The daily Astorian., March 09, 2017, Page 5A, Image 5

5A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2017
White House wants major cuts to Coast Guard
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s budget
would eliminate a $600 mil-
lion-plus state-of-the-art Coast
Guard cutter that’s a priority of
the powerful Republican chair-
man of the Senate Appropria-
tions Committee.
The proposal by Office
of Management and Bud-
get Director Mick Mulvaney
is included in draft docu-
ments of the White House bud-
get request. The documents,
obtained by The Associated
Press, ask the Department of
Homeland Security to cancel
its contract with Ingalls Ship-
building, which is to construct
the national security cutter at
its shipyard in Pascagoula,
Mississippi.
The move is a direct slap
at Appropriations Committee
Chairman Thad Cochran, who
added $640 million to build the
ship to a catchall spending bill
that passed in December 2015.
The ship was not requested by
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
The Trump administration is proposing cuts in the U.S.
Coast Guard’s budget, including axing the procurement
program for a new class of national security cutters, the
first of which is pictured.
the Coast Guard.
And there’s an added twist:
Cochran had publicly wavered
last month about supporting
Mulvaney’s nomination and
had been a critic of the former
tea party congressman from
South Carolina. Cochran ended
up voting for Mulvaney, which
saved Vice President Mike
Pence from having to alter
travel plans to cast a tie-break-
ing vote.
The documents say at least
$500 million could be saved
by canceling the contract and
the money would be spent else-
where in the homeland security
budget for next year. Cochran,
R-Miss., who also chairs the
subcommittee that oversees
defense spending, is certain to
fight the cut.
“There are responsible
ways to reduce spending,”
said Cochran spokesman Ste-
phen Worley. “Weakening our
nation’s first line of defense
against drug cartels and human
trafficking isn’t one of them.”
Ingalls spokeswoman Beci
Branton said in an email that
“the impact of OMB’s direction
to the Coast Guard is unknown
at this time.” She said the ship-
builder has already purchased
some materials and is in the
pre-production stage.
Ingalls employs 11,000
workers, more than half of them
in well-paying union positions.
But it’s unclear how many jobs
might be threatened by Mul-
vaney’s move, if it succeeds.
The national security cutter
program is part of an expensive
and delay-plagued program
to replace the Coast Guard’s
older fleet. The ships are more
than 400 feet long and have a
helipad and modern weapons
systems.
For years, Cochran was
among the most prolific spon-
sor of so-called earmarks — pet
projects for one’s state or con-
gressional district — before
they were banned in 2011 after
Republicans took back the
House. The cutter doesn’t fit
the official definition of an ear-
mark but is widely seen as one.
Divorces: Staff handled 1,240 cases in 2016
Continued from Page 1A
involved, accusations of seri-
ous mistreatment or disagree-
ments about money or prop-
erty, a couple can expect to
spend more, wait longer and
appear in court at least once.
Couples who are divorc-
ing more or less amicably have
another option: they can send
their paperwork to Wahkiakum
County, along with a check for
$294, then wait for the clerk’s
office to do the rest.
“I had the idea before I was
the clerk,” said Holland, who
started working in the clerk’s
office in 1995. Several years
ago, she learned that online
divorce-processing
compa-
nies like www.completecase.
com and www.Washingtondi-
vorceonline.com were send-
ing hundreds of Washington
divorces to Lincoln County.
She saw a “good opportunity.”
After she took office, it
took about three years to fig-
ure out how to efficiently pro-
cess long-distance divorces and
get the necessary policies in
place. For example, since the
parties don’t visit the office in
person, all signatures have to
be notarized. Additionally, Hol-
land said, “They have to be in
agreement” about how to han-
dle the split.
Dissolution solution
Holland wanted to get the
word out, so she contacted a
few online divorce processors.
“I talked them into giv-
ing us a try,” Holland said. “A
lot of our divorces come from
companies.”
In 2014, her office han-
dled 103 cases. The slow start
allowed the staff to develop a
fairly seamless process. When
a case comes in, Holland and
her staff make sure the paper-
work is complete, and then a
mandatory 90-day “cooling-off
period” goes into effect. When
each file is sufficiently cool,
the customers pay a $30 sign-
ing fee, and the office deliv-
ers it to a court commissioner
or judge, who finalizes the
divorce. Within a few days, the
two newly single people can go
their separate ways.
“We don’t sit on ’em. We
count them up. We have the
piles ready,” Holland said. “We
get them in front of a judge. If
(the parties) need copies back,
99.9999 percent of the time, we
get them out the same day.”
She and her staff have to
send a small percentage back
to customers for corrections.
Some couples realize their
divorces are too contentious for
such a hands-off approach, and
have to hire lawyers and appear
in person, Holland said. Other
couples realize they aren’t
ready to call it quits, and ask the
clerk’s office to put their cases
on hold or dismiss them.
Quick and quiet
Plenty of divorcing couples
welcome the opportunity to end
their marriages with as little
fanfare as possible. Some like
the convenience, Holland said,
while others like the anonymity
of filing in a small, out-of-the-
way place. There are also peo-
ple who find it less intimidating
than a traditional divorce.
“I hear from a lot of peo-
ple that they don’t want to file
in their own county. They don’t
want to come to court. They’re
scared to come to court,” Hol-
land explained.
Satisfied customers like the
fast turnaround time, and the
individual attention they get by
filing in Wahkiakum County.
