NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Legislation would raise
state’s smoking age to 21
Backers of right to die fear
Trump Supreme Court nominee
PORTLAND (AP) —
Supporters of a terminally
ill person’s right to take
his or her own life said
Wednesday they are alarmed
by
President
Donald
Trump’s nominee for the
U.S. Supreme Court and
worry that Neil Gorsuch’s
confirmation could mean
a renewed battle over the
legality of laws permitting
the practice.
Gorsuch, a Denver-based
judge on the 10th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals,
wrote a 2006 book titled
“The Future of Assisted
Suicide and Euthanasia”
that included an extensive
discussion of Oregon’s law,
which allows doctors to
prescribe lethal medication
to patients to have less than
six months to live and who
request it.
In the book, Gorsuch
refers to the practice as
“essentially a right to
consensual homicide.”
Oregon voters first
approved a right-to-die
ballot measure in 1994 and
again in 1997 when the state
legislature sent the matter
back for a second vote.
The first-in-the-nation
law survived a 2006
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — An Oregon
lawmaker who is also a
family physician plans to
reintroduce legislation this
week that would raise the
legal smoking age from 18
to 21.
The proposal by Sen.
Elizabeth Steiner Hayward,
D-Beaverton, is intended
to limit teenagers access to
tobacco.
“As a family physician,
I always think it’s better
to prevent disease than to
cure it, and one of the best
things we can do in Oregon
to prevent disease is to stop
people from using tobacco
and other dangerous prod-
ucts that contain nicotine and
other harmful substances,”
said Steiner Hayward, who
has lost family members to
smoking-related illnesses.
“I’ve seen the effects as
a physician and as a family
member all too well,” she
added. “Oregon deserves a
better future than this.”
“The cost in lives and lost
productivity and children’s
wellness is inestimable,”
Steiner Hayward said. “This
bill is personal, too. I lost my
father, my father-in-law and
one of my beloved aunts to
smoking-related illnesses.
I’ve seen the effects as a
physician and as a family
member all too well. Oregon
deserves a better future than
this.”
Recent
research,
including some from the U.S.
Surgeon General’s Office,
shows that brains under age
26 are more susceptible to
addiction.
“If you don’t start
smoking by age 21, you are
less likely ever to start,” said
Noe Baker, a spokeswoman
for the American Cancer
Society Cancer Action
Network, one of 20 organi-
zations campaigning for the
law change.
The legislation would
impose
first-time
civil
penalties of $50 for clerks
and $500 for managers who
sell to minors. People of
legal age who give tobacco
to minors would likely face
Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group
Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Beaverton,
announces legislation that would raise the legal
smoking age to 21, during a news conference
Wednesday at the State Capitol in Salem.
similar penalties as store
clerks, Steiner Hayward said.
“We made a conscious
decision not have criminal
penalties because we know
that tobacco companies
tend to target low-income
communities who can least
afford it,” Steiner Hayward
said. “We know many of
the clerks working in stores
are working hard to support
their families or making
extra money while getting
an education, and we didn’t
want to unduly punish them,
and we didn’t want to give
them criminal records.”
In 2015, Hawaii became
the first state in the nation
to raise the smoking age to
21. California followed suit
last year. An additional 210
cities and counties, including
New York City and Boston,
have similar laws. No cities
or counties in Oregon have
raised the smoking age, but
Lane County is currently
considering such a proposal.
“It is sort of picking up
at county levels, and we are
hoping to bring it statewide,”
Baker said.
At the current smoking
rate, 68,000 Oregon kids
alive today will eventually
die from tobacco-related
disease, Friend said, quoting
statistics from Tobacco Free
Kids.
Oregonian
households
pay an estimated $780 a
year for the medical care of
smokers, Steiner Hayward
added.
Oregon also loses an
estimated $3 billion in lost
productivity and health
care costs per year from
smoking-related
disease,
according to figures from
Tobacco Free Kids.
Steiner Hayward said she
thinks this year’s legislation
has better prospects than a
former iteration proposed
in 2015 as Senate Bill 732.
The 2015 bill stalled in the
Senate Judiciary Committee
as other issues took priority.
This year’s bill has bipartisan
support.
Rep. Richard Vial, a
freshman Republican from
Scholls, is a sponsor of the
bill and spoke in support it
Wednesday at the Capitol.
“Often, those of us who
are considered perhaps more
conservative legislators hear
that we don’t want a nanny
state, that we don’t want over
regulation of our lives, but
to me this is very much like
seatbelts and child restraints,
those things that really do
contribute to a society that
we all feel good about,”
Vial said, who also has lost
family members to smoking.
Steiner Hayward has
seats on both the Senate
Health Care Committee
and the Joint Committee
on Ways and Means, which
could help advance the
legislation to the Senate
floor. The health committee
is scheduled to hold a public
hearing on the bill at 1 p.m.
Feb. 7 in Hearing Room B at
the State Capitol, 900 Court
St. N.E. in Salem.
BEND (AP) — Oregon’s
Deschutes River saw a large
number of native sockeye
salmon return to its waters
in 2016.
A total of 536 sockeye
salmon returned to a
complex of hydroelectric
dams and reservoirs called
the Pelton Round Butte
Hydroelectric
Project,
reported The Bulletin. That’s
a significant improvement
over recent years — since
2010, annual returns have
ranged between 19 and 86
fish.
“We are not pointing
to this and saying mission
accomplished, but at the
same time it’s a really great
result for 2016,” said Steven
Corson, a spokesman for
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REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
SATURDAY
FRIDAY
A little snow; up to
an inch
2-4 inches of snow
21° 16°
27° 26°
Not as cold with a
shower
SUNDAY
Mainly cloudy,
showers around
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
41° 36°
50° 37°
47° 34°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
23° 22°
23° 17°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
20°
11°
43°
28°
70° (1934) -17° (1950)
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
Trace
0.05"
1.65"
1.51"
1.43"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
LOW
21°
4°
44°
29°
70° (1995) -25° (1950)
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
0.02"
0.00"
0.03"
1.69"
1.10"
1.31"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
First
Full
Feb 3
Feb 10
7:15 a.m.
