Bulletin Daily Paper 05/28/12

Page 1

High Desert Museum turns 30 • B1 MAY 28, 2012

Five 100-mile bike rides • D1

MONDAY 75¢

Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com

MONEY

MEMORIAL DAY

Developing a

Pressure on public pensions mounts

Bend airman to be honored

By Mary Williams Walsh and Danny Hakim New York Times News Service

Few investors are more bullish these days than public pension funds. While Americans are typically earning less than 1 percent interest on their savings accounts and watching their 401(k) balances yo-yo along with the stock market, most public pension funds are still betting they will earn annual returns of 7 to 8 percent over the long haul, a practice that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently called “indefensible.” Now public pension funds across the country are facing a painful reckoning. Their projections look increasingly out of touch in today’s low-interest environment, and pressure is mounting to be more realistic. But lowering their investment assumptions, even slightly, means turning for more cash to local taxpayers — who pay part of the cost of public pensions through property and other taxes. See Pensions / A3

Nine-year-old Adler can say just four words. Technology, however, helps him and kids in similar plights reach out. ‘I feel like he’s there again,’ says Adler’s mom, Stephanie.

Photos by Joe Kline / The Bulletin

Inmates hold the keys at this prison By Alberto Arce Associated Press

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Inside one of Honduras’ most dangerous and overcrowded prisons, inmates operate a free-market bazaar, selling everything from iPhones to prostitutes. It’s more like a fencedin town than a conventional prison, where raccoons, chickens and pigs wander freely among food stalls and in troughs of open sewage. But guards do not dare cross the painted, yellow “linea de la muerte” (line of death) into the inner sanctum run by prisoners, and prisoners do not breach the perimeter controlled by guards. “The prisoners rule,” assistant prison director Carlos Polanco said. “We only handle external security. They know if they cross the line, we can shoot.” See Prison / A2

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Stephanie Utzman helps her son Adler, 9, choose what he will eat for breakfast as 2-year-old Jonah watches at the Utzmans’ home in Bend. Adler uses an iPad with an app called Proloquo2Go, which uses pictures to help Adler make choices. Adler has speech apraxia — in addition to cerebral palsy and some developmental disabilities — which means he can know what he wants but be unable to translate it into words.

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n an afternoon in early May, 9-yearold Adler Utzman let his mom know he wanted to eat

crackers. For most kids, this request is easily expressed with a few words. But not for Adler, whose profound developmental disabilities left him unable to communicate even the most basic desires to his parents. By age 9, he couldn’t express choices most toddlers can — what toy he’d like to play with, what food he wanted to eat, what to wear. It’s only within the past few months that Adler has been able to communicate a choice like this — to demonstrate his will in a measurable way. He is making these choices by using an app on an iPad, a tablet computer technology that is fast becoming a source of hope for families of children with communication challenges. Adler has speech apraxia, in addition to cerebral palsy and some developmental disabilities. For Adler, speech apraxia means he may know what he wants, but being able to translate that into words is nearly impossible. At age 9, Adler can say just four words: car,

A day in the life of Adler at www. bendbulletin.com/adler.

Four-year-old Kelsey Kreuzer demonstrates some of the games and sign language programs on her iPod that she uses to communicate as her mother looks on. The device is one of 14 given away by Adler’s Voice, the nonprofit started by Stephanie Utzman.

bagoon (for balloon), pruck (for truck) and nng (for moon). Adler is cognitively delayed and in many ways seems at the same developmental level as his 2-year-old brother, Jonah. According to an assessment from last fall, Adler had the listening comprehension and expressive communication levels of a child who was about 11⁄2 years old. He takes a long time to learn motor skills. He was nearly 4 when he first walked and still struggles to do things like climb stairs — he often has to practice a new skill hundreds of times before he can master it. His parents, Stephanie and

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Steve Utzman, of Bend, have tried to intuit what Adler wanted, but they couldn’t always guess correctly. Stephanie Utzman felt a distance growing between her and Adler because she could not understand what he needed or wanted. “I felt like I broke his spirit,” she said. That’s why Adler expressing a desire for crackers feels like a breakthrough for Utzman. “With this iPad, it’s been amazing. I feel like he’s there again. I finally feel like the bond is back. … You can tell when there’s a wall between you and your kid. I don’t think

Calendar Classified Comics

C3 E1-4 C4-5

Crosswords C5, E2 Dear Abby C3 Editorials B4

Green, Etc. C1-6 Horoscope C3 Local News B1-6

the wall is there any more.” Utzman is hoping the technology will also help other kids with communication challenges. With the help of Central Oregon Disability Support Network, she formed a nonprofit called Adler’s Voice to give communication devices to families in need. “This is my heart and soul,” Utzman said. Since January the group has given away 14 devices. One device went to Kelsey Kreuzer, a 4-year-old in Redmond who can only say about 10 words due to a stroke she experienced when she was 13 months old. Her mom, Allison Kreuzer, says the difference it has made for her daughter is “life-changing.” In the three weeks since they loaded special communication software onto the device, Kelsey has been able to ask for particular foods, choose her clothes and select activities to do, such as color in coloring books — all things that were beyond her ability before. See Voice / A4

TODAY’S WEATHER

INDEX Obituaries B5 Sports D1-6 TV & Movies C2

Mostly cloudy High 70, Low 33 Page B6

The Bulletin

Bend airman Justin Wilkens will be recognized today in Salem at a ceremony honoring Oregonians killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Wilkens, 26, a first lieutenant, was one of four U.S. airmen killed in a February crash near Wilkens a military base in the east African nation of Djibouti. The Pentagon described the flight of the small single-engine plane, commonly used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, that ended with the death of the four men as part of the war in Afghanistan. The names of Wilkens and Marine Cpl. Adam Buyes of Salem have been added to the Afghan-Iraqi Freedom Memorial, located on the grounds of the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs in Salem, and will be read aloud during today’s ceremony. With their deaths, a total of 133 men and women with Oregon ties have been killed in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003. See Wilkens / A2

More Memorial Day • Events across the region, C3 • List of closures, B1

By Alandra Johnson The Bulletin

By Scott Hammers

Homeless female vets a challenge for shelters By Annie Gowen The Washington Post

Four years ago, Veronica Witherspoon was stationed in Baghdad, enduring roiling sandstorms and neardaily rocket fire as she worked as a Navy petty officer at Camp Victory. By January, she’d left the military, lost her job as a civilian contractor, split with her husband and ended up virtually homeless, bunking with family. Deeply ashamed and desperate for a way out, she ran across a story on a military website for a new program for female veterans called Final Salute. See Veterans / A5

TOP NEWS SYRIA: U.N. condemns Assad, A3 WEST POINT: Strategy debate, A3


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