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NATION/7A
THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016
140th Year, No. 124
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
PENDLETON
UAS range bets the
farm on its future
Grant focused on agriculture could help attract drone companies
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The drone industry has long said
that the future of agriculture is in
the sky. The Pendleton Unmanned
Aerial Systems Range is about
the put serious resources into that
prediction.
Pending a $10,000 match from
the city, the Pendleton UAS Range
is set to receive a grant of $150,000
from SOAR Oregon, a statewide
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lish the Oregon UAS Future Farm.
The Future Farm is the brain-
child of Jeff Lorton, the director
of the Carlton advertising agency
Duke Joseph, and Young Kim,
the CEO of Digital Harvest, a
Virginia-based UAS company
specializing in agriculture.
Using their combined expertise
in promotion and technology,
Lorton and Kim want to use Future
See UAS/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Jeff Lorton, creative director of Duke Joseph advertising agency, is
one of the creators behind the Pendleton UAS Range’s Future Farm
concept.
Shakespeare troupe takes on bullying at Pendleton school
Judge sets
Sept. trial
for refuge
standoff
By STEVEN DUBOIS
Associated Press
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Actors Clint Bidwell, Ron Williams and Cyndi Kimmel play out a scene from the Shakespearean play “Twelfth Night” recently
at Sunridge Middle School in Pendleton.
To bully, or not to bully
Play presents examples of bullying and the consequences
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
Shakespeare
might
not
initially seem the best source for
anti-bullying advice.
After all, the Bard packed his
plays with bloodshed, treason,
poisonings, pranking, sword-
play, beheadings and a multi-
tude of other assorted mayhem.
Shakespeare taking on bullying
might seem as absurd as Bernie
Madoff teaching ethics.
But Shakespeare understood
human behavior, said Ron
Williams, executive director
of Shakespeare Walla Walla.
Williams believes Shakespeare
plays are rife with examples of
bullying and the consequences.
He and two other actors from
his troupe presented “Twelfth
Night” on Friday to sixth graders
at Sunridge Middle School and
then proceeded to the classroom
where they put bullying under
the microscope and examined
its ugly nature.
Shakespearean
characters
often bully one another,
Williams said. In “Twelfth
Night,” for example, two
characters — Malvolio and
Sir Andrew — are tormented
unmercifully throughout the
play. Sir Andrew, a rich buffoon,
is an easy target. Malvolio, a
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like the smart kid in class who
everyone else loves to hate.
“The relationships between
Shakespeare’s characters are
always extremely clear,” he
said. “It’s easy to exaggerate
See BULLY/8A
UMATILLA
City raises wages and utility rates
Some workers will see a 42 percent jump in pay
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Utility rates and wages for city
of Umatilla employees will both
be going up during the 2016-2017
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On Tuesday the city council
approved a wage increase for
non-unionized workers in pay
scales A through G, matching a
similar hike in pay for the city’s
upper three pay scales earlier in the
year.
The largest jump in pay — a
42 percent raise — went to step G,
which includes the police sergeant
and wastewater plant supervisor.
Step one of their pay scale went
from $49,860 a year to $70,620.
The smallest raises, for general
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wastewater operators and main-
tenance workers, were 5 percent.
Other raises ranged from 9 percent
to 31 percent.
Councilor Mary Dedrick was
the only one who voted against
the pay increases. She said she had
heard from too many citizens angry
that city workers were being given
raises while fees and utility rates
for residents kept going up.
“People are getting very upset,”
she said.
City manager Russ Pelleberg
More inside
City denies zoning change for
housing development in McNary
Page 3A
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said that the raises were long
overdue to keep the city competitive
for attracting skilled employees.
Ince said she did a wage study that
separately compared Umatilla sala-
ries with the state averages, Eastern
Oregon and similarly sized cities in
Oregon. She said many positions
were about 20 percent below state
and Eastern Oregon levels.
She said more than 50 percent
See UMATILLA/8A
PORTLAND — The federal judge
overseeing Oregon’s wildlife refuge
standoff case scheduled a September
trial on Wednesday and reinforced her
decision to send Ammon and Ryan
Bundy to Nevada next week for a court
appearance.
U.S. District Court Judge Anna
Brown made those decisions during a
testy hearing in which she repeatedly
admonished lawyers for making repet-
itive points and threatened to remove
one of the defendants from the court.
The packed courtroom included a
majority of the 26 defendants charged
with taking over the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge for 41 days this winter
in a protest over land policy. Lawyers
for all the defendants were there as
well, and their competing interests and
schedules add to the complexity of the
case the judge must oversee.
Brown scheduled jury selection to
begin Sept. 7, despite objections from
several attorneys who said that wasn’t
enough time to prepare and wanted
the trial pushed back to 2017. Other
lawyers supported the late summer
date.
The judge left open the possibility
for an eventual delay, but she said the
right to a speedy trial is paramount for
now. There’s also the chance of two
different trials, one for defendants who
want to go early and one for those who
want next year.
Also Wednesday, the judge upheld
her decision to have the Bundy brothers
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Vegas next week for a court appearance
and then returned to Oregon within 10
days. The men face charges stemming
from a 2014 standoff at Cliven Bundy’s
ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada.
Defense lawyers have said it’s
improper to make their clients defend
two cases at once in different states.
They have asked the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals to overrule Brown.
The appellate court has yet to indicate
when it will rule.
Defendant Jason Patrick nearly
got tossed from the courtroom after
the judge, who had been snapping at
lawyers to stay on point, told him to
stop talking. “I was just asking if there
will be more violent outbursts by the
judge,” Patrick replied.
Brown ordered courtroom personnel
to remove Patrick, but ultimately let
him stay.
Later, another defendant, Kenneth
Medenbach, who’s acting as his own
attorney, demanded that Brown prove
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has raised previously. Brown told him
she publicly took the oath in November
1999.
“Why is there no record of it?” a
supporter of the occupiers shouted
from the gallery.
Brown said she wasn’t spending any
more time on the issue.