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East Oregonian
GENEVA: She wore pink for the special occasion
Continued from 1A
Ralph said his parents
always worked hard to give
their children a good life, and
Geneva frequently sacrifi ced
things she needed — even
new underwear — so that
her children could enjoy their
childhood.
“I remember that holey
underwear hanging on the
line and I used to shake my
head, but I couldn’t refuse
that dollar to go ice skating
with my girlfriend,” Ralph
said.
He said his mom never
complained, even when
the family’s vacation plans
meant that she went straight
from a long graveyard shift
to a six-mile hike with the
family. As Geneva’s only
boy, he said he could “do
no wrong in her eyes” and
that knowledge affected his
choices his entire life.
“I did the best I could not
to shame her and the family,”
he said. “I avoided a lot of
mischief because of my love
for her.”
When Ralph decided to
become a doctor, his parents
told him they couldn’t afford
to help pay his tuition, but
they did help in other ways.
He used to mail his laundry
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Ralph Eddings of Snoqualmie, Washington, at left, tells a story about his mother,
Geneva, during her 109th birthday party on Thursday in Hermiston.
home and his mother would
do it for him and send it
back, which at the time was
cheaper than going to a
laundromat.
Muriel said her mother
was a “super-mom” and
she’s grateful they have been
able to remain close.
“Dad died in about 1983,
so Mom and I have been kind
of pals since then,” she said.
Surrounded by family and
friends on Thursday, Geneva
accepted birthday hugs, well-
wishes and cards that she
read out loud to the group.
She wore pink for the special
occasion, along with a rose
and a birthday sash. Muriel
announced to the group that
Geneva had become a great-
great-grandmother for the
fi rst time a few days earlier.
Geneva said she was
grateful to everyone who
came, and thought the cake
was delicious.
“Thank you all,” she said,
after struggling to fi nd the
right words to express her
emotions.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
PERS: Some of the ideas may require legislative approval
Continued from 1A
that sum by cutting costs
elsewhere in the budget or
raising revenue.
Suggestions from the
task force have included
using some of the state’s
reserves and rethinking how
certain parts of state govern-
ment, such as educational
institutions and the state’s
liquor control commission,
are run or structured.
While some of the
ideas task force members
fl oated at the most recent
meeting Monday involved
reducing costs, such as
consolidating some of the
state’s public universities
and community colleges,
many ideas involved raising
new revenue to help pay off
the unfunded liability, such
as a placing a surcharge on
liquor or on certain state-is-
sued licenses and permits.
Some of the ideas may
require legislative approval,
and indications are they
may face some pushback.
However, the task force
has about two more months
before its fi nal report is due
to Brown Nov. 1, and task
force meeting materials note
that “there is signifi cantly
more work to do between
now and then.”
The governor, in turn, is
expected to choose which
proposals to bring to the
Legislature.
House Minority Leader
Mike McLane, R-Powell
Butte, voiced disapproval of
some of the early proposals
in a prepared statement.
McLane claimed the
task force was signing on
to a “myth” that the way
to reduce the unfunded
liability is by raising
revenue and argued instead
for having state employees
contribute “their fair share
toward their retirement
accounts.”
However, attempts at
curtailing public employees’
retirement benefi ts going
forward stalled out during
this
year’s
legislative
session, despite an early
session effort by state
senators on both sides of the
aisle.
State Sen. Mark Hass,
D-Beaverton, an advocate
for revenue reform, said the
state has already attacked
the “low-hanging fruit”
when it comes to PERS,
such as in 2003, when the
Legislature created a new
tier of retirement benefi ts
that were scaled back from
the plans offered employees
who had been hired earlier.
Hass did not comment
on specifi c proposals from
the governor’s unfunded
liability task force, but said
he believes the unfunded
liability problem could be
addressed with tax reform.
