East Oregonian : E.O., May 18, 2017, Page Page 8A, Image 8

Thursday, May 18, 2017
OFF PAGE ONE
Household debt at record high, DRUGS: Investigations are ongoing
and additional charges are likely
topping pre-recession peak
Page 8A
East Oregonian
WASHINGTON (AP) —
U.S. household debt reached
a record high in the first three
months of this year, topping
the previous peak reached in
2008, when the financial crisis
plunged the economy into a
deep recession.
Americans have stepped
up borrowing over the past
three years, yet the nature
of what Americans owe has
changed since the Great
Recession. Student and auto
loans make up a larger propor-
tion of household debt, while
mortgages — the epicenter
of the financial crisis — and
credit card debt remain below
pre-recession levels. Those
changes suggest households
are still cautious about taking
on debt to fuel day-to-day
consumption.
The Federal Reserve Bank
of New York said Wednesday
that household debt, which
also includes home equity
lines of credit, stood at $12.73
trillion in the first quarter.
That’s above the $12.68
trillion outstanding in the fall
of 2008, the previous record.
The figure isn’t adjusted for
inflation or population size.
Even with debt levels back
to record heights, analysts
note that household borrowing
appears more sustainable now
than it did nearly a decade
ago. Interest rates are lower,
and lenders are much more
focused on credit-worthy
borrowers.
“This record debt level is
neither a reason to celebrate
nor a cause for alarm,” Dong-
hoon Lee, research officer at
the New York Fed said. “The
debt and its borrowers look
quite different today.”
Measured as a percentage
of the overall U.S. economy,
household debt is still smaller
than in 2008. It is equivalent
to 67 percent of the economy
now, compared with 85
percent nine years ago.
Americans also appear to
be better able to handle the
loans they’ve taken out. The
percentage of all household
debt that is seriously delin-
quent — meaning payments
are 90 days or more overdue
— is 3.4 percent. That’s down
from the post-recession peak
of 8.7 percent in early 2010.
Just 203,000 Americans
declared bankruptcy in the
first three months of this year,
the lowest in the 18 years that
the New York Fed has tracked
the data.
Still, there were some areas
of concern. Auto loans have
ballooned 44 percent to $1.17
trillion since the last peak in
household debt nine years
ago. And a greater percentage
of those loans have fallen 90
days or more overdue: 3.8
percent now, up from 3.3
percent two years ago. Still,
that’s down from a recent peak
of 5.3 percent in late 2010.
Student loans are also a
potential trouble spot: They
topped $1.3 trillion in the first
quarter, soaring by 120 percent
since 2008. Nearly 11 percent
of that debt is 90 days overdue
or more. The Fed estimates
that the true figure could be
double that amount, because
many borrowers are able to
defer loan payments while
they continue their studies or
if they are unemployed.
Continued from 1A
probation after pleading
guilty April 4 to one felony
count of methamphetamine
possession and a misde-
meanor count of marijuana
delivery. He told Umatilla
County Circuit Court Judge
Jon Lieuallen at the time
the business was struggling
to stay open.
Police at Thur’s Smoke
Shop seized “substantial
quantities of marijuana
and marijuana extract
(dabs) packaged for sale,”
Roberts stated, and arrested
owner Thurman, 28, and
his employee, Cody K.
Servi, 26, for delivery of
controlled substances and
unlawful possession of
marijuana products.
And police at the home
on 11th Street arrested
Michael Hamilton, 27, for
possession of controlled
substances, delivery of
controlled
substances,
endangering the welfare of
a minor and frequenting
a place where controlled
substances
are
used.
Roberts also said officers
seized “quantities of illicit
drugs and drug parapher-
nalia” at the home, which is
one block from a day care
center and less than three
blocks from the Pendleton
Early Learning Center.
An employee at Thur’s
on Wednesday afternoon
said the business was
closed and a member of the
Oregon State Police crime
lab stood nearby, smiled and
said nothing. The employee
declined to comment about
the police activity in the
business, which smelled
like marijuana.
Thur’s cannot legally
sell the drug. The city
planning commission on
Thursday, May 25, will
consider Thurman’s zoning
application for a recre-
ational marijuana business
in Pendleton.
Circuit court records
show Thurman in 2012
in Wasco County pleaded
guilty to possession of mari-
juana and careless driving
and pleaded no contest to
driving under the influence
of intoxicants. The court
dismissed the case in 2014
after Thurman completed a
drug and alcohol treatment
program.
