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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 1, 2015)
Happy New Year! 22/12 BEST OF COP LOG ENTRIES/3A TOP 10 SPORTS STORIES/1B THURSDAY, JANUARY 1, 2015 139th Year, No. 55 WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar PENDLETON Pistol missing from holiday shooting Daniel Wattenburger Comment A year of seconds E very weekday in 2014, the East Oregonian newsroom set out with the mission of telling our readers what was happening in Umatilla and Morrow counties, the state, the country and the rest of the world. Usually in that order. No small task. Sometimes that meant driving to the scene of or other emergency. Sometimes it required sitting through a public meeting, taking notes and trying to quickly sort out the important bits from the rest. Sometimes it was talking to people on the worst day of their life, sometimes on the best. It’s a moment-by- moment job where tips come in, the police scanner blares, records are collected and dissected, experts are tracked down and public And every day we print what we’ve got in the space we’re given, send the paper out the back door to be delivered to homes and newsstands, then start again. The stories and photos we print represent a slice of in our small corner of the world. Almost always the full story is buried and we are exhuming it piece by piece. Ben Hecht, a journalist in the early 20th century and later one of Hollywood’s most famous screenwriters, said, “Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.” It’s true. Grab any given EO from this year and you’ll get a snapshot of a day in 2014. You’ll see recaps of city council meetings and articles about local government, feature stories on interesting people, a day’s worth of police calls in the public safety log, death notices and obituaries for those who died. You’ll about the environment and See NEW YEAR/6A By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris No. 1 Lukah Chang is led into the courtroom of Umatilla County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Hampton for a plea deal hearing last January in Pendleton. Top 10 stories of 2014 1 Chang sentenced. The capture, arrest and mur- der charge levied against Lukah Chang, a Marine Corps deserter who killed Amyjane Branhagen and tried to beat Karen Lange to death, was our top story in 2013. His sentence of at least 35 years in prison is our top story this of the most violent and frightening stories in Pendleton history. Chang, 23 at the time, was given the maximum possible sentence under law at the Jan. 8 hearing at Umatilla County Circuit Court, Pendleton. The story of the brutal crimes was documented this fall on the televi- sion show Dateline. 2 Closing shop. After months of trying to sell its division of AG supply stores, Pendleton Grain Growers announced in September it would close stores in Pendleton, Athena and Milton-Freewater — including the Pendleton Automotive Service Center. Stores in Hermiston and Joseph would soon follow, while the Island City store was reorganized as a commercial pump and irrigation business. The moves came after PGG decided it could no longer support retail services for the stores. About 90 people lost their jobs. 3 Top Dawgs. The Herm- iston High School foot- ball team took the state by storm in November, climbing to the top of the Class 5A 34-12 win over top-ranked Silver- ton in the title game on Nov. 29. Be- fore their historic run the Bulldogs were 5-13 in playoff games, and playing four nonconference games against out-of-state powerhouses. The Bulldogs defense was stout in the playoffs, allowing less than 10 points a game. After the champion- Staff photo by E.J. Harris No. 4 An Oregon State Police forensic team investigates the scene of an offi cer involved shooting last April off of Pamburn Road east of Athena. Athena Police Sgt. Erik Palmer was later clear by a grand jury in the fatal shooting of Tere David King of Athena. ship quarterback Chase Knutz was named the Class 5A offensive play- er of the year, coach Mark Hodges was named coach of the year and nine other Bulldogs were given 4 Fatal shootings cleared. There were three fatal shootings in Umatilla County in 2014 in which the killer’s actions were deemed der charges were dismissed against Timothy Kelly in the shooting death of Daniel Dechand near Hermiston. A grand jury decided that Kelly had acted in self defense to try to stop Dechand from assaulting and robbing him. Two months later, shot and killed fugitive Tere King. A grand jury later ruled the shooting November, the same grand jury ruled that an Eastern Oregon Cor- ing prison inmate Jayson Withers in August. Withers was attacking another inmate in the yard when he in the Oregon prison system in at least two decades. 5 Permit denied. A proposed coal export terminal in Boardman was dealt a serious blow in August when the Department of State Lands denied a key permit needed to build a dock in the Columbia River. DSL Director Mary Abrams, a Heppner native, ruled the Coyote Island Terminal would interfere best use of water resources. Project developer Ambre Energy and the and the case will be heard by a senior administrative law judge in December 2015. If approved, export 8.8 million tons of coal per year to Asia and create 25-30 permanent, family-wage jobs. For the rest of the Top 10 stories see Page 6A Top stories list compiled from a public ballot and East Oregonian poll. Pendleton police are look- ing for the gun involved in the shooting of 23-year-old Bran- don Valera on Christmas Eve in Pendleton. Police Chief Stuart Roberts said Valera met Anthony Sabin, 25, at about midnight Dec. 24 in the garage of 723 S.W. 28th St., Pendleton, to make a deal. Rob- erts said just what kind of deal is still being in- vestigated. Valera and Sabin were only ac- quaintanc- es, Roberts said, but the Sabin occupant of the house knew each man. Roberts said the occupant also has a criminal history, but he does not seem to have much connection with the shooting aside from allowing Valera and Sabin to use his ga- rage for a meeting. Valera, though, brought a friend to the rendezvous, Roberts said, and that set off Sabin, who was high on methamphetamine. Sabin pistol-whipped Valera with a .45 caliber semiautomat- ic handgun. Then either Valera’s friend or the homeowner inter- vened, yanking Sabin off Valera. That’s when the gun went off and a single round struck Valera in the side. Roberts said the placement of the bullet wound and the trajec- tory supported that scenario. The friend drove Valera to the emergency department at St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton, him on Christmas at his home at 1930 S.W. Runnion Lane, Pend- leton. Roberts said Sabin told of- witnesses also put the gun in his hand, but Sabin cannot recall what he did with the gun after the shooting. “We spent hours and hours out there looking, to the point we were raking leaves,” said Roberts. The search efforts so far have been for naught. Sabin remains in the Umatilla Coun- ty Jail, Pendleton, on a charge family last reported he was in critical but stable condition fol- lowing surgeries at a Seattle See SHOOTING/6A Soil scientist hails from Nepal Editor’s Note: This is another in- stallment in the annual East Oregonian series “Our New Neighbors,” where we introduce readers to people who have moved to the area within the last year. By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Rajan Ghimire, Prakriti Bristra and their 3-year-old son Prasam Ghimire are 7,000 miles from their native Nepal. Northeast Oregon and Nepal couldn’t be more different. Compare Pendleton’s rolling farm- land with Nepal’s mountains; the Arkan- sas-sized country has eight of the world’s 10 tallest peaks. While Pendleton is full of open spaces, Nepal has a population den- sity of more than 500 people per square Our New Neighbors mile and is among the poorest and least developed countries on earth. Weather is subtropical, hot and humid with 70-75 inches of annual precipitation. However, the two places share some commonalities — crops, such as wheat, and farmer’s desire for fertile soil. That’s what attracted soil scientist Ra- jan Ghimire, a 33-year-old postdoctoral See NEIGHBOR/6A
