OFF PAGE ONE
FIRE: Most residents did not have renter’s insurance
Page 8A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
Protection District had put out a call
for mutual aid, calling in trucks from
Hermiston and Irrigon to help. Due to
other calls in the district, the Hermiston
ladder truck had to wait until off duty
staff could arrive before responding.
More
than
0
¿re¿ghters
responded, including ¿re¿ghters
from Umatilla, Irrigon, Hermiston
and Stan¿eld. It took more than three
hours to extinguish the ¿re and clear
out the buildings. After the ¿re, Potts
and Fire Marshal Tom Bohm began
an investigation, but Potts said the
of¿cial determination will likely never
be known.
“We’ve determined at this point
that there was no reason to believe it
was arson,” he said. “All indications
are that it’s possibly electrical, but our
investigation will not determine that
completely.”
The ¿re displaced ¿ve families the
sixth apartment in the building had
been leased on Friday — the day of the
¿re — but nothing had been moved in
yet. Most of the residents did not have
renter’s insurance.
According to the American Red
Cross, the multi-family ¿re affected
nine adults, 15 children and multiple
pets. Two volunteers from the Red Cross
responded to the scene and provided
assistance for immediate and basic
needs, including temporary assistance.
“When disasters like a home ¿re
strike, the Red Cross is there. On
average we respond to two home ¿res
every single day in our region, providing
temporary housing, food and comfort to
those affected,” said Monique Dugaw,
Red Cross spokeswoman. “We also
work pro actively to help individuals
and families escape a home ¿re safely
by installing free smoke alarms in
homes that need them.”
While the Red Cross works to
provide immediate assistance, Marina
Apartments and local volunteers are
also gathering supplies for the families.
Two families lost everything to the ¿re,
including all household goods, clothing
and children’s toys. Another apartment
on the ¿rst Àoor was Àooded with two
feet of water during ¿re suppression
efforts.
Holford said she had already
received donations of adult clothing but
was still in need of children’s clothing
moderate with lots of expe-
rience in the private sector,”
said Jim Moore, political
science
professor
and
director of the Tom McCall
Center for Policy Innovation
at Paci¿c University.
Moore said Alley is the
clear frontrunner in the
primary May 17 against
Salem oncologist Bud Pierce
and three other Republicans.
But Alley faces two daunting
challenges in the general
election: Typically greater
turnout among Democratic
voters in a presidential year
and a lack of name recogni-
tion, Moore said.
“As of today, there is no
mass-media campaign for
Alley,” Moore said. “I do
not think he has reintroduced
himself to voters. His policy
proposals are also not getting
out to the large group of
Republican primary voters.”
Alley has proposed some
creative solutions to reigning
in big government. For
instance, he said he wants
to require that all bills come
with an automatic sunset
provision.
“It’s like term limits
for bills,” he said. “Good
bills they would get rubber
stamped again. Bad bills,
they would go.”
He also has promised to
crowd source for feedback on
the state budget by making
budget documents available
on the internet.
Born in Michigan, Alley,
62, grew up in various places
around the country, including
Delaware,
Pennsylvania,
Indiana and Washington.
His father was an engineer
who worked his way through
college by singing in a night-
club, and his mother was an
actress who started her own
local talk show in Michigan.
Alley’s mother was a
staunch Republican and
worked for Richard Chris-
tiansen when he ran against
Daniel Evans in 1963 for the
Republican nomination for
Washington governor.
“I was binding cookbooks
when I was 9 years old and
putting up lawn signs and
that kind of stuff,” Alley said.
“It left a positive impression.
I don’t think I would be doing
this without a little bit of
exposure to that, where I saw
it was a civic responsibility.”
Alley started building
small tech companies in the
SCHOOL: Case started
with third-hand information
Continued from 1A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Holes are torn out of the walls of a building at the Marina Apartments where
firefighters were attempting to find and extinguish the slow moving fire.
in girls si]es 4T, 5T, 6 and boys si]es
10, 12, 14.
Holford said Marina Apartments has
one open two-bedroom apartment they
have set aside for one of the families, and
they are working with other properties to
¿nd homes for the others.
