Serving Central Oregon since1903 75 $
FRIDAY June 7,2013
—Tomorrow eorob on www.benlihomes.oom ooniinnesonrseo
SPORTS• C1
PICTUREYOUR HOIVIE-
bendbulletin.com
• Swifter, out-of-court resolution appears cleared By Lauren Dake
Mortgage, the justices considered what role the Mortgage Electronic SALEM — After a year of unRegistration System, or M E R S, certainty, the O regon Supreme should have when it comes to foreCourt on Thursday appeared to closing on homeowners in a proclear the way to a swifter reso- cess outside the courts. lution fo r h o m eowners f a cing The rulings will allow banks to the loss of their homes through resume home foreclosures using foreclosure. the out-of-court method they relied In two cases, Brandrup v. Re- on for decades. conTrust Co. and Niday v. GMAC SeeRulings/A4 The Bulletin
• Banks say it's a victory for them
unaerstanaingacomplex issue
By Elon Glucklich
Though many people havenever heard of it, MERSholds tens of
The Bulletin
millions of mortgages on American homes. It has been the target of multiple lawsuits in several states, including Oregon, and the state's
State and national banking officials are calling Thursday's rulings a victory for the lending industry. Thousands of Oregon foreclosures initiated by MERS between 2008and 2011 could have been invalidated, had the state Supreme Court ruled that banks broke the law by using MERS' online database to sell loans to other banks without recording them in local county clerks' offices. SeeBanks/A4
Supreme Court ruled Thursday ontwo of them. The rulings likely will move most foreclosures out of the Q •. courts, eventually. Why does that make a difference? Part of it is a time issue. Foreclosures settled in court can take A•. morethanayear. SeeQ&A/A4
Oregonians testify in
TODAY'S READERBOARD LiquOr laW —I ocal distillers are mixed when it comes to
the new rules.C6
D.C. about
Pius: More deverage
hard times
lleWS — Cold-brew coffee from Bend roasters and Rat
Hole Brewing's pub plans.C6 By Andrew Clevenger The Bulletin
Summer reading —Events
WASHINGTON — Three Oregonians who were featured in the HBO documentary "American Winter" about struggling families in the economic downturn told their stories on Capitol Hill Thursday. "We are the working poor. We are people who get up every day and try to pay our share," said Dierdre Melson, a 42-year-old mother of four from Portland. "Despite our efforts, we're sinking." Filmmakers Joe and Harry Gantz found their subjects among the callers to the 2-1-1 social services hotline in Portland, largely
for kids of all ages.El
State economy —Ore-
gon's growth last year over 2011 ranked it third amongall
no
50 states.Cl
Odituary —Esther williams swam into Hollywood stardom.BS
And a Wed exclusiveGetting to the bottom of confusing and at times conflicting U.S. tax code.
bendbnlletin.cnm/extras
working families looking for a little financial help. The film profiled eight Oregon families and premiered on HBO in March. Since then, strangers have stopped the film's subjects in public, said Melson and Pamela Thatcher, 28, a formerpreschool teacher from Tualatin. Sometimes the strangersoff erw ordsof encouragement, and sometimes they thank Melson and Thatcher for sharing their stories, because it made them realize that there are other families going through similar financial hardship. Because of the stigma attached to using government
EDITOR'5CHOICE
U.S. mines Web data in secret w
By Barton Gellman and Laura Poitras The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central serversofnine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, emails, documents, and • Privacy connection debate l og s that enreignited, able analysts A4 to track one target or trace a whole network of associates, according to a top-secretdocument obtained by The Washington Post.
The program, codenamed PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed tocorporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley. SeeWeb/A4
,4ss s
services, many struggling
Rotr Kerr/The Bulletin
Russell Cardoza of Terrebonne competes Thursday at the Sisters Rodeo. The rodeo continues with a 7 p.m. show today. • Read more about the rodeo and see a schedule for the weekend in GO! Magazine inside. • See results from Thursday's slack competition in Sports, Page C2.
families are ashamed to tell friends and families. Along with John Cox, 53, of Newberg, Melson and Thatcher traveled to Washington to tell their stories to the members of the Senate Subcommittee on Economic Policy. In each case, one misfortune triggered an economic setback that required some government assistance. SeeHard times/A5
As wars end,military firms eye border security projects By Eric Lipton New York Times News Service
TUCSON, Ariz. — The nation's largest military contractors, facing federal budget cuts and the withdrawals from two wars, are turning
TODAY'S WEATHER Mostly sunny High 84, Low 48
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their sights to the Mexican border in the hopes of collecting some of the billions of dollars expected to be spent on tighter security if immigration legislation becomes law. Half a dozen major military
contractors, including Raytheon, Lockheed Martin and G eneralDynamics, are preparing for an unusual desert showdown here this summer, demonstrating their militarygrade radar and long-range
camera systems in an effort to secure aHomeland Security Department contract worth as much as $1 billion. Northrop Grumman, meanwhile, is pitching to Homeland Security officials an auto-
mated tracking device — first built for the Pentagon to find roadside bombs in Afghanistan — that could be mounted on aerial drones to find illegal border crossers. See Border/A5
The Bulletin
+ .4 We userecycled newsprint
INDEX All Ages E1- 6 C lassified D1 - 6 D ear Abby E6 Obituaries B 5 C1-4 Busines s/Stocks C5-6 Comics/Puzzles D3-4 Horoscope E6 Sports Calendar I n GO! Crosswords D 4 L o cal/State B1-6 TV/Movies E6, GO!
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