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News
Briefs: Treesit Suit Settles
| Farewell Warnings | Industry
Wish List | WEP Update
News:
Legal Speedbump -- Bari verdict is a rare victory for civil
rights.
News:
WIC's Nixes -- Organic-minded moms flustered by voucher restrictions.
Happening
People: Ryan, David and Nathaniel Klute.
TREESIT
SUIT SETTLES
The city of Eugene has settled a
lawsuit by victims of a June 1, 1997 incident in which police doused
non-violent tree sitters with pepper spray, according to a plaintiff.
Tree sitter Jim Flynn says the city agreed this week
to pay $30,000 to the three plaintiffs, train command officers in
properly handling non-violent civil disobedience and political demonstrations,
and issue a statement that the June 1st incident caused the city to
reconsider and rewrite its pepper spray policy.
"We're happy the city finally conceded some responsibility
for June 1st, but we thought the final settlement was weak," Flynn
says.
One third of the $30,000 will go to pay to the plaintiffs'
attorneys, Flynn says. The training provision and statement provisions
of the settlement are "meaningless" because the city may determine
how it trains officers and can claim it has already slightly changed
its pepper spray policy, he says. The city doesn't admit any wrongdoing
in the settlement, Flynn says.
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Slant
Labor activist and artist
Trim Bissell is gone and he will be missed. He was one of our
treasures, one of Eugene's enigmatic yet influential individuals
who manage to step up out of the daily grind and live their
lives with conviction and integrity. The Register-Guard
did a decent little piece on Bissell on the bottom of Section
D June 18, noting at the end that sales of his artwork will
help cover his uninsured medical expenses. Looking down from
his cloud, Bissell is probably laughing at what it takes to
get his story covered. We hear former R-G reporter Kimber
Williams wanted to profile Bissell to support the medical fund-raising,
but R-G management canned the story because Bissell was
involved in fighting the R-G's union-busting activities.
Others will carry on, Trim, and we won't forget you.
A key vote on the West Eugene Parkway is happening
this week that could, hopefully, mothball the WEP. But even
if the City Council nixes the WEP amendments, this idiotic project
could lie dormant and then years from now rise again from the
west Eugene swamps like some radioactive mutant. It's been a
frustrating process to watch with county boards and commissions
and Springfield officials shrugging off an active role despite
the fact that WEP will delay or kill many regionally important
road projects. If Eugene Councilor Scott Meisner is indeed the
swing vote on this issue, let's hope he exercises his common
sense by voting "no" on the WEP.
Last week in Slant we noted that Westwood Unfinished
Furniture now has sustainably grown outdoor furniture. We didn't
expect that from a conventional store. We probably should have
mentioned that Westwood is not the first. Jack Bates at Down
to Earth reminds us his store has carried the same furniture
for the past three years. Did we miss anyone else?
SLANT includes
short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes compiled by the EW
staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519,
editor@eugeneweekly.com
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Plaintiffs initially proposed a settlement of $250,000,
a memorial plaque at the Broadway and Charnelton site and a ban on
using pepper spray against non-violent protesters. "We felt like they
toyed with us with the policy changes and never really intended to
do anything," Flynn says.
Flynn says he and the other plaintiffs, Josh Laughlin
and Brett Cole, found the legal process bewildering. "We were totally
inexperienced," he says. Flynn says they decided to settle because
they lacked the resources for a long legal fight with an uncertain
outcome.
Five years ago, Eugene police used dozens of cans
of pepper spray against tree sitters and protesters opposed to cutting
down some of downtown's largest trees for a parking garage. Police
in a fire truck rescue bucket cut Flynn's pants to his crotch to expose
more flesh, allowing the spray to burn his genitals and anus. Officers
punched Flynn in the arms and ribs over and over, twisted his feet
and yanked his head back by the hair, all while he hung 40 ft. up
in a tree, according to court documents and videotapes.
"We're pretty positive the city finally admitted something
and it's over," Flynn says. Despite the lack of a pepper spray policy
change, Flynn says the city is now far less likely to use the spray
against non-violent demonstrators. "I think it [June 1st] already
did change things. I don't think the settlement changed things." -
Alan Pittman
FAREWELL
WARNINGS
Spiraling retirement and health care costs
for public employees are eating away big chunks of the city budget,
former Eugene City Manager Jim Johnson warned the mayor and council
in a departing memo.
