A variety of news around Oregon, the Pacific Northwest

NEWS VARIETY

Oregon troops told to expect Iraq tour

FOREST GROVE — The Oregon Army National Guard plans to send 3,500 troops to Iraq next summer to provide security.

The Oregonian newspaper reports that the 41st Infantry Combat Brigade Team will send 2,800 troops from Oregon and more than 650 others from other states. They are expected to remain in Iraq for at least nine months.

Col. Dan Hokanson discussed the deployment Wednesday night at a briefing in Forest Grove. Roughly 60 percent of those deploying have already done a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan.

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K. Falls asks for $1.5 million geothermal upgrade

KLAMATH FALLS — The City of Klamath Falls is applying for a state loan to finance a $1.5-million project to upgrade its geothermal transmission lines.

The city’s geothermal heating system was first installed in 1981, with upgrades that included replacement of all above-ground pipes.

But underground lines, originally built using steel pipes, have corroded and are leaking, and need replacement.

Once the system is turned off next spring, the city can begin work, which is expected to take three to four months.

The loan will be repaid from system revenue that already covers its operating costs, maintenance and and some capital improvements.

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Neighbors settle 16-month cat custody battle

AP photo (Illustration purposes only. Not cat in story)

PORTLAND — A 16-month cat fight in an Oregon court has come to an end.

A pair of Portland neighbors resorted to attorneys to sort out their dispute over a 4-year-old Siamese cat named Merlin.

Donella and Charles Whitacre had claimed their neighbors, RoseMarie Opp and Lawrence Hudetz, “kidnapped” Merlin.

But Opp and Hudetz said they kept the cat because they believed he had been neglected.

Donnella Whitacre posted fliers around their neighborhood, calling Opp and Hudetz cat thieves. She reported the cat stolen, sending a police officer to retrieve it.

Opp and Hudetz countered by slapping a lien on the cat as personal property, eventually foreclosing during an auction on the front steps of the Multnomah County Courthouse.

Police concluded that it was a civil matter, so it ended up in court with attorneys on both sides.

But with a trial pending this week, the lawyers reached a settlement that sent Merlin back to the Whitacres.

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Oregon board splits over Bunny Suicides book

HALSEY — After more than an hour of debate, the Central Linn School Board found itself split on a motion to remove the divisive “Book of Bunny Suicides” from library shelves.

With a 3-3 vote, the board decided to take up the issue again in January, when all seven members will be present.

The book, a collection of macabre cartoons in which bunnies commit suicide in various ways, has been a topic of debate for months.

A parent complained about the book in October after her 13-year-old son brought it home. She threatened to burn the book, drawing national attention to the story. As a result, the district received 24 copies of the book.

The mother ultimately returned the original when the district agreed to have a seven-member committee determine whether it should remain in the combined high school-junior high library. The committee strongly favored keeping the book, without restrictions, on a vote of 6-1.

Still, the school board found itself deeply divided at this week’s meeting.

“While I understand we do need to protect the kids, and that’s part of our job being a board member, I just don’t believe in censorship,” board member Julie Smith said. “We could all find something objectionable in our library. Does that give us the right to go in and take whatever anybody finds objectionable off the shelf?”

Verne Hoyer, another board member, disagreed and cast his vote in favor of a ban. He said the decision stemmed, in part, from his work with the Eugene Police Department, where he had to deal with more than one suicide.

“I believe it’s not something we should condone in our schools, not something that should be discussed in the library and not something we should have our children joking about or making fun of,” he said. “I can’t see a school district putting that type of garbage on the shelves and then justifying it as literature.”

A second motion, to allow the book to be checked out with parent permission, failed on a 4-2 vote.

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Oregon tow company to refund money to assault victim

WILSONVILLE — A tow company has agreed to refund a $165 “drop fee” to an assault victim who parked illegally at her apartment complex after fleeing from her boyfriend.

Gary Coe, owner of Retriever Towing, said dozens of people called to protest the actions of the tow-truck driver and the company Web site received more than 600 complaints after the incident made news. But, he added, the criticism that prompted the refund came from the management company at the complex.

According to sheriff’s office reports, the woman called police Monday night to report she had been hit by her boyfriend. The woman phoned from her grandmother’s apartment in the same complex, where she drove after escaping her own apartment. Seeing no empty parking spaces, she left her car double-parked in a fire lane with the four-way flashers going.

Deputies arrived minutes later to investigate and arrest the boyfriend. While that was going on, the woman’s car was being hooked up to a tow truck.

The woman, who had blood on her face, was frantic.

Clackamas County Sheriff’s Deputy Wes Hall said he explained the situation to the tow driver, but the man declined to release the car unless the woman paid the $165 fee.

Coe told The Oregonian newspaper that the tow driver’s account differs from that of the deputy. “I’m not sure the driver made a bad call here — he may have,” Coe said. “But we are refunding the money because the management company at the apartment complex asked us to.”

