J ULY 30, 2014
P ORTLAND
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V OLUME XXXVI, N O . 43
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
Gas taxes down,
highway officials look
for money sources
By Helen Silvis
of The Skanner News
C
ars of all kinds are getting better
mileage now than ever before. That’s
good news for the environment, but
bad news for state transportation budgets,
since road repairs have traditionally been
funded by gas taxes.
To solve the problem of shrinking gas tax
revenues, states are looking at other ways to
raise funds for transportation projects. In the
Northwest, Oregon and Washington are
mulling road use taxes, although the propos-
als under consideration could look very
different if they finally become state law.
The two states are also at different stages.
A panel in Washington state is still weighing
several alternatives and will present a report
to the state legislature in January 2015.
“Now we are getting to the blueprint level
where we are starting to do some system
design work,” said Reema Griffith, execu-
tive director of the state transportation
commission. “But there has been no testing
of anything yet and the Legislature has not
authorized that. So we’re definitely in the
pre-planning stages.”
Oregon’s Volunteer Program
Kicks Off Next Summer
Meanwhile, Oregon is looking for volun-
teers to test the proposed new road user
charge. It is the first state in the nation to
authorize a volunteer program, which will
start July 1, 2015. Drivers who sign up will
pay a road usage fee of 1.8 cents a mile and
get a rebate of the gas tax.
“We are looking for volunteers,” said
James M. Whitty, manager of the Office of
Innovative Partnerships and Alternative
Funding at Oregon Department of Trans-
portation.
“We will be looking for volunteers from
now until we get all 5,000 spots filled, and
probably after that too because people will
drop out for various reasons.”
See ROADS on page 3
INDEX
News ..............1,3,8-10
Opinion .....................2
Calendars ..............4,5
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ........11
CENTS
Pacific NW
The Skanner News presents
our new regional edition,
featuring more news and
local information.
ART IN
THE PARK
Cherry Sprout Produce celebrates its
newly-redesigned greenspace with the
6th Annual “Art in the Park,” Saturday,
Aug. 9, from 3 to 8 p.m. in Albina Green,
the park next to Cherry Sprout Produce,
on the corner of N. Albina and N.
Sumner. Blank canvases and non-toxic
paint are provided free for people of all
ages to make their mark, including local
artist Johnny Diciple, at right. The
musical lineup kicks off with a kids’ open
mike from 3-4 p.m., for musicians 18 and
under. Edna Vasquez, Michael Hurley
and an array of special guests make live
music until 8 p.m. Find out more at
www.cherrysprout.com.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHERRY SPROUT PRODUCE
States
Mull Road
Fees
25
p
The
S
WWW . THESKANNER . COM
False Shoplifting Accusations
Local attorneys seek Ross Dress for Less customers on ‘theft list’
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
A
n East Portland mom
who was falsely accused
of shoplifting at the
Lents Ross Dress for Less store
in June is filing a lawsuit and
looking for other customers
who had the same experience.
In particular her attorneys are
interested in any Ross cus-
tomers who have been told they
are listed on a national retail
theft database but have no histo-
ry of shoplifting.
The case is being handled by
the same attorneys, Kafoury and
McDougal, who in June won a
$105,000 settlement for Port-
lander Brenda Moaning, falsely
accused of shoplifting and held
by store security against her will
at the H&M store in Clackamas
Town Center in 2011.
In the Ross case, Shaquoya
Burns, a mother of two young
kids, was not held but was
refused service and repeatedly
accused of being a shoplifter in
front of her young child and
other patrons.
Burns says she had just
arrived in the Eastport Plaza
store with her 3-year-old daugh-
ter and was heading to the boys’
department to shop for her son
on June 8.
“I was in there not even three
minutes,” she said. “I had a shirt
in my hand, and the store man-
ager walked up to me and said
he was sorry to inform me but I
had to leave the store because he
was just informed by loss pre-
vention that I was on the
national database for shoplift-
ing.”
Burns said she spoke with the
loss prevention staff at the store
and they confirmed she was on a
retail theft database, so she went
back to the store manager and
asked him to prove the allega-
tion.
“First I said, tell me my name
because you haven’t told me my
name,” Burns says. “And he
said, I don’t have to disclose
that information to you.”
The manager gave her the
number of a district official for
See ROSS on page 3
Arrest in Community Service Scam
Seattle woman suspected of bogus post-incarceration program
Jennifer Peltz
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A group hawking e-
books on the effects of caffeine actually
sold another service: a bogus way to satisfy
court-ordered community service require-
ments by doing little more than taking an
online quiz, prosecutors said Monday.
Instead of cleaning up a park or scrubbing
toilets, for instance, defendants paid a fee,
took a test about caffeine and didn’t even
have to get the answers right, Manhattan
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s office
said as the Caffeine Awareness Association
and founder Marina Kushner pleaded not
guilty to false filing and other offenses.
A “fast community service” website
linked to the caffeine group also has come
under scrutiny in Washington State and in
Oregon, where a Portland judge called the
community-service caffeine quiz a “scam”
in June 2013, according to KATU-TV.
(A web search shows Kushner’s business
as based in Seattle, and her online social
media presence describes her as a Seattle
resident.)
Manhattan prosecutors got curious when a
See SCAM on page 3