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