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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 10, 2015)
I-84 collision sends two to hospital DUCKS ADD TOP QUARTERBACK FOOTBALL/1B 54/35 REGION/3A TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2015 139th Year, No. 83 WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar Governor asks for AG to investigate Hayes questions By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau More inside SALEM — Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has opened an investigation into ques- tions surrounding ¿ rst lady Cyl- via Hayes and her dealings with the administration of Gov. John Kitzhaber. Rosenblum con¿ rmed the in- vestigation in a letter to Kitzhaber Monday morning, shortly after the governor asked Rosenblum to in- vestigate questions surrounding ¿ rst lady Cylvia Hayes and her First lady hires criminal defense attorney Page 6A Kitzhaber Rosenblum dealings with the administration. “My of¿ ce has already opened an investigation into this matter,” Rosenblum wrote. “I appreciate your intent to cooperate fully.” Although Rosenblum did not disclose the issues her of¿ ce will investigate, the Department of Justice has pursued well-known Oregonians for tax evasion in re- cent years. Cases included conser- vative initiative sponsor Bill Size- more, who pleaded guilty in 2011 to three counts of felony tax evasion, and marijuana activist Paul Stan- ford who pleaded guilty the same year to one count of misdemeanor tax evasion . The Department of Jus- tice has also prosecuted public em- ployees for the misdemeanor crime of of¿ cial misconduct, which under state law can include an of¿ cial mis- using public of¿ ce to obtain a bene- ¿ t. Prosecutors have used the broad of¿ cial misconduct law to pursue cases ranging from a Lincoln Coun- ty deputy district attorney indicted for attempting to use his position to have sex with a woman involved in a child support case, to an Oregon State Police detective who pleaded guilty last year to charges related to his mishandling of a white suprem- acist case. Kitzhaber said he asked Rosen- blum to launch a review because of the media’s focus on the overlap be- tween Hayes’ paid consulting jobs and her unpaid work as policy ad- viser, as well as the role of Kitzhaber associates in helping Hayes obtain some of those jobs. Public records released Friday revealed that Hayes directed state employees’ work to See KITZHABER/6A Doctor data danger Medical records may be vulnerable to hackers By TOM MURPHY and BRANDON BAILEY AP Business Writers Staff photo by E.J. Harris History comes alive Fourth-grader Rebecca Bearchum sits dressed as Chief Joseph on Monday during a living wax museum school project at McKay Creek Elementary in Pendleton. The wax museum is part of an assignment where students research a historical fi g- ure, create a biography on their subject and give a presentation about their subject to their class. More than 60 fourth-grad- ers took part in the event in the school’s gym. HERMISTON City charter headed to a vote this spring Charter unchanged for 60 years By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Rosa Parks was re- fusing to give up her seat on the bus and the Cold War was in full swing last time Hermiston voters approved a new charter. The municipal landscape has changed in the 60 years since, starting with the fact that mayors and city councilors are no longer exclusively referred to as “he.” As a result, the very fabric of Hermiston’s governance will be up for a vote this spring as voters consider a rewritten version of the city’s home rule charter. On Monday night the city council approved ballot language that will place a new city charter before Hermiston voters in May. Mayor David Drotzmann noted that the city council had put in al- most a year’s worth of work with a city charter specialist to make the charter more reader friendly and erase ambiguities that might cause problems for the city. “Please come out and support these issues ... please take time to review it,” Drotzmann said. The charter, often compared to a constitution, lays down the law for how the city is run, cover- ing everything from the number of city councilors to the powers granted the city manager. One of the biggest changes to the new charter is that it would change the mayor’s term from two years to four. After getting criticism for pro- posing a second major change — shifting the municipal judge from an elected position to one appointed to by the council — the council elected to offer that pro- vision as an amendment present- ed in a separate ballot measure. After employing the services of attorney Chad Jacobs from Portland law ¿ rm Beery, Elsner & Hammond LLP the city coun- cil has rewritten Hermiston’s See HERMISTON/6A Everyone worries about stolen credit cards or hacked bank accounts, but just visiting the doctor may put you at greater risk for identity fraud. Those medical forms you give the re- ceptionist and send to your health insurer provide fertile ground for criminals look- ing to steal your identity, since health care businesses can lag far behind banks and credit card companies in protecting sen- sitive information. The names, birthdates and — most importantly — Social Secu- rity numbers detailed on those forms can help hackers open fake credit lines, ¿ le false tax returns and create fake medical records. “It’s an entire pro¿ le of who you are,” said Cynthia Larose, chair of the privacy and security practice at the law ¿ rm Mintz Levin in Boston. “It essentially allows someone to become you.” Social Security numbers were created to track the earnings history of workers in order to determine government bene¿ ts. Now, health care companies are, in some cases, required to collect the numbers by government agencies. They also use them because they are unique to every individ- ual and more universal than other forms of identi¿ cation like driver’s licenses, said Dr. Ross Koppel, a University of Pennsyl- vania professor who researches health care information technology. But once someone creates a stolen iden- tity with a Social Security number, it can be hard to ¿ x the damage. A person can call a bank to shut down a stolen credit card, but it’s not as easy of a process when it comes to Social Security numbers. See DATA/6A Singer dies, will be remembered for harmony By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Jeremy Miller’s life played out like a song. The ¿ nal note faded early Friday morning when Miller died at Oregon Health & Sci- ence University Hospital of pancreatic cancer. In November, the ailing 36-year-old singer drew a sellout crowd to Pendleton’s 9ert Auditorium for a bene¿ t concert. Miller sang a solo and then harmonized with buddies from his old college quartet, Absolutely Nobody, which had come out of mothballs for the concert. Miller’s father, former Blue Mountain Community “He’s going to be a big singer up there in heaven with perfect pitch.” — Tom Phelan, member of old college quartet College choir director Dave Miller, had assembled the original foursome — Jeremy, Tom Phelan, Rick Pullen and Joe Lindsey and, later, Cory Cooley, who took Phelan’s place. The group sang during college concerts and traveled with the college president during a bond campaign in the late 1990s, entertaining with their own unique blend of doo-wop and barbershop and drawing large crowds. “Absolutely Nobody just kind of clicked,” Dave said. “They just got along so well and whoever saw them picked up on that.” Dave said his son’s musi- cal prowess had emerged ear- ly on. At age 5 or 6, Jeremy sang “Jesus Loves Me” in a pure high-pitched voice, with the Pendleton Presbyterian Church Choir singing back- ground. An accident threatened to derail Jeremy’s musical ambitions when he suffered head trauma after he and three teenage friends rode an inner See MILLER/6A Photo contributed by Terry Aichele Jeremy Miller looks out at the crowd that gathered in November at the Vert to give him support in his cancer battle. Miller, who died Friday, sang a solo at the concert and sang with his singing group, Abso- lutely Nobody, which came out of mothballs for the benefi t concert.
