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OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Little chance of false alert in Oregon, officials say
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — An incident
such as Hawaii’s false missile
alert Saturday is unlikely to
happen in Oregon, according
to a state emergency commu-
nications official.
The Hawaii Emergency
Management Agency sent
an erroneous text message
alert through the cell phone
network on Saturday morning
stating that a ballistic missile
threat was inbound toward
that state. It took 38 minutes
for the agency to correct it.
Hawaii’s
emergency
management system allows
a choice of messages from a
set of prewritten templates.
In Saturday’s case, the
employee intended to send a
“test” message that contained
different language, but
selected and confirmed the
wrong prewritten template.
That’s different from
Oregon, where statewide
text alerts are written anew
and have to get supervisor
approval, said Chris Murray,
chair of the State Emer-
gency
Communications
Committee.
“It’s not a situation where
one person’s gonna push the
Claire Withycombe/Capital Bureau
Oregon Emergency Management officials say
because of the way statewide alerts are produced, it’s
unlikely the agency could send out a false alert such
as the erroneous notification of a missile attack last
weekend in Hawaii.
wrong button,” Murray said.
Emergency communica-
tions with the public exist at
the local, state and federal
level.
Hawaii also has a more
integrated system than
Oregon, and fewer checks
and balances. The island
state was criticized by the
Federal
Communications
Commission for having
insufficient safeguards after
Saturday’s incident.
Additionally, in Oregon,
most emergency responses
COUNCIL: Streets will be another hot topic
Continued from 1A
While Pendleton public
works was forced to punt
street repairs last year to
take care of the underground
water infrastructure, the city
was able to use the loan to
begin replacing the miles of
century-old water lines that
run through the town.
Turner was also encour-
aged by the increased activity
at the Pendleton airport and
was confident that the city
would surpass the $257,000
it had budgeted for Pendleton
Unmanned Aerial Systems
rental and services revenue.
Through December, the test
range has generated $87,505.
With increased demand for
the range’s services, Turner
said the city is applying for
a $3 million grant from the
U.S. Economic Development
Administration to bolster the
airport’s infrastructure.
Despite the progress made
this year, many of the coun-
cil’s goals — infrastructure,
economic development, land
development and housing —
remain up in the air.
Turner was doubtful the
city had reached its goal of
building 50 housing units
in 2017, but city data shows
that 55 houses were built
last year thanks to a 26-unit
multi-family housing splurge
in December.
The mayor was much
more keen on 2018’s pros-
pects, referencing the 20-unit
first phase of a planned
100-unit apartment complex
at Pendleton Heights, 10
single-family homes at
Sunridge Estates and other
smaller projects.
Turner said Pendleton
is still lacking a large-scale
development from a large
developer, but the demand
remains.
“The history of this town
is that everything sells and
everything rents,” he said.
Streets will also be another
hot topic for 2018.
The
city’s
current
$781,000 budget is slowing
the degradation of Pend-
leton’s road system, but
isn’t stopping it. While city
officials are expecting an
increase in the state’s gas tax
to add another $200,000 to
the budget, the council has to
figure out how to increase the
street budget to $1.1 million
to stabilize road quality.
Although it didn’t make
the council’s top four goals,
the council spent much of
2017 trying to improve
council communication and
city customer service.
Fairley helped develop
the council’s “communica-
tions bureau,” a group of
councilors that go to various
groups and clubs and talk
about city issues on a regular
basis. He said the council
is a natural “convening
authority” to talk about
community problems.
“It’s surprisingly chal-
lenging to communicate
complex issues to a broad
community,” Fairley said.
Even though it might be
challenging, the councilors
said they’ve encountered
strong support and have
changed some minds, an
important factor in helping
them pass a $10 million bond
for a new fire station last
May.
This kind of direct contact
with constituents created
unexpected benefits.
During a door-to-door
campaign for the bond,
Cambier said he and Turner
met a man who was being
billed for both his own home
and an attached apartment
that was no longer occupied,
a fact that was becoming
more cumbersome as the city
is in the midst of a water rate
hike.
Camber said they put
him in touch with the city,
who were able to solve the
problem.
Primmer reflected on
some of the tough decisions
the council made in 2017,
extending all the way back to
the first meeting.
In closely contested votes,
the council approved funding
the Pendleton Downtown
Association
executive
director position for one
year and agreed to begin
enforcing the nuisance ordi-
nance against old city hall.
Both issues are still
ongoing, with the downtown
association now pushing for
a more permanent source of
funding from the city.
Either way, Primmer said
the council’s future decision
could be met with derision:
approve funding and be
accused of funneling money
toward an organization
friendly with the city or deny
it and deal with assertions
that the city is letting the
downtown area die.
