BULLDOGS
BEAT BUCKS
VOLLEYBALL/1B
69/54
Nuclear smugglers
sought terrorist
buyers WORLD/8A
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015
139th Year, No. 254
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
One dollar
AP Q&A
Council agrees to lease
Who has
land to $45M data center the right
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The Pendleton City Council
unanimously approved a ground
lease for a proposed $45 million
data center on Airport Road, but
it will be a while before the city
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The 30-year lease gives
Makad Corp. of Vancouver,
Wash. access to nearly 12
acres on Airport Road halfway
between Northwest 56th Street
and Stage Gulch Road.
In a report, Pendleton
Economic Development Director
Steve Chrisman wrote that the
city could receive $295,970 in
tax revenue per year for the next
25-27 years, plus rental fees of at
least $826,612 spread out over 28
years.
The lease also includes
several incentives, including no
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includes a 5 percent reduction
in permitting fees per job, with
a 50 percent reduction ceiling
and temporary tax abatement
through the city’s enterprise
zone program if Makad Corp.
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will most likely happen.
See DATA/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sen. Bill Hansell talks about “the good, the bad, and the ugly” as he describes the legislative session Tuesday during a town
hall meeting with Rep. Greg Barreto at BMCC in Pendleton.
Let’s talk taxes
Rep. Barreto, Sen. Hansell conclude
trio of town halls in Pendleton
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Rep. Greg Barreto talks about freshman year in the
Oregon House of Representatives as Sen. Bill Hansell
looks on Tuesday during a town hall meeting at BMCC.
Eastern
Oregon
residents
concerned about higher state fees,
corporate taxes and a minimum wage
found a little solace Tuesday night
from Sen. Bill Hansell of Athena and
Rep. Greg Barreto of Cove.
The pair of Republican lawmakers
looked back at the 2015 Oregon
Legislature and what is ahead in the
2016 short session and beyond. The
event at the Bob Clapp Theatre at
Blue Mountain Community College
concluded a trio of town halls in
Pendleton. About 30 people attended.
Hansell and Barreto recounted
how they viewed the session that
ended July 11. But a majority of the
time was spent answering audience
questions.
Paula Hall said she worked with a
local community action program and
asked Barreto how to make “Oregon
a state of hope” for lower income
workers.
See TAXES/10A
HERMISTON
Lighting up downtown
Festival lights to get
second life as musical
Main Street show
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Decorations from the
defunct Festival of Lights are
getting a new life as a musical
show planned for downtown
Hermiston.
Parks and Recreation
director Larry Fetter said
he has obtained permission
to drape the old Roemarks
building on the corner of
Northeast Second and Main
streets in lights and choreo-
graph them to music, creating
a “high-energy” show that he
hopes will draw Christmas
shoppers downtown.
“I hope people say, ‘We
have 25 minutes to kill before
the next show, let’s look
around,’” he said.
Fetter said he wants to
block off the section of
Second Street next to the
currently empty Roemarks
building during December
to add bleachers for viewing
and a tent where Santa can
visit. The idea would be a
trial run of sorts for the city’s
plans to eventually turn that
block into a “festival street”
with landscaping, brickwork
and decorative gates to close
See LIGHTS/10A
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
It’s early October, but city of Hermis-
ton employees began decorating Main
Street for the holidays.
to die?
SAN DIEGO (AP) — California’s
governor has signed a bill that will give
the terminally ill in the nation’s most
populous state the right to end their
lives with drugs prescribed by a doctor.
Right-to-die advocates have been
pushing for decades to get such
legislation passed in the state and say
Monday’s signing is a major victory that
could spur other states to follow suit.
Opponents disagree and point to the
fact that similar bills in at least a half
dozen state have stalled in the past year.
The Catholic Church and advocates for
people with disabilities say it legalizes
premature suicide and puts terminally ill
patients at risk for coerced death.
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doctors to assist such deaths.
Here is a look at the states where the
practice is legal.
Which state has the longest history
with such a law? After a ballot initia-
tive went into effect in 1998, Oregon
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a doctor to prescribe a life-ending drug
to a terminally ill patient of sound mind
who makes the request. Another ballot
initiative in neighboring Washington
made it legal in that state in 2008. In
Montana, a 2009 state Supreme Court
ruling found that nothing in state law
expressly prohibits physician-assisted
suicide, and that doctors could use
a patient’s request for life-ending
medication as a defense against criminal
charges. Since then, the state Legislature
has rejected bills each session that
would either prohibit physician-assisted
suicide or explicitly legitimize it in state
law.
In 2013, Vermont’s legislature
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it through legislation and not voter
referendum.
How many people have opted for
physician-assisted deaths? Since it
was enacted, more than 850 people in
Oregon have used the law to die as of
Dec. 31, 2014. In Vermont, six people
had requested life-ending drugs and
See DEATH/10A
ACLU LAWSUIT
Benton County
jails people who
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By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
and GENE JOHNSON
Associated Press
KENNEWICK, Wash. — The Wash-
ington state chapter of the American
Civil Liberties Union sued a local county
Tuesday, accusing it of sending people
to jail or forcing them to toil on work
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— a practice that makes the poor poorer
and amounts to a “modern-day debtors’
prison,” the organization said.
The group has long alleged that Benton
County District Court penalizes defendants
without investigating whether they can
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the practice in a report last year that drew
objections from the court’s judges, one
of whom argued that defendants have an
opportunity to speak up at sentencing if
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“The misnomer is that we’re imposing
jail time without any due process rights,”
Judge Joseph M. Burrowes told The Asso-
ciated Press at the time. “We are following
the law. We are doing what is just and fair.”
The court did not immediately return
a message seeking comment Tuesday, but
Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller
said he told judges and county commis-
sioners two years ago that he does not
agree with the practice.
“The judges do it, and there’s not even a
See JAIL/10A