PENDLETON
GIRLS BEAT
BAKER
RACING
ENDS IN
CRASH,
ARREST
35/28
El Nino’s
storms
hitting Calif.
SPORTS/1B
PENDLETON/3A
NATION/6A
W('N(S'A<, -ANUAR< , 01
10th <ear, No.
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Occupiers make demands
Bundy wants
land transfer, then
will go home
Hammond
case ignites
local tea party
By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press
BURNS — A leader of the
small, armed group that is occu-
pying a remote national wildlife
preserve in Oregon said Tuesday
they will go home when a plan is
in place to turn over management
of federal lands to locals.
Ammon Bundy told reporters
at the Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge that ranchers, loggers and
farmers should have control of
federal land — a common refrain
in a decades-long ¿ ght over public
lands in the West.
“It is our goal to get the logger
back to logging, the rancher back to
ranching,” said the son of Nevada
rancher Cliven Bundy, who was
involved in a high-pro¿ le 01
standoff with the government over
grazing rights.
The
younger
Bundy’s
anti-government group is critical
of federal land stewardship, but
environmentalists and others say
U.S. of¿ cials should keep control
for the broadest possible bene¿ t
to business, recreation and the
environment.
The armed group seized the
refuge’s headquarters Saturday
night. Roughly 0 people bundled
in camouÀ age, earmuffs and
cowboy hats seem to be centered
around a comple[ of buildings on
the 300-square-mile high desert
preserve.
As the takeover entered its third
day, authorities had not moved in
and had not shut off power to the
refuge, Arizona rancher LaVoy
Finicum said. On Tuesday evening,
Finicum said he believes federal
of¿ cials have issued warrants for
the arrest of ¿ ve group members
— including himself and Ammon
Bundy — but offered no details.
Public lands at heart of meeting
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
In a wide-ranging interview
Tuesday, Harney County Sheriff David
Ward urged members of the community
to distance themselves from the armed
men occupying the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge.
“I think if one person gives them a
Snickers bar, they’re going on national
media and claiming that the community
supports them,” he said.
“If you’re giving them support,
you’re just prolonging the situation.”
Ward has called a community
Harney County ranchers Dwight and
Steven Hammond are back in prison for
starting ¿ res on public lands in 001 and
00, but at least one of the family’s allies
believes they won’t be serving their full
¿ ve-year sentences.
Dave Duquette, of Hermiston, works
with the national nonpro¿ t Protect the
Harvest and met at length with the
Hammonds in Burns before Saturday’s
rally broke off into an armed occupation of
the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Duquette defended the Hammonds and
weighed in on the militia’s presence during
a meeting of the Greater Hermiston Area
Tea Party Monday evening at the Stafford
Hansell Government Center. About 0
people attended the meeting and decried
what they see as a gross injustice on the
part of the federal government.
The group also heard from a retired U.S.
district forester about the Blue Mountains
Forest Plan Revision, and group Chairman
Rob Lovett said they intend to pursue coor-
dination with the Forest Service — similar
to movements in Grant and Baker counties.
At the heart of both issues is the
perceived mismanagement of public land
and domineering attitude of agencies like
the Forest Service and Bureau of Land
Management. Lovett said citizens need to
unite under a single voice to protect their
rights.
“We want to prevail over the federal
government, for freedom and for liberty,”
Lovett said.
That unity seemed to splinter in Burns,
where a march to support the Hammonds
was overshadowed by armed militants
occupying the Malheur National Wild-
life Refuge. Duquette said he has since
swapped te[t messages with Ammon
See SHERIFF/2A
See TEA PARTY/2A
AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona, who is part of the group occupying the Malheur Nation-
al Wildlife Refuge speaks with reporters during a news conference at the refuge Tuesday near
Burns.
Sheriff: Armed
protesters will
face charges
By AMELIA TEMPLETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
See RANCHING/2A
PENDLETON
Council approves
$300k grant to hire
UAS range manager
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Courtesy
of
SOAR
Oregon, the Pendleton
Unmanned Aerial Systems
Range now has the money
to hire a full-time, on-site
range manager, a position
that’s been vacant for several
months.
At a Tuesday meeting,
the Pendleton City Council
unanimously approved a
$300,000 grant from SOAR
Oregon, a not-for-pro¿ t
focused on promoting the
UAS industry in Oregon.
But the $300,000 grant
does not come without
strings.
The money is dispersed
evenly over two years, and
to access the second year of
funds, the city must meet a
series of benchmarks.
:ithin the ¿ rst si[ months
of the grant, the range must
sign three customers to
testing contracts, have two
customer applications in the
process of obtaining Federal
Aviation
Administration
authorization to test and two
applications approved by the
FAA.
On a quarterly basis, the
range must facilitate 10 test
À ights, host 10 test days for
customers and meet a certain
number of test hours.
SOAR Oregon does give
the UAS range some leeway
in meeting those bench-
marks. If the city doesn’t
See PENDLETON/8A
Obama goes it alone on gun control
Affect on violence
may be modest
By RYAN J. FOLEY
and ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
President Barack Obama’s
move to tighten controls on
guns could curb the unregu-
lated buying and selling of
weapons over the Internet
and at gun shows. But the
overall effect on violence in
the U.S. could prove to be
modest.
“It’s not ever going to
be dif¿ cult to get a ¿ rearm,
just like it’s not ever going
to be dif¿ cult to get illegal
drugs,” said -ames -acobs,
a New <ork University law
school professor. “What
makes us think that we
can now create a regime
that will make guns hard
AP Photo/Tom Lynn, File
In this Oct. 21, 2012 photo, police stand with guns
drawn at the entrance to Brookfi eld Square Mall
across from the scene of a shooting at Azana Salon
in Brookfi eld, Wis.
to obtain for someone who
wants to obtain them?”
The president used his
e[ecutive authority Tuesday
to clarify that anyone “in the
business” of selling ¿ rearms
must obtain a federal license
and conduct background
checks on prospective
buyers, regardless of where
the sales take place.
Currently, many private
sellers online and at gun
shows do not bother to
get licenses, and weapons
sales over the Internet
have become a booming
business.
The White House and
others can’t say how many
transactions the step will
block or how much blood-
shed it may prevent.
But the new controls
probably wouldn’t have
prevented many of the grisly
mass shootings around the
country that have led to
demands for tighter gun
laws, and may affect only a
tiny fraction of the nation’s
30,000 annual gun deaths.
Studies in the last decade
have shown that criminals
are more likely to get guns
directly from friends or
See GUNS/8A
Lawmaker wants $120M in bonds for transportation
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
SALEM — A state lawmaker from
Wilsonville wants Oregon to issue as
much as $10 million in bonds to pay
for transportation projects starting in
01.
Rep. -ohn Davis, R-Wilsonville,
said he plans this month to introduce
an interim bill, to start tackling the
state’s backlog of highway, bridge and
other transportation projects ahead of a
larger transportation funding package
that lawmakers could pass in 01.
Oregon needs the money in order to
compete for a share of the $00 million
in federal grants for freight projects,
which will be available this year as
a result of the transportation funding
bill Congress passed in December,
Davis said. He hopes to motivate
other lawmakers and the governor to
start working now on a larger state
transportation funding bill they could
pass ne[t year.
“The (federal) funding starts imme-
diately in 01 for this,” Davis said
of the freight project grant program.
“We’re in a tenuous spot because
Washington passed a transportation
package, Idaho passed a transportation
package, and California always has
money ... That’s a signi¿ cant thing
See TRANSPORTATION/8A