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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 24, 2015)
NATION/WORLD Tuesday, March 24, 2015 Cruz targets conservatives as he starts White House run East Oregonian Fuel producers, truckers sue to block Oregon low-carbon fuel standard By PHILIP ELLIOTT Associated Press By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau LYNCHBURG, Va. — Launching his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked Christian con- servative voters to imagine a United States without the IRS, Obamacare or abortion rights — and to imagine they can make that happen by sup- porting him. His aspirational appeal on Monday, aimed at America’s most conservative voters, could quickly run into chal- lenges in winning over mod- erate voters — and eventually GHHSGLI¿FXOWLHVLQJRYHUQLQJ should Cruz win the White House. But it’s a message that &UX] WKH ¿UVW PDMRU contender to declare himself a candidate, is expected to forcefully emphasize in the coming year before voters start to pick nominees. “God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe that God isn’t done with Americans,” Cruz de- clared at Liberty University, a Christian school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. “I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives ris- ing up to reignite the promise of America. And that is that is why, today, I am announcing that I am running for presi- dent of the United States of America.” Cruz won’t be the sole GOP contender for long. Two Senate colleagues, Ken- tucky’s Rand Paul and Flori- da’s Marco Rubio, are eyeing campaign launches soon. And former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former New Jer- sey Gov. Chris Christie, are SALEM — Fuel pro- ducers and truckers are suing to stop Oregon from implementing the state’s low-carbon fuel standard. ,QGXVWU\ JURXSV ¿OHG D federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday against Gov. Kate Brown, members of the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission and employees of the state De- partment of Environmen- tal Quality. The plaintiffs asked the court to issue a SUHOLPLQDU\ LQMXQFWLRQ WR stop the state from imple- menting the program while the case proceeds. A similar federal law- suit in California slowed the roll-out of that state’s low-carbon fuel program but did not stop it. The Western States Pe- troleum Association al- UHDG\ ¿OHG D FKDOOHQJH WR the low-carbon fuel pro- gram at the Oregon Court of Appeals earlier this month. The state Environmental Quality Commission voted in January to adopt regula- tions that will require fuel importers and producers to reduce the carbon content of transportation fuels by 10 percent during the next decade, starting in January 7KHUXOHVZHUHEDVHG on a 2009 bill, which was set to sunset this year be- fore the state could imple- ment the program. Lawmakers passed the controversial Senate Bill 324 earlier this year to make the program perma- nent, and Gov. Kate Brown signed the bill into law March 12. Brown did not immediately respond to a AP Photo/Andrew Harnik Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, his wife Heidi, and their two daughters Catherine, 4, left, and Caroline, 6, right, wave on stage after he announced his campaign for president, Monday at Liberty University, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, in Lynchburg, Va. Cruz, who announced his candidacy on twitter in the early morning hours, is the first major candidate in the 2016 race for president. expected to follow, among others. The 44-year-old Cruz is betting his White House hopes on profoundly conser- vative voters and their op- SRVLWLRQWRSROLFLHVWKH\¿QG abhorrent. Within such circles, there is deep distrust of the IRS, which was revealed last year to have been scrutinizing tea SDUW\JURXSV¶QRQSUR¿WVWDWXV Scuttling President Barack Obama’s health care leg- islation, called by some “Obamacare,” is a rallying cry, as well. And abortion is D PDMRU LVVXH IRU &KULVWLDQ conservatives who have tre- mendous sway in the lead-off caucus and primary election states of Iowa and South Car- olina. During his 30-minute kickoff speech, delivered like a sermon without notes or cue