NEWS BUZZ

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TRASHING THE RECYCLERS

Recycling mavens Ralph and Vince Gilbert (right to left) have been getting attention from Metro's trash cops.Metro, the region's recycling agency, normally focuses its trash cops on illegal dumping. But lately it's been keeping tabs on a business dedicated to the opposite task--saving recyclables from the dump.

East County Recycling, owned by the father-son team of Ralph and Vince Gilbert, welcomes a steady stream of garbage trucks bearing loads of commercial waste to be recycled at its plant. Workers pick through the trash to recover thousands of tons of gravel, wood chips, ground glass, scrap metal and concrete chunks each month --all to be resold for reuse (see "Rubbish: Ten troubling truths about recycling," WW, Oct. 27, 1999).

Where the Gilberts ran into trouble was in accepting "wet waste"--loads that include an unacceptable amount of household-type garbage such as food scraps--and failing to have an adequate plan to screen it out. On Jan. 11, Metro Executive Mike Burton sent ECR a notice of violation giving the Gilberts 60 days to clean up their act or face unspecified fines. Burton's notice followed a Jan. 10 letter from the state Department of Environmental Quality regarding much the same issue.

Roy Brower, who heads the Metro enforcement program, says the problem is that ECR lacks the required permit to accept household waste, which can cause odors and contaminate dry waste. Perhaps more importantly, if a company improperly disposes of household waste at ECR, it illegally evades paying Metro and local dumping fees.

Ralph Gilbert, for his part, says the notice is the product of a misunderstanding, along with jealousy from trash haulers that don't use ECR. "We're not doing anything wrong," he says.

--Nick Budnick

Drinking for Drunks

If one of Salem's top lobbyists has his way, Oregon tipplers will soon be paying more for their poison.

Alan Tressider, lobbyist for the Alcohol Drug Abuse Program Directors, thinks it's time to take on one of the state's sacred cows.

"I am quietly working with folks on an increase of the beer and wine tax," he says.

Currently, Oregon's beer and wine taxes are among the lowest in the nation. The tax on beer is $2.60 per barrel, which comes out to less than a penny a pint. The wine tax is 67 cents per gallon, about 2 cents per glass. The tax is levied no matter where the alcohol is purchased, be it Safeway or Sweetwaters.

Tressider wants to increase the tax to 5 cents a drink to raise $45 million for addiction prevention and treatment programs. That may seem like a big jump, he says, but the beer tax has not been increased for 28 years. There was a small wine tax increase in the early 1980s.

Paul Romain, lobbyist for the Oregon Beer and Wine Distributors, isn't surprised by the push for a tax increase, but he does not think the idea has much support.

Nearly every session since, those who work with drug and alcohol addicts have been trying to raise the tax with no success.

"It's never made it out of committee," Romain says. "I don't even keep track of the groups that push it every year."

Tressider is vague on the details at this point but says he is working with the Oregon Medical Association on the bill. Addiction is a compelling public health issue for lawmakers, he says. He's also trying to increase his chances by leaving Oregon wines off the tax roll.

--Patty Wentz

SCOREBOARD

WINNERS

LOSERS

1. Last week a federal jury awarded Carl Bell, a former Clackamas County sheriff's deputy, $1.4 million after he alleged that he'd been fired for complaining about fellow deputies engaging in racial profiling against ethnic minority citizens. 2. City budget squeeze? What city budget squeeze? Portland cops now have their own private foundation, headed by the Rev. Dr. Bob Pamplin, to fund special equipment purchases and training programs the city has no money for. Hmm...somehow, we suspect this is one slush fund that will be spared from an exposé in Doc Pamplin's new newspaper. 3. School-funding fans breathed a sigh of relief when the GOP co-chairs of Ways and Means released their budget last week. Rumors had been circulating that some fancy bookkeeping would strip $100 million from K-12. But, for now, school funding is intact.

1. Hillsboro, we have a problem. Once again Washington County Sheriff Jim Spinden has doo-doo on his shoes. This time, however, there was no happy ending: A high-speed police pursuit ended with two citizens dead on the Sunset Highway. 2. Local small fry lost out to California hot-tubbers when officials at the Bonneville Power Administration decided to give our neighbors water reserves originally targeted to help young salmon get to the Pacific in spring. 3. They weren't exactly shocked, but tree huggers were nevertheless dismayed when President Shrub announced he was delaying ex-President Clinton's logging ban by two months.

