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East Oregonian
Friday, March 23, 2018
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
Tip of the hat,
kick in the pants
A kick in the pants to the terrible scene
at Lost Valley Dairy, shared Thursday by
the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
Photos taken by their inspectors back in
May show dairy cows standing hoof-deep in
manure and waste — unhealthy, inhumane
and dangerous for the aquifer and the people
who depend on it. Not to mention stinky,
smelly and plumb gross. We published the
photos online Thursday morning.
Eastern Oregon will always be ag
country, and we support the many farmers
and ranchers who are conservationists at
heart — people who know that if you take
care of the land, the land will take care of
you.
But Lost Valley has been off to a bad
start, and is giving farmers a bad name. Its
owner — Greg te Velde — has faced a slew
of criminal charges, from meth possession
to patronizing a prostitute. And te Velde
made major promises about how Lost Valley
would operate that have fallen short thus
far. State inspectors this week gave the
operation another chance to shape up and
remain in good standing, but there should be
no more slaps on the wrists.
Lost Valley must play by the rules and
live up to the promises it made about water,
waste, environmental health and respect for
animals.
Tip of the hat to everyone who turned
out for the EO Forum on Tuesday, where
doctors and practitioners spoke openly about
their experiences with opioids, and how the
local community can beat back the growing
nationwide epidemic.
The honest and open discussion at Blue
Mountain Community College in Pendleton
was deeply affecting as well as informative
— and it can be hard to thread that needle.
But open discussion about the dangers of
prescription medications, especially opioids,
is critical to avoiding addiction. Doctors
need to know more and do more, patients
need to know and do more, and caregivers
of all stripes need to know and do more, too.
The forum Tuesday was one step down
that road, and we tip our hats to those who
took time out of their busy day to attend and
learn. If you missed it, video from the event
is posted to the East Oregonian’s Youtube
channel.
Photo courtesy Oregon Department of Agriculture
Conditions at the Lost Valley Dairy in Boardman, sometime before June 2017.
OTHER VIEWS
Lawmakers can’t
duck Oregon’s
PERS burden
The (Bend) Bulletin
B
OTHER VIEWS
Calm before the stormy
A
part from his own kin,
a mad, lonely king ranting in his
there’s no category of
castle, he is actually a profoundly
person exempt from Donald
flawed tactician playing his own
Trump’s attacks. He has gone after
pale version of chess.
past presidents of the United States,
The salvos against Mueller
current leaders of our closest allies,
last weekend absolutely had a
stewards of his own party, senior
logic: They were shirt-tailed to
officials in his own administration,
the firing of deputy FBI director
the Latina mayor of a city freshly
Andrew McCabe in the service of a
Frank
devastated by a hurricane, the
corruption narrative, and they were
Bruni
Muslim mayor of a city just struck
trial balloons to see how negatively
Comment
by terrorists and the families of
Republican leaders in Congress
American soldiers killed in combat.
responded. (The unsurprising answer: not
negatively enough.)
But not Stormy Daniels. Where are the
Trump’s silence could also say that
tantrums and tweets for her? It’s a glaring
he isn’t actually bothered by Daniels’
and fascinating omission.
account of an affair with him. This is a man
Maybe the explanation is
whose appearances on Howard Stern’s
straightforward: He doesn’t want to give
radio show over the years were all about
her any extra motivation to speak out and
erotic peacocking; who bragged to Billy
describe whatever happened between them
Bush about groping women and paid
in a negative light. But when has Trump
no discernible price for it; and who can
ever played the tempered pacifist before?
apparently do anything shy of converting to
Lawyers are no doubt urging him not to
Islam and not fret about his evangelical base.
amplify her importance — and spotlight
Where the rest of us see reckless
a payment to her that may have violated
infidelity, he sees a buxom conquest that
campaign-finance laws — by personally
lesser Lotharios can only dream about.
battling her. But he has repeatedly ignored
But I wonder more about the opposite.
their counsel not to rail against Robert
What if the enigma of what Daniels is about
Mueller and others who are looking into
to say really rattles him, and his turning
his campaign’s ties to Russia, and that’s a
away from it is the telltale sign of that?
matter of presumably greater threat to his
The assumption has long been that his
presidency.
Meanwhile he stays mum about a porn
Twitter account gives us his psychic vital
star who is peddling steamy secrets about
signs and that we can chart his distress by
him — and who is doing what he hates
his diatribes. But diatribes are his norm.
most, which is using him as a steppingstone Deviations from them may hold more
to saturation fame.
meaning.
