THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2021 A3
TODAY
It’s Saturday, Feb. 20, the 51st
day of 2021. There are 314 days
left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
In 1905, the U.S. Supreme Court,
in Jacobson v. Massachusetts,
upheld, 7-2, compulsory vacci-
nation laws intended to protect
the public’s health.
In 1792, President George Wash-
ington signed an act creating
the United States Post Office
Department.
In 1839, Congress prohibited
dueling in the District of Co-
lumbia.
In 1933, Congress proposed
the 21st Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution to repeal Prohibi-
tion.
In 1942, Lt. Edward “Butch”
O’Hare became the U.S. Navy’s
first flying ace of World War II by
shooting down five Japanese
bombers while defending the
aircraft carrier USS Lexington in
the South Pacific.
In 1962, astronaut John Glenn
became the first American to
orbit the Earth as he flew aboard
Project Mercury’s Friendship
7 spacecraft, which circled the
globe three times in a flight last-
ing 4 hours, 55 minutes and 23
seconds before splashing down
safely in the Atlantic Ocean 800
miles southeast of Bermuda.
In 1965, America’s Ranger 8
spacecraft crashed on the moon,
as planned, after sending back
thousands of pictures of the
lunar surface.
In 1987, a bomb left by Un-
abomber Ted Kaczynski explod-
ed behind a computer store in
Salt Lake City, seriously injuring
store owner Gary Wright. Soviet
authorities released Jewish ac-
tivist Josef Begun.
In 1998, Tara Lipinski of the U.S.
won the ladies’ figure skating
gold medal at the Nagano
Olympics; Michelle Kwan won
the silver.
In 1999, movie reviewer Gene
Siskel died at a hospital outside
Chicago at 53.
In 2003, a fire sparked by pyro-
technics broke out during a con-
cert by the group Great White
at The Station nightclub in West
Warwick, Rhode Island, killing
100 people and injuring about
200 others.
In 2007, in a victory for Presi-
dent George W. Bush, a divided
federal appeals court ruled that
Guantanamo Bay detainees
could not use the U.S. court sys-
tem to challenge their indefinite
imprisonment.
In 2010, Alexander Haig, a sol-
dier and statesman who’d held
high posts in three Republican
administrations and some of the
U.S. military’s top jobs, died in
Baltimore at 85.
Ten years ago: Security forces
loyal to Libya’s Moammar Gad-
hafi unleashed heavy gunfire as
thousands marched in the rebel-
lious eastern city of Benghazi,
cutting down mourners trying
to bury victims.
Five years ago: Donald Trump
barreled to victory in South
Carolina’s Republican primary;
Hillary Clinton pulled out a cru-
cial win over Bernie Sanders in
Nevada’s Democratic caucuses.
One year ago: Japan’s Health
Ministry said two passengers
who’d been taken off a quaran-
tined cruise ship after being in-
fected with the new coronavirus
had died; both were in their 80s
and had pre-existing diseases.
Sixteen Americans who’d been
brought to the U.S. from the
cruise ship were in hospitals,
either because delayed test
results showed that they had the
virus or because they had shown
symptoms.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Sidney
Poitier is 94. Racing Hall of Famer
Bobby Unser is 87. Racing Hall of
Famer Roger Penske is 84. Sing-
er-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie
is 80. Hockey Hall of Famer Phil
Esposito is 79. Senate Minority
Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
is 79. Movie director Mike Leigh
is 78. Actor Brenda Blethyn is 75.
Actor Sandy Duncan is 75. Actor
Peter Strauss is 74. Former British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is
70. Newspaper heiress Patricia
Hearst is 67. Actor Anthony Head
is 67. Comedian Joel Hodgson
is 61. Basketball Hall of Famer
Charles Barkley is 58. Actor
French Stewart is 57. Actor Ron
Eldard is 56. Model Cindy Craw-
ford is 55. Actor Andrew Shue
is 54. Actor Lili Taylor is 54. Ac-
tor Andrea Savage is 48. Singer
Brian Littrell is 46. Actor Lauren
Ambrose is 43. Actor Jay Hernan-
dez is 43. Actor Chelsea Peretti
is 43. Actor Michael Zegen is 42.
Actor Majandra Delfino is 40. Ac-
tor Jocko Sims is 40. MLB All-Star
pitcher Justin Verlander is 38. Co-
median Trevor Noah is 37. Actor
Miles Teller is 34. Singer
Rihanna is 33.
— Associated Press
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
OREGON
Wyden: Look before you leap
on repealing internet legal shield National Guard
deploys as power
outages persist
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden cau-
tioned critics against being
too hasty to repeal the legal
shield for information service
providers for content posted
on their platforms.
Conservative and liberal
critics have taken aim at Sec-
tion 230 of the Communica-
tions Decency Act, the 1996
law authored by the Oregon
Democrat and Rep. Christo-
pher Cox, then a Republican
from California. They argue
that it has given too much
power to tech giants such as
Facebook and Twitter.
But Wyden says the law
is not one-sided. He spoke
Thursday at a Multnomah
County virtual meeting that
the Town Hall Project live-
streamed on Facebook.
“The people who post con-
tent are responsible for what
they post. Period. That in
effect creates something of
a shield for the platform, be-
cause the poster is personally
responsible,” Wyden said in
response to a written question
read aloud by the moderator,
Nathan Williams.
“The sword was that the
platforms could do more to
moderate what was on their
sites, so they could get rid of
the slime and the hate and all
the horrible stuff.
