Life Inside China's Total Surveillance State

China has turned the northwestern region of Xinjiang into a vast experiment in domestic surveillance. This Wall Street Journal video (December 20, 2017) shows what life is like inside a surveillance state.

The BBC (December 25, 2017) published a video China: "The World's Biggest Camera Surveillance Network" that also discusses surveillance of people in China.

The surveillance state continues to grow. The locations, relations, interactions, and associations of people are being collected and filed away in government databases. Some might argue that surveillance makes us safer, but this is not the case.

A February 2, 2018 article in The Atlantic "China's Surveillance State Should Scare Everyone" discusses how China is perfecting a vast network of digital espionage as a means of social control—with implications for democracies worldwide.

And on July 26, 2018 the German magazine Spiegel wrote about China, A Surveillance State Unlike Any the World Has Ever Seen.

 

WA State Supreme Court Clarifies When Felons Can Regain Gun Rights

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — People in Washington state who want to have their gun rights restored after a felony conviction must be crime-free for five years, but it doesn’t have to be the five years immediately before they petition.

That’s according to a 6-3 ruling Thursday from the Washington Supreme Court. It came in the case of Edgar Dennis III, who was disqualified from possessing guns after robbery and assault convictions in the 1990s.

Dennis went more than 15 years before he was convicted of another crime, a misdemeanor for negligent driving.

Two years after that, in 2016, he petitioned to have his firearm rights restored. Lower courts rejected his efforts, citing the misdemeanor conviction within the past five years.

The high court overturned those decisions. The majority said that because he had been conviction-free for more than five years after completing his last felony sentence, he was entitled to have his gun rights restored.  (Q13 Fox News, July 26, 2018)
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Taking away a person's Constitutional Rights - the right to possess firearms, the right to vote - because that person has been convicted of a "felony crime" has never seemed right. Of course, while serving time in prison, and while on probation, we might agree that these right may be suspended; but once a sentence has been served should we continue to inflict punishment on a person by denying them their rights.

The WA Court's ruling that once a person has been crime free for five years following a felony conviction he or she can have gun rights restored seems like a step in the right direction.

 

 

King County Sheriff’s Deputy Fired Over Felony Conviction

According to the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber (July 13, 2018) King County sheriff’s deputy Edward Hicks was fired on June 28 after a jury in Michigan found him guilty earlier that week of beating a man back in 2016.

Before getting hired as a King County Sheriff’s deputy in 2017, Hicks worked for the Detroit Police Department, where he was investigated for assaulting a man while on the job. The matter was eventually handed off to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, who charged him in 2017 with misdemeanor aggravated assault and felony misconduct in office—the two criminal charges that the Michigan jury upheld on June 25.

Hicks waived his right to a formal internal hearing with King County Sheriff Johanknecht on June 27, where he would have been allowed to respond to the jury’s verdict.
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From the article we read that Hicks was charged with misdemeanor aggravated assault (according to the Michigan Penal Code (750.81a), assault without a weapon resulting in an aggravated injury). The felony charge is because he committed the misdemeanor while acting as a police officer. Under Michigan law felony misconduct in office includes malfeasance, which is the doing of a wrongful act, misfeasance, which is the doing of a lawful act in a wrongful manner; and nonfeasance, which is the failure to perform an act required by the duties of the office.

It would seem that any conviction of a public officer in Michigan can result in a felony charge as  well. So, should Deputy Hicks have been fired by Sheriff Johanknecht?

 

 

Europe is Using Smartphone Data as a Weapon to Deport Refugees

"Across the continent, migrants are being confronted by a booming mobile forensics industry that specializes in extracting a smartphone’s messages, location history, and even WhatsApp data. That information can potentially be turned against the phone owners themselves.

In 2017 both Germany and Denmark expanded laws that enabled immigration officials to extract data from asylum seekers’ phones. Similar legislation has been proposed in Belgium and Austria, while the UK and Norway have been searching asylum seekers’ devices for years.

Over the six months after Germany’s phone search law came into force, immigration officials searched 8,000 phones. If they doubted an asylum seeker’s story, they would extract their phone’s metadata – digital information that can reveal the user’s language settings and the locations where they made calls or took pictures.

