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bendbulletin.com TODAY'S READERBOARD Auto innovations —From high-tech entertainment to
ideas for saving fuel, car companies putonashow in Detroit.A3
• If your doctor's office is out, try calling around, officials advise By Heidi Hagemeier The Bulletin
Armstrong —Cyclist
If you couldn't find a place to get an influenza shot in the past few days, take heart — pharmacies and health
clinics throughout Central Oregon are now stocking up on vaccine doses to meet the rise in demand. Heather Kaisner, Deschutes County's immunization co-
ordinator, said people might need to call a few different locations to find doses of the vaccine. But there is no shortage. It's simply a matter of
supply and demand.
"People might need to be patient and persistent," she said. News from the Northeastwhere hospitals are reporting recordnumbers offlu-related emergency room visits — has prompted people locally to seek shots for themselves and their families, Kaisner said.
Yet this is typically the time of year when pharmacies and clinics ramp down their offerings. Pharmacies and clinics look at previous years when deciding how many vaccine doses to order. See Flu/A4
reverses years of denial to confess that he usedperformance-enhancing drugs.C1
Pensions, prisons on I(itzhaber's
Quarterdack doom — The glamour position in all of
sports is especially glamorous right now ... kind ofa
quarterback
A 104-megawatt wind project planned for 20 miles east of Bend would have between
Camelot. C1
Facedook spam — The social network company is testing a plan to let anymessage reachany inbox —$100
to-do ist
34 and 52 wind turbines, enough to power about 35,000 homes. The project is on hold, however, after the companies planning it had a falling out. Now one of the
By Lauren Dake
companies is looking to sell and says a "major developer" is interested.
The Bulletin
to contact, say, Mark Zuck-
SALEM — Compared with two years ago, when the state faced a $3.5 billion revenue shortfall and the uncertainty of a historic 30-30 split in the House, the state is on the right track, Gov. John Kitzhaber said in his 2013 State of the State address Monday. But tough political decisions still remain. Lawmakers, the governor said, must tackle • Legislators the state's
erberg and $1 to reachthe normal folk.C6
Self-immolation —A Chinese artist paints Tibetan
protesters.A4
And a Wed exclusiveTony Mendezwas aspy at the heart of the story that inspired
"Argo." What's he doing now? bendbulletin.com/extras
pension
EDITOR'SCHOICE
Workers raiding retirement
to paybi s
h
.
•
Courtesy R-Squared Energy
A photo illustration of the proposed West Butte wind project, from developer R-Squared Energy, as it would be seen from Alfalfa. By Michael A. Fletcher The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — A
By Dylan J. Darling
large and growing share
The Bulletin
of American workers are tapping their retirement savings accounts for nonretirement needs, raising broad questions about the effecti veness of one ofthe most important savings vehicles for old age. More than one in four American workers with 401(k) and other retirement savings accounts use them to pay current expenses, new data show. The withdrawals, cash-outs and loans drain nearly a quarter of the $293 billion that workers and employers deposit into the accounts each year, undermining already shaky retirement security for millions of Americans. With federal policym akers eyeing cuts to Social Securitybenefits and Medicare to rein in the soaring federal deficit, and traditional pensions in long decline, retirement savings expertssay the drain from the accounts has dire implicationsforfuture retirees. "We're going from bad to worse," said Diane Oakley, executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security. "Already, fewer private-sector workers have access to stable pension plans. And the savings in individual retirement savings
A shuffle of the companies behind a proposed wind power project near Bend has put federal permits for the development on hold. Two California-based energy businesses, Pacific Wind Power and R-Squared Energy, started planning the West Butte wind project as a joint venture about five and a half years ago, said Aaron Rachlin, a managing member of R-Squared. Together they established West Butte Wind Power and formalized plans for a 104-megawatt project about 20 miles east of Bend, which he said would be enough to supply electricity to about 35,000 homes. But in the last year the leaders of Pacific Wind Power and R-Squared had a falling out, said Rachlin, who now lives in Connecticut. "The partnership wasn't running as smoothly as one would hope it would," he said. While a lawsuit was possible, Rachlin said Pacific Wind Power and R-Squared settled the disagreement out of court. R-Squared is now leading the project. Pacific Wind Power still has an economic stake in the project, but is no longer a managing partner. Now R-Squared, which Rachlin said only intended to start
accounts like 401(k) planswhich already are severely underfunded — continue to leak out at a high rate." SeeRetirement /A4
Prinetirlle
Alfalfa ~
Reservoir
Bend CROOK
couNTY
West Butte, location of proposedwindfarm BureauofLand M anagement oESCHUTES
couNTY
Millican
are sworn
in, 83 system this legislative session and curb costs associated with the state's prison system. They should cast a critical eye toward the state's tax expenditures and continue to push for health care reforms. All of these will help another goal: funneling more money into schools. "We have come a long way since 2011, and we should celebrate our progress because we did it together, and it did not come easy," Kitzhaber said. But in order to reinvest in the classroom and put money toward other public services, "we need to make room in our current budget," he said. Kitzhaber, who was elected for an unprecedented third term in 2010, acknowledged the dif-
ficulty of making changes
Andy Zeigert/ The Bulletin
the project but not build it, is looking to sell it. John Stahl, owner of Pacific Wind Power, said if R-Squared successfully sells the project, it will have to pay him for his share. "If they can find a buyer it is fine with me," he said. Rachlin said a "major developer" is interested in buying the West Butte wind project, although he declined to name the company. SeeWind/A5
to the state's prison and pension systems. On prisons, he noted, all lawmakers fearthe dreaded 'soft on crime' label. "But I'm asking you to find the courage and the honesty to recognize that if we are unwilling to act on this issue we will, by default, be choosing prisons over schools," he said. See Kitzhaber/A5
Justice ClarenceThomasbreaks hissilence in court By Adam Liptak New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — One of the abiding mysteries at the Supreme Courtiswhy Justice Clarence Thomas has failed to say a word in almost seven years of arguments. On Mon-
TODAY'S WEATHER Sunny High 40, Low 16
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day, when he finally broke his silence, the mystery was replaced by a riddle: Just what did Thomas say? The justices were considering the qualifications of a death penalty defense lawyer in Louisiana, and Justice Antonin
Scalia noted that she had graduated from Yale Law School, which is Thomas' alma mater. Thomas leaned into his microphone, and in the midst of a great deal of cross talk among the justices, cracked a joke. Or so it seemed in the court.
The court transcript confirms that Thomas spoke, for the first time since Feb 22, 2006. It attributes these words to him, after a follow-up comment from Scalia concerning a male graduate of Harvard Law School: "Well — he did not —."
Although the transcription is incomplete, some people in the courtroom understood him to say, in a joshing tone, that a law degree from Yale could actually be proof of incompetence orineffectiveness. SeeThomas/A5
INDEX
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