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East Oregonian
HEALTH: Four percent of adults eat the
recommended servings of fruits, vegetables
Continued from 1A
health as “fair” or “poor,” but in 2015,
27 percent rated their health at the lower
end of the scale.
Ward and Harwood said the change
required discussion with the commu-
nity to determine rationale for the
health perception change.
Weight status
More than a third (36 percent)
of adults in Umatilla and Morrow
counties were obese and another third
(38 percent) were overweight. Both
statistics are higher than the state and
national average.
“Seventy-four percent of adults
were either overweight or obese based
on their body mass index,” Ward said.
“And that’s probably under-reported.”
For Umatilla County, the percentage
of obese adults increased from 32
percent to 37 percent between 2011
and 2015; the percentage of those
overweight dropped slightly from 35
percent to 34 percent.
Part of the change may come from
how few adults (4 percent) eat the
recommended servings of fruits and
vegetables daily and how many adults
do not participate in any physical activ-
ities or exercise (21 percent).
“We asked why do you not exercise.
I call it the long list of excuses,” Ward
said. “My favorite is third on the list:
people admitting they’re just lazy. You
have some honest people.”
Reasons for not exercising included:
time (26 percent), too tired (21
percent), laziness (18 percent), pain or
discomfort (18 percent) and weather
(16 percent).
Tobacco and drug use
In 2015, 13 percent of adults in
Umatilla and Morrow counties were
tobacco smokers and 26 percent were
considered former smokers, both on par
with the state and national averages. In
2011, 18 percent of Umatilla County
residents were smokers and only 17
percent were former smokers.
Although recent legislation legalized
recreational marijuana use, the number
of local residents who reported using
marijuana within the past six months
only increased slightly. In 2015, 12
percent of Umatilla County residents
and 11 percent of Morrow County resi-
dents reported using marijuana within
the past six months. However, 16
percent of adults reported using medi-
cation not prescribed for them or taking
more medication than prescribed.
“This one really surprised me,” Ward
“We have a lot to offer
the city and the surrounding
area,” she said. “We think
that our inmates are pretty
well received around the
state.”
Taylor added that the
prison sent out more than
500 inmates to help fire
crews last year and has
about 300 inmates in work
crews on a daily basis.
George Murdock, the
chairman of the Umatilla
County Board of Commis-
sioners and a member of the
EOCI advisory committee,
and Dale Primmer, the
director of Umatilla County
Community Justice and a
city council candidate, also
spoke in favor of lifting
the ban.
Primmer said these kinds
of work crews are not new to
the area.
Although EOCI work
crews are banned, the agree-
ment doesn’t apply to work
crews from other programs
like
Umatilla
County
Community Justice and
Two Rivers Correctional
Institution.
Primmer’s department
supervises roughly 700
people on parole and proba-
tion, some of whom work
on projects like the Pioneer
Park rebuild and the Rivoli
Theater restoration as a
part of community service
requirements.
“This notion that you are
introducing a new element
to the community is a false
Other highlights
• 24 percent of Umatilla county
adults have been diagnosed with
asthma, compared to 17 percent for the
state of Oregon and 14 percent for the
national average.
• 8 percent of adults in Umatilla and
Morrow counties were without health
care coverage, mostly those who were
under 30 years of age and those with an
income under $25,000 a year.
• 17 percent of residents in Umatilla
County and 18 percent of residents in
Morrow County live below the poverty
level.
• 11 percent of adults in Umatilla and
Morrow counties have been diagnosed
with cancer at some point in their life.
• 13 percent of adults in Umatilla and
Morrow counties have been diagnosed
with diabetes.
• 33 percent of adults in Umatilla and
Morrow counties have been diagnosed
with arthritis.
• The leading causes of death for
2014 include cancer (22 percent), heart
disease (19 percent), chronic lower
respiratory diseases (6 percent).
one,” Primmer said. “They
do provide a lot of work in
the community and a lot of
skilled labor in the commu-
nity.”
Primmer said the risk
assessment tools used to
pick inmates for work
crews are much more
advanced than they were in
1987, meaning work crew
members are less likely to
walk off or commit a crime.
Many on the council agreed
with Taylor and the county
officials that it was time to
scrap the agreement.
Although supportive of
prison work crews, Coun-
cilor Becky Marks warned
that the council had revisited
the idea before and were met
with strong public opposi-
tion.
“They came out in droves
the last time we brought this
up,” she said. “I was just a
member of the audience
that night but I was a little
surprised at the response
from the community when
you said you were going to
let inmates work in town. I
would very strongly suggest
that we do some heads-up
work and maybe work on
getting some communica-
tion out there about what an
asset this could be for us.”
