4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2016
New laws: Penalties for illegally
killing certain wildlife will double
Continued from Page 1A
The new law applies even
in cases where the specific job
title or government depart-
ment used by the impostor
does not actually exist.
Oregon’s previous iden-
tity theft law was interpreted
by the courts to only apply to
impersonations that involved
financial fraud, leaving pros-
ecutors unable charge those
who did so only to intimidate
or embarrass. The new law
defines “injury” to include
physical harm, threats, harass-
ment and intimidation.
The crime is a Class A mis-
demeanor punishable with
up to a year in prison and/or
a $6,250 fine (a separate law
already in effect makes imper-
sonating a police officer or
judge a Class C felony).
Sky lanterns
If you were planning on
kicking off the new year by
releasing a glowing Chinese
lantern into the atmosphere for
good luck, think again.
The lanterns (known as
sky lanterns, Chinese lanterns,
UFO balloons or wish lan-
terns) are “mini hot air bal-
loons” made of a paper sack
over an open flame that pushes
the lantern into the air.
House Bill 4140 prohibits
the release of the lanterns into
Oregon airspace. Oregon fire
marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple
called the uncontrolled, open-
flame devices an “extreme fire
hazard.”
“Once released you have
no control over where they
may land,” she said. “They
could end up on someone’s
rooftop, in a tree, or a pile of
debris and cause an unwanted
fire.”
The Class A violation will
now be punishable by up to
$2,000 in fines.
Sex crimes
Victims of rape, child abuse
or other first-degree sex crimes
no longer need to worry about
their abusers hiding behind a
statute of limitations.
Senate Bill 1600 removed
the 12-year statute of limita-
tions on first-degree sex crimes
in Oregon, as long as the pros-
‘Kindness
surges’ will
travel around
By RACHEL D’ORO
Associated Press
Poaching penalties
Would-be poachers who
get caught unlawfully taking
or killing wildlife will face
substantially higher fines in
the new year.
The penalty for illegally
killing moose, mountain sheep
and mountain goats will dou-
ble from $25,000 to $50,000.
A variety of other fees will
increase significantly, includ-
ing a hike from $1,000 to
$5,000 for oversized sturgeon
and from $100 to $1,000 for
wild turkeys and sage grouse.
Juneau Police launch
2017 kindness campaign
EO Media Group/File Photos
New laws will take effect in Oregon beginning Jan. 1, including increased fines for poach-
ing, criminal penalties for impersonating military personnel or public servant to intimidate
another, a widened definition of soliciting prostitution and the banning of sky lanterns.
ecution has corroborating evi-
dence of the crime or multiple
victims come forward.
That law is joined by Sen-
ate Bill 1571, known as Melis-
sa’s Law, which requires that
all sexual assault forensic evi-
dence kits be kept for at least
60 years after collection. It
also directs the Oregon State
Police to create a position or
group of positions to handle
inquiries from victims and
other law enforcement agen-
cies about the testing of kits,
and prioritizes the testing of
kits that are connected with
active cases in which the vic-
tim has agreed to participate in
prosecution.
Immigration consulting
If you’re an immigrant
concerned about your sta-
tus under a new presiden-
tial administration, you’ll be
happy to know that fake immi-
gration attorneys preying on
worried immigrants will now
face charges of obstructing
justice if they get caught.
House Bill 4128 adds
unlicensed immigration con-
sulting “with the intent to
defraud” to the list of rea-
sons someone can be charged
with obstructing governmen-
tal or judicial administration.
It also adds offering unautho-
rized notary services “with the
intent to defraud.”
The new law amends Ore-
gon’s definition of extortion to
include threatening to reveal a
someone’s immigration status
to law enforcement if they (or
a family member or friend) do
not deliver services or goods
or refrain from reporting ille-
gal activity.
Obstruction is a Class A
misdemeanor, while extortion
is a Class B felony.
Whistleblower
protections
Handing over evidence
of your boss’s corruption,
abuse or fraud won’t carry the
same risks it used to thanks to
the whistleblower protections
implemented with House Bill
6047.
State employees and non-
profit workers will be given
affirmative defense — which
amounts to protection from
criminal or civil penalties for
the commission of a specific
crime — for giving lawfully
obtained information about
wrongdoing to a law enforce-
ment agency, regulatory
agency or manager.
Prostitution
The definition of “pro-
moting prostitution” has been
expanded in Oregon, thanks to
House Bill 4082.
