The BulleTin • Sunday, January 31, 2021 A3
TODAY
It’s Sunday, Jan. 31, the 31st day
of 2021. There are 334 days left
in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
In 1865, the U.S. House of Rep-
resentatives joined the Senate
in passing the 13th Amendment
to the United States Constitution
abolishing slavery, sending it
to states for ratification. The
amendment was adopted in
December 1865.
In 1863, during the Civil War, the
First South Carolina Volunteers,
an all-Black Union regiment
composed of many escaped
slaves, was mustered into fed-
eral service at Beaufort, South
Carolina.
In 1919, baseball Hall-of-Famer
Jackie Robinson was born in
Cairo, Georgia.
In 1929, revolutionary Leon
Trotsky and his family were ex-
pelled from the Soviet Union.
In 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24,
became the first U.S. soldier
since the Civil War to be execut-
ed for desertion as he was shot
by an American firing squad in
France.
In 1950, President Harry S. Tru-
man announced he had ordered
development of the hydrogen
bomb.
In 1956, the creator of “Winnie-
the-Pooh,” British author A.A.
Milne, died at 74.
In 1958, the United States en-
tered the Space Age with its first
successful launch of a satellite,
Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral.
In 1971, astronauts Alan Shep-
ard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart
Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo
14 on a mission to the moon.
In 2000, an Alaska Airlines
MD-83 jet crashed into the
Pacific Ocean off Port Hueneme,
California, killing all 88 people
aboard.
In 2001, a Scottish court sitting
in the Netherlands convicted
one Libyan, acquitted a second,
in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am
Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scot-
land. Abdel Basset Ali al-Megra-
hi was given a life sentence, but
was released after eight years
on compassionate grounds by
Scotland’s government. He died
in 2012.
In 2005, jury selection began
in Santa Maria, California, for
Michael Jackson’s child moles-
tation trial. Jackson was later
acquitted. SBC Communications
Inc. announced it was acquiring
AT&T Corp. for $16 billion.
Ten years ago: A federal judge
in Florida declared the Obama
administration’s health care
overhaul unconstitutional, sid-
ing with 26 states that argued
people cannot be required to
buy health insurance. In 2012,
the Supreme Court would
uphold most of the health care
law, including the requirement
that nearly every American have
health insurance.
Five years ago: A triple bomb-
ing killed at least 45 people in
a predominantly Shiite Muslim
suburb south of the Syrian
capital. Israel’s Cabinet voted
to allow non-Orthodox Jewish
prayer at the Western Wall in
Jerusalem, marking a historic
show of support for liberal
streams of Judaism. Novak
Djokovic maintained his perfect
streak in six Australian Open fi-
nals with a 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (3) victory
over Andy Murray.
One year ago: The United
States declared a public health
emergency over the new coro-
navirus, and President Donald
Trump signed an order to
temporarily bar entry to foreign
nationals, other than immediate
family of U.S. citizens, who had
traveled in China within the
past 14 days. Three U.S. airlines
suspended all flights between
the U.S. and China. The U.S.
government ordered two weeks
of quarantine at a California
military base for the nearly 200
Americans who’d been evacu-
ated on a charter flight from the
Chinese city of Wuhan. Author
Mary Higgins Clark, known as
the “Queen of Suspense,” died in
Florida at 92.
Today’s Birthdays: Composer
Philip Glass is 84. Former Interior
Secretary James Watt is 83. Prin-
cess Beatrix of the Netherlands,
the former queen regent, is 83.
Blues singer-musician Charlie
Musselwhite is 77. Actor Glynn
Turman is 74. Baseball Hall-of-
Famer Nolan Ryan is 74. Actor
Jonathan Banks is 74. Sing-
er-musician Harry Wayne Casey
(KC and the Sunshine Band) is
70. Rock singer Johnny Rotten is
65. Actor Kelly Lynch is 62. Actor
Anthony LaPaglia is 62. Actor
Minnie Driver is 51. Actor Portia
de Rossi is 48. Actor-comedian
Bobby Moynihan is 44. Actor
Kerry Washington is 44. Singer
Justin Timberlake is 40. Folk-rock
singer-musician Marcus Mum-
ford (Mumford and Sons) is 34.
— Associated Press
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
COVID-19: Effect on youth
Lawmakers push mental health days
BY SOPHIA EPPOLITO
The Associated Press/Report for
America
SALT LAKE CITY — When
she was growing up, Sophie
Corroon struggled to get
through a ballet class or soccer
tryout without having an anxi-
ety attack.
