6A — THE OBSERVER
TuESday, auguST 11, 2020
STATE
Riot swiftly declared for Portland protest at union building
Associated Press
PORTLAND — A riot
was again declared by
authorities Sunday night in
Portland when protesters
marched to a police union
building, blocked a road and
set dumpster fires as officers
work to quell nightly unrest
in Oregon’s largest city.
The protest was broken
up almost as soon as it
formed outside the Portland
Police Association building
— the same building where
protesters were dispersed
after a fire was started
inside the union’s offices the
night before. Demonstrators
had marched to the building
from a nearby park. The
road was blocked with
fencing, and flames were
seen rising from dumpsters
in the middle of the street.
Police began forcing the
crowd of a couple hundred
away from the building.
While demonstrators were
being dispersed, commer-
cial-grade fireworks were
thrown at officers, injuring
two, police said. The depart-
ment released photos of the
officers’ injuries, including
a photo of a face covering
that “partially melted” from
the firework. The officers
were treated at the scene.
Some protesters returned
to the union building after
officers cleared the area.
Police said the road was
again blocked with fencing
and small fires broke out in
the street. Multiple people
were arrested, police stated,
but specific details weren’t
immediately available.
Since George Floyd was
killed in Minneapolis, pro-
tests have occurred nightly
in the city for more than 70
days.
Demonstrations this past
week have been violent.
Many in the city had hoped
for calm after federal agents
Date Modifi ed: August 5, 2020 9:36 AM
Photo by Nathan Howard/Associated Press
Portland police hang off the side of a riot van while searching for protesters in the Lau-
relhurst neighborhood after dispersing a crowd of about 200 people from in front of the
Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office early in the morning on Saturday, Aug. 8, in Portland.
withdrew more than a week
ago.
Three officers were hurt,
including two who were
taken to a hospital, during
the efforts to clear the crowd
of several hundred people
outside the union building
late Saturday. The two hos-
pitalized officers have since
been released. Nine people
were arrested during that
protest, police said in an
earlier statement.
Police arrested 24 people
during demonstrations over-
night Friday after they said
people defied orders to
disperse and threw rocks,
frozen or hard-boiled eggs
and fireworks at officers.
Some demonstrators filled
pool noodles with nails and
placed them in the road,
causing damage to a patrol
vehicle, police said.
The gatherings this past
week had been smaller than
the crowds of thousands who
turned out nightly for about
two weeks in July to protest
the presence of U.S. agents
sent by the Trump adminis-
tration to protect the federal
courthouse. The Portland
Police Association is a labor
union that represents mem-
bers of the Portland Police
Bureau. Its building is about
5 miles north of the federal
courthouse.
OED works through
second backlog of claims
Tens of thousands of jobless still await
benefits, according to acting director
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon
Employment Department
officials have now worked
through a backlog of 70,000
claims by people whom
Congress has made newly
eligible for unemployment
benefits.
But the agency’s acting
director acknowledges
that, while more people
are starting to receive pay-
ments, tens of thousands
are still waiting for benefits
because their claims require
more detailed review.
David Gerstenfeld said
the agency reached its
target almost a week before
its self-imposed deadline of
Friday, Aug. 8.
“We are hoping more
people are seeing relief
from their benefits,” he told
reporters on a weekly con-
ference call.
While he conceded that
processing is not the same
as payment, “it is something
that has to be done before
anybody can start receiving
benefits. For most people,
that initial processing is
what starts benefits going to
them.”
Self-employed people,
freelancers and independent
contractors, and gig and
temporary workers were
made eligible for benefits
by the federal CARES Act,
which was signed on March
27. Unlike regular busi-
nesses, which pay taxes into
a trust fund, they do not pay
those taxes and had been
ineligible to draw benefits
since the unemployment
insurance system began in
the mid-1930s.
The number of Oregon
claims from these workers
tops 100,000.
But the same federal law
requires states to determine
whether they are eligible
for regular benefits from
state trust funds before they
can receive federal ben-
efits under the Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance
program.
Gerstenfeld said some
of their claims can be com-
plex. He said people may
qualify for regular unem-
ployment benefits and fed-
eral pandemic benefits,
depending on what kind of
work they did, when they
worked, and if they also
worked in another state.
“There are bound to be
tens of thousands of people
whose claims have an issue
to be adjudicated,” he said.
“We know that has caused
delays for people to receive
payments.”
Gerstenfeld attributed
the faster processing of
these claims to several fac-
tors. Many claims for reg-
ular and pandemic bene-
fits were duplicates. More
staff members were hired
for the greater workloads —
the agency total now tops
1,000, compared with 100
before the pandemic in mid-
March — and they have
gained experience. A new
Google-developed applica-
tion allows the agency staff
to link claims to the agen-
cy’s mainframe computer
system, which handles ben-
efit payments.
According to the agency,
about 36,000 people have
been paid federal pan-
demic benefits totaling $82
million.
Meanwhile, despite more
than half a million claims
filed for regular unem-
ployment benefits between
March 15 and Aug. 1 —
the total for a comparable
period in 2019 was 57,000
— Gerstenfeld said only
about 1,000 claims are
pending, and the oldest
dates back to July 21.
The agency faced a
similar backlog of 38,000
claims at the end of May,
when Gov. Kate Brown
fired Kay Erickson as
director and named Ger-
stenfeld as acting director.
A total of $3.6 billion in
benefits has been paid out.
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The agency has begun
to advance benefits to some
newly eligible workers
if their unemployment is
related to COVID-19 and
they are likely to be eligible
for either regular or federal
pandemic benefits. Gersten-
feld said this is contrary to
past practice, which disal-
lowed any benefits before
claims are vetted.
“For that large group of
people, we know they are
going to be eventually eli-
gible for benefits,” he said.
“This new approach of ben-
efits-while-you-wait will
let us pay benefits while we
do the required adjudica-
tion process to determine
which program they will
ultimately get those benefits
from.”
However, if people are
determined later to be inel-
igible for benefits from
either program, they are
obligated to pay back the
money.
Gerstenfeld said that,
based on new guidance
from the U.S. Department of
Labor, which oversees state
administration of unemploy-
ment benefits, his agency
has changed its definition of
“gross receipts.” Now they
can report gross receipts
— the actual amount they
receive that week — but
subtract 25% of the previous
month’s overhead costs,
such as rent, utilities, mate-
rials and supplies.
Gerstenfeld said the new
definition would even the
flow of money and allow for
a more realistic accounting
of costs — and more
benefits.
“We know many self-em-
ployed people have been
looking for this change,” he
said.
He said people can apply
to make that change retroac-
tive to past weeks, although
it will take more time for
those changes to show up in
additional benefits.
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