OFF PAGE ONE
Germ in raw milk, poultry now tops food poisoning list
Page 10A
East Oregonian
By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK — The
U.S. government’s latest
report card on food
poisoning suggests that a
germ commonly linked
to raw milk and poultry is
surpassing salmonella at the
top of the culprit list.
The report counts cases
in only 10 states for nine of
the most common causes
of foodborne illness, but
is believed to be a good
indicator of national food
poisoning trends.
Highlights from Thurs-
day’s report from the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention:
What’s making us sick?
The most common bug
last year was campylobacter
(kam-pih-loh-BAK’-tur).
It’s mostly a problem
in unpasteurized dairy
products, but also is seen
in contaminated chicken,
water, and produce. Salmo-
nella was No. 1 for the
last 20 years but last year
moved down to No. 2. Other
causes like listeria, shigella
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File
In this 2015 file photo eggs sit waiting to be cooked at
a cafe in Des Moines, Iowa.
(shih-GEHL’-uh) and E. coli
trail behind.
Is food poisoning
getting worse?
Actually, no. Last year,
there were no significant
changes in new case rates
for most kinds of food
poisoning, compared to the
previous three years. The
new report tallied about
24,000 illnesses and 98
deaths in the 10 states. The
CDC estimates that 1 in 6
Americans get sick from
contaminated food each
year, though most cases are
not reported.
Any other good news?
Yes.
There’s been
a continued decline in
illnesses from what used to
be the most common strain
of salmonella — called
Salmonella Typhimurium.
That’s possibly because
of vaccinations of chicken
flocks and tighter regula-
tions.
What changed
in the report?
Before this report, the
OREGON: Governor also plans to issue
executive order to improve debt collection
Continued from 1A
estimate is about $790 million
total funds,” according to the
email.
“We have options, we
have solutions, and we have
bills to fix the structural
problems plaguing our
state’s government. We must
move forward with a budget
that isn’t a list of red-alert
threats. Senate Republicans
are committed to listening to
Oregonians who have clearly
stated, repeatedly, we are not
interested in hiking taxes and
hurting the poor to satisfy
overspending
Democrat
politicians,” Ferrioli said in a
statement.
The governor said she also
has plans to issue executive
orders to improve debt collec-
tion, renegotiate contracts
with state vendors, address
the unfunded liability in the
Public Employees Retire-
ment System and clarify
policies regarding bargaining
with state employee unions.
“The entire state must
take responsibility and join in
this effort. I have challenged
state agencies to look for
both short-term savings and
ways to address long-term
cost drivers throughout state
government. I also encourage
the Secretary of State, the
State Treasurer, the Attorney
General, and the Commis-
sioner of the Bureau of Labor
and Industries, as well as the
Legislative Assembly and the
Judicial Department, to adopt
policies that freeze hiring,
reduce travel expenditures,
and optimize facility usage.
———
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
BILLS: HB2739 would allow landowners to
sue biotech patent holders for unwanted GMOs
Continued from 1A
crafting a transportation
package, which has not
been assigned a specific bill.
Yet-to-be written revenue and
spending bills are similarly
exempt from the deadline.
The following is a handful
of significant legislation, and
whether it met the deadline.
• Public pensions — In
a narrow committee vote
Monday, the Senate Work-
force committee referred
Senate Bills 559 and 560,
which would change public
employee benefits in an effort
to bend the cost curve of the
Public Employee Retirement
System, to Ways and Means.
• GMOs — Companion
bills that would have allowed
local governments to regulate
genetically modified crops
are among the casualties
midway through the session.
Under state law, most local
governments can’t restrict
seed. House Bill 2739, which
would allow landowners to
sue biotech patent holders
for the unwanted presence
of genetically modified
organisms, or GMOs, on their
land, was passed to House
Rules Committee, which
isn’t subject to an April 18
legislative deadline.
• Pay equity — HB 2005
would increase civil penal-
ties for paying women and
minorities less than others
who do the same work. It
passed out of the Oregon
House 36-24 after extended
debate. As a result of its
passage out of the House, it
met Tuesday’s deadline, and
will be worked in the Senate
Workforce Committee.
• Carbon emissions —
SB 557, which would create
a “cap-and-invest” system
for pricing greenhouse gas
emissions from large emitters
and using the proceeds for
things like transportation
infrastructure projects. It still
survives by way of referral
to the Rules Committee, and
subsequently, the Senate
Business and Transportation
Committee.
• Rent control — HB
2004, which would lift a
statewide ban on rent control,
has been a popular bill as
Portland and other areas
of the state struggle with a
housing shortage during a
time of strong population
growth. It’s been criticized
for failing to address the root
of the housing problem here,
but advocates say that it’s a
short-term fix for a dire need.
The bill has passed out of the
House and still survives.
• Transitional leave —
SB 935 would expand the
maximum amount of time
someone can be released
from prison through the
state’s short-term transitional
leave program from 90 to
180 days, part of the state’s
efforts to reduce the burden
on the state prison system. It
has been referred to Ways and
Means.
• Child welfare — SB
942, which initially would
have required the Department
of Human Services to conduct
a study on child safety, was
replaced by an amendment
that would require the agency
— which has been beset
with child safety issues — to
improve how it makes find-
ings in investigations of child
abuse. It’s now in Ways and
Means.
•Guns — A series of
Senate bills that provoked
emotional testimony at the
Legislature Monday did not
pass out of chamber, but that
doesn’t mean they won’t get
reintroduced through rules or
through other revival mech-
anisms. Senate Bill 868, for
example, which would create
a court process to prevent
someone at risk of suicide or
harming someone else from
possessing a gun, was instead
inserted as an amendment to
another bill that did make it
out of committee Tuesday.
