Hon. Ellen Rosenblum
Attorney General

The transition to an all-digital world is bad for elders — very bad.
Here is just today's plea for help for an elder, the latest edition of something I’m seeing more and more. An astonishing amount more in just the last few years.

A friend of mine has come to me because her elderly aunt has been scammed. Essentially, as I understand it, someone hit her with ransom ware. Then somehow got her on the phone. They said they were ransoming her computer and could use it to drain her bank account. She ultimately was taken for 38k. She is 71 and not particularly savvy. She wants Bank of America to review the charges and reverse or refund them as fraudulent. My guess is the actual scammers are out of reach.   

As I understand it, this has been reported to the police and an initial request has been submitted to the bank and denied. She is currently considering submitting a letter to appeal that decision and request reconsideration.

Our laws are inadequate for this. If someone knocked Grandma on the head, she could get some help from the Crime Victims Compensation Fund. But because they used her computer and her phone to scam her, Crime Victims Fund won’t even talk to her. 

Global internet and phone means every criminal in the world is just as close to and just as able to scam Grandma as the criminals in her town.

We need to devise means by which elders can be protected from these scams, which are proliferating wildly (exponentially).

The cost of running these scams is in the pennies range and the rewards are often in the tens of thousands of dollars.

And the risk to the scammers is zero. Absolutely zero.

We need a huge public education campaign, funded by the banks and credit unions that make this sort of thing possible and that profit greatly by elimination of human staff and moving all account management functions into the Wild Wild West of the lawless internet.

More importantly, we need to require depositary institutions to offer special higher-protection accounts, where consumers can get the main benefits of online accounts but without having to bear all the risk of being able to transfer their nest-egg to the scammers with a mouse-click or phone-check.

These higher-protection accounts would have guardrails built into their settings so that an elder would be unable to make payments to a new payee above a nominal amount without getting the bank’s security personnel involved, so that Grandma is not able to send off her nest egg in the middle of the night to the voice on the phone.

Please work with the legislature to devise laws to help protect Oregon’s seniors from the dark side of the technological wonderland they’ve found themselves in.

I wanted to let you know that your breakout session, Employment Law 101 for Nonprofits, at our conference, got overwhelmingly positive remarks on our evaluations. . . . People commented positively on it, and we only had a few sessions that had such a high number when it came to specific remarks.

Some specific comments: 
"Employment Law 101 was excellent."
"Employment Law 101: employees should NOT also be volunteers." (in response to "Share one thing that was especially valuable to you")
"Employment law class was very good."
"The substitute class on employment 101 was especially valuable regarding classifying employees."
"The Employment Law for Nonprofits was a really valuable session -- I learned a lot!"
"John Gear's Employment Law was excellent."

We appreciate your expertise and great contribution to the success of this conference!   

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Pam Prosise, Outreach Coordinator, Willamette Art Center
Phone: 503-365-3911   Email:    Outreach@WillametteArtCenter.com
Gratitude Overflows for Empty Bowls Volunteers and Sponsors
Saturday, February 9, 2019Special Presentation at 1:30, Clay-a-Thon: 1:00 – 4:00
 
This Saturday at 1:30, the potters at Willamette Art Center at the Marion County Fairgrounds will pause during their regular monthly Clay-a-Thon event to honor each other and to thank a long-term Empty Bowls sponsor.

Empty Bowls is Willamette Art Center’s annual November charity sale on the weekend before Thanksgiving, when WAC sells about 1,200 hand- thrown and painted bowls and kiln-fired works of art, all donated as a benefit for Marion-Polk Food Share, helping fill “Empty Bowls” in our community. WAC’s volunteer potters work year round at Saturday “Clay-a-Thon” events to create some 1200 bowls and other pieces sold to the public. Thanks to its talented volunteer potters, WAC has raised about $200,000 over the last 12 years for the Marion-Polk Food Share.

This month starts a series of recognition events for three long-time sponsors who underwrite Empty Bowls each year. This first event will recognize local consumer attorney John Gear of John Gear Law Office. WAC will thank Gear for his support since 2013 by presenting him with a one-of-a-kind hand-crafted chess set by WAC artists and founding members Greg and Margarethe Gregg. The Greggs, who are known for their whimsical and delicate creations, designed and created this unique set together, throwing and then hand-sculpting each of the 32 intricate pieces. Local craftsman Marc Vickery then created a beautiful inlaid wood board box that includes felted storage for the chess pieces.  

Gear says he gives to Empty Bowls because it multiplies the value of his gifts many times over because his gifts -- $9,000 since 2013 – pay for buying clay and glazes and for kiln-firing the work of gifted artists like the Greggs and Vickery. “The volunteers at WAC use their amazing talents to leverage my gifts, so they raise far more money for the Food Share than I could ever give.”

In coming months, WAC will recognize two other Empty Bowls sponsors, Salem Electric, sponsor since 2011, and The Grand Hotel, since 2012.

Empty Bowls began at WAC in 2006. In 2018, ten local potters were honored for having created or hand-painted at least 100 bowls. Many of these same volunteers have been donating their time and talents to Empty Bowls at WAC since it began. These include WAC members Jim Ransom, Jeannette Johnson, Jim Johnson, Ben Reese, Pam Baldwin, Karen Hackney, Gordy Minten, and Judy Murray, and local pro potter Cheri Posedel of Mud Pie Pottery. WAC invites skilled potters to join each monthly Clay-a-Thon event to fill the shelves for Empty Bowls, with tools, clay, wheels and glazes provided by WAC. In 2019, WAC potters creating for Empty Bowls will expand beyond bowls, creating additional functional food-safe pieces and further emphasizing bright hand-painted glazes

The next Clay-a-Thon will be Saturday, March 16 from 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.

Anyone interested in joining Salem Electric, The Grand Hotel, and John Gear Law Office as Empty Bowls sponsors should contact WAC Outreach Coordinator Pam Prosise at outreach@willametteartcenter.com or by calling  503-365-3911.
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The Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs Home Loan Program had a banner year in 2018, with an outstanding $102,044,184 in new loan origination — a 21 percent increase over the previous year and the program’s highest total in over two decades.

Behind the numbers is the remarkable fact that 362 Oregon veterans and their families were able to achieve their dream of home ownership through the ODVA home loan program in 2018. 

“It’s a great feat, and it’s really a testament to the ODVA team and their hard work,” Home Loans Program Manager Cody Cox said. “It shows their dedication to serving veterans and their home financing needs.”

Oregon is one of only five states that still offers a veteran home loan program. This Oregon benefit is separate and distinct from the federal VA Home Loan Guaranty and has lent approximately $8 billion in low-interest home loans to more than 334,000 veterans since 1945.

“The Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs was originally created by the Legislature in 1945 to administer the home loan program, so it is an important part of our agency’s history and identity,” said ODVA director Kelly Fitzpatrick. “We are immensely proud of the work of Home Loans Program Manager Cody Cox and his team, and their service to our veterans.”
Today, Oregon’s veteran home loan portfolio contains just shy of 2,000 units and is valued in excess of $370 million.

Currently, ODVA's home loan program offers eligible veterans fixed-rate financing for:

• Owner-occupied, single family residence
  
• Loans up to the limit set by the Federal Housing Finance Agency
• Purchase only (no refinancing is available)
  
• Up to four (4) home loan maximum life benefit

For more information about the Oregon Veteran Home Loan Program, visit www.orvethomeloans.com or call toll-free (888)673-8387.