Although the councilors
said they don’t operate in
lockstep, they’re generally
agreeable with one another.
Turner said the council has
“cohesiveness” and a “sense
of unity.”
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
MARIJUANA: Industry has added more
than $130,000 in tax revenue to Pendleton
Continued from 1A
Pendleton is an “oasis in an
otherwise dry county.”
He noted that the industry
has brought more than 40
jobs to Pendleton and mari-
juana-related employment is
expected to increase nation-
wide to 250,000 jobs by
2020. The industry has also
added more than $130,000
in tax revenue to Pendleton
since shops opened.
Krenzler said he is
not worried about a
federal crackdown on the
burgeoning industry because
tax dollars are helping fill
municipal coffers and public
opinion now favors legaliza-
tion.
“I don’t think anybody
should be afraid of (Attorney
General Jeff) Sessions,” he
said.
Steve Hardin, manager
of emergency services at
St. Anthony Hospital, said
the two most common
cannabis-related emergency
room visits have been for
anxiety issues and cyclical
vomiting.
Anxiety issues brought
on by marijuana use are
often
temporary
and
shouldn’t require an emer-
gency room visit, but Hardin
said sufferers who do go
to the hospital are given
anti-anxiety medication.
St. Anthony has also
seen increased numbers of
cannabinoid-induced cyclic
vomiting, though Hardin
noted the syndrome is not
well known and better
information is needed to
understand the problem.
Hardin
said
the
substances that cause the
most health problems in the
area, in order, are: tobacco,
unhealthy food, alcohol,
methamphetamine, heroin
and marijuana. He said an
emergency room employee
has never been assaulted
by anyone using marijuana,
which does happen when
people have ingested too
much alcohol or other drugs
or are having a mental health
crisis.
David Conant-Norville,
a child and adolescent
psychologist who works out
of Hillsboro and Pendleton,
said his doctors are seeing
much more open discussion
about cannabis both in
adolescents and adults. He
said that marijuana does
damage growing brains, but
a lack of research hampers
the medical community.
“Docs really feel more
pressure now than ever
to prescribe cannabis as a
therapeutic agent,” he said.
Yet, because solid scien-
tific literature on marijuana
is so scarce, doctors are
hesitant to give straight
answers — to tell patients to
use or to refrain.
“Our frustration is we
don’t know what to do,” he
said.
Conant-Norville said he
has seen some benefits from
legalization, including that
the quality of cannabis is
better so users know what
they are getting, as well
as medicinal use as a pain
control, to combat sleep
issues, nausea and anxiety.
He also said legalization has
helped keep users out of
the criminal justice system,
which is a benefit to them
and society.
Yet the lack of informa-
tion is something that all
three hope changes soon.
“The ability to run
through good clinical trials
... is information we need,”
said Conant-Norville.
are handled at the local level,
Murray said.
Even if the “Big
One” — an approximately
8.0 magnitude Cascadia
Subduction Zone earthquake
that could strike western
Washington, Oregon and
British Columbia — hits, the
environmental situation and
information about shelters
and other resources in the
aftermath are likely to vary
across the state.
Cities and counties can
issue emergency alerts
according to emergency
communication plans devel-
oped locally. The National
Weather Service can send out
statewide alerts.
Statewide
emergency
messages are created by
the Oregon Emergency
Response System (OERS),
which is a 24-hour dispatch
center in Salem, according
to Oregon’s 2017 emergency
communications plan, which
is maintained, along with
other state plans, by the FCC.
Either the Oregon State
Police or the Oregon Office
of Emergency Management
typically write statewide
alerts.
For example, AMBER
Alerts, which are sent when
a child is suspected to have
been abducted, are written
by OSP. Those alerts are
distributed via text message,
radio and television.
If there’s a national
emergency, such as a nuclear
attack, the president or other
federal authorities can use
the national Emergency
Alert System to send out
what’s called an Emergency
Alert Notification, which is
authenticated by the Federal
Emergency
Management
Administration, or FEMA.
The notification means
the president could address
the American public over
radio and television airwaves
within 10 minutes.
Recent statements from
President Donald J. Trump
regarding North Korea —
including a tweet last week
that his nuclear button was
“much bigger and more
powerful” than that of North
Korea leader Kim Jong-un
— have renewed public
concern about a possible
nuclear threat to the United
States, decades after the end
of the Cold War, when fallout
shelters were commonplace.
Several buildings in
Salem still have the Fallout
Shelter designation on
external walls, including
North Salem High School.
Since 9/11, the office of
emergency management has
prioritized readiness for an
act of non-nuclear terrorism
over nuclear events, said
Paula Negele, a spokes-
woman for the agency. That
said, the agency recommend
Oregonians plan ahead for a
wide range of contingencies.