In the last five years, PERS (Public Employee Retirement
System) costs increased $5 million. If the increase hadn't happened,
"that money would have paid for somewhere around 80 to 90 new employees
to deliver more quality or quantity of city services," Johnson wrote
in the April 11 memo.
Over the same five years, rising health costs took
$2 million out of the city budget. In five years, PERS costs for the
city increased at an average of 12 percent per year and health cost
increases averaged 8 percent per year. At the time, inflation was
increasing at only 2 to 3 percent per year.
There's no easy solution to controlling PERS and health
costs, according to Johnson. He suggested contracting out city jobs,
an early retirement program for city employees, and continuing legal
action against costly state PERS policies.
With such rising personnel costs, Johnson predicted
that city revenues will not keep pace with expenses. Johnson said
he was "not very hopeful" that taxpayers will vote for additional
taxes. To address the shortfall, Johnson suggested:
Ç Diversifying the city's income base to include alternatives
such as a sales tax, gross receipts tax, and business licensing fees.
Ç Cutting the city budget by eliminating some service
areas rather than across-the-board cuts.
Ç Prioritizing spending to protect the public's huge
investment in city buildings, streets and infrastructure.
Ç Annexing the unincorporated areas of River road
and Santa Clara so residents there pay there fair share for city services.
Ç Encouraging the construction or renovation of buildings
to increase the city's tax base and revenues.
Ç Using urban renewal money to buy and clean up and
consolidate parcels of underused industrial and commercial lands for
resale to the private sector.
Ç Creating new special taxing districts to circumvent
Measures 47/50 restrictions. (The region could vote for a metropolitan
services district to create after school activities for youth, for
example.)
Johnson warned that staff should be "very diligent"
to avoid cost overruns in replacing the region's criminal justice
computer system. "You don't want it to become a state DMV computer
fiasco."
Johnson was named city manager in 1998 after city
unions and executive managers pushed the City Council to fire then
manager Vicki Elmer. Ironically, Johnson now complains that the mayor
and council listen too much to unions. Some elected officials "listen
more to union officials than to managers of the city," Johnson said,
adding, "the problem is one of believing what you're being told simply
because the information comes from a union official rather than a
city manager." - Alan Pittman
INDUSTRY
WISH LIST
Local environmentalists were in Washington,
D.C., last week lobbying to protect national forests from both the
White House and the U.S. Forest Service.
Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth testified before
the House Resources Committee June 12 about the environmental "process
predicament" that restricts logging on national forests.
"Today's hearing is a set-up for the Bush administration
to cook up a 'solution' to the problem that will undoubtedly be a
timber industry 'wish list' to weaken our environmental safeguards,"
says Doug Heiken of Oregon Natural Resources Council in a press release.
"The bottom line is that the Bush administration is doing industry's
bidding by attacking environmental safeguards to make it easier for
the timber industry to destroy our public land legacy."
Jasmine Minbashian of the Northwest Old-Growth Campaign
agrees, saying, "The real problem is that the Forest Service continues
to propose destructive projects in sensitive areas like roadless areas,
old-growth and watersheds that supply clean drinking water. The real
solution is to stop logging in these sensitive areas and begin to
restore the damage from logging excesses of the past. Restoration
is something that everyone can get behind, so it won't get bogged
down in analysis."
"Environmental review shines a bright light on the
dark truth of forest destruction, species extinction, and impaired
water quality," says James Johnston of Cascadia Wildlands Project.
"The Bush administration wants to pull the wool over the eyes of the
public and ignore the serious consequences of forest destruction."
The timber industry currently has suits pending to
remove both the spotted owl and marbled murrelet from the threatened
species list, and to get rid of requirements to survey and protect
wildlife on federal forests.
WEP
UPDATE
This week (June 19) as EW goes
to press, the Eugene City Council is holding a work session and may
vote on amendments to the West Eugene Parkway (WEP). If the vote is
delayed, it will likely be rescheduled for Monday, July 8. The council
vote is seen as a key decision, but not the final decision on the
future of the $88 million highway.
