Bulletin Daily Paper 09/02/10

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Downtown Bend sacrifices car spot for first12-bike rack this, Portland being one, with great success,” said the downtown association’s executive director, Chuck Arnold. “This is our first one we’re trying in downtown Bend.

We may try doing more down the road, but we want to see the success of this one.”

Portland installed its first on-street bike corral in September 2008 and today has nearly 60 of them on its streets.

Bend’s bike corral cost about $3,500 and was paid for using money from the Downtown Bend Business Association and contributions from individuals who supported the project, some giving $15 or $20 donations.

See Bike corral / A4

By Nick Grube The Bulletin

Downtown parking in Bend could get a little less cramped — at least for bicycles.

On Wednesday, the Downtown Bend Business Association, in conjunction with business owners, individuals and the city, installed its first bike corral in a vehicle parking space downtown.

The corral, which can hold up to 12 bicycles and was designed by a local artist, is located in front of Thump Coffee on Minnesota Avenue and could become a prototype for future bike parking structures downtown.

“We’ve got other cities that have done

Education board advises extensive oversight changes to online charters

By Patrick Cliff and Sheila G. Miller

About 90% of ramps not ADA compliant Pete Erickson / The Bulletin

Bend artist Andrew Wachs, 42, puts the finishing torque on a new bike corral on Northwest Minnesota Avenue in downtown Bend on Wednesday. It’s the first on-street corral in Bend, and could lead the way for more if proven successful.

By Nick Grube

COMING FRIDAY • Studying the shrinking Collier Glacier

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between the Sisters

The Bulletin

Spurred in part by the collapse of several online charter schools in Sisters, a report released Wednesday by the Oregon State Board of Education recommends widespread changes to the oversight of online charter schools.

The recommendations would clarify many issues surrounding virtual charter schools, which draw students from around Oregon. The schools have drawn staunch support and loud protest from different education groups. And the report provides more information on the continuing investigation into EdChoices, a company handling administrative duties for 15 AllPrep charters in Oregon and Washington that served more than 1,400 students. The schools included three Sisters charters and online education programs run through the Fossil and Paisley school districts.

The Sisters schools closed in March and April after failing to pay rent and being removed from their buildings. The state justice and education departments are investigating the companies, which left student records locked for weeks in a Clackamas facility after being evicted.

“Hundreds of unbudgeted staff hours from two agencies have been dedicated to this investigation.

This experience — while unusual — influenced board recommendations regarding adequate funding for technical assistance and monitoring of online schools,” the report states.

See Schools / A4

MIDEAST: First peace talks in more than a year launched; direct negotiations begin today, Page A3 Latest twist in Alzheimer’s saga could lead, eventually, to a cure

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Vol. 107, No. 245, 42 pages, 7 sections

As of Aug. 16:

899 of the city’s curb ramps meet accessibility standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

6,224 do not. Of those,

210 are currently under construction.

250300 will be upgraded by next year.

$2,500$5,500 is the range of cost of the average upgrade, depending mainly on whether contractors are hired.

Source: City of Bend

Los Angeles Times

INDEX Crossword E5,G2

Bend city councilors found out Wednesday that nearly 90 percent of the city’s curb ramps need to be fixed to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and a settlement in a federal complaint. Making the repairs needed to meet the ADA requirements could cost the city up to $34 million, and will strain a budget that already faces a $17 million deficit during the next six years.

The council heard the results of the city survey at a work session Wednesday. It was the first time city officials had crews walk the streets and count how many ramps around Bend needed to be upgraded. The City Council now needs to figure out how to pay for the upgrades. The city also will rank the ramps to get the more crucial ones fixed first.

Of the 7,123 curb ramps the city is responsible for, only 899 met ADA accessibility standards as of Aug. 16, according to the city survey. Most of the ramps are in residential neighborhoods, and 1,304 are in nonresidential areas, like commercial districts, that tend to have higher pedestrian traffic and are considered higher priorities under the settlement.

“You think at random they’d get something right,” Councilor Jim Clinton said after learning how many of the city’s curb ramps were not ADA compliant.

See ADA / A5

By the numbers

By My-Thuan Tran

• In a year when news about Alzheimer’s disease ranges from encouraging to disheartening, a discovery by an 84-year-old scientist has illuminated a new direction. Dr. Paul Greengard, who was awarded a Nobel Prize in 2000, has found a protein that is needed to make the plaque that builds up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, a new potential drug target that could slow or halt this now-untreatable disease. Full story on Page A5.

E2

The Bulletin

Striking decline in illegal border crossings reported

TOP NEWS INSIDE

Abby

Cost for needed upgrades could reach $34 million, further straining city coffers

Submitted photo

Dr. Peter Beedlow uses an avalanche probe to measure snow depths in a crevasse on the Collier Glacier between North Sister and Middle Sister on Sunday. A team led by Beedlow’s son, Oregon State University graduate student Cody Beedlow, has been monitoring Oregon’s largest glacier for the past two years, trying to determine what has caused it to retreat by more than a mile in the last hundred years. Cody Beedlow’s work is adding to information gathered two decades ago, by the professor advising him on the project. For the full story, pick up Friday’s Bulletin.

At a time when illegal immigration has returned to the political spotlight, figures released Wednesday show a sharp decline in the number of undocumented migrants crossing the U.S. border, in what researchers are calling the “first significant reversal” in 20 years.

Inside The total number of illegal • There might immigrants living in the U.S. be fewer, dropped to 11.1 million in 2009, but the ones down from a peak of 12 million still here are in 2007, according to estimates integrating by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan Washingtoninto society based group that studies the — and fast, nation’s Latino population. The Page A4 report echoes the findings of a study released in February by the Department of Homeland Security.

About 300,000 illegal immigrants entered the U.S. each year from 2007 to 2009, down from the roughly 850,000 that entered annually from 2000 to 2005, according to the Pew report.

