Sports gambling bill passes Washington House
OLYMPIA — A bill allowing sports gambling in Washington’s tribal casinos was approved by the state House.
The 83-14 Thursday night vote on House Bill 2638 came just two days after a House Appropriations Committee agreed to forward it onward. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Strom Peterson, D-Edmonds, said Tuesday he’d hoped to get a floor vote soon. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn March 12.
The Seattle Times reported state lawmakers had worried that opposition from Nevada-based Maverick Gaming LLC — which wanted sports gambling extended beyond tribal casinos to card rooms it controls — would slow momentum to getting the bill passed before the end of this year’s session and delay further proceedings until next January.
Sports betting is expanding in the United States following a 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed for it to be legalized in every state. Sports wagers can now be made legally in more than a dozen states, including Oregon.
Oregon gathering data on spruce aphid outbreak
ASTORIA, Ore. — The Sitka spruce behind the GreenWood Resources office in Seaside was so infested with spruce aphids last year it looked like it was moving on its own.
But Christine Buhl, a forest entomologist with the Oregon Department of Forestry, and David Shaw, a professor at Oregon State University, found only a few spruce aphids when they checked the tree last week, the Astorian reported.
The young tree’s most recent growth of needles looked stunted, but small buds were just beginning to swell at the branch tips — a good sign after a major outbreak threatened Sitka spruce last year.
Buhl hopes to collect more data, working with state and private timber representatives to document damage to trees. She plans to coordinate with Dan Stark, of the Oregon State University Extension Forestry in Astoria, to train citizen scientists to locate and log information about spruce trees on the North Coast.
Despite the potential for spruce aphids to impact a large number of trees, little is known about their full life cycle in Oregon or how much abuse trees can ultimately withstand and still thrive.
Aphid infestations usually boom and then bust. The first year is bad, Buhl said. But by the second year, populations decrease and by the third year, they’re hardly noticeable.
Last year’s outbreak affected nearly 11 square miles of land statewide, with some of the worst patches concentrated on the coast.
Medford restaurant sued by Feds over sexual harassment
MEDFORD, Ore. — A civil rights lawsuit filed by a federal agency accuses the owners of a Medford restaurant of subjecting employees to sexual abuse and harassment, even after a manager was convicted on a criminal charge of harassment involving an employee.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against New China, Inc. last week in U.S. District Court in Medford, the Mail Tribune reported.
The lawsuit draws from two complaints filed with the EEOC and Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, which described a hostile work environment for female employees.
The complaints included allegations that a restaurant manager repeatedly subjected young women inappropriate touching since at least July 2017 and asked a 15-year-old employee to text him nude pictures of herself, according to information from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The manager, named in a Labor and Industries complaint as Michael Li Gan of Medford, was arrested in 2017 on charges of harassment and third-degree sexual abuse. Gan was sentenced to 11 months of probation and a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty to harassment, court records show.
The EEOC alleges that despite the repeated employee complaints and the manager’s guilty plea, the restaurant failed to stop Gan’s behavior or discharge him.
The EEOC said it is seeking financial compensation for the victims and punitive damages against the restaurant owners, with amounts to be determined at trial.
Driver’s ed teacher who sexually abused students gets jail time
PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland Community College driving instructor, accused by nearly two dozen girls or women of sexually abusing them during lessons, was sentenced Feb. 20 to six months in jail, the Washington County District Attorney’s Office said.
Paul Douglas Burdick, 48, pleaded guilty to six counts of misdemeanor third-degree sex abuse in January, court records show. He had faced another 15 counts of sex abuse, which prosecutors later dismissed, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Burdick was accused of groping driving students during practice or test drives and would instruct some of the young women to perform jumping jacks to record them on his cellphone, authorities said.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said the abuse occurred between 2012 and 2018 while Burdick taught driving courses at the school’s Willow Creek Center in Hillsboro. Portland Community College fired him in April 2019 amid the criminal investigation.
Burdick also served as a bishop at the Hillsboro Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has removed him from the post.
