NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Potato, sugar leaders laud GMO labeling bill
PARK CITY, Utah — Leaders
of the potato and sugar beet indus-
tries say they consider a bill that
passed Congress requiring labels
on food containing genetically
modiied organisms to be a good
compromise.
The House of Representatives
approved the bill July 14 by a
306-117 vote and sent it to the
White House. President Barrack
Obama has indicated he intends to
sign the legislation, which agricul-
tural interests laud for creating a
single national standard to prevent
a patchwork of state regulations.
The GMO labeling bill recently
implemented in Vermont will
Time runs out for timber ballot initiatives
Young occupier pleads
guilty in standoff case
PORTLAND (AP) — The youngest
occupier from this winter's takeover of
an Oregon bird sanctuary has pleaded
guilty.
At the federal courthouse in Portland,
21-year-old Travis Cox admitted
Wednesday that he conspired with
others to impede federal workers from
doing their jobs at the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge.
Prosecutors will recommend that Cox
serve eight months of home detention
with credit for time served.
The defendant from Redmond,
Oregon, was arrested in Utah in April.
He's the ninth man to plead guilty
to conspiracy among the 26 people
indicted in the case.
Most of the other defendants —
including occupation leader Ammon
Bundy — are scheduled to go to trial in
September.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
The state Department of Forestry keeps a 100-foot buffer
along the Nehalem River below the Homesteader timber
sale in the Buster Creek basin.
environmental nonproit.
However, Pedery said he’s
pleased the Oregon Supreme
Court has approved the ballot
title for one of the initiative
petitions, since such language
is now likely to stand in future
elections.
Oregon Wild is a taking a
long-term interest in enacting
timber reforms, possibly with
initiatives on the 2018 or 2020
ballots, said Pedery.
Oregonians for Food &
Shelter, an agribusiness group,
is glad the “extreme and
damaging measures” won’t be
on the November ballot, but
it’s likely the issues will be
revived, said Scott Dahlman,
its policy director.
Similar ideas will also
probably surface in the
Oregon legislature again next
year, Dahlman said.
Lawmkers rejected such
proposals during the 2015
legislative session in favor of
a “more reasoned approach”
once they learned about their
negative consequences, he
said.
“We think the people of
Oregon would do the same
if they were educated on the
issue,” Dahlman said.
Sara Duncan, public affairs
director for the Oregon Forest
& Industries Council, said
the timber industry has made
great technological improve-
ments to prevent off-site spray
drift.
Aside from a few high-pro-
ile
incidents,
pesticide
spraying in forestry has
proven to be safe, she said.
“We already have strin-
gent rules and regulations,”
Duncan said.
DEQ says ground water
contaminated after train
derailment near Mosier
PORTLAND (AP) — A monitoring
well installed after last month's train
derailment near Mosier, Oregon, has
detected oil contamination in the ground
water.
The state Department of
Environmental Quality tells Portland
station KATU that drinking water is not
affected in the Columbia River Gorge
town because those wells are uphill
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Copyright © 2016, EO Media Group
FRIDAY
TODAY
SATURDAY
Very warm with
sunshine
Sunny, breezy and
not as warm
93° 62°
82° 55°
Mostly sunny and
pleasant
SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
Nice with brilliant
sunshine
Plenty of sunshine
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
84° 53°
90° 59°
94° 59°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
97° 67°
87° 57°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
86°
90°
110° (1931)
58°
60°
42° (1932)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Trace
0.80"
0.20"
7.32"
5.00"
7.82"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
Yesterday
Normals
Records
HIGH
LOW
88°
90°
108° (1931)
53°
59°
46° (1933)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.30"
0.14"
4.94"
3.25"
5.87"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Last
New
July 26
Aug 2
First
Aug 10
94° 60°
98° 61°
Seattle
79/58
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
88° 55°
5:27 a.m.
8:36 p.m.
9:38 p.m.
7:27 a.m.