The number of illegal immigrants coming from Mexico, meanwhile, has remained steady.

See Immigration / A4

A2 Thursday, September 2, 2010 • THE BULLETIN

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Oregon Lottery Results As listed by The Associated Press

POWERBALL

The numbers drawn Wednesday night are:

17 20 21 40 51 19 Power Play: 3. The estimated Saturday jackpot is $47 million.

MEGABUCKS

The numbers drawn are:

16 18 19 27 32 37 Nobody won the jackpot Wednesday night in the Megabucks game, pushing the estimated jackpot to $15.2 million for Saturday’s drawing.

The Associated Press

Education Secretary Arne Duncan meets with faculty at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas last week. “In other fields, we talk about success constantly, with statistics and other measures to prove it,� Duncan said in a speech here. “Why, in education, are we scared to talk about what success looks like?�

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT

Calls for a fuller report card on teachers, scores

By Nick Anderson The Washington Post

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, stoking a national debate over a Los Angeles Times series that examines how much individual teachers have raised test scores, has urged public schools to give educators more data on student achievement and parents a full report on teacher effectiveness. “In other fields, we talk about success constantly, with statistics and other measures to prove it,� Duncan said in a speech last week in Little Rock, Ark. “Why, in education, are we scared to talk about what success looks like? What is there to hide?�

Duncan added: “Every state and district should be collecting and sharing information about teacher effectiveness with teachers and — in the context of other important measures — with parents.�

appeared to be straddling a fine line: He wants more disclosure to teachers and the public, but he wants it to be done judiciously.

Public disclosure

“More than 2,000 L.A. teachers have asked the Times for their scores. It makes no sense that they had to wait for a newspaper to share this information with them and for this to be unfolding in such a public way without their input. We didn’t publish this in a newspaper in Chicago, and I don’t advocate that approach for other districts — but the fact that teachers did not have this information is ridiculous.�

The former Chicago Public Schools director continued, “Local school districts must decide in collaboration with their teachers how to share this information — how to put it in context — and how to use it in order to get better.�

Controversy in L.A. Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Los In August, the L.A. paper be- Angeles school board members gan publishing the results of a made their first public statelengthy investigation of area ments about evaluating teachers elementary teacher perfor- partially by analyzing student mance, based on several years test scores, with most saying of test data it obtained and on that the current system needs to classroom observations and be reworked and some adding interviews. It asked experts to that parents deserve more inforexamine the data mation about their through a method children’s teachers. known as “value- “There is a “As a parent, added� to help recklessness I think I have a determine which right to know,� said teachers were lift- to putting out board member ing scores signifi- (information) Nury Martinez, cantly over time who added that she and which were that is did not believe that not. the general public incomplete The newspaper should be able to reported that its even by your see a teacher’s enanalysis had in- own standards. tire review. herent limitations Still, some board I’m outraged, but that the results members criticized showed notewor- I’m appalled, the Times’ decision thy trends, includ- I’m revolted.� to publish the dataing wide variation base, which ranked in performance — Steve Zimmer, the teachers on a within schools. It is Los Angeles school scale from “least planning to publish board member effective� to “most a database of its effective.� findings. “There is a reckWhile some teachers have lessness to putting out a datasaid they welcome the informa- base that is incomplete even tion, others have sharply criti- by your own standards,� Steve cized the newspaper’s approach. Zimmer said. “I’m outraged, I’m United Teachers Los Angeles, appalled, I’m revolted.� the local union, has urged a boyIndeed, the Times has said in cott of the paper. its stories and in the database National union leaders also that value-added scores reflect have raised concerns. Randi We- only a teacher’s performance ingarten, president of the Amer- at raising, or lowering, student ican Federation of Teachers, told scores on standardized tests of the Times that teachers “look at math and English and, as such, this as a hammer, a sledgeham- captures only one aspect of a mer, and they’re scared about it. teacher’s work.

They’re schoolteachers; they’re And Richard Vladovic said he private individuals. ‌ They’re recently spoke to some teachers not public figures. And they who told him that they felt like just woke up one day and 6,000 they had a “scarlet letterâ€? on names were going to be in the their foreheads. newspaper.â€?

The Los Angeles Times Duncan, on a back-to-school tour throughout the country, contributed to this report.

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Survey suggests a ‘trajectory of tragedy’ as public school students hint at increases in drug use, gangs on campus

By Kim Geiger McClatchy-Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON — More than one-quarter of middle and high school students say gangs and drugs are present at their schools, according to a survey released last month by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University.

Those roughly 5.7 million students — compared with students at private and religious schools, where gangs and drugs are far less prevalent — also are more likely to smoke, drink and use drugs, said Joseph Califano Jr., chairman and founder of the center, which has been surveying youth for the past 16 years.

Califano said the survey illustrates “a trajectory of tragedy for millions of children and their parents.�

Forty-six percent of teens report gangs at public schools, compared with just 2 percent of teens at private and religious-based schools. Forty-seven percent of public school teens said drugs are used, stored or sold at school, compared with just 6 percent of private school students.

The “most disturbing finding,� Califano said, is that one in three middle school students say drugs are used or sold at their school — a 39 percent increase since last year.

Not everyone reacted with alarm. David Hanson, a professor emeritus of sociology at State University of New York at Potsdam and a longtime critic of surveys on substance use and other behavioral issues, said Califano is “making much ado about nothing, because if we compare 2010 to 2001, there’s been no change.� In 2001, 31 percent of middle schoolers said drugs were present at school, compared to 32 percent in 2010. Similarly, while Califano noted a “steady rise� since 2006 in students who report the presence of drugs at their high schools, Hanson said that when compared with 2001, there again had been no change.

The annual survey, timed to coincide with the back-to-school season, was conducted in April and was based on responses from more than 2,000 students and 456 parents from across the country who were surveyed by phone or over the Internet.

