Bulletin Daily Paper 04/10/10

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Big show in miniature

Ellensburg: The arts in the heart of Washington

Area modelers show off their hobby today • COMMUNITY LIFE, B1

COMING SUNDAY

WEATHER TODAY

SATURDAY

Mostly clear High 56, Low 26 Page C8

• April 10, 2010 50¢

Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com

County may pay workers more for care, less for pensions By Hillary Borrud The Bulletin

Deschutes County could pay close to 10 percent more for employees’ health insurance starting in July in an effort to offset higher medical costs. If approved, the move would cost the county up to $1 million more over the next budget year. It would ultimately be a wash for the county budget, however, because County Administrator Dave Kanner said he also plans to propose cutting the county’s contributions to employee pension funds. County departments currently pay pension rates of 15.5 percent to 18.75 percent of payroll, and Kanner’s proposal would result in rates of 13.5 percent to 18.6 percent of payroll. Kanner declined to provide further details because he has not yet briefed the County Commission on these budget issues. He plans to discuss the health cost projections with the commission April 19. “Even with this increase, our charges to the departments next year will be lower than they were in 2008,” Kanner said. “Name one other business in Central Oregon whose health insurance premiums for the same coverage are going to be lower next year than they were for 2008.” County commissioners said this week they would be reluctant to pay more for insurance because the county faces a tough budget year. Two commissioners also said they want to increase employees’ insurance premiums, from $35 a month to at least $50. The county has begun trimming its budget because it expects to receive a smaller-than-normal increase in property taxes this fall and expects no increase or even a decline in taxes in 2011. So far, cost-cutting measures include staff reductions through layoffs and attrition and the likely one-day-a-week closure of the county landfill and Redmond transfer station. See County / A6

MINERS: Four missing are found dead in worst coal mine disaster in 40 years, Page A2

INDEX B2

Local

C1-8

Business

C3-5

Movies

B3

Classified

F1-6

Obituaries

C7

Comics

B4-5

Sudoku

B5

Community B1-6

Sports

D1-6

Crossword B5, F2

Stocks

C4-5

Editorial

C6

TV listings

B2

Horoscope

B5

Weather

C8

We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper

Vol. 107, No. 100, 72 pages, 7 sections

MON-SAT

AP

Justice Stevens’ exit could lead to gridlock McClatchy-Tribune News Service WASHINGTON — The announcement by Justice John Paul Stevens on Friday that he would retire at the end of this term gives President Barack Obama the rare opportunity to make back-to-back appointments to the Supreme Court during the first two years of his presidency. But it also presents Obama with a complex politi-

cal challenge: Getting a nominee confirmed in the thick of a midterm election season. Processing a Supreme Court nomination will consume big chunks of time and attention, and there already warning signs that Obama’s nomination, if it sparks a fierce partisan response, could poison the political environment on other issues for months to come. See Stevens / A3

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Inside • Gauging Stevens’ legacy and possible replacements, Page A3

ASSESSING DEER RIDGE’S IMPACT ON JEFFERSON COUNTY

Prison’s promises not quite fulfilled

A STATE VIEW

Where are the inmates? Blame the budget and, yes, criminals By Nick Budnick The Bulletin

Rob Kerr / The Bulletin

The state once estimated that this 1,224-bed medium-security section of Deer Ridge Correctional Institution could open years ago, but new information on prison population offers little hope, for better or worse, that the prison outside Madras can open it before 2013.

Supporters once said Deer Ridge would bring economic prosperity and new jobs; now, amid a global slump, they say that will take time

TOP NEWS INSIDE

Abby

Justice John Paul Stevens, pictured with John Roberts in 2006, will retire in June, giving Barack Obama his second Supreme Court nomination.

By Lauren Dake The Bulletin

MADRAS — Dan Harnden is enjoying the second career he never imagined he would have. For 27 years, he worked at Seaswirl Boats in Culver. Until the day he was told the company was relocating to the Midwest, he was confident he would retire from the boat manufacturer. Instead, the former mayor of Culver headed to the employment office to figure out how to create a résumé. He put in for 30 or 40 jobs before he applied for a contractor position at the state’s newest prison in Madras. “The day I was offered this job

was one of the best days of my life,” the 60-year-old Harnden said. It took 11 years of planning and $220 million in construction to build Deer Ridge Correctional Institution. In September 2007, the minimum-security portion of the state prison started to fill up. It’s now at capacity, but the 1,224-bed medium-security building has been mothballed and the state has postponed breaking ground on construction several times. The Department of Corrections came into the small community promising recession-proof jobs and a boost to the local economy. New housing subdivisions were

MADRAS 97

Deer Ridge

Ashwood Rd. MILES 0

1 Greg Cross / The Bulletin

planned, a school was remodeled and an $8 million wastewater treatment plant was put in place by the city. Fast forward a few years and houses are sitting empty and school enrollment remains flat. No local business has a substantial contract with the prison. Advocates who were in favor of

In films, sex doesn’t sell like violence By Melissa Healy Los Angeles Times

You don’t need to be a raging pacifist to notice that American motion pictures have gotten way more violent, and that younger and younger audiences are seeing more intense violence

on the big screen. You just need eyes (and enough money to buy a movie ticket). But for skeptics, a new study, published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, offers some validation of the point. Researchers from the An-

nenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania painstakingly coded each year’s top-grossing 30 films from 1950 to 2006 to gauge the extent and intensity of sexual content and violence. See Violence / A6

the state’s building in Madras remain convinced it has helped. But with the recession hitting the area hard, some residents said the prison could have done more to buffer the blow to Jefferson County. Harnden’s enthusiasm isn’t shared by Ron Vincent, a former Jefferson County commissioner who almost literally has the prison in his backyard. “I think they have hampered the economy,” he said. Developers “built all this housing expecting an influx of people and it hasn’t panned out that way. There are a lot of empty houses here.” See Deer Ridge / A7

SALEM — It’s good news for state coffers, but bad news for those hoping for an expansion of the Deer Ridge prison in Madras: Oregonians have been unexpectedly lawabiding in recent years. Based on earlier projections of crime rates and prisoner population growth, state officials once thought the roughly 1,200-bed medium-security section of Deer Ridge could open in 2007. That date was postponed to 2008, then 2009, then 2112, and then 2013. Now that date may be pushed out indefinitely, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, who said it’s possible the medium-security portion of Deer Ridge might not open at all — or at least not in the foreseeable future. “That’s possible,” said spokeswoman Jeanine Hohn. “At this time there’s still no plan for the medium security, and the reason is there are so many other issues in flux right now.” Crime rates, political battles over sentencing laws, and dismal economic forecasts all have interfered with the timetable on fully opening Deer Ridge. And all those factors seem likely to have continuing effects in the coming decade. See Crime / A7

“Oregon’s property crime rate started dropping from 2005 to 2006. We had the biggest drop in the country over that time. ... That’s an important factor.” — Craig Prins, Oregon Criminal Justice Commission

Angelina Jolie, the quintessential sex symbol, pictured in 2005’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” Her action hero status, though, may be what the movie studios desire most. 20th Century Fox


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