LOCAL/WEST
8A -THE OBSERVER
MONDAY, JUNE 25, 2012
Eichen follows Rotary International into dangerous places By Katy Nesbitt The Observer
In an effort to create a more peaceful world, Rotary International investc;; in the education of selected midcareer professionals. Jonathan Eischen who works for the United Nations in New York, has taken his Rotary fellowship into some of the most dangerous places on earth. Eischen addressed the Wallowa County Rotary Club Wednesday on a tour of Oregon cities before attending a peace conference in Portland this weekend. His journey began seven years ago when he was chosen as one of 60 fellows worldwide to study non-conflict resolution. The program that has now gro"11 to 80 fellows a year pays for tuition, books, travel, and a
Eichen
stipend, said Eischen. "It's a very high investment linked with Rotary's belief in peace," said Eischen. Every peace fellow completes a three-month internship to apply their classroom eduction to the real world. The program has sponsored 600 fellows in the past
Residents seek to make White City a city MEDFORD (AP) White City is a city is name only. But that might change in November. More than two dozen residents of the unincorporated community in southem Oregon asked Jackson County commissioners this week to support their petition to have the question of cityhood placed on the fall ballot. 'The name's White City," Kathrine Henry told commissioners."lfs time to make it official." Commissioners supported most ofthe petition to incorporate White City, according to the Mail Tribune, but needed additional time to discuss city boundary lines. A meeting on that issue has been set for Wednesday. Supporters ofincorporation say an improved infrastructure would be worth higher taxes. If incorporated, residents would pay an extra $1.45 for every $1,000 of assessed property
value. Those with a house assessed at $130,000 would pay $188.50 a year. "I want sidewalks, so I don't get hit by a car," said Joyce Crockett, a White City resident for 17 years. "I want city water. I want street lights." The community has a population of8,550. The quest to make the community live up to its name goes back to the 1960s, said Stan Alexander, who has been involved in inco1poration effmts for 15 years. In recent years, organizers have failed to collect enough signatures to get on a ballot and didn't meet state requirements for paperwork. Missing paperwork nearly derailed the group's petition again Wednesday. The group collected enough signatures, but Teresa Campbell, senior assistant county counsel, said its members failed to tum in an affidavit.
10 years, said Eischen. Eischen said he started out his post graduate work with Portland's Mercy Corps. With Mercy Corps he traveled to Georgia in the fonner Soviet Union and worked with the European Union linking farmers to markets. His next assignment was in Vienna, Austria working with the United Nations in their drugs and crime division. There he helped governments fight against human trafficking. Not every country even has laws against human trafficking, said Eishcen. With the program he helped train police to look fur evidence of trafficking and signs of psychological abuse. The two years he served with Mercy Corps also took him to Afghanistan where he worked with the government
on human trafficking issues. Now Eischen works for the United Nations International Development Organization. With them he worked in Mosul, Iraq, one of the most dangerous cities in the world. Traveling throughout the region in armored vehicles with helmets and flak jackets, Eischen and his team provided vocational training and equipment in order to put people back to work. Eischen's organization is the only United Nations agency that remains in this region, all others evacuated when the Americans pulled their troops at the end of 2011. The ethnically diverse region suffers from endless violence and Mosul experiences daily attacks which presented challenges for
Eischen's operation and the safety ofhis team. They had local approval to work there, but traveling with the U.S. military for protection also made them a target, he said. "The local government saw that we were doing things on the ground," said Eischen. Eischen said his "office" was bomb and rocket proo~ but the potential for attacks were common. If a siren was aired, they had only a few moments to get cover. Despite the daily dangers, the development organization was able to get Iraqis the training and tools they needed like sewing machines and welding equipment in an area faced with 40 percent unemployment, seven years of drought and over a decade of conflict which has destroyed its agricultural
economy. Now 2,000 people have been trained in 24 subjects and 21 percent have jobs. ''In a 12 person fan1ily, employing one person makes a difference," said Eischen. The stark contrast between the reality of high unemployment and low wages is that oil production in Iraq is on the increase, yet the government does not distribute the wealth, said Eischen. Since the U.S. left Iraq it isn't safe for Eischen to go to Mosul to meet with his trainers or trainees. Oil exploration creates conflict and impedes safe travel throughout the country. He will travel to the country next month, but his staff will have to come to a safe place to meet him.
