Tag Archives: Oregon

Not so fast: U.S. restaurant workers seek ban on surprise scheduling

McDonald's employee Ashley Bruce poses in front of the restaurant where she works in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

By Peter Szekely

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The text message came as Flavia Cabral walked to a McDonald’s restaurant in Manhattan for her 6 p.m. shift on a May evening. It was from her manager. Business was slow and she was not needed.

Cabral said she was not too surprised. Her work hours fluctuate almost weekly, though losing an entire shift at the last minute happens only once every few months. This time the canceled shift took a $63 bite out of her average $350 gross weekly earnings from two part-time jobs.

“Every week you’re guessing how much money you’re going to get and how many days you’re going to work,” said Cabral, 53, who has been employed at McDonald’s for four years.But a measure of relief is coming for Cabral and 65,000 other New York City fast-food workers whose schedules and incomes often change with little or no notice.

New York recently became the largest U.S. city to require fast-food restaurants to schedule workers at least two weeks in advance, or pay them extra for changes.

The law, which the restaurant industry vigorously opposed, also requires employers to allow 11-hour breaks between shifts, offer part-time staff additional work before hiring new employees, and pay retail workers to be “on call.” It takes effect late this year.

McDonald’s Corp did not respond to a request for comment.

Nationwide, the issue of scheduling is becoming a new battleground in the fight to boost living standards for low-paid workers, waged largely by the “Fight for $15” movement. The five-year-old, union-backed initiative has already helped convince many jurisdictions, including New York state, to raise minimum wages.

In Oregon, a bill that would set regular scheduling for workers at large food service, hospitality and retail companies is awaiting the governor’s signature. Similar bills are pending in five other states.

Not only do fluctuating schedules wreak havoc with tight household budgets, they make it difficult to make appointments, arrange child care and plan family time, workers point out.

The restaurant industry vigorously opposed the New York City law. Combined with higher minimum wages, scheduling requirements will eventually cripple some fast-food outlets, which mostly operate on thin profit margins of 1.5 to 3 percent, it says.

With a business model based on offering workers entry-level opportunities, not living wages, fast-food restaurants need flexible scheduling to survive, said industry advocate Louis Meyer, who runs fast-food operations at New Jersey-based Briad Group.

“There’s no way you can stay in business,” said Meyer, whose company employs 1,000 workers at about two dozen franchised Wendy’s and TGI Friday’s in New York. “It’s like having a disease. It’s going to get you sooner or later.”

Workers at McDonald’s, whose restaurants are mostly franchised, said weekly schedules are usually posted a day or two before they take effect. Still, they say they are often told at the last minute not to come to work or to punch out early.

“You could only have been on the clock for two hours and they’ll tell you to go home,” said Ashley Bruce, 22, who has worked for four years at a McDonald’s on Chicago’s South Side. The Chicago City Council is considering a scheduling bill that would cover 450,000 hourly workers.

Variable scheduling began cropping up in the 1970s as companies sought to maximize profits to better attract investors, according to University of Chicago Associate Professor Susan Lambert, who studies scheduling practices.

“They’re really looking at those labor budgets,” she said. “So, that puts enormous pressure on managers to really keep close track of how many hours you’re using and how sales are going.”

Some use sophisticated “workforce optimization systems” to analyze sales, weather and other factors to determine how few workers they need to remain profitable at a given moment, Lambert said.

Although fluctuating schedules affect mostly lower paid workers, it is a management strategy that is starting to affect higher paid jobs as well, as companies seek to transfer the risk of unsteady revenue to their employees.

The New York City scheduling law was passed with strong support from unions, including Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, even though almost all fast-food workers are not unionized.

But Local 32BJ President Hector Figueroa said winning scheduling rights for fast-food workers also helps his union’s 90,000 building service workers.

“Our members enjoy these rights under the contract,” he said. “But if other workers don’t enjoy them, it’s just a matter of time for an employer in a building or in a cleaning company to say, ‘Wait a minute, why do you guys need advance notice of scheduling?'”

 

 

(Reporting by Peter Szekely; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

 

Male, female or X? Oregon adds third option to driver’s licenses

FILE PHOTO: An employee of the advocacy group Basic Rights Oregon hands out stickers during an Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicle department public hearing on the rights of transgender people as the state considers adding a third gender choice to driver's licenses and identification cards, in Portland, Oregon, May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester/File Photo

By Terray Sylvester

(Reuters) – Oregon on Thursday became the first U.S. state to allow residents to identify as neither male nor female on state driver’s licenses, a decision that transgender advocates called a victory for civil rights.

