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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2015)
NORTHWEST Saturday, January 24, 2015 East Oregonian Megaload protesters report being contacted by FBI SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Activists who oppose the WUDQVSRUW RI JLDQW RLO¿HOG equipment through parts of Idaho and Washington say they have been contacted by FBI agents. Helen Yost of Moscow, Idaho, said she recently re- ceived a text message that un- settled her. “I need to speak with you,” the December message said. “Please give me a call. I am an FBI agent.” The Spokesman-Review reported Friday that Yost, 57, is a co-founder of Wild Idaho Rising Tide, a climate-change action group that opposes the megaload shipments. Yost has been arrested twice while pro- testing the shipment of equip- ment to Canada’s tar sands oil ¿HOGV She was among the 20-or- so protesters at the Port of Umatilla in November 2013 DWWHPSWLQJWRVWRSWKH¿UVWRI WKUHHWUXFNVWKDWFDUULHGUH¿Q- ery equipment to the oil sands of Alberta, Canada. The group also opposes rail shipments of crude oil and coal through the Northwest. “We don’t see ourselves as posing any threat,” said Yost, who refused to talk to the agent. “We see the FBI contact as being unwarranted.” Yost is one of a dozen ac- tivists in Idaho, Washington and Oregon who say they’ve been contacted by the FBI in recent months, said Larry Hildes, a Bellingham, Wash- ington, civil rights attorney. Agents have shown up on their doorsteps, at their work- place or contacted them by PORTLAND — One girl is in a Portland hospital par- alyzed from the neck down and another, who’s been dis- charged, is hobbling around with a brace. They don’t have polio, which would cause similar symptoms. But doctors have no idea what’s wrong. There is no cure, at least not yet, but their syndrome has a name: Acute Flaccid Myelitis. “It’s a living nightmare,” said Mikell Sheehan, moth- er to Bailey, who was dis- charged in December. The Sheehans, who live in Welches, have become close with an Albany family, whose 7-year-old daughter McKenzie Andersen is in Randall Children’s Hospital, ZLWKIHHOLQJRQO\LQVRPH¿Q- PENDLETON Energy upgrades save big bucks at Smith, Grain Craft energy you can save when you raise employee aware- Two Pendleton-area ness,” said plant manager food processors announced Vernon Hawks. “We found HQHUJ\HI¿FLHQF\XSJUDGHV out that by questioning that are expected to save our behaviors and making changes we have saved nearly $200,000 annually. Smith Frozen Foods in more than $50,000 annu- Weston and Grain Craft ally.” Pendleton Grain Craft in Pendleton made the announcement of the up- also is following the initia- grades this week in a press tive and expects to cut annu- release from Energy Trust al energy costs by $25,000. “We got employees ex- Northwest. Smith Frozen Foods FLWHG DERXW ¿QGLQJ ZD\V replaced several existing to save, and ourselves to freeze tunnels with two think beyond ‘business as QHZ HQHUJ\HI¿FLHQW PRG- usual,’” said Trent Inskeep, els, saving an estimated Grain Craft production 2.2 million kilowatt hours administrator. “A good and nearly $111,000 per example is why lights or year, according to the re- equipment are turned on lease. Energy Trust of Or- DW D VSHFL¿F WLPH $OO WRR egon provided technical often the answer is ‘we’ve guidance on the improve- always done it that way.’” As part of the initiative, ment and also gave Smith a $499,999 cash incentive. Grain Craft found that a Among the changes wheat dust suction motor to the tunnels are welded at its grain elevator was seams and fans located out- running unnecessarily 24 side the tunnel, eliminating hours per day. That change fan motor heat from the re- alone delivered $15,000 in savings per year. frigeration system’s load. Energy Trust provid- Smith is also participat- ing in Energy Trust’s Stra- ed Grain Craft $9,900 and tegic Energy Management Smith $23,000 for par- initiative, which trains staff ticipating in the training. on how to make behavior- Energy Trust of Oregon is al, operations and mainte- DQ LQGHSHQGHQW QRQSUR¿W nance changes to maximize organization. Learn more at www.energytrust.org or energy savings. “It’s amazing how much call 1-866-368-7878. East Oregonian EO file photo A protester raises his fist in the air after learning that Omega Morgan has called off moving the megaload in December 2013 at the Port of Umatilla. phone, he said. Hildes said he’s told his cli- ents not to talk to FBI agents. “We honestly don’t know what they’re up to, or why, and that concerns us,” Hil- des said. “Nobody associated with any of the groups has ever done anything danger- ous or violent. Some of the folks have been involved in civil disobedience, but that’s not a federal issue.” The complaints follow demonstrations last summer against oil trains in Oregon and Western Washington, where some protesters were arrested for blocking the rails. The actions targeted the Ev- erett rail yard, an Anacortes UH¿QHU\ DQG WZR 2UHJRQ RLO terminals. With the Keystone Pipeline headed for a vote