The idea of going to
sleepovers or being home alone
left her feeling panicked. Cor-
roon’s anxiety grew even more
during high school in Salt Lake
City, when the pressures of get-
ting into college left her in tears
at school or toiling for hours
on assignments.
Corroon, 20, has struggled
with her mental health since
fourth grade, and she’s not
alone. And now, the coronavi-
rus pandemic has multiplied
the pressures on kids — many
have spent almost a year doing
remote learning, isolated from
their friends and classmates.
The portion of children’s emer-
gency-room visits related to
mental health was 44% higher
in 2020, compared with the
year before.
State lawmakers are increas-
ingly seeking more support
for kids. This year, legislation
proposed in Utah and Arizona
would add mental or behav-
ioral health to the list of rea-
sons students can be absent
from class, similar to staying
out with a physical illness. Sim-
ilar laws have passed in Ore-
gon, Maine, Colorado and Vir-
ginia in the past two years.
Offering mental health days
can help children and parents
communicate and prevent
struggling students from fall-
ing behind in school or ending
up in crisis, said Debbie Plot-
nick, vice president of the non-
profit advocacy group Mental
Health America. Plotnick said
Elaine Thompson/AP
Sophie Corroon, a sophomore at the University of Washington, helped work on proposed legislation in her
home state of Utah to allow students to take mental health days to lessen stigma and help reduce suicide.
mental health days can be even
more effective when paired
with mental health services in
schools.
“We know that this year has
been extra hard, and we know
that it’s hard for young people,”
Plotnick said. “That’s why it’s
so essential that students feel
comfortable to come forward
and say ... ‘I need to take some
actions to support my mental
health.’”
In Arizona, Democratic Sen.
Sean Bowie has introduced
a mental health day measure
for the second time after legis-
lation stalled in March as the
pandemic took hold. Repub-
lican Gov. Doug Ducey has
taken an interest in youth sui-
cide and mental health, and
Bowie said he’s confident it
will be signed into law. The bill
“We know that this year
has been extra hard, and
we know that it’s hard for
young people. That’s why it’s
so essential that students
feel comfortable to come
forward and say ... ‘I need to
take some actions to support
my mental health.’”
—Debbie Plotnick, vice president
of the nonprofit advocacy group
Mental Health America
passed the state Senate unani-
mously Thursday.
Conservative Utah passed
a law in 2018 letting kids take
time off school for a mental
illness. A new proposal from
Republican Rep. Mike Winder
would allow absences for stu-
dents to deal with other kinds
of mental pressures to further
normalize treating a mental
health concern like a physical
one.
Under the Utah bill, which
passed out of committee Friday
and will move to the House
floor, mental health days
would be treated like any other
excused absence, Winder said.
Parent would need to excuse
their children, and students
would still be expected to make
up their schoolwork.
Theresa Nguyen, a licensed
clinical social worker, said
she’s concerned about the po-
tential long-term mental and
academic effects that students
may face from the pandemic.
In addition to growing reports
of anxiety and depression,
Nguyen said, many students
say they don’t feel like they’re
absorbing class material vir-
tually and they’re not getting
enough support.
For the last few years, Utah
leaders have searched for ways
to reduce an alarming rate of
youth suicides. The pandemic
has lent urgency, with many
young people isolated from
friends and school activities.
Winder’s bill is modeled af-
ter a similar program in Ore-
gon that his daughter, Jessica
Lee, found through her work
on a youth-focused committee
with the Utah chapter of the
National Alliance on Mental
Illness. In Oregon, students are
given five excused absences
every three months, and those
can be either physical sick days
or mental health days.
Lee, who is a senior at
Southern Utah University
studying clinical psychology,
said she was inspired by youth
activists who successfully
championed the Oregon bill
in 2019.
Lee and Corroon both work
with the committee to help
teenagers navigate their mental
health. Over the years, Cor-
roon learned to manage her
anxiety with medication and
therapy and is now a soph-
omore at the University of
Washington, where she plans
to study public health.
Part of her routine is taking
a step back to prioritize her
mental health — a chance she
says other kids deserve, too.
“I definitely needed those
days to just stay home or seek
out a resource rather than
forcing myself to go to school
and putting more stress on my
mental health,” Corroon said.
Oregon will cut certain extended jobless benefits
JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
Oregonians who are out of work will
receive fewer weeks of extended jobless
benefits starting next month due to the
state’s unemployment rate.
The state has been offering jobless
Oregonians who exhaust their regu-
lar unemployment benefits an extra
13 weeks of extended benefits because
the state’s unemployment rate has been
above 6.5% over the preceding three-
month period.
