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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2015)
Recording of MLK’s JETS QB fi rst ‘Dream’ speech PUNCHED BY TEAMMATE 1B discovered NATION/6A 98/66 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015 139th Year, No. 214 WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar PDFL¿ F PRZHU SDUHQW LQNV FOLPDWH SOHGJH Company vows 1,000 megawatts of new renewable generation By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian Paci¿ c Power plans to purchase more than 1,000 megawatts of new wind and solar energy by 2017, including 225 megawatts generated by Oregon-based projects. The announcement comes as Pacif- iCorp’s parent company, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, recently signed on with 12 other companies to the White House’s American Business Act on Climate Pledge. Paci¿ Corp already ¿ led a long-range plan March 31 that calls for removing coal at 10 generating units by 2029 in favor of more renewable energy and greater ef¿ ciency. The utility serves six western states and 17,47 Paci¿ c Power customers in Umatilla County. “Paci¿ c Power is doing its part with plans to further strengthen its own renewable port- folio and transition away from coal toward newer, cleaner technologies,” said Stefan Bird, president and CEO of Paci¿ c Power, in a statement released last month. Not everyone is fully convinced. The Sierra Club, which has been a sharp critic of Paci¿ Corp’s existing coal À eet, praised Berkshire Hathaway for joining the climate pledge but rebuked Paci¿ Corp speci¿ cally for continuing to rely on coal. “Paci¿ Corp needs to get off coal faster to truly back up Berkshire Hathaway Ener- gy’s commitment to the climate pledge,” said Travis Ritchie, staff attorney for the group based in San Francisco. “The price of renewable (sources) have been dropping See ENERGY/10A Not so fair weather Staff photo by E.J. Harris Bailey Young, 11, center, and Paige Palzinski, 12, both with the Farm City Wrangles 4-H group of Hermiston, spray water on market lambs to cool them off in the heat Tuesday at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston. Temperatures will rise over the century mark Wednesday and Thursday before dropping into the mid eighties later in the week, according to the National Weather Service. STOCKED AND LOADED HELIX Controversy rooted in trees By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Calgary Stampede roughstock eat alfalfa in a pen at the Double M Ranch feedlot on Tuesday waiting to perform in the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston. Farm City has country’s toughest stable By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian A cowboy at the top of his game is always a pleasure to watch at the rodeo, but the real magic doesn’t happen unless the animal he is riding is up to the challenge. It’s a challenge the Farm-City Pro Rodeo takes seriously. Cowboys voted last year’s Farm-City bucking horses the best in the country and this year’s stable looks just as strong. “There are lots of fun horses that should give the guys a good shot at some money — or the dirt,” T.J. Korkow of Korkow Rodeos said. He’s bringing a number of stars to the rodeo, including Flaxy Lady, the horse that has given several bareback riders an 88-point ride this year. He is also bringing in newer talent with names like Fraid Knot and Wiggle Worm to build on their growing reputation as a See RODEO/10A Go see it The Farm-City Pro Rodeo begins at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. Tickets are available at the box offi ce at the rodeo arena, the fair offi ce, Banner Bank and other Hermiston locations. A row of trees on a city right-of-way have branched out into a full-blown conÀ ict between Helix residents Trish and Mike Lovejoy and the Helix City Council. After more than a year of debate between the council and the family, the Lovejoys say the city intends to remove the trees and replace them with gravel. Within a year or two of moving from Lebanon to Helix in 2009, the Lovejoys started planting trees in front of their property at 115 Main St. to provide some shade and beauti¿ cation. Although the trees were planted on city prop- erty, the Lovejoys said they didn’t receive any complaints from the city until they sent a letter to the city offering to plant some more trees on Concord Street in April 2014. Writing on behalf of the council, city recorder Carrie Bennett responded that the city had previ- ously tried to plant trees on Concord Street only to see them die and wanted to avoid planting more trees in fear of damaging the nearby sidewalk. Using the same logic, Bennett wrote that the city council was giving the Lovejoys the option of either removing the trees that had already been planted or have the trees forcibly removed for them by the city. The Lovejoys wrote a response within a few weeks, espousing the bene¿ ts trees could bring to the neighborhood and questioning why their own trees needed to be removed. “If the city has some immediate project in mind regarding the street or sidewalk in front of our property, we are willing to consider removing the trees and planting them somewhere else,” they wrote. “We have not heard anything from the city regarding any projects to the street or sidewalk. We do not see why the trees would have to be removed since the trees will have no impact on See TREES/10A Back in Minamisoma Pendleton students return to sister city four years after devastating tsunami By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Photo contributed by Roberta Lavadour Posing near the Tsuruga-jo Castle are Riley Kendrick, Stephen Machado, Raeana Mikel, Hailey Kendrick, a samurai guide, Katie Ward, Cheney Chrisman and a host sister. The two cities — Pendleton and Minamisoma — had the ultimate long distance relationship. For most of 20 years, groups of students from both Oregon and Japan crossed oceans to tour their sister city and marinate in a different culture. Then, in 2011, Pendleton decided to keep their teenagers at home. One couldn’t blame city leaders. A 6.6-magnitude earthquake had spawned a tsunami and a nuclear disaster. Minamisoma, just 16 miles from the badly damaged Fukushima Daiichi power plant, sat on the edge of the nuclear containment area. Japanese students continued to trek to Oregon each summer, but Pendleton held back. In 2014, the city sent a fact-¿ nding delegation to scope out the danger to their children. The group included Pendleton Mayor Phillip Houk and six others. One member, Chuck Sams, communications director for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, wore a dosimeter to measure radiation. The device registered above zero only once, when Sams passed through Japanese airport security. They studied of¿ cial government ¿ ndings, talked to Minamisoma doctors who had doubted those government ¿ ndings and done their own research. Bottom line, they learned, one could live in the city for a year and get the same level of radiation as from a chest X-ray. See JAPAN/10A