To do this, German authorities are using a computer program, called Atos, that combines technology made by two mobile forensic companies – T3K and MSAB. It takes just a few minutes to download metadata.

Privacy International has investigated the UK police’s ability to search phones, indicating that immigration officials could possess similar powers. “What surprised us was the level of detail of these phone searches. Police could access information even you don’t have access to, such as deleted messages. British police are aided by Israeli mobile forensic company Cellebrite. Using their software, officials can access search history, including deleted browsing history. It can also extract WhatsApp messages from some Android phones." (Wired UK, July 2, 2018)
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What's important to note here is the amount of data that can be extracted from the average smartphone. This can include your contacts, the content of your messages, location data, photos, and through the phone's browser access to social media accounts and e-mail (do you stay logged in to your Facebook and e-mail on your phone?).

 

Joint Analytic Real-time Virtual Information Sharing System (JARVISS)

The JARVISS system is an Army-wide information sharing enterprise intended to facilitate real-time sharing of information gathered from multiple sources in the military and civilian community. 

The JARVISS system dashboard uses advanced analytic algorithms and commercial analysts to provide users with threat information originating from over 80,000 open sources including social media, commercial and government sources. Threat information is geo-located and provides the user the distance to the closest Army assets. The systems workspace function can be used for detailed analysis, allowing full system users the ability to conduct crime, threat, or emergency management analysis.

Antiterrorism (AT) Division (of HQDA, OPMG) is the primary lead for the JARVISS program. And, this is where we begin to run into serious privacy and civil rights problems with the JARVISS system. Of the 80,000 sources of information the system is collecting information, how much of that information is related only to civilian activities? The JARVISS system creates a slippery slope where slope where Army antiterrorism officers are collecting information about US Persons, entering that information into government databases, in effect keeping secret files about American citizens with no civilian judicial oversight.

In the early 2000s the Army had a system called Joint Protection Enterprise Network (JPEN). The JPEN system allowed "authorized subscribers to immediately share antiterrorism and force protection events with Department of Defense installations, operations centers and intelligence activities enabling them to make more timely and informed decisions." Unfortunately the JPEN system ended up with a lot of information about US Persons being entered into the system by antiterrorism officers with no review or oversight of the information being collected. The JPEN system was eventually shut down.

The JARVISS system has a high potential for abuse, for collection of information about American citizens by Army antiterrorism offices, without sufficient review or oversight. As the JARVISS system becomes fully operational, how will you know whether some Army antiterrorism officer is keeping files about you in this system? How will you know if the Army is spying on you?
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Seattle Police Demanding Family Members Surrender Their Firearms

Seattle Police are demanding that family members of a teenager who posted a Snapchat image of another Garfield student’s head at the barrel of a cartoon gun, surrender their real guns to the police.  The action was taken by the new Regional Firearms Enforcement Unit that strives to prevent gun crimes, typically those involving domestic violence or extreme risk protection orders.

A King County judge issued a civil “weapons surrender” order requiring “any household members who own or possess any firearms” to turn their guns over to police for safekeeping.

That led to a first-of-its-kind legal case in King County, where authorities attempted to remove all firearms from the household where the 17-year-old accused student lives.

The teen’s attorney argued that the Snapchat post and the other comments were in jest, and said the students who heard them did not feel threatened.

The father in the Snapchat case hired an attorney to argue that the weapons surrender order violated his 2nd Amendment rights. In a legal brief the father's attorney said the man’s son was the party facing the criminal harassment charge, and that “the Court has no statutory authority to order a nonparty to surrender weapons.”

After hearing arguments, Judge Susan Amini agreed.

“The court has no jurisdiction to tell him what to do,” the judge said of the father’s refusal to voluntarily hand over his guns.

The order required Seattle police to return the father’s firearms, although the man’s attorney said he has always been willing to keep them locked up at a location separate from his residence.

King County juvenile court prosecutors dropped the harassment charge against the 17-year-old who made the Snapchat post.   (King 5 News, July 19, 2018)
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This is another example of government overreach and police abuse of authority. The government has no more right to demand that someone surrender their firearms because he/she "might" use them in a crime than it does to demand that you surrender your car because you "might" drink and drive.

