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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2018
Interior official blasts resignation of parks advisory board
By DAN JOLING
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska —
A U.S. Interior Department
official on Wednesday blasted
the resignation of most mem-
bers of a board that advises
it on national parks, suggest-
ing the move was politically
motivated and their work was
flawed.
Todd Willens, associate
deputy secretary of the depart-
ment, brought up investiga-
tions that uncovered sexual
harassment at national parks
such as Grand Canyon and
Yellowstone and an inter-
nal investigative report of a
guidebook written by former
National Park Service leader
Jonathan Jarvis.
“We welcome their res-
ignations and would expect
nothing less than quitting
from members who found
it convenient to turn a blind
eye to women being sexually
harassed at national parks and
praise a man as ‘inspiring’ who
had been blasted by the inspec-
tor general for ethics and man-
agement failures,” Willens
said.
Nine members of the
12-member National Park
System Advisory Board,
including chairman Tony
Knowles, a Democratic for-
mer Alaska governor, resigned
Monday in a letter to Interior
Secretary Ryan Zinke, saying
their requests to meet were
ignored.
The Washington Post,
which first reported the resig-
nations, said a 10th member
stepped down Wednesday.
It’s the latest hit to com-
mittees that advise the Trump
administration.
Half the expert members of
a board that advises the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency
on the integrity of its science
were not reappointed last May.
At the same time, the Interior
Department said it launched a
wide-ranging review of more
than 200 boards and advisory
committees, including some
that had not met in years.
The congressionally autho-
rized National Park System
Advisory Board must meet
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Former Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles, shown here at center in
2009, has resigned from a national parks advisory board.
twice per year by law but has
not been called into session by
the Interior Department since
President Donald Trump took
office.
“Our requests to engage
have been ignored and the
matters on which we wanted
to brief the new department
team are clearly not part of its
agenda,” Knowles wrote in the
letter.
Willens said that was
“patently false” and that
department officials were
working to renew the board’s
charter, schedule a meeting
and fill vacancies as recently
as last week.
“Their hollow and dishon-
est political stunt should be a
clear indicator of the intention
of the group,” he said.
Knowles, the board chair-
man, said no one at the depart-
ment contacted him or other
board members this month
about future meetings. The
idea of a political statement
by board members, made up
of national experts in natu-
ral resources, financial man-
agement, geography and other
fields, was disingenuous, he
said.
Most of the board had
worked together for seven
years.
“We’re all a bunch of
wonks,”
Knowles
said.
“There’s absolutely nothing
political about any person on
it. We have a lot of differ-
ent backgrounds and were all
brought together because we
want to do something really
important for the national
park system of America and
build it for the 21st century.”
The board has collected
comment from more than 100
experts, including Nobel Prize
winners, to offer advice on
challenges the system faces,
including climate change,
attracting more diverse visi-
tors and employees, and pro-
tecting natural diversity of
wildlife.
As for sexual harassment
within the parks, Knowles
said, “We had complete confi-
dence that Jon Jarvis, a person
of integrity and strong control
of the park system, was taking
care of it.”
Jarvis is now execu-
tive director of the Insti-
tute for Parks, People, and
Biodiversity at the Univer-
sity of California, Berkeley.
He said by email he had no
comment.
Knowles said he had no
knowledge of a report on Jar-
vis by the Interior Depart-
ment’s Office of Inspec-
tor General. It investigated a
guidebook that Jarvis wrote
without consulting the depart-
ment’s ethics office. The book
was published by a nonprofit
group that operates stores and
sells merchandise in national
parks.
The report determined that
Jarvis worked on the book out-
side office hours and directed
royalties to the National Park
Foundation, which raises
money for the National Park
Service.
Measure 101 petitioners float new funding plan Oregon joins challenge
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Two state lawmak-
ers behind next week’s special election
say they’ve found a new way to pay for
Medicaid.
State Reps. Julie Parrish, R-Tualatin/
West Linn, and Cedric Hayden, R-Fall
Creek, petitioned to get the state’s exist-
ing Medicaid funding plan on the ballot
as Measure 101.
