Man Arrested For Talking About Guns On Oregon Bus

At Alternate Viewpoint, the privacy of our visitors is of extreme importance to us (See this article to learn more about Privacy Policies.). This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by Alternate Viewpoint and how it is used.

Log Files

Like many other Web sites, Alternate Viewpoint makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user"s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Alternate Viewpoint does use cookies to store information about visitors preferences, record user-specific information on which pages the user access or visit, customize Web page content based on visitors browser type or other information that the visitor sends via their browser.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

• Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on Alternate Viewpoint.


• Google"s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to users based on their visit to Alternate Viewpoint and other sites on the Internet.


• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following URL - http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on Alternate Viewpoint send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

Alternate Viewpoint has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. Alternate Viewpoint"s privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browser"s respective websites.

Man Arrested For Talking About Guns On Oregon Bus

Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries: Christian Businesses Must Follow Demands of Gay Customers

Townhall.com:

The owners of a Christian bakery who refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple are facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines after they were found guilty of violating the couple’s civil rights.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries said they found “substantial evidence” that Sweet Cakes by Melissa discriminated against the lesbian couple and violated the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, a law that protects the rights of the LGBT community.

Last year, the bakery’s owners refused to make a wedding cake for Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman, of Portland, citing their Christian beliefs. The couple then filed a complaint with the state.

“The investigation concludes that the bakery is not a religious institution under the law and that the business’ policy of refusing to make same-sex wedding cakes represents unlawful discrimination based on sexual orientation,” said Charlie Burr, a spokesman for the Bureau of Labor and Industries.

The backlash against Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the bakery, was severe. Gay rights groups launched protests and pickets outside the family’s store. They threatened wedding vendors who did business with the bakery. And, Klein told me, the family’s children were the targets of death threats.

The family eventually had to close their retail shop and now operate the bakery out of their home. They posted a message vowing to stand firm in their faith. It read, in part:

“To all of you that have been praying for Aaron and I, I want to say thank you. I know that your prayers are being heard. I feel such a peace with all of this that is going on. Even though there are days that are hard and times of struggle we still feel that the Lord is in this. It is His fight and our situation is in His hands….Please continue to pray for our family. God is great, amazing and all powerful. I know He has a plan.”

Under state law, the complaint against the bakery now moves into a period of reconciliation. If they can’t reach an agreement, formal civil charges could be filed and the Kleins could face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

Last August, Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian told The Oregonian, their desire is to rehabilitate businesses like the one owned by the Christian couple.

“Everybody is entitled to their own beliefs, but that doesn’t mean that folks have the right to discriminate,” he told the newspaper. “The goal is never to shut down a business. The goal is to rehabilitate.”

Aaron Klein told me there will be no reconciliation and there will be no rehabilitation. He and his wife will not back down from their Christian beliefs.

RELATED:  ‘Bachelor’ Juan Pablo Galavis-GLAAD Release New Apology for Anti-Gay Statements
Politik Ditto

Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries: Christian Businesses Must Follow Demands of Gay Customers

Oregon flunks transparency in education spending, study says

FAIL: Oregon’s Department of Education gets a failing grade for spending transparency

By Shelby Sebens | Northwest Watchdog

A new study by the Cato Institute claims Oregon’s Department of Education is failing when it comes to transparency of spending.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank based out of Washington D.C., gave Oregon an F-  or a score of 47 out of 100 for the information the department provides on per pupil spending, total spending, salaries and public accessibility.

The study says that while Oregon’s data is easily accessible on its website, it lacks instructions and a clear way for the public to maneuver and understand the data. The state also fails to provide district level average salary and benefit data as well as statewide spending data, the study finds.

Oregon’s neighbor Washignton faired much better in the study, scoring a B. Some of the main differences between the states are that Washington provides average salary data and the state got a 15 out of 15 for public accessibility. Oregon got a 10.5 out of 15.

The study charges that because of incomplete data, the public is not fully aware of the true cost of education.

When the state education departments provide incomplete or misleading data, they deprive taxpayers of the ability to make informed decisions about public school funding. At a time when state and local budgets are severely strained, it is crucial that spending decisions reflect sound and informed judgment.

Half of all states report a “per pupil expenditures” figure that leaves out major cost items such as capital expenditures, thereby significantly understating what is actually spent. Alaska does not even report per pupil expenditure figures at all.