Full
Aug 18
Today
MONDAY
Spokane
Wenatchee
90/61
90/65
Tacoma
Moses
79/57
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 93/65
90/56
72/58
80/56
95/63
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
79/58
94/64 Lewiston
97/67
Astoria
97/66
69/59
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
79/61
Pendleton 89/53
The Dalles 97/67
93/62
92/64
La Grande
Salem
91/56
79/59
Albany
Corvallis 79/56
79/56
John Day
93/54
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
99/65
79/55
83/47
Caldwell
Burns
100/64
91/47
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
69
92
83
64
91
89
79
91
97
93
83
91
88
87
64
66
99
96
93
79
88
79
90
87
79
94
95
Lo
59
50
47
53
47
53
55
57
67
54
44
56
51
58
54
56
65
66
62
61
48
59
61
49
60
64
63
W
c
s
s
pc
s
s
pc
s
pc
s
s
s
s
pc
c
c
s
pc
s
pc
s
pc
pc
s
pc
s
pc
Hi
69
78
77
68
82
76
79
80
87
82
81
79
75
87
65
68
91
86
82
75
80
78
77
75
73
82
86
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Lo
74
82
69
63
55
55
63
62
75
58
71
W
r
sh
s
pc
t
r
t
s
pc
sh
r
Lo
56
39
42
53
40
46
51
49
57
47
43
45
42
56
51
53
58
56
55
58
41
55
54
43
56
58
54
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
pc
s
s
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
pc
s
s
sh
s
pc
s
s
Fri.
Hi
88
91
86
76
71
74
82
85
89
77
77
Lo
79
82
65
62
55
61
61
68
75
55
69
W
pc
s
s
t
t
t
pc
s
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sh
WINDS
Medford
87/58
(in mph)
Klamath Falls
83/44
Boardman
Pendleton
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Mostly cloudy today; a
shower in spots across the north.
Eastern Washington: Partial sunshine today.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Sunny today.
A shower or thunderstorm in spots near the
Cascades; hot elsewhere.
Western Washington: Clouds and sun to-
day; however, cloudy at the coast; a shower
in spots across the south.
Cascades: Partly sunny, a thunderstorm in
spots this afternoon.
Today
Friday
WNW 4-8
WNW 6-12
WSW 8-16
WSW 10-20
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
2
5
7
7
4
2
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
Northern California: Low clouds followed
by sunshine at the coast today; plenty of
sunshine elsewhere.
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Fri.
WORLD CITIES
Hi
84
91
85
78
72
70
82
85
88
70
79
NEWS
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Single copy price:
$1 Tuesday through Friday, $1.50 Saturday
Forecast
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The
Spokane City Council is thinking of
ining railroad companies that ship
crude oil or coal through downtown
Spokane.
The companies would be ined
hundreds of dollars for each train car
under a law the City Council will
consider placing on the November
ballot.
The Spokesman-Review says
the proposed law would make such
shipments a civil infraction punishable
by a ine of up to $261 for each train car.
The Spokane City Council earlier
this summer condemned Union Paciic
Railroad for resuming the transport
of crude oil through Mosier, Oregon,
following the derailment of a train that
had passed through Spokane hours
earlier.
The City Council will vote Monday
on whether to add a law that would
authorize ines for oil and coal train
operators to the November ballot.
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Spokane may ine
railroads shipping oil or
coal through town
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Ofice hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed major holidays
from where the oil train derailed June 3.
The agency said Wednesday that four
monitoring wells were installed after the
wreck, and one revealed signiicant oil
contamination.
DEQ plans to install a treatment
system that injects air into the
underground water. The oxygen will
stimulate the existing microbes that live
in the water to break down the oil.
The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors.
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— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
ingredients and drive up consumer
food prices over a ridiculous
Vermont bill.”
National Organic Coalition
oficials said in a press release
the bill avoids “fully transparent,
on-package labels” and includes
no enforcement provisions or
penalties.
The vast majority of U.S. sugar
beets are genetically engineered
to withstand glyphosate herbicide.
Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co. is in
the early stages of marketing the
only commercially available GMO
spud, called Innate.
“This bill blocks Vermont’s law
and gives USDA two additional
years to set labeling rules under this
weak and meaningless framework,”
the coalition’s press release reads.
BRIEFLY
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Bureau
Three ballot initiatives
that would have restricted
clear-cutting
and
aerial
spraying in Oregon have failed
to qualify for the November
general election.
One of the petitions,
which would have imposed
new limits on aerial pesticide
applications, was able to
obtain the Oregon Supreme
Court’s approval for its ballot
title language.
However, that didn’t leave
enough time for supporters
to collect about 88,000 valid
signatures by the July 8 dead-
line.
