Bulletin Daily Paper 02/10/10

Page 1

TODAY, Page E1

Make it Valentine’s Week

• Dating on the Web • Bargain gift ideas

COMING UP

• Dating at work • How does Baby fit in?

WEATHER TODAY

WEDNESDAY

Partly cloudy High 47, Low 35 Page C6

• February 10, 2010 50¢

Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com

THE EMPLOYMENT PICTURE IN CENTRAL OREGON

Snapshot: Jobless benefits

Attention: Older workers

• More companies are exhausting their share, Page B1

• How to get help to enter the work force, Page B1

Student loans: Enrollment has soared, but degrees haven’t helped many; colleges have reasons to worry as well

Still no job. Now in debt, too Debie Griffith, 47, leaves a Thursday morning appointment with Staffing Services Inc. in Bend. Griffith graduated from OSU-Cascades with a business degree last year but has not found work. She has about $60,000 in student loans. She joked while submitting her résumé here that she hopes to not be living out of her car soon. Said Staffing’s Deanne Westmoreland about the response Griffith has received about certain job applications: “Everyone is overqualified right now.”

Steens proposals spur debate over size, placement of energy projects By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin

Conservation groups have asked the state to toughen the rules permitting renewable energy projects to ensure that wildlife habitat and scenic views are protected, citing concerns about three wind farm proposals near Steens Mountain. The groups are concerned that energy development companies could sidestep stricter state regulations in favor of dealing with local counties by splitting large projects up into smaller pieces, and they use the Steens Mountain project in Harney County as an example. But an energy company official dismissed the concerns, saying the company is trying to work with the conservation groups. And the county said the local permitting process is just as stringent as the state’s. Currently, the renewable energy projects that will produce less than 105 megawatts of power do not have to go through the state’s Energy Facility Siting Council; developers can instead get the OK from the local county. See Renewable / A5

DNA’s new meaning to ‘sins of the father’ By P. Solomon Banda The Associated Press

Rob Kerr The Bulletin

By Patrick Cliff and Sheila G. Miller • The Bulletin

D

ebie Griffith figured finding work would be difficult, but not impossible, when she entered the job market last year. But Griffith, who was a legislative aide for former state

Rep. Chuck Burley, is still looking for work after submitting 250 applications and getting just five interviews.

More and more people are about to join Griffith in the job hunt. In recent

years, enrollment has boomed at Oregon State University-Cascades Campus and Central Oregon Community College.

“For me, to go back to school, it was worth it even though I’m going to be old before I get them paid off.” — Debie Griffith, a former legislative aide in Salem who earned a business degree last year (and accumulated $60,000 in student loans)

COCC’s enrollment jumped 45 percent over the last two years, and OSU-Cascades’ has increased by 20 percent. Administrators worry that as those people stay unemployed, student loan default rates will climb. Now, COCC has among the lowest default rates for Oregon community colleges. The weight of those loans, though, has been unable to diminish Griffith’s optimism. “For me, to go back to school, it was worth it even though I’m going to be old before I get them paid off,” Griffith said. Griffith, 47, spent five years in college at COCC and OSU-Cascades, earning her bachelor’s degree in business. She now owes about $60,000 in student loans and worries about paying down that debt if she remains unemployed. Burley is surprised Griffith is still searching for work. He said Griffith made hundreds of contacts while working for him. His former employee’s job hunting experience, though, speaks to the difficulty of anyone finding a job. “It’s a very, very tough climate to be looking for work,” Burley said. See Student debt / A5

Police in at least two states are increasingly using a DNA crime-solving technique that some legal experts say amounts to guilt by association: If your brother, father, uncle or son has been in trouble with the law and is in a DNA database because of it, you, too, could fall under suspicion. The technique is known as a “familial DNA” search. And in what is believed to be a precedentsetting case, Denver police used it to help catch the burglar who left a drop of blood on a car after breaking a window to steal $1.40 in change. A growing number of law enforcement agencies nationwide are considering whether to adopt the technique, which scientists say holds great promise — and others say is, on the human rights front, downright dangerous. See DNA / A6

Congress and country: Behold the differences By Sam Roberts New York Times News Service

Members of the U.S. Congress • Obama tries to bridge do not look much like the public partisan they are elected to represent. divide, Congress now includes more Page A3 women and Asians than ever, but it is considerably less diverse, older, better educated, more likely to have served in the military and not as likely to have been born abroad than Americans overall. Other data from the statistical profile released this week are telling as well. See Congress / A6

TOP NEWS INSIDE IRAN: Small step in nuclear program suggests ambitions for a weapon, Page A3

The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper

MON-SAT

Vol. 107, No. 41, 34 pages, 6 sections

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Snow shut down D.C. — but life goes on, even for Oregon’s delegation

OBESITY: First lady rolls out campaign for kids’ health amid news of early success, Page A6

A Washington, D.C., resident uses an oven pan to slide down the hill near the U.S. Capitol. The federal government has largely been shut down since Friday afternoon, when a storm began dumping up to 3 feet of snow in some parts of the region, and with at least another foot headed here and much of the East today, offices were scheduled to remain closed. But Oregon’s lawmakers? “We are men of the West,” said one House Democrat. “We’re not stopped by little things like this!”

INDEX

We use recycled newsprint Abby

E2

Business

B1-4

Calendar

E3

Editorial

C4

Shopping

E1-6

Environment A2

Sports

D1-4

Horoscope

Stocks

B2-3

E5

Classified

F1-8

Local

Sudoku

E5

Comics

E4-5

Movies

E3

TV listings

E2

Obituaries

C5

Weather

C6

Crossword E5, F2

C1-6

Inside

See story on Page C1. Manuel Balce Ceneta / The Associated Press


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