The battle over WEP is being waged on several fronts.
Last month Eugene and Springfield land use and transportation advocates
went over local officials' heads and voiced their concerns at the
May 14 Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) meeting in Salem.
"The County Commission has being shuffling transportation
dollars around to try to free up money to build the WEP without adequate
opportunities for public input, to the detriment of the Eugene/Springfield
region's acknowledged Transportation System Plan," says Rob Handy
in his most recent e-mailed "WEP Gazette" updates.
Handy says citizens characterized the current process
as one that resembled "back-room deals," and that it was "convoluted."
OTC member Stuart Foster reportedly expressed concern
about the Lane County process. Out of that meeting OTC decided more
local dollars must be included in funding reconstruction of the I-5/Beltline
interchange.
"The decisions (on WEP) should be made on sound analysis
of the costs and benefits of different projects, not on politics,"
says Handy. "Moreover, decisions on how to use the money should be
made in plain view — not in back rooms — with ample opportunities
for the public to not only have their three-minute say but to protect
their interests in how their money is spent."
On another front, a coalition of concerned citizens
is initiating a study of an alternative approach to west Eugene land
use and transportation challenges. The firm of Crandall Arambula of
Portland has been retained to sketch out alternatives. On June 10,
the Eugene Planning Commission, which voted earlier against the WEP
amendments, heard a brief presentation of what is involved and how
local governments can help this exploration move forward.
"WEP is ultimately a federal decision," says Handy.
"The advisory vote initiated a process to determine whether the highway
might pass federal and state muster." - Ted Taylor
Back to Top
Legal
Speedbump
Bari
verdict is a rare victory for civil rights.
BY
ORNA IZAKSON
Last month while Earth First! activists in Oakland,
Calif., were waiting to hear if a 10-person jury agreed that the FBI
and Oakland Police Department violated the civil rights of two activists,
the federal Justice Department quietly made investigating all activists
much easier.
In the 1970s, a congressional commission reigned in
the FBI counter-intelligence program, or COINTELPRO. The commission
found that the agency for decades used dirty tricks to disrupt and
discredit effective activist groups such as the Black Panther Party,
the American Indian Movement and others. The FBI's efforts included
suborning murder of activist leaders, breaking into activists' homes
without warrants, writing false letters to spread dissent within organizations,
and scaring people away from efforts to make political changes. In
the wake of those revelations, the commission, led by Sen. Frank Church,
created new guidelines to check what had become a political police
force.
But in the past few weeks, those checks were taken
away.
"They rewrote (the guidelines) by giving essentially
giving carte blanche to the FBI to investigate people in their homes,
groups, churches and their mosques without even the faintest pretext
to believe that they're engaged in any kind of illegal activity,"
explains San Francisco-based attorney Ben Rosenfeld. "So they've just
licensed political espionage at home."
Many activists believe COINTELPRO activities, officially
ended by the Church Commission, never really stopped. And one of the
clearest examples many point to is the case before the jury as the
new guidelines went into place: Judi Bari vs. FBI and Oakland Police
Department.
In May 1990, Bari and Darryl Cherney were driving
through Oakland en route to Santa Cruz where they expected to recruit
activists to spend the summer protecting ancient redwood forests in
Northern California. Instead, a nail-studded pipe bomb exploded in
Bari's Subaru, ripping a hole through the driver's seat and up through
her body, and sending shrapnel to the front passenger seat where Cherney
rode. The only arrests ever made in the case, and the only people
ever investigated as the perpetrators, were Bari and Cherney.
The lawsuit alleged that the two law-enforcement agencies
violated their constitutional rights by falsely arresting them, illegally
searching their homes, and smearing them in the media to stymie their
successful organizing efforts to protect the ancient redwoods.
Although Judge Claudia Wilken didn't allow the jury
to hear any background information on COINTELPRO, and even in the
wake of Sept. 11, the jurors nevertheless found that law enforcement
officers rushed to judgment and violated some of the most cherished
of American freedoms, and required the two agencies to pay $4.4 million
to Cherney and the estate of Bari, who died of cancer in 1997.