5:03 p.m.
10:20 a.m.
11:46 p.m.
Last
New
Feb 18
44° 37°
46° 31°
Seattle
42/32
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
39° 33°
Feb 26
Today
MONDAY
Mostly cloudy with
a little rain
Spokane
Wenatchee
25/7
24/15
Tacoma
Moses
43/29
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 27/14
23/13
45/32
43/25
30/22
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
40/29
23/17 Lewiston
24/17
Astoria
27/17
44/35
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
35/29
Pendleton 27/18
The Dalles 23/17
21/16
30/25
La Grande
Salem
26/21
38/31
Albany
Corvallis 40/31
39/32
John Day
29/23
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
31/22
39/31
23/16
Caldwell
Burns
35/26
28/18
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
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25
23
56
28
27
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29
42
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42
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53
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54
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Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Lo
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62
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42
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72
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Klamath Falls
42/35
Lo
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(in mph)
Today
Friday
Boardman
Pendleton
NNE 4-8
NW 3-6
NE 4-8
VAR 2-4
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UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Periods of rain today; arriv-
ing in the afternoon across the north.
Eastern Washington: Mostly sunny today,
except mostly cloudy across the south.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Today: snow,
1-2 inches in south and central parts, upper
and with little or none across the north.
Western Washington: A little rain across
the south this afternoon; mostly sunny
elsewhere.
Cascades: Snow at times today, accumulat-
ing 1-2 inches; colder. A little snow at times
tonight.
Northern California: Heavy rain today; how-
ever, a bit of snow in the interior mountains.
0
1
1
0
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COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
WORLD CITIES
Hi
44
68
48
53
71
20
58
60
39
76
50
NEWS
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Fri.
WINDS
Medford
56/40
returns are often unpredict-
able and the reintroduction
efforts are still in the early
stages.
More than 93 percent
of the sockeye originated
in the Middle Deschutes
basin, according to genetic
testing received by Portland
General Electric in January.
Most of those came from a
lake created by the Round
Butte Dam called Lake Billy
Chinook.
While waiting for new
data, scientists continue to
monitor water quality and
work on habitat-improving
projects in the area.
“It’s an ongoing, scientif-
ic-based effort to maximize
the potential for a successful
year,” Corson said.
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Copyright © 2017, EO Media Group
TODAY
complex co-owner Portland
General Electric. “Our goal
is to have sustained and
harvestable fish runs, but
we are still in the beginning
stages.”
The dam complex is
owned by PGE and the
Confederated Tribes of
Warm Springs. It stretches
over about 20 miles of the
Deschutes River west of
Madras.
The complex was origi-
nally designed in the 1950s
and 1960s to include fish
passages, but the passages
were not effective. Round
Butte Dam owners are now
trying to reintroduce spring
chinook and steelhead in
addition to sockeye salmon.
Corson said salmon
Corrections
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www.eastoregonian.com
growing movement to pass
right-to-die legislation in
other states.
Advocates of aid in
dying distinguish between
euthanasia and aid in dying,
in which the patient requests
and takes the life-ending
dose. Laws in states that
allow aid in dying prohibit
a doctor from administering
the drugs themselves.
Vermont,
Colorado,
California and Washington
also have aid in dying laws.
In Montana, the state’s
high court has ruled that
physicians who prescribe a
lethal dose of medication to
a terminally ill patient can’t
be criminally prosecuted,
although there is no formal
statute allowing the practice.
In Washington, D.C.,
the City Council approved
an aid in dying bill in
November that will take
effect later this year unless
Congress intervenes.
Kevin Diaz, national
director of legal advocacy
for the Washington, D.C.-
based
Compassion
&
Choices, said he’s concerned
about “an erosion around
the edges” even where aid in
dying is explicitly allowed,
he said.
The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors. If
you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
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Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed major holidays
Supreme Court challenge
on a 6-3 vote.
Four states now have
similar laws and 25 more
are considering them, said
Peg Sandeen, executive
director of the Death with
Dignity National Center in
Portland. Bills have been
introduced in 16 states since
January.
“It is concerning that
someone who has taken
our issue on as his personal
issue is the nominee,” she
said. “It raises the specter
that we are going to have
to reargue and redefend the
Oregon Death with Dignity
Act all over again.”
The 2006 ruling in
favor of Oregon’s law was
considered a rebuke to the
George W. Bush adminis-
tration and former Attorney
General John Ashcroft. The
court said they improperly
threatened to use a federal
drug law against Oregon
doctors who prescribe lethal
doses of medicine to dying
patients who request it.
Sandeen believes that if
the matter came before the
high court again, Oregon
would still win — but the
process would be detri-
mental to patients and to a
Large numbers of salmon return to Deschutes River
Subscriber services:
For home delivery, vacation stops or delivery concerns: 1-800-522-0255
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
Thursday, February 2, 2017
0
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
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. ©2017
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
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cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Bands of snow will fall downwind of the Great Lakes today. Showers
will dampen parts of the South as rain soaks the California and Oregon coasts. Snow will
blanket the Sierra Nevada and northern Rockies.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 91° in Cotulla, Texas
Low -25° in Clayton Lake, Maine
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
60
66
49
47
13
58
32
40
75
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25
26
51
39
24
70
8
14
78
73
31
75
33
68
44
67
Lo
33
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25
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39
28
22
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21
12
17
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14
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3
63
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64
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Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Wichita
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Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
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