ROGUE OF THE WEEK
Seen a rogue on the loose?
Contact our roguemeister,
John Schrag
jschrag@wweek.com

North Clackamas School District Superintendent Ron Naso gets nailed to the wall of shame for trying to perpetuate one of the state's dirtiest little secrets.

Ever since Oregon began statewide assessments, otherwise know as the CIM/CAM, supporters have fretted that parents would discover (by reading the test administration manual or simply asking) that no student can be forced to take the tests. As criticism of the tests has grown, so has word about the ability to skip them.

So, last October, Debra Tragethon wrote to Naso requesting that her children be excused from this year's tests, saying the tests lack "proven validity, reliability and objectivity."

In his response, Naso cited the state's testing manual, which is unambiguous: "Parents who object to having their child participate in the [tests] for religious or other reasons may have their child exempted from testing."

But in a stunning display of semantic gymnastics, Naso denied the exemption, basing his decision on a far more general Oregon Administrative Rule that states: "The school district may excuse students from a state-required program or learning activity, where necessary, to accommodate students' disabilities or religious beliefs."

And, Naso wrote, there would be consequences for skipping the assessments. "Failure to participate will be treated just as we treat failure to do any other classroom assignments," he wrote.

The Tragethons, however, weren't easily cowed. They replied that their children would do all assignments required by their schools, but skip all testing and work assigned purely for state assessments.

Naso then dug in, implying that the test was mandatory: "We will continue to include your children in all assessment activities," he wrote on Nov. 14.

When contacted by WW Naso argued that state law is ambiguous but ultimately conceded that nobody has to take the tests.

But beyond semantic quibbling, there's another reason that Naso is keen to have the Tragethons tested. Schools are increasingly judged both by the percentage of students taking tests and their scores--and it's a safe bet the Tragethons' children would score well. (As middle schoolers, they're part of a Johns Hopkins University program for gifted children.)

"Participation is an issue; but not the only issue," Naso says. "The bigger issue is what happens if 150-200 people say they don't want to take the tests. What happens then?"

(For the answer, see the story below.)

Remaking the Grade

While President Bush calls for more student testing nationwide, opponents of Oregon's K-12 assessment program are asking the Legislature to roll back state requirements.

Perhaps as early as this week, state lawmakers will get their first look at the School Accountability Enhancement bill, which would allow school districts to opt out of the Oregon Department of Education's increasingly controversial tests (see "None of the Above," WW, May 5, 1999).

Critics contend that testing consumes excessive instructional time, distorts curricula and yields questionable results. "The statewide tests don't provide a valid measure of kids' achievement," says Rob Kremer, president of the Oregon Education Coalition and co-author of the bill. "That would be OK if the tests didn't take six weeks out of the school year, but as it stands they're both burdensome and invalid."

To qualify for an exemption, a district could simply replace the state's exams with another recognized, nationally normed test.

Among the bill's supporters is John Nelsen, a board member of the Reynolds School District, the first in the state to require that high-school students pass the certificate of initial mastery, or CIM, to graduate. The east county district has since soured on the tests and dropped the requirement. Jim Thomas, superintendent of the Scio School District, also supports the bill.

Kremer acknowledges that his proposal may appear contrary to President Bush's emphasis on testing, but it actually supports Bush's agenda by administering short tests twice a year in every grade instead of one much longer test in grades 3, 5, 8 and 10, as is now the case.

State education officials haven't yet seen the bill.

--Nigel Jaquiss

Come on in, the Money's Fine

This week the Capitol Club lobbyist roster will be published, and a quick review shows that the legislator-to-lobbyist treadmill continues to accelerate. Among the new hired guns are former House members Terry Thompson, Bob Montgomery, Jim Welsh, Ken Strobeck and Lynn Lundquist.

In total, the unofficial tally includes at least 22 ex-lawmakers who spend their days trying to influence their former colleagues.

The phenomenon isn't new--lobby war-horses Grattan Kerans, Paul Romain and Larry Campbell all used to serve the will of the people. As term limits force them out the door, former elected officials are increasingly re-entering through the lobby entrance. Unlike the federal government, Oregon has no cooling-off laws that require a lawmaker to wait a year before returning to the halls of power.

The most notable rookie lobbyist is Lundquist. Following his defeat by Lynn Snodgrass in last year's Republican primary for Secretary of State, the former House Speaker signed a contract to be the president of the Oregon Business Association.

