local news
Clean Slate
Diversity Wall
SHIELDS: INSURANCE
REGULATION AGENDA
CONTINUES
Sen. Chip Shields said this week that although
the divided House of Representatives made
Salem a contentious place this session, he’s not
giving up on his quest to increase public over-
sight in insurance industry practices.
“There was a sense that we needed to find com-
promise and come together to solve Oregon’s
problems as best we could,” he said. “There were
certainly some disappointments, but I think that
particularly the North and Northeast Portland
delegation – Representative Kotek, Rep.
Frederick and I – came together to get some
good things done.”
All of Shields’ bills — to require public hearings
on proposed insurance cost hikes and to bring
the industry under regulation of the Unlawful
Trade Practices Act for the first time – were put
down, largely by the targeted efforts of lobbyists.
Nevertheless Shields says he will stay focused
on making insurance companies justify their rate
increases, and he will also keep working to
remove the exemption that insurance companies
enjoy from the state’s unfair trade practices act –
a situation he says hits small businesses and
government agencies particularly hard.
“Insurance is the only line of business that has a
free pass,” he said.
“I was just looking through the state budget and
the Oregon Department of Corrections is
increasing its health care budget for inmates by 5
percent.”
“I think what’s great about
Project Clean Slate is that it’s
bipartisan,” said Sen. Chip Shields,
who helped pass state funding for it
during the last session as a member
of the House Ways and Means
Committee.
“If you want to be tough on
offenders or have more of a reha-
bilitation focus, either way I think
Republicans and Democrats agree
that people should be able to get on
with their lives and make a living
once they’ve atoned for their mis-
takes.”
Jay says the African American
Chamber of Commerce’s state lob-
byists Gary Oxley and Evan Jarvis
were key in securing bipartisan
support for state funding – in a
budget session that saw many
worthwhile programs go without.
“Some time we strike out and
some times we hit a home run, but
if we aren’t at the table we are the
appetizer,” he said.
“I think that Roy Jay and the
Board of Directors of Project Clean
Slate really get the major kudos for
just telling their story, and I think
that at the end of the day their out-
come really spoke for themselves,”
Shields said this week.
PHOtO BY SUSaN FrIED
continued from page 1
The 25-foot-long commemorative wall was unveiled Wednesday June 29.
It chronicles significant events in OhSu's history that recognize diversity
within the university's workforce. "OhSu is committed to being a diverse
organization," said Norwood Knight-Richardson, M.D., M.A., M.B.A., vice
president and chief administrative officer at OhSu. "This week we will
observe OhSu's past milestones in becoming an organization that values
diversity on several levels. These milestones include the many firsts that
helped transform the makeup of OhSu's workforce. In addition, because
we are an academic institution, we also celebrate the diversity of ideas
that are generated by an organization that seeks to be inclusive."
About 100 people attended the ceremony.
Event
continued from page 1
start lending a hand.’”
Zylawy, who died in a traffic accident on
his way to work in January, 2008, was one
of the most respected officers in the
Portland Police Bureau, with many friends
in the Northeast Precinct where he worked
for almost 17 years.
Said to have earned the respect even of
the individuals he arrested, Zylawy’s
memorial service was held at the Maple
Mallory
Apartments
in
Northeast Portland even though
he lived in Vancouver.
He was known affectionately to
all as “Z-Man.”
Also in his honor, the
Portland Police Bureau every
year gives “Z-Man” full-tuition
scholarships for students at De La
Salle North Catholic High School.
Collins says his group is looking
for donations of any kind of books
in good condition, from children’s
to teens and adult books.
The noon party includes prizes and give-
aways, hamburgers and hotdogs, communi-
ty awards, and live music. More volunteers
for the tournament and community clean-up
are always welcomed.
tions,” she said.
Dan Bielenberg, who runs the program at
Santiam Correctional Institution, says he
sees “the light switch go on” when inmates
take the class and get hands-on training in
the gardens, which are all
organic.
“My expectation is that
they’ll make their community
a better place,” he said of gar-
dener inmates when they’re
released.
The gardens are also mak-
ing the prisons better places.
More than about 60 percent of the pro-
duce from gardens is used in the prison
delivery. Before the program began operat-
ing at Columbia River, he’d make a call out
to other state agencies to pick up the extra
produce.
“There are years when I’ve grown way
too much,” he said.
Last year, with a nearly non-existent sum-
mer, crop yields were down by several thou-
sand pounds. This year, the garden project
administrators are all hoping for more food
– for the inmate’s stomachs as well as the
community.
Right now, Ahlstrom is growing a lot of
vegetables that will store well such as
beans, zucchini, and squash. Over at
Santiam, Bielenberg and the inmates are
growing garlic, potatoes, chives, shal-
lots, tomatoes, and have experimental
plots with corn, beans and squash.
Looking forward, Patterson would
like to expand the program to more
prisons. Other prisons have their own
gardens and she’d like to assist them
by expanding those gardens and the
Master Gardener classes. She says the
nonprofit organization needs more volun-
teers, including an executive director who
could write grants and help raise money
from the community. She’s also trying to
develop a protocol for establishing a garden
Z-Man Basketball Tournament
and Service Day July 16
This year’s event honors
long-time community
coach Phil Walden
For more information about Officer Mark
Zylawy and the Z-Man Scholarship, go to
w w w. z m a n s c h o l a r s h i p . c o m .
To volunteer at Re-Tilling the Soil, call 503-
839-8676.
Garden
continued from page 1
Grow assists.
“I have never seen so many excited,
engaged students,” Patterson said. “It’s like
they’re discovering science for the first
time. They’re discovering laws that can’t be
‘Lettuce Grow’ Brings Gardens,
Classes to Oregon Prisons
broken. Mother nature.”
And just last month, the class at Columbia
River graduated their first Master Gardener,
who earned a 97 percent on the exam.
She says that the class at Columbia
River has formed their own study group
and one inmate student has created a
bulletin board where he posts articles
and other information about gardening.
They’ve encouraged inmates to bring
in tough questions about gardening for
Master Gardeners to answer – and then
showing them without internet connections
in the institutions how to go about connect-
ing with other Master Gardeners to get the
answers.
“Inmates bring in some really tough ques-
program for prisons in other states.
“How many cherry tomatoes do you need
to grow to give each inmate one tomato,”
she asked.
With 60,000 pounds of food produced for
Lettuce Grow institutions and 20,000 given
to local food banks, it seems this nonprofit
has it figured out.
Please Recycle
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Program allows inmates to
produce food for themselves,
local food banks
cafeteria. The rest is donated to the Oregon
Food Bank. Ahlstrom said without Lettuce
Grow volunteers to pick up the extra pro-
duce to take for the Feed the Hungry pro-
gram, there wouldn’t be a way to make the
July 6, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 3