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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 12, 2019)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Saturday, January 12, 2019 Decades later, Courtney again takes aim at DUI threshold drivers are confronted in their cars with more lights and screens than ever. Add As a state representa- in bike lanes and homeless tive in 1983, Peter Court- people walking around at ney introduced legislation night, and there is too much to lower the drunk driving distraction while driving threshold from 0.10 blood something that can be used alcohol content to 0.08. as a deadly weapon, he said. It was a radical He knows his move from a new proposal will be lawmaker who was unpopular. expected to bide “Sooner or later, his time. Court- you’re going to ney had little sup- have to fight that port outside of a battle,” Courtney Courtney budding advocacy said. “You don’t group called Moth- wait until the tim- ers Against Drunk Driving, ing’s perfect. You don’t wait but he introduced the bill until everything lines up.” Courtney said he’s anyway. It passed and Oregon always been keenly aware and Utah became the first of the downsides of alco- states to move to a 0.08 hol, which has killed sev- threshold for drunk driv- eral chronic drinkers in his ing. Courtney proved to family. But this isn’t about be ahead of the times, as it drinking, it’s about safety, wasn’t until 1998 that Pres- he said. ident Bill Clinton called on “I’m not trying to stop all states to enact the 0.08 you from drinking,” Court- ney said. “I’m not trying to standard. Now Courtney wants stop this explosion of brew Oregon to be a leader again. pubs. Go, all of you. Go He is taking the political tonight, go every night. I’m point to push Oregon to not trying to make a state- an even more strict limit ment about drinking.” Utah is the only state — 0.05. “You’re not as good with such a standard, which after you drink as you are went into effect Dec. 30 before you drink,” he said. after nearly two years of hot Today, Courtney said, debate and pushback from By AUBREY WIEBER Oregon Capital Bureau the restaurant industry, cit- izens and some lawmakers. That was in teetotal- ling Utah, where the reli- gious beliefs of two-thirds of the state mandate they abstain from alcohol. It was even fought before a Mor- mon-dominated legislature, prompting former Sen. Jim Dabakis to famously drink two mimosas before a floor speech to show he wasn’t impaired. So far, Courtney is miss- ing crucial allies. Mothers Against Drunk Driving so far isn’t endors- ing the Courtney move and Oregon State Police are “neutral” on the idea. Capt. Tim Fox said there is no research on the dif- ference of impairment at 0.05 and 0.08. Superinten- dent Travis Hampton said if the new limit were to pass, OSP wouldn’t have enough troopers to enforce the new law. Courtney is undeterred. “I’ll be talking with him,” Courtney said of Hampton. And that’s the law enforcement and anti-drunk driving community. Oregon also has robust wine, craft beer, spirits and restaurant industries with powerful lobbies. Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY Freezing fog this morning Freezing fog in the morning Freezing fog in the morning Some sun, then clouds and chilly Cloudy 40° 27° 37° 25° PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 38° 27° 41° 32° 41° 31° The Register-Guard/Chris Pietsch Eugene police secure the scene in front of Cascade Middle School in Eugene on Friday after an officer involved shooting. Police kill armed man at Eugene middle school By ANDREW SELSKY AND GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press EUGENE — Police shot and killed a man who showed up Friday with a gun at an Oregon middle school amid a custody dispute, author- ities said. No one else was injured. The man had been escorted from Cascade Mid- dle School in Eugene when he began struggling and pulled a gun, police Lt. Jen- nifer Bills told reporters. She initially said the shooting was inside the school. Students were locked in classrooms, and the school was locked down for nearly four hours. By Friday afternoon, offi- cers were escorting small groups of children to a nearby church where parents had gathered. Yellow crime scene tape surrounded the school’s main parking lot and a yellow tarp covered the suspect’s body just a few feet from an entrance. His name was not immediately released. “No students were harmed whatsoever. All the students are safe,” Bills said. Parent Stephanie Martin waited for her two children at the church in Eugene. She said her son, a sixth- grader, called her to say he and his sister, a sev- enth-grader, were OK. “The kids are all safe, that’s all we know. But that’s all