"This lawsuit was filed on behalf of all targets of
COINTELPRO," Cherney says. Despite the program's long history, only
a tiny handful fought to bring the agency before a jury in pursuit
of redress. "Of the tens of thousands of people who had their lives
ruined by the FBI, there had never been a definitive lawsuit that
embodied a true attack on COINTELPRO the way our lawsuit did."
Dennis Cunningham, who led attorneys including Rosenfeld
on behalf of the activists, called the decision "a legal victory of
historic proportions."
"This verdict is a referendum against the FBI's gross
interference with people's right to dissent at a time when Attorney
General Ashcroft, FBI Director Mueller and the Bush administration
are arrogating huge power to themselves and the FBI to spy on legitimate
groups and organizers and infringe on Constitutional rights of the
public," he says.
But how big a hole this verdict punches in what remains
of a covert FBI counter-intelligence program is "the $64,000 question,"
Rosenfeld says. "I guess it just has to do with how brazen the new
reich is in this country."
"They're not supposed to just tolerate First Amendment
expression," he adds, "they're supposed to champion it. They took
an oath to uphold the Constitution and some of the people who they're
working so hard to oppress are people who may hold the best solutions
to all the modern problems that we confront."
Are activists any safer now in the wake of the landmark
case? The simple answer is probably no, but they do have some new
tools with which to fight similar circumstances.
Lauren Regan, a Eugene attorney who represents many
activists here including Earth First!ers, says the case will provide
an important legal precedent in the future "for activists and others
who are suppressed or illegally investigated by the federal government."
She also says the case may sharpen the public's sympathy
for other activists who have been the FBI's targets, such as Leonard
Peltier, an American Indian Movement activist who remains in prison.
"When you look around the nation at … any of
the other huge cases that have haunted political activists since the
'50s … you realize those people may really be telling the truth,
and that the government and the FBI really do lie to the taxpayers
and the citizens," she says. "In this particular case they were caught,
and the justice system treated them accordingly."
Cherney calls the victory "a speed bump on Attorney
General John Ashcroft's road to trashing the civil rights of all Americans,"
but notes that slowing an assault isn't the same as halting it. "We're
losing our rights every day" under the Bush administration, he says.
"So it's not so much that we are safer as that we have created a light
at the end of this dark tunnel of political suppression."
"Environmentalists and civil rights activists are
the true guardians of national security," Cherney concludes." It's
the FBI who is the threat to our national security. What constitutes
our national security but the very earth we live on and the very rights
we cherish in the United States Constitution? And those are the very
things that the FBI is attacking."
Back to Top
WIC's
Nixes
Organic-minded
moms flustered by voucher restrictions.
BY
NICOLE HILL
Organic and locally grown foods are more common in
Oregon today, but remain out of reach for low-income women who rely
on WIC (Women, Infants and Children).
Mothers holding together the threads of subsistence
living qualify for the state and federal WIC program, but WIC was
even better when moms could get organic bulk cheeses or local organic
milk.
WIC provides women with unborn or young children with
vouchers each month to buy certain brands of milk, cheese, eggs, cereals
and other protein- and calcium-based foods. Organics were no longer
an option when, in 1997, women were restricted to buying certain cheaper
name brand foods because of a tighter budget in the WIC program.
"There have been women who have gone off the program
because they couldn't buy organic," Says Connie Sullivan, program
director at the local WIC office. "We hear from many mothers who want
to buy organics."
The demand for real foods that haven't been chemically
enhanced and modified for maximum production has increased in recent
years. And some mothers are wondering if there isn't sound logic behind
that, especially during critical times of pregnancy. An analysis by
the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org) found that, "Some of
the foods most craved by pregnant women, such as meat and dairy products,
may give their babies an extra dose of toxic pollutants."
Many of the grains and grasses fed to cows in the
dairy industry are grown with pesticides, which accumulate in fatty
animal tissues. Milk, yogurt and cheeses are then more susceptible
to carrying certain levels of pesticide contamination. According to
the study, pesticide byproducts and POP's (persistent organic pollutants)
were found in 155 different types of foods most eaten by pregnant
women, including conventional brands of milk and cheese. Not to mention
small doses of hormones and antibiotics women often take in by eating
more dairy products.
