WEEKEND EDITION
INSIDE:
SPRING
SPORTS
PREVIEW
Dance team
honors
veterans
LIFESTYLES 1C
REGION:
Milton-Freewater teen
killed in car crash 3A
ENTERTAINMENT:
Treefort draws
Oregon musicians 3C
MARCH, 21-22, 2015
139th Year, No. 112
WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Police
prepare
for more
stoned
drivers
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announces a $1.7 million
funding package for the Eastern Oregon Regional Air-
port on Friday in Pendleton.
$1.50
BROWN
BUYS IN
Governor announces drone range funding,
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Marijuana citations dipped in
Pendleton and Hermiston from
2013 to 2014, and Measure 91
could create a bigger drop when it
goes into effect this summer. But
local law enforcement administra-
tors see the law creating even more
intoxicated drivers.
Pendleton police reported issu-
ing 126 citations in 2013 for pos-
session of less than an ounce of
marijuana within 1,000 feet of a
school, and that fell to 105 in 2014.
The charge is a violation, akin to
a driving ticket. Hermiston police
gave 115 citations for unlawful pos-
session of marijuana in 2013, and
then 54 the next year. Hermiston
police also saw total drug charges
See POLICE/10A
PENDLETON
Recreational,
medical pot
boundaries
taking shape
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Although it still has to go
through at least two more rounds of
deliberation, an ordinance regulat-
ing marijuana in Pendleton is start-
ing to take shape.
At a Thursday open house most-
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Planner Evan MacKenzie presented
a draft ordinance regulating the sale
of both recreational and medical
marijuana.
The draft is based on a similar
ordinance created in La Grande,
which has one of the few medical
marijuana dispensaries east of the
Cascade Mountains.
MacKenzie’s draft takes the
heart of La Grande’s ordinance — a
ban of dispensaries or stores with-
in 1,000 feet of schools, parks and
other marijuana facilities — while
making a couple of key changes.
See MARIJUANA/10A
Oregon National Guard Chief Warrant Offi cer Mark Braeme talks about the RQ-7B Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle with Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown on Friday at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton.
Governor makes it official at the airport
certain job creation, promotional and timeline
requirements.
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The Pendleton City Council discussed it at cials for their work in getting the range off the
length two days earlier, but Gov. Kate Brown ground and said Pendleton would help keep the
state competitive in the emerging UAS market.
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“I’d like to make sure that Oregon gets a little
With the Blue Mountains and the Eastern Or-
egon Regional Airport as her backdrop, Brown more than their fair share,” Robbins said.
Mayor Phillip Houk was the next person to
announced a $545,000 state grant to fund han-
gars and storage facilities at the Pendleton Un- step to the microphone, brushing off criticism of
the range as “checks and balances” before ex-
manned Aerial Systems Range.
Business Oregon Director Sean Robbins fol- SUHVVLQJFRQ¿GHQFHLQLWVIXWXUH
“It’s completely appropriate,” he said. “It’s
lowed her announcement with one of his own.
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The announcement of the state contributing
Business Oregon would add another $1,115,000
million to the pot, bringing the total value of the to the funding the UAS range also came with
news of involvement from Umatilla County. The
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Technically, the package is entirely com- FRXQW\ZLOOJLYHDLQFHQWLYHWRWKH¿UVW
prised of loans. But more than $1 million of
See AIRPORT/10A
those loans are forgivable given the city meets
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Brown keeps
water moving
East Oregonian
The $51.6 million Columbia River
water development fund is among Gov.
Kate Brown’s top priorities this session,
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budget item approved by the end of April.
During a meeting with the East Ore-
gonian editorial board, Brown said she is
urging the legislature to “move quickly”
on a package that would provide funding
to expand irrigation in the Columbia Ba-
sin.
The expenditure was included in for-
mer Gov. John Kitzhaber’s proposed
budget, which is now being discussed
See WATER/10A
FDA: Genetically engineered
potatoes, apples are safe
By MARY CLARE JALONICK AND
KEITH RIDLER
Associated Press
AP Photo/John Miller, File
This 2013 fi le photo shows genetically engineered potatoes growing
in rows inside a J.R. Simplot greenhouse in southwestern Idaho. The
Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the genetically en-
gineered foods as safe.
BOISE, Idaho — Potatoes that
won’t bruise and apples that won’t
brown are a step closer to grocery
store aisles, but some food suppliers
say they don’t what any part of it and
others are staying silent.
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cally engineered foods, saying they
are “as safe and nutritious as their
conventional counterparts.”
The approval covers six varieties
of potatoes by Boise, Idaho-based J.
R. Simplot Co. and two varieties of
apples from the Canadian company
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or GMOs, refers to food grown from
seeds that are genetically engineered
in a lab. Aware of potential resistance
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say Innate potato traits come exclu-
sively from genes from domestic po-
tato varieties.
However, one of the company’s
oldest business partners — McDon-
ald’s — said it won’t use the potatoes.
“McDonald’s USA does not
source GMO potatoes nor do we have
current plans to change our sourcing
practice,” the company said in a state-
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Burger King and Wendy’s de-
clined to comment.
Okanagan, based in British Co-
lumbia, wants to make apples a more
See FOOD/10A