East Oregonian
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FIRE: Smoking materials the leading LAWS: Protections added for whistleblowers
“with the intent to defraud.”
Continued from 1A
The new law amends Oregon’s definition
cause of civilian home fire deaths
of extortion to include threatening to reveal
Sky lanterns
Thursday, December 29, 2016
If you were planning on kicking off the
new year by releasing a glowing Chinese
lantern into the atmosphere for good luck,
think again.
The lanterns (known as sky lanterns,
Chinese lanterns, UFO balloons or wish
lanterns) are “mini hot air balloons” made of
a paper sack over an open flame that pushes
the lantern into the air.
House Bill 4140 prohibits the release of
the lanterns into Oregon airspace. Oregon
fire marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple called
the uncontrolled, open-flame devices an
“extreme fire hazard.”
“Once released you have no control over
where they may land,” she said. “They could
end up on someone’s rooftop, in a tree, or a
pile of debris and cause an unwanted fire.”
The Class A violation will now be punish-
able by up to $2,000 in fines.
Sex crimes
Victims of rape, child abuse or other
first-degree sex crimes no longer need to
worry about their abusers hiding behind a
statute of limitations.
Senate Bill 1600 removed the 12-year
statute of limitations on first-degree sex
crimes in Oregon, as long as the prosecution
has corroborating evidence of the crime or
multiple victims come forward.
That law is joined by Senate Bill 1571,
known as Melissa’s Law, which requires that
all sexual assault forensic evidence kits be
kept for at least 60 years after collection. It
also directs the Oregon State Police to create a
position or group of positions to handle inqui-
ries from victims and other law enforcement
agencies about the testing of kits, and priori-
tizes the testing of kits that are connected with
active cases in which the victim has agreed to
participate in prosecution.
Immigration consulting
If you’re an immigrant concerned
about your status under a new presidential
administration, you’ll be happy to know
that fake immigration attorneys preying on
worried immigrants will now face charges of
obstructing justice if they get caught.
House Bill 4128 adds unlicensed
immigration consulting “with the intent
to defraud” to the list of reasons someone
can be charged with obstructing govern-
mental or judicial administration. It also
adds offering unauthorized notary services
Continued from 1A
and intentional fires came in
at No. 4 with 28,900.
While smoking mate-
rials — such as cigarettes
— caused 17,600 fires, it is
the leading cause of civilian
home fire deaths.
The American Red Cross
in Oregon and southwest
Washington
reported
responding to 43 home fires
and other disasters in the
first 12 days of December,
about double the usual
amount.
Penninger
said
the
Pendleton Fire Department
would like to do more to
educate the public on fire
safety but lacks the staff to
take that on. Penninger, for
example, wears three hats
in the department — as
fire marshal he investigates
fires, and he also is the
assistant operations chief
and assistant training chief.
“We’re doing the best
we can with what we got,”
he said, and the department
walks a fine budget line to
deliver all the services it
can.
Penninger said there
Photo courtesy of Pendleton Fire Department
A cardboard box left on a stove started a fire Tuesday
night at a home on Jones Circle, Pendleton. Shawn
Penninger, assistant chief and fire marshal, said the
occupants extinguished the burn before firefighters
arrived.
are steps people can take
to reduce their risk of fire,
starting with reading a
manufacturer’s instructions
and warnings on using an
appliance. A space heater,
for example, may require at
least 3 feet of empty space
in all directions, which
mean you cannot put its
back against a wall.
He also suggested the
websites for the National
Fire Protection Association
— www.nfpa.org — and
Oregon Office of State Fire
Marshal — www.oregon.
gov/osp/sfm/ — offer plenty
of good information on fire
safety.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
RIZZO: Met in 2008, married in 2010
Continued from 1A
gered spotted owls so they
could work around them
when possible.
She loved her job, but she
longed to work with people
again and start a family.
That’s when she met Marc
through a dating website.
“I ordered him online,”
Celeste said with a laugh.
“Like Amazon Prime, he
arrived in two days.”
Marc originally hailed
from Johnstown, Pennsyl-
vania, a town of roughly
21,000 people east of Pitts-
burgh.
He heard of a need for
pharmacists in Oregon and
ended up taking a position
at a Wal-Mart pharmacy in
Talent, which is just north of
Ashland.
Marc and Celeste met in
2008, moved to Portland,
and were married in 2010.
Two years later, the
Rizzos moved again, this
time to Hillsboro so that
they could be closer to
Pacific University, where
Celeste pursued a degree in
pharmacy.
By the time she was
finishing up her degree in
2015, Celeste was pregnant.
Shortly after she finished the
program, Bianca was born.
While the Rizzos weren’t
affected by Pendleton’s
notorious housing crunch,
having found their historic
North Hill home relatively
easily, finding childcare was
a different matter.
Since Pendleton daycares
typically don’t operate on
the weekends and evening
hours sometimes required
by their jobs, Marc and
Celeste elected to bring an
Argentine au pair, who splits
her time between watching
the now 16-month-old
Bianca and taking classes at
Blue Mountain Community
College.
When
they’re
not
working, the Rizzos are
ingratiating themselves in
the community by taking
advantage of youth-centric
activities from Pendleton
Parks and Recreation, the
Children Museum of Eastern
Oregon, the Pendleton
Center of the Arts and the
Pendleton Public Library.
BRIEFLY
Umatilla senior citizens invited
to start new year with free meal
UMATILLA — Senior citizens can start the new year
— or enjoy a late Christmas — with a free Christmas and
New Year’s dinner catered by GG’s Smokehouse Catering,
from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 1 at the Umatilla Senior
Center.
