ing a quorum sets a danger-
ous precedent. At a press
conference on Thursday, he
was asked whether he would
support a Democratic effort
to change the quorum rules
so only a simple majority
was required to do business.
“I would have to give that
some considerable thought
because when you have a
supermajority or when you
have a party that is that
powerful it almost turns into
mob rule,” he said. “And the
only thing the minority has is
to deny quorum, but I would
have to give it some more
thought because I do really,
really, really worry people are
going to use this every time
they don’t get their way ....
This is not a good way to run
a state, I can tell you that
very much right now.”
On the House fl oor Thurs-
day afternoon, Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland — known
for being an even-handed
and pragmatic politician —
gave a passionate speech
calling what happened a
“corrosion of our democratic
process.”
“This is a challenge I did
not expect to face in my
time as speaker,” Kotek said.
“I did not expect to face a
constitutional crisis in which
so many of our colleagues
simply decide to stop show-
ing up for work until they
get their way.”
Republicans in the Sen-
ate and House launched
a walkout last week in
order to block Senate Bill
1530, Democrats’ signature
climate change bill. The
proposal would institute
a cap-and-trade system in
Oregon, creating a declining
cap on the state’s greenhouse
gas emissions and forcing
many polluters to pay for a
portion of their emissions.
The Democrats’ decision to
end the session came shortly
after Oregon Republicans
said Thursday they were
willing to return to the Capi-
tol this weekend after more
than a week away.
Senate Minority Leader
Baertschiger and House
Minority Leader Christine
Drazan said they were open
to attending fl oor sessions
on March 8 — the session’s
constitutional deadline — to
pass a series of budget bills.
But the statement by
Republicans seemed to seal
the legislative session’s fate.
Kotek fi red back on the
House fl oor.
“Now, after missing eight
days of work and creating
an insurmountable backlog
of good bills and good bud-
gets, the Republican leaders
say they want to come back
with 12 hours left so they
can pick and choose what
bills live and die,” Kotek
said. “This would mean that
after days of shirking their
duties, they simply get to
return and decide they can
unilaterally kill all bills of
their choosing.”
Suicides
Private insurers to CDC: State ranks 11th in U.S.
waive COVID-19
testing costs
Observer staff
By Rachel Alexander
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Most private
Oregon insurers will waive
the patients’ share in the
cost of testing for COVID-19,
Gov. Kate Brown’s offi ce an-
nounced Thursday afternoon
as the state braces for a
growing number of cases of
the novel coronavirus.
Brown’s offi ce reached an
agreement with eight major
private insurers to spare
insured Oregonians from co-
pays and other such costs for
testing and a vaccine if one
becomes available.
“I’d like to thank Oregon’s
insurers for partnering with
the state, so that medical pro-
viders can issue COVID-19
tests to anyone who needs
one,” Brown said in a news
release. “No one should have
to ask if getting a COVID-19
test is something they can
afford. I hope this agreement
sets a framework that other
states can follow nationwide.”
The deal comes with some
caveats. It applies to testing
only at in-network providers
or urgent care facilities, as
well as all emergency rooms.
Not yet participating
are four of the state’s 10
largest insurers, who col-
lectively cover about 92,000
people, according to data
from the Department of
Consumer and Business
Services. They are United
Healthcare, Cigna, Aetna
and Health Care Insurance
Corporation. Oregon Health
Plan, which is run by the
Oregon Health Authority,
does not charge co-pays
or deductibles to patients
seeking testing.
Who’s
participating?
Participating insurers are:
• BridgeSpan Health
Company
• Health Net Health Plan
of Oregon, Inc.
• Kaiser Permanente
• Moda Health Plan, Inc.
• Pacifi cSource Health
Plans
• Providence Health Plans
• Regence Blue Cross
Blue Shield
• Samaritan Health
Plans, Inc.
Collectively, they
insure about 1 million
Oregonians and include
most health plans sold
on the state’s individual
and group insurance
markets.
SALEM — Suicide was the No. 1 cause of
death in 2018 for Oregonians age 10-24, ac-
cording to a new report from the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, claiming
129 Oregonians in the age group.
Five young people in Union County in
2018 were hospitalized due to self-harm,
according to the CDC data, but there were
no deaths from suicides. Wallowa County
had no hospitalizations or deaths. Baker
County had one hospitalization and two
deaths. Umatilla County had fi ve hospital-
izations and two deaths.
“Suicide continues to be a concerning
problem in Oregon across all age groups,
including youth, as this new data confi rms,”
Dana Hargunani, Oregon Health Authori-
ty’s chief medical offi cer, said in a statement.
“We continue to prioritize our work across
Oregon to support young people in schools,
at home and in our communities.”
The CDC now ranks Oregon the 11th
highest in the nation for youth death
rates, up from 17th in 2017. The former
leading causes of death for young Orego-
nians were unintentional injury, , which
includes drug overdoses and vehicle
crashes. According to the Oregon Health
Authority, the unintentional injury rate
decreased from 2017 to 2018 while the
suicide rate rose.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown included more
than $6 million for suicide prevention in her
2019-21 biennium budget. According to the
Oregon Health Authority, this is the fi rst
time the state has funded the work, which
includes money for Oregon’s 24/7 Suicide
Prevention Lifeline, creating statewide ac-
cess to suicide prevention programming and
addressing LGBTQ youth, veterans and
other higher risk groups.
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