Under a policy unanimously adopted by the Oregon Transportation Commission, residents can choose to have an “X,” for non-specified, displayed on their driver’s license or identification cards rather than an “M” for male or “F” for female.

The policy change was cheered by supporters as a major step in expanding legal recognition and civil rights for people who do not identify as male or female. This includes individuals with both male and female anatomies, people without a gender identity and those who identify as a different gender than listed on their birth certificate.

The state’s Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division expects to start offering the option in July.

“I very much plan to head to the nearest DMV and ask for that ID to be corrected on July 3rd,” said Jamie Shupe, an Army veteran who successfully petitioned for the non-binary gender option. “And then I’ll no doubt stand out front of the building, or sit in the car, and cry.”

Transgender rights have become a flashpoint across the United States after some states, including North Carolina, have tried to restrict transgender people’s use of public bathrooms.

At the end of May, a federal court ruled that a transgender boy must be allowed to use the boys’ bathrooms at his high school in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The decision in Oregon comes a year after a Portland circuit court judge granted a request by Shupe to change gender from female to a third, nongender option.

That 2016 ruling prompted state officials to examine how to allow a third option in the state’s computer systems and how such a change would interact with the state’s gender laws.

During public hearings on the change, most comments were in favor, according to a summary by DMV officials.

A handful of people questioned the need for the third option and expressed concern that the change would complicate police officers’ efforts to identify people.

Having the third option on legal documentation can help reduce discrimination and raise awareness of “the spectrum of gender identity,” said Diane Goodwin, spokeswoman for Basic Rights Oregon, an advocacy group that campaigned for the “X” option.

Nearly one-third of transgender people who showed an ID with a name or gender that did not match their perceived gender reported harassment, discrimination or assault, according to a 2015 survey of more than 20,000 people in all states.

A DMV spokesman added the agency has no estimate of how many people might apply for the new IDs.

(Reporting by Terray Sylvester in Hood River, Oregon; Writing by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Oregon man charged with decapitating mom on Mother’s Day

(Reuters) – A blood-covered man carrying the severed head of his mother and a knife, walked into an Oregon grocery store on Mother’s Day and stabbed a clerk before being subdued, local law enforcement officials said.

Joshua Lee Webb, 36, faces charges of murder in the death of his mother, Tina Marie Webb, 59, and attempted murder for the attack on the clerk, Michael Wagner, who was recovering from his wounds in a hospital, according to the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Department.

Webb is being held in the Clackamas County Jail, the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement on Monday.

Customers fled the Estacada Harvest Market Thriftway in Estacada, Oregon on Sunday morning and called police after Webb entered carrying the head, according to local press reports.

After Wagner, 66, was stabbed, he and other store employees subdued Webb and held him until police arrived, the Sheriff’s Department said.

At about the same time, police said they also responded to a call at the Webb home in Colton, about 12 miles away, where they found Webb’s mother dead. Webb lived with his parents, they said.

Police did not provide any details on what led to Tina Marie Webb’s murder. It was not immediately possible to contact Webb or identify an attorney representing him.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Andrew Hay)

Cold persists in U.S. Midwest as Pacific Northwest braces for snow

People walk by snow-covered statue

(Reuters) – Arctic air blowing through Chicago and other parts of the U.S. Midwest was expected to keep the region under a deep freeze on Wednesday, as residents of Oregon were blanketed with snow from a separate weather system, forecasters said.

Temperatures in Chicago, the nation’s third largest city, were expected to plunge to between 13 and 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 11 to minus 5 degrees Celsius) with a wind chill factor as low as minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit, the National Weather Service said in an advisory.

Arctic air spreading from Canada across much of the northern United States this week has led authorities to warn people against frostbite.

The Midwest was expected to experience colder weather than on Tuesday, at the outset of the arctic air blast, National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Orrison of the agency’s Weather Prediction Center said by telephone.

“People certainly, if they’re going to be out and about, need to dress warmly and wear multiple layers of clothes,” Orrison said.

A few inches of snow could fall on areas around the Great Lakes in Michigan and New York state, he said.

But snowfall from another storm coming to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California was likely to cause greater havoc for people’s travel plans than the snow around the Great Lakes, Orrison said.

