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Newberry may see increase in geothermal projects
VA continues payments for Portland trips
PREPARING TO JUMP
Pressured by vets, politicians, agency retains walk-up window at center
By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin
As geothermal companies get permits in line for drilling projects near Newberry National Volcanic Monument, the U.S. Forest Service is considering whether about a dozen additional parcels of land on the flanks of the Newberry Caldera would be suitable for new geothermal leases as well. The Forest Service will take a look at Inside whether geo• Want to thermal explocomment ration would on drilling? mesh with the Page A5 agency’s rules for the different parcels of land, said Rod Bonacker, team leader with the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District. In addition to the 13 new leases under consideration, the agency will consider whether it should OK leases for 16 parcels whose geothermal lease expires in the next year or two, and what kinds of stipulations those leases should include. The agency could determine, for example, that exploration activity could only be conducted during certain seasons to protect wildlife, or that crews couldn’t work within a quarter-mile of a bird’s nest, Bonacker said. See Geothermal / A5
By Keith Chu The Bulletin
WASHINGTON — The Veterans Affairs Department won’t make vets wait to be paid back for travel costs to and from the Portland VA Medical Center, it revealed in a letter released this week, after it received a torrent of complaints from local veterans and Oregon lawmakers. For most serious medical issues, the Portland facility is the only option for vets across the state, meaning long — and expensive — trips for ex-military personnel with health problems. For years, vets could submit their bills at the medical center and receive cash immediately to pay for the trip. Round-trip from Bend, at 41.5 cents per mile, that amounts to $134.46 – enough to pay for gas and cover wear and tear on a car. But earlier this year, the VA proposed closing the “travel window” to guard against possible fraud. Vets would still have been reimbursed, but only after filling out a form, mailing it to the hospital,
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and having a check mailed back – a process that could take weeks. That’s way too long for many veterans, some of whom depend on the money to pay for the gas back to Bend, said Anne Philiben, a board member for Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, which connects veterans to federal services. “If you’re on a fixed income and you use your tank of gas to get up there, you need the money to get home — that’s what they use for gas on the way back,” Philiben said. “For those people it (was) going to be a terrible hardship.” But in a letter to U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland, released on Tuesday, Dean Stockwell, acting director of the Portland VA facility, said he was delaying the change. See Veterans / A4
By Erin Golden The Bulletin Photos by Pete Erickson / The Bulletin
Smokejumper Bruce Card, 27, a five-year veteran, inspects a new parachute at the Redmond Air Center Tuesday. When checking parachutes, Card reviews the design and each stitch to make sure it is ready to use in fighting fires. Every parachute is inspected at the start of each fire season. Once a parachute has been used in a hundred jumps, it is replaced. Card, 27, left, inspects a new parachute while Chris Hinnenkamp, 29, also a smokejumper, practices folding a parachute. The two smokejumpers were preparing Tuesday at the Redmond Air Center for the fire season.
Police and fire officials patrolling the streets of Bend and Redmond on the Fourth of July found several people using illegal fireworks — and in three cases, handed out costly citations. Both cities continued a tradition of pairing police officers with fire inspectors for fireworks enforcement over the holiday weekend. Redmond has run a joint fireworks task force for seven years, and Bend has run the operation for three years. In Bend, officials contacted 50 people or groups about their fireworks and in 10 cases, found people using illegal fireworks. Fire Marshal Gary Marshall said police issued three $658 citations, down slightly from four citations last year. Officials confiscated 330 fireworks, with a combined value of
about $750. In Oregon, fireworks that travel more than six feet on the ground or 12 inches into the air are illegal. Marshall said officers and fire inspectors were on the lookout for those types of fireworks and any others that had been altered.
Age restriction Bend city ordinance also prohibits children and teens younger than 18 from using fireworks, but Marshall said none of the citations were related to young fireworks users. “We’re trying to change the behavior of people, and I’m not sure if we’re making a dent in it or not,” he said. “But it’s not getting any worse.” Between July 2 and July 5, dispatchers received 83 calls for fireworks complaints in Bend. See Fireworks / A5
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Vol. 107, No. 188, 36 pages, 6 sections
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— Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.
3 must pay $658 fines for using illegal fireworks
Correction In a story headlined “Seeking the Independent nod, Stiegler and Conger get creative,” which appeared Sunday, July 4, on Page A1, the context of a statement by Democratic Party official Ben Unger about the potential political benefit of an Independent Party nomination was mischaracterized. His statement was made to a Department of Justice investigator. The Bulletin regrets the error.
“Our constituents are telling us they want to have the option of waiting in line for their travel reimbursements because they simply cannot afford to loan the VA money for several weeks.”
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Exercising rights to life, liberty, constitutional do-overs By Aaron Davis The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — If you have the right to tear up and rewrite your constitution, should you? It’s not an academic exercise this year in Maryland. It’s a question on the November ballot. Maryland is one of 14 states with a constitutional requirement designed to make voters decide at least once a generation whether to start over. The protection goes back to the Founding Fathers and the thinking that,
every now and then in a healthy democracy, the People probably have to shake things up. The question that Free State voters will face — whether to seat a constitutional convention next year in the State House, where George Washington resigned as commander of the Continental Army — is a direct challenge from the grave of Thomas Jefferson. In an era of much shorter life expectancy, Jefferson pegged the shelf life of a democratic charter at no more than 20 years.
“The earth belongs always to the living generation,” Jefferson wrote to James Madison, pondering the forces behind the French Revolution. “Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force and not of right.” So follow Jefferson and throw off the shackles of past generations, you say? Toss out Maryland’s 143-year-old Constitution and write a better one? See Constitution / A4
Questioning the constitution, state by state States that vote on constitutions, how often and when they voted last. • Alaska, 10 years, 1992 • Connecticut, 20 years, 2008 • Hawaii, 9 years, 2008 • Illinois, 20 years, 2008 • Iowa, 10 years, 2000 • Maryland, 20 years, 1990 • Michigan, 16 years, 1994
• Missouri, 20 years, 2002 • Montana, 20 years, 1990 • New Hampshire, 10 years, 2002 • New York, 20 years, 1997 • Ohio, 20 years, 1992 • Oklahoma, 20 years, 1994 • Rhode Island, 10 years, 2004 Source: National Conference of State Legislatures