STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
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Governor restores ‘critical restrictions’ to stem COVID-19 rise
Restaurants and bars
restricted to
take-out only
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon will restrict or close
many businesses, curtail activi-
ties and put a six-person limit on
gatherings, including Thanks-
giving, under a statewide “Two-
Week Freeze” starting Nov.
18 in an effort to stem rising
COVID-19 infection rates, Gov.
Kate Brown announced Friday.
“These risk reduction mea-
sures are critical,” Brown said.
The
executive
order
comes as Oregon reported
1,076 new cases, a day after a
record-smashing 1,122 cases.
Seven deaths were reported
Friday.
The number of people hos-
pitalized with COVID-19
was 303 Friday, the first time
the state has breached the
300-patient mark since the
pandemic crisis hit Oregon in
February.
Without a drop in infection
rates, medical facilities will be
strained beyond capacity.
“The last thing you want to
hear is the ambulance has no
place to go,” Brown said. “The
dreaded winter surge is here.”
Despite enduring two previ-
ous spikes in the spring and late
summer, the current rise may be
more challenging.
“Like it or not, we might be
facing the roughest days of the
pandemic,” Brown said.
Brown said she was telling
individual Oregonians to limit
social events to six people and
that she had ordered the Oregon
State Police to begin working
with local law enforcement to
limit social gatherings and use
their discretion to enforce as a
citation, fine or arrest of a Class
C Misdemeanor.
Brown had said earlier this
summer that she would not be
“the party police” and send offi-
cers to private gatherings to
enforce limits. That’s no longer
the policy, she said.
“Unfortunately we have no
other option,” Brown said.
Currently, one infected per-
son is spreading the disease to
1.5 people. COVID-19 tests are
coming back at a level of 11.9%
Oregon joins tri-state
travel advisory to limit
spread of COVID-19
14-day quarantine recommended for
interstate travelers
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Travelers going out of state are urged to quaran-
tine for 14 days upon their return home under a new
tri-state advisory to slow rapidly rising COVID-19
infection rates released Friday morning by Gov. Kate
Brown.
California and Washington issued identical travel
advisories Friday morning.
The action came a day after Oregon reported a
record-smashing 1,122 new cases, including four
deaths, Thursday. The number of people hospitalized
with COVID-19 breached the 300-patient mark since
the pandemic crisis hit Oregon in February.
“COVID-19 DOES NOT STOP AT
STATE LINES. AS HOSPITALS
ACROSS THE WEST ARE
STRETCHED TO CAPACITY, WE
MUST TAKE STEPS TO ENSURE
TRAVELERS ARE NOT BRINGING
THIS DISEASE HOME WITH THEM.”
—Gov. Kate Brown
While Oregon is still experiencing less overall
impact from the virus than other states, the current
rapid rise is already stretching hospital availability in
the Portland area and showing strain elsewhere in the
state.
Under the three-state plan announced Friday morn-
ing, “non-essential travel” should be cancelled or
delayed.
The advisory defines essential travel as travel for
work and study, critical infrastructure support, eco-
nomic services and supply chains, health, immediate
medical care, and safety and security.
Visitors entering or returning from the three states
should minimize their exposure to others for 14 days
after arriving from another state. In the case of the
three states, the advisory would mean an Oregonian
traveling to California or Washington should quaran-
tine for 14 days on their arrival and then another 14
days upon return.
The governors of the three states reiterated early
requests that residents not risk out-of-state travel for
the Thanksgiving holiday.
“COVID-19 does not stop at state lines,” Brown
said in a statement. “As hospitals across the West are
stretched to capacity, we must take steps to ensure trav-
elers are not bringing this disease home with them.”
The three-state advisory also recommends indi-
viduals limit their interactions to their immediate
household.
The United States registered 150,000 cases on
Thursday, a new record. Current hospitalizations for
COVID-19 hit a new record of 67,096 on Thursday,
according to the COVID Tracking Project.