The interview that she gave to “60
And there are reasons that he’d be
Minutes” is scheduled to be broadcast this
rattled. His selling of himself as a super-
weekend without a peep from the president
potent stud (“Best Sex I’ve Ever Had”) is
(though with frantic efforts by his lawyers
one of the pillars of his vanity, and Daniels
to quash it). His silence speaks volumes.
could smash it to the ground. She didn’t
It could say that he has more discipline
quite do that in a 2011 interview with In
than he gets credit for, and that instead of
Touch magazine, but neither did she sound
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the
East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and
not necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
remotely wowed.
“Textbook generic” was how she
described the sex that she said she had
with him. “He wasn’t like Fabio or
anything.” He sought her assurance that he
looked good on the cover of a magazine
that he showed her. He confessed to the
superstition that he’d lose his wealth if he
changed his custard-swirl hair. He comes
across as somewhat pitiable. And she has
reportedly given new details and documents
to “60 Minutes.”
Then there’s Melania. By all evidence the
distance between the Trumps has widened
since the surfacing of Daniels’ allegations
that he had sex with her shortly after
Melania gave birth to Barron in 2006 and
that he told Daniels to pay his wife no heed.
Every mention of Daniels must mortify
Melania, and the president can’t afford that.
There’s more than enough strain in their
marriage and turbulence in the White House
already.
Besides, it’s one thing to have the
lewder parts of your past aired when
you’re a candidate. It’s quite another
when you’re president, even a president as
unconventional as Trump.
And it’s worse still if a series of recent
elections — in Virginia, in Alabama, in
Pennsylvania — suggest that you repel
women in the suburbs and they’re acting on
their disgust. They won’t be soothed by an
illicit romance that could be titled “Filthy
Shades of Orange.”
So the president ignores its release. He
sits on his Twitter hands. They’re big ones,
by the way. Just ask him.
■
Frank Bruni, an Op-Ed columnist for
The New York Times since 2011, joined the
newspaper in 1995. Over his years, he has
worn a wide variety of hats, including chief
restaurant critic and Rome bureau chief.
oth Gov. Kate Brown and the
Oregon Legislature deserve credit for
acknowledging the seriousness of the
state’s public pension problem.
A task force commissioned by the
governor kicked the tires last year on a
handful of options for reducing the pension
system’s $25 billion shortfall. And the
Legislature followed up with modest efforts
to fill the massive hole.
Voters this year should insist that their
representatives keep the momentum going.
The PERS problem remains huge and
long-lasting — and it may be even worse
than we think.
This information comes from a
presentation prepared for a February meeting
of the High Desert Education Service District
board. The ESD, which focuses primarily
on Crook and Deschutes counties, provides
regional services to schools. But what the
ESD does is less relevant here than what it is:
a publicly funded entity that employs people
on whose behalf it accrues pension liability.
Its PERS outlook is roughly similar to those
of many other government agencies.
The ESD projected payroll and PERS
contributions over a 20-year period beginning
in 2017. The ESD developed the data with
the help of an employer rate projection tool
made available recently by PERS. The tool
has its limitations. Payroll, for instance,
is simply assumed to grow at a rate of 3.5
percent annually. Still, it provides a useful
look ahead and allows public entities to
model cost-containment options.
The look ahead, in brief, involves a lot of
dollar signs. The ESD’s pension contributions
are expected to keep growing for many years.
They’re also expected to continue growing
in relation to payroll before the pressure
begins to ease. During the 2029-30 biennium,
PERS costs are expected to top 30 percent of
payroll. Ouch.
But the pain is even greater, at least in the
near term. The ESD’s PERS costs appear
to jump dramatically after the 2027-29
biennium. But reality is more complicated,
explains ESD Director of Business Services
Greg Munn. The ESD has created a side
account, funded by bond sales, that will
continue to depress PERS rates over the next
decade or so. When that side account expires,
PERS rates will jump.
There’s a lesson here for taxpayers,
who will soon begin voting on legislative
and gubernatorial candidates who will
have varying degrees of interest in PERS
reform. Some may say, incorrectly, that
recent state Supreme Court decisions that
have made further attempts to control PERS
costs a fool’s errand. Before buying the
PERS-surrender arguments, voters should
consider the scale of the problem, which
is so significant that public entities like the
High Desert ESD have been willing to create
side accounts and invite risk in the hope of
realizing even one or two percentage points
in net savings.
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the
newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual
services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published.
Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.