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NORTHWEST East Oregonian Page 2A Wednesday, November 21, 2018 NORCOR has released inmates to save space for ICE detainees to make room for the 40 detainees that you had asked for. If you are not going to use us to that extent, please let me know that as well so I can advise my sheriffs.” Less than three hours later, an ICE official wrote back indicating detainees would soon arrive from the Northwest Detention Cen- ter in Tacoma, Washington. “Tacoma is working on vetting more detainees to go to NORCOR,” ICE offi- cial Larry Peterson wrote. “I will let you know when they are ready for transfer.” “Thanks, I have been getting pressed for people,” Lindhorst wrote back. “No problem,” Peterson wrote. “I will keep hound- ing them for more.” Lindhorst has since been promoted to NORCOR’s commander. He declined to comment on Thursday, cit- ing the pending litigation. NORCOR is the regional jail for Hood River, Gil- liam, Sherman and Wasco counties. It also contracts with Benton County to house inmates. But in recent years, the jail has become particu- larly reliant on funding By CONRAD WILSON Oregon Public Broadcasting A regional jail in The Dalles that houses detain- ees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has suggested local sheriffs keep their “numbers low” in the jail to make room for immigrant detainees. The Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facil- ity — or NORCOR — has housed immigration detain- ees since 1999, when the facility first opened. Critics of that process say it vio- lates Oregon’s sanctuary law and have sued the jail. Documents included in that lawsuit give potential insight into how NORCOR allocates space for ICE detainees. In a Sept. 29, 2016 email, then-NORCOR Lt. Dan Lindhorst wrote ICE to ask that they increase their number of detainees at the jail. “I see this morning we are down to 26 ICE detain- ees,” Lindhorst wrote. “Could you please see if you can get these numbers up. We have been keeping the county numbers low Conrad Wilson/Oregon Public Broadcasting NORCOR is a cinder block jail surrounded by a high chain-link fence and razor wire in an industrial section of The Dalles. from its increasingly lucra- tive contract with ICE. Last year, the federal agency paid NORCOR more than $900,000 to house detain- ees, according to the jail’s budget documents. That’s more than 11 percent of the jail’s 2017-18 budget. The county’s contract with ICE doesn’t guaran- tee how much the federal agency will use NORCOR. But in 2016, then-jail administrator Bryan Bran- denburg told OPB that ICE does “their best to keep our numbers up a little bit.” In 2016, Wasco County failed to continue a prop- erty tax levy to fund the jail, making the jail even more reliant on its contract with ICE. “Huge,” Gilliam County Sheriff Gary Bettencourt said when describing the problem if the jail’s ICE contract went away. “It would be a huge problem.” Bettencourt said the jail uses a matrix system when the inmate population starts to reach capacity. He said there’s a “very low number of people we matrix.” Historically, the jail’s population has been slightly more than 200 adult inmates and detainees. “If we get over that, we initiate the matrix system that just starts pushing peo- ple out the door,” Betten- court said. “It’s kind of a grading system; somebody who’s not a threat to the community or themselves, so it’s got to be a pretty low- level crime.” He said an inmate’s crim- inal history is also taken into consideration before that person is let out to make room for more serious offenders. “We think our local bed numbers are adequate,” Bet- tencourt said. He said there’s never been a time when the ICE contract has prevented someone arrested locally from getting booked into the jail. “We’re never not able to take a local person,” he said. The sheriffs of Hood River, Sherman and Wasco counties did not return requests for comment. “We’re never not able to take a local person” — Gary Bettencourt, Gilliam County sheriff Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY THURSDAY FRIDAY Mostly cloudy and chilly Cloudy with spotty showers 41° 34° 53° 39° SATURDAY Mostly cloudy with a shower Report: Oregon needs a separate state agency for legal marijuana SUNDAY Partly sunny Mostly cloudy PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 49° 35° 47° 33° 48° 35° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 38° 31° 52° 40° 50° 36° 52° 32° OREGON FORECAST 50° 35° ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 52/46 48/38 41/24 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 43/36 Lewiston 50/45 40/32 Astoria 53/44 Pullman Yakima 37/31 50/42 48/37 Portland Hermiston 48/45 The Dalles 38/31 Salem Corvallis 50/42 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 48/36 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 52/44 53/35 50/38 Ontario 44/31 Caldwell Burns 32° 28° 48° 32° 65° (1962) 6° (1929) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 52/44 0.00" 0.01" 0.76" 6.46" 8.46" 8.04" WINDS (in mph) 47/34 43/21 0.00" 0.10" 0.92" 8.25" 14.58" 10.91" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 48/34 53/45 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 41/34 41/34 31° 20° 47° 32° 69° (1958) 9° (1977) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 51/41 Aberdeen 41/34 36/29 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 51/45 Today Medford 56/39 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018 S 4-8 SSW 7-14 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 7:03 a.m. 4:19 p.m. 3:55 p.m. 4:57 a.m. Full Last New First Nov 22 Nov 29 Dec 6 Dec 15 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 88° in Hollywood, Fla. Low -20° in Cotton, Minn. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s ice 50s cold front — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays www.eastoregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to www.eastoregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Copyright © 2018, EO Media Group 60s 70s 80s 90s 100s warm front stationary front 110s high low Lawmakers ordered to comply with subpoenas over misconduct PORTLAND (AP) — A Multnomah County Circuit Court judge has ruled that Oregon legislative leaders must comply with subpoenas for documents and testi- mony in the sexual harassment investiga- tion at the Capitol. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Judge Christopher Marshall said Monday the subpoenas were reasonable in scope and had been issued lawfully by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. But he also found the Legislature’s top officials initially had cause to object, rejecting the agency’s request for a contempt order and $1,000-a- day fines. He gave lawmakers until Dec. 5 to pro- vide documents and Dec. 18 to provide testimony. Through their attorneys, Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Tina Kotek had argued that supplying the infor- mation would jeopardize the privacy of peo- ple who had complained about misconduct. On Monday, labor agency lawyer Nena Cook said the alleged victims’ information would be kept private under a protective order. The Bureau of Labor and Industries had identified two interns who reported being sexually harassed while working for for- Subscriber services: For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Local home delivery Savings off cover price EZPay $14.50 41 percent 52 weeks $173.67 41 percent 26 weeks $91.86 38 percent 13 weeks $47.77 36 percent *EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit or debit card/check charge Single copy price: $1 Tuesday through Friday, $1.50 Saturday Circulation Manager: Bonny Tuller, 541-966-0828 marijuana, the OLCC in August revealed it planned to seek $7 million per biennium in recreational pot tax money from the 2019 Legislature. Mark Pettinger, a spokesman for the OLCC, told the newspaper he had heard mention of the new agency recommenda- tion, but said it was “not our issue to com- ment on.” The cannabis commission was formed by the 2017 Legislature. Jonathan Modie, spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority, stressed the rec- ommendation is still a draft. The cannabis commission meets Nov. 27 via conference call to discuss recommendations included in the draft report. If the commission approves the recom- mendation, Modie said, the report will be presented to a legislative committee when the session begins. Jim Moore, a political science profes- sor at Pacific University, said proposals like this usually come about after an audit reveals problems, but this one appears to be spontaneous. “I think it will have good political sup- port,” he said. BRIEFLY Thu. NNE 3-6 ENE 3-6 Boardman Pendleton 51/30 SALEM (AP) — The Oregon Cannabis Commission is recommending the state set up an independent agency to regulate legal marijuana rather than having three differ- ent agencies share the job, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Marijuana is currently regulated by the Oregon Health Authority, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission and the Ore- gon Department of Agriculture, but their responsibilities also include public health, alcohol and crop services. The Statesman Journal obtained a draft report through a public records request that says having three agencies manage mari- juana creates confusion and each agency has a different mindset about how to address cannabis. Law enforcement officials and growers also find the multi-agency approach “con- fusing and difficult to navigate,” the report said. The lines regarding who’s responsible for what have changed over time. Certain medical growers were required as of July 1 to use the OLCC’s Canna- bis Tracking System, which recreational licensees also use. To help track medical ADVERTISING Regional Publisher and Revenue Director: Christopher Rush 541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com Advertising Services: Angela Treadwell 541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com Grace Bubar 541-276-2214 • gbubar@eastoregonian.com Multimedia Consultants: • Kimberly Macias 541-278-2683 • kmacias@eastoregonian.com • Jeanne Jewett 541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com • Dayle Stinson 541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com • Audra Workman 541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com mer Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg. Kruse resigned following the allegations, which he denied. The labor agency’s investigation dates back to Aug. 1, when Democratic Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian took the extraordinary step of filing a complaint with his own agency alleging that Courtney and Kotek knew or should have known about complaints about Kruse and the “broader sexually hostile environment in the Capi- tol.” Avakian’s complaint also named seven other individuals including the Legisla- ture’s human resources chief and top law- yer, plus the entire Legislature and Depart- ment of Administrative Services, which handles human resources for much of the state government. Wyden: Public needs more time to study nuke waste proposal RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden says the public needs more time to comment on a proposal to reclas- sify radioactive waste stored at the nation’s nuclear weapons production complex. The Oregon Democrat this week joined calls for the process to be slowed down. The U.S. Department of Energy is con- sidering a change to how it interprets the legal definition of high level radioactive waste. Classified & Legal Advertising 1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678 classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com NEWS • To submit news tips and press releases: call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com • To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News: email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini at 541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818. • To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries: email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit www.eastoregonian. com/community/announcements • To submit sports or outdoors information or tips: 541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com Business Office Manager: 541-966-0822 COMMERCIAL PRINTING Production Manager: Mike Jensen 541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