California on Thursday became the second state to
surpass one million case. Texas is the other.
Pfizer-BioNTech announced this week that pre-
liminary results of a vaccine under development had
a 90% effective rate. Additional tests and reviews will
be required, but the company hopes to start shipping
the vaccine by the end of the year. However, it will
likely take several months for the vaccine to become
widely available.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert with
the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, writing
in The Hill political website, said this week the vaccine
development was good news, but there were still many
hurdles to get it to people around the globe.
“If everything goes perfectly with this vaccine,
there is still a Herculean vaccine distribution task that
lies ahead,” Adalja wrote. “This vaccine, and several
other candidates, are two-dose vaccines that require
both doses for full effect.”
PMG file photo
Gov. Kate Brown, at a May press event, wearing her social dis-
tancing mask in public.
positive. A rate above 5% indi-
cates a rise in the number of
people who will get ill.
For businesses, activities
and groups that do not fall under
the new restrictions, the Ore-
gon Health Authority will issue
additional guidance within the
next week. Sectors without spe-
cific prohibitions or guidance
must operate under previous
directives.
Brown and the governors
of California and Washington
earlier on Friday issued iden-
tical travel advisories. Travel-
ers going out of state are urged
to quarantine for 14 days upon
their return home.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the
state’s top infectious disease
expert, said decisions on public
action “are not perfect” and that
state officials know that order-
ing shutdowns or stay-at-home
orders have their own negative
impacts.
“That economic impact has
a real impact on our health,”
Sidelinger said. “People can’t
tolerate that level of isolation
for that long.”
Brown said Oregon and all
states need new federal help
to cushion the economic fall-
out and overstretched public
resources used in the pandemic.
“It’s time for Congress to
just do it and stop talking about
it,” Brown said.
Oregon is still experienc-
ing less overall impact from the
virus than other states. It had
experienced 1,289 cases per
100,000 people — 45th among
states, according to analysis on
Friday by the New York Times.
North Dakota tops the list with
7,953 cases per 100,000 people.
But in the past seven days,
the Times said Oregon had 20.5
cases per 100,000, moving it up
to a rank of 42nd — higher than
California and New York.
Oregon’s current rapid rise
is already stretching hospital
availability in the Portland area
and showing strain elsewhere in
the state.
Delaying elective surgeries
in some areas where hospital
beds are becoming more scarce
has already been instituted at
three major hospital providers
based in the Portland area: Leg-
acy Health, Oregon Health &
Science University and Kaiser
Permanente Northwest. Check
with doctors or medical centers
for their status.
Pfizer-BioNTech announced
this week that preliminary
results of a vaccine under
development had a 90% effec-
tive rate. Additional tests and
reviews will be required, but the
company hopes to start shipping
vaccines by the end of the year.
However, it will likely take sev-
eral months for the vaccine to
become widely available.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infec-
tious disease expert with the
Johns Hopkins Center for
Health Security, writing in The
Hill political website, said this
week the vaccine development
was good news, but there are
still many hurdles to get it to
people around the globe.
“If everything goes perfectly
with this vaccine, there is still
a Herculean vaccine distribu-
tion task that lies ahead,” Adalja
wrote. “This vaccine, and sev-
eral other candidates, are two-
dose vaccines that require both
doses for full effect.”
Rep. Bynum seeks Oregon House speakership
By Peter Wong
Oregon Capital Bureau
Rep. Janelle Bynum of Clack-
amas has declared she will seek to
wrest the House speakership from
Tina Kotek, the Portland Demo-
crat who has held the job for the
past eight years.
Bynum was just reelected to
her third term from District 51,
which covers parts of Clackamas
and Multnomah counties.
Kotek was reelected to her
eighth term from District 44 in
North and Northeast Portland.
The 37 Democratic represen-
tatives in the newly elected House
are scheduled to meet in closed
session on Monday to choose their
nominee for speaker and other
party caucus leaders.