Contact Shelby Sebens at Shelby@NorthwestWatchdog.org

Like Watchdog.org? Click HERE to get breaking news alerts in YOUR state

Please, feel free to “steal our stuff”! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

Watchdog.org

Oregon flunks transparency in education spending, study says

CBS Concedes ObamaCare May Be "Tough Sell" Even in Blue Oregon

On Sunday’s CBS Evening News, Anna Werner surprisingly acknowledged that ObamaCare may be a “tough sell” even among the left-leaning population of Oregon. Werner’s report on a hokey multi-million dollar campaign trying to get young people to sign up for the West Coast state’s health care marketplace came three days after CBS reported that the controversial law’s approval rating is at an all-time low. [video below]

While the correspondent featured two pro-ObamaCare talking heads, she also played soundbites from a 20-year-old who denounced the law: “As much as you can have an ad campaign that, sort of, inspires people, at the end of the day, the government is in Washington, DC, and has never met you.”

Anchor Jeff Glor introduced Werner’s report by echoing colleague Norah O’Donnell’s slanted explanation about the Affordable Care Act’s unpopularity: “Oregon is one of the states trying to clear up widespread confusion about ObamaCare by launching an advertising campaign that is unusual.” The CBS journalist continued by playing a clip of the ad that, in her words, “may look a bit like a college film project, but it’s actually part of a high stakes $ 10 million dollar ad campaign.”

Werner then played three straight clips from a supporter of the Oregon health care marketplace, who trumpeted the program. Before turning to the chief operating officer of the marketplace, the correspondent did feature two clips from Ben Nanke, who “doesn’t like the government forcing him to pay for health insurance, even though he’s about to be bumped off his parents’ health plan.”

Later in the segment, the correspondent pointed out that state-run health care program “may be a tough sell”, and played two more soundbites from Nanke, a “self-described libertarian”, according to a July 23, 2013 report on The Oregonian‘s website.

The full transcript of Anna Werner’s report from Sunday’s CBS Evening News:

JEFF GLOR: On October 1, the marketplace opens for individual policies mandated by the Affordable Care Act. Oregon is one of the states trying to clear up widespread confusion about ObamaCare by launching an advertising campaign that is unusual. Here’s Anna Werner.

ANNA WERNER (voice-over): (clip of “Cover Oregon” ad) This commercial may look a bit like a college film project, but it’s actually part of a high stakes $ 10 million dollar ad campaign, designed to get younger residents to buy health insurance from the state’s new health care marketplace called Cover Oregon.

The catchy tune definitely got the attention of 26-year-old Lillian Karabaic.

LILLIAN KARABAIC: I even posted a video on my Facebook, and a lot of my friends were like, ‘Great! Thanks! I was wondering where I could look up how I could get insurance.’

WERNER: The state aims to sign up many younger people like Karabaic, who don’t have insurance. Her two part-time non-profit jobs don’t offer benefits.

KARABAIC: I work at places that can’t afford to insure me.

WERNER: She went to Cover Oregon’s website, and found she’d pay $ 110 a month.

KARABAIC: Which is actually affordable to me – like, I am totally willing to pay that much for health insurance.

WERNER: Twenty-year-old Ben Nanke saw the ad, too.

BEN NANKE: And I would wake up in the morning and that’d be stuck in my head. I’d be la, la, la, la, la.

WERNER: But he doesn’t like the government forcing him to pay for health insurance, even though he’s about to be bumped off his parents’ health plan.

NANKE: There’s a concern there. But, at the same time, I value my independence.

WERNER: For the health care law to work, the state needs to sign up more than 200,000 people, and enough younger, healthier people to balance out the older, sicker residents in the insurance pool.

TRIZ DE LAS ROSA, COVER OREGON CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER: Everybody’s watching. It’s challenging to be first. It’s challenging to be in the limelight.

WERNER: Cover Oregon chief operating officer Triz de las Rosa.

DE LAS ROSA: Whatever it takes to get them there – so whether it’s a woman – you know, strumming a guitar, or whether it’s a rap. And hopefully, that message is there.

WERNER: It may be a tough sell.

NANKE: As much as you can have an ad campaign that, sort of, inspires people, at the end of the day, the government is in Washington, DC, and has never met you.

