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.. _ ..... , ,,.~ _ _ i. SUNDAY, SEP 4~ 19, 2004 C3 awyers' of battle contributions. Oregon doctors and hospitals have helped raise ' a record $5 million to promote an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to limit medical malpractice damage awards. Oregon has been down this road before. The state had a $500,000 lid on noneconomic damages from 1987 to 1999, when the state Supreme Court struck down the law as violat- ing state constitutional rights to a jury trial. • `The Legislature then sent a measure to voters that would have allowed damage award limits in civil lawsuits general- ly. Voters rejected it by a 3-to-1 margin. Doctors kept out Since the court case, larger awards and settlements have . helped drive big increases in malpractice insurance rates ;paid by doctors, sponsors of ;Measure 35 say, keeping doctors out of Oregon. Opponents of the initiative measure say many factors such as inflation in overall health care costs influence insurance rues and that Measure 35 :would do nothing to lower in- '. surance costs. Plus, they say, damage caps :are unfair to victims who suffer very traumatic damage at the ;hands of incompetent doctors: Opponents of Measure 35 al- so say there's no good reason to limit pain and suffering • awards, since the state has • launched a program to help ease the financial burden of `some rural doctors by provid- e ing up .to $10 million a year to !help pay rising malpractice pre- miums. More than 1,000 physi- cians have signed up for the as- sistance so far, and state offi- cials expect that number to grow to 1,500. But medical groups say the assistance program offers only ;limited help to rural physicians because the state couldn't af- ford to extend it statewide. ' ~:~~ ~ • 1~ ~ .1 r o .~G Depot Dedication 433 Willamette Street Monday, September 20, 10 a.m. You are cordially invited to join Eugene Mayor Jim Zbrrey, U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio, and other supporters of the Eugene Depot project for the dedication of the newly renovated station. For more information, call 682-ti281. ~' Richard Highland Longtime Eugene resident, Richard Highland died August 26, 2004, ofage-related causes. _ ,_ Richard was born in Los Angeles, California on January 20, 1919 to Roy and Agnes High- ~ ~~ ~ ~ land. At age three, he survived an accidental ~ vacation drowning that took the lives of his par- ents,and his baby sister, Doris. He was adopted by the family of his mother's brother, Robert McCartney. He lived on their farm near Bakersfield, California, until the family moved to Azalea, Oregon in 1934. He graduated from Glendale Oregon High School in 1936; and from Oregon State College in Corvallis in 1940.. After a brief teaching career at Grants Pass High School, Highland entered the Army in December, 1941. He served in the Pacific Theater as a Captain with the 41st Infantry Division. He was awarded two Bronze Stars. Highland attended graduate school at Ohio State Univer- sity in Columbus, Ohio, earning his Ph.D. in Psychology in 1949. While teaching at Ohio State, he met a student named lane Claire Durling. They were married on June 7, 1947, and raised a family of four children. They divorced after 23 years of mar- riage,but remained good friends for the next 34 years. He served for eight years as a Research Psychologist for the Air Force before starting a career as an Engineering Psycholo- gistfor the Hughes Aircraft Company in Southern California. He retired from Hughes Aircraft in 1981 and settled in Eugene. Survivors include his adoptive sister Ebba, as well as two daughters, and twn ~~n~• ~~~~~~ ~'-- ' -' i n h to 1;: c tl tl C P~ e1 ~. do ai. de $6 $~. cu ex La mi 2 FI I ~ lr