The council asked City
Manager Robb Corbett to
place the ban repeal on the
agenda for the council’s
May 3 meeting.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
STUDENTS: Can talk with counselors at LHS
Continued from 1A
Columbine-type of attack
on the school with specific
people targeted.”
Harvey said the parents of
the youth were fully cooper-
ating with the investigation.
Harvey stated the Union
County Sheriff’s Office has
also been providing extra
security at the high school
during the investigation.
Harvey
stipulated
that
additional information will
be limited in scope, in order
to protect the integrity of the
investigation and the legal
process, and because the
alleged threats came from
juveniles.
La Grande High School
Principal Brett Baxter said
he first learned of the threat
Monday afternoon from a
staff member. Administra-
tors looked into the report
and a short time asked the La
Grande Police Department
to investigate it.
Baxter is sent a letter to
parents home with all LHS
BRIEFLY
Echo pursuing funding for sewer upgrades
ECHO — Echo residents may worry that calls from
Portland State University are a scam, but they’re actually
a tool the city needs to pursue $2.3 million in funding for
upgrades to its sewer system.
City manager Diane Berry said the calls ask people
about their demographics and income level, but the
information will be kept anonymous and will not be linked
to their address. The information is required as part of grant
applications to state agencies and HUD.
Berry said that in 2005 the Department of Environ-
mental Quality informed Echo that its wastewater discharge
into the Umatilla River was not meeting standards for
suspended solids and biological oxygen demand, and it
needed to make changes. After hitting some roadblocks,
including a landowner who decided not to sell needed
property to the city, the project still has not been completed.
“This is probably the slowest sewer project ever,” Berry
said.
As a result, state agencies have said that the city needs
to redo its demographic and income studies before applying
for funding this year.
Berry said the city is shooting for about $2.3 million
in upgrades, including replacing a pump at the lift station,
replacing worn-out pipes, installing new pipes, replacing
a bridge over a ditch, cleaning out the lagoon where solids
are stored and creating an evaporation pond to direct water
into.
She said the city currently pumps recycled and chlori-
nated water into the river less than 30 days out of the year,
and never during the summer.
Westland Irrigation District monthly
meeting set for Monday
HERMISTON — The Westland Irrigation District will
hold its monthly board meeting Monday, April 18 at 1 p.m.
at the Stafford Hansell Government Building in Hermiston.
Items on the agenda include an update on the Central
Project — part of a multi-phase effort to pump additional
irrigation water from the Columbia River — and A-line
recharge. The board will also consider a report from GSI
Water Solutions on groundwater management, and consider
adopting a safety and health program.
For more information, contact the district office at
541-667-2030.
———
Briefs are compiled from staff and wire reports, and press
releases. Email press releases to news@eastoregonian.com
WORLD BRIEFLY
said. “For me, to know that people are
misusing prescription drugs more than
are using marijuana? I did not see that
one coming.”
EOCI: Ban does not apply to TRCI crews
Continued from 1A
Thursday, April 14, 2016
students Wednesday which
explained what happened
and why an investigation
was conducted.
La Grande School District
Superintendent Larry Glaze
recorded a message for
parents and students this
morning which was sent to
about 2,800 phones via an
automated call system.
“I told them that La
Grande Police Chief Brian
Harvey gave us the green
light to run schools today,’’
Glaze said.
Law enforcement officers
were at La Grande High
School throughout the day
Wednesday.
“We want to allay fears of
parents and students,’’ Glaze
said.
Students
who
are
concerned about the situation
have the opportunity to talk
with counselors. Counselors
were called in Tuesday to
help students cope with
grief due to a 2015 graduate
Hanna Doig-Cashell’s death
in a car accident on Monday.
OREGON: 30,500 transplants
came from California in 2014
Continued from 1A
state,” Bullington wrote, but
“Oregonians are not keen
on Californians. It’s clearly
apparent.”
The picture on the
GoFundMe page is nearly
identical to the anti-Cali-
fornia stickers that appeared
on For Sale signs around
Portland last summer. Of all
the transplants that moved
to Oregon in 2014, the
U.S. Census Bureau found,
30,500 came from California
— far more than the 18,500
who came from Washington,
the second-largest group.
Meanwhile, home values
and rents in Oregon have
sharply increased, and the
inventory of available homes
for sale and rent has been
historically low — a fact
many locals have blamed on
the transplants.
This is a chance for
Oregonians to gain one
more home on the rental
market, eliminate two cars
from the roads and get rid
of two people from the
line at the popular Portland
brunch spot Screen Door,
Bullington wrote.
