A6
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
$15 minimum wage
FamSaign Tuali¿eV
for ballot title
By Peter Wong
Capital Bureau
Quality Healthcare Close To Home
170 Ford Road, John Day • 541-575-1311 • www.bluemountainhospital.org
Funding Awarded
for New CPR
Training
by Kara Kohfield
It is with great pleasure to
announce that the Blue Mountain
Hospital Volunteer Ambulance
district was awarded funds to
purchase a “QCPR Annie”
mannequin.
Funding of this
mannequin on
our current
project will help
healthcare
workers (nurses,
doctors, EMTs),
law enforcement
and fire fighters learn how to do
exceptional CPR. It also enables
us to show regular by-standers
what a more realistic CPR
situation can be like, projecting
compression depth, rate and
breaths to a screen telling you if
you need to push harder or faster
or give a little more breath. It’s
fascinating what you learn about
your abilities to perform CPR and
what we might need to correct.
This training is planned as a
county wide project; we will be
incorporating all the agencies that
we can - Law enforcement, Fire
(city and wildland), public entities
and all the school districts of
Grant County. AHA recently
passed in legislation, Oregon
being the 23rd state mandating
kids 7th-12th grade to have CPR
before they graduate. We will
diligently work with everyone on
scheduling, logistics and training.
We are a county that lacks
resources and we need to push
education out to everyone about
how to save lives - any action you
can do can make a difference in
what we consider a “frontier”
county. The foundation’s donation
to this project will help further the
education of the county but will be
responsible for having helped
save lives!
We can’t say “thank you” enough
for such a consideration in
helping with the public safety of
Grant County!
Blue Mountain Hospital Foundation would like to
thank all of our donors who made contributions
in June 2015
SALEM — Disappointed
with legislative inaction, labor
and other advocates took the
¿rst step Tuesday toward a 2016
ballot measure proposing a $15
statewide minimum wage by
2019.
Oregon’s current statewide
minimum is $9.25 per hour, sec-
ond only to Washington’s $9.47
among the states. But several
cities — Seattle, San Francisco
and Los Angeles — are gradu-
ally raising their minimums to
$15.
Advocates ¿led preliminary
paperwork for the measure sev-
eral weeks ago, but on Tuesday,
they ¿led with state elections of-
¿cials the 2,000 signatures that
will trigger a ballot title from
the attorney general. The title
is an of¿cial summary required
before advocates can collect the
88,184 signatures to qualify the
measure for the November 2016
ballot.
Those petition signatures are
due in about a year.
If voters approve it, Oregon’s
minimum wage would go to
$11.50 in 2017, $13.25 in 2018
and $15 in 2019. Afterward, an-
nual increases would be linked
to the Consumer Price Index, as
has been the practice since vot-
ers approved it in 2002.
Meanwhile, House Speak-
er Tina Kotek, D-Portland, told
reporters that lawmakers are un-
likely to pass a minimum-wage
increase this session. Lawmakers
heard several bills on April 13.
Kotek had offered a com-
promise plan to raise it in stages
to $13 by 2018, coupled with
a provision to let cities and
counties set it even higher. The
House Rules Committee con-
ducted two hearings but has not
advanced it.
“Democrats said if we gave
them a majority in the Legisla-
ture, they would take bold action
to ensure that every Oregonian
had the opportunity to succeed,”
said Kristi Wright, statewide
organizing director for 15 Now
Oregon.
“Pressure from big business
and their allies who pro¿t from
poverty wages, and inaction
from Democratic Party leaders,
killed the bill. Democratic lead-
ers have neglected their promise
to the working people of this
state. But even though they
killed the bill, they cannot kill
this movement.”
Diana Pei Wu, executive
director of Portland Jobs with
Justice, said her coalition is
working with employers to raise
the minimum pay of as many as
30,000 of the estimated 120,000
metro-area workers who make
less than $15 per hour.
Fast-food restaurant workers
spearheaded the national move-
ment for a $15 minimum a few
years ago.
“Everyone thought $15 was
pie in the sky; no one thought
we would get to $15,” Wu said.
“But over the past two and a
half years, tens of thousands of
workers and organizations and
unions all over the United States
have made this a reality — it’s
the most reasonable minimum
wage we expect.”
Tom Bridges, Brian Donahue, Tony & Carmen Gardner, Dan & Jen Goldblatt, Patricia J.
Keith, Kara Kohfield, Ansel & Judy Krutsinger, Angela Lusco, Tami L. Manderscheid, Craig
W. Maxwell, Mark & Jenelle Moulton, Barbara Oliver, Leslie K. Ricker, Sarah Russ, Loren &
Piper Stout, Keith Thomas, Cyndy Fox, Julie & Mark Witty, Deanna Fox and Barbara Pollak
Dan & Jen Goldblatt
Ken & Pat Holliday
Tom Winters
Ken & Cici Brooks
Mary Ellen Brooks
Eva Harris
Keith Thomas
Deanna Fox
Cyndy Fox
Randall & Mercedes Mee
Dennis & Barb Smith
Grosia Wozniacka/Associated Press
In this Friday, June 26, 2015 file photo, Bear
Westerlind, an employee at the medical marijuana
dispensary Kaya Shack, displays different types of
marijuana flowers sold at the shop in Portland, Ore.