Hanson, who reviewed the survey and its methodology, said numerous data points were “simply deceptive,� because they rely on secondhand information, some of which was supplied by students whose parents could see or hear their responses. The tendency of students to report what they have heard at school but not seen skews the portrait of what actually is occurring, he said. “There can be just a handful of students in a large

school, and it can generate a very large percentage of people who say that drugs are kept or sold,� Hanson said. “That doesn’t really tell us anything about the extent or the percentage of people who are actually using or selling.�

Califano said his organization expects some students may have underreported their own use of substances or alcohol.

Moving forward A former secretary of health, education and welfare under President Jimmy Carter, Califano blasted state education systems for allowing schools to be “riddled with gangs and drugs.� “Parents have got to raise hell about this problem,� he said. “The schools have got to clean this mess up.�

Students from Southern California and other areas in the Southwest were among the most likely to report gang activity, Califano said.

He said students at schools where drugs and gangs are present are almost 12 times more likely to use tobacco, three times more likely to use alcohol and five times more likely to use marijuana.

Students consistently rate drugs, alcohol and tobacco as the “top concern� facing their age group, Califano said.

%SVHT BOE HBOHT BU NJEEMF BOE IJHI TDIPPMT About 5.7 million American middle and high school students say gangs and drugs are present at their schools.

Gangs at school

Drugs at school

Infected schools

Drug-free schools

Percent of students reporting gangs at school

Percent of students reporting drugs at school

Percent of schools that are drug infected

Percent of students attending each type

46%

58%

47%

80

2% Public

Private/religious

Public

Public

60

6% Private/religious

Public Private/religious

40

78%

Private

30%

43% ’01

’05

’10

Top teen concerns Drugs, alcohol, tobacco

Social pressures

Academic pressures

24%

2007

Crime and violence 25%

28%

2008 2009

22%

23%

2010

24% 26%

16%

5%

15%

5%

17%

22%

6%

14% 2%

What they have tried Drug-free school, no gangs

Drug-infected, no gangs

Percent of teens who have friends/classmates who use substances 70 50 30

35 49

50

39

22

13

10 Drink regularly

Drug-infected, with gangs

Percent of teens who have tried tobacco, alcohol or marijuana 39

62 47

Smoke marijuana

23

25

33

30

15

11

5 Abuse prescription drugs

18

5

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T S Discovery Channel hostage crisis ends with gunman’s death; no others hurt Bulletin wire reports SILVER SPRING, Md. — A man who railed against the Discovery Channel’s environmental programming for years burst into the company’s headquarters with at least one explosive device strapped to his body Wednesday and took three people hostage at gunpoint before police shot him to death, officials said.

NBC News reported that after

N

B Evacuations begin as Earl nears East Coast NAGS HEAD, N.C. — Hurricane Earl steamed toward the Eastern Seaboard on Wednesday as communities from North Carolina to New England kept a close eye on the forecast, worried that even a slight shift in the storm’s predicted offshore track could put millions of people in the most densely populated part of the country in harm’s way.

The governors of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland declared states of emergency. Farther up the East Coast, emergency officials urged people to have disaster plans and supplies ready and weighed whether to order evacuations. Earl was expected to reach the North Carolina coast later today and wheel to the northeast. But forecasters said it could move in closer, perhaps coming ashore in North Carolina, crossing New York’s Long Island and passing over the Boston metropolitan area and Cape Cod. That could make the difference between modestly wet and blustery weather and dangerous storm surge, heavy rain and hurricane-force winds.

Alaska Democrat’s bid for Senate ramps up ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Ten days ago, Scott McAdams had a volunteer treasurer and a few thousand dollars to help him pursue the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator. With the shocking upset victory by tea party darling Joe Miller over Sen. Lisa Murkowski for the GOP nomination, McAdams says volunteers and money are flowing his way.

Senate Democrats are polling in Alaska to find out if their money would be well-spent backing McAdams, the mayor of Sitka, who expects his campaign to have collected $100,000 by end of the week as Alaskans pitch in to help him defeat the Republican endorsed by Sarah Palin.

‘American Taliban’ seeks cell-block praying OK INDIANAPOLIS — Americanborn Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh and another Muslim inmate have asked a judge to order a prison to let Muslims in their highly restricted cell block to pray as a group, in accordance with their beliefs. Lindh, who is serving a 20year sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute for aiding Afghanistan’s now-defunct Taliban government, wrote a declaration saying his religion requires him to pray five times a day, preferably in a group.

— From wire reports

its producers called Discovery’s general number, a man identifying himself as James J. Lee got on the phone and said he had a gun and several bombs. “I have several bombs strapped to my body ready to go off. I have a device that if I drop it, if I drop it, it will … explode,” the man told NBC. Police spent several hours negotiating with the armed man after he entered the suburban Wash-

ington building about 1 p.m. None of the 1,900 people who work in the building were hurt, and most made it out before the standoff ended.

The hostages — two Discovery Communications employees and a security guard — were unhurt after the four-hour standoff.

An explosive device on the gunman’s body detonated when police shot him, authorities said.

QUALITY FOR LESS! Manuel Balce Ceneta / The Associated Press

Maryland state troopers near the Discovery Channel network building in Silver Spring, Md., where police shot and killed a gunman wearing explosives after he took three people hostage Wednesday.

‘Cautiously hopeful’ On Day One of talks, both sides promise efforts to reach peace in Mideast

By Helene Cooper and Mark Landler New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON — Under the shadow of fresh violence, President Barack Obama began his foray into Middle East peacemaking Wednesday, as the Israeli and Palestinian leaders committed to work on a comprehensive Middle East peace treaty in the next year intended to end a conflict that has endured for six decades.

In a remarkable tableau at the White House, Obama, flanked by the leaders of Israel, the Palestinians and the only two Arab states with which Israel has made peace, vowed to do everything within his power to achieve the comprehensive agreement that has eluded negotiators since Israel was established.

“I am hopeful — cautiously hopeful, but hopeful,” Obama said.

