Business
AgLife
B
Thursday, January 13, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Short
session
takes on
big ag
issues
LIZ
WESTON
ASK LIZ
Feds
don’t care
about
divorce
decree
Dear Liz: I am in my
third marriage. My first
two marriages each lasted
10 years.
My spouses worked in
jobs requiring them to pay
into Social Security. I am
currently retired (since
1999) and worked for a
city government my entire
career.
I currently receive a
pension from the city.
Am I entitled to receive
anything from Social
Security for the time I was
married to my previous
spouses? It seems only fair
since I had to pay each of
them spousal support.
Answer: That’s a novel
argument. Alas, the Social
Security system doesn’t
care about the details of
your divorce decrees.
You can call Social
Security and ask if you’re
eligible for a benefit, but
don’t get your hopes up if
your pension comes from
a job that didn’t pay into
Social Security.
A provision known as
the government pension
offset probably would wipe
out any divorced spousal
or divorced survivor ben-
efit you might receive.
Dear Liz: Our
23-year-old daughter has a
low-limit credit card from
her bank, primarily to
build her credit history.
For the same purpose,
we also added her as an
authorized user on one of
our credit cards (yes, we
can trust her).
When she checked her
credit reports recently at
annualcreditreport.com,
one of the agencies pro-
duced a report but another
claimed they couldn’t find
her. Is that normal for a
relatively new credit user?
Could it possibly be
because she has a hyphen-
ated middle name? Should
we worry?
Answer: It can take 30
days or more for infor-
mation to be updated at
the credit bureaus, so she
should try again and also
check the third credit
bureau.
If two bureaus can’t
find her after 30 days,
then it’s possible that
both credit cards report to
only one bureau. In that
case, she should consider
getting a credit-builder
loan from a credit union
that reports to all three
bureaus.
Otherwise, the problem
is likely the credit
bureau’s, and she should
try ordering the missing
credit report via the U.S.
mail. The bureau that
couldn’t find her will have
instructions for requesting
a report that way on its
site.
———
Liz Weston, Certified
Financial Planner, is a
personal finance columnist
for NerdWallet. Questions
may be sent to her at 3940
Laurel Canyon, No. 238,
Studio City, CA 91604, or
by using the “Contact”
form at asklizweston.com.
Capital Press
Mark Porter, Oregon Department of Agriculture/Contributed Photo
Andy Marcum, weed control manager for Wallowa County, stands in a field near Alder Slope last summer where welted
thistle was found.
Farmer named
‘Weed Warrior’ for
welted thistle fight
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Enter-
prise-area farmer Jim McCor-
mack is being recognized by the
Wallowa County Weed Board
as the Noxious Weed Warrior
for 2021 for his efforts to stamp
out welted thistle on his Alder
Slope land and alert the county
to other infestations, according
to Weed Department Manager
Andy Marcum.
“It’s one of two sites in all of
North America,” Marcum said.
“It could be extremely invasive
if it wasn’t for landowners like
Jim who are keeping an eye on
it and calling us when they see
it on their neighbors’ land and
we’re able to keep it contained.
Ever since it was found in 2016,
we haven’t found it anywhere
else other than the original site.”
County Commissioner Todd
Nash, who also is a rancher and
keeps a close eye on the coun-
ty’s agricultural resources, was
the one who discovered the
member of the Carduus family
of thistles.
“I drove past it and then I
stopped on Alder Slope in a
county right-of-way alongside
the road,” Nash said. “I took a
picture of it and sent the picture
to Mark Porter and he spent
some time identifying it and
found out that it was, indeed,
welted thistle. The closest
plant was in North Dakota or
southern Canada.”
Porter, who is based in
Enterprise, is the regional
noxious weed specialist for
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture.
Nash said after that, one area
resident sprayed it.
“It was quite a large plant,”
he said. “Then, looking in other
areas and surrounding ditch
banks, they found quite a lot
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Wallowa County’s 2021 Noxious Weed Warrior Joe McCormack shows off the
hats and a hammer he received Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2021, in recognition of his
efforts to battle invasive weeds in the county.
of plants. It had been there for
a while. It’s a big, impressive
thistle with big, purple blooms
on it that were easy to see.”
“It took a bit of botany work
sending off samples,” Porter
said. “There was no reason to
expect we’d find welted thistle.”
But he was appreciative
of the work by Marcum and
McCormack in battling the
weed.
