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BY ERIC MORTENSON Capital Press
tributed to their original decline. Although no state-level ban on hunting with lead ammunition has been proposed in Oregon, researchers point out that the Environmental Protection Agency has been petitioned for a nationwide ban. There’s also the potential for condor recovery in Southern Oregon. The impact of a lead ammo ban? Mostly cost. While hunting waterfowl with lead shot has long been banned under federal law, the vast majority of big game, small game and upland birds are hunted with lead ammunition. Anglin said that there’s currently no baseline data on lead ammunition use in the state, but he estimated it was as high as 98 percent. Plenty of manufacturers offer lead-free hunting bullets and ammunition loaded with them, but they aren’t cheap. A 20-round box of .30-06 Springfield — one of the most popular big game hunting cartridges — loaded with 150-grain lead-core jacketed soft point bullets will run $17 to $22 at most major retailers. The same number of the same cartridge loaded with Barnes Triple-Shock X-Bullets — one of the most popular lead-free bullets — will run you at least $40. That may seem like a small price increase, but everything is cumulative, especially for hunters in a county where 17 percent of the population lives below the federal poverty line.
A projected turnover of West Coast wineries could big bring change to an industry that’s an outsized agricultural player in California, Oregon and Washington. More than 10 percent of winery owners surveyed said they’re strongly considering selling out in the next five years, according to a report from industry expert Rob McMillan, founder of the Premium Wine Division for Silicon Valley Bank in St. Helena, Calif. In addition, 31 percent said they’re open to a sale under the right circumstances. McMillan said ownership change may be unsettling, but isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “Far from being a weakness, transitions and sales in any industry are a sign of current and future strength,” he wrote in his report titled, “Ownership Transitions in the Wine Industry 2014.” “An exit ramp in a business segment is critical for its overall health,” McMillan wrote. “Consider the impact of an industry where there are no sales transactions. Exits would only mean abandoned businesses.” Ownership changes are necessary in order for winery brands to prosper after the founders are gone, McMillan said. Most of the wineries that change hands will be small operations, he said. With 4,989 wineries on the West Coast, the survey results imply that 524 wineries are strongly considering selling their operation in the next five years, he concluded. McMillan projects the sales will include 98 wineries in Washington and 79 in Oregon. In California, 78 Napa County wineries will sell, and 59 will sell in Sonoma County, according to the report. McMillan has written about the
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SEE WINE | A8
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6 Photo illustration by Lou Sennick, The World
Hunters by the numbers Hunters are getting older
The World
COOS BAY — Hunting has been a part of the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years. The region’s original American Indian inhabitants hunted for subsistence. Later, white settlers took to the woods for both food and sport. That heritage is now having to face problems whose solutions may create problems of their own. According to Oregon State University, roughly 4,200 Oregon hunters will receive letters this month asking them about their use and understanding of lead ammunition. The study, a joint venture of OSU and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, was prompted partially by the California Legislature’s decision to ban hunting with lead ammo. Ron Anglin, administrator for the ODFW Wildlife Division, stressed that there’s no imminent ban that would affect Oregon hunters. But the agency wants to be prepared. “We do know the debate is out there,” Anglin said. “We feel very strongly that if we’re going to walk into those kinds of discussions that we know what our hunters think.” The California ban, passed last year, takes effect in 2019 and was prompted by the recovery of the endangered California condor, which feeds on carrion. The state first imposed a limit-
Median age of licensed hunters in 1991 — 41.6 Median age of licensed hunters in 2003 — 46
By Lou Sennick, The World
Lead-core ammunition like this is at the heart of a major study being undertaken by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon State University. ed ban on lead ammo in condor recovery areas in 2007. Scientists began re-releasing the animals into the wild in 1992. Since then, their numbers have rebounded, with the potential for full restoration of the population in Northern California. Researchers say the animals are susceptible to lead poisoning from bullet fragments in gut piles, and that the phenomenon likely con-
Defiant IRS head will wait to release lost email information The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — Defiant before skeptical Republicans, the head of the IRS refused to apologize Friday for lost emails that might shed light on the tax agency’s targeting of tea party and other groups before the 2010 and 2012 elections. Instead, Commissioner John Koskinen accused the chairman of a powerful House committee of misleading the public by making false statements based on incomplete information. The contentious back-and-forth didn’t end there. Later in the hearing, Rep. Paul Ryan, the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate two years ago, told Koskinen bluntly that “nobody believes you.” “I have a long career. That’s the first time anybody has said they do not believe me,” said Koskinen, who came out of retirement
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in December to take over the IRS. Previously, he served in other positions under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The hearing showed that emotions are running hotter than ever in the dispute over the IRS and political fundraising. Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, asked Koskinen to testify a week after the IRS disclosed that it had lost an untold number of emails to and from Lois Lerner. Lerner headed the division that processes applications for tax-exempt status during a time when, the IRS has acknowledged, agents improperly scrutinized applications from tea party and other conservative groups. Camp was clearly expecting Koskinen to be more contrite. “What I didn’t hear in that was an apol-
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BY MATTHEW DAY The Associated Press WASHINGTON — About 65 percent of senior executives at the Veterans Affairs Department got performance bonuses last year despite widespread treatment delays and preventable deaths at VA hospitals and clinics, the agency said Friday. More than 300 VA executives were paid a total of $2.7 million in bonuses last year, said Gina Farrisee, assistant VA secretary for human resources and administration. That amount is down from about $3.4 million in bonuses paid in 2012, Farrisee said. The totals do not include tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded to doctors, dentists and other medical providers throughout the VA’s nearly 900 hospitals and clinics. Workers at the Phoenix VA Health Care
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VA: 65 percent of senior executives got bonuses
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System — where officials have confirmed dozens of patients died while awaiting treatment — received about $3.9 million in bonuses last year, newly released records show. The merit-based bonuses were doled out to about 650 employees, including doctors, nurses, administrators, secretaries and cleaning staff. There was confusion Friday about the number of senior executives who received bonuses. During a hearing Friday of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, both lawmakers and Farrisee had indicated that nearly 80 percent of senior executives had received bonuses. Later, however, the committee provided documents showing that 304 of 470 senior executives, or 64.7 percent, had received bonuses. The committee and a VA spokesman said the 80 percent SEE VETERANS | A8
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