The bipartisan group was started by Nik Blosser of the Celilo Group, a green-friendly business-consulting firm. The OBA hopes to provide a more progressive alternative to Associated Oregon Industries, Salem's most powerful lobbying group.

OBA members include PGE, Nike, PacifiCorp, Les Schwab, Powell's and Standard Insurance. The group's focus is broader than the traditional agenda of big business, Lundquist says, and will include education, transportation and environmental issues. The OBA will be fighting this term to creating a rainy-day fund for the state, something AOI has long opposed.

Lundquist says working in the lobby isn't all that much different from being a lawmaker. "In many cases, it's quite similar," says the Powell Butte rancher. "It's about developing relationships." What Lundquist didn't point out is that lobbying pays a lot better than the $1,283 a month the lawmakers bring home.

--Patty Wentz

UNCRITICAL MASS.

How fast can a media hoax mutate?

Portland cable-access TV jester "Tim Jordan" (a.k.a. "Harry Lime" a.k.a. "Ervin Kevin" a.k.a. "Dr. J. Timothy Jordan") recently cooked up the bogus story of a planned Astoria nuclear reactor. By Monday, it had hit radio. By Friday, Jordan says, he'd fielded calls from The New York Times, L.A. Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Here's how the hoax unfolded:

Sunday, Jan. 28: Jordan builds a website (www.pacnec.org), announcing plans for a nuclear reactor outside Astoria. Via "Ervin Kevin's" Hotmail account, Jordan alerts the Portland media, including KXL radio host Lars Larson, who Jordan knows is a big nuke fan.

Monday, Jan. 29: After trading emails with Larson, "Dr. J. Timothy Jordan" goes on Larson's show. "He sounded skeptical," Jordan allows.

Tuesday, Jan. 30: Skeptical or not, KXL continues to cover the story and posts the story on its website. Calls pour into Oregon congressional offices and energy agencies. Channel 6 and Channel 12 run stories.

Wednesday, Jan. 31: Busted! The Daily Astorian detects the scam. The North Coast paper checks Pacnec's source code, a simple procedure. Jordan programmed the code to reveal a bold all-caps claim: "HARRY LIME IS GOD OF ALL HOAXES." (The Lime alias was apparently inspired by the Orson Welles character in The Third Man, who faked his own death.) "The Astorian was the only one with the cojones to do the research," says Jordan.

Thursday, Feb. 1: Larson admits he was fooled. The two TV stations also run corrections. "This really upset me," says Channel 6 news director Rick Howard.

Friday, Feb. 2: Jordan basks in unexpected national attention. "It was very simple, actually," he says of fooling the media. "Which is really frightening, when you think about it. I wanted to show how ignorant, gullible and lazy these people are."

He acknowledges that Larson was his primary target, accusing the KXL personality of "constantly railing against cable-access TV." Larson didn't return WW's phone calls.

--Zach Dundas

Murmurs

WE KNOW SOMETHING YOU DON'T KNOW

* You can take the girl out of the country, but... During a hearing on State Fair funding in front of the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee last week, down-home gal Donna Nelson of Yamhill County nearly jumped out of her seat as earnest 4-H-ers extolled the virtues of raising livestock. Portland Dem Mary Nolan--the token city slicker on the panel--was the only thumbs-down on the bill.

* Great news for bare-headed quake victims: Nike is rushing 6,000 Swoosh baseball hats to India's Gujurat state. But, the company cautions, other disaster survivors shouldn't get their hopes up: "Unfortunately, Nike cannot respond to every global disaster," a corporate press release laments. "The company limits itself to ones in which part of the worldwide Nike family has been affected."

* Speaking of fashion statements.... You may want to gussy up next time you protest outside the Oregon Regional Primate Research Center in Hillsboro. On Feb. 3, about 60 animal-rights activists were greeted by a cluster of OHSU cops, who proceded to videotape the demonstration.

* Lawyers interviewing potential jurors hear a lot of excuses for why people can't do the job, but last week they heard a new one. A member of the jury pool on a homicide case penned a note saying he and his wife had already discussed details of the case at home. How could that be? Well, it turns out the author was Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle, whose wife, Rosie Sizer, oversees the Portland police detectives who investigated the case.

* It wasn't Gov. John Kitzhaber's expression or his high-tech runner's watch that was noticeable in a front-page photo in Friday's Oregonian. Instead, the no-nonsense cowpoke wore fancy cuffs carrying an unusually whimsical monogram: "Gov."