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“They love hearing a voice,
and not a phone tree,” Holland
said. “I have really had a lot of
compliments about my staff
and how they talk to people on
the phone.”
Word spread, and by 2015,
“We just started getting more
and more,” Holland said. That
year, they processed 1,103
divorces — more than nine
times the number of divorces in
neighboring Pacific County.
court fees, including a “finan-
cial responsibility docket” for
people who weren’t meeting
their obligations. Judge Bill
Faubion worked with people
who were behind, and Prosecu-
tor Dan Bigelow cracked down
on the toughest cases, even
sending some to jail. Between
2008 and 2012, the county’s
fine collection rate increased by
more than 100 percent.
The diva of divorce
Separations
with a smile
Lincoln and Wahkiakum
counties rank 35th and 38th out
of 39 counties in terms of pop-
ulation size. In 2015, Wahkia-
kum County residents made up
just 0.06 percent of the state’s
population, according to state
figures, but Holland, along with
one full-time and two part-time
deputy clerks, handled about 3
percent of the state’s divorce
cases.
In all, those brought in
about $182,000. Minus fees for
the commissioners and judges
who signed the paperwork, the
divorces contributed around
$80,000 to state coffers, and
about $70,000 to the county
budget. Some of the local
money paid for domestic-vio-
lence prevention and the coun-
ty’s law library. The remaining
$55,000 went into the general
expense fund.
It’s not the first time Holland
has used her resourcefulness to
find new ways to make money.
She was recognized in 2012,
when a study by the Washing-
ton State Association of County
Officials found that Wahkia-
kum County had the highest
per-capita collection rate for
fines in the state. During her
first term, she made several
changes to make it easier to col-
lect restitution fines and other
In 2016, the staff handled
1,240 cases — slightly over
Holland’s goal of 100 divorces
per month. The success of the
program allowed her to hire
someone for a full-time posi-
tion that had been built into the
budget, but not filled, due to the
county’s tight finances. That
person helps with the growing
divorce caseload, but also helps
with other all other court clerk
duties. The timing is especially
good, Holland said, as this year,
both Wahkiakum and Pacific
counties will be working on a
very ambitious state-mandated
project — moving all of their
court records to a new software
system.
Holland thinks her staff
could handle more divorces,
and she’d like to start doing
business with at least one more
processing company. However,
she’s very aware that if they
take on too many, they won’t
be able to offer the kind of per-
sonal service that makes an
unpleasant process a bit easier
to endure.
“I don’t want to get to the
point where I can’t process
them perfectly, because then
you’re not giving people good
service, and I really think a lot
of it is about the service,” Hol-
land said.
House panel OKs health bill,
industry groups say ‘no’
WASHINGTON — House Republicans scored a pre-dawn
triumph today in their effort to scuttle former President Barack
Obama’s health care overhaul, but it masked deeper problems
as hospitals, doctors and consumer groups mounted intensify-
ing opposition to the GOP health care drive.
After nearly 18 hours of debate and over two dozen par-
ty-line votes, Republicans pushed legislation through the
Ways and Means Committee abolishing the tax penalty
Obama’s statute imposes on people who don’t purchase insur-
ance and reshaping how millions of Americans buy medical
care.
“That’s what this whole bill was about, kicking people
who weren’t politically popular,” Ways and Means Chairman
Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said of Obama’s overhaul.
It was a victory of high symbolism because Obama’s
so-called individual mandate is perhaps the part of the statute
that Republicans most detest.
Even so, the White House and Republican leaders confront
a GOP and outside groups badly divided over the party’s high-
stakes overhaul crusade.
Hawaii becomes 1st state to sue
over Trump’s new travel ban
HONOLULU — Hawaii has become the first state to file a
lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban,
saying the order will harm its Muslim population, tourism and
foreign students.
Attorneys for the state filed the lawsuit against the U.S.
government Wednesday in federal court in Honolulu. The
state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but
that lawsuit was put on hold while other cases played out
across the country.
The revised executive order, which goes into effect March
16, bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim
countries and temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee pro-
gram. It doesn’t apply to travelers who already have visas.
“Hawaii is special in that it has always been non-discrim-
inatory in both its history and constitution,” Attorney Gen-
eral Douglas Chin said. “Twenty percent of the people are
foreign-born, 100,000 are non-citizens and 20 percent of the
labor force is foreign-born.”
Chin, who noted the state has budgeted about $150,000
for an outside law firm to help with the lawsuit, said people
in Hawaii find the idea of a travel ban based on nationality
distasteful because they remember when Japanese Americans
were sent to internment camps during World War II. Hawaii
was the site of one of the camps.
IRS strikes back as agents
make big dent in identity theft
WASHINGTON — The IRS strikes back: The tax agency
reports that the number of identity theft victims plummeted
last year after agents struggled for years to combat what has
become a multibillion-dollar industry.
The number of victims dropped by 46 percent, to 376,000,
the IRS said. These taxpayers had their identities stolen by
criminals who used their Social Security numbers and birth-
dates to obtain fraudulent tax refunds.
The IRS stopped nearly 1 million fraudulent refunds from
being issued last year. They totaled almost $6.6 billion, the
agency said.
“It’s a much more challenging time for the cybercrooks,”
said Mark Ciaramitaro, vice president for retail tax products
and services at H&R Block. “All of the easy paths have been
closed.”
Identity theft exploded from 2010 to 2012, and “for a time
overwhelmed law enforcement and the IRS,” said John Dalry-
mple, deputy IRS commissioner for services and enforcement.
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