Bulletin Daily Paper 05/27/10

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Good news for anglers

H1N1 epidemic What have we learned?

From now on, Lower Deschutes salmonfly hatch will be earlier • SPORTS, D1

HEALTH, F1

WEATHER TODAY

THURSDAY

Mostly cloudy, scattered showers High 61, Low 36 Page C6

• May 27, 2010 50¢

Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com

Lawmakers cry foul over governor’s plan for cuts Democrats calling for emergency session as $563M shortfall looms

CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

BEE SEASON

Bend teen’s way with words earns her a spot in national spelling bee

Smaller firms object to bill that would limit donations By Keith Chu

By Hillary Borrud and Erin Golden

The Bulletin

The Bulletin

WASHINGTON — Local business groups say a bill intended to prevent large companies from dominating federal elections could end up keeping even small federal contractors — like small logging firms — from spending on political campaigns. The Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Elections Act was introduced by Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate as a way to counteract the impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down most campaign finance laws that limited political spending by corporations and unions. However, a plank of the bill would ban any company that does more than $50,000 of business with the federal government from spending any money in a campaign for federal office. Chuck Burley, a Bend-based lobbyist and consultant to timber groups, said the $50,000 contract threshold would include several small companies in Oregon that recently accepted federal stimulus contracts for forest restoration work. “It is kind of odd that you

A group of state legislators including Sen. Chris Telfer, R-Bend, on Wednesday criticized the governor’s plan to fill a projected $563 million budget shortfall with an across-theboard cut — and called for an emergency session to tackle the problem. Some Democratic lawmakers have fired back against the push for a special session, which would only go ahead if approved by a majority of legislators. Meanwhile, officials from education, human services and public safety programs around the state are crunching the numbers and deciding what to slice from their budgets for what’s left of the 2009-11 biennium. Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s proposal, released Tuesday, calls for a 9 percent cut for state agencies supported by taxes, including K12 schools, community colleges, universities, the Department of Human Services, Department of Corrections and the Oregon State Police. Telfer said she told other legislators on Wednesday that the 9 percent cut should be considered an emergency — and that the shortfall should be addressed by more targeted cuts. “This is the one thing in the constitution the Legislature is asked to do,” she said. “The only thing we’re asked to do is balance the budget, and I think that’s what we should be doing, that’s what we’re elected to do.” See Budget / A5

would just target people who do business with the federal government,” Burley said. “There was all this stimulus spending that went on and all of a sudden we’re telling all these people they can’t participate in the political process.” The bill wouldn’t prevent individuals who work for federal contractors from donating to political campaigns. But it would ban those companies from directly spending money on behalf of candidates. In January, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that companies can spend unlimited amounts of money on behalf of candidates under constitutional free-speech protections. Some supporters of blunting the effects of that decision believe that the DISCLOSE Act goes too far in handcuffing federal contractors. Dan Weeks, president of Americans for Campaign Reform, a group that has campaigned against corporate influence in elections, said it might make sense to increase the contract limits from $50,000, so that only large companies are impacted. See Donations / A4

IN CONGRESS

Photo illustration by Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin

13-year-old Hannah Allison will compete in the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee next week in Washington, D.C. Hannah, who is a home-schooler from Bend, will be competing in the national bee for the first time.

“There was all this stimulus spending that went on and all of a sudden we’re telling all these people they can’t participate in the political process.” — Chuck Burley, Bend-based lobbyist and consultant, on a bill that would restrict some campaign donations

By Sheila G. Miller • The Bulletin

H

TOP NEWS INSIDE OBITUARY: Renowned TV host Art Linkletter dies at 97, Page C5 SPACE SHUTTLE: A bittersweet final landing for Atlantis, Page A3

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Crossword E5, G2

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TV listings

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We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper

MON-SAT

Vol. 107, No. 147, 42 pages, 7 sections

U|xaIICGHy02329lz[

annah Allison, 13, is not a braggadocio when she says she’s a

Other spills may provide lessons for Gulf oil leak

good speller. She’s not particularly gnathonic, either. She’s not

a mahout, or a zeitgeber, And while she doesn’t own a schipperke, particularly enjoy fantoccini, or eat many pfeffernusses, she does know how to spell all those words. In fact, those are some of the words that won her admission to the 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., where she will compete next week. On Wednesday, the competition will begin. Hannah’s up against 272 other kids. First, she’ll take a computer test, and then on Thursday she’ll participate in the preliminary oral spelling rounds. The combined score of those two tests will determine who goes to the semifinals on Friday. That’s Hannah’s goal. It isn’t the bright lights or the big stage that Hannah, of Bend, worries about. No, she’s more concerned about the computer test.

“I’m just better at spelling orally,” she said. “Hannah has always been a voracious reader,” her father, Rex Allison, said. “She was reading chapter books by the time she was 6 or 7.” With the reading came a large vocabulary. At 8 years old, Hannah enrolled in a spelling class which culminated in a spelling bee. The bee was for students up to fifth grade. Hannah tied a fifth-grader for first place; the tiebreaker? “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Hannah won. See Spelling / A5

Hannah Allison pauses for thought while practicing spelling for the Scripps National Spelling Bee with her mother, Dawn Allison, on Tuesday. Ryan Brennecke The Bulletin

Jim Wilson / New York Times News Service

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduces new privacy controls for the site on Wednesday.

Facebook bows to pressure over privacy By Miguel Helft and Jenna Wortham New York Times News Service

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Ever since Facebook was founded in 2004, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pushed its users to share more information about themselves. Time and again, users have pushed back, complaining that the site violated their privacy. But the reaction has rarely been as strong as in the last few weeks, as users, privacy advocates and government officials in many countries lobbed a series of increasingly vociferous complaints against the company. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg responded. See Facebook / A5

By Nirvi Shah McClatchy-Tribune News Service

MIAMI — The exploratory oil well two miles below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico exploded in a ball of fire, spurting millions of gallons of crude into the sea. As weeks turned to months, oil executives grappled with capping the well. The growing slick turned into an immediate ecological nightmare. The year was 1979. The blowout of the Ixtoc I, drilled by the Mexican-run Pemex, retains the dubious record of causing the world’s largest accidental oil spill, dumping an estimated 138 million gallons over nine months. Eventually, Pemex cut off Ixtoc I with two relief wells and a cement seal. With top BP executives, scientists and Obama administration officials searching for a solution to capping the Deepwater Horizon blowout off the Louisiana coast, perhaps they could find a blueprint in the Ixtoc I experience, observers say. See Oil spill / A4


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