“Finding a noxious weed
when it first arrives is really
important and also to get it con-
trolled when it’s small,” Porter
said. “This is a great example
of early detection and rapid
response.”
SALEM — The Oregon Legisla-
ture convenes in the coming weeks
to pick up where it left off last year.
The Capital Press takes a look at
proposals lawmakers will consider
and what they mean to agriculture.
Overtime for farmworkers
Farm groups and labor advocates
are expected to be preoccupied with
agricultural overtime wages during
Oregon’s month-long legislative
session that begins on
Feb. 1.
The prospect of
eliminating the agricul-
ture industry’s exemp-
tion from higher over-
time wages got a lot
Smith
of attention from law-
makers last year, but
attempts to negotiate a
compromise have been
complicated by litiga-
tion over the issue.
A lawsuit alleges
Stone
the exemption lacks an
underpinning in state
law and isn’t constitu-
tional because farm-
workers are excluded
from “privileges”
enjoyed by other
Cooper
employees.
It’s been an unsettling experi-
ence for farm representatives, who
were negotiating in “good faith”
with labor advocates who were
“looking at us in the eye” while
planning the legal attack, said Mary
Anne Cooper, vice president of
public policy for the Oregon Farm
Bureau.
The overtime issue has been pre-
sented as a “racial equity agenda
item,” but in reality, ending the
exemption wouldn’t put more
money into farmworkers’ pockets,
she said. “It’s just not going to be
the result because our members
can’t afford to pay more wages.”
Proponents of ending the over-
time exemption seem to believe
farmers can just raise their prices,
when they’d actually be forced to
limit employee hours to contain
labor costs, said Jeff Stone, execu-
tive director of the Oregon Associa-
tion of Nurseries.
“Clearly, we need to use different
words because they don’t under-
stand the price-taking side of ag,”
he said.
Timber compromise
“We never had those this-
tles about four or five years ago
when a ditch company came
through and cleaned the ditch
out,” McCormack said. “They
dumped the pilings on my side
of the lower ditch, and the next
year they just started coming up
everywhere. I think somebody
brought them into this county
and threw them into that ditch.”
Another major natural resource
proposal before Oregon law-
makers will be the compromise deal
between environmental groups and
the timber industry, under which
logging buffers near streams would
be expanded.
The agreement would also
restrict logging below steep slopes
to prevent sediment from reaching
streams and implement other
changes in the forest practices law.
See, Weeds/Page B2
See, Session/Page B2
Where did it come from?
State enforces new federal hemp rules for state growers
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Hemp growers
in the state will now need to
abide by several new federal reg-
ulations that will be overseen
by the Oregon Department of
Agriculture.
The changes come at a time
of growing concerns over illegal
marijuana operations in parts of
Southern Oregon. Both hemp and
marijuana are cannabis plants,
similar in appearance and smell
but distinguished by differences
in their levels of the psychoactive
tetrahydrocannabinol compound.
The new regulations require
that Oregon growers now must
provide for each key person listed
on a grower application a criminal
history report and report yearly to
the state Agriculture Department
the number of acres they planted
and pounds harvested. Those fig-
ures then get reported to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
The new rules also require
growers to collect and submit
plant samples to the state agency
for testing within 30 days of har-
vesting and require growers to
register with the federal Farm
Service Agency. That agency is
in charge of agriculture policies,
farm loan programs and conser-
vation, commodity and disaster
relief programs.
Oregonians have been allowed
to grow recreational marijuana
with a license since 2016 and
industrial hemp with a license
since 2015, but because the two
cannabis plants are so similar in
appearance and smell, it is diffi-
cult to enforce laws penalizing
growers who illegally use hemp
licenses to grow marijuana.
Hemp is regulated by the state
Agriculture Department while
marijuana is regulated by the
Oregon Health Authority and
the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis
Commission.
Rules around hemp production
in Oregon have been around since
2009. The 2018 federal Farm Bill,
which made the crop legal to
grow nationwide, added greater
regulations, as well as the U.S.
Domestic Hemp Production Pro-
gram, run by the federal Agricul-
ture Department.
To further combat illegal mari-
juana operations, state lawmakers
last year passed House Bill 3000,
allowing the state Agriculture
Department and the Oregon
Liquor and Cannabis Commission
to set stricter standards for the
production and sale of cannabis
products, and to better regulate
the amount of THC in cannabis
plants. That law also went into
effect on Jan. 1.