NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Friday, May 25, 2018
Grant County School District
opts not to arm teachers, for now
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, file
In this 2017 file photo, an Amazon Echo Dot is
displayed during a program announcing several
new Amazon products by the company, in Seattle.
By RICHARD HANNERS
EO Media Group
Amazon: Echo device
sent conversation to
family’s contact
Associated Press
SEATTLE
—
An
“unlikely” string of events
prompted Amazon’s Echo
personal assistant device to
record a Portland family’s
private conversation and
then send the recording to
an acquaintance in Seattle,
the company said Thursday.
The
woman
told
KIRO-TV that two weeks
ago an employee of her hus-
band contacted them to say
he thought their device had
been hacked. He told them
he had received an audio
file of them discussing hard-
wood floors, she said.
In a statement Thurs-
day, Amazon confirmed the
woman’s private conversa-
tion had been inadvertently
recorded and sent. The
company said the device
interpreted a word in the
background conversation as
“Alexa” — a command that
makes it wake up — and
then it interpreted the con-
versation as a “send mes-
sage” request.
“At which point, Alexa
said out loud ‘To whom?’”
the statement said. “At
which point, the back-
ground conversation was
interpreted as a name in the
customers contact list.
“Alexa then asked out
loud, ‘(contact name),
right?’ Alexa then inter-
ing school safety from many
diverse sources.
“This is clearly a subject
this community is interested
in,” she said.
Cronin noted the strong
feelings on both sides and
said the idea had come
before the board three times
already.
“We’ve been listening,”
she said.
Now was not the time to
change policy to allow teach-
ers to be armed, Cronin said.
The district would face “sig-
nificant costs,” and teach-
ers were already “stretched
thin” and facing scheduling
difficulties. She noted that
no school staff told her they
wanted to be armed.
The district’s proposed
budget includes funding for
a school resource officer,
and opportunities for part-
School board
may consider
at another time
The idea of arming teach-
ers in Grant County schools
was put to rest after the
school board reached con-
sensus May 16 that it is not
the best time to change that
policy and it is better to pur-
sue other options.
Chairwoman Chris Cro-
nin recognized the numerous
steps taken by the adminis-
tration since she sat on the
board, including installing
cameras and new locks, and
she said she appreciated all
the public input on improv-
preted background conver-
sation as ‘right.’”
The statement contin-
ued: “As unlikely as this
string of events is, we are
evaluating options to make
this case even less likely.”
The woman, who was
identified only by her first
name in the news report,
said every room in her fam-
ily’s home was wired with
the Amazon devices to con-
trol her home’s heat, lights
and security system.
She said the family
unplugged the devices and
contacted Amazon after
they learned the recording
had been sent.
Ryan Calo, a law pro-
fessor who co-directs the
University of Washington’s
tech policy lab, agreed that
the sort of glitch Amazon
described is unlikely. But it
may trouble customers nev-
ertheless, he said
“What makes it particu-
larly unfortunate is the sense
that Amazon Echo users
will have that there’s any
prospect that what they say
in their private home might
end up outside the home,”
Calo said. “We feel less
reassured about the control
we assert over it than we
once did. It’s the feeling you
have to watch what you say
in front of a device that’s
supposed to make your life
better.”
software now supplied by
contractor DXC Technology.
Officials with the Secre-
tary of State’s Office believe
having an in-house system
would allow them to quickly
adapt the system to changes
in Oregon law and better
maintain the security of data,
said Steve Bender, an analyst
with the Legislative Fiscal
Office. It also was uncertain
whether DXC would con-
tinue to support the voter reg-
istration system.
When it came to the atten-
tion of the Legislative Fiscal
Office that the project bud-
get excluded a quality assur-
ance review, the office asked
the secretary of state to add
the review. The secretary
of state obtained a quote of
nearly $337,000 to conduct
an independent review of the
IT project.
The state Legislature’s
Joint Emergency Board
approved that expenditure
Wednesday, May 23.
Given state government’s
“landscape of all of the detri-
tus of failed computer sys-
tems and failed IT implemen-
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Despite a record of infor-
mation technology project
failures, some state agen-
cies are exempt from a law
requiring them to have an
independent external quality
assurance review of projects
exceeding $1 million.