Other countries such as Canada have federal restrictions
on bovine growth hormones (BGH) or trade restrictions on the use of
antibiotics in meat and dairy products. BGH is a genetically engineered
version of a growth hormone extracted from cow pituitary glands, increasing
milk output by as much as 20 to 30 percent. Canada rejected the hormone
after scientific studies revealed rats absorbed the hormone into their
bloodstream, developing antibodies and lesions and weakening their
immune systems. However, in the U.S. the FDA dismissed safety concerns
and Monsanto started pumping out BGH in 1993. Many dairy farmers have
since abandoned BGH saying the hormone is not cost-effective.
"Unfortunately there is no reliable means of determining
what the effects of some conventional foods are," says Debra Huls,
state WIC director. "We are not allowed to take this into consideration
— the USDA has not said anything about growth hormones."
Huls says with more low-income women in Oregon needing
WIC assistance, expensive organic brands, except for peanut butter
and dry beans, had to be cut from the budget. And pesticides and hormones
used in production can't be considered in WIC's decision-making about
the nutritional content of certain brands unless the USDA says so.
"We look at nutritional content and availability to determine whether
the food is appropriate."
Jeanine Malito, co-manager of the Grower's Market,
agrees that it's difficult to consider buying organic when Oregon
is experiencing such a time of scarcity, "For many, it's a question
of getting food at all. I think being able to purchase organics through
WIC would be viewed as superfluous." Malito was on the WIC program
during her pregnancy, and while she was thankful for the help, she
says mothers can get things like whole grain organic cereals for a
much better price than brands under WIC. Some mothers even end up
shopping at stores which cater specifically to WIC clients, charging
top dollar for certain brands. "But the bigger issue here is how we
allocate our state resources," she adds.
Being on assistance of any kind is often humbling
enough for women, but being reduced to purchasing certain brands which
are deemed appropriate by the state, goes a step further. "It's as
if they are reinforcing that poor people don't deserve organic food,"
she says, adding, "I never would have bought that garbage if I weren't
on WIC."
There is good news, however. Mothers can get organic
produce through the Farmer's Market if they are part of WIC's special
supplemental nutritional program.
Eugene's WIC office reports that a significant number
of Lane County women have asked that WIC loosen restrictions on brands.
But elsewhere in the state it may not be an issue. "We survey participants
each year and we haven't had a significant number of requests for
organic foods, but if we did we would consider it," says Huls.
Because "about half of all the infant formula used
in the U.S. is purchased for poor women through WIC," according to
a Washington Post article, it would be appropriate to say certain
food companies are making good money off WIC and wouldn't want to
lose the business. However, Huls says WIC does not consider brand
names in choosing which foods can be bought with WIC coupons. She
emphasizes that availability and nutritional content are the only
criteria.
Allowing low-income pregnant women greater access
to locally grown whole foods will not be in the hands of WIC officials
until the USDA considers certain POPs in conventional food production
a health threat, and, adds Malito, "until organic foods become more
mainstream." Or until more women demand clean food as a right rather
than a privilege.
Back to Top
 Ryan,
David and Nathaniel Klute
After 11 years at Eugene's Metropol Bakery,
San Fernando Valley native David Klute injured his arm in 1991 and
enrolled at LCC as a dislocated worker. "I got involved in community
service," he says. "I started volunteering at the Arc of Lane County."
The Arc's respite program provides after-school, vacation, and summer
day care for developmentally disabled children and young adults, freeing
parents to maintain regular work schedules. "I've been employed there
since June of '94," he relates. "I also work in the life skills classroom
at Spencer Butte Middle School." In 1996, Klute asked his sons Ryan
and Nathaniel whether they would like to volunteer at the Arc. "I
said, 'Sure,'" says 15-year-old Nathaniel. "Ever since then they've
asked if I would come back — I think I make a difference." The
Klute brothers are now part-time paid staff in the respite program,
working with teams of volunteers. "High school kids get involved for
their public service requirements," says 19-year-old Ryan, a student
in the EMT program at LCC. "I'm going to Portland State next year.
I want to work at helping people — I attribute that to working
at the Arc."
… Paul Neevel
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