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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 26, 2019)
MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 2019 BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A B2H cost so far at $100 million Malheur Sheriff: Reporters at Vale paper protected by 1st Amendment ■ The county’s attorney asked sheriff to review whether emails and phone calls from the Malheur Enterprise to economic development officials constituted harassment By Andrew Selsky Associated Press VALE — Journalists in Oregon and beyond have risen in defense of a small newspa- per after a county attorney asked the sheriff to investi- gate whether its journalists broke the law for trying to get comments from government offi cials after business hours. Staffers at the Malheur Enterprise, a weekly news- paper in the remote town of Vale, said they were just doing their job. “We’re not going to be bul- lied,” said editor Les Zaitz. Malheur County Sheriff Brian Wolfe said Wednesday an inquiry determined no laws had been broken. “As an elected sheriff, we will always respect the consti- tutional rights of anybody and everybody. We do believe in freedom of the press and free speech that we believe are our rights given by the Constitu- tion of the United States,” Wolfe said. The newspaper had been investigating why a car wash did not receive a fi ve-year exemption for local prop- erty taxes that was allegedly promised. Bluebird Express Aug. 14 with the headline “Malheur County lured company to Ontario with tax break promise, then doesn’t deliver.” In a statement that the newspaper published — Brian Wolfe, Malheur online, Smith said no “pre- County sheriff application” for a property tax exemption had been approved Car Wash built a $4.5 million or signed. installation in the town of “Over the last six months, Ontario after it understood it me and my staff have been received the exemption, repre- subjected to endless phone senting about $335,000. calls, hostile emails at all Greg Smith, the director hours of the day and unwel- for economic development for come offi ce visits,” Smith Malheur County, is respon- asserted. sible for determining and Zaitz said Caldwell sent negotiating property tax two emails to Smith dur- exemptions. Malheur Enter- ing business hours seeking prise reporter Pat Caldwell comment. Zaitz said he felt it sought several times to get was his duty to email Smith comment from Smith, who is on Saturday to provide every also a Republican member of opportunity to comment the Oregon Legislature. before the newspaper went “This is an effort to get accu- to press. Located in a small rate information,” said Zaitz, a Old West-style building, the former investigative reporter weekly publishes 1,400 copies, with The Oregonian newspa- with additional paid online per and a two-time Pulitzer subscribers. Prize fi nalist. “The public is County Counsel Stephanie entitled to that information Williams asked the sheriff to — not only entitled to that determine if emails and calls information, it deserves it.” to county economic develop- Smith responded only after ment offi cials constituted a the story was published on crime. “We looked at harassment, telephonic harassment — really neither one comes close in this situation.” “We looked at harassment, telephonic harassment — re- ally neither one comes close in this situation,” Wolfe said. The reactions to the investi- gation varied widely. One person told Wolfe that if he jailed the journalists, he would deserve to be voted out of offi ce. Another person left a voicemail saying the press reports fake news and the sheriff should do whatever he wants with the journalists. The Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists issued a statement rebuking county offi cials for asking the sheriff to investi- gate. “Journalists doggedly pur- sue the stories they’re working on to inform the public and their readership of what is important to their communi- ties,” said Amanda Waldroupe, president of Oregon SPJ. Journalists from elsewhere voiced their support. “The Fort Bragg Advocate- News and Mendocino Beacon here in California stand with you, Malheur Enterprise. Your public servants ought to grow a hide and get used to those weekend emails,” the newspa- pers tweeted. State defends nonunanimous verdicts By Andrew Selsky Associated Press SALEM — Oregon’s crim- inal justice system would be “overwhelmed” if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in an upcoming case that nonu- nanimous jury verdicts are unconstitutional, the state’s attorney general has told the court. Attorney General El- len Rosenblum said in an amicus brief Friday that if the U.S. Supreme Court fi nds nonunanimous juries unconstitutional, it could invalidate hundreds or even thousands of convictions in Oregon. Oregon is the only state in America allowing 11-1 or 10-2 jury verdicts in crimi- nal trials, except fi rst-degree murder convictions. Critics say Rosenblum is defending a system that should be abandoned, as voters in Louisiana, the only other state that permitted nonunanimous verdicts, did in 2018. “The state’s brief presents a parade of horribles that may or may not come to pass. However, that is not a reason to continue a practice rooted in racial and ethnic discrimination,” said Marc Brown, a public defender in Oregon whose clients in- clude ones appealing nonun- animous guilty verdicts. The decision by Louisiana voters was not retroactive; it took effect Jan. 1. The U.S. Supreme Court this fall will hear a case of Evangelisto Ramos, a Louisiana man convicted by a nonunanimous jury in 2016 of second-degree murder of a woman in New Orleans. Ramos is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole. Michael Kron, special counsel to Oregon’s at- torney general, said that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Ramos, it would be reversing its 1972 ruling that the Constitution does not bar states from allowing