I care about,” Martin said. “It’s crazy, the world is crazy.” Andrew Ramos-Aguirre, a sixth-grader at the school, said that when word of the shooting spread, his physical education classroom quickly followed a drill they had practiced. “We had to lock down the room, we had to be really quiet, no movement,” Ramos-Aguirre said after he was reunited with his mother, who teared up as she heard her son’s account. “I felt afraid and nervous because there was an intruder at my school,” the boy said. The area saw one of the first school shootings to seize the national spotlight. More than 20 years ago, then 15-year-old Kip Kin- kel killed his parents before fatally shooting two stu- dents and wounding 26 oth- ers at Thurston High School in nearby Springfield. Kinkel remains in prison. HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 41° 29° 39° 28° 38° 27° 40° 34° 40° 29° OREGON FORECAST PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 53/39 42/26 42/23 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 41/28 Lewiston 52/32 40/29 Astoria 55/38 Pullman Yakima 42/26 51/29 46/28 Portland Hermiston 51/36 The Dalles 41/29 Salem Corvallis 51/30 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 43/23 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 53/31 44/21 45/24 Ontario 42/24 Caldwell Burns 40° 34° 41° 28° 61° (2014) -10° (1937) 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 52/31 0.00" 0.18" 0.45" 0.18" 0.43" 0.45" WINDS (in mph) 43/24 35/11 0.00" 0.12" 0.62" 0.12" 0.53" 0.62" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 40/20 52/31 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 40/27 45/31 35° 29° 41° 27° 63° (1953) -11° (1963) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 52/28 Aberdeen 37/24 39/27 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 54/37 BRIEFLY ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. Today Medford 56/30 Sun. NE 4-8 N 4-8 Boardman Pendleton NE 4-8 N 4-8 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 47/22 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today Oregon snowpack fails again to reach normal standard SALEM (AP) — Oregon’s snowpack is below normal again and data shows the state is reaching historically normal levels less often. The Natural Resources Conservation Ser- vice shows the state’s snow-water equivalent in the mountains is 72 percent of normal, with the number lower in western Oregon, the Statesman Journal reported Thursday. The state has reached a normal snowpack level only in four of the last 10 years, accord- ing to the federal data. “It’s pretty clear that the idea of what’s normal is shifting, and that we’ve just become accustomed to these bad or below average years,” said Kathie Dello, a climate scientist with Oregon State University. “That’s par- ticularly true in years where people are still 7:34 a.m. 4:33 p.m. 11:05 a.m. 11:15 p.m. First Full Last New Jan 13 Jan 20 Jan 27 Feb 4 McKay Creek Estates FREE Cognitive Screening NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 82° in McAllen, Texas Low -7° in Saranac Lake, N.Y. able to go skiing — we just don’t notice it as much.” Lower elevations in western Oregon had meager snowfall, largely accounting for the state’s low snowpack. Snow in the Cascade Range at about 5,000 feet is doing OK, but it sharply drops off below that elevation, said Scott Oviett, snow survey hydrologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. “While we might be seeing snow at 5,000 feet, places below that are seeing more rain than snow,” Oviett said. The normal snowpack standard is based on historical data from 1981 to 2010. The standard will be updated in 2020 to take into account data over the prior decade. The update should be an interesting moment, Oviett said, because “the warm tem- peratures and early melt-outs and prolonged dry stretches are very different from what we’ve seen historically.” NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY Is Mom a little more forgetful lately? There are many early warning signs of a potential memory disorder, such as Alzheimer’s disease. That’s why we’re offering a FREE and CONFIDENTIAL cognitive screening. We encourage anyone who is concerned about cognitive decline to take this short, in-person screening. The screening is administered by a qualified health care professional. To schedule your cognitive screening today, please call (541) 704-7146. 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 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — 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 EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to 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. 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