“The community has come together,
they’ve brought clothes, blankets, even
on the night of the ¿re,” Holford said.
“We’re also trying to gather dishes,
furniture, toiletries. They’ll have to
replace everything. The families are
all being amazing. They’re upset, but
they’re holding together.”
The families are also in need of
dog and cat food, and volunteers are
working to set up pages on GoFundMe.
com for monetary donations.
Physical donations can be dropped
off at Marina Apartments in the of¿ce
or apartment 1500 A.
ALLEY: Wants to require all bills come with a sunset provision
Continued from 1A
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
“I’m not a hyper partisan person.
I collaborate on everything. You have
to be to be a businessperson and work
all over the world.”
— Allen Alley, Republican gubernatorial candidate
mid-1980s. In 1997, Alley
and four friends started Pixel-
works with only $10,000.
Three years later, the
fabless
semiconductor
business went public. During
the ¿rst 10 years, when Alley
was chief executive of¿cer,
the company sold about $1
billion’s worth of semicon-
ductor products, Alley said.
When he stepped down
as CEO in 2007, he started
looking around for a position
in public service.
“Gov. Kulongoski called
me almost immediately and
said, hey I would like you
to consider coming in and
being on my staff,” Alley
said.
Alley warned the Demo-
cratic governor that he was a
Republican, but Kulongoski
made it clear wanted the best
people on his staff, regardless
of their political af¿liation.
“I chose Allen because
he did have a business
background, and it was in
tech,” Kulongoski said.
“There were times when we
were looking at a business to
relocate or trying to attract a
business. He actually went
out and looked at those
companies and called his
friends about them.”
There was one company
in particular that Kulongoski
was interested in. After some
investigation, Alley told the
governor “very clearly stay
away from them,” Kulon-
goski recalled.
“And I did,” Kulongoski
said. “I was very happy when
the company went to another
state, and a couple of years
later, went into bankruptcy
so I’m glad he told me not to
do that. He is very smart.”
Alley said his 14 months
working in the Governor’s
Of¿ce demonstrated his
ability to work across party
lines.
“I’m not a hyper partisan
person,” Alley said. “I
collaborate on everything.
You have to be to be a busi-
nessperson and work all over
the world.”
Tim Nesbitt, a pro-labor
Democrat who worked
alongside Alley in Kulon-
goski’s administration, said
Alley was more pragmatic
than ideological and brought
business acumen to the
Governor’s Of¿ce.
“What struck me right
away was his ability to scru-
tinize different proposals by
the Of¿ce of Economic and
Community Development,
now Business Oregon, for
state-backed loans and tax
credits,” Nesbitt said. “I
don’t recall the speci¿c proj-
ects, but he put a very sharp
pencil on things and sent the
proposals back to the agency
to make a stronger case.”
Alley left the Governor’s
Of¿ce to run for state trea-
surer. He won the Repub-
lican nomination but lost to
Democrat Ben Westlund in
the general election. He also
made a failed bid against
former NBA basketball
star Chris Dudley for the
Republican nomination for
governor in 2010. He went
on to serve as chairman
of the Oregon Republican
Party from January 2011
to January 2013, while
continuing to invest in small
tech companies.
On top of his business
acumen, Alley has some of
the quirk of a ¿ctional politi-
cian in the Independent Film
Channel sitcom Portlandia,
which has made Portland
and its stereotypes iconic
around the world.
He claims he is the only
state Republican chairman
in the nation who regularly
drives a Smart Car and has
the Twitter persona to rival
that of younger generations.
He shares photographs of his
food and recently engaged
in a backslapping Twitter
dialogues with singer/song-
writer Storm Large over his
Tarzan yell at Candidates
Gone Wild talent show,
where Large played emcee.
Whether that de¿ance
of stereotypes will add to
his appeal to the electorate
remains to be seen.
“I am a strong supporter
of Gov. Brown, and I think
Allen is going to be a
credible candidate for the
Republicans,” Kulongoski
said. “I do not think anyone
on Democratic side is going
to take that lightly, and if
they do, it’s going to be a big
mistake.”
