HERMISTON
GIRLS ROAD
TESTED
BASKETBALL/1B
ORTHODOX
FAITHFUL
CELEBRATE
CHRISTMAS
Tip of the
hat; kick in
the pants
OPINION/4A
FAITH/7A
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016
140th Year, No. 60
Your Weekend
•
•
•
Dancing with Your
Hermiston Stars
Daddy Daughter
Dress Exchange
Oldies Night at the
Library 10th Anniversary
For times and places
see Coming Events, 5A
Catch a movie
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox via AP
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom
Hardy star in the gritty,
frontier survival fi lm,
“The Revenant.”
For showtime, Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
35/24
Sat
33/27
Sun
34/20
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Sheriff asks group to leave
Ward meets with
Bundy to relay
residents’ wishes
By MANUEL VALDES
Associated Press
BURNS — Three Oregon
sheriffs met Thursday with
an armed group occupying a
federal wildlife refuge in south-
eastern Oregon and asked them
to leave, after residents made it
clear they wanted them to go
home.
Harney County Sheriff David
Ward, accompanied by two
other sheriffs, asked Ammon
Bundy and his group to respect
the wishes of residents and end
an occupation that began last
weekend to protest federal land
management policies.
“There are some positives
that could come out of this,”
Ward told Bundy during their
meeting at the intersection of
two remote roads.
“Before this thing turns into
something negative, which
would ruin all of that, I think we
QHHG WR ¿QG D SHDFHIXO UHVROX
tion to help you guys get out of
See BURNS/8A
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP
Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward meets with Ammon Bundy at a remote location outside the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge on Thursday near Burns.
Watch a game
OUT OF THE VAULT
vs.
$UPHGSRVVHWRRNRYHU6WDQ¿HOGSRWDWRVKHGLQ
By RENEE STRUTHERS
East Oregonian
Heppner vs. Irrigon
Friday, 6 p.m., at Irrigon
T
Wheeler says
energy loan
program
needs bailout
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
SALEM — State Trea-
surer Ted Wheeler sent a
letter to Gov. Kate Brown
Thursday morning calling
on the governor to stop
the Oregon Department of
Energy from issuing any new
small scale loans because the
loan fund has a $20 million
GH¿FLW DQG ZLOO UHTXLUH D
taxpayer bailout.
The
program
was
supposed to be self-sus-
taining, but loan defaults and
GHOLQTXHQW SD\PHQWV KDYH
left it without enough money
to cover its costs.
The bailout will likely
See BAILOUT/3A
EO fi le photo
ABOVE: In this EO fi le photo, Dept. Dist Atty. David Gallaher, Dist.
Atty. Jack Olsen, Sheriff William McPherson and Dept. Dist. Atty.
Fred Bennet confer during a standoff at a Stanfi eld area potato
packing shed near Stanfi eld Aug. 27, 1976. The shed was taken over
by an armed posse in a dispute over land ownership.
RIGHT: In this EO fi le photo, posse leader Donald Goodwin sits in a
police car following his arrest for his part in taking over a Mikami
Brothers potato packing shed near Stanfi eld Aug. 27, 1976.
he armed takeover of the
Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge near Burns wasn’t the
¿UVWWLPHDGLVJUXQWOHGJURXSKDV
taken over property
in a dispute over
ownership of Eastern
Oregon land. A
group of seven
armed gunmen,
including an avowed
member of the Posse
Comitatus, took over
Renee
a potato shed near
Struthers
6WDQ¿HOGRQ$XJ
Out of the Vault
27, 1976, claiming
the land rightfully
belonged to them.
Fifteen employees of the Mikami
Brothers potato packing plant on
Despain Gulch Road seven miles
HDVWRI6WDQ¿HOGZHUHWXUQHGDZD\DW
See VAULT/8A
Obama tears into the NRA Clean energy
By JOSH LEDERMAN
and KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press
FAIRFAX, Va. — President
Barack Obama tore into the National
5LÀH$VVRFLDWLRQRQ7KXUVGD\DVKH
sought support for his actions on
gun control, accusing the powerful
lobby group of peddling an
³LPDJLQDU\¿FWLRQ´WKDWKHVDLGKDV
distorted the national debate about
gun violence.
In a prime-time, televised town
hall meeting, Obama dismissed
what he called a “conspiracy”
alleging that the federal government
— and Obama in particular — wants
WRVHL]HDOO¿UHDUPVDVDSUHFXUVRUWR
imposing martial law. He blamed
that notion on the NRA and like-
minded groups that convince its
members that “somebody’s going to
come grab your guns.”
“Yes, that is a conspiracy,”
Obama said. “I’m only going to be
here for another year. When would I
have started on this enterprise?”
Obama defended his support
for the constitutional right to gun
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
ownership while arguing it was
consistent with his efforts to curb President Barack Obama answers questions during a
See OBAMA/8A
CNN televised town hall meeting at George Mason
University in Fairfax, Va., Thursday.
plan would oust
coal by 2030
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Oregon’s two largest electric utilities are
taking an aggressive swing at lowering their
carbon footprint.
The plan still needs lawmakers’ approval, but
LI SDVVHG 3DFL¿F 3RZHU DQG 3RUWODQG *HQHUDO
Electric say they will stop using coal by 2030
and double their renewable energy mandate by
2040.
The proposal would not affect consum-
er-owned utilities like the Umatilla Electric
Cooperative or Columbia Basin Electric Co-op.
7RJHWKHU 3DFL¿F 3RZHU DQG 3*( DFFRXQW IRU
SHUFHQWRIHOHFWULFLW\VDOHVVWDWHZLGH3DFL¿F
Power serves 17,847 customers in Umatilla
County.
/DUJHXWLOLWLHVLQ2UHJRQDUHDOUHDG\UHTXLUHG
by the state’s renewable portfolio standard to
generate 25 percent of power renewable sources
— such as new wind or solar farms — by 2025.
8QGHU WKH DJUHHPHQW 3DFL¿F 3RZHU DQG 3*(
say they will ramp that total up to 50 percent by
2040.
Both utilities would also phase coal out
See ENERGY/3A