Was the 17-year old's Snapchat post inappropriate - absolutely. Was it a threat, probably not since according to the students who received the Snapchat, they did not feel threatened, and King County prosecutors dropped the harassment charges against the teenager.

Facial Recognition Matched 28 Members Of Congress With Arrest Mugshots

According to Buzz Feed News (July 26, 2018) the ACLU took Amazon's facial recognition tech—which Amazon is aggressively selling to police—and loaded it with 25,000 mugshots.

Then, they ran photos of members of Congress against the mugshots. Amazon's Facial Recognition Tech Falsely Matched 28 Members Of Congress With Arrest Mugshots.

To conduct its test, the ACLU used the standard facial recognition system Amazon offers at a low cost to law enforcement and the public. The ACLU said it spent only $12.33 to build a database of 25,000 publicly available arrest photos and to run a test that included photos of every current member of the US House and Senate. 

"These results demonstrate why Congress should join the ACLU in calling for a moratorium on law enforcement use of face surveillance," said Jacob Snow, an attorney for ACLU of Northern California.

70 civil rights groups, as well as Amazon employees and shareholders, have expressed concerns that facial recognition software has the potential to track innocent people and misidentify them as having committed a crime.

No police department needs mass-surveillance technology. Yes, we ask our law enforcement officers to protect the communities where they work, and we want them to have the tools needed to do their jobs. However, we should never give a police department the capability to conduct mass-surveillance of the community. Doing so lets them move from conducting police work to acting as a police state; and suddenly you have government employees keeping secret hidden files about you on government computer networks with no consequences for their illegal activity.

 

 

When They Try To Destroy Your Life...

Eva Galperin @evacide Director of Cyber-security at the EFF commented on Twitter about a Gizmodo article "When a Stranger Decides to Destroy Your Life" saying "Protecting yourself against a stranger with an irrational, out-of-control hatred is one of the harder digital security problems."

This is a very true statement, and even more so when the person trying to destroy your life knows you, or is a government employee with access to private information about you. Commonly recommended cyber and information security techniques don't work so well when someone completely fabricates a story about you, makes false allegations to your employer, and files false reports with the police about you.

Still, every bit of security that you add to your life can make you a harder target. Never give up the fight.

 

 

Raising PTSD and Workplace Mental Health Consequence Awareness

In October 2017, the American Psychiatric Association reported that: "Studies have found that some 75 percent of rescue workers have mild symptoms of psychological trauma following a disaster. Several factors, including longer periods of deployment, inexperience, close contact with corpses and longer shifts, are associated with greater mental health challenges.... A national survey of first responders from the University of Phoenix found mental health challenges are common and while resources are generally available to help, they are often not used. Approximately 85 percent of first responders had experienced symptoms related to mental health issues, 34 percent had received a formal diagnosis with a mental disorder, more than a quarter had been diagnosed with depression, one in 10 had been diagnosed with PTSD and 46 percent had experienced anxiety. 

Despite the need, the majority of first responders reported that mental health services are rarely used at their organization. The stigma associated with mental health may be keeping them from getting the help they need. Nearly 40 percent said there would be negative repercussions for seeking mental health help at work, such as a supervisor treating them differently, being seen as weak or being overlooked for promotions."

While we tend to think of mental health consequences, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, compassion fatigue and burnout as resulting from a specific traumatic event, these same things can result from prolonged exposure to a hostile and stress inducing work environment.  The harming effects of workplace stress resulting from a hostile workplace can result in an employee becoming psychologically injured after long-term abuse (problems that are drawn out over months). 

Agency misconduct has devastating effects on the targeted individual. Not only does one feel that their job is in jeopardy, they may also start to feel physically ill and emotionally harmed. This can create liabilities for the agency / employer, including:

• Occupational health and safety violations;
• Actions for negligence or intentional infliction of mental suffering; or
• Actions for defamation per se.

More importantly however a hostile workplace and agency misconduct results in direct harm to the targeted employee and general harm to the morale of the agency itself. Whether an employee is suffering mental health consequences as a result of a specific traumatic event, or as a result of a long-term problem within the agency, supervisors must ensure that resources are made available to these injured employees - and made available without recrimination or negative affect on the employee for seeking help.

https://www.vetselfcheck.org/

Microsoft Raises Alarms About Facial Recognition

According to KOMO4 News (July 14, 2018) Microsoft is calling on Congress to regulate the use of facial recognition technology to protect people's privacy and freedom of expression.