In somber, emotional tones, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority expressed their own determination to make peace.

Netanyahyu, turning toward to Abbas, called him his “partner in peace.” He said he came to find a “historic compromise” but warned that any deal must be anchored in ensuring Israel’s security.

Abbas, for his part, said he would push hard despite “the difficulties we’re going to face tomorrow.” But he quickly foreshadowed the biggest early sticking point in the talks, calling for Netanyahu to freeze settlement activity in the West Bank.

The East Room gathering was a rare moment of diplomatic theater, endorsed by the attendance of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan, and orchestrated by Obama as part of an effort to invest the process with his own personal stature.

It came after Obama held a series of one-on-one meetings with the men throughout the day.

Netanyahu and Abbas are to begin direct talks today.

A regional solution?

The inclusion of Mubarak and Abdullah underlines the administration’s hopes to forge a regional solution to the conflict. Egypt and Jordan are critical to providing Israel with security guarantees that would enable it to accept the creation

L A B O R D A Y

Susan Walsh / The Associated Press

On the eve of the first direct peace talks in nearly two years, Barack Obama welcomed four Mideast leaders Wednesday to the East Room of the White House and urged them to “recognize this as a moment of opportunity that must be seized.” From right are Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah II — representing the sole two Arab states at peace with Israel — with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. of a Palestinian state.

The success of the talks, all sides said, will depend in part on whether Obama can succeed where his predecessors have failed in pushing Palestinians and Israelis toward resolving the core final status issues that have bedeviled peace negotiators since 1979. They include the dismantling of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the borders of a Palestinian state, the security of Israel, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who left, or were forced to leave, their homes in Israel.

With the Israelis and Palestinians far apart on key issues, expectations for the Washington talks are low, yet the stakes are high. Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations broke off in December 2008, in the final weeks of the George W. Bush administration.

The Obama administration spent its first 20 months in office coaxing the two sides back to the bargaining table.

“Do we have the wisdom and the courage to walk the path of peace?” Obama asked the Israeli and Palestinian leaders Wednesday. In turn, each answered positively but with qualifications. And they spoke hopefully of chances for a breakthrough within the one-year time frame prescribed

by Obama.

Iran: Not in attendance, but on the agenda As President Barack Obama convenes the first direct Middle East peace talks in 20 months, the question many observers here and in the region are asking is what, if anything, makes this round any more hopeful than the last. One reason for optimism may be the shared regional fear of Iran, which has only grown since talks broke off between Israelis and Palestinians in December 2008.

Iran’s ambitions, which have cast a long shadow over the greater Middle East, may serve as a common bond keeping a frail peace process intact despite threats that have arisen even before the negotiations open today at the State Department.

Iran’s nuclear program and spreading political influence through a swath of Sunni Arab countries have alarmed the region’s kings and elected autocrats for years. As the clock ticks down on predominantly Shiite Iran’s nuclear program, though, it becomes more urgent for Israel and its Arab neighbors to achieve peace and face together the shared threat to their security and political stability, binding the Sunni Arab states security interests to those of its Jewish neighbor more tightly than in the past.

“I can say, with respect to this conflict, (Iran) is an important issue,” George Mitchell, Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East, told reporters this week.

— The Washington Post But, while talk at the White House was of peace, violence continued unabated in the region.

Obama assailed those responsible for the killings of four Israelis near the West Bank city of Hebron on Tuesday. The militant Hamas movement, which rejects Israel’s right to exist and opposes peace talks, claimed responsibility. On Wednesday, Israeli police reported still another attack, saying Palestinian militants wound-

ed two Israelis driving in the West Bank.

Jewish settlers across the West Bank, enraged by the killings, on Wednesday held up signs declaring: “Peace or no peace, we will build” and began breaking an official construction freeze that is essential to the talks.

The Associated Press and McClatchy-Tribune News Service contributed to this report.

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SEE WikiLeaks rape inquiry reopened New test for diagnosing TB COME OUR NEW The Associated Press

STOCKHOLM — A senior Swedish prosecutor is reopening a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the latest twist to a case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other.

The Australian has denied the allegations and suggested they are part of a smear campaign by opponents of WikiLeaks, an online whistle-blower that has angered Washington by publishing thousands of leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The case was dismissed last week by Eva Finne, chief prosecutor in Stockholm, who overruled a lower-ranked prosecutor and said there was no reason to suspect

that Assange had raped a Swedish woman who had reported him to police.

The woman’s lawyer appealed the decision and on Wednesday Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny decided to reopen the case. Ny also said that another complaint against Assange should be investigated on suspicion of “sexual coercion and sexual molestation.” That overruled a previous decision to only investigate the case as “molestation,” which is not a sex offense under Swedish law.

Assange is seeking legal protection for WikiLeaks in Sweden, one of the countries where the group says it has servers. Assange has applied for a work and residence permit in the Scandinavian country.

called major breakthrough The Associated Press

An investigation of rape allegations against Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, was reopened Wednesday.

Scientists are reporting a major advance in diagnosing tuberculosis: A new test can reveal in less than two hours, with very high accuracy, whether someone has the disease and if it’s resistant to the main drug for treating it.

The test could revolutionize TB care and replace the 125-year-old process used now, which is slow and misses more than half of all cases, experts say.

The World Health Organization will meet with experts over the

next few days to review results.

A study of the test was published online Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine.

TB kills about 1.8 million people a year worldwide and increasingly is caused by bacteria that are resistant to one or more drugs.

The best test — growing the bacteria in a lab dish from a mucus sample — takes a week or more.

The government and a host of partners set out to develop a better test. The test they devised requires only 15 minutes of manual labor.

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A4 Thursday, September 2, 2010 • THE BULLETIN

Schools Continued from A1 The report also lists a series of allegations against EdChoices and AllPrep, including a new allegation that records on state and federal grant funds are missing and incomplete.

