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| Friday, June 13, 2008 |
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Teen gets prison for beating MAX rider |
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AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian Staff
When the teenagers pushed past Laurie Lee Chilcote to get off the MAX train at the Gresham Central station on Nov. 3, he told them they shouldn't be shoving an old man.
Fifteen-year-old Abel Chavez-Garcia responded by taunting the 71-year-old Chilcote and then bludgeoning him over the head with a baseball bat.
On Thursday, Chavez-Garcia was sentenced to 91/2 years in prison after telling Multnomah County Circuit Judge Eric Bergstrom that he felt bad about what happened that night.
"Nothing I can do about it anymore," said Chavez-Garcia, now 16. "I regret what I did."
Chilcote wasn't in court to see his attacker sentenced, but in a telephone interview from his Sandy home he said he was satisfied with the sentence and hoped the youth would come out of prison a better person.
He said his body is still sore from the attack and he feels emotionally drained. In a letter to the court read by prosecutor Donald Rees, Chilcote said: "I do want this immature, uneducated young person to know I am not intimidated by his criminal behavior. I will recover eventually, but will he?"
Chavez-Garcia, who jiggled his leg and fidgeted with his fingers through parts of the hearing, pleaded guilty to first-degree assault. He also pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery for an Oct. 13 attack on a 16-year-old boy in Gresham. Authorities say Chavez-Garcia punched the boy, ripped off his red bandanna and set it on fire.
After the sentencing, police released more details of the November assault.
Police said Chavez-Garcia, who is a Southside gang member, was spraying graffiti at a MAX stop before boarding an eastbound train with two friends. At the next stop, the youths pushed ahead of Chilcote. The man chided the teenagers for their rudeness.
Chavez-Garcia, struck Chilcote from behind, knocking him down. He hit him again as he lay in the street. A detective found Chilcote unconscious at a crosswalk near the station.
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Immigrants adjusting to license rules |
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Until recently, Elías Garcia of Salem had been in a quandary - he couldn't decide whether to return his 2006 Chevy Tahoe to the dealership where he bought it or continue to drive the vehicle even after his driver's license expires late next month.
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He chose the latter.
"It wasn't an easy decision," the Honduras native said in Spanish. "I have a family to feed and bills to pay, so I need a car so I can get to work."
On July 1, a new driver's license law will take effect in Oregon. The new rule was set in motion by Senate Bill 1080, which was approved by the state Assembly and signed into law by Gov. Ted Kulongoski during a supplemental legislative session in February.
Under the new law, illegal immigrants will not be eligible to obtain, renew or replace an Oregon driver's license.
Like Garcia, many plan to continue to drive without a license, said Abel Valladares, a community organizer with CAUSA, an immigrant-rights coalition in Woodburn.
"They aren't leaving the state like some people had hoped they would," Valladares said.
Some opponents of illegal immigration disagree, saying that as fewer unauthorized immigrants are allowed to drive, they'll leave Oregon or self-deport.
"People already are moving out of the state and the country because of the driver's license bill," said Jim Ludwick, the president of Oregonians for Immigration Reform, a McMinnville-based group that advocates against illegal immigration.
Ludwick cited an article published in March by an Oregon newspaper, which reported that some undocumented immigrants planned to relocate to Vancouver, Wash.
Washington does not require proof of residency to get a driver's license.
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Oregon PUC memo gives LNG supporters a boost |
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TED SICKINGER
The Oregonian Staff
State utility regulators have told Gov. Ted Kulongoski that it would be worthwhile to import liquefied natural gas to Oregon, contradicting an earlier report by the state Department of Energy and giving heart to backers of three proposals to build LNG terminals in the region.
The memo from the Oregon Public Utility Commission was drafted partly in consultation with industry players in the projects -- a fact that drew skepticism from LNG opponents.
Lee Beyer, chairman of the Oregon Public Utility Commission, delivered a five-page memo to the governor on May 30 asserting that liquefied natural gas terminals in Oregon would help meet the region's increasing demand for natural gas.
Though LNG would likely be priced the same as domestic gas, Beyer wrote, some savings were possible from LNG as a result of lower transportation costs.
The memo's conclusions were tempered, but they contrasted with those of the energy department, which told the governor in early May that the state doesn't need LNG and could meet its demand for natural gas more economically and with less pollution by importing more gas from the Rockies.
NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc., which is hoping for federal approval of its proposed Bradwood Landing LNG terminal later this year, applauded Beyer's entry into the fight over the terminals. NorthernStar spokesman Joe Desmond said he was "not surprised, but certainly comforted, by the fact that he has validated all we've been saying."
Meanwhile, an environmental group scoffed at the memo. "It looked like NorthernStar wrote it," said Brent Foster of Columbia Riverkeeper.
Beyer noted early in his memo that the commission's conclusions were partly shaped by consultations with Northwest Natural Gas Inc., the region's largest gas utility, and Wood MacKenzie, an energy industry consultant. NW Natural has a substantial financial interest in pipelines and gas storage that would serve the Bradwood LNG terminal, and Wood MacKenzie is one of many consultants that NorthernStar has hired to make its case for the terminal.
Mike Carrier, the governor's natural resource policy director, said the governor's office was looking for alternative perspectives to the Department of Energy study in light of unsolicited feedback about its accuracy from entities such as NorthernStar.
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