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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2018)
3A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2018 Oregon Dems blast Supreme Court nominee By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press PORTLAND — Gov. Kate Brown joined Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and some Democratic members of Oregon’s congressional dele- gation on Thursday to condemn U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and call for an independent investigation into decades-old allegations of sexual assault against him. At a rally and news confer- ence at a Planned Parenthood office in Portland, speakers — including U.S. Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer — told attendees that Kavana- ugh’s successful nomination could also threaten a woman’s right to an abortion even in a lib- eral state like Oregon. Sen. Jeff Merkley speaks at the rally. Backing him are, from right, Gov. Kate Brown, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Sen. Ron Wyden. People hold signs of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kava- naugh at the rally. Kavanaugh has been accused by Christine Blasey Ford, a California college pro- fessor, of sexually assault- ing Ford at a party in the 1980s in a Maryland suburb of mittee that her client would tes- tify next week to the Senate about her accusation against Kavanaugh if agreement can be reached to “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety.” Washington. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations. The press conference came at the same time that a Ford attorney told the Judiciary Com- AP Photos/Gillian Flaccus The message resurrected the possibility that the panel would hold a dramatic hearing at which both Ford and Kava- naugh could give their ver- sions of what happened at the party when they were both high schoolers. The allegation has shaken Kavanaugh’s prospects for winning Senate confirma- tion to be a justice, which until Ford’s emergence last week had seemed all but certain. Wyden said the hearing was not enough and called for a for- mal investigation into Ford’s allegations. “There are credible and seri- ous allegations against Brett Kavanaugh and there needs to be a credible and serious pro- cess, rather than something where you just ram this thing through and then say, ‘Gee, I guess we’re too busy, for example, to even listen to wit- nesses!’” he said. Both senators said they would not vote for Kavanaugh. Voter approval for tolls moves closer to the 2020 election ballot By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau A voter initiative that would amend the state Con- stitution to require in certain circumstances voter approval to place tolls on existing free- ways is moving closer toward the 2020 ballot. The Oregon Department of Justice released the draft bal- lot title for Initiative Petition 10 on Monday, Sept. 17. The draft opens up a public com- ment period before the ballot title is finalized. Dubbed “Tolls Need Voter Approval,” the initiative would require a vote of the people to toll existing free- ways unless the proceeds paid only for increasing vehi- cle capacity. Voter approval would be required both state- wide and in the county where the toll would be imposed. Under the Constitution, revenue from transportation tolls may be used for a vari- ety of purposes, including construction, reconstruction, repair, maintenance, opera- tion and use of public high- ways” and other roads. Additionally, officials with the Oregon Department of Transportation have asked the DOJ for advice on whether the Constitution allows the proceeds to be used to pay for improving access to pub- lic transportation and car- pool incentives. The idea is that both strategies remove vehicles off the freeways and Pamplin Media Group Sponsors of the “Tolls Need Voter Approval” initiative may soon be able to gather signatures to land the proposal on the 2020 ballot. decrease traffic. Gladstone Planning Com- missioner Les Poole and state Reps. Mike Nearman, R-In- dependence, and Julie Parish, R-West Linn, filed the initia- tive in response to a proposal to toll sections of Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 in Portland to raise money for highway improvements. “Logically, a toll would sunset once the project is paid for,” Poole said. “Tolling is a way of financing a project in lieu of bonding the entire project. Together in aggre- gate, all of tolling money should have to go to that specific project. They (state transportation commission- ers) want to charge us just to use the roads.” The Oregon Transporta- tion Commission voted unan- imously Aug. 16 to seek approval from the Federal Highway Administration to toll the Abernethy Bridge on I-205 and all lanes of I-5 between Northeast Going Street/Alberta Street and Southwest Multnomah Bou- levard. Meanwhile, commis- sioners have instructed the ODOT to conduct a feasibil- ity study of tolling all seven interstates in Portland to form a “seamless loop” around the city. Gov. Kate Brown has expressed support for that strategy. However, poll results sug- gest the vast majority of Ore- gonians are more skeptical of tolling. A DHM Research poll commissioned by ODOT in December found only 22.5 percent of residents in