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NOVEMBER 30, 2011
WEDNESDAY 75¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Icelander accused of ‘bizarre’ abduction
BRIDGE CREEK
State ruling could pave way to cut Bend water project cost By Nick Grube
• Former Bend woman says a man who claims paternity has taken her niece overseas
Photo illustration The Bulletin
The Bulletin
An impending state decision, which raises the possibility of some significant savings, is causing the city of Bend to reappraise its $68.2 million overhaul of the Bridge Creek water system. On Tuesday, the Oregon Health Authority announced it plans to let the city of Portland avoid treating its Bull Run water source for the potentially deadly microorganism cryptosporidium. For Portland, this 10-year variance means it won’t have to build a nearly $90 million treatment facility to remove the parasite, as is required under federal clean water guidelines. The Portland Water Bureau serves nearly 1 million residents. If Bend applied for and received such a variance, it could lead to a reduction of up to $29 million in the Bridge Creek project’s budget. The money is currently set aside to build a water treatment plant. “We perceive it as good news,” Bend City Manager Eric King said Tuesday. “Now there’s a clear path that’s been paved by Portland that at least allows us to look at alternatives.” King said city officials have a meeting planned with their lobbyist next week to help figure out the next step. He said it’s too soon to know what that might be and how long it would take. Because of a 1993 cryptosporidium outbreak in Milwaukee that killed more than 100 people, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires cities across the country to treat their water for the parasite. See Water / A5
TOP NEWS IRAN: British embassy stormed, ransacked, A3 PAYROLL TAX CUT: GOP warming to extension, A3 TODAY’S WEATHER Colder; breezy High 45, Low 17 Page C6
Oregonians can choose to have their jobless or child support payments direct-deposited into bank accounts, or loaded onto state-issued ReliaCards.
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
No more extra fees for ReliaCard users New rules starting Jan. 1
By Scott Hammers The Bulletin
A new contract between the Oregon State Treasury and U.S. Bank will eliminate many of the fees paid by Oregonians who receive unemployment or child support payments on the bank’s debit cards. About half of the roughly cards issued to provide state 230,000 Oregonians receivbenefits. ing such payments have them James Sinks, spokesman for deposited directly into a bank State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, account, while the other half said the overwhelming majorreceive their payments on ity of transactions on ReliaReliaCards issued Cards have been by U.S. Bank. at retail locations, Under the current where cardholders contract, adopted can often receive The number in 2009 and due cash back with of Oregonians to expire Dec. 31, their purchases. receiving ReliaCard Such transactions unemployment cardholders have always have been and child support been subject to free for ReliaCard benefits. About fees for excessive cardholders, he half receive visits to U.S. Bank said, and will payments on ATMs or branchcontinue to be prepaid, reloadable es, fees for use of free when the new ReliaCards; the ATMs outside of contract goes into rest receive them the U.S. Bank neteffect Jan. 1. through direct work, and a The state pays deposit. $17 overdraft pronothing to U.S. tection fee should Bank to administhey overdraw ter the ReliaCard their accounts. system, Sinks said. The elimiThe new contract allows nation of paper checks in favor unlimited visits to U.S. Bank of a combination of direct debranches or ATMs and up to posit and the ReliaCard system two free withdrawals at ATMs saved the sate an estimated outside the U.S. Bank network. $11.5 million between 2007 and A change in federal law elimiDecember 2010. See ReliaCard / A5 nates overdraft protection on
230,000
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Local News C1-6 Obituaries C5-6 Oregon News C3 Shopping E1-6 Sports D1-6 Stocks B4-5 Sudoku E5 TV & Movies E2
By Manny Fernandez
The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper Vol. 108, No. 334, 34 pages, 6 sections
We use recycled newsprint MON-SAT
• Two withdrawals a month from ATMs outside of the U.S. Bank network, without U.S. Bank fees; other bank fees may apply. • Unlimited cash withdrawals from bank branch teller windows (over-the-counter withdrawals). • Free point-of-sale purchases with cash back, like any debit card, at any merchant that accepts Visabranded debit cards. • No more access to overdraft protection. Changes in federal law make this option unavailable. Source: Oregon State Treasury
New York Times News Service
New faces in the school lunch line By Sam Dillon New York Times News Service
Millions of schoolchildren in the U.S. are receiving free or low-cost meals for the first time as their parents, many once solidly middle-class, have lost jobs or homes during the economic crisis, qualifying their families for the decades-old safety-net program. The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-07, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program. See Meals / A4
Texas drought unearths secrets of the deep New York Times News Service
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• Free and unlimited withdrawals from ATMs operated by U.S. Bank. The current contract allows only two free such ATM visits a month.
An Icelandic man who entered into a sham marriage with an Oregon woman has abducted her daughter to his home country while claiming to be the child’s father, a Portland attorney said Tuesday. Attorney Steven Richkind is representing Tara and Kayla Axmaker, mother and aunt, respectively, to 31⁄2-year-old Jade Axmaker, in a case he calls “bizarre beyond belief.” Richkind said the relationship between the Axmakers and Icelandic national Fannar Jade Gunnlaugson goes back to earAxmaker ly 2007, when Gunnlaugson’s father paid Tara Axmaker $1,000 to marry his son so that he could get his green card and immigrate to the United States. She agreed to the deal and lived in Winnemucca, Nev., with Gunnlaugson, his father and his stepmother for a short time following the marriage. Approximately 11 months after Tara Axmaker left Winnemucca and cut off contact with Gunnlaugson, Jade was born at a hospital in Silverton. Kayla Axmaker, a Bend resident until earlier this year, said her sister has had ongoing problems with drugs. As a result, she’s not sure who Jade’s father is, but she’s certain it is not Gunnlaugson. There is no father listed on Jade Axmaker’s birth certificate, Richkind said. See Child / A5
Nacogdoches Police Department
Found in the receding waters of East Texas’ Lake Nacogdoches: a cryogenic tank from the doomed space shuttle Columbia.
MARTINS MILL, Texas — The water level in Jack Mewbourn’s 7acre lake has dropped about 5 feet from a lack of rain. Stand on the grass lining the lake’s edge today, and in any other year you would be standing nearly waist-deep in water. For more than three years, the lake on Mewbourn’s ranch here
held a secret at its murky bottom: A 1999 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. His grandson was the first one to notice the top of the car peeking out of the water. It wasn’t luck, or even fate. It was drought. In fact, the historic drought that has devastated crops and forced millions of Texans in small towns and large cities to abide by water restrictions has had at least one benefit: As lake levels have dropped
around the state, objects of all kinds that had been submerged for years, decades and even centuries are being revealed. Some of the discovered items are common debris like computer monitors, tires and sunken boats. But much of it has attracted the attention of historians, anthropologists, criminal investigators and, in one case, NASA. See Drought / A4