Cleaning up Wallowa County one tire at a time
ChuckAnder.oon photo
Wallowa County Rotary Club members helpT.J. Miller, Les Schwab Tire Center employee, load old tires during Rotary's Community Clean-Up Day June 16 at the county recycling center in Enterprise. Hundreds oftires were collected for recycling along with pallet-loads of electronic equipment, cell phones, old paint and ink cartridges.
State corporate campaign spending limits rejected WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a plea to revisit its 2-year-old campaign finance decision in the Citizens United case and instead struck down a Montana law limiting corporate campaign spending. The same five conservative justices in the Citizens United majority that freed corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited amounts in federal elections joined Monday to reverse a Montana court ruling upholding the state's centuryold law. The four liberal justices dissented. 'The question presented in this case is whether the holding of Citizens United applies to the Montana state law. There can be no serious doubt that it does," the court said in an unsigned opinion. The Citizens United decision paved the way for unlimited spending by corporations and labor unions
in elections for Congress and the president, as long as the dollars are independent of the campaigns they are intended to help. The decision, grounded in the freedom of speech, appeared to apply equally to state contests. But Montana aggressively defended its 1912law against a challenge from corporations seeking to be free of spending limits, and the state Supreme Court sided with the state. The state comt said a history of corruption showed the need for the limits, even as Justice Anthony Kennedy declared in his Citizens United opinion that independent expenditures by corporations "do not give rise to conuption or the appearance ofconuption." In a brief dissent Monday, Justice Stephen Breyer said campaign spending sinre 2010 "casts grave doubt on the courts supposition that independent expenditures do not conupt or appear to
do so." Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia, as well as Sen. John McCain and other congressional champions of stricter regulations on campaign money, joined with Montana. New York Attomey General Eric Schneidennan said Monday's "decision gives short shrift to states' vital interests in protecting their democratic proresses and institutions from the threats posed by unlimited co1porate spending in campaigns." James Bopp, the lawyer who challenged the Montana law, said," This closes the door on the argument that unique facts in a ce1tain state can be employed to overturn Citizens United." In February, Breyer and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, both dissenters in Citizens United, challenged Kennedy's view that the independent campaign spending could not be conupting by virtue of the absence of
links to a can1paign. When the court blocked the Montana mling in Febmary, Ginsburg issued a brief statement for herself and Breyer saying that campaign spending since the decision makes ''it exceedingly difficult to maintain that independent expenditures by corporations 'do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of conuption."' Ginsburg appeared to be referring to the rise of um·egulated super PACs that have injected millions of dol-
lars into the presidential and other campaigns. She said the case ''will give the comt an opportunity to consider whether, in light of the huge sums currently deployed to buy candidates' allegiance, Citizens United should continue to hold sway." The corporations that sued over the law said it could not remain on the books after the Citizens United decision. Montana urged the high court to reject the appeal, or hold arguments. The state would have preferred either
Prestige at Wildflower Lodge Presents our
Pet piranha bites off toddler's fingertip CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago-area parents thought their pit bull was to blame when they heard their 18-month-old daughter crying and discovered one of her fingertips had been severed. Turns out, the culprit was a piranha the family
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kept in an aquarium. Doctors determined the bite wasn't from a dog after the girl was rushed to a hospital by ambulance Tuesday night. Cook County Sheriffs Department spokesman Frank Bilecki tells the Chicago Tribune the girl's
father cut open one of two piranhas and found the fmgertip. He says doctors tried to reattach the fingertip, but he didn't know if they were successful. He didn't immediately respond to messages left Saturday by The Associated Press.
of those outcomes to what the court did Monday- that is, issue what the comt calls a smmy reversal without holding new oral arguments. The prevailing side in the lower comi almost always strives to avoid high court review. But Montana and its supporters hoped a thorough debate over the Citizens United decision would lead to its reconsideration or at least limits on its reach. The case is American Tradition Pa1tnership v. Bullock, 11-1179.
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Join our support network on the first and third Wednesday of each month.
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This is free and open to everyone - and includes free lunch. Our Support Group is for both those with Alzheimer's or dementia, and anyone caring for those with Alzheimer's or dementia
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Support Group meets on the 1st & 3rd Wednesday of each month. For more infotTlation or to RSVP, contact: 541-663-1200 or
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