“After reviewing the books, investigators suspect monies may have been spent inappropriately,” the report states.

It also alleges that EdChoices opened a “Whole Child” school within Portland Public Schools boundaries under either the Sisters or Sheridan school districts’ charter board. None of the three school districts knew of the school’s existence.

Tim King, who was the AllPrep director and founded EdChoices, did not reply to an email for comment.

Recommendations The majority of the board’s report is focused on ensuring unstable online charter schools like those in Sisters will become a thing of the past.

The report, required by a law signed in March that in part directed the state board of education to investigate virtual schools, offers 16 recommendations to improve the regulation of virtual education.

Among the recommendations: • Separating charter school law and virtual education law.

• Requiring online schools that want to pull students from districts around Oregon to apply to the state for approval.

• Encouraging school districts and ESDs to make online options available to students so they don’t have to seek outside programs.

• Limiting to 3 percent the number of students from each district that can attend the outof-district online schools.

• Transitioning existing virtual charter schools so they will be in line with both virtual and charter law.

• Funding statewide online schools at 90 percent what the state gives bricks-and-mortar schools per student.

• Adding application and annual school fees for virtual schools and providers.

The report found a variety of issues with the current structure of online schools and highlighted problems faced by AllPrep schools.

It’s an early step as the state attempts to get a handle on online schools. The report will now move to the Legislature, where its recommendations will be considered for law, according to Crystal Greene, public affairs manager with the Department of Education.

“It goes to the Legislature, and they decide what they want to do with it. They can take it in whole or in part and make a law,” Greene said. “I don’t have a timeline. I think we’ll know more in a couple of weeks.”

Board Chairwoman Brenda Frank said the State Board of Education had discussed issues regarding online education for several years. But AllPrep’s crumbling confirmed the need for better oversight of online schools in Oregon, Frank said.

Exactly where that oversight would come from — the Department of Education, another state department or locally — remains an open question, Frank said.

What is certain is the growth of online schools outpaced the

state’s ability to manage them.

“We knew about (online schools), but we didn’t move out fast enough,” Frank said.

Approval In its report, the board recommends statewide online schools like Oregon Connections Academy and Oregon Virtual Academy, which have thousands of students from around the state taking online classes, receive state approval to operate. Currently, online charter schools receive approval from their sponsoring districts to operate.

The board would then approve a pool of providers allowed to offer online education in Oregon; commercial providers, like those that run Oregon Connections Academy and others, would need a nonprofit board independent of the charter operator and a sponsoring district to apply to the state.

To prevent issues between online schools and a student’s district, the board recommended families be required to contact the district before enrolling in the online school and also recommended a limit on the number of students from one district who can enroll in the online programs.

The board settled on a limited enrollment option, which would keep local districts from losing too much revenue associated with its students leaving for online options.

That amount would be 3 percent of a district’s students, with the possibility of increasing to 5 percent over time.

Funding Another issue facing online schools is whether they should be funded at the same level as bricks-and-mortar schools. The board noted a study that determined online schools often cost less because they need fewer buildings and don’t need transportation or food services.

The board recommended that the Legislature reduce online school funding to 90 percent of the state’s per-student calculation, with the leftover 10 percent going to sponsoring districts.

And to pay for the added burden of overseeing online schools, the board recommended a new slew of fees. First, the board asked for an appropriation from the Legislature to pay for starting the approval program. It also recommended an application fee for all providers that want to operate online schools that pull kids from districts around the state, and an annual fee to providers. The board didn’t specify fee amounts.

If accepted, the recommendations could eventually create a separate law overseeing online schools. To this point, that’s something that has not existed, according to Frank.

But Frank said many details remain to be worked out.

“There’s not a firm idea yet of how to do this,” Frank said.

The state, however, understands changes are necessary to prevent online schools from growing beyond the reach of regulations.

“Virtual schools,” Frank said, “are here to stay.”

Patrick Cliff can be reached at 541-633-2161 or at pcliff@bendbulletin.com.

Sheila G. Miller can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at smiller@bendbulletin.com.

Dutch release 2 men arrested after U.S. flight

By Katherine Skiba Chicago Tribune

Two Yemeni men who flew from O’Hare International Airport on Sunday and were jailed in Amsterdam amid suspicion of plotting a terror attack were released Wednesday, officials said.

“They are free men. ... This case is closed,” said Martijn Boelhouwer, a spokesman for the Public Prosecution Service in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

The pair, bound for Yemen, missed a flight from Chicago to Washington Dulles International Airport, but their luggage flew to Dulles. It was removed before the plane took off for Dubai. Initial tests of the luggage showed “the possibility of a trace of explosives” but further testing proved there were “no traces of explosives whatsoever,” Boelhouwer said.

Complicating the case: When one of the men began his trip in Birmingham, Ala., strange objects were found in his checked luggage: a cell phone taped to a

Pepto-Bismol bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, a knife and a box cutter.

According to a U.S. law enforcement official, the men were believed to be strangers to one another. Floris van Hovell, an official at the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, said the two men were interrogated extensively and search warrants were executed in the U.S. He did not know the men’s whereabouts after their release.

A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said there had been no evidence uncovered to indicate terrorist activity and the men “are not charged with wrongdoing in this country.”

Officials in the U.S. repeatedly have warned about terror groups in Yemen. That country’s embassy, in a statement Wednesday, said “what was initially a security inspection quickly became a media sensation highlighting an unfortunate yet ongoing misunderstanding of Yemen and its citizens.”

Immigration Continued from A1 But that has been matched over the last several years by a significant drop in illegal immigrants from the Caribbean, Central America and South America, the study found.

California still holds the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the nation with 2.6 million, but has seen a steady decrease in this population in recent years as job-seeking migrants flocked to states such as Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Florida and Virginia. But those states are also reporting similar declines in their illegal migrant populations, according to the report.

The reasons?

The Pew study is based on census and government labor statistics through March 2009.

