Congressional candidate faces challenging run
Inside:
Welcome back!
Alumni weekend
event schedule
Page 2
On the Air
OPB broadcasts
show live from CJ
Valley resident Robinson seeks to unseat 23-year incumbent DeFazio
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Illinois Valley resident
Arthur Robinson knew ex-
actly what he was getting into
when he filed to run for Con-
gress earlier this year.
Although Robinson
never had sought elected of-
fice, he was aware of the
slings and arrow that often
accompany such campaigns.
Shortly after May 18,
when Robinson won Republi-
can nomination to take on
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-
Springfield) in the Nov. 2
general election, he got a taste
of what the next few months
could hold for him.
A May 29 article in the
Page 5
Confidence lost
I.V. Airport board
blasts manager
Page 7
Moving forward
County, AFSCME
reach settlement
Page 12
Man sought
after he
shoots at
police dog
Mason considered
armed & dangerous
Law enforcement offi-
cers in Josephine County are
continuing their search for a
man, possibly with ties to
Cave Junction, whom they
consider to be armed and
dangerous as he is suspected
of shooting at a police dog.
Dr. Art Robinson in his Cave Junction laboratory. (Photo by Michelle Binker, I.V. News )
piece also makes mention of
Robinson’s “petition project,”
in which more than 30,000
U.S. scientists codified their
opposition to the concept of
manmade global warming.
Robinson said that approxi-
mately 9,000 of those scien-
tists have doctoral degrees,
and that all the signatories are
“physical scientists,” with 10
percent educated in specific
environmental fields.
Robinson said that as
such, those scientist are “all
qualified to judge” the theo-
ries, data and methodologies
behind global warming.
He adds that the head of
the International Panel on
Climate Change is not edu-
cated in climate science.
“There aren’t 30,000
climate scientists in the whole
country,” Robinson said.
The home school cur-
riculum developed and sold
by Robinson also was men-
tioned by the Huffington Post.
It states that the curriculum
was based on material pub-
lished from Bob Jones Uni-
versity in South Carolina.
Robinson denies that
charge, and said that his pro-
(Continued on page 11)
Jobless rate
up despite
federal hires
Kelly Mason (JCSO photo)
On Friday, June 25, Jose-
phine County Sheriff’s Office
(JCSO) deputies responded to
a report of a suspicious vehi-
cle and person in the area of
Dutcher Creek Road and
Marcy Loop, between Grants
Pass and Illinois Valley.
Just after 9 a.m., deputies
initiated a traffic stop on the
vehicle, from which 34-year-
old Kelly Lynn Mason ran.
JCSO said that a K-9
was deployed and that Mason
shot at it with a handgun.
Deputies believe the firearm
to be a 9mm semi-automatic
weapon.
Mason is wanted on sev-
eral arrest warrants related to
numerous burglaries in the
county, JCSO said. He is re-
ported to have body armor,
and known to consume
methamphetamine.
JCSO said that Mason
last was seen on foot heading
toward the Rogue River off
Riverbanks Road. Anyone
who sees him is advised to
not approach, but to phone
911 immediately, said JCSO.
Mason is said to be
white; 210 pounds and 5-11.
He has extremely short brown
hair and blue eyes, with star
tattoos on his elbows.
The last known address
for Mason was in the Cave
Junction area, according to
JCSO. He last was seen wear-
ing a black vest, a T-shirt, a
black baseball cap and black
pants with a red bandana pro-
truding from the back pocket.
Anyone with information
concerning the incident is
asked to phone the JCSO
Major Crimes Unit at 541-
474-5153 or the confidential
tip line at 541-474-5160.
Internet newspaper, The Huff-
ington Post, took direct aim at
Robinson, putting the scien-
tist in the position of having
to defend and define himself.
The headline states that
Robinson proposed dumping
oil and nuclear waste at sea, a
highly sensitive issue in light
of the disastrous Gulf of
Mexico oil blow-out. Its basis
is a 2004 edition of the
“Access to Energy” newslet-
ter that Robinson now pub-
lishes, in which Peter Buck-
man wrote about the prospect
of disposing of waste in such
a manner.
“That article was written
by a scientist 24 years ago,
who’s been dead for 17
years,” Robinson said. “I
didn’t write it.”
Buckman founded the
newsletter 34 years ago, Rob-
inson said. It was taken over
by Robinson in 1993, he
added. The Buckman article
was published in 1986.
“It’s a complete lie, and
the Huffington Post knows it.
They didn’t care,” Robinson
said. “They picked this up
and attributed it to me to play
this game.”
The Huffington Post
Cave Junction Lions Club held its 12th-annual Antique & Classic Car
Show at Jubilee Park on Saturday, June 26. The Best of Show award
went to Roseburg resident Chuck Mathis, pictured at right with Lions
Club President Buster Vander Woude. Mathis’ two-door Studebaker
(below, left) also drove away with the Best Paint (sponsored by I.V.
News ), Most Altered (sponsored by Subway) and Farthest From Home
awards. (Photos by Michelle Binker, Illinois Valley News )
By SCOTT JORGENSEN
IVN Staff Writer
Payroll employment in
Josephine County rose by 280
jobs in May, according to the
Oregon Employment Dept.
(OED), but that still was not
enough to counter an increase
in the unemployment rate.
The county’s seasonally
adjusted unemployment rate
went from 14.1 percent in
April to 14.5 percent in May,
OED reported. In May 2009,
the unemployment rate stood
at 15.4 percent.
Around a third of the
jobs added in May were due
to temporary hiring by the
federal government for the
U.S. Census, OED said. The
leisure-and-hospitality sector
was up 140 jobs from April;
construction rose by 30 jobs;
and retail added 20 positions.
Despite those upticks, the
county lost 610 payroll jobs
throughout the past year.
Without the Census hiring,
OED said, the decline would
have been closer to 700 jobs,
as that caused federal govern-
ment jobs to increase by 100.
The rise in construction
jobs also does not offset the
loss of 60 such positions dur-
ing the past year.
Retail trade also is down
150 positions on the year,
with the manufacturing and
leisure-and-hospitality sectors
each down 120. Health care
and social assistance are
down 70 jobs on the year, and
the transportation, warehous-
ing and utilities sector is
down 40.
OED said that wood
manufacturing gained 20 jobs
during the past 12 months.
“Other than those wood
product jobs, along with tem-
porary Census jobs, no other
published industries in Jose-
phine County showed any
significant employment gains
over the year,” OED said.
Neighboring Jackson
County posted a 12.3 percent
seasonally adjusted unem-
ployment rate in May. That is
unchanged from April, and
down from 13.2 percent in
(Continued on page 10)