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November 21, 2018 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3 News cont’d from pg 1 at 79, and the sheriff ’s list of those unaccounted for had about 700 names. But only about 60 peo- ple had provided sam- ples to pop-up labs at the Butte County Sheriff ’s office in Oroville and an old Sears building in Chico, where the Fed- eral Emergency Man- agement Agency set up We need hundreds. We need a big enough sample for us to make a positive ID on these and to also give a bet- ter idea of how many losses there actually are a disaster relief center, said Annette Mattern, a spokeswoman for ANDE, the Longmont, Colorado, company that is donating the technology. “We need hundreds,” Mattern said. “We need a big enough sample for us to make a positive ID on these and to also give a better idea of how many losses there actually are.” Confusion and con- flicting information, the inability of relatives to travel to Northern Cal- ifornia and mistrust of the government may be contributing to the low number. Tara Quinones hadn’t heard anything from her uncle, David Marbury, for eight days before she drove north from the San Francisco Bay Area to give a sample Friday. A worker used a small tool to scrape her cheek, took three swabs of skin and asked her detailed ques- tions about who she was looking for and their re- lationship. The uncle’s landlord confirmed his house burned down with his vehicle still in the ga- rage, but Quinones had no idea if any remains were found. Marbury’s Asylum identification effort in their desperate search for a loved one, others after the sheriff ’s office called to say that remains that probably belonged to a family member had been found. Mattern declined to say Tuesday how many victims ANDE’s technol- ogy has helped identify. Sheriff Kory Honea’s of- fice did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The fire was 70 per- cent contained Tuesday. Rain in the forecast for Wednesday through Thanksgiving weekend could aid in fighting the fire but could also bring flash floods and compli- cate efforts to recover remains. Once DNA is extracted from the remains, it is placed in a vial that goes into a black machine that looks like a bulky com- puter printer. It takes just two hours to process the material and get a DNA profile; traditional methods can take days or weeks. If a relative’s DNA is already in the system, a match will pop up right away. Read more at TheSkanner.com ZooLights is Back ZooLights, the Oregon Zoo’s walk-through winter wonderland of more than 1.6 million colored lights, opens Nov. 21. Over the past five years, more than a million visitors have strolled through the forests of lighted trees, been dazzled by life-size illuminated animal silhouettes and ridden the light-bedecked zoo trains. During this year’s Value Nights — see schedule at oregonzoo.org/zoolights — ZooLights visitors get a $5 discount on admission. For further information and illumination, visit bit.ly/ZooLightsFAQ. AARP cont’d from pg 1 role she’ll oversee a staff of sev- en full-time employees as well as more than 150 state office volun- teers. AARP is the nation’s largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organi- zation dedicated to serving and empowering American seniors. It boasts nearly 38 million mem- bers, 510,000 of them in the state of Oregon. “Our goal and our vision here is to go deeper into the community,” Haughton-Pitts said of her new role. “There’s so many opportu- nities in the state of Oregon for people as they age.” Oregon has the advantage of being a younger state, and that gives it more freedom to experi- ment with ways of providing care and appropriate infrastructure for seniors as they age, Haugh- ton-Pitts said. “So many of the things that I saw when I went to Chicago was because it was an older state and they had tried things that had failed like public housing -- so Oregon doesn’t have to go back and try that experiment again,” Haughton-Pitts said. “We can look at our housing and housing stock and try things. We can try mixed- use, mixed-income -- and there’s a whole lot more space. Even though Portland is a lot more im- pacted by high rises [than other areas], there’s much more space in the state of Oregon.” On the flip side, she noted Illi- nois has more infrastructure for inexpensive transportation op- “ There’s so many opportunities in the state of Or- egon for people as they age tions, which are key to helping individuals stay in place as they age. “All of those things make com- munities more livable: can I get around without a car? Can I get to my doctor’s appointments? In- expensive transportation – we don’t need to call it public trans- portation – inexpensive trans- portation is key to that,” Haugh- ton-Pitts told The Skanner. Looking ahead to the next leg- islative session, Haughton-Pitts said the organization is looking at health security, caregiving, long- term care and retirement savings – as well as affordable housing. The organization’s interest in caregiving issues included its advocacy for the 2017 Care Act passed out of the state legislature last year: it requires hospitals to provide training to family care- givers before their loved ones are discharged. The organization is also a strong advocate for paid family and medical leave, so individuals who work full-time can take time off from a job to care for a loved one. “This month, November, is Fam- ily Caregiving Month,” Haugh- ton-Pitts said. “We are honoring family caregivers across the na- tion and we’re encouraging Na- tional Family Caregiving Month and for employers across the country to honor this month and to consider paid family care, fam- ily leave and medical leave.” AARP is also always looking for volunteers, including for its Tax Aide program, which offers free tax services for individuals 50 and older. “AARP’s mission is to serve, not to be served. That’s a 60-year motto from our founder, Ethel Percy Andrus, and we carry that forward,” she said, referencing AARP founder Ethel Percy An- drus’ statement, “It is only in the giving of ourselves of others that we truly live.” cont’d from pg 1 Trump on Tuesday criticized the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would likely receive any appeal of Tigar’s order and has already ruled against the administration in several immigration cases. Trump called the circuit a “disgrace” and its judges “very unfair.” Whether asylum seekers would try now to enter between official ports of entry was unclear. One immigrant waiting at the official border crossing vowed to stay in line regardless of the ruling. “I’ve always taken the correct path, and I’m not going to do something ille- gal now,” said Byron Torrez, 28, of Nic- aragua. Torrez said he fled Nicaragua after someone threw acid at him during a government protest. He said he did not travel with any of the caravans. “I think it is good that the court did this because a lot of people cross ille- gally, not to break the law, but because they believe you have to get to the U.S. first before requesting asylum,” he said. “ have arrived in the United States, “whether or not at a designated port of arrival.” “Individuals are entitled to Whatever the scope of the President’s authority, he may not rewrite the immi- gration laws to impose a condition that Congress has expressly forbidden The regulations were put in place in part to stop what the government says are loopholes that allow thousands of people to avoid deportation. DHS es- timates around 70,000 people a year claim asylum after crossing illegally. But illegal crossings overall are well below historical highs from previous decades. Tigar’s ruling notes that federal law says someone may seek asylum if they AP PHOTO/RAMON ESPINOSA) “ name keeps going on and off the ever-changing list of the missing. “I did it just to be pro- active,” Quinones said Monday. “This is the one way I could contribute to helping find my uncle.” Some of those who have given DNA came forward, like Quinones, after learning about the PHOTO COURTESY OF OREGON ZOO DNA asylum if they cross between U.S. and California state flags fly behind the border wall, seen ports of entry,” said Baher from Tijuana, Mexico, Nov. 19. Azmy, a lawyer for the Center Border Protection said Monday that it for Constitutional Rights, which sued closed off northbound traffic for sev- the government alongside the Ameri- eral hours at the San Ysidro crossing to can Civil Liberties Union. “It couldn’t install movable, wire-topped barriers be clearer.” after reports that some migrants were Around 3,000 people from the first of planning to rush through the lanes — the caravans have arrived in Tijuana, but none did. Mexico, across the border from San Read more at TheSkanner.com Diego, California. U.S. Customs and
