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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 5, 2016)
VANDALS DESTROY RESTROOMS HOLDOUTS AT REFUGE INDICTED PENDLETON, HERMISTON WIN DUELS REGION/3A NORTHWEST/6A WRESTLING/1B FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2016 140th Year, No. 80 Your Weekend Three-tiered wage revisited Rural interests say they need lower minimum to attract business • • • Beef & Beach Dinner and Auction, Hermiston ArtWORKZ awards reception, Tamastslikt Valentine’s social and dance in Pendleton For times and places see Coming Events, 5A One dollar WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau SALEM — Legislators have returned to a proposal that would set three minimum wage rates in the state based on median income and cost of living. The proposal by Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, would hike wages to $14.75 in the Portland metro area, $12.50 in rural and coastal areas with struggling economies and $13.50 in the rest of the state by 2022. The Senate Workforce and General Government Committee, which Dembrow chairs, is expected to vote on the proposal Friday after a brief public hearing at the Capitol. Leaders in the House and Senate have made minimum wage a priority for the 35-day legislative session, which started Feb. 1. They’re hoping that legislative action will stave off ballot initiatives that would raise the minimum to $15 or $13.50 in a three-year period and lift a ban on cities setting higher wages. Another proposal by Gov. Kate Brown grabbed the limelight last month but was discarded after lawmakers heard See WAGE/8A Catch a movie Screen Gems, Sony via AP Jane Austen’s literary classic meets the undead in “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” For showtime, Page 5A For review, Weekend EO Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 54/38 51/31 51/33 HERMISTON Bothum to resign from EOTEC board By GARY L. WEST East Oregonian David Bothum, owner of Bothum Construction and co-founder of the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, is resigning from the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center board. T h e EOTEC board is expected to accept his resignation F r i d a y morning during a meeting at Bothum the Stafford Hansell Government Center in Hermiston. Bothum could not be reached Thursday for comment. He did not specify a reason for his departure in his resignation letter. “I would like to say thank See BOTHUM/10A Staff photo by E.J. Harris A SeaPort fl ight prepares for departure on Thursday at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton. SeaPort stays airborne in Oregon Airline shutters routes in seven states By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian It has been turbulent year for SeaPort Airlines. Back in 2015, the Portland-based airline offered almost two dozen routes in 11 states and Mexico, including a route between Pendleton and Portland. It’s also the only commercial airline serving the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport. But as the calendar turned, news “The big dogs take from the medium dogs and the medium dogs take from the small dogs.” downsizing to a lack of pilots. “A lot of regional airlines are undergoing this challenge right now, one we think will last a long time,” Sieber told The San Diego Union-Tribune in January. Sieber’s comments mirror the message relayed to Steve Chrisman, Pendleton’s airport manager and economic development director, who said small airlines are at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to recruiting pilots. “The big dogs take from the — Steve Chrisman, Pendleton’s airport manager See SEAPORT/10A began to trickle out that SeaPort was dropping routes and destinations, eventually leading to the shuttering of some services in California, Washington, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Alaska, Kansas and Mexico. All that remains are routes to Portland, from Pendleton and North Bend, and airline service between three small towns in Arkansas and the metropolises of Memphis, Tenn. and Houston. SeaPort Executive Vice President Tim Sieber did not return multiple requests for comment this week, but SeaPort has publicly attributed its Entrepreneurial buzz surrounds pot industry By ERIC MORTENSON EO Media Group P Eric Mortenson/EO Media Group Booth ambassadors for Dope magazine greet people attending the Cannabis Collaborative Convention in Portland Feb. 3-4. ORTLAND — The thing is, when you attend a cannabis convention in this city, everything starts to sound like Dope Humor of the Seventies. A seminar MC talks about the rollout of the cannabis industry. The OLCC director says his agency has 1.6 million hits on its website. Whoa. But there’s no denying an entrepreneurial buzz (see?) accompanied the legalization of weed in Oregon and elsewhere. A stroll down the vendor aisles of the Cannabis Collaborative Conference, held Feb. 3-4 at the Portland Expo Center, makes that clear. Specialty manufacturers are jumping into the cannabis trade, starting new or adapting their business to take advantage. Bud Bar Displays, based in Gold River, Calif., makes plastic sample pods with a magnifying lens and a row of sniff holes built into the lid. Allows the customer to take a good look at the pot plant bud within, and to smell it. “The way cannabis is sold,” the company said on its website. Bud Bar is a division of All Plastic Corporation, and the owners started it up 25 years ago strictly for See MARIJUANA/8A
