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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 3, 2015)
WITH TEAM IN FLUX, Brutal temps are BLAZERS RE-SIGN LILLARD buckling sidewalks REGION/3A SPORTS/1B FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2015 139th Year, No. 186 Your Weekend WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Aryan leader pleads guilty East Oregonian • • • Fourth of July fun throughout the region PBR bulls and barrels in Round-Up Grounds Sunday powwow at Wildhorse grounds The leader of a Pendleton white supremacist gang was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and two counts of second-degree assault. Jeremiah Mauer, 31, pleaded guilty in a deal that will allow him to avoid a trial where he could have faced 14 additional charges, including racketeering, possession of a SURKLELWHG¿UHDUPDQGULRW Mauer was sentenced to 90 months on the conspiracy charge, a mandatory minimum under Measure 11, and 70 months each for the assaults, which will concurrently after the conspiracy sentence is completed. The conspiracy charge is from a shooting at a Pendleton home November 23 and the assault charges are from incidents earlier in the Mauer See MAUER/8A For times and places see Coming Events, 6A Catch a movie Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount Pictures Arnold is back ... again, in “Terminator Genisys.” For showtime, Page 5A For review, Weekend EO Weekend Weather Fri Sat 100/69 100/65 Sun 97/66 Gov. considers bill allowing dispensaries to sell pot By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau SALEM — Oregon medical marijuana dispen- saries would be allowed to temporarily sell limited amounts of pot to all adults in Oregon starting Oct. 1, under a bill headed to Gov. Kate Brown for a signature. Lawmakers want to provide a legal way for Oregonians to purchase marijuana, because the state’s recreational marijuana retail system likely will not launch until late 2016. Possession and consumption of marijuana for adults age 21 and older became legal in Oregon Wednesday under Measure 91, which voters passed in November. Senate Bill 460 would allow recreational customers to purchase cannabis seeds, SODQWVWKDWDUHQRWÀRZHULQJ and up to one-quarter RXQFH RI PDULMXDQD ÀRZHUV or leaves from medical marijuana dispensaries. The Oregon House passed the bill 40-19 on Thursday. It was a busy week for See MARIJUANA/8A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Hermiston artist Neal Correa stands on a rock in order to place a stone on top of a stack Tuesday in Hermiston. Correa stacks rocks as a form of performance art and says it also serves as a great workout. Balancing Act Local artist Neal Correa is defying gravity with his impromptu rock exhibits around Hermiston By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian People have a hard time believing it, but Neal Correa insists he doesn’t use super glue. The stacks of rocks, balanced one on top of the other until they tower over passers-by, seem to defy gravity. But the only thing Correa uses to put the impromptu public art installa- tions together is an uncanny eye for physics. “They usually come to a point where they click,” he said as he carefully lined up the ridges on two stones outside the Mariscos Manza- nillo restaurant on Main Street. “If it’s all in balance where the angles are aligned I can move the whole stack.” The trick has become a method of performance art for Correa, whose creations have been drawing attention Staff photo by E.J. Harris In a technique Neal Correa calls “sticks and stones” the artist bal- ances small rocks on a piece of wood in one of his rock stacks in Hermiston. around Hermiston lately. While he works he often displays his paintings for sale. He claims the tallest stack he ever made was 16 feet tall on top of the Hermiston Butte. He stood on shorter stacks to reach the top because he didn’t have a ladder. Correa said he plans to start creating “shorter, more dynamic” displays in town after a few people voiced safety concerns about tall stacks near sidewalks. The rock-stacking started about four years ago when Correa found himself homeless, jobless and stranded in Pendleton after he let his insurance expire and police impounded his car. “I never thought I would be in a homeless situation but the best way to deal with it is to stay busy,” he said. “It helped direct my attention.” It was during that time he met American Indian artist Richard Skyhawk, who taught him “how to do homelessness the right way.” He also mentored Correa artistically and regaled him with tales of his work See STACK/8A One dollar Speed limit bill hurtles to vote By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian After months of being moved from one committee to another, a bill to increase speed limits on Eastern Oregon highways is speeding toward a Senate vote before the Legislature’s session ends. House Bill 3402, which raises the speed limit of certain state and federal high- ways in Eastern Oregon, was passed through the House Wednesday and is heading toward the Senate for a vote. Ironically, it’s been slow going to get the bill to the OHJLVODWLYHÀRRU After Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, originally intro- duced it to March 2, it was referred to the Transportation and Economic Development Committee. Despite safety concerns from the Oregon Depart- ment of Transportation, the committee approved of the bill with a “do pass” recom- mendation April 20. The bill bounced around in various committees and subcommittees before receiving a hearing from Ways and Means more than two months later. That committee approved the bill Tuesday, setting up passage through the House. While there was debate on WKHÀRRU%DUUHWRVDLGKHZDV successful in promoting the bill’s merits. “A lot of people on (the See SPEED/8A I can’t drive 65 The speed limit would increase to 70 mph in the following areas: • I-84: The Idaho border to The Dalles • Route 95: The Idaho border to the Nevada border The limit would increase to 65 in these areas: • Route 20: Ontario to Bend • Route 197: The Dalles to the Highway 97 inter- section • Route 97: The Highway 197 intersection to Klam- ath Falls • Route 26: John Day to Vale • Route 395: Burns to John Day, Riley to California border • Highway 31: Valley Falls to La Pine • Highway 78: Burns Junction to Burns Oil spill response plan updated as more crude is carried by rail oil trains pass through the Columbia River Gorge, with a potential derailment threat- Flash back just a few ening some of the region’s years ago, and oil trains most celebrated natural, were virtually nonexistent in cultural and economic resources. Oregon and Washington. In response, state and Prior to 2012, crude oil agencies have was traditionally shipped federal WR:HVW&RDVWUH¿QHULHVYLD updated the Mid-Columbia Response waterways on tankers or by Geographic barge. As production has 3ODQ IRU WKH ¿UVW WLPH VLQFH surged from the Bakken oil 2004, identifying sensitive ¿HOGV LQ 1RUWK 'DNRWD DQG resources and providing tar sands of western Canada, emergency responders with crude-by-rail is now a fact of information they need to OLIHLQWKH3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVW minimize damage from an The majority of these oil spill. By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Geographic Response Plans, or GRPs, are part of the larger Northwest Area Contingency Plan that guides oil spill response across Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The Environ- mental Protection Agency and U.S. Coast Guard are also involved in crafting the plans. It was the Washington Legislature that allocated funding to the State Depart- ment of Ecology in 2014 to update the Mid-Columbia GRP, which was completed in June. Ecology spokes- AP fi le photo This 2013 fi le photo shows a warning placard on a tank car carrying crude oil near a loading terminal in Trenton, N.D. woman Lisa Copeland said it was primarily the increase in crude-by-rail that expe- dited the process. As of June 2014, 19 unit trains of 100 or more cars were hauling Bakken oil down the mid-Columbia River weekly. Each car holds up to 30,000 gallons of oil, totaling 3 million gallons of oil per train. See TRAINS/8A