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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (March 22, 2017)
A8 State Blue Mountain Eagle More than 450,000 Oregonians could lose health coverage under GOP plan By Paris Achen Capital Bureau As many as 465,000 Or- egonians would be unable to afford coverage and lose health insurance by 2026 under the U.S. House GOP health care proposal, accord- ing to an analysis released by the state Thursday. And it would cost the state an additional $2.6 bil- lion through 2023 to maintain Medicaid coverage extend- ed to 375,000 Oregonians and subsidized by the federal government under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the state anaylsis says. The Republican plan, known as the American Health Care Act, would also cost 42,000 jobs, the state says. “This bill is not about im- proving health care. This bill is about giving tax breaks to the wealthy,” said Gov. Kate Brown, during a news confer- ence Thursday where she took no questions. The Governor’s Office did not specifically address an emailed question about whether Brown intends to have Oregon make up the losses from the federal gov- ernment, if the GOP bill be- comes law. However, Brown and her communications di- rector, Chris Pair, said she plans to share the report with federal officials and Congress to “influence their delibera- tions on the AHCA.” Most of those who would lose coverage now benefit from the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program. In addition to losses in Medicaid coverage, state of- ficials expect coverage pro- vided by employers also to decline because the proposal eliminates the tax penalty for employers who don’t provide insurance. Patrick Allen, director of Oregon Department of Con- sumer and Business Services, said he is concerned some insurers might drop out of the market as a result of the changes. That agency regu- lates commercial insurance companies and manages the state health insurance market- place. “We are certainly con- cerned about the stability of the market in the face of un- certainty and in the face of changes that are potentially quite destabilizing,” Allen said. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 24 mil- lion people nationwide would lose medical coverage under the plan. State agencies based their projections on their en- rollment, use and cost statis- tics to come up with their es- timates, said Leslie Clement, director of health policy and analytics at the Oregon Health Authority. When the plan first re- leased to the public last week, the governor said she directed OHA and DCBS to analyze the impact of the proposed law on Oregon. Under the Af- fordable Care Act, more than 400,000 Oregonians gained health coverage. “Our report found that for every step of progress that Or- egon has made this proposal will take Oregon three steps back,” Brown said. Wednesday, March 22, 2017 Legislative group recommends $255M to $312M in new road, bridge spending By Paris Achen Capital Bureau A subgroup of the leg- islative committee crafting a statewide transportation package has recommended an increase of $255.6 million to $312.4 million in annual spending to upgrade roads and bridges. That would require raising revenues equivalent to a 9- to 11-cent increase in the state’s 30-cent gas tax. The mon- ey would likely come from a combination of sources, which could include a hike in the gas tax, registration fees, tolling or other options. “Even the equivalent of 11 cents is yet to be deter- mined,” said Sen. Betsy John- son, D-Scappoose. “This is all highly fluid.” The state now spends about $1.3 billion a year on transportation maintenance and upgrades. The Oregon Transportation Commission has recommended spending an additional $574 million a year to upgrade roads and bridges to ease congestion, particularly in the Portland metro area. But the legislative sub- group could not reach a con- sensus on an amount, said Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, who led the group. “We didn’t reach consen- sus on much of anything, but I think we all agreed we need to do something,” Bentz said. The recommendation comes from the first of five subgroups from the legisla- tive Committee on Trans- portation Preservation and Modernization, each work- ing on different aspects of the package. The other groups are coming up with sugges- tions for easing congestion, improving pedestrian and cy- EO Media Group A subgroup of the legislative committee hammering out a transportation package has called for up to $312 million in new spending to upgrade roads and bridges. That would require a revenue hike equal to an 11-cent increase in the gas tax, though the money could come from a variety of sources. cling commutes, coming up with accountability measures and addressing air and rail needs. The four other groups will report their recommendations tentatively by April 3. “We have never