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NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Saturday, April 1, 2017
State of Oregon, child Oregon set to double recycling rate
welfare sued over
alleged child abuse
MEDFORD (AP) — A
$15.3 million lawsuit against
the Oregon Department of
Human Services and child
welfare workers accuses
them of allowing two girls to
live with a known registered
sex offender.
Jeremiah Ross, the girls’
attorney and their new
guardian, and lawyer Erin
Olson filed the lawsuit. The
lawsuit says the children
were physically and sexually
abused by a 52-year-old
registered sex offender
and their half-brother in
2014 when they all lived in
their
great-grandmother’s
mobile home in White City,
the Medford Mail Tribune
reported. The girls were 2 and
5 at the time.
The girls were placed
under DHS’s custody after
the agency received a report
from police in March 2014
about concerns of drug use,
domestic violence and lack of
food in their mother’s home.
The girls were given back to
their mother two months later.
The mother took them to the
White City mobile home.
The DHS had previ-
ously stated that the girls’
great-grandmother
could
only visit the girls at their
foster home because she lived
with her 52-year-old nephew
who has been registered as
a sex offender since 1986.
The lawsuit states that a child
welfare worker had visited
the family at the mobile home
and met the nephew.
Another family member
left messages for child
welfare workers expressing
concern that the children were
going to live with a known
sex offender. Nevertheless,
the children were allowed to
move there.
According to the lawsuit,
the girls were regularly left in
the care of their half-brother
and the sex offender was
often there. During that time,
the lawsuit claims the girls
were physically, sexually and
emotionally abused.
The children eventually
went to the care of a paternal
grandmother who lived out
of state, but the half-brother
moved with them and,
according to the lawsuit, the
abuse continued. The grand-
mother did not find out about
the abuse until 2015 when
one of the children disclosed
that her half-brother had been
abusing her.
Jill Schneider, attorney
for the state, a child welfare
worker and a child welfare
worker supervisor being sued,
said she could not comment
on pending litigation.
BRIEFLY
Group wants AG
to investigate solar
sales practices
Judge Flynn
appointed to Oregon
Supreme Court
PORTLAND (AP)
— Consumer advocates
have asked state Attorney
General Ellen Rosenblum
to investigate sales prac-
tices in the solar industry.
The Oregonian/
OregonLive reports
the Washington, D.C.-
based Campaign for
Accountability requested
the investigation after
reviewing nearly 60
consumer complaints filed
with the Oregon Justice
Department since 2012.
The group has asked
for similar investigations
in Florida, California and
Texas.
The advocates say the
complaints show a pattern
of deceptive sales practices,
with some solar companies
misleading customers
about potential energy
savings and the true cost of
installing panels.
Justice Department
spokeswoman Kristina
Edmunson says the agency
was reviewing the request
as well as the underlying
complaints.
Jeff Bissonette is
executive director of the
Oregon Solar Energy
Industry Association. He
says his group looked into
complaints filed with the
Justice Department, and
found the numbers to be
lower than those cited by
the Campaign for Account-
ability.
PORTLAND (AP)
— Gov. Kate Brown has
appointed Judge Meagan
Flynn to the Oregon
Supreme Court.
Flynn replaces Justice
Richard Baldwin, who
retired Friday.
The governor said in a
statement that Flynn has
earned a reputation as a
smart and thoughtful judge
while serving on the Oregon
Court of Appeals and is
regarded as fair-minded and
compassionate.
Former Gov. John
Kitzhaber appointed Flynn
to the Appeals Court in
November 2014.
She completed her
undergraduate studies at
Willamette University
and went to law school at
Gonzaga.
In another judicial move,
Brown appointed Xiomara
Torres Mattson to fill a
vacancy on the Multnomah
County Circuit Court.
Judge rejects suit
brought by woman
punched at bar
PORTLAND (AP) — A
woman who claimed she
suffered a fractured eye
socket after a drunken
man punched her at an
Oregon bar has lost her
$800,000 lawsuit against
the business.
The Oregonian/
Oregon Live reports
Talisha Blevins claimed
the Cabana Club in
McMinnville was partially
responsible for the incident
because it served the
man while he was visibly
drunk. She had sought
about $750,000 for pain
and suffering and $44,000
for medical bills.
The bar’s Portland
attorney had argued that
Blevins couldn’t prove her
claims. He also said the
bartender had no idea of
knowing that Patrick Allen
Reimer would go on to
commit the crime.
A judge agreed to
dismiss the case Wednesday
after finding Reimer 100
percent responsible for
Blevin’s damages.
Reimer is currently
serving a prison term.
PORTLAND (AP) — Oregon’s
first-in-the-nation bottle recycling
program will now double the payout for
used soda cans and glass bottles, and
frugal residents have been stockpiling
for months in anticipation.
With other recycling options now
commonplace, this eco-trailblazing
Pacific Northwest state is hoping to
revamp the program with the increase
from 5 to 10 cents for bottled and
canned water, soda, beer and malt
beverages — regardless what their
labels say.
Oregon’s 1971 Bottle Bill —
groundbreaking for its era in combating
litter — has been replicated in nine
other states and Guam. Michigan is
the only other with an across-the-board
10 cent-payout, although booze and
other large bottles go for 10 cents in
California and 15 cents in Maine and
Vermont.
The Oregon system was a big hit
in those initial years. But as curbside
recycling and pickup services were
brought on board two decades later —
not to mention effects of inflation on
the nickel’s value — the rates at which
people cashed in their bottles and cans
gradually tumbled from 90 percent
averages to under 70 percent of all
bottle sales statewide in 2014 and 2015.
