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
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