About 1 million Oregonians are on
Medicaid, known as the Oregon Health
Plan. The program serves low-income
people and other qualifying groups.
The election is Tuesday. A “no” vote
could throw a wrench into the state’s
health care budget, but Parrish and
Hayden believe they’ve found a way to
plug the hole and continue to draw down
federal matching funds that pay for most
of the program.
But it’s not yet clear whether their
plan, unveiled Tuesday, will make up the
difference because it has not been scored
by nonpartisan legislative analysts.
The current version of the bill they’ve
now proposed would expand what’s
referred to as the state’s provider tax.
Health care providers pay a refund-
able assessment to the state, which in
turn uses the money to collect matching
funds from the federal government. Pro-
viders get the money back.
Most states use a provider tax to get
matching federal funds to pay for their
Medicaid programs.
Oregon lawmakers crafted a plan last
year that included those types of taxes
on hospitals, but also created taxes on
managed care organizations and insur-
ers, and a nonrefundable tax on hospi-
tals, which Parrish and Hayden object
to.
Instead, the two lawmakers propose
taxing a wider range of health care pro-
viders, not just hospitals and long-term
care facilities.
In addition to taxing hospitals, Par-
rish and Hayden’s new bill would also
tax surgical centers and ambulance com-
panies. Future versions could include
even more health care businesses, such
as pharmacies, Parrish says.
Parrish argues that taxing more pro-
viders could cover the rising costs of
Medicaid. That’s a growing concern as
the federal government tapers its share
of the Medicaid bill.
Although the feds initially picked up
all of the tab for patients covered under
the Medicaid expansion of income cri-
teria under the Affordable Care Act, by
2020, the state will be responsible for
10 percent of the costs of the expansion
population.
Parrish and Hayden’s proposal would
also use one-time revenues to temporar-
ily continue a state program that holds
certain insurance premiums down, and
require the Oregon Health Authority
to do monthly reconciliations to con-
firm that all recipients still reside in
Oregon.
The pair have also previously sug-
gested taxing large companies that
self-insure, but detractors say that could
be subject to a legal challenge.
The lawmakers’ proposal comes
as they approach the end of a wonky
health care campaign where their crit-
ics — including the state’s largest health
care organizations and unions — have
Woman arrested after allegedly
stabbing her partner in Seaside
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — A woman
was arrested for second-degree
assault after allegedly stabbing
her partner with a knife during
an argument in Seaside Tues-
day night.
Patience Cabansag was
arrested. The victim was sent to
the hospital for minor injuries.
The Seaside Police Depart-
ment is looking for any wit-
nesses who can provide more
information about the stabbing
police say occurred around
6 p.m. in the 300 block of N.
Wahanna Road near Shore
Terrace Estates.
Anyone with any informa-
tion is asked to contact Detec-
tive Bill Barnes at the Sea-
side Police Department at
503-738-6311.
Councilor Brownson holds meet and greet
The Daily Astorian
Astoria City Councilor Tom Brownson is
holding a “Meet Your Councilor” event at 9 a.m.
Saturday at Three Cups Coffee, 279 W. Marine
Drive. Residents are invited to discuss city issues.
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~
January 20th
HIGH NOON
101 Forest Drive
in Seaside
38-0307
Heather at 503-7
Call
ter
ion and how to en
for more informat the cook off.
your chili in
of net neutrality repeal
argued Parrish and Hayden didn’t have
a viable back-up plan.
Hayden, a dentist who serves Ore-
gon Health Plan patients, unsuccess-
fully floated a somewhat similar pro-
posal in last year’s legislative session. It
included a tobacco tax, a tax on vaping,
and assumed Medicaid caseloads would
drop.
Janet Bauer, a policy analyst for the
Oregon Center for Public Policy, which
supports Measure 101, says the long leg-
islative session in 2019 would be a bet-
ter time to assess the policies in the new
proposal.
Legislators convene for short ses-
sions in even-numbered years, and
long sessions in odd-numbered years to
develop the state’s two-year budget.
Bauer said she could not comment
on specifics of Parrish and Hayden’s
proposal without reading the actual bill,
but that generally, it would be better to
wait another year when legislators have
more time to weigh the merits of another
funding strategy.