Despite
failure
of
revenue reform in the most
recent session, he thinks
with a different approach,
“evening out” the tax code
could allow the state to
devote more money toward
paying down the unfunded
liability. In particular, Hass
has been critical of the vola-
tility of the income tax —
the state’s primary source of
general fund revenue — and
its property tax structure.
Hass pointed to this
session’s
transportation
package as an example of
how an agreement on taxes
could be reached: a bipar-
tisan group of legislators
hosted a series of public
meetings across the state
and ended up with policy
proposals that weren’t
“conspicuous” back in
2015, when an attempt at
a transportation package
failed during that year’s
long session.
“When the transporta-
tion package in 2015 was
on deck, it looked a lot
different and actually less
ambitious than the one we
actually passed,” Hass said.
Hass
acknowledged
differences
between
transportation and taxes —
especially when it comes
to public opinion. But Hass
believes legislators recog-
nize the obstacles in place,
and that they are not “insur-
mountable” in the face of
the unfunded liability issue.
“It doesn’t mean we’ll
just throw up our hands and
never fi x it,” Hass said.
———
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
FLAG: Moody has inquired about setting up shop in another part of town
Continued from 1A
and Blagg had reached a
compromise for the 2017
event during a discussion
they had about two weeks
ago with the Cowboys:
Liberty Flags & Gifts would
display only one Confederate
fl ag on the inside of their
booth and refrain from fl ying
any Confederate fl ags above
their Main Street booth, as
they did last year. Addition-
ally, the owner wouldn’t
make any comments to the
media or talk about politics.
Moody said the vendor
had done something similar
at Bohemia Days in Cottage
Grove when a complaint
caused Liberty Flags & Gifts
to advertise their supply of
Confederate fl ags with a sign
instead of a display.
But a few days ago,
Moody said they received a
letter from the Main Street
Cowboys, noting the orga-
nization would not approve
their application.
“Basically, they’re just
dumping on our freedom of
speech,” she said.
Blagg said he and Moody
talked about these issues but
a compromise was never
that the vendor
“We choose what is the best fi t for the show.” relieved
wouldn’t make a return to
— Johnny Blagg, Main Street Cowboys vendor director
reached because the Main
Street Cowboys had never
approved the application.
The Confederate fl ag
has long been a polarizing
symbol, but it has reached
a boiling point in recent
weeks.
When a group of so-called
alt-right activists gathered
in Charlottesville, Virginia,
on Aug. 12 to oppose the
removal of a Robert E.
Lee statue, protesters and
counter-protesters clashed in
public spaces.
In the afternoon, an Ohio
man allegedly drove a car
into a group of counter
protesters, killing a woman
and injuring several others.
Following the events in
Charlottesville, a Pendleton
woman organized a local
march
against
racism,
leading a group of more
than 200 people in a demon-
stration across downtown
Pendleton.
Besides the local political
climate, Blagg said the local
media making a “mountain
out of a mole hill” over
the issue played a role in
the Main Street Cowboys’
decision.
Following inquiries from
the East Oregonian about
Liberty Flags & Gifts return,
Blagg said they wanted to
avoid “last year’s ruckus,”
adding that it was nothing
personal.
“We choose what is the
best fi t for the show,” he said.
Moody said the short
notice about their application
means that they’re “dead in
the water” when it comes to
booking another event for
that weekend.
Since the Main Street
Cowboys only oversee
vendors on South Main
Street, Moody has inquired
about setting up shop in
another part of Pendleton
but hasn’t heard back yet. If
Liberty Flags & Gifts misses
the whole week entirely,
she said they’ll miss out on
$5,000 to $6,000 in sales.
When
interviewed
Thursday, Great Pacifi c
Wine and Coffee co-owner
Carol
Hanks
seemed
Main Street, in front of her
restaurant.
“They’re a symbol of
hate,” she said of the fl ags.