CDC only counted results
from traditional lab tests,
which can take a couple
of days. But the agency is
now including results from
new rapid tests, which
check for 20 or more bugs
and give results in an hour.
Those tests are picking up
more campylobacter but
with the caveat that those
might be dead germs that
didn’t cause any illness.
While quicker, the new
technology doesn’t offer
as many specifics and is
making it more difficult to
understand food poisoning
trends.
Can I prevent
food poisoning?
Yes. Carefully wash
and clean food, and cook
meat, poultry and eggs
thoroughly. Avoid raw
milk and unpasteurized
juices. Promptly refrigerate
leftovers. According to a
U.S. government report,
leafy greens like lettuce
and spinach are the biggest
source of food poisoning,
and produce, in general,
accounted for nearly half of
all illnesses.
Friday, April 21, 2017
China launches its first
unmanned cargo spacecraft
BEIJING (AP) — China
on Thursday launched
its first unmanned cargo
spacecraft on a mission to
dock with the country’s
space station, marking
further progress in the
ambitious Chinese space
program.
The Tianzhou 1 blasted
off at 7:41 p.m. atop a
latest-generation
Long
March 7 rocket from
China’s newest spacecraft
launch site, Wenchang,
on the island province of
Hainan.
Minutes later, as the
spacecraft cleared the
atmosphere, the mission
was declared a success by
administrators at ground
control on the outskirts of
Beijing.
It is programmed to
conduct scientific exper-
iments after reaching the
now-crewless Tiangong
2, China’s second space
station. A pair of Chinese
astronauts spent 30 days
on board the station last
year.
China launched the
Tiangong 2 precursor
facility in September and
the station’s 20-ton core
module will be launched
next year. The completed
60-ton station is set to
come into full service in
2022 and operate for at
least a decade.
Communications
with the earlier, disused
Tiangong 1 experimental
station were cut last year
and it is expected to burn
up on entering the atmo-
sphere.
China was excluded
from the 420-ton Inter-
national Space Station
mainly due to U.S.
legislation barring such
cooperation and concerns
over the Chinese space
program’s strong military
connections.
Chinese officials are
now looking to inter-
nationalize their own
program by offering
to help finance other
countries’ missions to
Tiangong 2.
MARIJUANA: GhostTown Organix was
originally organized in October in Sumpter
Continued from 1A
Echo
farmer
Kent
Madison is listed as the
owner of the property on the
zoning application, but he
said his only involvement
with the project is waiting
for the city to issue the
conditional use permit so
that the sale can be finalized.
“I’m not necessarily
supportive of the industry,
but I’m not going to stop
you if it’s legal in Oregon,”
he said.
The application lists
Sheri Ramirez as the owner
of GhostTown Organix, who
did not return a request for
comment as of press time.
Oregon Secretary of State
records show GhostTown
Organix was originally orga-
nized in October in Sumpter,
a small Baker County town
that is one of the handful
of Eastern Oregon cities to
legalize marijuana sales.
Ramirez filed a new
address with the Secretary
of State March 1, listing the
Riverside site as the new
location.
If GhostTown Organix
is able to get both city and
Oregon Liquor Control
Commission approval, it
would provide new life
to the warehouse-style
building.
Madison
purchased
the building in 2013,
according to Umatilla
County records, and the
property has an assessed
value of $328,120 and a real
market value of $451,960.
Coldwell Banker Whitney
& Associates lists the prop-
erty with a $399,000 price
tag and said the building,
built in 1972, is 19,050
square feet.
GhostTown Organix’s
application states that
the business will feature
fencing for security and use
a charcoal filter to prevent
the building from emitting
a marijuana odor. The busi-
ness expects no additional
traffic because it won’t be
selling a retail product.
GhostTown Organix is
just the latest business to try
to jump into the marijuana
market early after Pendleton
voters approved cannabis
sales in November.
Pendleton
Cannabis
opened April 13, becoming
the city’s second recre-
ational marijuana retailer.
Owner Shawn Pace said his
business opened with little
fanfare.
“We didn’t make an
announcement,” he said.
“We just opened the doors.”
Although Pace was reti-
cent to say whether the shop
was doing well or not until it
hit the month mark, business
was brisk on Thursday at the
former lube shop.
Having a 25 percent off
sale on everything in the
store, which includes mari-
juana, topicals, dabs and
glassware, certainly helped.
Pendleton now has
two marijuana stores open
and two others that have
selected sites but are still
in the application process,
although prospective mari-
juana shop owner Bryson
Thurman is looking to
move his proposed location
away from Tutuilla Road
after he encountered strong
resistance from the neigh-
borhood.
Due to Pendleton’s
zoning laws, that means that
cannabis entrepreneurs are
quickly running out of real
estate to put a business.
In addition to the state
requirement that marijuana
business be located beyond
1,000 feet of a school, the
Pendleton City Council
imposed 1,000-foot buffers
for parks and other mari-
juana businesses.
The commission will
meet April 27 at 7 p.m. in
the council chambers at
Pendleton City Hall , 500
S.W. Dorion Ave.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
BUTTE CHALLENGE
Route work
pays for my
children’s
activities.
SATURDAY , MAY 6 , 2017
5K Run, 5K Walk, 10K Run, Kid's Butte Scoot
All races begin & end at Hermiston's Butte Park
DRAWINGS • FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY
Become an
East Oregonian
Carrier.
211 SE Byers Ave.
Pendleton
or call:
541-276-2211
1-800-522-0255
Online registration & race information at
WWW.BUTTECHALLENGE.COM
Register online by April 22nd to order a
custom technical race T-Shirt
All proceeds benefi t THE HERMISTON
CROSS COUNTRY PROGRAM
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!