Page 8A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
11-year-old’s slaying spreads
grief far beyond Navajo Nation
Associated Press
FARMINGTON, N.M.
— She was a budding musi-
cian and talented artist, a girl
whose death at the hands of
a man who authorities say
lured her into his van spread
grief far beyond her home on
the Navajo Nation.
More than 3,000 people
turned out Friday for
Ashlynne Mike’s funeral in
Farmington, New Mexico,
weeping as images of
the 11-year-old girl were
displayed overhead and the
sounds of her xylophone
rang out in the auditorium.
A headstone created for her
grave read “our little angel in
heaven.”
The crowd far outnum-
bered the community of
Lower Fruitland, where
Ashlynne was raised with
her father and siblings. Entire
families, hugging each other
and their children, sat before
her small white cofin. Many
wore yellow T-shirts. Navajo
Nation Council Speaker
LoRenzo Bates said yellow
represents hope, strength and
resilience, and it was one of
her favorite colors.
New
Mexico
Gov.
Susana Martinez called on
the mourners to carry on the
kindness Ashlynne showed
the world.
“I cannot imagine the
pain Ashlynne’s loved ones
feel right now,” the governor
said. “But even as we mourn
her, we should celebrate her
life and remember what a
beautiful little girl she was,
inside and out.”
More than 200 miles away
in Albuquerque, suspect Tom
Begaye Jr. waived his right to
a preliminary and detention
hearing, and a judge ordered
him to remain in custody
on charges of murder and
kidnapping. Public defender
James Loonam was assigned
to represent him and did
not immediately respond to
Federal oficer in
custody after 3
fatal shootings
SILVER SPRING,
Md. (AP) — A federal
security oficer suspected
in three fatal shootings
outside a high school, a
mall and a supermarket in
the Washington, D.C., area
was arrested Friday, police
said. Three people were also
wounded in the shootings.
Eulalio Tordil, an
employee of the Federal
Protective Service, which
provides security at federal
properties, was taken into
custody without incident
near the supermarket, the
scene of the last shooting,
authorities said. The brief
manhunt and seemingly
indiscriminate shootings
rekindled fears of the D.C.
sniper in 2002, which
paralyzed the nation’s capital
and its suburbs.
Plainclothes oficers
trailed Tordil for an hour,
watching him walk from
store to store at a shopping
center as they waited for
the right time to arrest him.
He had earlier threatened to
“commit suicide by cop” and
authorities wanted to make
sure the public was safe
when he was arrested.
“Knowing his behavior
today, knowing of statements
he made in the past, we
did not want to endanger
anyone and have a shootout
when we took him into
custody and that’s why he
was taken into custody the
way he was,” Montgomery
County Police Chief Thomas
Steve Lewis/The Daily Times via AP
A young member of the funeral procession expresses her feelings on the way to
the burial site Friday in Lower Fruitland, N.M.
requests for comment.
Begaye, a 27-year-old
Navajo who lived down the
highway from Ashlynne’s
home, persuaded her and her
9-year-old brother, who had
been playing near their bus
stop after school, to climb
into his van, an FBI agent’s
afidavit says. The boy told
police that the man took
them deep into the desert
and then walked off with his
sister, before returning alone.
Begaye told investigators
he sexually assaulted the girl
and struck her twice in the
head with a crowbar, and that
she was still moving when
he left her, according to the
afidavit.
Begaye has been cited
multiple times by Navajo
police since 2006 on suspi-
cion of public intoxication,
speeding, theft, disorderly
conduct and not having a
valid driver’s license, tribal
records say. Off the reserva-
tion, he had been cited for
drug possession about three
weeks ago.
The slaying has raised
tough questions for residents
and law enforcement on the
country’s largest American
Indian reservation, which
stretches for 27,000 square
miles into New Mexico, Utah
and Arizona. Eight hours
passed between the family’s
initial missing-persons report
and an Amber Alert that went
out at 2:27 a.m. Tuesday,
urging people around the
region to be on the lookout.
Her body was found
later that morning, south
of Shiprock Pinnacle, just
inside the border of the
Navajo Nation in the north-
west corner of New Mexico.
One
of Ashlynne’s
brothers, Ryan Begay, told
the audience at her funeral
that he drove around the
monolith for hours in the
darkness, looking for his
sister. He said he asked for
an alert at 10:30 p.m. and
grew more upset with each
passing hour.
“I really wish that this
alert went out a lot sooner,”
he said, prompting strenuous
applause.