Servi in 2015 faced a
charge of possession of less
than an ounce of marijuana
in Umatilla County, but
court records show the state
dismissed the case.
Roberts stated personnel
from the Pendleton Police
Department, Oregon State
Police, Umatilla County
District Attorney’s Office,
FBI and Drug Enforcement
Administration assisted the
local anti-drug task force.
He added the investi-
gations are ongoing and
additional charges are
likely, as are more arrests,
after forensic testing and
the district attorney’s office
reviews the cases and pres-
ents them to a grand jury.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
SCHOOL: Co-enrollment agreement
will go into effect during the summer term
Continued from 1A
nity colleges to a four-year
institution.
“In Eastern Oregon, we
figure out how to get things
done,” Insko said.
In an interview after the
ceremony, Mary Jeanne
Kuhar, BMCC vice president
of instruction, explained
how the agreement came
together and the practical
effects it would have on
students.
Prior to the agreement,
students needed to register
and enroll at EOU and
BMCC separately if they
wanted to transfer or attend
both institutions.
After receiving input
from students, the two sides
started discussing how to
ease the transfer process in
January.
As it was, BMCC was
already EOU’s largest source
of transfers. According to
Kuhar, in an average term,
28 students transferred to
EOU and 32 were co-en-
rolled at both schools using
the old method.
What they came up with
is a co-enrollment program
— any student that filled out
a special joint application
would be admitted to both
EOU and BMCC simulta-
neously. For co-enrolled
students, once they feel
that their WORK is done at
BMCC, they can start taking
classes at Eastern without
having to restart the applica-
tion process.
Additionally,
both
schools will roll out “fast
track transfer” opportunities
for several programs —
anthropology/sociology,
biology, business, computer
BMCC makes several
programming changes
Blue Mountain Community College’s co-enrollment
agreement with Eastern Oregon University isn’t BMCC’s
only programming development.
Mary Jeanne Kuhar, BMCC vice president of instruc-
tion, said the introduction of BMCC’s veterinary technician
program has been postponed to give officials more time to
develop it.
Kuhar said BMCC wants more time to look at the
two other Northwest community colleges that offer
the program — Portland Community College, Central
Oregon Community College in Bend and Yakima Valley
Community College in Washington — and any partnership
opportunities they could offer.
The new program was set to debut in the fall, where
it would be housed in the Pendleton campus’ new FARM
building. Kuhar estimated it would take about $500,000 to
start the program.
While the vet tech program awaits its start, the school’s
paraeducation program is nearing its end.
Kuhar said the paraeducation program, which educates
and trains educational assistants and paraprofessionals, was
experiencing declining enrollment and no longer aligned
with either the jobs at local school districts or education
programs at four-year universities.
The remaining paraeducation students will finish out the
term and will receive counseling on their future options.
BMCC will also revive its hospitality certificate
program after a year-long hiatus.
According to Casey White-Zollman, BMCC vice
president of communications, the program was originally
deactivated because of a lack of interest.
With interest in the program returning, White-Zollman
said BMCC hopes to reactivate the program in the fall.
The hospitality certificate program prepares students for
careers in hotel and gaming management.
science, fire services admin-
istration, physical activity
and health, and psychology.
Students in a fast track
transfer
program
who
complete
an
associate
of transfer degree with a
minimum 2.25 GPA in one
of those programs will gain
automatic admittance to
EOU and transfer scholar-
ship opportunities.
The programs at both
schools will be tightly
coordinated to ensure that a
BMCC transfer won’t have
to repeat courses once they
get to EOU. The partnership
also promises to better coor-
dinate services like financial
aid and academic advising.
The
co-enrollment
agreement will go into effect
during the summer term.
INVERSION: Used Life Alert to call for help
Continued from 1A
onto the padded board and
strapped his feet to the device
in his bedroom. He tipped
back and let gravity do its
job. In a flash, he flipped 180
degrees.
“It threw me back,”
Taylor said.
When all safety features
are enacted, users control
inversion tables with arm
movements. Taylor’s bad
eyesight had prevented him
from reading the instructions
in depth and he didn’t watch
the Blu-ray disc that came
with the unit because he only
had a DVD player. If he had
done either, he would have
connected a tether strap that
controls the desired angle of
rotation.
