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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2017)
February 15, 2017 The Skanner Page 3 News Healthcare amount to sweeping changes to the Afford- able Care Act. That would fall to Congress, where Republicans are strug- gling to reach consensus over how to deliver on their promise to repeal and replace the health law. Progressive activists and leaders, including Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, “However, in the longer run, providing (insur- ers) with additional flexi- bility could help stabilize premiums.” Larry Levitt of the non- partisan Kaiser Family Foundation said “this would allow insurers to offer plans with high- er deductibles, which seems counter to Pres- The proposed change ... could reduce the value of coverage for consumers have largely urged Con- gress to keep and expand the law, rather than re- peal and replace it. But the administra- tion’s actions do signal a change in direction. For consumers, the proposed HHS rules mean tighter scrutiny of anyone trying to sign up for coverage outside of open enrollment by claiming a “special en- rollment period” due to a change in life circum- stances such as the birth of a child, marriage, or the loss of job-based in- surance. Also, sign-up season will be 45 days, down from the current three months. For insurers, the curbs on special enrollment pe- riods are a big item. The industry claimed that some consumers were abusing special enroll- ment by signing up when they needed expensive treatments, only to drop out later. Insurers would gain more flexibility to design low-premium plans tai- lored to younger people, yet that flexibility could lead to higher deduct- ibles, according to the de- partment. “The proposed change ... could reduce the value of coverage for consum- ers,” the proposal said. Read the full story at TheSkanner.com Seattle Divests Olivia One Feather (right) leans into a friend after the Seattle City Council voted unanimously Feb. 7 to take the city’s money out of Wells Fargo and put it in a bank that is more in line with the cities values. The city council decided to find a different bank because Wells Fargo is involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline and because it invests in for-profit prisons. Profiling cont’d from pg 3 their fines had been equal to those levied on White defendants, ac- cording to InvestigateWest. “I believe profiling is an eco- nomic justice issue,” Kayse Jama, executive director of Unite Ore- “ In 2015 the legislature passed the End Profiling Act, which was spearheaded by Attorney General Ellen Rosenlum and championed by Sen. Lew Frederick and Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer. It defined profiling as “people tar- geted based on their race, ethnicity, reli- gion, national origin, language, housing status, and sexual orientation or gen- der identity.” It also established a compliant mechanism so that in- dividuals targeted by police pro- filing could file a grievance with the Law Enforcement Contacts Policy and Data Review Commit- tee (LECC). Yet some felt the legislation didn’t live up to its name. “For too long we’ve heard stories of our community facing profiling by state police,” said Amira Streeter, policy and advocacy director at the Urban League. “This unlaw- ful act still continues even after ‘For too long we’ve heard sto- ries of our community fac- ing profiling by state police’ gon, told The Skanner. “You just need to go to the courts down- town and you see who has been ticketed. The majority is general- ly people of color.” 2015 Law Created a Starting Point In 2013, Jama took the issue of profiling to Salem, but was met with little result. Then came the summer of 2014, when the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson put law enforcement — and its han- dling of force against African Americans — in the hot seat. the passage of HB 2002.” But the End Profiling Act also created a task force. The Work Group on the Prevention of Profiling by Law Enforcement, steered by Rosenblum and assem- bled with organizations such as Unite Oregon, the Portland Police Association and the ACLU of Ore- gon, devised recommendations to address systematic profiling. Eighteen months of task force meetings culminated in House Bill 2355, which aims to create a method to track profiling. If passed, the new bill would man- date that all police officers collect data on a person’s perceived race, ethnicity, age and sex when mak- ing pedestrian and traffic-stops. It would also make Oregon the second state to record pedestrian data. Currently only three Ore- gon police departments require officers to track race and ethnici- ty during traffic stops. Read the full story at TheSkanner.com cont’d from pg 1 publicly available. Hearst, who was also involved in the fatal 2013 shooting of Merle Hatch in the parking lot of Portland Adventist Medical Center, is on paid administra- tive leave — along with the two other of- ficers who were at the scene at the time of the shooting — until the completion of an internal PPB investigation and grand jury. State medical examiner Karen Gun- son has said Hayes was not shot in the back, but has so far declined to de- scribe precisely where officers’ bullets hit Hayes. At a Sunday evening vigil for Hayes, his mother, Venus Hayes, read the fol- lowing statement — a video of which was posted to YouTube -- from the fam- ily. “Quanice’s personality was magnetic. He was the person you liked and would remember the moment you met him,” Hayes said. “Quanice was a 17-year- old kid that would often prefer to be at home with his family rather than a night out with his friends. He was the oldest of five children. Quanice was the love of my life. Quanice was idolized by his siblings and adored by his fam- ily. We’re all struggling to find sense in his death and are mourning the loss of a life taken too soon. While we wait for answers surrounding the death of Quanice, we ask everyone to refrain “ A White man named Don Allan Per- kins, 56, was also shot by Portland Po- lice Feb. 9 after calling 911 to report he was suicidal and taking pills while driving around Southeast Portland. Perkins is also reported to have been carrying a replica firearm, though the events that led to officers firing at him are also unclear and pending investiga- tion. He was wounded and transported Officers released a photo of a replica handgun from the incident. Whether Hayes drew or pointed the gun is unclear from speculation. Anyone that wit- nessed the tragic event leading up to the death of Quanice is encouraged to contact the ACLU along with detectives Eric Camara and Mark Slater. We will be taking no questions at this time and we ask that you please continue to re- spect our privacy while we continue to mourn the loss of my son.” to a hospital, and is expected to survive. Officer Bradley Clark, who shot Per- kins, used an AR-15 to shoot a man in Southwest Portland in 2010. He has been with PPB for 11 years. At a Friday press conference to de- brief media on both shootings, Mayor Ted Wheeler said he wanted to refrain from speculation until the investiga- PHOTO COURTESY OF GOFUNDME Shooting ident’s Trump promise to lower deductibles.” A deductible is the annual amount consumers pay for medical care before their insurance kicks in. Separately, the IRS is backing off from a tighter approach to enforcement that was in the works for this tax-filing season. The IRS said that’s in line with Trump’s executive order directing agencies to ease requirements of the health law. Under the law, peo- ple are required to have health coverage or risk fines from the IRS — a penalty usually deduct- ed from a taxpayer’s re- fund. That underlying requirement remains on the books, and taxpayers are still legally obligated to comply, the IRS said. But the agency is changing its approach to enforcement. Originally, the IRS had planned to start rejecting returns this year if a taxpayer failed to indicate wheth- er he or she had cover- age. Now the IRS says it will keep processing such returns, as it has in the past. Many of the law’s sup- porters consider the coverage requirement essential. PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED “ cont’d from pg 1 Quanice Hayes, 17, was shot and killed by Portland police Feb. 9. tions are complete, but said the events that happened in Portland Thursday happen “all too often.” “When the person who is killed is a Black teenager, it taps into deep histor- ical wounds,” Wheeler said. The Portland Student Action Net- work’s rally for Hayes meets at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the South Park Blocks near 800 SW Market St., according to the Facebook event page.