The snowfall is due to a Pacific low pressure system and expanding moisture, National Weather Service officials said in a national advisory.

Between 4 and 8 inches (10 and 20 cm) of snow could fall in central and eastern Oregon, with the Cascade mountain range in the Pacific Northwest receiving up to 1 foot of snow, Orrison said.

The weather system that will cover parts of the Pacific Northwest with snow was expected to spread eastward later in the week.

Meanwhile, the blast of arctic air that has placed the Midwest under a deep chill will also blow eastward, bringing potentially record low temperatures to parts of the mid-Atlantic region on Thursday, Orrison said.

Cities from Boston to Washington will feel the chill beginning on Thursday and lasting at least until Friday, he said.

“For these areas it will be the coldest air of the season so far,” Orrison said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Alison Williams)

Opening statements to begin in Oregon refuge takeover case

A U.S. flag covers a sign at the entrance of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – Armed protesters at a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon were exercising their rights to freedom of speech and assembly in a bid to expose the U.S. government’s illegal ownership and mismanagement of public lands in the West, lawyers for the defendants are expected to argue at trial on Tuesday.

Opening arguments are set for the morning at a federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon in the case of ranchers Ammon and Ryan Bundy and five other limited-government activists who led an armed 41-day takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge earlier this year.

The seven defendants are charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers, possession of firearms in a federal facility, and theft of government property. A jury was seated last week.

The takeover at Malheur was the latest flare-up in a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres of public land in the West.

The Bundy brothers have been at the forefront of that movement and stood by their father, Cliven Bundy, at his Nevada ranch in a 2014 armed standoff with authorities over enforcement of federal grazing rights.

The Bundys began the Oregon standoff on Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, sparked in part by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who set fires that spread to federal property near the refuge.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney declined to comment on the trial.

Inmates (clockwise from top left) Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Peter Santilli, Shawna Cox, Ryan Payne and Joseph O'Shaughnessy, limited-government activists who led an armed 41-day takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, are seen in a combination of police jail booking photos released by the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office in Portland, Oregon

Inmates (clockwise from top left) Ryan Bundy, Ammon Bundy, Brian Cavalier, Peter Santilli, Shawna Cox, Ryan Payne and Joseph O’Shaughnessy, limited-government activists who led an armed 41-day takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, are seen in a combination of police jail booking photos released by the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office in Portland, Oregon January 27, 2016. Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office/Handout via Reuters

Lawyers for the Bundys and other defendants said they will argue, among other things, that the peaceful demonstration was an effort to draw attention to federal government overreach, and illegal control and mismanagement of public lands.

“The government has been squatting on this land for years, illegally and contrary to how (the U.S.) Congress intended,” Marcus Mumford, an attorney for Ammon Bundy, said in a telephone interview on Monday.

Matthew Schindler, a lawyer for Kenneth Medenbach, charged with theft of a government-owned Ford F-350 truck, said: “Federal control of public lands in the West is destroying the rural way of life, and that is what my client and others were trying to draw attention to.”

More than two dozen people have been charged in connection with the takeover, and a second group of defendants are scheduled to go on trial in February.

The conspiracy charge carries a maximum of six years in prison, a year more than the firearms charge, while the property theft charge carries a maximum of 10 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

(Reporting by Courtney Sherwood in Portland, Oregon; Writing and additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle)

Oregon derailment likely to reignite oil by rail safety concerns

Handout photo of smoke billowing from a derailed oil train near Mosier, Oregon

By Eric M. Johnson

(Reuters) – A Union Pacific train carrying crude oil derailed and burst into flames along Oregon’s scenic Columbia River gorge on Friday in the first major rail accident involving crude in a year.

While no injuries were reported, the train remained engulfed in flames six hours after the derailment, officials said. The accident has already renewed calls for stronger regulation to guard communities against crude-by-rail accidents.

Union Pacific Corp, owner of the line, said 11 rail cars from a 96-car train carrying crude oil derailed about 70 miles (110 km) east of Portland, near the tiny town of Mosier.

Oil spilled from one car, but multiple cars of Bakken crude caught fire, said Oregon Department of Transportation spokesman Tom Fuller. Firefighters were still fighting the flames several hours later.