“Creating
awareness
about the importance of
having (an) emergency kit
and plan is an important
part of our mission,” Negele
wrote in an email Tuesday.
“We recommend being
ready for at least two weeks
rather than the traditional
72-hour model in case there
were even a major disaster
like Cascadia or a nuclear
attack.”
The Oregon Health
Authority and the federal
Department of Homeland
Security maintain informa-
tion online about what to do
if there’s an act of “radiolog-
ical terrorism.” And Orego-
nians can typically sign up
for mobile alerts through the
county emergency manage-
ment office, according to the
Oregon Office of Emergency
Management.
Ex-CIA officer arrested, charged with keeping documents
ALEXANDRIA,
Va.
(AP) — A former CIA
officer has been arrested
and charged with illegally
retaining classified records,
including names and phone
numbers of covert CIA
assets.
Jerry Chun Shing Lee,
53, was arrested Monday
night after arriving at JFK
International Airport. He
made an initial appearance
Tuesday in federal court
in New York, but will face
charges in northern Virginia,
where the CIA is located.
According to court
documents, Lee, a Hong
Kong resident, served in the
CIA from 1994 to 2007 as a
case officer. He worked in a
variety of overseas offices
and was trained in surveil-
lance detection, recruiting
and handlings assets and
handling classified material,
among other things.
A court affidavit states
that in 2012, after Lee had
left the CIA, he traveled
from Hong Kong with his
family to northern Virginia,
where he lived from 2012
to 2013. When he flew to
Virginia, for reasons that
are not explained, the FBI
obtained a warrant to search
Lee’s luggage and hotel
room. Agents found two
small books with hand-
written notes containing
names and numbers of
covert CIA employees and
locations of covert facilities,
according to the affidavit.
A CIA review of the
information in the books
found information at Secret
and Top Secret levels of
classification, according to
the affidavit.
The eight-page FBI
affidavit makes no allega-
tions of espionage against
Lee, only alleging illegal
retention of documents. Any
conviction on that offense
carries a maximum penalty
of 10 years in prison.
The affidavit indicates
Lee was interviewed five
times by FBI agents in 2013,
but never disclosed that he
possessed the books.
Court records do not list
an attorney for Lee.
Dean Boyd, a CIA
spokesman,
declined
comment on the case
Tuesday,
citing
Lee’s
ongoing prosecution.
ACT: Next course for 2018 starts Jan. 22
Continued from 1A
“People come in and they
feel like they have a poor
quality of life,” she said.
“They’re in a lot of pain
and have a lot of chronic
conditions and they feel
overwhelmed with trying to
manage them.”
With
one-on-one
meetings
supplementing
the group classes, ACT
can be individualized for
people who are already
fairly healthy, too. Jenny
Sullivan, an executive
assistant at Good Shepherd,
said she decided to partici-
pate in ACT after hearing
co-workers talk about it in
the cafeteria.
“I had considered seeing
a nutritionist last summer
because any time I ran more
than about 6 miles, I seemed
to feel awful afterwards,”
she said. “I had a hunch I
was eating and drinking the
wrong things at the wrong
times to fuel, recover and
rehydrate.”
She also thought it would
be a fun class to take with
her mother. She said one of
the most surprising things
she learned in the class was
that there were ways to
exercise that encourage the
body to burn fat instead of
sugar.
“When it comes to
exercise,
I’ve
always
thought that harder, faster
and longer was better, but
I’ve learned that’s probably
not the best approach,” she
wrote in an email. “High
intensity exercise is fun and
you get a sense of accom-
plishment, but you might
not see improvements if
you don’t focus on gradu-
ally improving your aerobic
function by monitoring
your heart rate.”
Ida Martin said she did
ACT twice, to reinforce
what she had learned the
first time around.
“There’s just so much
information,” she said.
She said she realized
she had truly changed her
lifestyle when she found
herself in the cereal aisle
at the grocery store and
realized she wasn’t going
to buy a single thing on the
aisle.
“I looked and said there
is nothing I’m going to buy,
because it’s all processed,”
she said.
She said she appreci-
ated the ACT facilitators
preached self-forgiveness
too.
“If you get off the
program and you’re not
going in the right direc-
tion, just get back on it.
No self-recrimination, no
saying ‘Oh, I failed,’” she
said.
ACT courses for 2018
start Jan. 22, April 2, July
2 or September 10. The
program is $116 (payment
plans available) and Good
Shepherd covers the other
$980 it takes to pay for
staff time and materials,
including a binder of infor-
mation to take home at the
end of the nine week course.
For more information or to
register call 541-667-3517.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
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