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OREGON/3A
JANUARY 16-17, 2016
140th Year, No. 66
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
MINIMUM WAGE IN OREGON
Not if, but how
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
When it comes to a
minimum wage hike in
Oregon, the question these
days seems to be how, not if,
it will be accomplished.
At least three different
plans are headed for debate
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during the session that begins
on Feb. 1, and activists are
gathering signatures for two
separate ballot measures.
On Thursday, Governor
Kate Brown announced her
plan, calling for a separate
minimum wage inside the
Portland Urban Growth
Boundary that would reach
$15.52 by 2022. Outside
the Portland area, minimum
wage would be raised to
$10.25 in 2017 and incre-
mentally increase to $13.50
by 2022.
Sen. Michael Dembrow
(D-Portland),
chair
of would break the state into
the
Senate
Workforce three regions based on cost of
Committee,
has
been living.
working on his own bill that
The
highest
wages
would be in Multnomah,
Washington and Clackamas
counties. Eleven counties on
the western side of the state
Eastern Oregon
business owners
worry over hike
would fall in the middle.
Eastern Oregon and sections
of the coast would fall under
a lower “Tier 3” increase.
Dembrow has yet to specify
how quickly wages would
rise in each tier.
A separate union-backed
bill would raise all of
Oregon’s minimum wage to
$13.50 by 2019 while lifting
the current ban on allowing
individual cities to set their
own minimum wage higher.
If Democrats fail to build
enough consensus to raise
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from its current level of
$9.25 an hour, activists have
promised to put the issue on
the ballot in November.
Raise the Wage Oregon,
a coalition of unions and
political groups, is gathering
signatures for a ballot
measure that would raise
statewide minimum wage to
$13.50 by 2018 and end the
ban on cities setting their
own, higher minimum wage.
If activists pushing for a $15 an hour minimum
wage in Oregon get their way, more than half of
Umatilla County workers are in for a raise.
A 2015 report by
economist
Dallas
“Nothing’s Fridley estimated 52
percent of Umatilla
free. If you County’s workforce
less than $15
raise minimum makes
an hour and 43 percent
Morrow County
wage by 50 of
workers do.
While
those
percent, some- workers
might relish
one has to pay the thought of a jump
in pay, many business
for that.” owners are worried
— Joseph Franell, about how they will
Eastern Oregon Telecom CEO
pay for it.
Sam
Jackson,
owner of Crazy Mike’s Video in Hermiston, said
proposals to raise minimum wage from $9.25
an hour to $13.50 or $15 could mean she would
See WAGE/12A
See BUSINESS/12A
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Deer Ridge
will house
inmates in
February
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Depart-
ment of Corrections plans
to move nearly 800 inmates
in late February to a vacant
medium-security
facility
at Deer Ridge Correctional
Institution in Madras.
The move, which will cost
PLOOLRQLVWKH¿UVWLQD
two-step plan to accommo-
date unanticipated growth in
the state’s prison population.
The inmates will be moved
from a smaller minimum-se-
curity complex at Deer Ridge
that lacks room for more
beds.
“That plan is in motion,”
said DOC Director Colette
Peters.
The entire plan involves
opening 200 more beds.
If fully implemented, the
expansion is estimated to
cost a total of $9.5 million.
“It gives you an idea of
See PRISON/12A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Benny Hill of Pendleton changed to an e-cigarette as a means to quit using tobacco products more than three years ago.
Clearing the smoke
Risk of e-cigarettes still
hazy as smokers switch
from tobacco to e-juice
a cigarette since.”
Humphrey had found success
in what some call the Wild West of
smoking cessation.
The largely unregulated vaping
industry has rapidly expanded
since a Chinese chemist invented
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
the e-cigarette about 13 years ago.
But disagreement about the health
of vaping abounds. The U.S. Food
Steve
Humphrey
started
and Drug Administration warned
smoking tobacco as a teen and
that e-cigarettes may be harmful
worked his way up to two packs a
and toxic. The World Health Orga-
day. For decades, he tried to stop.
nization called for a ban on indoor
“I tried to quit a thousand times,”
use and asked for restricted sales to
Humphrey said. “Sometimes it was
minors. Portland State University
a couple of weeks, but never for
researchers determined that the
very long.”
carcinogen formaldehyde can be
Finally, about a year ago, the
present in electronic cigarette vapor.
Pendleton blues musician and
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
As of Jan. 1, Oregonians may
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try vaping. With vaping, battery-op- The vaping industry has seen an explosion in the number of users no longer vape in indoor public
places — e-cigarettes now fall
erated devices such as e-cigarettes over the last few years as tobacco users look for a way to quit.
deliver nicotine in an inhalable known as e-juice.
“I went to a vaping shop and under the Clean Air Act. The ban
vapor. There is no combustion. A
Humphrey decided he had bought a starter kit,” he said. “I
See VAPING/12A
FRLO LQVLGH KHDWV ÀDYRUHG OLTXLG nothing to lose.
started that day and have never had