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All the Rage YOUR ONLINE LOCAL Quack quarterbacks Portland boatmaker Bennett, Mariota gird wins big DAILY NEWS for competition — See LIFE, B1 www.portlandtribune.com — See SPORTS, B10 PortlandTHURSDAY, JULY 19, 2012 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPERTribune • WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED THURSDAYe Lottery Row limits tossed out Director’s new plan at least three more years. ter that has morphed into a them. sioners at a May 24 meeting. Members of the Oregon gambling attraction for Clark “Our community is dying Lottery offi cials vowed to put The four commissioners, might not satisfy State Lottery Commission County, Wash., residents, with the festering problem at Jant- who are appointed to their nixed in late May proposed all 12 establishments hosting a slow death.” zen Beach “on the front burn- posts by the governor, told angry neighbors regulations that would have al- state video lottery terminals — Ron Schmidt, er” nearly a year and a half Niswender his proposal was lowed no more than half the and all 12 serving alcohol. Hayden Island’s Hi-Noon ago. The proposed remedy, a unfair to retailers that built By STEVE LAW establishments at Oregon re- Nine of the 12 establish- draft regulation by Lottery Di- their business plans around The Tribune tail strip centers to host state ments are owned by two com- rector Larry Niswender that the gambling terminals, and video lottery terminals. panies, which in some cases site. The terminals are essen- would limit the concentration would have unintended conse- Hayden Island residents The proposed regulation was subdivided their businesses to tially electronic slot machines of lottery retailers at strip cen- quences by causing retailers will have to endure the vice- prompted by a community out- create clones next door, in an owned by the state, with gam- ters, fi nally was nearing the ap- elsewhere in Oregon to lose ridden “Lottery Row” retail cry over a strip center opposite apparent bid to skirt the state’s bling profi ts divided among the proval stage, but it was roundly center in their neighborhood the Jantzen Beach Super Cen- limit of six video terminals per state and the retailers that host criticized by lottery commis- See LOTTERY / Page 3 Arts tax ■ Oregon study provides insight into Affordable Care Act rami cations tussle creates drama If it passes legal muster, new revenue would aid schools By JIM REDDEN The Tribune From The Iliad to Macbeth to the Amazing Spider-man, Asthma art has long been full of con- sufferer Linda fl ict. So it should be no sur- Monroy tries prise that Portland’s proposed to breathe in Arts Access and Income Tax air after using has attracted both supporters her inhaler. Ten and opponents. years without If approved by city voters in health November, the $35-per-person insurance and tax would start this year and ap- four years with ply to all income-earning Port- have made landers age 18 and older, unless Monroy part of they live in a household that a study that earns less than the U.S. poverty has national level. Money raised would hire implications. art and music teachers in the TRIBUNE PHOTO: schools and provide more oppor- CHRISTOPHER tunities for residents to experi- ONSTOTT ence the arts. Supporters say it is a modest effort to reverse years of budget cuts that have undermined arts wo weeks ago, Linda Monroy caught an held when the Oregon Health Plan had 10,000 new education and organizations. upper respiratory bug, she thinks from her slots for Medicaid health care coverage. After 12 They argue that art and music THE DOLLARS 11-year-old son Valentino. years without coverage, she suddenly had health in- classes improve graduation T Monroy suffers from asthma, so she surance. rates, and that arts organiza- promptly went to an urgent care clinic and came The most signifi cant element of the act will extend tions boost the economy. AND CENTS OF away with a prescription for Pred- health care insurance to an esti- “It’s a relatively insignifi cant nisone to open her airways. She mated 30 million more Ameri- amount of money that can make felt ecstatic. Story by Peter Korn cans. For years, researchers have a signifi cant impact,” says Jessi- It wasn’t the medicine that lift- Photos by Christopher Onstott wondered what that might mean. ed the Beaverton resident’s spir- Health care providers could be See ART TAX / Page 9 its. It was being able to visit a stretched thin as uninsured peo- clinic, get medicine and not have to worry about the ple who received little health care now take advan- SAVING cost, or to consider heading to a hospital emergency tage of their new status. But economists and hospi- room for treatment. tals have long made the case that the uninsured cost ThisWeek