2008 Woodie Awards
News Briefs
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AROUND OREGON
State sales tax has been dead in Oregon for decades, but Wood Village, a suburb of Portland, is pushing for what would be Oregon’s first municipal tax of its kind.
According to officials, rising police and fire costs are edging the town of 2,900 toward bankruptcy.
Mayor Dave Fuller said something needs to be done. “This would be the least onerous way to get additional revenues,” he said.
Some towns tax restaurant, hotel and gasoline sales, but while an Oregon town can impose a general sales tax, none has, said executive director of the League of Oregon Cities Ken Strobeck.
A 1 percent sales tax on retail products in Wood Village could raise about $730,000, roughly half of this year’s $1.3 million operating budget.
The tax would not apply to real estate, wholesale manufactured goods, home business that make less than $25,000 or essential items such as groceries or utility bills.
The City Council will not make a decision on the issue until May 18, when it can vote to establish the tax or refer the issue to voters.
AROUND WESTERN
According to a report by Western’s task force, incidents of sexual harassment are not a widespread problem.
However, the group’s findings show that many on the campus have a mistrust of the way Western handles its harassment cases.
The report is the result of a six-week investigation by a group assembled by Western President Philip Conn, an evaluation and assessment of the school’s sexual harassment and consensual relationship policies, and the attitudes on campus of the issue.
The report was requested by George Pernsteiner, acting chancellor of the Oregon University System, following a highly publicized sexual harassment case in January and information about prior incidents at the college in past years.
Pernsteiner said the report identified areas of the sexual harassment policy that needs to be improved, involving communication and procedures.
A history professor and task force member said, “Our hope is that this will be a continuous process.”
AROUND THE STATE
According to a study released May 2, the number of Oregonians who lack health insurance has risen to 613,000.
Healthcare activists said that the result is a crisis in which uninsured adults cannot afford preventive care or prescription drugs and end up seeking care in emergency rooms.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which focuses on improving healthcare through grants, studied government census and Centers for Disease Control statistics, and found that 19 percent of working adults in Oregon don’t have health insurance—the ninth-highest level in the nation.
However, the Legislature has limited options this session to improve access to health insurance because of a tight budget.
Neither Gov. Ted Kulongoski nor the Legislature’s budget-writers are proposing any additional money for the Oregon Health Plan, the state-sponsored plan for those who don’t qualify for Medicaid.
Sen. Ben Westlund, R-Tumalo, called the situation a crisis. “This is insanity,” he said, “it has got to stop.”
Westlund said he wants to create a task force that would look into how to improve the situation in Oregon, including eliminating inefficiencies in the state’s healthcare delivery systems and finding ways to lower drug costs.
AROUND THE NATION
Louisiana – Two teenagers pleaded guilty to setting a dachshund on fire on May 3. The two were sentenced to jail and to clean out kennels.
State District Judge Jeff Cox sentenced Ashley Cochran, 18, to one year in jail for pouring lighter fluid on the dog and igniting it. Christopher Myers, also 18, was sentenced to six months for not stopping the attack.
After completing their jail time, they will have to perform 500 hours of community service at an animal shelter, including cleaning out kennels.
The case “has kept me up at night; It makes me sick to my heart about what happened,” said Cox.
According to authorities the 4-year-old dog, Coco, was set on fire last November, ran away and has never been found.
Washington – The government announced on May 3 that young people who use marijuana are more likely to develop serious mental health problems.
Government officials said recent research makes a strong case that smoking marijuana is itself a causal agent in psychiatric symptoms, particularly schizophrenia.
Administration officials found adult marijuana smokers who first began using the drug before age 12 were twice as likely to have suffered a serious mental illness in the past year as those who began smoking after 18.
AROUND THE WORLD
Baghdad – The first democratically elected government in the history of Iraq was sworn in May 3 against a backdrop of surging violence.
The new Shiite prime minister pledged before a half-empty parliament that he would unite the country’s rival ethnic factions and fight terrorism, said The Associated Press (AP).
No final decision was made on seven positions of the 37-member cabinet—including the key oil and defense ministries.
The cabinet includes 16 Shiite Arabs, nine Kurds, four Sunnis and one Christian.
Prime Minister Al-Jaafari said, “This government belongs to the Iraqi people.”
“Iraqis will reap the fruits of their sacrifices,” he said, “these sacrifices have not gone in vain.”