Citizens can enjoy a traditional Christmas Dinner
including ham or turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and
pie. The dinner has been a tradition for the restaurant since
its opening in 2013, and was rescheduled from its original
December date due to bad weather.
“We always do this for Christmas or the holidays, so we
wanted to make sure we got it done this year,” said owner
Amber Bieren.
The event is open to all senior citizens.
Umatilla County Democrats and
radio board reschedule meetings
PENDLETON — Umatilla County Democrats and
the local community radio board have rescheduled their
January meetings due to the New Year’s holiday.
The Umatilla County Democratic Party will meet
Monday, Jan. 9 beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Pendleton
City Hall second floor jury room, 501 S.W. Emigrant
Ave. All Umatilla County Democrats and those interested
in participating in the Democratic Party are encouraged
to attend. For more information, call Sue Peterson at
541-276-4569.
The KBLU-FM Community Radio board has moved
its regular January meeting to Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m.
at the Bowman Building, 17 S.W. Frazer Ave., Suite 352.
Anyone interested in local community radio is welcome.
Contact Vickie Jackson at 541-566-2744 for more
information.
Program provides information on how to
prevent progression of Type 2 diabetes
HERMISTON — One out of every three American
adults has pre-diabetes — and 90 percent don’t know it.
Prevent T2 Info Sessions will provide information on
how to prevent or delay the progression of Type 2 diabetes.
Participants can assess whether they’re ready to make
lifestyle changes.
The informational session is Wednesday, Jan. 11
from 4-5 p.m. or 6-7 p.m. in Meeting Room No. 2 in the
Good Shepherd Medical Office Plaza, 620 N.W. 11th
St., Hermiston. Follow-up Prevent T2 classes will be
scheduled to meet participant needs.
For more information, call Helena Wolfe at 541-561-
5443.
———
Briefs are compiled from staff and wire reports,
and press releases. Email press releases to news@
eastoregonian.com
Marc and Celeste are
impressed with Pendleton’s
hospitality and accessibility.
They recently attended a
“Coffee with the City” event
and were surprised how easy
it was to access Pendleton’s
mayor, an implausible
scenario in Portland.
Yet Pendleton experience
is complete without the
Round-Up.
Although the Rizzos
worked most of it — Marc
saw an uptick in business
from visitors who forgot
their medication in their
home towns while Celeste
tended to injured revelers
— they still carved out
time to watch barrel racing
and patronize some of the
vendors.
With the Rizzos closing
in on a year in Pendleton, the
family is now trying to figure
out to return the hospitality
Pendleton has shown them.
“The goal is to give back
in any way we can,” said
Marc.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
a someone’s immigration status to law
enforcement if they (or a family member or
friend) do not deliver services or goods or
refrain from reporting illegal activity.
Obstruction is a Class A misdemeanor,
while extortion is a Class B felony.
Whistleblower protections
Handing over evidence of your boss’s
corruption, abuse or fraud won’t carry the
same risks it used to thanks to the whis-
tleblower protections implemented with
House Bill 6047.
State employees and nonprofit workers
will be given affirmative defense — which
amounts to protection from criminal or civil
penalties for the commission of a specific
crime — for giving lawfully obtained infor-
mation about wrongdoing to a law enforce-
ment agency, regulatory agency or manager.
Prostitution
The definition of “promoting prostitu-
tion” has been expanded in Oregon, thanks
to House Bill 4082.
Previously sex trafficking could only
be prosecuted if the one “promoting pros-
titution” was receiving money or property
in exchange for their role in facilitating the
sexual encounter. The charge of promoting
prostitution will now apply to receiving
“goods and services derived from prosti-
tution” including benefits like shelter or
manual labor.
Postmortem account access
You can now leave your Twitter handle
or Instagram photos to someone in your will.
The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access
to Digital Assets Act addresses a problem for
the digital age: People are having difficulty
getting companies to give them access to
their loved ones’ digital assets after they die.
Oregon’s legislature joined several other
states in enacting the law, which requires
social media companies and other online
platforms to give access to social media
accounts, blogs, online videos, photos stored
in “the cloud” and other digital assets to
fiduciaries named in wills, or give users an
option such as Facebook’s “legacy contact”
setting that allows users to name a third party
who can access their account in the event of
their death.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@
eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536.
H amley S teak H ouse
MIDN IGHT B ALLO ON DROP
DRINK & APPETIZER SPECIALS
live
music
no
ittle
cover
M c K ay
L
in the S
Creek
LICKFORK SALOON
starting at 9 PM
COURT & MAIN, PENDLETON
Large Party Dinner Reservations Available - Call 541-278-1100
Ring in the
New Year
Here
Cory Peterson
New Years Eve 2016
10pm
$10 cover
Party Favours , Midnight champagne toast, Food &
Drink specials. Come have a ROCKIN Good time!
541-567-3022
149 E. Main, Hermiston
1750 N. 1st St. • Hermiston, OR • 541-567-5180
www.midwaytavernbarandgrill.com
NEW YEARS EVE!
DJ / KARAOKE MUSIC!
FIREBALL PROMO NIGHT! CHAMPAGNE!
NEW YEARS 80’s BASH
Party Starts @ 8pm
$10.00 at the door
No reservations needed
Party Favors
& Champagne
GREAT SERVICE! GREAT FOOD! BEER GARDEN!
UMATILLA, OR
541-922-4112
(NO adult entertainment)
Comedian LIVE MUSIC
Pollywog
Susan Jones