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Continued from 1A
Through March, the
Secretary of State reports
that the rule has registered
680 new voters in Umatilla
County. “Motor voter” has
helped Umatilla County
boost its total number of
registered voters to 32,644
in March, the second
highest number for that
month since 2001.
After a person is regis-
tered through the DMV, the
state sends them a card that
allows them to register with
a party or opt out. Although
only 47 people chose to
opt out of registration, 90
percent of those who stayed
on the rolls remained unaf-
¿liated.
Alex Hobbs of Herm-
iston said she’s spoken with
many longtime local voters
who were unaware of the
primary restriction.
“There’s a real need
for basic civic education,”
Hobbs said.
To boost the county’s
participation in the May
elections, Hobbs and her
friend Selene Torres-Me-
drano of Umatilla, held
a voter registration event
Saturday at Java Junkies
in Umatilla. The deadline
to register as a voter or
switch political af¿liation is
Tuesday.
Given that they only
registered a couple of
voters, Hobbs said the event
was disappointing.
Hobbs
said
civic
engagement
is
more
dif¿cult in Eastern Oregon
and although some people
encouraged their cause,
others wanted to engage
them in political debate,
even though the event was
nonpartisan by design.
But even if voters don’t
see Hillary or Trump on
their ballots, Hobbs said
the importance of voter
registration extends beyond
national election. May 17
also marks the date for
many local elections.
Voters in the Echo,
Milton-Freewater
and
Athena-West
school
districts will vote on bond
measures while Stan¿eld
and Hermiston voters will
decide whether to merge
the cities’ ¿re districts and
establish a new tax rate.
Other voter decisions
include municipal elec-
tions in Pendleton, Herm-
iston and Milton-Free-
water and elections for
circuit court judge and
district attorney.
Despite Hobbs and
Torres-Medrano’s initial
struggles to engage voters,
they’re not letting it deter
them.
Hobbs said the pair
are planning additional
voter registration events
over the summer ahead
of the national election in
November.
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PRIMARY: 680 ‘motor voters’
May 8th
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Shade or Outdoor Living Space?
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14-year-old boy, because his
case remains in the juvenile
system,. She said it was her
policy not to discuss juvenile
cases.
The La Grande Observer
reported Monday that
defense attorneys and family
members asked the judge
to release the defendants to
their families. The younger
teen also appeared via video
from the Walla Walla youth
jail. Dretke decided the two
teens remained a threat to the
community and the victims
in the case, according to the
Observer, and denied the
motions to release.
La Grande police arrested
the boys last Wednesday,
and La Grande Police Chief
Brian Harvey at the time said
the pair “talked about doing
a Columbine-type of attack
on the school with speci¿c
people targeted.”
Harvey said he could not
reveal extent of the students’
plans because the investiga-
tion is active, but his depart-
ment would not have made
the arrests if evidence “did
not show a thorough level
of credibility and support for
the charges.”
La Grande has 1 of¿-
cers, including the chief, and
participates in a major crime
team in Union County.
Law enforcement uses such
teams to pool detectives
and veteran of¿cers from
different agencies to tackle
big crimes, such as murder.
Harvey said the case
started with third-hand
information, and he, two
detectives and two of¿cers
were the initial investigators.
The nature and pace of infor-
mation in this case, he said,
did not warrant a call for the
crime team.
By the end of the week,
though, he asked Oregon
State Police and the Union
County Sheriff’s Of¿ce
to help, and eight to nine
of¿cers were working the
investigation.
“As this particular case
went further on, as we got
further into it,” Harvey said,
“I can speak for all the inves-
tigators — this was rather
disturbing to them.”
The Observer reported
the students had their initial
arraignment last Thursday,
where La Grande High
School assistant principal
Scott Carpenter spoke in
front of family members
of the two students, law
enforcement of¿cials and
school staff.
“This is the ¿rst time
students have developed a
plan to kill me,” Carpenter
told the Observer. “They
were actively plotting to
murder me, and in an envi-
ronment that society and the
courts should work to keep
absolutely safe and almost
sacred.”
McDaniel said she also
could not reveal details of
the investigation. Police
have questioned a large
number of people, she said,
and that work continued
even Monday.
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and information to:
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