in Congress, Hildes said he suspects the FBI is monitoring protest ac- tivities related to tar sands. Ayn Dietrich-Williams, an FBI spokeswoman in Seattle, said she couldn’t answer ques- tions about any contacts with protesters. In most instances, WKH DJHQF\ QHLWKHU FRQ¿UPV nor denies that investigations are taking place or that specif- ic individuals have been con- tacted for questioning. “We don’t investigate anyone for First Amendment activities,” Dietrich-Williams said. Investigations occur when the agency has reasonable grounds to believe someone is engaged in illegal activity or planning it, she said. Herb Goodwin, 65, of Bellingham, said a city po- OLFHRI¿FHUDQGDZRPDQZKR LGHQWL¿HG KHUVHOI DV DQ )%, agent contacted him in Oc- tober. They asked if he would answer questions, but he de- clined. “It’s actually pretty spooky to have the FBI show up at your door, ask one question and leave,” Goodwin said. “I think they were there to put me on notice that I was being watched.” Oregon girls dealing with mysterious paralysis By LYNNE TERRY The Oregonian Page 9A gers and toes. %DLOH\ WKH ¿UVW 2UHJRQ case, became paralyzed in her right leg and arm at the end of October. “Nothing has changed in her paralysis,” Sheehan said. “What has changed is that her therapist has taught her how to walk using a brace and a walker. If she has her brace on, she can get around fairly well.” A total of 107 children in 34 states have the same mysterious syndrome, said Dr. Richard Leman, pub- lic health physician at Ore- gon Public Health Division. About a third of the cases tested positive for enterovi- rus D68, which swept across the country last year, killing ¿YH FKLOGUHQ 6KHHKDQ VDLG Bailey, now 8, tested positive for the virus. Leman said results for en- terovirus D68 are pending on Oregon’s second case. Two-thirds of the patients nationwide have improved but only one child has been cured, according to the Cen- ters for Disease Control and Prevention. In September, Colorado KHDOWK DXWKRULWLHV ¿UVW QR- WL¿HG WKH &'& RI QLQH FKLO- dren in a Denver hospital who had suddenly developed an unexplained neurologic illness with limb weakness. That month, the CDC put out an advisory, asking neurolo- gists to be on the lookout for SDWLHQWV 7KH\¶UH GH¿QHG DV children 21 or younger, with an acute limb weakness who became ill after Aug. 1 and who have lesions in the cen- tral part of their spinal cord. Both children in Oregon ¿WWKHFDVHGH¿QLWLRQ/HPDQ said. “It is kind of scary,” he said. “One case of this is too many, clearly.” Treatment is support- ive, just like polio, which was eradicated in the Unit- ed States in 1979 thanks to nationwide vaccination program. But there is no treatment for Acute Flaccid Myelitis. Doctors don’t even know what’s causing it. It started in the Sheehan household in Welches with ÀXOLNHV\PSWRPVDWWKHHQG of October. Everyone was sick, including Sheehan’s 4-month-old baby and her son, who’s 5 years old. But Bailey was hit the worst. She had a headache — it felt like an apple press- ing against her eye, she said — along with back and neck pain. Six days later she lost feeling in her right leg and arm. Back and forth to the hospital, Bailey was admitted to Randall Children’s Hospi- tal in November. West Coast seaport talks resuming after rallies LOS ANGELES (AP) — Labor strife at seaports along the West Coast prompted thousands of dockworkers to rally against employers they say are trying to exploit a cri- sis of cargo congestion at harbors that handle about $1 trillion worth of goods annually. While labor contract ne- gotiators took the day off Thursday, port police es- timated that 6,000 people took part in the rally in Los Angeles and Long Beach, port spokeswoman Rachel Campbell said. Hundreds more rallied in Tacoma, Washington. Contract talks were ex- pected to resume Friday. Earlier this month a fed- eral mediator intervened in contract bargaining that began eight months ago but by fall had deteriorated into a blame game as goods languished on docks. Longshoremen have been working without a contract since the previous one expired in July. The companies oper- ating port terminals assert that workers have slowed the rate at which they pro- cess containers brought from Asia aboard massive ships, adding to gridlock as mountains of imports dwell on dockside yards. Employers started scal- ing back work crews this month, saying they won’t unload ships at night and instead are focused on clearing the backlog from dockside yards. They say the strategy is working. Longshoremen dispute employer statistics that indicate their productivity has dropped and say em- ployers are cutting back jobs to hurt workers and pressure negotiators for their union into a bad deal. As for congestion, dock- workers say they’re not culpable and cite broader problems with the supply chain. Congestion at Los Angeles and Long Beach is not improving. The world could always use more Ducks. Enter PathwayOregon. Every Oregonian who works hard and wants a quality education deserves to get one. 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