“Now we all know the
platforms have not exactly
covered themselves in glory
about using the moderation
provision; some of them are
better than others. But the
real issue is … that if we did
not have Section 230, things
would still be the same with-
out reform. It’s not 230 that is
the challenge — it is the First
Amendment.” He referred
EOMG file photo/Oregon Capital Insider
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., speaks at a town hall meeting in Bend
in 2018.
“The people who post
content are responsible
for what they post. Period.
That in effect creates
something of a shield for
the platform, because
the poster is personally
responsible.”
— U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
to the federal constitutional
guarantee of free speech.
Cox left Congress after 17
years in 2005 to lead the Secu-
rities and Exchange Commis-
sion during the second term
of President George W. Bush.
Just before he left office,
President Donald Trump ve-
toed the $740 billion military
authorization bill, partly be-
cause it failed to attach a repeal
of Section 230. But two-thirds
majorities in the Democrat-
ic-led House and Republi-
can-led Senate overrode his
veto, mostly on other grounds.
“My guess is that the only
thing Donald Trump knows
about 230 is that it’s between 2
and 3 o’clock,” Wyden said.
Wyden said Trump’s real
issue was with Twitter, which
first flagged some of his
tweets, then suspended his
account and finally barred
him permanently from the
platform — mostly stemming
from Trump’s false claims
about the outcome of the
presidential election.
Wyden said that while there
are legitimate questions about
the misuse of the platforms,
they also have aided social
movements such as #MeToo
against sexual harassment and
abuse of women, and #Black-
LivesMatter against police
misconduct and other vio-
lence against Black people.
“How we go about dealing
with it is the key,” Wyden said.
“I want to make sure how
we protect constitutionally
protected speech. That has al-
ways been hugely important
to Oregonians. I also want to
protect the ability to moderate,
because whatever you think
about it, this is a tool that can
actually be used for good.”
e e
pwong@pamplinmedia.com
Dave Killen/The Oregonian
Downed power lines are lashed to a tree Wednesday along S. Bakers
Ferry Road in Oregon City just south of the Clackamas River.
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Gov. Kate
Brown on Friday called on the
Oregon National Guard to go
door-to-door in areas hard-
est hit by last weekend’s ice
storm as utility company crews
worked around the clock to re-
store power to 60,000 residents
who have been without elec-
tricity for a week.
The damage and dangerous
conditions left behind by the
storm are the worst in the his-
tory of Portland General Elec-
tric, CEO Maria Pope said.
Crews were not able to
safely enter the worst-hit ar-
eas for 48 hours because trees
laden down with hundreds of
pounds of ice were falling con-
stantly, the utility said.
Even now, progress is slow
because of “widow-maker”
branches and trees dangling
high above downed power
lines.
About 36,000 people re-
mained without power in
Clackamas County, and an-
other 21,000 were in the dark
in and around Salem.
Some residents in the
worst-hit areas might not see
power restored until early
next week or possibly later,
Pope said.
At least four people have
died and a dozen more were
sickened after inhaling car-
bon monoxide fumes as they
tried to keep warm by bring-
ing propane heaters and char-
coal grills inside or running
gas-fed generators indoors.
ENTER TO WIN THE
LEBANON
Ex-officer gets life for
murder of woman, man
The Associated Press
SALEM — A former Leb-
anon police officer has been
sentenced for shooting and
killing an ex-girlfriend and a
man who was with her in her
house.
Brenton Wade Richmond,
50, was sentenced Thursday on
two counts of second-degree
murder following a three-day
hearing in Albany in the deaths
of Tammy Hopper and Erik
Jacobs, The Statesman Journal
reported.
He will serve back-to-back
life prison sentences and must
serve 25 years before he is eligi-
ble for parole.
Richmond pleaded guilty to
the lesser charges in January.
He was initially charged with
aggravated murder and other
charges that were dropped as
part of a plea agreement.
Linn County prosecutors
said Richmond broke into
Hopper’s house on Feb. 7,
2019, and fatally shot the cou-
ple.
Lebanon police found Hop-
per, 42, and Jacobs, 48, dead
two days later. A day after
that, Richmond was caught in
Southern California as he tried
to enter Mexico.
Prosecutors said Richmond
and Hopper were in a rela-
tionship on and off for nine
years. Weeks before the mur-
ders he threatened to put her
in a body bag if he found her
with another man, prosecu-
tors said.
Investigators testified they
were able to trace Richmond’s
steps from the night of the
murders with help, in part,
from neighbors’ video surveil-
lance, his iPhone, and Hopper’s
internet router.
Richmond worked as a Leb-
anon officer from 1995 until
2002.
2 teen girls arrested in
fatal stabbing, police say
JIM RYAN
The Oregonian
Two teen girls were arrested
Thursday on suspicion of kill-
ing a 22-year-old man at a Ti-
gard apartment complex, po-
lice say.
Tigard police said the girls,
16- and 17-year-old relatives,
are being held in a Portland ju-
venile detention center on sus-
picion of murder and robbery
in the Jan. 29 incident. Their
names have not been disclosed.
Police said one of the
girls stabbed Leroy Xavier
Wass-Morill during an appar-
ent “targeted drug-related rob-
bery.” A physical altercation
broke out at some point during
the incident, which occurred
at a SW Hall Boulevard apart-
ment complex, according to
police.
The stabbing victim was
taken to a hospital and pro-
nounced dead there.
No additional information
about the circumstances of the
killing has been released.
Find it all online
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