And in an apparent nod
to a certain presidential
candidate, Bullington ends
his request with, “Help make
Oregon green again.”
In a phone interview,
Bullington acknowledged
that it’s a tongue-in-cheek
campaign.
“I just thought it was kind
of funny,” he said.
He had been planning on
moving back to California
anyway, he said, because
many of his friends are also
beginning to have children
and he wants his daughter
to be able to grow up with
them.
“I actually love a lot of
the things that Oregon has to
offer,” Bullington said.
But don’t get him wrong:
if he meets his $3,500 goal,
he really is going to use the
money, he said.
“That’ll pay for the
moving truck... That’s
what it cost to get us here,”
Bullington said.
Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune via AP
From left, Randolph Stone, Maurice Classen and
Joseph Ferguson, of the Task Force on Police Ac-
countability attend a news conference at the Harold
Washington Library Center in Chicago on Wednes-
day, called to address the task force’s recommenda-
tions for reform of the Chicago Police Department.
Report: Chicago police have
‘no regard’ for minority lives
CHICAGO (AP) —Police in Chicago have “no regard
for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color”
and have alienated blacks and Hispanics for decades by
using excessive force and honoring a code of silence,
a task force declared Wednesday in a report that seeks
sweeping changes to the nation’s third-largest police
force.
The panel, established by Mayor Rahm Emanuel late
last year in response to an outcry over police shootings,
found that the department does little to weed out problem
officers and routine encounters unnecessarily turn deadly.
The group concluded that fear and lack of trust in
law enforcement among minorities is justified, citing
data that show 74 percent of the hundreds of people shot
by officers in recent years were African-Americans,
even though blacks account for 33 percent of the city’s
population.
“Reform is possible if there is a will and a
commitment,” the report said. But change must start with
an acknowledgement of Chicago policing’s “sad history.”
The task force pointed to examples that spanned
generations, including the 1969 killing of Black Panther
Fred Hampton, allegations of torture from the 1970s
to the 1990s under former commander Jon Burge and
controversial stop-and-frisk practices in the early 2000s.
U.S. says Russian planes buzzed
Navy ship in Baltic Sea
WASHINGTON (AP) —Russian attack planes buzzed
a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea multiple times
Monday and Tuesday, coming as close as an estimated
30 feet from the ship and twice passing below the ship’s
navigation bridge, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
The Russian Su-24 planes appeared unarmed but on
Tuesday flew what the commander of the USS Donald
Cook deemed to be a simulated attack profile. The Cook’s
commander judged the actions unsafe and unprofessional,
but the ship took no action beyond trying unsuccessfully
to communicate with the aircraft by radio, according to a
statement by U.S. European Command.
The U.S. European Command, which oversees U.S.
military operations in that area, said the Cook was
conducting deck landing drills with an allied military
helicopter when two Su-24s made numerous close-range
and low-altitude passes Monday afternoon. One pass
occurred while the helicopter was refueling on the Cook’s
deck.
“As a safety precaution, flight operations were
suspended until the Su-24s departed the area,” it said.
European Command did not identify the ally involved
but other officials said the helicopter was Polish.
Obama claims progress on Islamic
State amid worrying signs
LANGLEY, Va. (AP) —President Barack Obama
claimed progress Wednesday in the U.S.-led fight against
the Islamic State group, even as political turmoil in Iraq
and renewed violence in Syria threatened to jeopardize
hard-fought gains.
During a rare presidential visit to CIA headquarters,
Obama said it had been “a bad few months” for the
Islamic State and gave a detailed account of areas
where U.S.-backed forces have wrested territory back
from the extremist group. Though he acknowledged
the fight remains difficult and complex, he said IS was
on the defensive and that the U.S. intends to “keep that
momentum.”
“Every day, ISIL leaders wake up and understand that
it could be their last,” Obama said, using an acronym for
the extremist group.
Obama offered no new steps or specifics about how
the U.S. will beef up the fight against IS, although U.S.
officials have suggested those steps are in the works.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said the Pentagon is
seeking ways to increase military support for the fight,
including a likely increase in U.S. forces, along with the
possible use of Apache helicopters for Iraqi-led combat
missions.
The visit to the CIA’s campus in suburban Virginia
was designed to assure Americans that the U.S. is fully
engaged in the fight, despite persistent complaints from
Obama’s critics that his strategy isn’t aggressive enough.
Indeed, in recent months Obama has made similar field
trips to the Pentagon and the State Department to illustrate
how all facets of the U.S. government are on the case.
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