Certain state agencies,
such as the Secretary of State’s
Office, are exempt from laws
passed in 2014-15 to require
certain state agencies to have
independent outisde over-
sight and reporting on IT proj-
ects. Some of the state’s most
notorious IT project failures
— such as the Cover Oregon
healthcare exchange website
and the more recent project
to install a new state agency
phone system — lacked an
independent quality assurance
reviewer for all or part of the
duration of those projects.
The Secretary of State’s
Office has allocated $2.8 mil-
lion to build its own Oregon
Centralized Voter Registra-
tion computer system during
the next three years to replace
Corrections
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REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
TODAY
SUNDAY
SATURDAY
Times of clouds
and sun
A thick cloud cover
81° 51°
73° 48°
MONDAY
Nice with partial
sunshine
Intervals of clouds
and sun
TUESDAY
Partly sunny and
very warm
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
78° 54°
86° 57°
81° 48°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
80° 52°
87° 56°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
85°
73°
93° (1928)
64°
49°
34° (1920)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.65"
1.01"
6.07"
9.14"
6.12"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
LOW
90°
75°
97° (1928)
67°
49°
35° (2010)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.91"
0.87"
4.96"
6.31"
4.86"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Full
Last
May 29
June 6
New
92° 59°
86° 51°
Seattle
68/50
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
85° 58°
5:14 a.m.
8:30 p.m.
4:29 p.m.
3:39 a.m.
First
June 13 June 20
Today
Spokane
Wenatchee
80/54
84/54
Tacoma
Moses
69/46
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 84/53
78/52
62/50
70/45
86/53
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
68/49
82/54 Lewiston
86/57
Astoria
84/59
61/52
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
72/49
Pendleton 75/50
The Dalles 87/56
81/51
79/54
La Grande
Salem
77/49
72/45
Albany
Corvallis 70/44
69/45
John Day
75/48
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
87/58
67/43
66/43
Caldwell
Burns
86/58
73/42
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
61
78
66
58
73
75
67
78
87
75
58
77
74
67
58
59
87
87
81
72
69
72
80
73
71
82
86
Lo
52
51
43
47
42
50
43
50
56
48
41
49
47
46
47
50
58
57
51
49
41
45
54
46
48
54
53
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pc
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Sat.
Hi
61
64
66
61
62
58
65
70
80
62
66
63
62
72
57
62
75
80
73
67
68
66
73
62
65
72
80
Lo
50
45
38
49
39
42
43
47
52
43
35
44
41
47
46
49
56
49
48
48
35
46
49
40
46
52
49
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
pc
c
pc
pc
c
c
pc
c
c
c
c
r
c
pc
pc
pc
c
c
c
pc
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c
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pc
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pc
WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
91
94
81
70
82
64
78
77
75
67
79
Lo
63
83
65
57
52
44
62
61
55
52
64
W
s
pc
s
pc
pc
s
t
s
pc
pc
s
Sat.
Hi
89
95
85
77
82
68
84
78
82
69
75
Lo
61
85
66
62
52
50
63
63
58
52
66
W
c
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sh
WINDS
Medford
67/46
(in mph)
Klamath Falls
58/41
Boardman
Pendleton
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Partly sunny today; how-
ever, more clouds in the south.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Sun today. A
shower and storm in central parts and near
the Cascades; a t-storm in the south and
upper Treasure Valley.
Western Washington: Mostly sunny
today. Mostly cloudy tonight. Partly sunny
tomorrow.
Eastern Washington: Some sunshine today.
Partly cloudy tonight.
Cascades: A shower and thunderstorm
around today, but a thunderstorm in spots
across the north.
Northern California: A shower and thunder-
storm around today, except a thunderstorm
at the coast.
Today
Saturday
WSW 6-12
W 6-12
WSW 7-14
WSW 7-14
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
2
4
7
7
4
tial difficulties or concerns in
the implementation plan that
were not discovered inter-
nally then having an external
reviewer would be helpful in
increasing the likelihood of
the project’s success.”