That decline triggered the new
10-cent ratea provision added to the
Bottle Bill in 2011 —that takes effect
Saturday.
Grocery stores and stand-alone
redemption centers are bracing for
a bustling weekend. Even the state
Capitol press pool in Salem has been
buying cases of water bottles and
stockpiling the empties to pay for a
pizza party.
Ted Ferrioli, state Senate Republican
leader from John Day, Oregon, says
he has seen schools and community
AP Photo/Don Ryan, File
In this July 2015 file photo, Michael Swadberg turns in bottles at a
Bottledrop Oregon Redemption Center in Gresham.
organizations use it for creative ways
to raise money for youth camps or 4-H
clubs.
Naysayers, meanwhile, criticize
Oregon’s system as bad policy at
time when jobs and taxes are on the
line to help close Oregon’s looming
$1.6 billion budgeting deficit. Oregon
and Iowa’s Bottle Bills are unique in
that private industry, not government,
operates the system and claims all
unredeemed refunds.
State residents cashed in slightly
more than 1 billion empties in 2015,
roughly two-thirds of total sales state-
wide, according to the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission’s 2017 report
to the Legislature. That left almost
$30 million in gross unredeemed
refunds claimed by local and national
distributors such as Pepsi, Pendleton
Bottle Company and Oregon Beverage
Recycling Cooperative participants.
Some of those funds help industry
operate the program that involves
transporting recyclables to processing
sites and reimbursing grocery stores,
which don’t make a profit but are still
required to accept empty containers
and refund consumers.
But critics like Dan Meek, a Port-
land attorney and Oregon Progressive
Party spokesman, said at least some
of that unclaimed cash should benefit
state coffers for education, health care
or other public services.
“This is how the programs work
in California, Hawaii, Massachusetts,
and Connecticut,” he said. “New
York retains 80 percent of unclaimed
refunds; Michigan retains 75 percent.
Oregon currently retains 0 percent.”
Otter appeals dismissal of Idaho sage grouse lawsuit
BOISE, Idaho (AP) —
Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch”
Otter has appealed the
dismissal of his sage grouse
lawsuit, saying the state was
not speculating about the
damage that implementing
the current federal sage
grouse plans will have on
private and public lands.
Otter filed the notice with
the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia.
“We are optimistic that
on appeal the court will
uphold Idaho sovereignty as
well as the state’s good faith
effort to effectively manage
wildlife within our borders,”
Otter said in a statement
Friday to The Associated
Press.
Sage grouse are ground-
dwelling,
chicken-sized
birds found in 11 Western
states, where as few as
200,000 remain, down from
a peak population of about
16 million. The males are
known for their strutting
courtship ritual on breeding
grounds called leks, and
Dan Cepeda/The Casper Star-Tribune via AP, File
In this 2015 file photo, a male sage grouse struts in
the early morning hours outside Baggs, Wyo.
they produce a bubble-type
sound from a pair of inflated
air sacks on their necks.
The legal action by Otter
was among a number of
lawsuits filed in September
2015 after federal officials
opted not to list sage grouse
under the Endangered
Species Act but announced
federal land-use restrictions.
Environmental groups
later
filed
lawsuits
contending the restrictions
designed to protect sage
grouse habitat didn’t go far
enough.
U.S. District Court
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan
dismissed Otter’s lawsuit in
January. Sullivan didn’t rule
on the merits of the claims,
but he said Otter lacked
standing because the state
didn’t prove it had been
injured.
“We believe this appeal
will show that Idaho was not
‘merely speculating’ about
the damage that imple-
menting the current federal
sage grouse plans will have,”
Otter said. “Judge Sullivan’s
decision failed to take into
account the fact that Idaho
was supposed to be a full
partner in developing a
collaborative effort.”
Otter
has
long
complained that Idaho
worked with federal agen-
cies to come up with a sage
grouse plan only to have
Idaho’s input ignored.
His lawsuit lists as defen-
dants the U.S. Department
of the Interior, the Interior
Department’s U.S. Bureau
of Land Management, the
U.S. Department of Agri-
culture, and the Agriculture
Department’s U.S. Forest
Service.
The U.S. Department of
Justice is representing the
federal defendants. Its Office
of Public Affairs declined to
comment Friday.
Easter
Celebration Services
Easter Sunrise Service
Come worship with us in the Blue Mountains on Easter Morning!
Enjoy a wonderful complimentary breakfast buffet after the service.
Sunday • April 16, 2017 • 7 AM
At the Historic Meacham Hotel in Meacham, Oregon
Music will be provided by Lon Thornburg
Speaker will be Pastor Wayne Pickens
Service organized by Blue Mountain Christian Cowboys
For questions please call (541) 276-8540 or (541) 969-2677
Peter Rabbit Breakfast
S t A il 15 h th
Sat. April 15th th
7:30 - 10:30 AM
$5.00 for
Breakfast
5 & under
FREE
Face painting,
Easter egg
hunt, Crafts, &
Peter Rabbit
First UnitedÊMethodist Church
iÀÊ ÃÌ]Ê",ÊÊ££Ê°Ê>`ÞÃÊÛi°]Ê
Easter Day, April 16th
Sunrise Worship at the Cross on the Butte: 6:30 AM
Church Worship Services: 10:30 AM
Journey to new life!
Palm to Passion Sunday
April 9 at 10am
Maundy Thursday Supper & Tenebrae
April 13 at 6pm
Easter Celebration with Brass
April 16 at 10am
Holy Humor Sunday
April 23 at 10am
First Presbyterian Church PC(USA)
201 SW Dorion • 541-276-7681
www.pendletonpresbyterian.com
Listen on KUMA 1290 at 10am Sundays