NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
16 states sue Trump over emergency wall declaration
Oregon, and Virginia. All
the states involved in the
lawsuit have Democratic
attorneys general.
Trump
declared
a
national emergency to fulfill
his promise of completing
the wall. The move allows
the president to bypass Con-
gress to use money from the
Pentagon and other budgets.
The states say diver-
sion of military funding to
wall-building will hurt their
economies and deprive their
military bases of needed
upgrades. They say tak-
ing away funds from count-
lates the Constitution.
“President Trump treats
the rule of law with utter
contempt,” Becerra said.
“He knows there is no bor-
der crisis, he knows his
emergency declaration is
unwarranted, and he admits
that he will likely lose this
case in court.”
Joining California in fil-
ing the lawsuit are the attor-
neys general of Colorado,
Connecticut,
Delaware,
Hawaii, Illinois, Maine,
Maryland, Michigan, Min-
nesota, Nevada, New Jersey,
New Mexico, New York,
Oregon joins suit
alleging president’s
action violates the
Constitution
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
(AP) — California and 15
other states filed a lawsuit
Monday against President
Donald Trump’s emergency
declaration to fund a wall on
the U.S.-Mexico border.
California Attorney Gen-
eral Xavier Becerra released
a statement Monday saying
the suit alleges the Trump
administration’s action vio-
er-drug efforts for the wall
will also cause damage. Cal-
ifornia and New Mexico, the
two Mexican border states
in the lawsuit, say the wall
will harm wildlife.
California has repeatedly
challenged Trump in court.
“President Trump is
manufacturing a crisis
and declaring a made-up
‘national emergency’ in
order to seize power and
undermine the Constitu-
tion,” said California Gov.
Gavin Newsom in a state-
ment. “This ‘emergency’ is
a national disgrace.”
AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza, File
In this Dec. 21, 2018, file photo, a Honduran youth jumps
from the U.S. border fence in Tijuana, Mexico.
Oregon students make impassioned case for cap and trade
which would impact every
Oregonian in multiple ways,
from increasing the cost of
heating a home to providing
cleaner air.
The testimony started
with 10 high school and
middle school students.
They spoke with a level of
desperation unmatched by
most witnesses, even those
leading businesses or indus-
tries that stand to be finan-
cially pummeled by the
legislation.
A week ago, the com-
mittee finished stakeholder
testimony and on Monday
night finished public testi-
mony from the Capitol. The
committee will now travel
Agriculture sector
concerned about
effect of gas tax
By AUBREY WIEBER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — About 75
people answered the legis-
lative Joint Committee on
Carbon Reduction’s call for
comments Monday, weigh-
ing in on a proposed sweep-
ing change that would put a
price on carbon emissions.
The second public hear-
ing ran nearly three hours
and again the bulk of the
testimony was in favor of
the cap and trade proposal,
around the state to take tes-
timony in remote locations
and take video testimony.
The proposal, similar
versions of which stalled in
past sessions, would set a 52
million metric ton cap on
greenhouse gas emissions.
Individual polluters emit-
ting 25,000 metric tons per
year in industries covered
by the cap would have to pay
for their pollution through
allowances auctioned off by
the state.
Over time the cap would
become more restrictive
until reaching 11 million
tons in 2050.
The idea is to put pres-
sure on polluters to find
TODAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
1-2" of snow,
slippery travel
A little snow in the
morning
Mostly cloudy and
cold
A little snow in the
morning
A.M. snow; mostly
cloudy, cold
32° 24°
30° 15°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
32° 20°
38° 22°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
35° 26°
35° 18°
39° 29°
35° 24°
41° 24°
OREGON FORECAST
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
47/28
29/15
36/21
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
31/23
Lewiston
46/29
34/23
Astoria
47/31
Pullman
Yakima 34/21
42/27
35/23
Portland
Hermiston
45/28
The Dalles 35/26
Salem
Corvallis
45/29
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
35/22
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
43/30
36/20
34/22
Ontario
42/28
Caldwell
Burns
36°
18°
49°
29°
66° (1995) 9° (1936)
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
46/29
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
42/28
0.00"
1.40"
0.65"
2.93"
1.61"
1.93"
WINDS (in mph)
40/24
32/15
0.00"
1.54"
0.78"
3.61"
2.17"
2.16"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 32/20
45/28
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
32/24
40/27
37°
30°
48°
30°
68° (1930) 8° (2006)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
43/27
Aberdeen
29/15
32/20
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
44/31
Today
Thu.
N 4-8
WNW 7-14
N 6-12
WNW 6-12
PORTLAND (AP) —
Gov. Kate Brown is report-
edly considering selling the
state’s workers compen-
sation insurance corpora-
tion or tapping its substan-
tial capital surplus to hold
down future pension costs
for school districts around
the state.
The Oregonian/Oregon-
Live reports that according
to documents it obtained
via a public records request
the idea is still tentative, and
it’s not clear it would raise
enough money to accom-
plish the goal on its own.