done a process like this where we have negotiated a giant pack- age functionally in public, and pieces are going to come and go,” Johnson said. “We’ve got a long, long way to go.” After hearing the five re- ports, the full committee of 14 members will have to rec- oncile the recommendations into a transportation package, expected to send hundreds of millions of dollars for projects to the Oregon Department of Transportation. “That just exacerbates the High pesticide level prompts pot recall By Eric Mortenson Capital Bureau The Oregon Liquor Control Commis- sion issued its first recall of recreational marijuana after testing of a brand sold at a Mapleton store showed it contained a level of pesticide residue that exceeds the state limit. The OLCC, which oversees retail sales of recreational cannabis, said sam- ples of Blue Magoo marijuana failed a test for pyrethin levels. Pyrethins are a mixture of six chemicals that are toxic to insects, according to the National Pesti- cide Information Center based at Oregon State University. Pyrethins are found in some chrysanthemum flowers, and in some cases can be used on organic prod- ucts. The recall points out some of the com- plications that accompany the legaliza- tion of recreational cannabis. Growers, like all other agricultural producers, now face a regulatory structure they may not have dealt with before. Pesticide use has been particularly thorny, because the federal government still considers cannabis illegal and has not established allowable tolerances of pesticides in pot. As a result, states that have legalized cannabis are figuring it out themselves. Oregon tests cannabis for 59 active ingredients. “It’s a big struggle, for sure,” said Sunny Jones, cannabis policy coordina- tor for the Oregon Department of Agri- culture. The Oregon Health Authority over- sees medical marijuana, OLCC oversees recreational marijuana, and ODA regu- lates aspects that range from food safety regarding cannabis edibles to pesticides, water quality issues and commercial scales used to weigh the product. The re- called pot was grown by Emerald Wave Estate, based in Creswell, and sold at Buds 4 U in Mapleton, a small town west of Eugene. The OLCC said people who bought the pot should dispose of it or re- turn it to the retailer. Mark Pettinger, spokesman for OLCC, said the retailer has fully coop- erated in the recall. It sold 82.5 grams of Blue Magoo to 31 customers from March 8 through March 10. The store noticed the failed pesticide reading in the state’s Cannabis Tracking System on March 10 and immediately notified OLCC, Petting- er said. “The retailer was great,” he said. “They get the gold star.” Pesticide application would have been done at the grower level, which is the province of ODA. Pettinger said the distribution system breakdown occurred when a wholesaler, Cascade Cannabis Distributing, of Eugene, shipped the pot to the Mapleton store before pesticide test results were entered in the state’s tracking system. The testing was done by GreenHaus Analytical Labs, of Port- land, which is certified by the state to test cannabis for potency, water content and pesticide residue. The mistake might qualify as a viola- tion under Oregon administrative rules, Pettinger said. Failure to keep proper records is a Class III violation; the first offense is punishable by up to 10 days of business closure and a $1,650 fine. Four violations within a two-year period can lead to license revocation. The rest of the grower’s nine-pound batch of Blue Magoo marijuana flower has been placed on administrative hold, meaning it cannot be lawfully sold pend- ing the outcome of additional pesticide testing. Pettinger said the pot is in the grower’s possession. Logo Design Contest CALLING ALL ARTISTS! We are in search of Grant County Local artists to design a Logo for the MoonLIT Music Concert on August 19th, 2017 in celebration of the Total Eclipse. Don’t miss out on your chance to have your artwork on display for the masses! All ages welcome! BENEFITS/ PRIZES INCLUDE: conundrum that all of us are faced with of putting together a package,” Johnson said. About 33 percent of the road pavement in Oregon is in fair or worse condition and will need replacement soon, according to ODOT. More than 700 bridges in the state need to be seismical- ly retrofitted — at a cost of $5 billion in the next 20 years — to avoid collapse in the event of a major earthquake, the agency estimates. Current- ly, the agency upgrades only three bridges were year, said Paul Mather, ODOT’s High- way Division administrator. The biggest driver for up- grading the bridges is “the long-term economic effects we are going to have on our economy,” Mather said. “We have seen disasters like Katrina and others, and this is going to be on a big- ger scale than that,” Mather said of a major earthquake. “You’re going to have in- dustry … to leave state … if we don’t have ways for their