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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 2015)
Police arrest fourth Aryan gang member KNIGHTS BEAT BUCKS AT BUZZER BOYS BASKETBALL/1B 40/28 REGION/3A WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 139th Year, No. 69 WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar What would pot ban mean? State of the Union President Barack Obama shakes hands with House Speaker John Boeh- ner as he arrives to deliver his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in Washington. For excerpts from President Obama’s speech see page 4A. By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Opting out of Oregon’s new recre- ational marijuana law is generating some AP Photo/Mandel Ngan, Pool Scott Winkles of the League of Oregon Cities said Measure 91 created four cat- egories for commercial sales of marijua- na: retail businesses where someone 21 or older can buy the drug; creating Listening session value-added mar- Thursday, 7 p.m. ijuana items, such at the Pendleton as the substance Convention Center in edible form; the wholesaling of marijuana to retail shops; and marijua- na growers. The law also allows communities to gather enough signatures to place an ini- tiative on the ballot of the next general election for voters to consider banning PENDLETON See MARIJUANA/6A Sen. Hansell gets attacked from right By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Charles Denight has been named the associate director for the Pendleton Development Commission. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Former Wildhorse marketing director to revitalize city’s core By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The man who has helped put Wildhorse Resort and Casino on the map for the past 13 years will turn his attention to a new task: promoting Pendleton’s urban re- newal district. The Pendleton Develop- ment Commission hired Charles the district’s 12-year history. Working for the public sector who accepted the associate di- rector position after spending the previous 43 years in marketing. The part-time job, which pays a salary of $35,000 a year, is the only position paid for by the ur- ban renewal district. City Councilman Chuck Wood, who chairs the commis- sion, said the city needed some- one dedicated to promoting the district. With City Manager Robb Corbett and Economic Develop- ment Director Steve Chrisman an advisory committee recom- mended targeting a retiree will- ing to work part time on promot- ing downtown Pendleton. That made Denight an ideal At the time of his hiring, Denight had recently retired af- ter working for the Wildhorse Resort and Casino in various marketing capacities. See DOWNTOWN/6A Sen. Bill Hansell still hasn’t seen the full-page ad that attempts to skewer his voting record in the Oregon Legislature. The freshman Republican senator from Athena is 14 time zones away in Myanmar. Hansell traveled there earlier this month as part of a three-man team train- ing government lead- Hansell ers who are moving from military dicta- torship to democracy. The attack ads, which appeared in Saturday’s East Oregonian and La Grande Observer and aired on several area radio stations, accuse Hansell of Kropf forsaking his constit- uents and slam him for supporting a ballot initiative to allow undocumented immi- See HANSELL/6A Survey shows 81 percent of agencies ill-equipped By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Though a recent survey shows ments are not equipped to handle an oil train accident, emergency responders in Pendleton and Herm- iston say they are in a relatively for- tunate position. The region’s Hazardous Mate- rials Response Team is based right out of Hermiston and able to reach Pendleton within 45 minutes — covering both cities through which sands of carloads of volatile crude oil per year. Glen Phillips, hazmat team co- ordinator and operations chief for Hermiston Fire & Emergency Ser- vices, said they have 16 technicians trained to use specialized equipment in case of a derailment or other di- foam, absorbent booms for water- ways and air quality monitors. Hazmat team members could respond quickly to contain an oil spill and protect the community un- til additional resources arrive from state agencies or the railroad itself, Phillips said. “We could function, and we could get things going,” Phillips said. “Obviously, we would need See SPILL/6A AP fi le photo A BNSF Railway train hauls crude oil near Wolf Point, Mont., in 2013. Railroads went from hauling 9,500 carloads of crude oil in 2008 to 435,560 in 2014.