WERNER: Although the ad did inspire Nanke to create his own video and song. (clip of Nanke singing)

WERNER: Those who do want to enroll in Oregon’s plan can start doing so October 1. Anna Werner, CBS News.

— Matthew Balan is a news analyst at the Media Research Center. You can follow him on Twitter here.

BiasAlerts

CBS Concedes ObamaCare May Be "Tough Sell" Even in Blue Oregon

How Oregon Is Getting "Frequent Fliers" Out Of The ER

Enlarge image i

Jeremie Seals used to go to the hospital emergency room to avoid sleeping in his car.

Kristian Foden-Vencil/OPB

Jeremie Seals used to go to the hospital emergency room to avoid sleeping in his car.

Kristian Foden-Vencil/OPB

Forty-year-old Jeremie Seals has had a tough life.

He left home at 14, and his health isn’t good. He had a heart attack when he was 35. He has congestive heart failure, and nerve pain in his legs that he says is “real bad.”

“Long story short, I’m terminal,” he says, matter-of-factly.

Seals is unwilling to divulge too much about his past. But over the years, he says his health has deteriorated to such a degree that he can no longer hold a job.

By 2011, he was sleeping in his car, and that’s when his medical problems started having a big financial impact. That year, he visited the emergency room at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland 15 times and was admitted to the hospital 11 times.

“I basically lived at the emergency department,” he said. “Ever since I’d had a heart attack, anytime my chest hurt, I’d either call the ambulance or go up to the hospital. And I think it was also out of desperation to just get out of my car and off the street.”

His regular visits to the ER brought him to the attention of one of Oregon’s new coordinated care organizations. As part of the nation’s health care overhaul, Oregon has been given permission to conduct its own experiments. One way it’s trying to reduce Medicaid costs is to encourage people who constantly turn up in the emergency room — so-called frequent fliers like Seals — to get their health care from regular doctors instead.

Lisa Pearlstein of Health Share of Oregon, one of the care coordinators, remembers her first meeting with Seals in 2011, when she began to guide him through the medical maze:

“He’s sitting in a chair and complaining about his feet being wet. And I said, ‘Why are your feet wet?’ And he said, ‘I have holes in my shoes.’ And I said, ‘Would you like a new pair of shoes?’ And so I ended up getting him a new pair of shoes that day. And so we connected over those shoes.”

Seals remembers it well: “Not only did she get me boots, but she got me a pillow and she got me a really awesome sleeping bag.”

Oregon’s health care experiment allows Pearlstein to help Seals and other patients much as a family member might. She helped him schedule doctor appointments and went with him to make sure he understood what he had to do. She also helped him get dialysis and take his medications correctly.

Enlarge image i

Dr. Christina Milano checks Jeremie Seals during a routine appointment.

Kristian Foden-Vencil/OPB

Dr. Christina Milano checks Jeremie Seals during a routine appointment.

Kristian Foden-Vencil/OPB

And she helped him with more everyday needs. She made sure he had passes for the local community center so he could shower. Eventually, she helped him negotiate a spot in adult foster care so he now has a roof over his head.

They built a rapport, and now he trusts her. It didn’t come easily. “I understood that Lisa was trying to help me,” Seals says. “But at the same time I had a real hard time trusting anybody in the medical field.”

He says Pearlstein helped him to be more communicative with his doctor and helped him explain his needs calmly and clearly.

Seals’ doctor, Christina Milano, says she’s seen an amazing change. “When he has the resources available to him and when housing had stabilized for him, he is actually wanting to be adherent to the medication,” she says.

With the intervention of Pearlstein and others, Seals’ ER visits dropped from 15 in 2011 to four in 2012. His hospital stays went from 11 to four.

And that’s how the state can save money, says Rebecca Ramsey of CareOregon, a nonprofit health plan for Medicare and Medicaid patients. “It doesn’t take very many ED visits and it takes less than one hospital admission avoided, to actually more than pay for the time that Lisa spent with Jeremie,” she says.

Oregon has no formal numbers yet, but the federal government has given the state almost $ 2 billion and five years to show it can reduce the rate of medical inflation by 2 percent.

This piece is part of a reporting partnership among NPR, Oregon Public Broadcasting and Kaiser Health News.

News

How Oregon Is Getting "Frequent Fliers" Out Of The ER