Researchers estimated the size of the illegal immigrant population by comparing the foreign-born population in the United States with the legal resident population and subtracting the difference.

Experts say there are a variety of reasons for the slowdown, including the recession and increased border enforcement.

The economy is the biggest driver for illegal immigration, said Frank Bean, director of the University of California, Irvine’s Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy.

In the economic downturn, jobs are harder to come by, Bean said, particularly in construction.

“Those jobs have disappeared and have mostly stayed gone,” he said.

But Bean said he did not expect the downward trend to continue once the economy rebounds.

“The same reason for illegal immigrants to come to the U.S. has always been there: the need for work,” he said. “As soon as work is available again, people will start coming again.”

The Obama administration cited the study’s figures as evidence that its efforts to strengthen border security are working. The government has cracked down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and recently 1,200 National Guard troops were deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border to deter unlawful entry.

“The administration’s unprecedented commitment of manpower, technology and infrastructure to the Southwest border has been a major factor in this dramatic drop in illegal crossings,” Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.

Immigration control The U.S. government has also stepped up removal of illegal immigrants, to 387,790 in fiscal 2009 from 291,060 in 2007.

Immigration control advocates said the decline in the number of migrants illegally entering the U.S. showed that tougher enforcement works.

“What this points to is that the illegal immigration population is not some unstoppable phenomenon,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington-based group that favors immigration restrictions. “Illegal immigrants are getting the message that the party may be over.”

Krikorian said the slowdown was evidence that illegal immigration can be reduced by restricting job opportunities and that legalizing the undocumented population was not necessary to solve the problem. The possibility of some type of amnesty program for illegal immigrants in the U.S. has long been a flash point in the heated debate over comprehensive immigration reform.

“You don’t get rid of illegal immigration in one year,” Krikorian said. “You get it to start shrinking by making it hard to stick around.

You make it as difficult as possible to get a job here and make it as hard as possible to make a living here as an illegal immigrant.”

Although some point to the Pew study as evidence that illegal immigrants are choosing to return to their home countries, the study’s researchers said that they saw no evidence that people were leaving the U.S. and that the decreased illegal immigration figures stemmed from less migration into the country.

‘An illusion’ Boosted by immigration and high numbers of births among Latinos, minorities now make up roughly half the children born in the U.S., part of a historic trend in which they are projected to become the majority of Americans by mid-century. Roughly one in four counties currently have more minority children than white children or are nearing that point.

Still, the Census Bureau has made clear that projected minority growth — particularly among Hispanics — could change substantially depending on immigration policies and the economy.

Father Richard Estrada of La Placita church in Los Angeles, which has long served as a sanctuary for immigrants, said illegal migrants were continuing to enter the U.S. despite the recession. He said that while tougher enforcement at the border is making it harder for people to cross, it’s created a ripe market for human smugglers.

“This thing about increased border safety is an illusion,” he said.

Raymundo Herrera, 46, who sells popsicles and ice cream sandwiches in East Los Angeles, said he’s seen other vendors leave the United States because it is harder to make a living in the tough economy. Herrera, who is undocumented, sends money to his wife and 8year-old daughter in Mexico every week, but he has also struggled to make ends meet. He said he would like to return to Mexico, but he cannot afford to do so.

Other say that the lure of the U.S. economy, even in a downturn, is enough to make the journey.

“When the economy picks up, people are going to start coming,” said Hector, a 35-year-old bike messenger who declined to give his last name. “They always have.”

As for those migrants coming from Central and South America, Bean, of UC Irvine, said that increased violence in Mexico due to the drug war is making it increasingly dangerous to cross through the Mexican border, and could possibly deter some immigrants from making the journey. Last month, 72 migrants from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Brazil were killed as they tried to cross illegally into the U.S by suspected drug cartel hit men.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Now, immigrants are rapidly assimilating

By Gary Martin San Antonio Express-News

WASHINGTON — Immigrants, particularly Latinos, are assimilating at a fast pace, with increasing citizenship and homeownership rates, according to a report Wednesday by the Center for American Progress.

The assimilation report was released the same day that the Pew Hispanic Center said illegal immigration has slowed considerably and that the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. has dropped by 8 percent from 2007 to 2009.

The two studies come as the Obama administration is ramping up efforts to curb illegal immigration and, at the same time, pushing for immigration reform legislation to expand legal immigration into the United States.

The CAP study found that homeownership rates for the 4.2 million immigrants in Texas were above the national average. Some 70 percent of immigrants who have been in the state at least 18 years owned homes, 10 percentage points above the national average.

“The longer that immigrants are in the United States, the more integrated they become,” said Angela Kelley with the center, a liberal organization that supports increasing immigration levels.

The study, conducted by Dowell Myers of the University of Southern California’s Population Dynamics Research Group, was based on U.S. Census Bureau data. Myers measured assimilation by benchmarks that included: citizenship, homeownership, English language proficiency, job status and earning a better income.

The CAP findings differed in emphasis from research conducted by the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates limited immigration, which found that 31 percent of adult immigrants

The Associated Press file photo

Lucia de la Cruz, of Guatemala, with her children in Homestead, Fla., in 2007. In the weeks leading up to large immigrant rallies in 2006, rumors swirled about large-scale immigration sweeps. “We are still afraid, but now we are more used to that fear,” de la Cruz said. Four years later, Hispanic families like de la Cruz’s are assimilating into American society at a fast pace.

“The longer that immigrants are in the United States, the more integrated they become.”

— Angela Kelley, Center for American Progress have not completed high school, compared with 8 percent of non-immigrants.

CIS research also found that 78 percent of immigrant families had one worker using a welfare program.

Mark Krikorian with CIS did

Bike corral

Courtesy City of Bend

Downtown Bend will receive 28 sidewalk post bike racks; the first five, which look like this, will be installed this week.

Continued from A1 Maintenance for the corral, like sweeping and shoveling around it, will be performed by the Downtown Bend Business Association and Thump Coffee.