Coe also pledged to donate $500 to a shelter for battered women.

Mark Harris, portfolio manager for Guardian Management, which manages the woman’s apartment complex, said Retriever’s service has generally been good.

“But I told them that once an officer identified himself and explained that the vehicle was involved in a criminal investigation, the driver should have backed away,” Harris said. “Sometimes common sense has to take over.”

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Columbia Gorge panel takes on city growth request

THE DALLES — The Columbia River Gorge Commission says it will consider a request to remove 20 acres from protection under the National Scenic Area Act to build schools at Hood River.

The request could touch off a debate over the potential for other gorge towns to expand into the scenic area and whether the Hood River urban expansion requires congressional action.

“This issue will be the biggest to come before the commission in its history,” said Commissioner Honna Sheffield at a meeting this week.

School officials say they want to build an elementary school on the land, and eventually a high school.

Two other cities, The Dalles and Lyle, Wash., are also preparing requests to expand their urban areas. Those are expected to be before the commission next year.

Under Oregon’s land use law, cities are required to provide a 20-year supply of buildable land, a provision that puts gorge cities in a bind.

If approved, the Hood River expansion would be the first change in the borders of the National Scenic Area since minor mapping errors were corrected in 1997.

“Any change in the urban areas we take very seriously, and we will be fully participating,” said Michael Lang of the Friends of the Columbia River Gorge, an environmental watchdog group. He said the group hadn’t seen specifics of the Hood River request.

Commission members say that cuts in state funds from both Washington and Oregon are expected to make it more difficult to evaluate the expansion proposals.

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Police shooting west of Eugene ruled justified

EUGENE — Lane County prosecutors decided a sheriff’s deputy was justified in shooting a man during a confrontation west of Eugene.

Deputy Jason Wilson fired five shots at Bix Barker after the 56-year-old reportedly raised a rifle toward deputies and threatened to blow up a propane tank.

Two rounds hit Barker near his shoulders, while the third struck him in the leg. Barker remains hospitalized in serious condition at a Springfield hospital.

Police described Barker as a transient, but court records show he previously lived at the home where he reportedly argued with a relative before getting shot Sunday.

Charges have yet to be filed against Barker.

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Car crashes into Tigard salon; 3 hurt

TIGARD — A Mercedes slammed into a Tigard salon, injuring two women getting their hair done and an employee.

Tigard Police spokesman Jim Wolf said Wednesday’s crash occurred when the driver’s foot slipped from the brake to the accelerator. The car didn’t stop until it was completely inside the beauty shop.

One customer was taken to at OHSU Hospital after getting pinned by the car. Two other women were hit by flying debris. One declined to be taken to the hospital and the other was sent to Legacy Meridian Park Hospital.

Wolf said the salon has been hit by a vehicle twice in two years.

He added that the driver — 75-year-old Georgia Vareldzis — would probably not be given a ticket.

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Lane County judges urge jail funding boost

EUGENE — All 15 Lane County Circuit Court judges say the county jail is in such bad shape they decided to ask publicly that county commissioners boost funding.

Presiding Judge Mary Ann Bearden calls their letter to Lane County commissioners an unusual move by the judges to address budget problems that have “directly affected the administration of criminal justice.”

The judges say the lack of funding endangers county residents because the judges can’t do their job.

The jail budget is so low that only 127 of its 695 beds are being used. So many inmates are being released early, the judges say, that the system is breaking down.

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*International*

Accused killer appears in jailhouse movie

By MARTA FALCONI
Associated Press Writer

ROME — An American student accused in the slaying of her British roommate in Italy has appeared in a jailhouse movie, prison officials and the film’s director said Thursday.

Seattle student Amanda Knox performed in the 55-minute movie called “L’Ultima Citta” (The Last City), which tells the story of 12 female inmates who take an imaginary journey in seven fantasy cities, said director Claudio Carini. There are no immediate plans for the film to be seen publicly.

“Like all the others, she acted very well. She was very disciplined,” he said in a telephone interview.

Carini said that Knox acted both in English and Italian and “had a lot of fun.”

The movie, which Carini started shooting in September at the Capanne prison, near Perugia, includes excerpts from Shakespeare and Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Carini declined to say how much the film cost.

Knox, 21 and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were indicted in October on charges of murder and sexual violence in the 2007 slaying of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia. The two deny wrongdoing.

A trial is scheduled to open Jan. 16.

The film had been slated to screen Sunday at a Perugia film festival but prison officials and the local authorities who commissioned the movie put it on indefinite hold, fearing its release could impact Knox’s case.

The idea for the project began in June 2007 — months before Kercher’s Nov. 1, 2007, murder — so Knox’s participation in it is purely coincidental, regional official Damiano Stufara said in a statement. The film was part of a series of social reintegration initiatives for the Capanne inmates that also included sporting and cultural events.