BRIEFLY Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu apologizes for offending Arab citizens -(586$/(0$3²3ULPH0LQLVWHU%HQMDPLQ Netanyahu apologized to Israel’s Arab citizens on Monday for remarks he made during last week’s parliament election that offended members of the community. The move appeared to be an attempt to heal rifts and mute criticism at home and in the United States. Netanyahu drew accusations of racism in Israel, especially from its $UDEPLQRULW\DQGD:KLWH+RXVHUHEXNHZKHQMXVWD few hours before polling stations were to close across the country, he warned that Arab citizens were voting “in droves.” But President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis 0F'RQRXJKUHMHFWHG1HWDQ\DKX¶VDWWHPSWWRGLVWDQFH himself from his comments, telling an Israel advocacy group 0RQGD\WKDWWKH86FDQ¶WMXVWRYHUORRNZKDW1HWDQ\DKX said on the eve of his re-election. Netanyahu, whose Likud Party won re-election in the vote, met with members of the Arab community at the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem on Monday and apologized. He said he knows his “comments last week offended some Israeli citizens and offended members of the Israeli- Arab community.” cards, Cruz made clear he sees electoral potential in his unbending advocacy. “Today, roughly half of born-again Christians aren’t voting — they’re staying home,” Cruz said. “Imagine, instead, millions of people of faith all across America com- ing out to the polls and voting our values.” Following his election to the Senate in 2012, the for- mer Texas solicitor general quickly established himself DVDQXQFRPSURPLVLQJ¿JXUH willing to take on Democrats and sometimes Republicans, too. Divisive within his own GOP, he won praise from tea party activists for leading the effort to shut the federal gov- ernment during an unsuccess- ful bid to block money for the health law. +HVSRNHRQWKH¿IWKDQQL- versary of that law — legis- lation that prompted Cruz to stand for more than 21 hours in the Senate to denounce it in a speech that delight- ed his supporters and other Obamacare foes. Cheers rose Monday in the hall when Cruz reminded the crowd that Liberty Universi- W\¿OHGDVXLWDJDLQVWWKHODZ right after its enactment. But the partial government shutdown was not widely popular, and Democrats sig- naled that it would be central WRWKHLUFULWLFLVPRIWKH¿UVW term senator. “His reckless approach to governing would make life worse, not better, for Ameri- cans and he isn’t the type of ¿JKWHU WKDW $PHULFD¶V PLG- dle-class families need,” Democratic National Com- mittee chair Debbie Wasser- man Schultz said in a state- ment. Page 7A request for comment Mon- day afternoon on whether the lawsuit might affect the state’s implementation of the low-carbon fuel stan- dard. ,QDFRXUW¿OLQJ0RQGD\ lawyers for the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, American Trucking Associations, Inc., and Consumer Energy Alliance said the low-car- bon fuel standard violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution because it discriminates against fuel imported into the state and attempts to regulate fuel production activities out- side Oregon. For example, the plain- tiffs stated the Oregon pro- gram was designed to close the state’s fuel market to certain types of corn etha- nol and other renewable fu- els and therefore interferes with “the congressional purpose of ensuring a con- tinued market nationwide for this corn ethanol.” The groups also stated the Oregon low-carbon fuel program is pre-empted by federal laws including the Clean Air Act and fed- eral renewable fuel stan- dard. The Western States Pe- WUROHXP$VVRFLDWLRQ¿OHGD petition March 9 asking the Oregon Court of Appeals to review the low-carbon fuel standard regulations the environmental com- mission adopted in January based on the existing state law. The court has yet to schedule oral arguments in the case, and it’s not un- usual for the court to take a year to reach a decision. The Capital Bureau is a collaboration between EO Media Group and Pamplin Media Group. Police: No evidence of gang-rape at University of Virginia CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A four-month police investigation into an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia that Rolling Stone magazine described in graphic detail produced no evidence of the attack and was stymied by the accuser’s unwilling- ness to cooperate, authori- ties said Monday. The article, titled “A rape on campus,” focused RQDVWXGHQWLGHQWL¿HGRQO\ as “Jackie” who said she was raped at the Phi Kap- pa Psi fraternity more than two years earlier. It described a hidden culture of sexual violence fueled by binge drinking at the college. Police said they found no evidence of that either. There were numerous discrepancies between the article, published in No- vember 2014, and what investigators found, said Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo, who took care not to accuse Jackie of lying. The case is suspended, not closed, and the fact that investigators could not ¿QG HYLGHQFH \HDUV ODWHU “doesn’t mean that some- thing terrible didn’t happen to Jackie,” Longo said. He appealed for anyone with information about any sexual violence to im- mediately alert police, and expressed hope that Jackie may one day feel comfort- able explaining what really happened. “There’s a difference between a false allegation and something that hap- pened that may have been different than what was described in that article,” Longo said. Asked if Jackie would be charged with making a false report, he said: “Ab- solutely not.” Jackie’s attorney, Palma Pustilnik, said she would have no comment on the investigation. Accurate or not, the ar- ticle heightened scrutiny of campus sexual assaults amid a campaign by Presi- dent Barack Obama to end them. The University of Virginia had already been on the Department of Edu- cation’s list of 55 colleges under investigation for their handling of sex as- sault violations. 3 dead in scaffolding collapse at 11-story high-rise under construction RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Workers were dismantling a VFDIIROGDWDKLJKULVHFRQVWUXFWLRQSURMHFWRQ0RQGD\ZKHQ a piece of it fell to the ground in downtown Raleigh, killing three men and sending another to a hospital. All four men were involved in the construction of Charter Square, a glass and steel building in downtown Raleigh, said Jeffrey Hammerstein, community outreach chief for Wake County EMS. A 911 caller told the operator that men were working on the scaffold when it fell about 11 a.m. The equipment, known as a mast climber scaffold, moves up and down a EXLOGLQJ¶VIDFDGHWRWDNHZRUNHUVWRGLIIHUHQWÀRRUV ³:HMXVWKDGDPDVWFOLPEHUIDOORII7KHUHZHUHPHQRQ it,” the caller said, estimating the men fell 200 feet. The operator asked if the victims were awake, to which the caller responded: “No, they’re dead.” 8WDK*RYHUQRUDSSURYHV¿ULQJVTXDGV if lethal drugs are unavailable SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah became the only state WRDOORZ¿ULQJVTXDGVIRUH[HFXWLRQV0RQGD\ZKHQ*RY Gary Herbert signed a law approving the method’s use when QROHWKDOLQMHFWLRQGUXJVDUHDYDLODEOH +HUEHUWKDVVDLGKH¿QGVWKH¿ULQJVTXDG³DOLWWOHELW gruesome,” but Utah is a capital punishment state and needs a backup execution method in case a shortage of the drugs persists. “We regret anyone ever commits the heinous crime of aggravated murder to merit the death penalty, and we prefer WRXVHRXUSULPDU\PHWKRGRIOHWKDOLQMHFWLRQZKHQVXFKD sentence is issued,” Herbert spokesman Marty Carpenter VDLG³+RZHYHUZKHQDMXU\PDNHVWKHGHFLVLRQDQGDMXGJH signs a death warrant, enforcing that lawful decision is the obligation of the executive branch.” The measure’s approval is the latest illustration of some VWDWHV¶IUXVWUDWLRQRYHUEXQJOHGH[HFXWLRQVDQGGLI¿FXOW\ obtaining the drugs. Utah is one of several states seeking new forms of capital punishment after a botched Oklahoma OHWKDOLQMHFWLRQODVW\HDU States have struggled to keep up their drug inventories as European manufacturers opposed to capital punishment UHIXVHWRVHOOWKHFRPSRQHQWVRIOHWKDOLQMHFWLRQVWR86 prisons. 5K RUN, 5K WALK, 10K RUN, KID'S BUTTE SCOOT All races begin & end at Hermiston's Butte Park DRAWINGS • FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY Online registration & race information at WWW.BUTTECHALLENGE.COM REGISTER ONLINE BY APRIL 23RD TO ORDER A CUSTOM TECHNICAL RACE T-SHIRT All proceeds benefit THE HERMISTON CROSS COUNTRY PROGRAM Thank you for your support!