Bulletin Daily Paper 05/30/10

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Cleanup on the Gulf A Prineville company is part of the efforts, Business, Page G1

Oregon charter schools may see changes

FOUR IN A ROW FOR SUMMIT GIRLS Summit’s girls track and field team continued its dominance of Class 5A on Saturday at Eugene’s Hayward Field, winning its fourth consecutive state title. Senior Kellie Schueler (at top of photo, holding trophy) wrapped up her 16th state title over her four-year career. She took first place in the 100-, 200- and 400meter events, in addition to running a leg on the Storm’s winning 1,600-meter relay. It was a tight race in the team competition, as Summit edged Intermountain Conference rival Hermiston. Matthew Aimonetti / For The Bulletin

FOR STORY, SEE SPORTS, PAGE D1

Artifact sting wins some, returns some

AP photo

BP’s trail of incorrect estimates raises motive questions By Tamara Lush, Holbrook Mohr and Justin Pritchard The Associated Press

At nearly every step since the Deepwater Horizon exploded more than a month ago, causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history, rig operator BP PLC has downplayed the severity of the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico. On almost every issue — the amount of gushing oil, the environmental impact, even how to stop the leak — BP’s statements have proven wrong. The erosion of the company’s credibility may prove as Inside difficult to stop • ‘Top kill’ as the oil speweffort fails ing from the sea floor. • Additional “They keep concerns over making one rig safety, mistake after Page A2 another. That gives the impression that they’re hiding things,” said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has been critical of BP’s reluctance to publicly release videos of the underwater gusher. “These guys either do not have any sense of accountability to the public or they are Neanderthals when it comes to public relations.” Take one of the most obvious questions since the April 20 explosion: How much oil is leaking? Official estimates have grown steadily — first the word was none, then it was 42,000 gallons, then 210,000 gallons. And now a team of scientists say the leak may well be five times that, making the spill worse than the Exxon Valdez. All the while, BP has been slow to acknowledge the leak was likely much worse than the public had been told. See Oil / A7

Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin

Artifact collector Miles Simpson kneels by a small portion of the 3,000-plus items that federal agents seized in 2005 and returned May 21. Although more than a dozen other subjects of the raids were convicted for artifact-related crimes, Simpson has not been indicted for any archaeological violations.

A dozen people convicted, but others say they were wrongfully targeted By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin

Federal law enforcement agents rushed into Miles Simpson’s Bend house early on a late January morning more than five years ago and, over the course of the day, seized his family’s collection of American Indian artifacts and crafts. “They came in with guns locked and loaded,” Simpson said. At the same time in La Pine, armed agents guarded Harold Elliot as others went through the rooms of his house,

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taking what Elliot estimates to be 5,000 artifacts and other American Indian items. “These people kept assuring me that I was not guilty of anything, and then they started taking, one by one, different things out of my house until they really (took) almost the entire collection,” Elliot recalled. “I felt totally violated.” But earlier this month, the government returned most of Simpson’s collection. Elliot has picked up part of his artifact collection, and he plans to claim

TOP NEWS INSIDE OBITUARY: Dennis Hopper, rebel who changed Hollywood, Page B6

the rest in June. “It’s a huge feeling of satisfaction to get it back,” Elliot said. The American Indian artifact seizures were part of Operation Bring ’Em Back, an effort by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and other agencies to crack down on illegal artifact excavation, collecting and trafficking. Simpson and Elliot have said that they were wrongly targeted for their collections — and hope no one else has to go through a similar ordeal. But Federal officials say the operation has been a success, pointing to the conviction of more than a dozen people of artifact-related crimes and noting additional cases are ongoing. See Artifacts / A4

Trouble in Sisters, elsewhere sparks a deeper inquiry By Sheila G. Miller and Patrick Cliff The Bulletin

When three Sisters charter schools were closed this spring, it was just the beginning of what has become an ongoing investigation into the way its operators did business. Both the Oregon Department of Education and the state’s Department of Justice are checking to see whether the schools were in compliance with the state’s charter law, and how state and federal money was used to support the schools. The fight — to return student records, ensure kids are receiving appropriate educations and determine where grant and state funds went — has illustrated concerns that some state and local officials have about online education and its regulation, and has shone a light on the challenges of overseeing the nebulous world of virtual schools. EdChoices, a company handling administrative duties for 15 AllPrep charter schools in Oregon and Washington that serve more than 1,400 students, including the three Sisters charters and online education programs run through the Fossil and Paisley school districts, ran into problems after being evicted from its Clackamas facility in March. AllPrep Director Tim King resigned as the state launched an inquiry into the practices of the schools. ODE has obtained the schools’ more than 1,400 student records, and employees are trying to make sense of them, while schools around the state have either closed or are restructuring in an effort to stay open. Now the Oregon Legislature and other groups are trying to figure out how best to prevent problems, like that in Sisters, from happening again. Oregon’s charter law was passed in 1999, and today the state has about 100 charter schools serving between 14,000 and 16,000 students around the state. The law regulates funding to the schools, who can attend the schools and how the schools will operate. But what the law hasn’t addressed specifically is where online charter schools fit into the equation. See Charters / A5

Salt sellers work overtime on image By Michael Moss New York Times News Service

With salt under attack for its ill effects on the nation’s health, the food giant Cargill kicked off a campaign last November to spread its own message. “Salt is a pretty amazing compound,” Alton Brown, a Food Network star, gushes in a Cargill video called Salt 101. “So make sure you have plenty of salt in your kitchen

at all times.” The campaign by Cargill, which both produces and uses salt, promotes salt as “life enhancing” and suggests sprinkling it on foods as varied as cookies, fresh fruit, ice cream, even coffee. “You might be surprised,” Brown says, “by what foods are enhanced by its briny kiss.” By all appearances, this is a moment of reckoning for salt. High blood pressure is rising among adults and

children. Government health experts estimate deep cuts in salt consumption could save 150,000 lives a year. See Salt / A6

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