NORTHWEST
Saturday, January 31, 2015
East Oregonian
Page 9A
Gun background checks
return to Legislature
By HANNAH HOFFMAN
The Statesman Journal
Kumar makes zoo debut
AP Photo/The Oregonian, Benjamin Brink
Kumar, the 9-year-old male orangutan who came to the Oregon Zoo late last year,
is now out where the public can see him in the outdoor Red Ape Reserve.
LA GRANDE (AP)
— Authorities in Union
County say more than 80
farm animals have been
seized from an Eastern
Oregon property where
investigators found more
than two dozen carcasses.
The La Grande Observer
reported the property
owners’ names were not
released, and a grand jury
will hear the animal neglect
case.
Among the animals
seized were 72 head of
cattle, including 22 calves,
as well as mules, horses and
pigs.
The surviving animals
are being fed and treated
under veterinary care.
Sheriff’s Capt. Craig
Ward said deputies tried
for some time to work with
the owners, but it became
evident authorities had to
intervene.
The property is near
Summerville, in the Grande
Ronde Valley about 12
miles northeast of La
Grande.
25-year-old man
killed in Yakima
drive-by shooting
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) —
Police gang unit detectives
are investigating the drive-
by shooting that killed a
25-year-old man Thursday
night in Yakima.
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a report of a shooting and
found the man dead at the
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as Elidoro Navarro of
Yakima.
Witnesses said multiple
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colored sedan.
The Yakima Herald-
Republic reports it was the
second homicide in Yakima
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in the city of Yakima.
Logging rules don’t
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By JEFF BARNARD
Associated Press
Federal regulators ruled Friday that Oregon logging rules
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caused by clear-cutting too close to streams, runoff from old
logging roads, landslides and sites sprayed with pesticides.
NOAA Fisheries Service and the U.S. Environmental
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negotiation with Oregon over meeting the standards of the
Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program, a provision of the
National Coastal Zone Management Program.
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mentalists.
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pollution standards since the program started in 1990. The
state could lose access to some federal grants until the
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However, EPA regional administrator Dennis McLer-
ran and NOAA Fisheries regional administrator Will Stelle
said they hoped penalties would not be necessary.
Stelle said tightening Oregon Forest Practices Act rules
for logging on private, state and county forests would
speed habitat improvements needed to get threatened Or-
egon coastal coho salmon off the threatened species list.
He added that Washington and California forest practic-
HVODZVGRDPXFKEHWWHUMRERISURWHFWLQJ¿VKDQGZDWHU
quality than Oregon regulations.
Richard Whitman, the governor’s natural resources ad-
viser, said the state Board of Forestry is working on the
streamside buffer issues. Solutions should be in place by
the end of 2016, he said.
Stelle said changes could include increasing the no-logging
buffer zones along streams, doing detailed inventories of old
logging roads and areas prone to landslides, and increasing
no-spray buffer zones to keep pesticides out of the water. The
solutions could be a mix of rules and voluntary programs.
The no-logging buffers leave trees standing to shade
streams and prevent them from warming to the point they
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UDO¿OWHUNHHSLQJVLOWIURPZDVKLQJLQWRVWUHDPVZKHUHLW
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J O U R N E Y
to th e
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Where: Hamley’s Slickfork Saloon
What: • no-host bar • hors d’oeuvres
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Saudi royal did not
receive degree at
Lewis & Clark
S U
P P O
R T O U R N E
I G H
O C A
E L
S , T H E L O C A L
E
L . W H E N
W E
Presented by:
R
B O
T H R I V E S
. L I
V
PORTLAND (AP) —
Lewis & Clark College
says Saudi Arabia’s new
deputy crown prince did
not graduate from the
private school as the Saudi
Embassy said last week,
although he did attend
classes.
Prince Mohammed bin
Nayef was named deputy
crown prince earlier this
month after the death of
Saudi Arabia’s king. After
the announcement, the
Saudi Embassy said that
Mohammed had received
a bachelor’s degree from
Lewis & Clark College in
1981.
The college said in a
statement that records show
he completed coursework
in the late 1970s but did not
get a degree.
The Saudi Embassy said
the error was the result of
a mistranslation. While the
prince’s resume in Arabic
said he attended Lewis
& Clark, the translator
mistakenly assumed that’s
where he received the
degree.
The college says it’s
proud that Mohammed
studied there and the Saudi
royal is “remembered
fondly by our alumni,
faculty, and staff.”
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
SENTIMENTAL B a ck
O M Y
More than 80
animals seized in
La Grande
Paid for by Chuck Sandlin, 33656 E. Spearman Rd., Hermiston
In
Conjunction
with
Milton
Freewater
Chamber
N
C O
BRIEFLY
The Oregon Legislature appears primed
for another debate over whether to expand
the state’s requirements for who must un-
dergo a background check to buy a gun,
and a recent poll suggests most Oregonians
would support that.
The poll, paid for by Americans for Re-
sponsible Solutions, found that 87 percent of
Oregonians support expanded background
checks and 83 percent of gun owners do.
Those numbers dropped when people
were asked about their “strong” support of
expanded background checks — 70 percent
and 59 percent, respectively — but they still
showed support in strong majorities.
That may bode well for Democrats in the
legislature who would like to pass a bill that
would require background checks for peo-
ple who buy guns online and through other
informal venues.
Oregon currently requires them for all
gun purchases at a licensed store or gun
show, but there are still some sales that slip
through the cracks.
A bill has not been introduced yet, but
the legislature tried to pass a similar bill in
2014. It never made it to a vote in the Sen-
ate, where Democratic Sen. Betsy Johnson’s
opposition would have doomed it to fail.
This year, Democrats have a much larger
majority in the Senate (18 to 12) and there-
IRUH D PXFK KLJKHU OLNHOLKRRG RI ¿QGLQJ
enough people to support the bill.
Democrats also enjoy a sizable majority
in the House of Representatives and an ally
in Gov. John Kitzhaber, who is expected to
sign the bill if it passes.
Senate Judiciary chairman Sen. Floyd
Prozanski, D-Eugene, told the Associated
Press he plans to introduce the bill soon. It
would require anyone selling a gun private-
ly to call state police for a background check
on criminal history and mental illness. It
would exclude sales among family mem-
bers, inheritances and antique guns.
“I want to put closure on the only loop-
hole we have on the background check law,”
Prozanski said. “Most all of us gun owners, as
well as the general public, believe we should
take reasonable steps to stop felons from get-
ting easy access to guns. This will do that.”
The poll from Americans for Responsi-
ble Solutions, released Wednesday, could be
overstating Oregonians’ support slightly.
The group is an advocacy organization
set up by former U.S. Congresswoman Gab-
by Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly,
in response to the 2011 mass shooting at a
Giffords speaking engagement in Arizona.
She was shot in the head, six people were
killed and 12 more were injured.
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