A3
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019
Portland withdraws from
FBI’s terrorism task force
Court grants
EPA new hearing
on pesticide ban
A 3-2 vote by the
City Council
Farm groups
support the move
By AMELIA
TEMPLETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Portland is out of the
FBI-led Joint Terrorism
Task Force again.
The Portland City Coun-
cil voted 3-2 Wednesday to
withdraw the city’s police
offi cers from the federal task
force , a partnership between
federal agencies and local
law enforcement.
Commissioners Jo Ann
Hardesty, Amanda Fritz and
Chloe Eudaly supported the
change. They worry there
is not enough civilian over-
sight to ensure Portland offi -
cers abide by civil rights
laws and say there isn’t
enough evidence to show
the task force has made Port-
land safer.
“The current president
has made clear his animos-
ity toward Muslims, immi-
grants and people of color,”
Fritz said, noting that the FBI
has not followed through on
promises to provide more,
regular information on the
group’s work since Portland
re-entered the partnership
several years ago. “I found
it hard to trust the JTTF
under President Obama. It’s
impossible now.”
The vote is a signifi cant
win for Hardesty, the new-
est city commissioner, who
ran last year on a promise to
get Portland out of the fed-
eral task force.
“For a whole year, I
talked about this on the cam-
paign trail, and everywhere
I went, people were con-
cerned about whether or
not their data was collected
and used in a way that was
against Oregon state law,”
she said. “We are here today
because I am about keeping
promises.”
Hardesty and Fritz had
made their positions clear
before Wednesday’s meet-
ing. Eudaly ended up being
the deciding vote and said
she does not have confi -
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Bradley W. Parks/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Millie Hobaish urged Portland to leave the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force.
dence city leaders have
enough oversight to pre-
vent Portland offi cers from
engaging in police work that
targets immigrants and other
groups.
“Even good people can
make bad decisions, espe-
cially in a fl awed system,”
she said. “I don’t trust the
system the JTTF functions
within. I do not trust the
administration who oversees
it. … Do you feel safer today
than you did fi ve years ago?
I don’t either.”
Mayor Ted Wheeler and
Commissioner Nick Fish
voted against leaving the
task force.
Wheeler said he respected
his colleagues’ decision and
reasoning — but disagreed.
“I absolutely believe that
the JTTF is highly imper-
fect. It could do much bet-
ter,” he said. “As the police
commissioner, I cannot sup-
port a policy that appears
to favor politics or ideol-
ogy over the safety and
well-being of Portlanders.
While values are extremely
important, values alone can-
not protect the safety of the
community.”
Fish asked his colleagues
to slow down and con-
sider tweaks to, rather than
a wholesale rejection of,
Portland’s relationship with
the FBI-led group. They
declined.
“The FBI will continue
doing this work without our
involvement,” Fish said.
“I’d rather have our values
at the table. Why would we
walk away and forfeit our
opportunity for oversight of
their work?”
Portland is the second
West Coast city to withdraw
from the task force since
President Donald Trump
took offi ce. San Francisco
withdrew its offi cers from
the group in 2017. The city
withdrew once before, under
Mayor Tom Potter, entered
into a convoluted “as
needed” relationship under
Mayor Sam Adams and then
rejoined in full under Mayor
Charlie Hales in 2015.
The city’s resolution does
not end the task force’s work
or its partnerships with six
other local law enforcement
agencies .
During the debate, fed-
eral offi cials stressed that
they will continue to work
with Portland offi cers when
needed. But city offi cers
will cease their participation
within 90 days.
“The FBI’s mission is to
protect the American peo-
ple and uphold the Consti-
tution. With the withdrawal
of the city of Portland from
the Joint Terrorism Task
Force, that mission doesn’t
change,” Renn Cannon, the
FBI’s special agent in charge
for Oregon, said in a writ-
ten statement. “… To this
end, the FBI will continue
to partner formally with
other members of the JTTF
as well as informally with
cities and counties across
the state to share informa-
tion and address threats as
appropriate.”
U.S. Attorney Billy J.
Williams, in a statement,
called the decision “a mis-
take that defi es logic. It’s
disappointing that in spite
of the overwhelming evi-
dence presented of JTTF
successes in Oregon and
across the nation, a majority
of the City Council chose a
politically-expedient broad-
side against the federal gov-
ernment over the safety
and well-being of their
constituents.
“The law enforcement
community’s duty and com-
mitment to ensuring public
safety and protecting civil
rights will not be deterred by
the politics of the moment.”
The 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals
will reconsider outlawing
chlorpyrifos, a pesticide
banned by a three-judge
panel in August, but that
farm groups say is vital to
food production.
A new hearing is a vic-
tory for the U.S. Environ-
mental Protection Agency,
as well as farm groups.
A majority of the court’s
judges has voted to set
aside the August ruling
and rehear the case in late
March in San Francisco.
A time and date has not
been set. The case will be
heard by 11 judges drawn
by lot from the court’s ros-
ter of judges.
The EPA asked for
rehearing after it was
ordered in a 2-1 deci-
sion to cancel all uses of
chlorpyrifos.
The American Farm
Bureau Federation and
more than two dozen other
farm groups fi led a court
brief supporting the EPA’s
motion.
The farm groups argue
banning
chlorpyrifos
would wreak havoc on
U.S. agriculture. In use on
farms since 1965, chlorpy-
rifos is approved for more
than 50 crops and is also
used to protect livestock
from
disease-carrying
insects.