The state’s highest court
has yet to rule on the ballot
title for another petition that
would restrict aerial spraying
and logging in landslide-prone
areas.
A third petition to prohibit
clear-cut timber harvests was
withdrawn by supporters
due to legal complications
involving forestland property
value laws.
Steve Pedery, a chief peti-
tioner for all three proposals,
said the application process
was started late and further
hindered by legal challenges
from the timber industry.
“Once we ended up in
the court process, the clock
was probably going to run
out on us,” said Pedery,
who is also conservation
director for the Oregon Wild
had already started pulling products
from Vermont shelves. Raybould
supports the bill’s deinition of
a GMO crop, noting it regulates
the introduction of traits from one
organism into another but omits
promising new “gene editing” tech-
niques that don’t introduce foreign
DNA.
Furthermore, the bill doesn’t
require labeling of ingredients
derived from GMO crops in
which all traces of GMO traits are
removed in processing, such as beet
sugar.
“Food companies now can
breathe a bit easier,” said Luther
Markwart, executive vice president
of American Sugarbeet Growers
Association. “They’re not going
to have to do different sourcing of
GMO labeling standard, introduced
by Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., but
that bill failed to gain traction in
Congress.
NPC President Jim Tiede, of
American Falls, Idaho, lobbied
for the current bill with leaders
from the major U.S. commodities,
including corn and soybeans, in a
July 7 meeting with House Agricul-
ture Committee Chairman Michael
Conway, R-Texas.
Tiede said Conway “apologized
profusely” that the voluntary
labeling bill failed, but agricultural
interests agree the new bill is still “a
good compromise.”
Ashton, Idaho, potato farmer
Britt Raybould, who chairs NPC’s
Legislative
and
Government
Affairs Committee, said suppliers
be suspended. New rules for the
federal standard will go into effect
within two years.
The bill allows companies to
label GMO content using an icon
that will be developed by USDA,
on-package language or a bar code
linking to online messaging when
scanned by a smartphone — a
major point of contention among
critics, who argue the requirement
is too weak.
“It gives the food companies
options,” said John Keeling, exec-
utive vice president and CEO of
the National Potato Council. “They
have to convey information, but it
gives them options in how they do
that.”
NPC had initially made it a top
priority to lobby for a voluntary
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2016
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Gusty storms will rumble across the Upper Midwest, while spotty
storms drench the Southeast and dot the Rockies today. Heat and humidity will reach dan-
gerous levels over much of the Central states.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 112° in Needles, Calif.
Low 24° in Bodie State Park, Calif.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
94
93
84
88
95
96
99
87
91
90
96
94
100
92
94
99
58
91
87
97
91
92
96
109
99
90
Lo
70
73
73
69
64
75
62
70
74
64
75
75
80
65
76
75
52
66
76
77
75
72
77
86
79
67
W
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Fri.
Hi
95
94
88
94
98
93
89
93
91
92
96
92
100
92
94
101
60
92
85
95
91
92
97
111
99
92
Lo
71
74
77
75
63
75
57
73
74
72
73
71
81
65
72
76
50
70
76
78
75
70
77
86
78
67
Today
W
t
t
pc
pc
t
t
s
t
s
s
t
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pc
t
t
s
s
t
s
Hi
Louisville
94
Memphis
98
Miami
90
Milwaukee
94
Minneapolis
98
Nashville
95
New Orleans
93
New York City
89
Oklahoma City
98
Omaha
98
Philadelphia
90
Phoenix
111
Portland, ME
86
Providence
88
Raleigh
89
Rapid City
94
Reno
94
Sacramento
89
St. Louis
96
Salt Lake City
101
San Diego
81
San Francisco
69
Seattle
79
Tucson
103
Washington, DC 90
Wichita
102
Lo
76
80
79
74
74
75
79
73
74
79
72
91
64
70
69
65
57
54
80
77
68
55
58
80
73
78
W
pc
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s
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pc
s
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pc
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pc
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Fri.
Hi
95
98
89
90
95
97
92
91
98
96
92
114
87
92
92
97
94
94
98
98
82
71
71
106
96
103
Lo
78
80
78
70
72
76
79
76
75
77
77
91
67
73
73
65
57
58
81
66
68
54
58
81
78
78
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
s
s
pc
pc
pc
s
s
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s
pc
pc
pc
t
t
s
t
s
s
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s
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pc
s