Ashlynne’s
younger
brother told police that he
tried to ind his sister after
the man left him in the
desert. Then he ran for help
and was spotted by a couple,
Ella and Benny Yazzie, who
were driving and took him
to police. The boy was so
distraught that he couldn’t
describe what happened with
enough detail to focus the
search, authorities said.
Navajo families extend
far beyond bloodlines,
through traditional clan
systems that foster kinship
among tribal members,
and the law enforcement
delays didn’t prevent about
a hundred community
members from searching
for Ashlynne, driving across
the open desert long into the
night.
On Friday, his father
embraced the boy as the
governor praised his bravery
and said Ashlynne would
have been proud.
Saturday, May 7, 2016
More Republicans abandon
Trump; he just shrugs
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Big-name GOP leaders piled
on Friday against Donald
Trump in an extraordinary
show of Republican-vs.-Re-
publican discontent over
his winning the party’s
presidential
nomination.
Trump just shrugged it off,
declaring they didn’t really
matter when compared to all
the voters who turned out to
vote for him in this year’s
primary elections.
Trump grudgingly agreed
to meet next week with Paul
Ryan, the Republican House
speaker whose statement
a day earlier — he said he
was not ready to embrace
Trump’s nomination — set
off the intraparty ireworks.
Trump said he had “no idea”
if they would patch things
up and it wasn’t all that
important anyway.
“The thing that matters
most are the millions of
people that have come out
to vote for me and give
me a landslide victory in
almost every state,” Trump
said moments after Ryan,
the nation’s highest-ranking
Republican
oficeholder,
announced their planned
meeting.
Later in the day, two of
Trump’s vanquished GOP
rivals, former Florida Gov.
Jeb Bush and South Carolina
Sen. Lindsey Graham, said
they would not vote for him
in November. That was a
startling rejection by party
leaders.
Trump said of Ryan’s
stance: “I igured, routinely,
he would be behind me. The
other day, he pulled a big
surprise.”
He said he was not
surprised about Bush’s
stance and was tersely
dismissive of Graham.
Of Bush, he said, “I will
not say he’s low-energy,”
reprising a jibe he used
frequently
during
the
primary campaign. He
mocked Graham’s poor
primary showing, saying,
“Like the voters who
rejected him, so will I!”
Ryan said his meeting
with Trump would occur
next Thursday and that
Trump also would meet with
other House GOP leaders.
Discussions will center on
“the kind of Republican
principles and ideas that can
win the support of the Amer-
ican people this November,”
Ryan said.
The unlikely back-and-
forth came a day after Ryan
injected new uncertainty into
the turbulent presidential
contest by refusing, for now,
to endorse Trump. Aides
said that, far from seeking to
helm an anti-Trump move-
ment, Ryan hopes to exert
a positive inluence for the
general election campaign
after a nominating contest
that has alienated women,
minorities and other voter
groups.
Yet Trump’s reaction
Friday made it unclear what
impact Ryan could have.
“With millions of people
coming into the party, obvi-
ously I’m saying the right
thing,” Trump said on Fox
News Channel. “I mean, he
talks about unity, but what is
this?”
Democrats are generally
steering clear of the Repub-
lican inighting, letting the
party’s leaders tear at each
other.
However,
President
Barack Obama did say when
questioned about it at the
White House: “This is not
entertainment. This is not a
reality show,” and candidates
need to show they have the
qualities to lead the world’s
strongest nation.
As the reality of the GOP
divisions sank in Friday,
some Republicans were not
shy about expressing their
displeasure with Ryan.
“I don’t necessarily know
that that’s his role, to be a
sticking point for the Repub-
lican nominee,” said Rep.
Duncan Hunter of California,
one of a growing number of
Trump supporters.
the average gain of 243,000
in the prior six months.
But the unemployment rate
remained a low 5 percent,
roughly where it’s been
since last fall.
“Employment was never
going to continue rising at
more than 200,000 a month
indeinitely,” said Paul
Ashworth, an economist
at Capital Economics, a
consulting irm. “Those
monthly gains are simply
unsustainable” at a time of
tepid economic growth.
Over the past six
months, the economy has
expanded at an annual pace
of just 1 percent. Anecdotal
evidence suggests that
some employers have
become concerned that
sluggish growth could
weaken customer demand
and limit the need for more
employees.
Still, most economists
said they were not worried
about the weaker hiring
in April. In large part, it
relected declines in retail
and construction hiring,
an expected pullback after
hiring in those areas surged
in the irst quarter of 2016.
And job gains have
slipped before — most
recently in January —
without signaling any
persistent slump.
“The igures are a yellow
light, not a red lag,” said
Andrew Chamberlain, chief
economist at Glassdoor, an
employment website.