Johnson said she also
wanted assurances that law-
makers would receive reports
on the quality assurance
reviews to provide account-
ability for the project.
“What happens if the QA
is retained and ignored?” she
asked.
The Legislative Fiscal
Office will receive reports on
the quality assurance review
and give them to lawmakers
on the committee that over-
sees IT projects, Rocco said.
The failure of the Cover
Oregon health insurance
website — which ate up more
than $300 million in state
and federal funds — and the
more recent problems with
the $46 million replacement
of the state agency phone sys-
tem lacked the kind of qual-
ity control reviews that might
have caught problems early
on.
tations,” Emergency Board
member Sen. Betsy John-
son, said, she was concerned
whether there is adequate
oversight and quality con-
trol over the voter registration
system project.
“I am just quite worried
that some of the same people
who oversaw absolute deba-
cles here are now going to be
present overseeing this, and
I’m looking for some degree
of reassurance,” the Scap-
poose Democrat said.
The Legislative Fiscal
Office flagged the lack of
independent oversight after
going over the project, said
Legislative Fiscal Officer
Ken Rocco.
“LFO was concerned
about the risk of the project
and the size of the project and
that is why we asked the sec-
retary of state obtain an exter-
nal quality assurance review
of this,” Bender said.
“Quality
assurance
reviews don’t ensure a project
is successful. However, we do
believe that this will increase
the likelihood of that outcome
and that if there are poten-
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Williams pointed out that
he and Cronin had not talked
about the matter before the
board meeting. The dis-
trict was facing numerous
changes this year — a new
superintendent, a new prin-
cipal at Humbolt Elementary
and numerous staff changes
— and now was not the time
to change policy to allow
teachers to be armed, he said.
One by one, the rest of the
board said they agreed with
Cronin and Williams. Haley
Walker noted that some-
how discussion about school
safety had narrowed down
to arming teachers. Colleen
Robertson said she was glad
students had an opportunity
to provide input.
The board agreed to pur-
sue other options to improve
school safety, including eval-
uating mental health issues.
State grapples with gaps in IT project oversight
The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and
sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in
the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
nerships with law enforce-
ment, more training and
building improvements had
come out of the discussion,
Cronin said.
Board Vice Chairman
Zach Williams, who had
brought up the idea of arm-
ing school teachers or staff
during the board’s March
21 meeting, following the
Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High
School, in Parkland, Florida,
said he agreed with Cronin.
Williams said there was
significant public pressure to
have a discussion on the idea,
and he wanted the public’s
input. He noted he had heard
people say that his mind was
already made up, but he had
changed his opinion.
“We got a better outcome
because of this discussion,”
he said.
2
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: The Northeast will get a taste of summer warmth today, while down-
pours will return to the South. Showers and thunderstorms will stretch up to the Upper
Midwest and will rattle the West Coast.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 100° in Laredo, Texas
Low 26° in Leadville, Colo.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
90
78
78
87
84
85
87
87
84
88
89
85
94
86
87
98
63
90
85
89
88
86
90
90
87
68
Lo
60
69
66
69
57
69
57
68
72
66
67
65
74
56
66
67
41
62
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70
69
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68
56
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Sat.
Hi
92
83
78
84
84
85
72
82
86
84
89
85
95
91
88
101
65
93
85
91
88
85
94
83
89
70
Lo
60
69
67
69
58
68
52
54
73
66
68
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60
67
71
44
64
74
72
69
72
69
65
70
58
Today
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Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Wichita
Hi
90
87
81
85
91
87
87
87
90
93
86
99
84
86
85
82
60
65
86
88
70
65
68
99
87
90
Lo
71
71
74
65
70
69
72
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67
68
67
74
65
66
69
55
45
52
71
59
61
55
50
64
71
67
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Sat.
Hi
88
87
81
84
94
87
88
88
93
97
87
95
76
84
86
91
61
74
92
81
68
65
68
96
85
95
Lo
72
72
76
66
70
68
72
66
68
70
68
69
51
58
70
61
48
53
72
54
60
53
51
62
71
70
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
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