Hanks said she did
complain about the fl ags last
year and was concerned that
the vendors would sell even
more at this year’s event.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
Route work
pays for my
children’s
activities.
as fi rst-degree abuse of a
corpse. The Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Offi ce accused
Dayton of killing Gutierrez
in May under a Milton-Free-
water bridge and burning the
body to cover up the crime.
More than a dozen
Gutierrez family members
and supporters came for the
hearing. Five of them wore
T-shirts displaying an image
of Rodriguez and the phrase
“RIP Marcos Gutierrez
1987-2017.”
Jaclyn Jenkins, chief
deputy district attorney,
told the group before the
proceeding that Dayton
had planned to be in court,
then changed his mind and
decided not to argue the
bail. Brauer in court said the
state now can hold Dayton
in jail without bail and there
was no need to worry about
having a trial within 60 days.
Brauer also thanked the
family and supporters for
coming to the hearing and
set the next proceeding
on Nov. 22 for a pre-trial
conference.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
Trump administration cuts
funds for health care sign-ups
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Affi rming its disdain for
“Obamacare,” the Trump
administration on Thursday
announced sharp cuts in
programs promoting health
care enrollment under the
Affordable Care Act for
next year.
Advertising will be cut
from $100 million spent
on 2017 sign-ups to $10
million, said Health and
Human Services offi cials.
Funding for consumer
helpers called “navigators”
will also be cut about
40 percent, from $62.5
million for 2017, to $36.8
million for next year. That
change refl ects a new
performance-based ethic
that penalizes navigator
programs failing to meet
their sign-up targets, admin-
istration offi cials said.
About 12.2 million
people signed up for
subsidized private health
insurance under Barack
Obama’s signature law this
year, many in states that
President Donald Trump
carried in November.
Current enrollment is
estimated to be around 10
million, due to attrition also
seen in prior years.
Top Democrats accused
the
administration
of
malice.
House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi of California
said the administration is
waging a “cynical effort
to lower enrollment” that
would “create chaos” and
increase premiums.
Her Senate counterpart,
Chuck Schumer of New
York, said the adminis-
tration “is deliberately
attempting to sabotage our
health care system,” adding
that “the American people
will know who’s to blame.”
It was unclear how
Trump’s latest move might
affect a planned effort in the
Senate to craft bipartisan
legislation that would stabi-
lize insurance markets.
Trump and congres-
sional Republicans have
been unable to deliver on
their vow to “repeal and
replace” the 2010 health
care law, but the president
has repeatedly pronounced
the program on the verge of
collapse.
On Twitter and in inter-
views, Trump has threat-
ened to give “Obamacare”
a nudge by cutting off
payments to insurers that
help reduce consumers’
copays and deductibles.
Still, his administration
has continued making
payments month to month.
Independent observers
say the ACA’s insurance
markets have problems, but
are not about to implode.
For next year all U.S.
counties will have at least
one participating insurer,
although consumers in
close to half of counties
will only have a single
carrier serving them. Some
major insurers have left the
program after taking deep
fi nancial losses.
HHS offi cials announced
the promotional cutbacks
in a conference call with
reporters. The three offi -
cials who described the
details of the cuts refused to
be identifi ed by name.
The
administration
says
the
government
hasn’t gotten much bang
for its buck as far as ACA
advertising and the navi-
gator program, with some
enrollment centers signing
up very few customers.
By comparison, HHS
said the combined adver-
tising budget for Medicare
Advantage and Medicare
prescription drug plans is
$9.7 million.
HHS offi cials said the 98
navigator programs funded
by the ACA enrolled fewer
than 82,000 people, or
less than 1 percent of the
total. Navigator staffers
are supposed to guide
consumers through the
sometimes
complicated
enrollment
process,
which involves estimating
income for the coming
year, proving citizenship or
legal residence, and sorting
through various health plan
options.
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DAYTON: More than a dozen Gutierrez family
members and supporters came for the hearing
Continued from 1A
Friday, September 1, 2017
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