The American Civil Liberties Union and 40 other privacy advocates are demanding that Amazon take 'facial recognition software' off the table for law enforcement, saying it could be used to watch the public without their knowledge or consent. But, Microsoft urges congress to take responsibility, not tech companies.

Microsoft President Brad Smith published a blog post saying that "the only effective way to manage the use of technology by a government is for the government to proactively manage this use itself."
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The problem isn't with the use of surveillance technology by law enforcement, but with the abuse of surveillance technology by law enforcement.

 



 

Finicum Family’s Wrongful Death Lawsuit Moves Forward in Federal Court

Malheur National Wildlife occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Finicum family’s wrongful death lawsuit moves forward in federal court. The lawsuit names the United States as a defendant, along with the FBI, federal agents, the state of Oregon, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Oregon State Police, Harney County, and more — including 100 law enforcement “John Does.” The suit seeks more than $5 million in damages for Finicum’s estate.

James Smith, with the Oregon Department of Justice, represents the state and its interests. He said law enforcement officials testifying during the trial will use pseudonyms out of concern for their safety. That will make them difficult to serve notice to at the trial, he said. (East Oregonian, July 19, 2018)
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We saw earlier this month that President Donald Trump pardoned Dwight and Steven Hammond, the two Oregon ranchers whose prison sentences sparked the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

FBI footage that shows the shooting of Finicum prompted further questions about his death. This video shows the moments leading up to and after Finicum's death in slow motion.

Free Maria Butina

If Maria Butina was indeed an agent of the Kremlin, as the F.B.I. alleges, she was not good at hiding it. Butina, who is currently jailed without bail, has found herself at the center of the latest twist in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing Russia investigation. Far from maintaining cloak-and-dagger secrecy as she infiltrated the NRA and GOP circles prior to the 2016 election, Butina blogged about her experiences and posted reflections and snapshots on Twitter, Facebook and the Russian social media network VK.com.

Butina’s arrest last week on charges that she was acting as an unregistered Russian agent and allegations that she has ties to Russian intelligence rattled those who knew her at American University, where she spent two years in the global security program at the School of International Service.

Wouldn’t a Russian agent have been more covert, many at the school now wonder, and have worked to keep her Kremlin advocacy under wraps?

Butina’s arrest last week on charges that she was acting as an unregistered Russian agent and allegations that she has ties to Russian intelligence rattled those who knew her at American University, where she spent two years in the global security program at the School of International Service.

During her time on the manicured campus in a tony Northwest Washington neighborhood, Butina embraced the opportunities available to graduate students at the university. She had a student job with a workspace near the office of former Obama administration national security adviser Susan E. Rice, a visiting research fellow. She co-authored a paper on cybersecurity with two professors at the business school.

Butina, now 29, pursued several advanced degrees in Russia before arriving in the United States, including master’s degrees in political science and education and a doctorate, according to biographies she posted online. During that time, she became a well-known personality in Russia as an advocate for loosening the country’s restrictive gun laws.

Classmates at AU agreed that Butina put in long hours at the library working on assignments. She told fellow students that she hoped to get a job in cybersecurity but was worried her nationality could pose barriers. Butina completed her own schoolwork, maintaining a 4.0 grade-point average.

In May, Butina walked across the stage at the AU graduation in a blue gown, smiling slightly, her red hair tucked beneath her mortarboard.

Almost exactly two months later, she was arrested.

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So, a Russian citizen attending graduate school in the USA is somehow a Russian spy because she openly  favors and advocates for her homeland, Russia?

There is a connection to President Trump because she attended the national prayer breakfast where Trump was giving a speech?

Not every Russian in the United States is a spy, anymore than every American in Russia is a spy.

We really have to get some better counterintelligence guys, and get the FBI out of politics.

 

Police Tracing Trail of JBLM Soldier from Murder in a Renton Hotel, to Shootings and Suicide on the Hood Canal Bridge

Video-surveillance footage shows that Krishna Mahadevan-Prasad, an Army Ranger at JBLM, spent three minutes inside a woman’s Renton motel room on Monday, but it was apparently enough time for him to kill the 38-year-old and mutilate her body, according to Renton police.