One of the reasons to install the corral, aside from increasing the amount of bike parking downtown, was to eliminate pedestrian obstacle courses created from having too much clutter on the sidewalks from bicycles, storefront signs and outdoor cafe furniture.

Thump Coffee co-owner Kent Chapple noticed this clutter last year, in particular in front of his store, and started talking with others about how to alleviate the problem. What he saw was bikes locked to the existing racks — which look like an upside down “U” — as well as to trees, street sign posts and handrails, up and down Minnesota Avenue.

not dismiss the new CAP report outright, but said that “citing Census statistics, though not irrelevant, only gives us part of the picture.”

CIS applauded the Pew conclusion that the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has declined, totaling an estimated 11 million, down from 12 million in 2007. The study found illegal immigration increased slightly in Texas, home for some 1.6 million undocumented immigrants.

The CAP study showed that there are 4.2 million immigrants in Texas who make up 16 percent of the state’s population.

Nationally, assimilation of all foreign-born people can be seen in

the rising rates of economic earnings and high school completions.

The study found that children of Latino immigrants were more likely than their parents to have college degrees, higher-paying occupations and living in households with income above the poverty line.

Myers, the author of the CAP report, said the rate of homeownership was one of the most telling indicators of assimilation because homeownership is an “entry into the middle class.”

“The energy that immigrants bring elevates the entire housing market,” Myers said, adding, “It’s a story of commitment to America.”

“If we can serve 12 people with one parking spot, that’s 11 more people down here we can serve.”

represents 0.05 of one percent of all downtown parking. … I’m confident that the biking population in Bend represents more than 0.05 of one percent of the population.”

The corral is just one component of increasing the amount of bicycle parking downtown. Five more post racks that can hold two bikes each are expected to be installed downtown this week, and 23 more are on the way and planned to be sprinkled along the sidewalks.

For Chapple, who bikes to work along with all of his nearly 10 employees, the increased parking capacity is something Bend can build on, especially with its reputation as a biking mecca.

“We just want to promote Bend’s bike friendliness,” he said. “We wanted to send a signal that Bend was a bike-friendly community.”

— Kent Chapple, co-owner, Thump Coffee “It was really apparent that there just wasn’t enough capacity for all the bikes that wanted to be in this area,” Chapple said.

Sacrificing a coveted downtown parking space for a bike corral became an attractive option, he said, after having discussions with other business owners in the area who supported getting rid of one of the 2,000 spots that are now available.

“If we can serve 12 people with one parking spot, that’s 11 more people down here we can serve than with that one (vehicle) parking spot,” Chapple said. “Our spot

Nick Grube can be reached at 541-633-2160 or ngrube@bendbulletin.com.

THE BULLETIN • Thursday, September 2, 2010 A5

Pakistan militants strike despite flood aid; 35 die

By Babar Dogar The Associated Press

Rob Kerr / The Bulletin

City employees Ty Combs, left, and Todd Lindquist install a textured pad in wet concrete to repair a curb ramp along Brookswood Boulevard at McClelland Road in Bend last week.

ADA Continued from A1 The city is under a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to bring its infrastructure up to ADA standards by 2014. That settlement is the result of a 2001 complaint by four Bend residents who said the city’s buildings, sidewalks and curb ramps did not meet ADA requirements.

While the city has completed work on its buildings to bring them into ADA compliance, it never found out how many curb ramps it needed to fix, estimating

that there were anywhere from 1,000 to 8,000.

Last year, the city asked the DOJ to reduce the scope of work called for in the settlement and only fix 650 to 700 ramps by 2011.

The request was denied.

What’s next?

The city could take new information back to the DOJ and ask for a modification of its settlement terms. But city officials said Wednesday it will be used to prioritize what work needs to be done moving forward.

The city has already allocated $3.2 million to bring an estimated

650 to 700 curb ramps into compliance by the end of next year.

With thousands left do fix after that, some councilors said they were concerned about where the money would come from.

“I guess I would encourage we get on the grant wagon,” Councilor Tom Greene said.

According to Bend ADA Manager Susan Duncan, the average curb ramp can cost between $2,500 and $5,500, depending on whether the city does the work as part of its regular street maintenance or if private contractors are hired. This means the total cost for replacement could be between $15 million and $34 million.

Scientist’s discovery might set new target for Alzheimer’s drugs

By Gina Kolata New York Times News Service

“I thought, this is just a horrible disease and maybe there is something I can do about it.”

In a year when news about Alzheimer’s disease seems to whipsaw between encouraging and disheartening, a new discovery by an 84-year-old scientist has illuminated a new direction.

The scientist, Dr. Paul Greengard, who was awarded a Nobel — Dr. Paul Greengard, Prize in 2000 for his work on sig- 84, who won a Nobel Prize in naling in brain cells, still works in 2000 for his work his Rockefeller University labora- on brain cells tory in New York City seven days a week, walking there from his apartment two blocks away, tak- to think of testing drugs before ing his aging Bernese mountain patients’ brains are so ravaged.

And companies are testing about dog, Alpha.

He became interested in Al- 100 experimental drugs that, they zheimer’s about 25 years ago when hope, will fundamentally alter the his wife’s father developed it, and course of Alzheimer’s disease.

Most of the new drugs focus his research is now supported by a philanthropic foundation that on an enzyme, gamma secretase, was started solely to allow him to that snips a big protein to produce beta amyloid. The problem study the disease. in Alzheimer’s is thought It was mostly these funds to be an overproduction of and federal government Also amyloid — the protein grants that allowed him to inside beta is made in healthy brains find a new protein that is but, it is thought, in smaller needed to make beta amy- • More quantities. Its normal role loid, which makes up the health is not certain, but researchtelltale plaque that builds news, ers recently found that beta up in the brains of people Pages amyloid can kill microbes, with Alzheimer’s.

