October 31, 2016

Old Salem State Hospital building to become affordable housing

SALEM - One of the historical buildings at Oregon State Hospital’s mostly vacant north campus could soon become affordable housing.

The Housing Authority of Salem has reach a conditional sales agreement with the state to buy Yaquina Hall and convert it into up to 50 apartments.

“We are pretty excited about it,” said Andy Wilch, executive director of the Housing Authority of Salem.

The housing authority plans to use federal low-income tax credits and historic tax credits to finance renovation and construction of the building, which was constructed in 1947 as a nurses’ dormitory.

Read more: http://www.pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/329661-209477-old-salem-state-hospital-building-to-become-affordable-housing

October 31, 2016

Lawyers in Public Employees Retirement System reform case awarded $940,000 in fees

SALEM — The Oregon Supreme Court has awarded nearly $1 million to attorneys representing public employees in the court case that challenged certain legislative reforms to the state’s public employee retirement system.

In an opinion released Thursday, the court awarded $902,665.32 in fees and costs to Bennett, Hartman, Morris & Kaplan, LLP, a Portland law firm representing several of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, known as Moro v. Oregon.

In Moro, the Oregon Supreme Court reversed many of the Legislature’s reforms in 2015, finding that it could not make changes retroactively to the benefits accrued by public employees.

Another $41,127.87 was awarded to three people who represented themselves in the lawsuit — Michael Reynolds, George Riemer and Wayne Stanley Jones.

Read more: http://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/329553-209294-lawyers-in-pers-reform-case-awarded-940000-in-fees

October 31, 2016

Portland Could Pass Law Requiring Landlords to Pay Moving Costs After a "No Cause" Eviction

Portland Mayor-elect Ted Wheeler's campaign promise to restrict no-cause evictions of tenants faces roadblocks, including legal opinions issued this month by attorneys for the Oregon Legislature.

But the city could legally pass a law to bill landlords for tenants' moving costs stemming from evictions without cause on month-to-month leases.

That legal opinion was issued by the Legislative Counsel to House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) in July, first reported in Murmurs on Wednesday. (Here's the full opinion.)

In their budget proposal for next year, the Portland Housing Bureau has proposed setting up a registry for all landlords in the city as a precursor to mandatory inspections of properties.

Read more: http://www.wweek.com/news/2016/10/28/portland-could-pass-law-requiring-landlords-to-pay-moving-costs-after-a-no-cause-eviction/

October 31, 2016

Black Lives Matter Protesters Burn Bundy Supporter's American Flag in Front of Portland Justice ...

Black Lives Matter Protesters Burn Bundy Supporter's American Flag in Front of Portland Justice Center

Protesters affiliated with Don't Shoot Portland and Black Lives Matter took an American flag from a supporter of Ammon Bundy and set it on fire in front of the Justice Center this afternoon {Thursday}.

The flag burning is part a protest of what Don't Shoot Portland describes as racial inequities in the treatment of minority protesters and the armed right-wing militants led by Ammon Bundy.

The protesters are courting a confrontation with supporters of Bundy, the Idaho militant acquitted of federal conspiracy charges for seizing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Portland Police cars have shut down a block of Southwest 3rd Avenue in front of the federal courthouse.

Read more: http://www.wweek.com/news/2016/10/28/black-lives-matter-protesters-burn-bundy-supporters-american-flag-in-front-of-portlands-federal-courthouse/

October 31, 2016

Satanic leader: After-school clubs send positive message

SALEM, Mass. -- The Satanic Temple is waging religious battles along a variety of fronts nationwide, and its co-founder says it's just getting started.

The 3-year-old organization is fighting to get a nearly 9-foot, 1.5-ton statue of the goat-headed idol Baphomet placed on the Arkansas Capitol grounds as a counterpoint to a planned Ten Commandments monument.

Members have also proposed "After School Satan Clubs" in elementary schools from Oregon to Georgia where evangelical Christian "Good News Clubs" are operating.

And they've been pushing city councils from Alaska to Massachusetts to allow Satanists to give the opening prayer at public meetings — just as Christian, Jewish and other religious clerics have long done.

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/news/nation-world/national/article111004647.html

October 31, 2016

Here, kitty, kitty: Gig Harbor family finds missing African cat

Tango, the African cat (serval) missing in Gig Harbor, is back at home.

The serval, owned by Sal’an and Michael Weyer, had been missing since Oct. 20 before they picked him up early Sunday from someone in the area who had seen him after seeing a news report late Saturday.

“He’s doing great,” Sal’an Weyer said Sunday. “He’s a little thin, but he didn’t get any scars or anything. He was just hiding out in somebody’s yard.”