April’s hiring slowdown
may also relect a long-
expected shift to a more
sustainable pace of job
creation. The job market
has added 200,000-plus
jobs a month for more than
three years. That’s harder to
achieve once unemployment
falls to 5 percent, consistent
with a nearly recovered
economy.
BRIEFLY
Manger said.
Tordil was put on
administrative duties in
March after a protective
order was issued against him
when his wife said he had
threatened to harm her if she
left him, The Washington
Post reported. Tordil
subjected their children
to “intense-military-like
discipline,” like pushups and
detention in a dark closet,
according to the order.
Authorities said Tordil
followed his 44-year-old
wife Gladys to their
children’s high school
Thursday.
As she waited in an
SUV in the parking lot of
High Point High, Tordil
confronted her and shot her.
He also shot and wounded a
man who tried to intervene.
Wildire evacuees
glimpse burned out
city on way south
EDMONTON, Alberta
(AP) — Displaced residents
at oil ield camps north of
Fort McMurray, Alberta
got a sobering drive-by
view of their burned out
city Friday in a convoy
that moved evacuees south
amid a massive wildire that
oficials fear could double in
size by the end of Saturday.
As police and military
oversaw the procession
of hundreds of vehicles,
a mass airlift of evacuees
also resumed. A day after
8,000 people were lown
out, authorities said 5,500
more were expected to be
evacuated by the end of
Agricu ltu ral heritage tou r/
bricks, barns and farm s
• Tour through northern Umatilla County
•Visit historic barns, Century Farms, oldest nursery in the
Pacific Northwest, and
produce farm est. 1922
•Lunch at Frazier
Farmstead Museum
•Zerba Cellars – tour and
wine tasting
Saturday, May 21 st
9:00 - 4:00
Tickets: $55 Members; $60 General Admission.
Call Heritage Station
Museum at
541-276-0012
for information
Friday and another 4,000 on
Saturday.
More than 80,000 people
have left Fort McMurray
in the heart of Canada’ oil
sands, where the ire has
torched 1,600 homes and
other buildings. The mass
evacuation forced as much
as a quarter of Canada’s oil
output ofline according to
estimates and is expected
to impact a country already
hurt by a dramatic fall in the
price of oil.
About 1,200 vehicles
had passed through Fort
McMurray by late Friday
afternoon despite a one-hour
interruption due to heavy
smoke, authorities said.
Jim Dunstan was in the
convoy with his wife, Tracy,
and two young sons. “It was
shocking to see the damaged
cars all burned on the side
of the road. It made you feel
lucky to get out of there,” he
said.
In Edmonton, between
4,500 and 5,000 evacuees
arrived at the airport on
at least 45 lights Friday,
airport spokesman Chris
Chodan said. In total,
more than 300 lights have
arrived with evacuees since
Tuesday, he said.
A group that arrived late
Friday afternoon was greeted
by volunteers who handed
out bottled water and helped
direct people where to go
next.
Hiring slowdown
may signal caution
about U.S. economy
WASHINGTON (AP)
— American employers
signaled their caution about
a sluggish economy by
slowing their pace of hiring
in April after months of
robust job growth.
At the same time,
companies raised pay,
and their employees
worked more hours — a
combination that lifted
income and, if sustained,
could quicken the U.S.
expansion.
As a whole, the
government’s report Friday
pointed to an American
job market that continues
to generate steady hiring,
though at a rate that
may be starting to slow.
Employers added 160,000
jobs in April, well below
Enjoy the
Jazz sounds of
Brass Fire
May 7th, 2016
7 pm - 10 pm
In the Red Lion Lounge
304 SE Nye
Pendleton
541-276-6111
Bid request for decked logs removed
from OR Highway 245 in Baker County
he Oregon Department of Transportation is accepting bids
for ire-killed, processed, and decked ponderosa pine and
Douglas-ir timber in Baker County. Log decks are located
on USFS property, on the west side of OR245, of USFS Road
11 approximately 0.3 mile from its junction with OR 245 at
approximately milepost 29. Both ODOT and USFS-owned logs
are present on the site. ODOT-owned logs are located on the
east end and are marked with a spot of yellow paint.
Bids are being accepted for ODOT-owned logs.
Tree removal operations are currently active and log decking
will be completed May 15. his timber sale will be made
on a lump sum basis. A $5,000.00 bid deposit will be
required to be submitted with the bid.
Bid packages will be available AFTER MAY 15.
Bids are due MAY 25. Logs may not be exported.
For more information, or to request a bid packet
(available ater May 15), call ODOT Forester at 503-508-1346