Mult- nomah, Washington, Clacka- mas and Clark counties were willing to pay a toll weekly or more frequently. About 31 percent agreed ODOT should explore mul- tiple options for encouraging motorists to alter their trans- portation choices, including tolling. Even if the initiative passes, the transportation commission could still impose tolls without voter approval. No vote is required if the tolls are used to pay for “new net capacity.” The intent is that the pro- ceeds would go toward proj- ects on the road or bridge where the toll applies, Poole said. That is something the survey showed more residents support. “New net capacity” is defined as “expansion of transportation infrastructure which did not exist prior to Jan. 1, 2018, and which has not been converted from a previous form of transporta- tion infrastructure” already built and/or operated with public moneys. The state Elections Divi- sion will accept written com- ments on the draft ballot title until 5 p.m. Oct. 1. The com- ments will be delivered to the DOJ for consideration before certification of the ballot title. Comments may be emailed to irrlistnotifier.sos@oregon. gov, faxed to 503-373-7414 or mailed to Elections Division, 255 Capitol St. N.E., Suite 501, Salem, Oregon 97301. US agrees to improve worker safety at Hanford By PHUONG LE Associated Press SEATTLE — The U.S. gov- ernment will test and imple- ment a new system to capture and destroy dangerous vapors released at the nation’s most polluted nuclear weapons pro- duction site as part of a set- tlement agreement reached Wednesday. Washington Attorney Gen- eral Bob Ferguson told report- ers that the agreement rep- resents a major win for hundreds of workers who have been getting sick for years while cleaning up the nation’s nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in eastern Washington. “Those workers deserve to be protected,” Ferguson said. He added that the U.S. Department of Energy did not take the issue seriously and resisted putting protections in place. The Energy Department will for the first time test a new technology that Ferguson called “game-changing” that would protect workers from the vapor exposures. Under the agreement, the agency will pay $925,000 in fees and costs to the state and Hanford Challenge, a watch- dog group that has for decades been warning about worker safety. The agency will also install a new vapor monitoring and alarm system and maintain safety measures that are cur- rently in place, including sup- plying air and respirators. The Department of Energy said in an emailed statement that the agreement “acknowl- edges the extensive actions” that the agency, and its contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions LLC, have taken to protect workers from potential exposure to chemical vapors. AP Photo/Don Ryan A marijuana plant is shown in Oregon. Patients react to new limits on Oregon medical marijuana By NOELLE CROMBIE The Oregonian PORTLAND — In August, a state analyst spotted dozens of suspi- cious transactions when he crunched cannabis sales data: a small number of med- ical marijuana cardholders bought unusually large quan- tities of marijuana flowers on consecutive days. Oregon regulators sus- pected medical marijuana patients and caregivers were exploiting the system by buying cannabis to sell on the illicit market. The response was swift. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission, under pres- sure from federal officials to tackle the robust black mar- ket for marijuana, quickly issued a temporary rule that dramatically reduced the amount that medical mari- juana cardholders could buy in a day. The limit dropped from a pound and a half of mari- juana to 1 ounce — the same quantity recreational canna- bis consumers are allowed to buy. “What we saw was abuse, clear abuse of the stan- dards,” Steve Marks, exec- utive director of the Liquor Control Commission, said Wednesday. Over 19 days in August, for instance, one medical marijuana cardholder bought nearly 13 pounds of canna- bis. Another bought 7 pounds over 10 days that month. SUB-BIDS REQUESTED Seaside School District WANTED New Middle/High Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Schools Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Seaside, Oregon Bid Package: #4 s es les Seri d r e o tur e C na All Other Work g Fre ect Si on Officials said the question- able transactions came from a small percentage of card- holders and that the typical purchase for most cardhold- ers was 4 grams or less. Marks said marijuana program overseers worried that the state’s low marijuana prices enticed some card- holders to stock up and “take it to Iowa or wherever and sell for a profit.” “We saw that happening,” he said, adding it was “a little bit of a Ponzi scheme.” Oregon has been in the crosshairs of U.S. Justice Department leaders for not doing enough to crack down on the black market. U.S. Attorney Billy Williams has repeatedly expressed frustra- tion with the state’s failure to contain production and he’s chided top officials for not devoting enough resources to oversight and enforcement. On Wednesday, patients and advocates for the med- ical marijuana program blasted the new limits at a contentious meeting of the state’s rules advisory committee. 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