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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2019)
BUCKS GET THEIR FIRST HOME WIN OF BASEBALL SEASON IRRIGON MEDICAL CLINIC EXPANDS BUILDING, SERVICES SPORTS, B1 REGION, A3 E O AST 143rd year, No. 112 REGONIAN Friday, March 22, 2019 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Your Weekend Round-Up picks new general manager East Oregonian • Book signing with Carol Clupny, Hermiston • Hydroponics class and crafts for kids and adults, Pendleton Center for the Arts Patton round-Up President dave O’Neill tex- ted Erika Patton at 4:30 a.m. Thursday morning and told her that her day was about to blow up. True to form, congratulatory messages flooded her cell phone and her Facebook page around 5 a.m. once the round-Up association and happy canyon went public with the announcement that they were hiring Patton as their next general manager. She will take the reins of the historic rodeo and night show on april 1, replac- ing casey Beard, who announced his retirement in November. Patton, the business manager for the interMountain Education Service district and formerly a vice president at Banner Bank, will be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the organization. See Manager, Page A8 HERMISTON’S SPRINT RELAYS SHINE AT BULLDOG INVITE: SEE MORE IN SPORTS • B1 FOR TIMES AND LOCATIONS CHECK COMING EVENTS, A5 Weekend Weather FRI SAT SUN 62/43 54/38 57/38 Cigarette smuggling expected to take hit with tax increase More packs sold in Oregon despite higher population in Washington By AUBREY WIEBER Oregon Capital Bureau New revenue generated from increasing Oregon’s tobacco tax would come with an addi- tional decline in sales because Washington buyers would likely stop crossing the river to buy, economists said Wednes- day during a legislative infor- mational hearing. The proposal is for a $2 per- pack hike to pay for health care for low-income Oregonians. it’s a move being championed by Gov. Kate Brown. State rep. Mitch Greenlick, d-Port- land, introduced a similar bill. There are also proposals to tax nicotine vaping products and remove the 50-cent ceiling on the tax on cigars. in total, six proposals would increase rev- enue from nicotine products in some way. all have been assigned to the house revenue committee and none have pub- lic hearings scheduled. See Tobacco, Page A8 Staff photo by E.J. Harris Umatilla senior Julian Gutierrez grimaces as he hits the pit while long jumping on Thursday at the Bulldog Invite in Hermiston. data breach exposes millions of dhS emails, patient records Breach could impact at least 350,000 people By AUBREY WIEBER Oregon Capital Bureau The Oregon department of human Services Thursday dis- closed that millions of agency emails had been breached in Jan- uary, potentially exposing the per- sonal medical information of hun- dreds of thousands. The agency said it discovered the data breach involving 2 mil- lion emails on Jan. 8 and by Jan. 28 realized the emails included personal medical information pro- tected under health insurance Portability and accountability act, otherwise known as hiPaa. The agency hasn’t confirmed that any information was actu- ally taken, but the hackers gained access to the emails. Agency offi- cials couldn’t readily explain why the public was being alerted two months later. Spokesman robert Oakes said the agency does not know how many peoples’ information was exposed. Oakes the agency ruled there was potential for the breach to impact at least 350,000 clients. Oregon Capital Bureau, File Oregon’s identity Theft Protec- tion act requires agencies to alert the public when there is potential to cross that 350,000 threshold. A more specific number should be available in about two weeks, Oakes said. When asked why the public wasn’t notified in January, he said it took time to go through the large number of emails to figure out what was exposed. When asked what happened in the two months since the discovery of the breach, Oakes declined to elaborate, say- ing, “it just took time.” “We want to make it publicly available out of an abundance of caution,” Oakes said. The delay in informing the pub- lic, and the breach itself, caught the attention of republicans in the capitol, long critical of dhS. “Nearly two months passed before dhS revealed that its sys- tem had been compromised, exposing social security numbers, birth dates and additional personal information,” house republican spokesman Greg Stiles said in a news release. “This risks identity theft and other criminal exploita- tion of this data.” The phishing scheme gained the perpetrators access to email records that included health infor- mation, according to a news release from the department of human Services. Oakes said there weren’t specific files targeted, but some of the compromised emails included spreadsheets with per- sonal information. Oakes said the agency provides services to 1.6 million people, and the data breach could impact any- one from those involved in the fos- ter care system, to those receiving food assistance, to the elderly or disabled. among the information com- promised was Social Security numbers and dates of birth, Oakes said. The agency has hired an out- side firm, IDExperts, to review the issue and confirm the num- ber of clients exposed in the breach and what information was See Breach, Page A8 CHI St. Anthony Hospital Family Clinic is recognized as a Patient -Centered Primary Care Home. What does that mean for you? • Better-coordinated care. • Healthcare providers who will help connect you • Listening to your concerns and answering with the care you need in a safe and timely way. questions. • Healthcare providers who play an active role in your health. • After-hours nurse consultation. 844.724.8632 3001 St. Anthony Way, Pendleton WWW.SAHPENDLETON.ORG Mon through Thurs, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. • Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sat and Sun, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Walk-ins are welcome but appointments are preferred.