He had been assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord just two weeks earlier, apparently arriving in Washington on July 10 after completing One Station Unit Training, the Basic Airborne Course, and the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program 1 at Fort Benning, Georgia, according to an Army spokeswoman. He had joined the Army in September.

Police say Mahadevan-Prasad fatally shot himself early Tuesday morning after he opened fire on vehicles on the Hood Canal Bridge.  (Seattle Times, July 25, 2018)
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2 Seattle Police Officers Fired Over Shooting in Eastlake Last October

SEATTLE - Two Seattle Police officers have been fired for violating the department's use of force policies during a shooting in the Eastlake neighborhood last fall. Dash cam and body cam video released by SPD shows the officers opening fire on a car that was driving away from police in October 2017. In her discipline reports, newly-nominated police chief Carmen Best said officer Kenneth Martin and officer Tabitha Sexton put people in danger when they fired at the fleeing suspect. The officers were responding to reports of suspicious activity and fired two volleys of shots, one as the car lurched toward officers and another as it sped away. Best determined their actions were not reasonable, necessary or proportionate. She said they also put public safety at risk, but in this case, no one was seriously injured in the shooting.  (KOMO4 News, July 23, 2018)
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Cyber-Security Guru, Runa A. Sandvik

Former hacker, Runa A. Sandvik, now senior director of information security at The New York Times believes information security can fit into reporters’ lives seamlessly and conveniently.

She has written about encryption tools and a dark web email service for Forbes. The URL of her personal website is encrypted.cc. She once threw a CryptoParty with Edward Snowden in Hawaii.

Today, she is known for spearheading security improvements at The New York Times, including two-factor authentication for reporters, which requires an additional verification method after entering a password; a confidential page for tips from sources; secure communication methods; protection for Times subscriber accounts; and more.

There is a great profile piece about Ms. Sandvik in the New York Times. Definitely worth reading.
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U.S. Army's New Sub-Compact Weapon

In May 2018, the U.S. Army has issued a RFI for a new Sub Compact Weapon. In the Sub Compact Weapon, the Army is looking for a “highly concealable” system that can engage threats with lethal and accurate close range fire and “minimal collateral damage,” the notice states. The weapon is to be select-fire, chambered in 9x19mm, and equipped with a MIL-STD-1913 rail.

On the 2nd July, however, the Synopsis of Contract Award notice was updated stating that the Sub Compact Weapon program has been cancelled, at least temporarily. This means that all 13 of the contracts awarded to vendors in June have been cancelled. It appears that the programs specifications and requirements have changed and need to be rewritten before the program can move forward.

At one point during development of this requirement, the Army is said to have considered adoption of 300 BLK weapons to fulfill the need, but decided against it as the round is not readily available within DoD or with NATO allies. However, as USSOCOM’s Personal Defense Weapon, a 300 BLK upper receiver kit fit the M4, requirement takes shape, the Army may once again look at M4 compatibility, rather than a completely new weapon.

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While the U.S. Army may be changing its requirements for a sub-compact weapon, I think that there is still a place for a similar type weapon for personal use. The Recce Pistol concept is something that I like, and a practice that I follow. Having something a bit more substantial than a pistol, when you can't carry a full-size rifle, will improve your security in any hostile environment.

2nd Amendment Protects Open Carry of Guns (9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals)

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 24, 2018 that the Second Amendment protects the right to openly carry a gun in public for self-defense. In a 2-1 ruling the Court held that Hawaii officials had violated George Young’s rights when he was denied a permit to openly carry a loaded gun in public to protect himself. The decision reversed a lower court ruling that sided with officials who said the amendment only applied to guns kept in homes.

Gun rights is one of the most hotly debated issues in U.S. political and legal circles with any loosening or restriction of access to guns often leading to a court battle. The U.S. Supreme Court has shied away from firearms fights in recent years, turning away challenges to restrictions after striking down gun ownership bans in the District of Columbia and Chicago in 2008 and 2010. (Washington Post, July 24, 2018)

Overseas Crisis Readiness Resources

Are you planning a trip out of the country? Have you received orders for an overseas assignment? Security planning and preparedness is an essential part of ensuring a safe and enjoyable trip.

