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• Some Oregon farmers say the new paid law has left them unsure ofhow to move forward The Associated Press
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SALEM — Many farmers in Oregon still have questions about new rules that will require them to provide employees with paid sick leave starting Jan. 1. Lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year requiring employers with 10 or more workers to offer the paid sick leave, reported The Capital Press. But farmers aren't sure how that will work with piece-rate workers, like fi1nt pickers, who are compensated based on the amount they harvest, according to the Oregon Farm Bureau. The state's Bureau of Labor and Industries said piece-rate workers should be compensated at"the regular SeeLaw / Page5A
Help on the way A spokesman forthe Bureau of Laborand Industries saidthe agency will offer a series of low-cost seminars about paid sick leave.
Hayward set to step down after 19 years Giovanna Dei Sarto and Fuji Kreider photos
Fuji and Jim Kreider, top left, talk with former La Grande resident Steve Ryman, who is wearing a vest, outside a transit camp in Presevo, Serbia. The other three photos are of refugees in line waiting to be processed at a Presevo transit camp.
• La Grande couple moved by time spent volunteering to aid refugees in Serbia last month
• Wallowa County Reflecting on his commissioner has time Despite taken a new job financial
By Katy Nesbitt
challenges, including ENTERPRISE — After 19 the loss of years as county commission- mill receipts, er, Mike Hayward announced Hayward he is leaving offi ce to serve as saidthe general manager of Wallowa county has County Grain Growers in been able to Enterprise. keep up its Hayward accepted the job services. at Wallowa County Grain Growers Dec. 18 and said he is looking to wrap up his time as county commissioner by mid- to late-January. Hayward would have completed his fifth term at the end of 2016. In the past, Hayward SeeHayward / Page5A For The Observer
By Dick Mason, The Observer
he images remain deeply etched in Fuji Kreiders mind,but time is tempering the heartwrenching emotion associated with them,fi ever so slightly "I couldn't talk about it for two weeks faterward without crying"said the La Grande resident. Afghanistan so they would be allowed to travel across Serbia and reach Croatia while en route to Germany, one of the European nationsaccepting refugees. Many of the people the La Grande couple assisted had alreadytraveledmorethan 1,000
Fuji was referring to the week she and her husband, Jim, spent in Presevo, Serbia, in November workingasvolunteers ata transit camp for refugees. There they helped process thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq and
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Calendar........7A Classified.......1B Comics........... 5B Community...7A Crossword.....2B
Dear Abby ...10B Obituaries......3A Health ............6C Opinion..........4A Horoscope.....2B Outdoors .......1C Lottery............3A Sports ............9A Record ...........3A Television ......3C
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miles on foot, bus and ship and theirpossessionswhileattempting wereexhausted and destitute. to fit their families into crowded Some werein such desperate ships, Jim Kreider said. straits theywere grateful for Upon reaching the transit camp in Presevo, refugees had to something as simple as a poncho or even a dean plastic garbage bag stand in crowded lines an avertokeep them dry.M anyhad noth- age of five hours while waiting ing, since they had shed almost all See Refugees / Page 5A Fu ll f o r e c a st on the back of B section
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