Previously sex trafficking
could only be prosecuted if
the one “promoting prostitu-
tion” was receiving money or
property in exchange for their
role in facilitating the sexual
encounter. The charge of pro-
moting prostitution will now
apply to receiving “goods and
services derived from prosti-
tution” including benefits like
shelter or manual labor.
Measure impact
The goal is to measure the
impact of kindness on such
areas as crimes, suicides and
emergency calls at the end of
2017, according to Lt. Kris
Sell, who hatched the idea in
a partnership with the global
kindness advocate, Random
Acts, and others.
“Can you change the qual-
ity of life in a community
and prove that you have done
so?” Sell said.
Jennifer Willis-Rivera,
development manager for
the nonprofit Random Acts,
knows of no similar endeav-
ors by a police department or
city anywhere. She plans to
visit Juneau in January and
again a year after that.
To her, the excitement will
come in seeing the results
after an entire year focused on
kindness. “It’s something that
‘Goosebumps’
Some locals, including
students, already are exercis-
ing their kindness muscles.
Last week, special edu-
cation
students
from
Juneau-Douglas High School
traveled across town to hand
out candy canes at Thunder
Mountain High School. A
17-year-old Thunder Moun-
tain senior died in Septem-
ber after accidentally shoot-
ing himself.
Special education teacher
Janette Gagnon said students
wanted to offer some cross-
town support.
Thunder Mountain prin-
cipal Dan Larson got one of
the candy canes from stu-
dent Mitchell Henderson,
who wore a festive Santa hat.
Larson said it’s been a tough
year for the school. “We need
this,” he said of the holiday
cheer spread by the visiting
students.
COM ING IN FEBR UAR Y!
2017 ED ITIO N
of th e a w a rd-w in n in g publica tion from
th e publish ers of Coa st W eeken d
Postmortem account
access
You can now leave your
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photos to someone in your
will.
The
Revised
Uni-
form Fiduciary Access to
Digital Assets Act addresses
a problem for the digital age:
People are having difficulty
getting companies to give
them access to their loved
ones’ digital assets after they
die.
Oregon’s legislature joined
several other states in enact-
ing the law, which requires
social media companies and
other online platforms to
give access to social media
accounts, blogs, online videos,
photos stored in “the cloud”
and other digital assets to fidu-
ciaries named in wills, or give
users an option such as Face-
book’s “legacy contact” set-
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a third party who can access
their account in the event of
their death.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
— Following a year of deadly
confrontations
between
police and citizens across the
U.S., police in Alaska’s cap-
ital city are spearheading a
campaign to turn 2017 into
a community-wide year of
kindness.
Juneau Police will kick off
the campaign with public pot-
lucks on New Year’s Eve and
New Year’s Day to encourage
locals to commit daily acts
of kindness and to reach out
weekly to individuals outside
their usual circles.
Groups, businesses, gov-
ernment agencies and oth-
ers also are choosing a dif-
ferent week of the year for
their employees to conduct
“kindness surges,” with cor-
rectional officers at the local
prison taking the first week.
Ideas being considered
include visiting local senior
homes, distributing care
packages and paying for a
stranger’s meal.
everybody talks about all the
time, but usually we’re really
only focused on it around the
holidays, when there’s a trag-
edy,” she said.
Sell said the idea emerged
several months ago as she
contemplated what direction
Juneau police could take in
2017.
She said some “really
hateful things” had just hap-
pened nationally, including
the ambush killings of five
law enforcement officers in
Dallas who had been working
to keep the peace at a protest
over the fatal police shoot-
ings of black men in Minne-
sota and Louisiana.
Juneau has had its own
share of violence, includ-
ing the nonfatal shooting of
a man Dec. 3, months after
police first announced plans
for the kindness project.
No charges have been filed.
Police have released few
details, saying the shooting is
under investigation.
That was the first police-in-
volved shooting since August
2007, when police fatally
shot a sword-wielding man.
Juneau police also shot at a
fleeing suspect’s vehicle in
2008, but nobody was hit.
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Weddings is inserted into The Daily Astorian and
Chinook Observer with extra copies available all year long.
Plus, copies will be at the “Shores Style” Wedding Faire
January 28, 2017 at The Loft in Astoria.
e-version of Guide is online at 4 websites for an entire year
Deadline
January 11, 2017
Inserts
January 25, 2017
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