A bill awaiting Gov. Kate Brown’s signature would
allow dispensaries to sell to recreational customers
on Oct. 1.
Mary Ellen Brooks, Keith Thomas, & Cyndy Fox
Keith Thomas & Cyndy Fox
BLUE MOUNTAIN
CARE CENTER
Resident of the Month
Donna Faye Cox
Bill allowing dispensaries
to sell recreational
pot awaits signature
By Hillary Borrud
Capital Bureau
Donna was born December 27, 1945, in
Heppner, Oregon, to Darrel and Oleta
Farrens. Donna joined a sister, Dorinda
Kaye Harding (Farrens), at home. A few
years later, baby brother, Glenn Farrens,
was born.
Blue Mountain
Hospital District
Presents
July Visiting Specialists
7th - Dr. Rushton - Baker Podiatrist
8th - Dr. McLellan - Bend Cardio
8th - Dr. Takla - Bend Urology
9th - Dennis Sell - Bend Audio
9th - Dr. Petropolous - BMC Cardio
10th - Dr. Sandefur - Baker Ortho
17th - Korrena Farris - Bend Neuro
21st - Dr. Rushton - Baker Podiatrist
22nd - Dr. McLellan - Bend Cardio
24th - Dr. Sandefur - Baker Ortho
Donna was raised in the small town of
Monument, Oregon, where she
attended all of her school years. She
played volleyball in high school. During
that time, she met her high school
sweetheart, Robert (Bob) C. Cox. They
were married September 5, 1964, in the
Monument Presbyterian Church.
Bob and Donna moved to Portland,
Oregon, for a short time, where their
daughter, Donna (Miss) Michelle, was
born on March 19, 1967. A short while
after that, Bob and Donna moved back
to their home town of Monument, OR.
Another bundle of joy, Robert Troy Cox,
arrived on February 11, 1970.
Donna was a stay-at-home mom with
the kids while they were small. She had
a huge vegetable garden to take care of
every year for her family. After the kids
were out of school, Donna went to work
for the post office in Monument,
following her mother’s footsteps.
Donna and Bob celebrated their 50th
wedding anniversary in 2014.
Donna’s pride and joy are not only her
kids, but all five of her grandsons: Tyler,
Kurt and Jarett Boyer, and Tell and
Reece Cox.
02301
SALEM — Oregon med-
ical marijuana dispensaries
would be allowed to tempo-
rarily sell limited amounts
of pot to all adults in Oregon
starting Oct. 1, under a bill
headed to Gov. Kate Brown
for a signature.
Lawmakers want to pro-
vide a legal way for Orego-
nians to purchase marijuana,
because the state’s recreation-
al marijuana retail system
likely will not launch until
late 2016. Possession and
consumption of marijuana
for adults age 21 and old-
er became legal in Oregon
Wednesday, under Measure
91 which voters passed in No-
vember.
Senate Bill 460 would al-
low recreational customers
to purchase cannabis seeds,
plants that are not Àowering
and up to one-quarter ounce
of marijuana Àowers or leaves
from medical marijuana dis-
pensaries. The Oregon House
passed the bill 40-19 on
Thursday.
It was a busy week for
marijuana bills in Salem.
Lawmakers also passed a
broad bill to regulate the
state’s existing medical mari-
juana program and set up the
new recreational pot regulato-
ry system.
That legislation, House
Bill 3400, also includes a
seed-to-sale tracking system
for recreational pot and will
allow elected of¿cials in cit-
ies and counties where at least
55 percent of the electorate
voted against Measure 91 to
pass bans on recreational and
medical marijuana business-
es. Brown signed the bill into
law this week.
A third marijuana bill,
which will replace the har-
vest tax on pot in Measure
91 with a 17 percent sales tax
intended to generate roughly
the same amount of revenue,
also passed in the Senate this
week. House Bill 2041 is also
now awaiting Brown’s signa-
ture.
“These bills represent a
session-long, bi-partisan con-
sensus that respects the will
of the voters and provides the
safeguards and funding nec-
essary to regulate the recre-
ational marijuana industry
in Oregon,” said Sen. Ginny
Burdick, D-Portland, said in
a written statement this week.
Burdick was co-chair of a
legislative committee that
drafted the bills.
Senate Minority Leader
Ted Ferrioli, R-John Day, said
the bills were some of Oregon
lawmakers’ best work.
“Marijuana
advocates
have asked, ‘Why not just
implement the will of the
people as outlined in Mea-
sure 91, passed by voters in
2014?’” Ferrioli said in a
written statement this week.
“But making cannabis avail-
able for recreational use has
been the most complex pub-
lic policy issue of the decade.
I believe the Legislature has
done a remarkable job of bal-
ancing the interests of recre-
ational users with protections
for medical users and respect
for local control.”