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If the weather’s right, you can combine two of Central Oregon’s most popular pastimes • SPORTS, D1
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Medicare deal for Oregon as vote nears
K-12 funding boost now may hit state budget later
HEALTH CARE REFORM Inside • Obama makes final plea for support, with House vote scheduled for today, Page A2
By Keith Chu The Bulletin
WASHINGTON — Oregon doctors and hospitals would see a bump in Medicare payments, and seniors might have an easier time finding a doctor, under a late concession to Oregon Democrats as part of the health care bill slated for a vote today in
the U.S. House. The change by Democratic leaders would benefit Oregon and 16 other states with low Medicare spending, including Washington and Wisconsin. It came just two days after Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, threatened to vote against the $940 billion health care overhaul bill unless the
change was made. Doctors and medical providers in Central Oregon have complained for decades that Medicare’s formula penalized them for operating efficiently compared with high-cost states like Florida. Jim Diegel, CEO of Cascade Healthcare Community, said he and other members of the Or-
egon Association of Hospitals & Health Systems worked with Oregon members of Congress to push for the deal. “We’re really proud that our delegation has acknowledged that this has been problematic for Oregon hospitals and Oregon physicians for a long time,” he said Saturday. See Medicare / A7
By Nick Budnick The Bulletin
SALEM — Last month’s decision by state lawmakers to put $200 million of reserves into K-12 schools presented local school administrators with bad news, as well as good. The decision, hailed by education advocates in Salem, boosted the level of state funding for Central Oregon districts by more than $10 million in the budget year starting this July. But even while improving schools’ short-term picture, the modified state budget hurt Oregon’s overall long-term picture, boosting its projected 2011-13 budget hole to nearly $2.5 billion. As a result, the funds available for local school districts could be hit even harder next year than they would have otherwise. Last month’s modified state budget released an additional $1 million each to the Crook County and Jefferson County school districts, as well as more than $2 million for the Redmond School District and more than $5 million for Bend-La Pine Schools. But in many cases, the new money does little more than fill existing funding gaps and doesn’t help schools’ long-term outlook at all. Ivan Hernandez, Crook County school superintendent, calls the funds “a soft Band-Aid.” And he said the short-term good news merely camouflages an untenable long-term situation. “You’re playing Russian roulette, and there are bullets in all the chambers,” he said. “We’re going to shoot ourselves eventually here.” See Schools / A6
‘Tenants are living in a state of fear’
By Keith Chu The Bulletin
Photos by Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin
UNSAFE CONDITIONS Doug Jackson, who lives with his family in a home on the Warm Springs reservation, is concerned about the excessive amounts of trash that border his property, left. Also, his teen daughter’s bedroom window has not been replaced after being broken by a thrown rock in December; instead, it’s been boarded up with plywood.
By Dennis Overbye New York Times News Service
Seven years ago, a reclusive Russian mathematician startled the scientific world by writing a series of papers claiming to solve one of the most famous and intractable problems in mathematics, called the Poincare conjecture, and then disappearing into the wilds of St. Petersburg. Grigoriy Perelman, who did not show up to receive a prestigious Fields Medal from the International Mathematical Union in Madrid in 2006, has been named the winner of a $1 million prize — the first of its kind — for solving the problem by the Clay Mathematics Institute in Cambridge, Mass. One question: Will he accept? See Prize / A6
STRAINED RESOURCES Grant Clements, a maintenance worker for the Warm Springs Housing Authority, replaces broken laminate tile Thursday in one of the agency’s homes on the reservation. Clements said six people are responsible for maintaining all of the authority’s 200 or so housing units. “We do everything from changing the light bulbs (to fixing) doorknobs. Sometimes the work is overwhelming.”
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WARM SPRINGS — amaged walls, boarded-up windows, crumbling sidewalks and drug-dealing neighbors are commonplace for people living in homes and apartments run by the Warm Springs Housing Authority. In four years living in a housing authority home in the West Hills on the reservation, Doug Jackson, 52, has seen that for himself. In December, someone threw a rock into his teenage daughter’s bedroom. The window has been boarded up since, he said last week, pointing to the plywood covering. “There are no gutters; I’ve requested that,” he said. “My wife was pregnant and would slip on the ice in front of the door, because there are no gutters.” For years, while residents like Jackson have been dealing with unsafe conditions, the housing authority has continued to ignore crime, poor housing conditions and other problems flagged by federal investigators as far back as 2003, when government watchdogs found rampant misuse of federal funds by the housing authority. Top tribal officials say they’ve begun taking steps to clean up the housing authority, which is a semi-independent agency affiliated with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. In recent years, they’ve disbanded the authority’s board of directors, reinstated many of the same directors, updated accounting procedures and now have begun the process of taking direct control over the authority itself. See Warm Springs / A4
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Math expert wins wealth, if he accepts
Abby
Since 2003, federal inspectors have flagged low-income housing units in Warm Springs for poor living conditions, misused funds and crime. Now, the tribes want control of the project — but there are doubts that will help.
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 80, 48 pages, 7 sections
U.S. AND ISRAEL: Clash subsides, and both claim victory, Page A3
MILITARY’S SHIFT IN NAMING BATTLES
Their eyes on the target (audience) By Christian Davenport
Correction In a story headlined “Walden cries foul on ‘sleight of hand,’” which appeared Saturday, March 20, on Page A1, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden’s view of using a self-executing rule to pass the House health care reform bill was misstated. He opposes using the procedure to pass the bill. The Bulletin regrets the error.
The Washington Post
In the hypercharged rush of combat, the adrenaline flows and the rhetoric soars. After the “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq, many of the names the military gave early battles were pugnacious: Operation Scorpion Sting, Operation Iron Hammer, Opera-
Inside • After Marjah, ignoring the opium problem, Page A3 tion Ivy Serpent. But as the military changed tactics, trying to win over the local population with on-the-ground diplomacy, some nicknames started
to soften. Hence Operation Glad Tidings of Benevolence and Operation Together Forward. Names are important in war. Like a good advertising jingle, war names must be catchy and concise. But above all else, they have to sell — all sorts of things, to all sorts of people. See War / A5