The crude was bought by TrailStone Inc’s U.S. Oil & Refining Co and bound for its refinery in Tacoma, Washington, some 200 miles (322 km) northwest of the derailment, the company said.

Television footage showed smoke and flames along with overturned black tanker cars snaking across the tracks, which weave through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

“I looked outside and there was black and white smoke blowing across the sky, and I could hear the flames,” said Mosier resident Dan Hoffman, 32, whose house is about 100 meters (328 ft) from the derailment. “A sheriff’s official in an SUV told me to get the hell out.”

While rail shipments have dipped from more than 1 million barrels per day in 2014 as a result of the lengthy slump in oil prices, the first such crash in a year will likely reignite the debate over safety concerns surrounding transporting crude by rail.

“Seeing our beautiful Columbia River Gorge on fire today should be a wake-up call for federal and state agencies – underscoring the need to complete comprehensive environmental reviews of oil-by-rail in the Pacific Northwest,” said U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon.

Ecology officials from Washington state said there was no sign of oil in the Columbia River or Rock Creek.

SAFETY MEASURES DELAYED

Since 2008, there have been at least 10 major oil-train derailments across the United States and Canada, including a disaster that killed 47 people in a Quebec town in July 2013.

The incident comes eight months after lawmakers extended a deadline until the end of 2018 for rail operators to implement advanced safety technology, known as positive train control, or PTC, which safety experts say can avoid derailments and other major accidents.

The measures included phasing out older tank cars, adding electronic braking systems and imposing speed limits, all meant to reduce the frequency and severity of oil train crashes.

The tank cars involved in Friday’s crash were CPC-1232 models, which elected officials have raised concerns about in the past even though they are an upgrade from older models considered less safe. On Friday, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon repeated his call from last year for federal officials to look into whether the newer cars were safe enough.

“It’s clear with this crash – as it has been for years – that more must be done to protect our communities,” Wyden said.

Rail operators such as Union Pacific are required under federal law to disclose crude rail movements to state officials to help prepare for emergencies. The rule was put in place after a string of fiery derailments.

EVACUATIONS

Union Pacific hazardous materials workers responded to the scene along with contractors packing firefighting foam and a boom for oil spill containment.

In its latest disclosure with the state, Union Pacific said it moved light volumes of Bakken crude oil along its state network, which includes the Oregon line. In March, it transported six unit trains, which generally carry about 75,000 barrels each.

As emergency responders descended on the crash site, Interstate 84 was closed and residents were ordered to leave the area.

Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director of the Columbia Riverkeeper advocacy group, said the crash should raise concerns about Tesoro Corp’s proposed 360,000 barrels-per-day railport in Vancouver, Washington, which would be the country’s largest.

“We are very concerned about additional oil trains passing through our community because of their safety record, the risk of fires, of explosions, the risks of spills,” he said.

(Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault, Jarrett Renshaw, Devika Krishna Kumar, and Catherine Ngai in New York, Erwin Seba in Houston, Curtis Skinner in San Francisco and Eric M. Johnson in Calgary, Alberta; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Leslie Adler and Tom Hogue)

Oregon protesters face new charges over occupation of refuge

SEATTLE (Reuters) – Participants in a six-week armed occupation at a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon have been indicted on additional charges, including the carrying of firearms in federal facilities and damaging government property.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on Tuesday and unsealed on Wednesday as the anti-government protesters appeared in federal court in Portland, superseded an earlier indictment in the case.

It added charges against protest leader Ammon Bundy and other sympathizers indicted last month for conspiring to impede federal officers policing the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge during a long-simmering dispute over land rights.

The occupation, which began on Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

It also marked the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

On Tuesday, a county prosecutor said protester Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, who was fatally shot by Oregon State Police in late January during a traffic stop, was struck three times in the back during the incident. The prosecutor deemed the killing “justified and necessary.”

The superseding indictment lists 26 defendants. Each is charged with the initial count of conspiring to impede federal agents. It newly accuses Bundy, his brother Ryan, and some of the other protesters of possession of firearms and dangerous weapons in federal facilities, and the use and carrying of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

“We anticipated new charges and we’re glad to see they added them to the indictment sooner rather than later,” said Mike Arnold, a lawyer for Ammon Bundy. “We look forward to the jury trial.”

Another charge, depredation of government property, was leveled against Sean Anderson and another sympathizer, whose name has been redacted from court documents. It alleges the pair damaged an archeological site considered sacred to the Burns Paiute Tribe through the use of excavation and heavy equipment.