The director of the Capanne prison, Antonio Fullone, who has seen the movie, said Thursday that because of Knox’s participation in the film, “We thought it most appropriate not to screen it at the festival.”

Fullone said a decision on whether to make the movie public has not been made yet.

Knox’s lawyers in Italy and a spokesman in Seattle representing Knox’s family were not immediately available for comment.

Knox and Sollecito have been in custody for over a year. A third man, Rudy Hermann Guede, of Ivory Coast, was sentenced to 30 years in prison on the same charges. Guede, who also denied any wrongdoing, asked for a fast-track trial.

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*National*

Dying to support animal rights? Try a PETA coffin

By TIM KORTE
Associated Press Writer

Coffin maker Dienna Genther displays a finished all-wood human coffin at her showroom in Edgewood, N.M., on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008. Her company, The Old Pine Box, has partnered with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to make natural human coffins featuring PETA slogans and art. Genther plans to build the PETA coffins as orders roll in. Hand-painted doves are shown on a coffin panel below. AP photo/Tim Korte

EDGEWOOD, N.M. — For animal rights activists, sticking up for furry or feathered critters is a way of life. Now it can be a way of death, too.

A New Mexico company is building all-wood human coffins in a partnership with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. They bear painted slogans, such as “Lifetime PETA Member” or “I saved 500 animals.”

Another serves up a last laugh that plays on a long-running PETA advertisement: “Told You I Wouldn’t Be Caught Dead in Fur!”

The coffins, which went on sale last week, are priced from $620 to $670, which includes a $75 PETA contribution. Made of wood, they are designed to be Earth-friendly, with no screws, nails, hinges or animal-based glues.

They are assembled by Dienna Genther, 44, a former construction worker from Bellingham, Wash., who operates a company called The Old Pine Box in rural Edgewood, about 30 miles east of Albuquerque. She began handcrafting coffins from pine, cedar, maple and other woods in 2004.

When initially contacted, Genther thought PETA wanted to discuss marketing coffins for pets. Her company builds those, too.

“But then they sent the designs, the classic toe-pincher style, and I realized they wanted human coffins,” she recalled. “I told them, ‘We can do it.’”

Genther is not a PETA member but, “I support their cause.”

Michael McGraw, a PETA spokesman in New York, said the organization has about 2 million members and supporters, suggesting there are plenty of potential customers for PETA-themed coffins.

“We expect a healthy interest,” he said. “It’s the best way for people to continue to use their voice for animals in death.”

While some designs might seem irreverent, the PETA coffins aren’t unusual, Genther said. For years, she noted, funeral homes have offered stylized coffins with such adornments as religious symbols or sports team logos.

Joan Calpin, a 40-year-old health insurance billing clerk and PETA member in Middletown, Del., plans to buy one.

“It’s a great idea,” she said. “For myself and a lot of my friends who are activists, everybody always says, ‘All my life, I’ve helped animals.’ Well, now you can say it even after your life is over. You’re still helping animals.”

On the Net:

Old Pine Box: http:www.theoldpinebox.com/peta—coffins.html

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Despite downturn, Calif. adopts tough climate plan

By SAMANTHA YOUNG
Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California on Thursday adopted the nation’s most sweeping plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, issuing rules that could transform everything from the way factories operate to the appliances people buy and the fuel they put in their cars.

The Air Resources Board voted unanimously to approve the plan despite warnings it will put costly new burdens on businesses at a time when the economy is in extreme crisis, with California forecasting a staggering budget gap of $41.8 billion through mid-2010.

Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he believes the regulations will spur the state’s economy and serve as a model for the rest of the country.

“When you look at today’s depressed economy, green tech is one of the few bright spots out there, which is yet another reason we should move forward on our environmental goals,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

The strategy relies on 31 new rules affecting all facets of life, including where people may build their homes and what materials they use to do it.

One central piece is a cap-and-trade program, set to begin in 2012, under which power plants, refineries and big factories will be able to buy and sell the right to emit heat-trapping gases. The program could give plant operators a financial incentive to reduce their carbon emissions.

Air regulators said the average Californian could see more fuel-efficient cars and plug-in hybrids on showroom floors; better public transportation; housing nearer to schools and businesses; and utility rebates to make their homes more energy-efficient.

But there will also be costs: Cars could become more expensive, and Californians can expect higher electric rates as utilities increase their use of renewable energy. Homes built with energy-efficient materials could also prove more costly, as could gasoline reformulated to release less carbon dioxide.

The rules spell out in broad terms how the state intends to carry out a landmark 2006 California law that made the state a leader in confronting climate change. The law — conceived when the economy was in better shape — requires the state to cut greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. More detailed rules will be issued over the next few years.