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JUNE 2, 2012
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Weak job growth may force the Fed to act again By Binyamin Appelbaum New York Times News Service
WASHINGTON — The odds surely increased Friday that the Federal ANALYSIS Reserve will ride again to the rescue of the faltering economic recovery, making borrowing a little cheaper for a little longer, as it has done repeatedly over the past four years. But the government’s announcement that employers added only 69,000 workers in May also highlights a less comfortable reality: The economy seems unable to wean itself from dependence on the Fed’s flow of aid. It keeps coming back for more. What began as a one-time jolt in 2008, an unprecedented effort to revive economic activity, has become an uncomfortable status quo, an enduring reality in which savers are punished and borrowers rewarded by a permafrost of low interest rates. And the Fed, acutely uneasy with this new role in the U.S. economy, may now find itself unable to avoid doubling down. See Jobs / A7
Sisters’ 3-cent Old-school fix-it man gas tax signing off after 42 years upheld “I love what I do. I don’t think I ever stopped studying from the day I came on board.” — Walt Bouche, Bend-La Pine Schools’ longest-serving employee, who will retire June 30
• Appeals panel rules city met deadline to enact levy By Erik Hidle The Bulletin
Photos by Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Walt Bouche shows some of the technology he has dealt with in his career at Bend-La Pine Schools. He says he wears bucket hats because of the ceiling tiles he has to poke his head through on the job.
By Patrick Cliff • The Bulletin
B
end-La Pine Schools employ more than 1,700 people, and the district hired every one of them sometime after it hired Walt Bouche.
Inside • Markets plunge, C3 • Campaign turning point? A7
A tech guy in the district since 1970, Bouche has held several titles — the latest
Sisters’ 3-cent gas tax remains in effect after a court ruling backed the city’s process of bringing the new tax to voters. The argument over the tax stems from the state’s decision to place a moratorium on city-imposed gas taxes in 2009. Once the moratorium was announced, cities across Oregon raced to enact gas taxes before the Sept. 28, 2009, cutoff date. The Sisters City Council enacted the tax in August 2009, but the new law still had to be approved by voters in a referendum. Sisters residents approved the tax in March 2010. Opponents of the tax argued that because the March vote was held after the moratorium went into effect, the tax was invalid. Backed by the Oregon Petroleum Association, a gas dealer challenged the tax in 2010. A Deschutes County Circuit Court judge upheld the Sisters tax. Industry lawyer Paul Romain, representing five fuel companies doing business in Sisters, challenged that ruling before the state court of appeals this year. Romain is executive director of the Oregon Petroleum Association. Thursday, a panel of three appellate judges agreed with the lower court’s decision, ruling that the date of the vote was irrelevant as the tax became law the moment the City Council approved it. See Gas tax / A6
is system administrator-telecommunications. When Bouche retires on June 30, he will do so as the longest-serving district employee in memory.
Suspected U.S. spy is allegedly detained in China By Edward Wong
During his career, Bouche reached into the guts of every school in the district, synchronizing clocks and bells, fixing computers or speaker systems, repairing scoreboards and telephone lines. When he began, staff members worked on electric typewriters. Now, there are laptops and iPads. The district’s buildings occupy more than 2.2 million square feet, and Bouche probably understands
more about the technical workings of each square foot than anyone else in the district. “There’s a comfort and a confidence when you’ve got somebody who knows that much,” Deputy Superintendent John Rexford said. Bouche grew up in Oregon, graduating from high school in Cottage Grove. He served in the Army from 1965 to 1967, and it was his work maintaining scopes on
guns and tanks in the service that inspired him to learn more about electronics. Bouche returned from his post in Germany to live on his parents’ farm near Alfalfa and earn his associate’s degree in electronics from Central Oregon Community College. He graduated 1970 and began working for the district on July 1 of that year. See Bouche / A6
New York Times News Service
BEIJING — Reacting to what could be the biggest intelligence breach in China in years, the Chinese government detained a security official early this year who is suspected of passing information to the U.S., a person with knowledge of the case said Friday. The official is believed to be an employee in the Ministry of State Security, China’s main intelligence agency. The U.S. and Chinese governments have not given any hint publicly of the discovery of the spying suspect. If the case were to be brought into the open, it could become another point of friction in a year of sharp diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing. See Spy / A7
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Bouche checks the wheel line on his 11-acre property near Alfalfa, the same land he lived on with his parents during college. After retiring, Bouche plans to harvest hay there.
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Vol. 109, No. 154, 72 pages, 7 sections
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Newly approved test helps detect Alzheimer’s link By Jeannie Kever Houston Chronicle
As a neurologist specializing in treating dementia, Dr. Paul Schulz doesn’t often get to deliver good news. But Friday, as he completed a test just approved by the Food and Drug Administration to detect the presence of proteins in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease, Schulz was feeling optimistic. His patient, a profoundly depressed man in his early 60s, did not appear to have the characteristic deposits of amyloid proteins along the outer sections of his brain. “I think this may be very good news,” said Schulz, a neurologist at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. “And whether I give him good news or bad news, at least I’ll be able to give him news.” That in itself is revolutionary. Alzheimer’s, among the most feared diagnoses in medicine, is predicted to become more common as millions of baby boomers careen toward old age. It can be difficult to diagnose, as its symptoms are confused with other forms of dementia and unrelated diseases. The test uses a radioactive agent to tag the proteins during a brain imaging scan, a new technique approved last spring for use beginning Friday. See Alzheimer’s / A6
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