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35/21
NATION/7A
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2017
142nd Year, No. 35
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Deadline set for Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument decision
Litigation will resume Jan. 15 unless
Trump administration resolves dispute
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
EO Media Group
The Trump administration
has agreed to resume litiga-
tion over the expansion of
Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument on
Jan. 15 unless the dispute is
resolved beforehand.
The monument’s size was
increased from about 66,000
acres to 114,000 acres by the
Obama administration in early
2017, spurring several lawsuits
against the proclamation.
When the Trump adminis-
tration decided to reconsider
the expansion, those lawsuits
were stayed by a federal
judge pending the potential
reduction of the monument’s
boundaries.
Roughly six months later,
two plaintiffs — the Asso-
ciation of O&C Counties
and the American Forest
Resource Council — have
grown impatient with the
delay.
The groups recently
attempted to revive the active
litigation of their lawsuits but
have now agreed to the Jan.
15 deadline as long as the
Trump administration seeks
no further postponements.
The American Forest
See MONUMENT/8A
Courtesy of Bob Wick/BLM
A large basaltic spire known as Pilot Rock is seen in the
distance in this 2015 photo taken in Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument near Ashland.
PENDLETON
Baker County
DA to oversee
shooting probe
due to ‘confl ict’
East Oregonian
Photo contributed by Disability Rights Oregon
Isolation is a common experience for youth at the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facility, The Dalles, according to a new
report from Disability Rights Oregon. NORCOR’s director maintains youth there do not suffer inhumane treatment.
YOUTH IN ISOLATION
Juvenile correctional facility accused of inhumane methods
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Disability Rights Oregon in a
new report accused the juvenile
jail in The Dalles of skirting
Oregon law and using inhumane
means to punish youth.
The director of the Northern
Oregon Regional Correctional
Facility admitted the juvenile
detention center can improve, but
said in no way is the treatment
there inhumane.
Disability Rights is the feder-
ally designated Protection and
Advocacy System for Oregonians
with disabilities, which grants
the organization the authority to
inspect jails and other facilities
that care for or confi ne people
with disabilities. Disability Rights
More online
For a copy of Disability
Rights Oregon’s report
and NORCOR’s response
visit eastoregonian.com
attorney Sarah Radcliffe visited
the NORCOR juvenile jail on
three occasions between June and
September and interviewed 23
youth there, some who told her
about long stays in isolation with
little or no meaningful human
contact, including youth who were
suicidal.
“I was just really shocked by
the conditions,” she said. “Kids
are getting disciplined for normal
See NORCOR/8A
The investigation into the
shooting of a man Nov. 29 by a
Pendleton police offi cer is now in
the hands of Baker County District
Attorney Matt Shirtcliff.
Umatilla
County
District
Attorney Dan Primus, who had
been leading the investigation,
said Tuesday that his offi ce has a
“confl ict” and would no longer be
involved. The nature of the confl ict
was not detailed in the press release.
Oregon State Police continue to
investigate.
Six days after the shooting, the
identities of the people involved
have yet to be released. The
Umatilla County DA’s offi ce issued
a short statement Monday morning
saying it expected to release more
information by the end of the day,
but in the evening Primus said that
would not take place.
When reached Tuesday, Shirtcliff
said he had just received the details
of the case and would be prepared
to brief the media Wednesday
morning.
According to Pendleton police
chief Stuart Roberts, a Pendleton
offi cer shot the man, who had a
pistol, about 8:45 p.m. on Nov. 29
near the intersection of Southwest
20th Street and Court Avenue.
Roberts said the suspect had been
involved in a confrontation in the
nearby Walmart parking lot, before
running from police and not obeying
verbal commands.
Witnesses at the scene said they
heard multiple shots. No offi cers
were injured. The suspect was even-
tually taken to Oregon Health and
Science University, Portland, where
he is recovering from a gunshot
wound.
Rising retirement
costs placing pressure
on college tuition
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon’s
public
universities
are
devoting a growing share of
spending to retirement costs,
a trend that factors into rising
college tuition.
Between the 2017 and
2018 fi scal years, public
employee retirement costs
for the state’s public univer-
sities grew by 19.6 percent,
according to the Oregon
Council of Presidents.
That brings the total
amount that universities will
devote to retirement costs
in the 2018 fi scal year to
$166 million, or nearly 10
percent of the universities’
total education and general
expenditures.
The
annual
amount
universities pay toward the
state’s Public Employees
Retirement System as a share
of overall payroll is expected
to continue to rise in the next
several budget cycles as well.
PERS is faced with obli-
gations to retirees that exceed
the system’s current assets by
about $25.3 billion.
Most employee benefi ts
are generated by investing,
and the system’s funded
liability tanked when the
stock market took a tumble
starting in 2008. So public
employers started having to
See TUITION/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Frosted foothills
A weekend cold weather system leaves a fresh layer of snow covering the
foothills of the Blue Mountains on Monday east of Pendleton.