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!