nonunanimous verdicts. Rosenblum told the Supreme Court that if it overturns that ruling and decides that nonunanimous juries are unconstitutional, Oregon’s criminal justice system will be glutted. “Such a ruling would automatically require retrial in many hundreds, if not thousands, of cases on direct review,” Rosenblum told the court. Even convictions that were unanimous could be called into question, because a judge instructing jurors that they could reach a non- said such a change should unanimous decision could be be for cases “going forward,” grounds for an appeal. not retroactively. “In many cases, particu- larly the older cases, retrial will likely be impossible be- cause of the impact that the passage of time will have on the prosecution’s case as wit- nesses disappear, memories fade, and evidence is lost,” the attorney general wrote. Several Oregon lawmak- ers recently sponsored a resolution calling for a ballot measure to repeal an amendment to the state con- stitution allowing nonunani- mous verdicts. The resolution unani- mously passed the House, but died in Senate as it dealt with a walkout by Republican members in the fi nal days of the legislative session. The decision by Oregon voters in 1934 to allow split-jury verdicts was fueled by white supremacy and anti-minority sentiment. One newspaper said im- migrants from Southern and Eastern Europe had made the requirement for unani- mous verdicts “unwieldy and unsatisfactory.” Rosenblum said she sup- ports a repeal, noting the jury rule’s links to racism and anti-Semitism. But she Man sentenced to community service for poaching gray wolf MEDFORD — A 22-year- old Oregon man was sen- tenced Aug. 19 to 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay restitution of $2,500 in the 2016 poaching of an endangered gray wolf. Colton Tony Dick, of Oakridge, pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully taking an endangered spe- cies in U.S. District Court. As part of a plea agreement, Dick avoided jail time and instead agreed to one year of supervised release. He also forfeited his hunting privi- leges for one year. Wolves are still listed as a federally endangered species in Oregon west of highways 395, 78 and 95. The charge normally carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and $100,000 fi ne. According to court docu- ments, Dick shot at a wolf that was walking away from him in the Fremont-Winema National Forest on Oct. 5, 2016, using a rifl e and scope. Though he did not admit to killing the wolf, it was found dead the next day near Sum- mer Lake. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensic Lab de- termined the wolf, an adult collared female known as OR- 28, died from a single gunshot wound. Oregon’s Wolf Conserva- tion and Management Plan does allow for killing wolves in defense of human life, or if the predators are caught in the act of attacking livestock. But in this case, authorities determined Dick did not have legal justifi cation for shooting. Dick could not immediately be reached for comment. The government will allow Dick to withdraw his guilty plea and may have the charge dismissed if he complies with the terms of the sentence. By Phil Wright East Oregonian PENDLETON — The massive Boardman to Heming- way Transmission Line has cost around $100 million without the installation of a single utility pole. The 300-plus-mile, 500-kilovolt line could be ready to carry juice as early as 2026 at a cost of $1 billion or more. Idaho Power, Pacifi cCorp and Bonneville Power Admin- istration teamed up on the project, and Idaho Power is spearheading the local, state and federal permitting work. Sven Berg, Idaho Power spokesperson, explained that is because the company identifi ed the need for a big trans- mission line in its 2006 Integrated Resource Plan — or IRP — which projects for future electrical needs and how to meet those needs. Idaho Power, however, has the smallest share of the line capacity and thus the project costs at 21%, while the BPA has a 24% share and Pacifi cCorp the remaining 55%. In other words, Berg said, if the line costs an even $1 billion, Idaho Power’s portion of the tab is $210 million. The $100 million the 13-year-old project has cost so far is for staff time, attorneys and the reams of paperwork to wade through the lengthy permitting processes. That includes with the Oregon Department of Energy, which on Thursday closed the public comment period on its “draft proposed order” recommending the state Energy Facility Siting Council approve Idaho Power’s application for a site certifi cate for the line. Berg said the company’s team is reviewing the com- ments “We’re anticipating a contested case,” he said. That is, opponents to the project, namely the La Grande-based Stop B2H Coalition, who spoke out in a series of public hearings in early summer and provided additional comments in writing. Berg said Idaho Power has until Sept. 23 to respond to those comments, then would come the “quasi-judicial” appeals process.B2 And if all goes well for Idaho Power, he said, the state’s draft proposed order would become the proposed order by the end of the year, with the fi nal order and permitting coming in 2021. Construction would begin in 2022, wrap up four years later, and Boardman to Hemingway would going live soon after. Berg said B2H is one of Idaho Power’s biggest projects since the Hells Canyon Complex of dams in the 1960s. “We see this as crucial to ushering in the clean energy future we envision,” he said. Idaho Power’s goal is to use only renewable energy by 2045 amid the growing population of the northwestern United States. The existing power lines are at capacity, ac- cording to Idaho Power, and B2H would alleviate Oregon’s high-power needs in the winter and the Mountain West’s increased need for electricity in the summer without hav- ing to build new generating plants. The line, then, would integrate the region, Berg said, and make power more reliable.
