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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 21, 2016)
81/51 WIENER WEEKEND STRETCHED LITTLE LEAGUE SOFTBALL TOURNEY REGION/3A SPORTS/1B TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2016 140th Year, No. 177 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD HERMISTON Fire damages, shuts down Columbia Court Club By ALEXA LOUGEE East Oregonian A fi re spread through the Columbia Court Club north of Hermiston Monday morning, bringing fi refi ghters from around the region to douse the blaze that did massive damage to the city’s oldest health and fi tness club. Hermiston Fire Department fi rst received a call of black smoke fi lling the Columbia Court Club building at 11:24 Staff photo by Alexa Lougee a.m. Firefi ghters work to contain a structure fi re at the Co- Firefi ghters located a lumbia Court Club north of Hermiston. fi re on the fi rst fl oor near the women’s locker room, and the fi re spread upwards to the second fl oor. Crews contained the fi re within a half hour of the initial 9-1-1 call, but black smoke could still be seen coming from windows, doors and vents throughout the busy lunch hour. Steve Watkinds, owner of Columbia Court Club since he established it in 1978, was repairing a drinking fountain toward the back of the building when the lights fl ickered and then turned off. Knowing there were people using the facilities, See COURT CLUB/8A Disney’s mouse is top fi ctional write-in candidate in Oregon’s primary; handwritten votes tedious for offi cials New fi res erupt as heatwave sears West LOS ANGELES (AP) — New wildfi res erupted Monday near Los Angeles and chased people from their suburban homes as an intense heatwave stretching from the West Coast to New Mexico blistered the region. Towering columns of smoke rose from the San Gabriel Mountains as two fi res a few miles apart devoured brush on steep slopes above foothill suburbs. Police in the city of Azusa and parts of Duarte ordered hundreds of homes evac- uated. Others were under voluntary evacuations. “It’s crazy. It’s super close,” said 17-year-old Tawni Atencio, whose family was evacuating their home in Bradbury. She said the fl ames were just a couple miles away and were making the house hot despite air conditioning. She watched as smoke from the fi re billowed outside and helicopters dropped retardant on the fl ames. “It looked like a bomb exploded,” she said. “It’s scary. We’re just praying it doesn’t get to our house.” The two fi res had grown to a combined 5 square miles. The fi rst was sparked by a fatal car crash, the California Highway Patrol said. The second was much closer to foothill neighbor- hoods and brought quick evacuations. Its cause has not been found. Clinton, Trump or Mickey? By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney The Umatilla National Forest veterans crew, facilitated by the VetsWork GreenCorps program, heads to a practice fi re Friday near the Marcus Whitman Trail off Summit Road. Heat of battle Veterans team up to take on northeast Oregon wildfi res See WRITE-IN/8A MILTON-FREEWATER Offi cials discuss creating Hispanic committee By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian The military veterans marched single fi le toward a plume of white smoke, dressed in full gear and ready for their fi rst taste of action on the front lines. Armed with pulaskis, shovels and chainsaws, they quickly surrounded the slow- moving forest fi re and dug a ring of dirt to stop it from spreading. Taking cues from their squad boss, the team worked in lockstep and called out every move in order to stay together. It’s not exactly the same as the military, but Ben Barnett said there’s a structure and As voters contemplate a likely choice between two of history’s most widely disliked presidential nominees in November, they have other options. They can vote for a third-party nominee. But thanks to America’s write-in system, they can also vote for Mickey Mouse, Archie Bunker, Miss Piggy or Elmer Fudd —— all “candidates” who received write-in votes in Umatilla County during the May primaries. One voter in Umatilla County voted for Mickey Mouse as a “We would Democrat, but elsewhere the Disney character — who is the like for them most popular fi ctional character all to be write-in candidate in the state — received an even higher number of votes for Republican serious votes, and Independent nominations. because it A total of 70 votes for Mickey does take Mouse were cast in statewide races, according to data obtained time to count from the Secretary of State’s them.” offi ce. Kim Lindell, Umatilla — Kim Lindell, County elections manager, Umatilla County said even though the write-in process was meant for real, live elections manager candidates, people can write in whatever name they wish. There are always some who take the opportunity to cast a vote for a fi ctional character or a celebrity instead. “Every election and every race we see a few of those,” she said. The write-in space can be used to elect candidates who fail to fi le for a spot on the ballot before deadline but have decided that they want to run anyway. It can also be used by incumbents in the primary to stave off a challenger in the general election. State Representatives Greg Smith (District 57) and Greg Barreto (District 58) are both members of the Republican Party, for example, but will also be running as the Democratic Party and Independent Party nomi- nees in November. No Democrats or Independent Party candidates fi led to run for their seat in the primary, so by urging their supporters from those parties to write in their name, they managed to clinch the nominations from all three of Oregon’s major parties, which could weaken any write-in campaign from a latecomer to the general election. State Senator Bill Hansell (District 28) also locked up the Democratic nomination through the write-in, By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Two members of the Umatilla National Forest veterans crew, facilitated by the VetsWork GreenCorps program, cut line around a practice fi re Friday near the Marcus Whitman Trail off Summit Road. discipline to wildland fi re- fi ghting that reminds him of his four years in the Navy. He missed that brotherhood while attending college in Georgia, and decided to make his way west to Oregon to embark on a new career. Barnett, 31, is one of several young veterans partic- ipating in this year’s Vets- See HEAT/8A Leaders in Milton-Freewater are considering spin- ning off an idea used by Hermiston on the other side of Umatilla County to increase Hispanic participation in city government. Two members of Hermiston’s Hispanic Advisory Committee met with Milton-Freewater city offi cials June 8 to discuss starting a similar committee there. Umatilla County Commissioner Bill Elfering said he asked committee member Eddie de la Cruz and former Hermiston City Councilor George Anderson to give a presentation on Hermiston’s committee after Milton-Freewater offi cials expressed interest in increasing civic participation from its sizable Hispanic population. See HISPANIC/8A