“I think that it’s rolling the dice to
suggest that we should overturn a solu-
tion that we already have,” Bauer said.
The Yes For Healthcare campaign,
which is advocating to keep the cur-
rent funding plan, dismissed the
proposal.
“This is more of the same misleading
tactics and should not be trusted,” the
campaign said in a statement in response
to the proposal. “The only way to pro-
tect health care funding is Yes on Mea-
sure 101.”
The Capital Bureau is a collabo-
ration between EO Media Group and
Pamplin Media Group.
New Mexico, North Caro-
lina, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island, Vermont, Virginia and
Oregon has joined 20 Washington
other states and the District
The FCC voted 3-2 along
of Columbia in launching a party lines to scrap the rule
legal challenge to the Fed- approved by the FCC in 2015.
eral Communications Com- The commission’s two Demo-
mission’s decision in Decem- crats voted against it.
ber to repeal a rule
An investigation
by New York Attorney
barring internet pro-
viders from blocking
General Eric Schnei-
derman’s Office found
or charging more for
that commenters to
access to one website
the FCC on the pro-
over another.
posed rule change ille-
The lawsuit, filed
gally used the iden-
Tuesday in the U.S.
tities of Americans
Court of Appeals in
Ellen
Washington,
D.C., Rosenblum from around the coun-
try to give feedback
asks the court to over-
turn the decision to
on net neutrality. His
repeal “net neutrality” and office has identified at least 2
to find it unlawful. The suit million fake comments.
Oregon Attorney General
alleges that the decision by
the FCC was an abuse of dis- Ellen Rosenblum has said the
cretion and that it violated repeal of would have “last-
the U.S. Constitution and the ing negative impacts for our
Communications Act of 1934. economy and almost every
Furthermore, attorneys gen- aspect of our lives” and would
eral of the states argue that the “incentivize Big Cable over
action conflicted with notice- other companies.”
Rosenblum spearheaded a
and-comment rule-making
letter from 18 state attorneys
requirements.
Other plaintiffs in the case general to the FCC in early
are the attorneys general of December urging commis-
New York, California, Con- sioners to delay a vote until
necticut, Delaware, Hawaii, investigators could deter-
Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, mine whether fraud was com-
Maine, Maryland, Massachu- mitted in the FCC comment
setts, Minnesota, Mississippi, process.
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Coast Guard rescues three
Hot Roast Beef
fishermen near Ecola State Park Sandwiches
Clatsop Post 12
The Daily Astorian
Three fishermen were res-
cued Wednesday afternoon
after being stranded near an
Ecola State Park beach.
The men were fishing
in tide pools before a high
tide caused them to become
stranded near Indian Beach
around noon. A Coast Guard
MH-60 Jayhawk helicop-
ter crew hoisted the men and
brought them to another sec-
tion of the shore.
No injuries were reported.
with Mashed Potatoes,
Gravy and Salad
Friday
Jan. 19 th
4 pm until gone
8. 00
$
6PM
“Karaoke Dave”
WANTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
ASTORIA
AMERICAN LEGION
Clatsop Post 12
1132 Exchange Street
325-5771
The Astoria Art Loft
will hold a no cost
discussion on...
The art of
RECYCLING, RE-PURPOSING
or USING YOUR STUFF
to create ART
Sat. January 27th 10am. - until finished
Tues. January 30th 7pm. - until finished
2 WAYS TO PARTIC
IPATE
Prepa
C
for you re your prize OMPETE
r chanc
w
:
e to wi inning chili
n some and en
Bring y
great p ter
wide v our family EAT
rizes.
ariety
:
a
n
of hom d friends
vote fo e-made ch out and sam
i
r your
favori l t i. Then cast p y le a
e.
our
Brigitte Willse and other artists will lead the discussion
For more information contact
(503) 325-4442 or Brigitte Willse (503) 844-4918
Second Saturday Art Walks
Art Classes, Workshops, and Studio Spaces
106 3rd St. @ Marine Dr.
Astoria, Oregon 97103
503.325.4442
AstoriaArtLoft.com
AstoriaArtLoft@gmail.com