workers to get to work, their goods and services to get out to the marketplace.” The subcommittee fo- cused on economic lifelines in the Portland metro area and looked for ways to con- tinue mobility throughout the state through north, south and east connections. “There are tough choices to make, and we zeroed in on where the biggest impact we were going to have on the economy with the invest- ment,” Mather said. Bill would seal names of sex crime victims, witnesses By Paris Achen Capital Bureau Civil rights activists, de- fense lawyers and journalists voiced concern Monday over legislation that would give pseudonyms to sex crime vic- tims and witnesses in grand jury indictments and keep their names out of public court re- cords. District attorneys and victim advocates say the leg- islation is designed to protect victims and their families who might otherwise refuse to testi- fy in front of a grand jury out of fear of retribution from the defendant. They said that is es- pecially true in the case of ac- cused sex traffickers who may have multiple victims. “The fear of victims testi- fying against their traffickers cannot be over exaggerated,” said Nita Belles, executive di- rector of In Our Backyard, a Bend-based anti-human traf- ficking nonprofit organization. “They and (their families) have been threatened, and the traf- fickers have carried out enough threats against them in the past to make believers out of them.” However, opponents ar- gued during a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Com- mittee that the proposal would violate the public’s constitu- tional rights to open courts and an open press. Journalists are “sympa- thetic to those victims of sex crimes who are often required to relive their experiences mul- tiple times throughout the trial process,” said Keith Shipman of the Oregon Association of Broadcasters. “However, our member stations are concerned about the unusually broad na- ture of Senate Bill 248, partic- ularly the recently released … amendments and that they may adversely impact the public’s right to know, particularly if that person involved is a public trustee.” CALLING ALL MUSICIANS! We are in search of Grant County Local talent to kick start the MoonLIT Music Concert on August 19th, 2017 in celebration of the Total Eclipse. Don’t miss out on your chance to earn your spot on the MoonLIT Music Stage! All ages and genres welcome! LIVE AUDITIONS: Auditions will be held at the Canyon City Community Hall on Saturday April 29th at 1pm and on Monday May 1st at 7pm. You must email MoonLITMusicConcertAuditions@yahoo.com to sign up and secure your audition time. Deadline to sign up is by Saturday April 22nd 11: 59 PM PST. - Recognition on all promotional items and web/ social sites - Concert T-Shirt - Autographed Poster - 2 Concert Tickets - $100 Cash Prize - Opportunity to display and/or Sell your artwork EQUIPMENT PROVIDED: Bose Sound System, Three microphones two with CONTEST REQUIREMENTS: MoonLIT Music Concert If you can’t make it in Person... “A Total Experience” is our Concert Title and slogan. It touches on the Total Eclipse, the wide variety of genres and talented Musicians showcased in this event. We want the Logo design to tie it all together and tell an exciting story that no one will forget Our only requirements are that you incorporate the Eclipse, Music, Title and Slogan. We want you to use your creative vision to bring it to life. The deadline to be considered to win the contest is Monday April 1st 2017 by 11 :59 PM PST. You must submit your masterpiece via email to MoonLITMusicConcertLogo@yahoo.com or deliver it in person to the Grant County Chamber of Commerce in John Day, Monday April 1st by 4pm AUDITION ONLINE: Online submissions are due by Monday May 1st 11:59 Any questions?! Please email MoonLITMusicConcertLogo@yahoo.com Good Luck! We look forward to seeing your creative vision! stands, one hand held. Keyboard, Auxiliary cord, and Guitar cable. REQUIREMENTS: Be prepared to perform 2 songs no more than 4 minutes each. Accompaniment or background music is required. You are expected to bring your own music and instruments for the audition. You are only allowed to audition once. PM PST. In the video, state your name, and what you will sing or play. You are required to perform 2 songs no more than 4 minutes each. You must submit raw, unaltered video footage for your audition to MoonLITMusicConcertAuditions@yahoo.com The video can be embedded in the email or you can send a link for the video (i.e. upload to Youtube or Facebook and email the link). You are only allowed to audition once. *Please keep in mind video and sound quality is important. We should not hear the music more than you or at the same level as you. It should be loud enough for you to hear but not be a distraction to those listening. Any questions?! Please email MoonLITMusicConcertAuditions@yahoo.com Good Luck! We look forward to seeing you!