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• September 9, 2010 50¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Regional transit’s future rides on taxes, officials say
FOREST CONTRACTORS INVASIVE SPECIES
DeFazio calls for probe into foreign worker visas
Oregon bus systems are funded by payroll or property taxes By Nick Grube
Labor Department is urged to investigate practice used to win federal stimulus contracts
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If Central Oregonians aren’t willing to pay more taxes, dreams of a regional transit system with coordinated services in Bend, Redmond, La Pine and other outlying areas could be short-lived. TheCentral Oregon Interit ns tra ing Fund icts around the governmenTransportation distr array of an state are funded by popular are a t tal Council, taxes. The two mos erty tax. payroll tax and a prop tation spor Grant County Tran either a which operhave not does District oll tax. property tax or payr ates Cascades East proper ty tax h wit ts tric Dis Transit, took Inside over Bend • A look at Area Tranhow transit sit from the districts city on Sept. around the 1, and ofstate are ficials have said that for funded, the merger Page A5 to be successful a transportation district with a sustainable funding source needs to be created. While there are several ways to fund a transportation district — including through a sales tax — the only two methods used by other districts in the state are payroll and property taxes. But before officials go to voters asking them for more money, Bend City Manager Eric King said the next several years will be spent making sure the BAT and CET merger works and is something that could be sold at the ballot boxes as worthwhile. See Transit / A5
BIG PROBLEMS IN SMALL PACKAGES
By Keith Chu
Several species, including this New Zealand mudsnail, are causing headaches in Oregon waterways
tiny but troublesome snail has made an appearance at the mouth of the Crooked River. New Zealand mudsnails, as small as the tip of a ballpoint pen, can cause havoc in the food web of aquatic systems and possibly lead to smaller, less-nourished fish populations. With biologists uncovering snails in the Central Oregon river this summer, officials are urging anglers and others to help prevent the further spread of the snails.
“A perfect invader, that’s what I call them,” said Rick Boatner, aquatic invasive species coordinator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “They’re small, they’re cryptic in color, and they’re asexual so it just takes one to start a population.” And the mudsnails aren’t the only unwelcome aquatic invader biologists have discovered in area waterways this year — Chinese mystery snails showed up at the Crane Prairie Reservoir, while non-native crayfish are kicking out their local counterparts
RUSTY CRAYFISH
CHINESE MYSTERY SNAIL
By Kate Ramsayer The Bulletin
A
The Bulletin
Photo courtesy D.L. Gustafson
New Zealand mudsnails, which grow to about 5 millimeters, first showed up in the U.S. in 1987, in Idaho sections of the Snake River. They eat algae and can disrupt the food chain in waterways, and spread easily because they stick to boots or other gear. They’re fast for snails and could probably move a meter in a minute, estimated Mark Sytsma of Portland State University. in the John Day River. It’s not surprising to find the mudsnails — which are, in fact, native to New Zealand lakes and streams — in a new spot, Boatner said. “It’s kind of expected, because that’s where our fishing is being done,” he said. Anglers — or biologists — can easily spread mudsnails, which will attach themselves to boots and other fishing gear. “They’re so small, and so light, you never even notice it,” he said. See Invasive / A4
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We use recycled newsprint The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper
Vol. 107, No. 252, 42 pages, 7 sections
MON-SAT
John Day Bend Burns
CIA: Court bars suit over alleged torture overseas, Page A3
Abby
La Grande
Newport Florence
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, wants an investigation of forest contractors who use foreign employees to win federal stimulus contracts, in response to a series of articles in The Bulletin that spotlighted the practice. Forest contractors have long used foreign workers, but the practice drew special scrutiny when companies with foreign workers won federal stimulus contracts by sharply underbidding competitors that did not use immigrant labor. DeFazio “I find it hard cited The Bulletin stories as to believe impetus for investigation of that federal the H-2B visa program, in a contractors letter sent Friday to U.S. Labor paying Department Acting Inspector prevailing General Daniel Petrole. In the wages in rural letter, DeFazio wrote that it is Oregon which clear forest contractors don’t has suffered need to import labor to clean from long-term up local forests, especially double-digit during the state’s current eco- unemployment nomic slump. cannot find “I find it hard to believe that Oregonians federal contractors paying to take these prevailing wages in rural Or- forestry jobs.” egon which has suffered from — U.S. Rep. long-term double-digit unem- Peter DeFazio, ployment cannot find Orego- D-Springfield nians to take these forestry jobs,” DeFazio wrote to the Inspector General. “I also find it illogical to allow federal contractors to ‘self attest’ that they could not hire Oregonians to perform this work.” The Bulletin reported in late July that just under $13 million worth of federal stimulus contracts were awarded to Oregon companies using temporary foreign workers. In an interview on Wednesday, DeFazio said he’s long been critical of forest contractors that take advantage of foreign workers. See Visas / A5
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Photo courtesy Jeff Gunderson / Minnesota Sea Grant
Photo courtesy Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
Rusty crayfish, confirmed this summer in the John Day River, can easily kick the native signal crayfish out of its burrows. The aquatic invader, native to Ohio and other areas in the eastern United States, could have been introduced to the area as live bait, or used as part of a classroom science experiment and then dumped in the water.
Chinese mystery snails, recently identified in Crane Prairie Reservoir, grow to be 2 to 3 inches in size. They’re originally from eastern Russia and Asia, and are often sold in the pet trade because they eat algae from aquarium walls and rocks. Some can carry a parasite that causes an itchy rash.
Klamath Falls
Confirmed sightings New Zealand mudsnail Rusty crayfish Chinese mystery snail Examples; other sightings not available Source: U.S. Geological Survey Andy Zeigert / The Bulletin
In Obama’s economic plans, opportunity lost By Matt Bai
LOWER MANHATTAN
New York Times News Service
Neigborhood has bigger issues than mosque By Nicole Santa Cruz Los Angeles Times
NEW YORK — Politicians have deemed the area around New York’s “ground zero” hallowed ground. Protesters have paraded signs proclaiming, “No sacrilege at holy ground,” and others have called it the site of a “sacred burial.” And it’s true that the neighborhood, which many New Yorkers say is an inappropriate site for a mosque, hosts inescapable reminders of the Sept. 11, 2001, at-
tacks that felled the twin towers of the former World Trade Center and killed nearly 3,000 people. But the area also looks like any other Manhattan neighborhood, one on the rebound dotted with bodegas and bars. Though it’s been the focus of a national debate over a proposed Islamic community center and mosque, the neighborhood — the fastestgrowing on the island — isn’t just trying to recover from Sept. 11; it’s also trying to reinvent itself. See Ground zero / A4
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / The Associated Press
President Barack Obama speaks about the economy Wednesday at Cuyahoga Community College in Parma, Ohio.
Mary Altaffer / The Associated Press
A man passes an empty store and one that’s going out of business in Lower Manhattan last month.
WASHINGTON — In proposing an economic package this week that includes spending $50 billion on roads, rail lines and other projects, President Barack Obama opened the fall election season by doing what he has done from the A N A LY S I S first days of his administration: arguing that stimulating the economy today and reordering it for decades to come are basically the same thing. In this way, Obama risked confusing the voters — and not for the first time. By consistently conflating short-term and long-term economic goals, the president and his Democratic Party may have missed an opportunity to explain the crucial difference between the two, and they have all but ensured that voters this fall will give them credit for neither. See Economy / A4