Chris Pair, a spokes-
man for the governor’s
office, said Monday “our
office will not be providing
comment.”
The proposal to tap
SAIF, the state’s 100-year-
old employer-funded work-
ers compensation agency,
was initially floated in 2017
by a task force Brown set up
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
33/17
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:50 a.m.
5:29 p.m.
7:08 p.m.
7:46 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
Feb 26
Mar 6
Mar 14
Mar 20
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 90° in Immokalee, Fla. Low -33° in Daniel, Wyo.
recited a list of stats with
dizzying speed. He talked
about the parts of the state
he’s seen burn to the ground
as drought and hotter sum-
mers made Oregon’s forests
more susceptible to wild-
fires. He said the world as
we know it could disappear.
“What will we call Gla-
cier National Park if there
are no glaciers?” he said.
“What will we call Iceland
if there is no ice?”
The youngest gener-
ation’s civic engagement
became a theme for the
night, as many adults har-
kened back to their words,
calling them inspiring. But
not all were in favor.
Several witnesses from
the agriculture sector talked
about how an estimated 16
cent per gallon increase in
gasoline would cost them
tens of thousands of dollars
every year.
The agriculture sector
would not be directly cov-
ered by the cap, but would
pay higher fuel costs to sup-
pliers to who are.
Mike McCarthy, of the
Hood River County Farm
Bureau, said he supports
the concerns the younger
witnesses have about the
climate. But he and his fel-
low farmers can’t eat the
costs cap and trade would
bring.
Gov. Brown weighing moves
to reduce school pension costs
Forecast for Pendleton Area
38° 28°
cleaner ways of doing busi-
ness, whether it’s switching
to a greener energy source
or finding ways to manufac-
ture products with less pol-
lution. Companies that suc-
ceed could then sell their
unused allowances.
The state would spend
polluters’ money on climate
change projects of all sizes,
with a priority being placed
on low-income and minority
communities, as well as
those most impacted by cli-
mate change.
Jeremy Clark, a 14-year-
old from Portland, has been
lobbying the Legislature for
three years to support the
proposal. He passionately
agencies around the state
face large pension debts and
the relentless cost increases
they are driving. Collec-
tively, school districts have
a funding deficit with PERS
of more than $9 billion. They
face a $375 million increase
in their pension costs in the
next two-year budget cycle
and potentially much larger
cost increases in the follow-
ing biennium
This at a time when
Brown has been promis-
ing to increase school fund-
ing to lengthen the school
year, bring down class sizes
and address Oregon’s high
school graduation rates,
which are the second lowest
in the country.
Critics have said it would
be a mistake to pump bil-
lions more into schools
when much of that money
would go to increased
pension costs, not to the
classroom.
BRIEFLY
Snowbound man
calls for help,
arrested on sex
charges
ASTORIA (AP) — A
37-year-old Oregon man,
who called for help getting
his rental car out of deep
snow, was instead arrested
on suspicion of attempted
rape and custodial interfer-
ence after sheriff’s deputies
found him with a 13-year-
old girl.
Clatsop County Sheriff
Tom Bergin said Tuesday
that Christopher Thomas
Knox, of Hillsboro, told dep-
uties the girl was his daugh-
ter, but she was actually
missing from her home in
King County, Washington.
Investigators
believe
Knox sexually abused her
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
to look for ways to reduce
PERS’ huge unfunded lia-
bility. That liability now
stands at about $26.6 billion.
At the time, the idea of
selling SAIF or tapping
its surplus was staunchly
opposed in some quarters of
the business community.
Oregon businesses enjoy
some of the cheapest work-
ers compensation rates in
the country, and employ-
ers who are policyholders of
SAIF receive large annual
dividends from investment
earnings on the capital sur-
plus that the governor may
look to tap.
Transferring that sur-
plus or selling the company
might raise costs for work-
men’s compensation, eras-
ing one of the few competi-
tive advantages that Oregon
offers business, opponents
have said.
At the same time, schools,
municipalities and public
near her home, and then
a second time somewhere
between Tacoma, Washing-
ton, and Astoria.
Anyone who saw the
two in a black 2018 Dodge
Journey with California
license plates at a rest stop
or state park on the evening
of Feb. 15 is asked to call
authorities.
Oregon House
advances
Medicaid funding
protections
SALEM (AP) — The
Oregon House has approved
a measure to protect a reve-
nue stream that injects more
federal funds into the state’s
Medicaid program.
Legislators voted 44 to
15 on Tuesday to extend the
expiration date of the state’s
health care assessment pro-
gram to 2025. The program
is a tax on health care pro-
viders and is common prac-
tice by states to draw down
extra federal Medicaid
funds.
The bill also extends the
state’s tax on health insur-
ers, which proponents say
will further stabilize pre-
ventative health care costs.
But lawmakers note the
measure will do little to
address Oregon’s Medic-
aid funding gap, which has
snowballed to over $800
million. Rep. Rob Nosse,
D-Portland, said extending
these tax programs gives
the Legislature time to find
additional healthcare funds.
The bill now heads to the
Senate.
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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