Although Oregon’s unemployment
rate climbed to 6.4% in December, ris-
ing for the first time since April, the rate
has still been below 6.5% for the last
three months.
That prompted the federal govern-
ment to inform Oregon officials they
could no longer offer the extended ben-
efits. The change will go into effect Feb.
20.
If Oregon’s unemployment rate rises
to 6.5% or higher, the state will be able
to offer the extended benefit program
again.
However, jobless Oregonians who
have exhausted their regular unem-
ployment benefits will still be able to
receive extended benefits for the time
being through a separate pandemic re-
lief program, funded by the federal gov-
ernment.
Once the current extended benefits
programs expires on Feb. 20, claimants
will be automatically transferred to the
Pandemic Emergency Unemployment
Compensation program for an addi-
tional 11 weeks.
David Gerstenfeld, acting director of
the Oregon Employment Department,
said the switch could require manual
changes that could delay some of the
extended payments, but that all pay-
ments will be made retroactively and
claimants won’t lose out on any weeks
of benefits they are eligible for.
The Pandemic Emergency Unem-
ployment Compensation program will
expire March 14.
Those who still have money left on
their claim at that point will continue
receiving benefits through April 10,
according to the employment depart-
ment.
Homeowners sue Astoria to hurry window replacement
BY EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
A retired couple has sued
Astoria to force the approval of
window replacements in a his-
toric house over the objections
of the Lower Columbia Preser-
vation Society.
Thomas and Priscilla Levy
bought the house in August
and retired from Portland.
The couple submitted an
application in September to
replace 19 white pine window
frames in the house with Fi-
brex, a composite of reclaimed
wood fiber and thermoplastic
polymer made by Andersen
Windows & Doors. Thomas
Levy argued that the old win-
dows were beyond repair, with
black mold and deterioration.
“The same building mate-
rials that were available in the
19th century are no longer
available,” he said. “You can’t
get clear white pine anymore,
and if you could get clear white
Edward Stratton/The Astorian
Thomas and Priscilla Levy want to replace 19 wooden windows in their
historic house with Fibrex, a composite of reclaimed wood fiber and
thermoplastic polymer.
pine, it would be ridiculously
expensive.”
State law requires cities to
make a decision on such land
use applications within 120
days. City staff initially recom-
mended denial. Hearings on
the project lasted three months
while staff gathered more in-
formation from the Levys and
the window manufacturer.
The Historic Landmarks
Commission ultimately ap-
proved the newer window ma-
terials in December, finding
the old windows beyond repair
and Fibrex a suitable replace-
ment. The approval required
the Levys to match the old style
of windows precisely.
The preservation society, a
nonprofit promoting histori-
cal architecture, appealed the
approval to the City Council.
Doug Thompson, the chair-
man of the board for the pres-
ervation society, said they be-
lieve the Historic Landmarks
Commission erred in not fol-
lowing a city ordinance that
prioritizes repair of the win-
dows first.
“People move to Astoria
from other areas, and they buy
historic homes, and they do
so because they want to live in
and own a historic home,” said
Thompson, who used to serve
on the City Council. “And As-
toria doesn’t look the way it
does by accident. That’s why
we’ve had this ordinance on the
books for more than a quarter
of a century.”
The city scheduled an ap-
peals hearing for Jan. 19, one
business day beyond the 120-
day deadline. Missing the
deadline allowed the Levys to
seek a legal remedy in Circuit
Court to compel the city to fi-
nalize the Historic Landmarks
Commission’s approval of re-
placing the windows, and to
pay their attorney fees.
Priscilla Levy said there
should be disclosures by real es-
tate companies about the ram-
ifications of buying a historic
home and financial support for
people being forced to make
historically accurate repairs.
Thompson argued that such
resources exist, such as special
assessments to freeze the value
of historic properties while
they undergo repairs. He ar-
gued that repairing the existing
windows or replacing them
with the original materials
would ultimately cost less than
using Fibrex.
pronounced dead at the scene.
A second occupant was injured
and taken to a hospital.
Police determined the driver
was hit in an earlier shooting at
Hoover Park. The driver died
of a gunshot wound. Two peo-
ple have been arrested for their
alleged involvement.
STATE BRIEFING
1 found dead in Salem
crash was shot to death
A person found dead inside
a crashed car two weeks ago in
Salem was shot to death, police
said Saturday.
Officers who checked on
a report of shots fired Jan.
16 found two people inside a
car that had hit a tree on Sav-
age Road near Ladd Avenue
Northeast, the Salem Police
Department reported.
One of them, the driver, was
— Bulletin wire report