The FBI has said it was working with the tribe to identify damage to its artifacts and sacred burial grounds during the 41-day occupation.

Three occupiers were also indicted on charges of theft of government property – Kenneth Medenbach for allegedly stealing a 2012 Ford F-350 Truck, and Ryan Bundy and Jon Ritzheimer for allegedly stealing cameras and related equipment.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson in Seattle; Editing by Peter Cooney)

Police shot Oregon protester in back, but prosecutor says act was ‘justified’

(Reuters) – A slain leader of the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon was killed by three gunshots fired into his back by police, a county prosecutor said on Tuesday, calling the shooting “justified and necessary.”

Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was shot and killed by Oregon State Police on Jan. 26 after he ran from his pickup truck at a roadblock along a snow-covered roadside during the occupation by lands rights protesters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

Relatives of Finicum, who was a spokesman for the group that seized buildings at the refuge, have previously said that he posed no threat to police during the confrontation and have rejected official assertions that he was armed at the time.

Speaking at a press conference in Bend, Oregon, Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said a loaded 9mm handgun was found in the pocket of Finicum’s jacket following the shooting.

Malheur County District Attorney Dan Norris said eight shots were fired at Finicum during the confrontation, six of them by Oregon State Police officers and two by FBI agents.

An autopsy found that three of the bullets fired by Oregon State Police officers struck Finicum in the base of the neck, shoulder and lower back and led to his death, Norris said.

“The six shots fired by the Oregon State Police were justified and in fact necessary,” Norris said.

During the press conference, officials played video and audio tapes of the confrontation, during which Finicum can be heard telling law enforcement officers: “Go ahead, put the bullet through me. I don’t care. I’m going to meet the sheriff. You do as you damn well please.”

At another point he is heard to say: “If you want a blood bath, it’s on your hands.”

The videotape had been released previously but was synched with audio from inside the pickup truck and played in slow motion at times to show what law enforcement officials said was Finicum reaching for his weapon immediately before he was shot.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement that its inspector general’s office was investigating the actions of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team in the Finicum shooting.

The takeover, which began on Jan. 2 with at least a dozen armed men, was sparked by the return to prison of two Oregon ranchers convicted of setting fires that spread to federal property in the vicinity of the refuge.

It also marked the latest flare-up in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres in the West.

The leaders of the standoff, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were arrested at the same traffic stop at which Finicum was slain.

The final four holdouts were taken into custody on Feb. 17, ending the 41-day standoff. At least 16 people have been charged with conspiracy to impede federal officers in connection with the occupation.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein, Eric Johnson and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler and Tom Brown)

Oregon to release soil test results in pollution scare this week

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – Oregon officials this week will release test results on soil from neighborhoods near two Portland glass factories accused of spewing toxic metals into the air for years, a revelation that has led to a class-action suit and demands for more oversight.

The results of the testing could heighten suspicions from residents and environmental advocates that emissions of arsenic and cadmium from the two plants exposed residents to much higher levels of the heavy metals than have been told.

Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, a public health scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the scare demonstrates the need for closer federal oversight.

“Communities are left testing their soil, testing their children, testing their homes and saying, well, how come I see these contaminations?” she said. “That’s not how it should be.”

There is already ample evidence from tests conducted by the U.S. Forest Service of airborne contamination near the factories, as well as signs that the metals may have settled into the soil.

The Forest Service tests, conducted on moss growing on trees near one of the factories, found levels of arsenic 150 times higher and cadmium 50 times higher than Oregon safety benchmarks. Near the second factory, cadmium levels were found to be similarly elevated.

Long-term arsenic exposure is linked to skin cancer and cancers of the lung, bladder, and liver as well as skin color changes and nerve damage, according to information posted on the Oregon Health Authority website. Long-term cadmium exposure is linked to lung and prostate cancer, as well as kidney disease and fragile bones, according to the site.

The state has not received any reports of people being treated or hospitalized as a result of exposure to the metals released in emissions by the glass companies, according to Jonathan Modie, a spokesman for the Oregon Health Authority.

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who lives near one of the hot spots, describes the situation in the state’s largest city as a public health emergency. He told Reuters on Friday that he had asked the Centers for Disease Control and the Environmental Protection Agency to provide “experts on the ground” when the soil tests are released to “help us get at the core facts.”