Tango is now due for a microchip, but Weyer said they might have to take more than one measure to make this escape a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal for Tango.

Adiorable pictures and more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/article111509572.html

[font color=330099]Posted because the Washington Group needs a cat story.[/font]

October 31, 2016

Freedom Foundation violating campaign-disclosure rules, state Attorney General’s Office says

OLYMPIA — The Washington state Attorney General’s Office has filed a complaint against the Freedom Foundation, alleging campaign-disclosure violations regarding its opposition to Initiative 1501.

The complaint comes after a review by the state Public Disclosure Commission found that the Freedom Foundation failed to properly disclose some staff expenses expressing the conservative organization’s opposition to I-1501.

Freedom Foundation staff were paid their regular salary while preparing and presenting a statement opposing I-1501 for the state voter’s guide, according to the complaint.

Staff also appeared at The Seattle Times editorial board to speak against the initiative, and the organization also filed some independent expenditure reports late, the complaint says.

Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/attorney-generals-office-alleges-campaign-disclosure-violations-by-think-tank/

October 31, 2016

Filing of Tukwila police dog’s teeth fails to prevent bite-injury lawsuit

Tukwila police became so concerned with a police dog’s propensity to inflict severe bites on suspects, as well as on fellow officers, that the animal’s teeth were ordered filed down.

Nonetheless, just weeks after the dental work, K-9 Officer Gino tore into the leg of Luis Yellowowl-Burdeau, a 19-year-old domestic-violence suspect, ripping a fist-sized chunk from his calf, resulting in $81,000 in medical bills and a permanent injury, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

The German shepherd was retired by Police Chief Mike Villa on Oct. 19, 2012, six days after his encounter with Yellowowl-Burdeau. Gino died three years later, according to media reports.

Yellowowl-Burdeau’s lawsuit alleges that in the three years and 10 months Gino was a member of the Tukwila Police Department, he bit 31 people, including his handler and another law-enforcement officer. The civil-rights lawsuit also alleges the dog’s behavior shows the department’s K-9 unit has “fallen into a pattern of unconstitutional conduct.”

Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/crime/filing-of-tukwila-police-dogs-teeth-fails-to-prevent-bite-injury-lawsuit/

October 31, 2016

An income tax in Washington state? Voters in Olympia are thinking about it

OLYMPIA — Washington voters have rejected personal income-tax-related measures at the statewide ballot several times over the past eight decades. Now voters in the state capital will decide whether to approve an income tax on the city’s highest earners, even as the legality of the measure remains in question.

Initiative 1 seeks a 1.5 percent tax on household income in excess of $200,000 for residents of Olympia, a city of about 50,000 people. The measure seeks to raise an estimated $3 million a year for a public college tuition fund that would give all Olympia public high-school graduates and GED recipients tuition for at least the first year of community or technical college, or the equivalent amount — about $4,000 — for in-state public university tuition.

“It puts the spotlight on the finances of education,” said Democratic state Sen. Sam Hunt of Olympia, a supporter of the measure. “Obviously, it’s controversial. But I think at some point people need to step forward and say what we’re doing isn’t working, and we need to find better solutions. And this is one step toward finding a better solution.”

Opponents of the measure argue that Seattle activists are focused solely on teeing up a test case for the state Supreme Court, and are using a tax on the residents of Olympia to accomplish that goal.

Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/olympia-voters-consider-an-income-tax-for-high-earners/

October 31, 2016

Heather Scott denies Dems’ claims of harassment

BONNERS FERRY — Idaho Rep. Heather Scott is rejecting claims she directed her supporters to harass or intimidate anyone in either Bonner or Boundary counties, or that the harassment took place.

“I would like to believe that none of my supporters would stalk, harass or instigate any confrontation,” Scott said. “I do not condone such behavior and I certainly would not direct anyone to do so. I spend the majority of my time educating people on the issues so that they can defend their rights in a logical, educated, and non-aggressive manner.”

Her statement comes in the wake of a complaint filed with the Idaho Attorney General’s Office by the Idaho Democratic Party claiming that Scott’s supporters stalked and harassed a 21-year-old field organizer. The party also maintains Scott is overtly intimidate voters by calling on her supporters to identify Democrats and moderate Republicans voting on the GOP ticket, pointing to a statement that Scott made in an email to her supporters.

In the campaign email, Scott reportedly states: “If you see a Democrat sign go up in your neighborhood, please write down the house number and street name. We are trying to figure out which “Republicans” may really be Democrats in disguise on the voter logs.”

Read more: http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/local_news/20161030/scott_denies_dems_claims_of__harassment