The 23 Republicans already
chose Rep. Christine Drazan of
Canby for another cycle. Drazan
ousted outgoing Rep. Carl Wil-
son of Grants Pass as party leader
during the 2019 session.
The choice of the majority
party usually prevails when the
House elects its speaker on open-
ing day, which is Jan. 11.
Unlike the speaker and the
speaker pro tem, who presides
over the House when the speaker
is absent, the other leaders are not
subject to a vote of the full House.
Along with the Senate presi-
dent, the House speaker is one of
the two most influential figures in
the Oregon Legislature. The pre-
siding officers control the flow of
legislation through their appoint-
ment of committee members and
Contributed photo
Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Happy Valley, at one of her McDonald’s fran-
chises in the Portland area.
leaders and the assignment of bills
to committees.
If Bynum succeeds in her
quest, she would be the first
woman of color to hold the speak-
ership in Oregon history.
Her statement, which she
issued Monday, Nov. 9, said in
part:
“Transparency, diversity of
thought and simplicity are my core
values as a legislator and leader.
Every day I bring these princi-
ples to life in both my words and
deeds.
“Now, more than ever before,
our state needs a leader who lis-
tens to the electorate, leads by
empowering her colleagues and
understands both the social and
financial implications of policies
so important to Oregonians.”
Bynum and her husband,
Mark, own four restaurants in the
Portland area, including McDon-
ald’s franchises.
She earned a bachelor’s degree
in electrical engineering in 1996
from Florida A&M University and
a master’s in business administra-
tion in 2000 from the University
of Michigan.
She is the current chair of
the House Judiciary Commit-
tee. Along with Sen. James Man-
ning, D-Eugene, she is co-chair
of the Legislature’s joint commit-
tee looking at change in police
practices.
The most recent speaker to
lose a bid for a new term as pre-
siding officer was Republican
Lynn Lundquist of Powell Butte,
now deceased, who was ousted
by Republican Lynn Snodgrass
of Damascus in the 1999 session.
Both ran for Oregon secretary of
state in 2000; Snodgrass won the
GOP primary, but lost to appointed
Democratic incumbent Bill Brad-
bury in the general election.
Kotek became House Dem-
ocratic leader at the close of the
2011 session, and after Democrats
broke a 30-30 tie with a net gain
of four seats in the 2012 elections,
she became House speaker. She
was the first open lesbian to lead
a state legislative chamber in the
nation; three gay men have done
so.
Kotek is Oregon’s lon-
gest-serving House speaker. She
surpassed Democrat Vera Katz’s
three terms in 2019-20.
Democrats increased their
majority by one in the 2014 elec-
tion, and by three more in 2018 for
a modern high of 38 seats, slightly
more than the supermajority of
36 required to pass revenue-rais-
ing measures without Republican
votes.
Democrats ousted a Repub-
lican incumbent in Bend but lost
two open seats on the coast to
Republicans for a net loss of one
in the Nov. 3 election. Two Dem-
ocratic incumbents won narrowly
over Republican challengers.
Bynum
concluded
her
statement:
“I am asking my colleagues
for an open process and an hon-
est chance for a qualified and pas-
sionate woman of color to lead
the Oregon House of Represen-
tatives. In this moment of shat-
tering norms and elevating often
unheard voices, I feel called to
run and would be honored to
serve.”
State audit recommends diverting unclaimed Bottle Bill funds
By Michael Kohn
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregonians recycle lots of bot-
tles and cans, but those that are
picked up curbside, or are just
lost, are never redeemed for their
deposit. State auditors now say
Oregon has a chance to collect
those deposits and use the money
for environmental and recycling
programs.
That’s according to a report
issued Nov. 10 by the Secretary
of State’s Audits Division, which
called for a modernization of the
groundbreaking Bottle Bill, pro-
duced nearly 50 years ago. Those
deposits could add tens of millions
of dollars to the state’s budget.