The case stems from a
petition to ban chlorpyrifos
fi led in 2007 by the Natural
Resources Defense Coun-
cil and the Pesticide Action
Network North Amer-
ica. Environmental groups
claim total exposure to the
pesticide on food, in drink-
ing water and the environ-
ment harms the brains of
young children.
Under a court order to
make a decision, the EPA
under President Barack
Obama proposed ban-
ning the pesticide in
2015, but delayed mak-
ing a fi nal decision until
the change in administra-
tions. Faced with a new
deadline from the court,
the Trump administration’s
EPA denied the petition
in March 2017 and said it
would continue assessing
chlorpyrifos.
The August ruling was
written by visiting Judge
Jed Rakoff of the U.S. Dis-
trict Court for the Southern
District of New York. The
majority ruled that the EPA
could not justify its deci-
sion in the face of evidence
that residue on food causes
neurodevelopmental dam-
age to children.
The EPA argues the rul-
ing was premature because
the science is unsettled
and was too broad because
the ban also applied to
non-food uses. The U.S.
Department of Agricul-
ture , under the Obama and
Trump
administrations,
has defended chlorpyrifos
as safe and in some cases
the only effective chemical
against dangerous pests.
The lawsuit to ban
chlorpyrifos was fl ied
by the League of United
Latin American Citizens,
Pesticide Action Net-
work North America, Nat-
ural Resources Defense
Council, California Rural
Legal Assistance Founda-
tion, Farmworkers Asso-
ciation of Florida, Farm-
workers Justice Green
Latinos, Labor Council for
Latin American Advance-
ment, Learning Disabili-
ties Association of Amer-
ica, National Hispanic
Medical Association, Pin-
eros Y Campesinos Unidos
Del Noroeste and United
Farm Workers. The non-
profi t law fi rm Earthjustice
represents them.
Washington State Attor-
ney General Bob Ferguson
has intervened in the case,
urging a ban. He is joined
by attorneys general in
Maryland, Massachusetts,
New York and the District
of Columbia.
States weigh bills addressing Native deaths, disappearances
By MARY HUDETZ
Associated Press
rural district include the
death of 14-year-old Henny
Scott. Her body was found
by a search party two weeks
after she went missing in
December.
Harris and Scott’s fam-
ilies complained authori-
ties were slow to search for
the victims after they were
reported missing.
“It’s always been this
way. We’ve always had
missing women and chil-
dren,” Peppers said. “The
voices are just louder now.”
In New Mexico, Lente
said his measure would call
for the New Mexico Indian
Affairs Department to lead a
task force joined by authori-
ties across jurisdictions.
The legislation was wel-
comed by Meskee Yatsayte,
an advocate in New Mexico
for families with missing
loved ones on the Navajo
Nation. She said she hoped
lawmakers and offi cials
would include victims’ fam-
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ilies and advocates in their
discussions.
“It’s a good step for-
ward,” Yatsayte said. “But
it can’t be something where
they meet and then nothing
is done about it.”
Bills in South Dakota and
North Dakota include man-
dates for law enforcement
training programs on con-
ducting investigations.
Rep. Tamara St. John, a
South Dakota Republican
and member of the Sisseton
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Wahpeton Oyate, said she’s
co-sponsoring the measure
to put a spotlight on the
cases.
Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, a
Washington state Republi-
can, introduced a bill signed
into law last year that requires
the Washington State Patrol
to provide an estimate by
June of how many Native
women are missing in the
state. That measure paved the
way for similar legislation in
other states.
WANTED
f
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
— Lawmakers in at least
seven states have intro-
duced legislation to address
the unsolved deaths and dis-
appearances of numerous
Native American women
and girls.
The legislation calls for
state-funded task forces and
other actions amid deep-
ening concerns that law
enforcement agencies lack
the data and resources to
understand the scope of the
crisis.
On some reservations,
federal studies have shown
Native American women
are killed at more than 10
times the national average.
“This is not about a trend
that is popular this year,”
said state Rep. Derrick
Lente, a Democrat who is
co-sponsoring a measure in
New Mexico. “It’s really to
bring to light the number of
indigenous people who are
going missing.”
An Associated Press
review of the bills found
that mostly Native Amer-
ican lawmakers in Minne-
sota, the Dakotas, Montana,
Washington, New Mexico
and Arizona have sponsored
measures on the issue.
In AP interviews last
year, families described
feeling dismissed after ini-
tially reporting cases of
missing female relatives to
police. An examination of
records found there was no
single government database
tracking all known cases of
missing Native American
women.
In Montana, a bill named
for Hanna Harris — a
21-year-old found slain
on the Northern Cheyenne
Reservation in July 2013 —
proposes that state authori-
ties hire a specialist respon-
sible for entering cases into
databases.
Under Hanna’s Act, the
state Department of Jus-
tice employee would also
serve as a liaison for tribal,
federal and state author-
ities and families after a
Native American is reported
missing.
“To us we’ve seen study
bill after study bill,” said
Rep. Rae Peppers, a Demo-
crat. “Why waste money on
a study bill when the issue
was right in front of us?”
Peppers, whose district
spans the Northern Chey-
enne and Crow reservations,
lives in Lame Deer, a small
community where Har-
ris’ body was found days
after she was fi rst reported
missing.
Peppers said she and
other lawmakers decided
to name the measure for
Harris in part because her
mother had led an early
push for more awareness of
the cases.
Other cases in Peppers’
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