F1-6 indicating it might help The finding, to be pubfight infections. lished today in the journal But gamma secretase has cruNature, reveals a new potential drug target that, according to the cial roles in the body in addition to prevailing hypothesis of the gen- making beta amyloid. It removes esis of Alzheimer’s, could slow or stubs of proteins left behind on halt the devastating effects of this the surface of nerve cells and also is needed to make other proteins, now untreatable disease.

The work involves laboratory so completely blocking it would experiments and studies with be problematic. mice — it is far from ready for the doctor’s office. But researchers, still reeling from the announce- Turning to a cancer drug ment two weeks ago by Eli Lilly Many scientists think that was that its experimental drug turned what went wrong with the Eli Lilly out to make Alzheimer’s worse, drug, which, researchers say, took were encouraged. a sledgehammer to gamma secre“This really is a new approach,” tase, stopping all of its functions. said Dr. Paul Aisen, of the Univer- Other companies say their experisity of California, San Diego. “The mental drugs are more subtle and work is very strong, and it is very targeted, but they may still affect convincing.” the enzyme’s other targets.

Aisen directs a program fiGreengard found, though, that nanced by the National Institute before gamma secretase can even on Aging to conduct clinical tri- get started, the protein he disals of treatments for Alzheimer’s covered, which he calls gamma disease. secretase activating protein, must tell the enzyme to make beta amyloid. And since that newly discovExploding research ered protein is used by the enzyme Over the past few years, re- only for beta amyloid production, search on Alzheimer’s has ex- blocking it has no effect on the ploded. Now, Aisen said, about other gamma secretase activities.

It turns out that the cancer drug 200 papers on the subject are published each week. There are Gleevec, already on the market to new scans and other tests, like treat some types of leukemia and spinal taps, to find signs of the dis- a rare cancer of the digestive sysease early, enabling researchers tem, blocks that newly found pro-

tein. As a consequence, it blocks production of beta amyloid. But Gleevec cannot be used to treat Alzheimer’s because it is pumped out of the brain as fast as it comes in. Nonetheless, researchers say, it should be possible to find Gleeveclike drugs that stay in the brain.

“You could use Gleevec as a starting molecule,” said Rudolph Tanzi, a neurology professor and Alzheimer’s researcher at Harvard Medical School. “You could change the structure a little bit and try analogs until you get one that does what Gleevec does and does not get kicked out of the brain. That’s possible.”

On a clear, cool summer day last week, Greengard told the story of his discovery. He sat in a brown chair in his office on the ninth floor of an old stone building on the meticulously landscaped grounds of the university, wearing a soft yellow V-neck sweater and thick-soled black shoes. Alpha lay quietly at his feet.

Greengard’s assistant ordered lunch — cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto; ravioli filled with pears, mascarpone and pecorino Romano; cherries; and cookies.

But Greengard, caught up in the tale of his science, asked her to hold off bringing in the food.

“I thought, this is just a horrible disease and maybe there is something I can do about it,” he said.

About a decade ago, Greengard and his postdoctoral students made their first discovery on the path to finding the new protein — they got a hint that certain types of drugs might block beta amyloid production. So they did an extensive screen of drugs that met their criteria and found that one of them, Gleevec, worked. It completely stopped beta amyloid production.

That was exciting — until Greengard discovered that Gleevec was pumped out of the brain. Still, he found that if he infused Gleevec directly into the brains of mice with Alzheimer’s genes, beta amyloid went away.

“We spent the next six years or so trying to figure out how Gleevec worked” on gamma secretase, Greengard said.

He knew, though, that he was on to something important.

“I had very little doubt about it,” he said. “If I have an idea, I have faith in it, that it must be right.”

The system he discovered — the gamma secretase activating protein — made sense, Greengard said. “I couldn’t be more excited. I am sure there will be a fervor in the field.”

Councilor Jodie Barram said those costs seem extravagant.

“You definitely have our emotional support, but you also need our financial support,” Barram told Duncan. “I don’t know what we’re truly capable of funding for the next biennium.”

City officials will now develop a plan to fix the ramps and options for paying for it. Duncan said the plan should be ready early next year.

LAHORE, Pakistan — The triple bombing of a religious procession in Pakistan adds to the strains on a government already struggling with devastating floods and shows that Islamist militants are back in business despite the natural disaster — and their offering of aid.

The death toll in the blasts rose to 35 today, with about 250 injured, government official Sajjad Bhutta said.

The bombs late Wednesday ripped through a Shiite street procession in the sprawling city of Lahore, which has been frequently targeted by Sunni extremists over the last two years, often in coordinated attacks on religious minorities.

Sunni extremists have launched dozens of attacks against Shiites and other Islamic sects and religions in Pakistan in recent years. The extremists believe it is permissible — even honorable — to kill members of other faiths.

Allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban, the militants are also seeking to destabilize Pakistan’s U.S.-backed government through such attacks.

They have created sanctuaries in the rugged northwest close to the Afghan border where they plan and train.

The bombings were the first major attack in Pakistan since

(541)549-6406 370 E. Cascade, Sisters

Nick Grube can be reached at 541-633-2160 or at ngrube@bendbulletin.com.

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floods ripped through much of the country more than a month ago, leaving more than 8 million people in need of emergency assistance and prompting a major international relief effort that is still ongoing.

“While the whole nation is distressed with the sufferings of flood affectees, these terrorists are involved in promoting their own agenda,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in a statement condemning the blasts.

The bombs hit three separate sites as 35,000 Shiites marched through the streets of Lahore in a traditional mourning procession for the caliph Ali, one of Shiite Islam’s most respected holy men.

The first blast was a small time bomb that exploded in the street near a well-known Shiite building.

Minutes later, a young-looking suicide bomber tried to force his way into an area where food was being prepared for the marchers to break the traditional Ramadan fast and blew himself up, said senior police officer Zulfiqar Hameed. Soon after, another suicide bomber detonated himself at an intersection near the end of the procession.

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