Under the current system,
beverage distributors keep unre-
deemed deposits. The proposed
changes would allow the state to
collect the deposits as uncollected
property — a potential boon for
government environmental pro-
grams but at the same time a finan-
cial hit for beverage distributors.
The changes stem from Ore-
gon’s bottle bill, a landmark pro-
gram developed in 1971 to help
combat rampant litter piling up in
forests and along highways. Law-
makers at the time saw the idea of
a deposit as the best incentive to
get Oregonians to return their cans
and bottles.
The 5-cent deposit per can was
significant in 1971, when a six-
pack of beer cost around $1.05,
or about 39% of the sales price.
A six-pack of beer today aver-
ages around $10, so the existing
10-cent deposit per can represents
only around 6% of the sales price.
Nine other states and British
Columbia have since followed
Oregon in implementing their bot-
tle deposit rules.
But Oregon is facing budget
cuts in upcoming years, accord-
ing to the audit, and it recom-
mends that the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission work with
the unclaimed property division to
pursue unclaimed property related
to the Bottle Bill.
According to the state audit,
$30.6 million in unredeemed
deposits were collected last year
by beverage distributors. Bryant
Haley, alcohol spokesperson for
the state’s Liquor Control Com-
mission, said most of that went
to the Oregon Beverage Recy-
cling Cooperative, and the remain-
ing funds were collected by other
distributors.
Of the 10 states that have a bot-
tle bill, eight collect unredeemed
deposits to support environmental
programs or the general fund. The
state auditors also recommended
expanding the scope of the bot-
tle bill to include wine and liquor
sales.
“Oregon has an opportunity to
enhance state revenues by adopt-
ing the practices of other states by
collecting unredeemed container
deposits,” according to the audit.
“Natural resource programs are
facing budget shortfalls and unre-
deemed containers could help
solve some of the gap.”
The cooperative, which oper-
ates the Bottle Drop recycling cen-
ters, is largely funded by the cur-
rent system and has the most at
stake if changes are made to the
way unredeemed deposits are han-
dled. Around 10% of bottles are
not redeemed, according to the
cooperative.
In 2019 the recycling coopera-
tive had a $44 million budget and
received $18.2 million in funding
from unredeemed deposits in Ore-
gon, said Jules Bailey, chief stew-
ardship officer for the recycling
co-op. That shortfall required
co-op members to pay nearly $26
million into the system.
“If the state had taken all those
unredeemed deposits, it would
have increased costs in the system
by 69% for our members,” said
Bailey.
“Frankly, our members would
not be able to absorb that, and they
would have to pass it on to their
customers. All in all, it would
mean the end of the BottleDrop
system as we know it and that
Oregonians have come to rely on,”
he said.
The cooperative, which has
over 200 members including
Columbia Distributing and Big-
foot Beverage, argues that states
that claim unredeemed deposits
achieve less success compared to
Oregon, with lower can and bottle
return rates.
“Most of those systems are
struggling, with return rates below
70%. California just announced
their redemption rate has fallen
to almost 60%. As a result, other
states are looking to copy Ore-
gon’s success and program, not the
other way around,” according to a
statement from the cooperative.
Mark Pettinger, spokesperson
for the Liquor Control Commis-
sion, said the commission’s role
in changing the rule is limited to
compliance and enforcement of
the Bottle Bill.
“The audit provides an oppor-
tunity to stand back and assess
how one of Oregon’s most iconic
laws could continue to evolve,”
said Pettinger. “At the governor’s
direction, we will work with other
stakeholders regarding existing
unclaimed property laws.”
Larry Sidor, co-founder of
Bend-based Crux Fermentation
Project, said if the cooperative is
not funded at its current amount,
Oregon’s recycling program is
likely to fail and brewers, retailers
and others in the beverage indus-
try would need to bail it out.
“That would be a big financial
burden,” said Sidor. “In short, the
funds collected should go directly
to ORBC, not the State of Oregon.”