This comes after revelations in Flint, Michigan, that a switch in the city’s water source to save money corroded its aging pipes and released lead and other toxins into its drinking water. That crisis has emerged as a rallying point for Democrats as the U.S. presidential election approaches.

Even if the soil tests in Portland show low levels of the heavy metals, residents who live near the factories fear the exposure may be more widespread, extending beyond the hot spots that are being tested.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Kerry Ryan, a Portland resident who lives five blocks from one of the factories.

Ryan, who now has an 11-month-old daughter whom she is breastfeeding, said she is arranging to have herself tested for exposure to the metals.

According to the Oregon Health Authority’s website Q&A, arsenic and cadmium can be found in breast milk and may contribute to low birth weight.

Bullseye Glass Co officials did not return a call seeking comment. Officials with Uroboros Glass Studio declined to comment.

Last month, Oregon public health officials advised residents to stop eating vegetables grown in gardens within a half mile of the so-called pollution “hot spots,” or areas where the pollution appears to be concentrated.

On Thursday, about 50 residents mounted a protest in downtown Portland, chanting “clean air now” and delivering boxes of rotting produce harvested from their gardens to the state’s environmental quality offices.

Arsenic and cadmium contamination, confirmed by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, occurred near Bullseye Glass, located in a middle-class neighborhood near public schools and a city park.

Cadmium contamination was confirmed near Uroboros Glass, located in an industrial section of a residential neighborhood near the Willamette River.

Both plants have voluntarily halted the use of the metals, used to create color for stained glass, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality, which is conducting the soil tests that are set for release this week at the request of Gov. Kate Brown

Last week attorneys for seven residents filed a class action lawsuit against Bullseye, alleging the company was negligent and reckless in burning heavy metals without adequate pollution controls.

Bullseye was in compliance with state regulations under a loophole that Wyden called “the size of a lunar crater” during a press conference in February.

According to the Portland Oregonian newspaper, the firm Weitz & Luxenberg is also meeting with area residents. The firm is currently working with environmental activist Erin Brockovich to seek redress for residents whose health may have been harmed by a massive natural gas leak in Southern California.

(Additional reporting by Eric Johnson; Editing by Sara Catania, Steve Gorman and Diane Craft)

Family of Oregon occupier shot by law enforcement alleges cover-up

PORTLAND, Ore. (Reuters) – Relatives of a man shot dead by law enforcement officers after taking part in the armed occupation of a U.S. wildlife refuge in Oregon have accused the FBI and state police of covering up the circumstances of his death last week.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, family of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum called the shooting “unjustified” and said the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Oregon State Police were “seeking to manipulate and mislead the media and the American public about what really happened.”

The FBI declined to comment beyond directing attention to an aerial video of last Tuesday’s shooting that it released two days later and posted online.

The agency has contended the video shows Fincium outside his truck making a move for a gun in his coat pocket as he was shot to death by state police. The confrontation occurred on a snow-covered roadside after Finicum and others were stopped by police en route from the refuge to the town of John Day, Oregon, where they had planned to speak.

Finicum’s relatives said they believe officers opened fire before he left his truck, and that he was shot before he lowered his hands in what they said was a reflex to being shot.

They demanded release of any footage that may have been recorded by police body cameras or dashboard cameras, any audio recordings relating to the shooting, and close-up images of Finicum’s truck.

A statement on Tuesday from the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office that said it was leading an investigation into the shooting. State police did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Finicum, 54, a spokesman for the group that seized buildings at the remote Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on Jan. 2, was shot dead shortly after the arrest of protest organizers Ammon Bundy and Ryan Bundy and several others.

The deadly encounter unfolded moments after Finicum sped away from law enforcement officers who had just taken the Bundy brothers into custody, then tried to run a police roadblock, plowing into a snowbank and narrowly missing an FBI agent.

Finicum can be seen raising his hands as he emerged from his vehicle, then turning as he apparently flails his arms and then falls to the ground, but his precise movements are difficult to discern from the video.

In their statement, his relatives said they had reached their conclusions about the shooting after speaking with Shawna Cox, who they said was in Finicum’s vehicle and was arrested at the shooting scene.

Cox was released from custody by a Portland judge on Friday to await trial on a charge of conspiracy to impede federal officers.

(Reporting by Shelby Sebens in Portland, Additional reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman, Toni Reinhold)