Four years ago, the 52-year-old Monroy became the health care system vast amounts of money by part of an experiment that has health care research- putting off health care until their conditions became ers showing renewed interest in Oregon since the severe and more costly to treat, and by repeatedly Online U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act See HEALTH / Page 2 Local stories that you LIVES on June 28. Monroy came up a winner in a lottery read about first at www.portlandtribune.com ■ NEWS — Police shoot at suspect in Southeast Cyprus teens build bridge to peace Portland — Teen with guns runs from of cers at and Elena Pirillou, a Turkish traf c stop. (Posted Tues- Rose City is a quiet and Greek Cypriot, respective- day, July 17) Search: Police. ly, are in Portland for July, Elena Pirillou backdrop in Cypriot bunking in the same room — ■ FEATURES — 2012 (left) and Ugfe hoping to turn that cultural mis- Mitsubishi Lancer SE re- Kuyucuoglu cultural exchange conception around. view — On-demand all-wheel- share a laugh They are two of 14 teenagers drive comes in handy on af- while picking By NATE FORD from Cyprus, seven from the fordable family car. (Posted berries with The Tribune Greek-speaking south, paired Friday, July 13) Search: Lancer. their Cyprus with seven from the Turkish- Friendship They aren’t supposed to be speaking north, who have come ■ SPORTS — European Program host friends. to Portland as part of the Cy- trip next for OSU basket- family. The two At least, that’s how people prus Friendship Program. ball team with NCAA girls live on would see it in their home coun- The all-volunteer program goal — Beavers, coach opposing sides try, Cyprus — the third largest pairs teens from across the di- Craig Robinson say they’re of the country. island in the Eastern Mediter- vide by having them live and on the upswing. (Posted ranean Sea. work together on “peace-build- TRIBUNE PHOTO: Sixteen-year-olds Ugfe (pro- Tuesday, July 17) Search: CHRISTOPHER Robinson. ONSTOTT nounced ooh-fay) Kuyucuoglu See CYPRUS / Page 8 Oregon’s Hottest Home Show! BUY ONE TICKET GET ONE This coupon entitles you to one free admission with the purchase of one regular ad- TourTou affordable & luxury mission ($8.00) to the 2012 Street of Affordable Homes. hhomes inside & out! Good for 2012 event only. No Buy Online! cash value. FREE Presented by Use promo 405924.071912 StreetOfAffordableHomes.comm code “bogo” JulyJ 5-29, 2012 | 10am-9pm | Thurs-Sun | 1065 Lilac St., Forest Grove, OR 97116 A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, July 19, 2012 Health: Financial security is best outcome ■ From page 1 visiting emergency depart- ments. The Oregon Health Study provided an opportunity to ex- amine those possibilities. Top researchers from around the country began comparing the lives and health care costs of Or- egon Health Plan lottery win- ners such as Monroy with those who remained uninsured. An initial report was released a year ago, and the analysis con- tinues. Bill Wright, a Providence Health & Services researcher participating in the study, says two primary lessons so far are clear. “A lot of folks have said Med- icaid doesn’t do anything, and we found that it does,” Wright says. “And a lot of folks say you insure people it’s going to imme- diately pay for itself, and we found that it costs, at least ini- tially.” The newly insured low-in- come lottery winners used more health care than their still-unin- sured counterparts — about 25 percent or $777 per year more. They received much more pre- ventative care, including mam- mograms and cholesterol screenings. They entered hospi- tals 30 percent more frequently. TRIBUNE PHOTOs: CHRIsTOPHER ONsTOTT Surprisingly, they did not go to self-employed courier Linda Monroy saw her asthma and depression worsen in the years she had no health insurance. since enrolling on the Oregon Health Plan, she freely visits emergency departments any doctors when sick. With the U.s. supreme Court upholding the Affordable Care Act, health care officials are noting that Monroy and fellow participants in the Oregon Health study on less frequently than those who average increased their health care usage $777 per person in one year after receiving coverage. were uninsured. times a year. who remained without. MIT care dollars than the uninsured. Easing their minds “I would wait until I was at economist Amy Finkelstein, a Her asthma and psychiatric That last finding was a puz- death’s doorstep and I couldn’t member of the Oregon study’s medications combined cost zler for researchers have start- breathe,” she says. “The doctor research team, says the in- about $250 a month. She says ed interviewing study partici- would say, ‘Why did you wait so creased happiness was equiva- she visits a primary care physi- pants.