If you work for a government agency, or for certain other businesses and organizations, you may be required to receive a "foreign travel briefing" prior to your trip. Depending on your agency this briefing may provide you with current, useful information to help you be prepared for any problems that may arise during your trip; or you may be presented with nothing more than some cut-and-paste Power Point slides that are little more than useless if something goes wrong during your travel.

Remember that YOU are responsible for your own safety. The U.S. Department of State offers an Overseas Crisis Readiness Resource that can help you plan for a crisis while overseas.

The Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) has prepared an eleven-page Travel Security Form to help individuals prepare for overseas travel.

Country information and travel guidelines are available from the State Department. The United States Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) provides traveler health information on its web-site, as does the World Health Organization.

International Travel Issues for Americans are also addressed on the USA.Gov web-site.

The U.S. State Department has a booklet, "Personal Preparedness Plan: Prepare for an Unexpected Departure from Post" that offers advice for someone who might have to leave an area on short notice.

The Committee to Protect Journalists Security Guide, although written for journalists, provides good general security information for anyone living and working in a hostile or non-permissive environment.

 

Police Can Now Access Your iPhone Without Your Help

A newly developed tool aimed at cracking the code of Apple iPhones is being pursued or already in the hands of several Bay Area law enforcement agencies. While facial recognition, fingerprint and passcodes may seem secure, there’s a new way for police to get around it.

GrayKey was developed by Georgia-based GrayShift in 2017 and, according to company documents, is capable of unlocking any iPhone, even those that are disabled or those that have the newest versions of iOS software.

Apple is actively updating software to fix its security vulnerabilities, as GrayShift is also advancing with a plan to give police access to your personal information. (KTVU 2 News, July 19, 2018)
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GrayKey is not a new story. I wrote about the security risks posed by GrayKey and similar devices in March 2018. This is less a battle between law enforcement and criminals, and more of a battle between the rights of American people to be free from government surveillance and the need of government to access protected data for law enforcement and national security purposes.

 

Defense and Security News

Defense News offers free on-line subscriptions to various reports covering military defense.

Info Security Magazine - The Digital Edition is free to worldwide subscribers and includes all the same content as the print edition along with interactive links.

Open Source Enterprise provides government employees and contractors access to a wide variety of news sources.

OSAC provides information about overseas security topics. Even if you do not qualify for OSAC constituency, you can still receive OSAC’s daily morning newsletter and afternoon digest.

Security, the business magazine for security executives, focuses on management issues facing top security professionals and effective solutions being employed.

Washington Post - Members of the military and government, with a valid .mil or .gov email address, are eligible for free online access to The Washington Post.

Portland Threatens Reporter with Subpoena in Protesters' Class Action Suit

The city of Portland is seeking a reporter's declaration under oath for its defense in a civil rights lawsuit, a move generally viewed by the press as a strongarm tactic given laws that protect journalists from testifying about their work. Freelance reporter Mike Bivins said he was told of a possible subpoena during a phone call with the lead city attorney in the case, Naomi Sheffield.

Bivins published articles for Willamette Week and Al Jazeera about the protest, during which police allegedly corralled hundreds of protesters and demanded their IDs. The tactic, called "kettling," led the American Civil Liberities Union to file a class action suit in federal court against Mayor Ted Wheeler and more than 50 police officers.

Duane Bosworth, a Portland attorney who has defended journalists against government subpoena requests, said in his view Oregon's media "shield law" would likely protect Bivins from being forced to testify. Shield laws protect reporters' privilege to not testify about information they gather or their sources. The Oregon shield law is perhaps the strongest in the nation, said Bosworth, who occasionally represents The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Bivins said he does not intend to sign a declaration in order to "not appear like I'm on one side or another." He said the ACLU approached him about joining their lawsuit against the city, but he declined.

Bosworth said governments can chill reporters' ability to gather news and make sources by issuing subpoena threats.

"If a person is speaking to a reporter and knows that information could be provided to the cops that would dry up those conversations," Bosworth said. He said what "no reporter wants" is to appear to take sides, or worse, be compelled to do so by the government.  (The Oregonian, July 23, 2018)