The retired truck driver
and sheet metal worker
attempted to rock back
around and couldn’t.
“I realized I was really in
trouble,” he said.
His orange cat, Pest,
wandered around the apart-
ment but wasn’t in the mood
to help. However, Taylor
wore a Life Alert help button
around his neck on a black
string. After a few minutes
of panicked inversion, he
pressed the button and told
the operator he was stuck.
Two paramedics and a police
officer sped to Taylor’s
Hermiston Avenue apart-
ment, not knowing exactly
what they would find.
“We received a 9-1-1 call,”
said Hermiston paramedic
Chris Wrathall. “Initially,
we went to the front door
and heard someone yelling
inside.”
The front door was
secured with a deadbolt. The
paramedics peered in the
windows, wanting to assess
the situation before damaging
a door or window. Wrathall
said he didn’t see Taylor at
first as he looked through the
bedroom window, but finally
spotted the older man off to
the right near a wall.
“I had to look at an angle
to see him,” Wrathall said.
“And there he was on an
inversion table.”
The paramedics assessed
Taylor through the window
and determined that the
man’s condition wasn’t life
threatening.
“He was talking to us and
he wasn’t turning purple,”
Wrathall said.
They decided they had
time to call the apartment
complex’s
maintenance
person to let them inside.
Before he arrived, however,
Taylor started complaining
of a bad headache and
began sweating profusely.
Hermiston Police Sgt. Kelly
Parsons forced the front
door open with his shoulder.
Soon, a relieved Taylor was
upright.
He decided to share the
details of his encounter,
hoping his experience could
help someone else. He
advises using the safety strap
and not getting on the device
when alone. He’s not giving
up on the inversion table,
though.
“I love the damn thing,”
Taylor said.
After his harrowing
upside-down experience, he
called the manufacturer to
report the incident. The oper-
ator, he said, scolded him for
not reading the instructions.
A phone call and emails
to the Teeter company by the
East Oregonian in a quest for
more details about benefits
and safety weren’t returned.
Taylor said he feels grati-
tude to his rescuers.
“The next morning, I
called the fire department
and thanked them,” Taylor
said. “Then I called the
police department.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
EO file photo
In this 2014 photo, the Athena PGG farm supply store was preparing to close its
doors. It was purchased this week by the Athena Mainstreet Association.
ATHENA: PGG building closed in 2014
Continued from 1A
of community meetings
to collect input on the
building’s future use and
raise awareness about the
impending renovation.
The association will
have to embark on a new
fundraising campaign to
restore the building.
“It’s going to be really,
really expensive,” Vorhau-
er-Flatt said.
The group wants to
restore
the
building’s
façade to bring it closer to
how it looked originally.
Additionally, the interior
of the building needs to be
cleaned up after a problem
with the furnace caused
soot to be blown into the
building.
The
association
is
keeping on an eye on the
Oregon Legislature to
see if it will continue to
fund an Oregon Parks and
Recreation grants program
that the nonprofit would
be eligible for, since it is
a member of the Oregon
Main Street program. Under
the program, similar resto-
ration projects received
sizable grants in Pendleton,
Weston, La Grande, Enter-
prise and across the rest of
the state.
PGG shuttered its retail
division in 2014, closing
its stores in Pendleton,
Hermiston, Athena and
Milton-Freewater, before
members
decided
to
dissolve the farmers’ co-op
entirely last year. PGG’s
flagship store in Pendleton
remains vacant.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
L i t t le
D a r l i n gs !
This special section will be fi lled with photos of and
messages for adorable little darlings from Umatilla County.
Families will want to keep this special keepsake for
their child and family for years to come.
PUBLISHES:
June 28, 2017
DEADLINES:
June 08, 2017
Olivia,
t.
I loved you from the very star
heart.
my
ed
rac
emb
,
You stole my breath
un.
beg
just
has
er
Our life togeth
.
You’re part of me, my little one
Love, Mom
Send in, or drop by, a
full color high resolution
photo, your child’s name
and a message to
your child today!
Little Darlings
211 SE Byers, Pendleton, OR 97801
333 E. Main, Hermiston, OR 97838
or email
classifi eds@eastoregonian.com
Your Name:
Phone Number:
Child’s Name:
Message:
www.eastoregonian.com
www.hermistonherald.com