BMCC
RODEO
HONORED
EVANGELICAL
CLOUT ON
THE DECLINE
SPORTS/1B
FAITH/8A
TRYING TO
HELP THE
HOMELESS
REGION/3A
FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 2016
140th Year, No. 170
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Your Weekend
•
•
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PENDLETON
City
budget
$8.77M
short
Emily Yang fundraiser at
Nookies in Hermiston
“The Milton project” at
Arts Portal Gallery
“Young at Heart” fund-
raiser concert, dinner
For times and places
see Coming Events, 6A
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Catch a movie
thefts and for someone to be held
accountable for making sure it
never happens again.
“At the end, the word is justice,”
Julianne said. “Somehow, we need
justice.”
Their ordeal started back
The Pendleton City Council
recently adopted a $58 million
budget for the next fi scal year,
but it’s not nearly enough.
Although
the
fi gure
represents an almost $5 million
increase from the year before,
city offi cials say it falls well
short of funding all the city’s
needs.
The city recently released
a document that compares the
amount of money requested
by department heads against
the money that was set to
be budgeted. Across several
departments and funds, city
leaders said they would need
an additional $8.77 million to
operate optimally.
City Manager Robb Corbett
said the idea to compare
requests with the actual budget
grew out of the city council’s
more serious discussions about
the costs of running the city.
While it has long been common
knowledge that many needs
were left untended, Corbett
said this exercise would show
the council and the public the
exact dollar fi gure it would take
to meet those needs.
If they got their wish, the
city’s department heads would
turn around and use much of
that money to add more than
40 jobs to the payroll, including
police offi cers, fi refi ghters,
utility workers and a children’s
librarian.
Leading the pack among
departments requesting more
personnel was the fi re depart-
ment, which asked for 15 more
positions.
While adding 15 positions
would increase the staff by
more than 50 percent, Fire Chief
Mike Ciraulo said the move
would help the department
meet minimum shift require-
ments set by the National Fire
See EVIDENCE/12A
See BUDGET/12A
Summit Entertainment vis AP
Woody Harrelson stars in
the magician heist sequel,
“Now You See Me 2.”
For showtime, Page 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
67/47
70/45
77/50
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Bernard and Julianne Lind waited for more than a year for DNA evidence to be processed by the OSP
crime lab in Pendleton that dealt with a burglary at their Umatilla home. Later, that evidence was
thrown out after a lab analyst became the focus of an investigation into the theft of narcotics.
Robbed of justice
Crime lab investigation leaves burglary victims without evidence
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Court:
No right
to carry
concealed
weapons
in public
By PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press
SAN
FRANCISCO
— Dealing a blow to gun
supporters, a federal appeals
court ruled Thursday that
Americans do not have a
constitutional right to carry
concealed weapons in public.
In a dispute that could
ultimately wind up before the
Supreme Court, a divided 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
said local law enforcement
offi cials can place signifi cant
restrictions on who is allowed
to carry concealed guns.
By a vote of 7-4, the court
upheld a California law that
says applicants must cite
a “good cause” to obtain
a concealed-carry permit.
See GUNS/12A
On television, if DNA results
from the crime scene come back
with a match, the case is solved.
The bad guy caves under the
evidence and confesses. The jury
returns a guilty verdict. Credits roll.
Unfortunately for Bernard and
Julianne Lind of Umatilla, real life
is more complicated than network
TV. It doesn’t matter that DNA
evidence links a career criminal
to the burglary of their property.
That’s because the evidence was
processed by Oregon State forensic
analyst Nika Larsen, who is under
investigation for stealing drugs
from the crime labs she worked for,
including Pendleton’s.
According to the Umatilla
County District Attorney’s offi ce,
a jury would possibly view the
DNA evidence as possibly tainted,
even though the evidence was not
illegal drugs. So the case has been
dismissed.
“This is not a drug situation,
this is a robbery, and we know who
did it,” Bernard said. “It’s horrible,
absolutely horrible.”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The Linds continue to have problems with burglars. Last week
someone attempted to kick in this door to a storage building at the
Lind’s home, according to Bernard Lind.
The Linds understand that the
items that were stolen — which
included furniture and family
heirlooms — are probably never
coming back and the people who
did it will likely never be prose-
cuted. But at this point, they say,
they at least want everyone to know
the repercussions of the alleged lab
COLUMBIA GORGE OIL TRAIN WRECK
Tribal leaders highlight risks of oil trains
“We truly see what is
at hand. ... We are
sacrifi cing and putting
at risk the long-term
benefi t and well-being
of future generations,
our children, our
grandchildren, those
yet to come.”
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
MOSIER — Leaders of several
Pacifi c Northwest tribes gathered
Thursday near the site of last
week’s fi ery oil train wreck in
Oregon to condemn the shipping of
fossil fuels through the Columbia
River Gorge, a scenic homeland
and sacred fi shing ground for the
Yakama Nation and others over the
millennia.
“We do not want fossil fuels at
all coming through the Columbia
River Gorge — at all,” said Yakama
Nation Chairman JoDe Goudy. “We
truly see what is at hand. ... We are
sacrifi cing and putting at risk the
long-term benefi t and well-being of
future generations, our children, our
grandchildren, those yet to come.”
A 96-car train carrying vola-
tile crude oil from the Northern
Plains’ Bakken region to Tacoma,
Washington, derailed June 3 along
the Columbia River, which forms
most of the boundary between
Washington and Oregon. No one
was hurt, but four cars caught fi re,
prompting the evacuation of a
— JoDe Goudy,
Yakama Nation Chairman
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
JoDe Goudy, chairman of the Yakama Nation, speaks to residents
during a news conference held by Pacifi c Northwest tribes to con-
demn the transport of fossil fuels by rail through the Columbia River
Gorge Thursday in Mosier. The fi ery derailment of a Union Pacifi c oil
train on June 3 led to evacuations and fear in this tiny river town and
local tribes are also concerned about damage to the Columbia River.
nearby school, forcing the closure
of an interstate, and enraging local
offi cials and residents. Some of the
oil made it to the river, where it
was captured by absorbent booms,
offi cials said.
The Yakama and other tribes
have opposed the movement of oil
and other fossil fuels through the
Columbia Gorge, a canyon carved
out of the region’s volcanic rock
by the river and by violent Ice Age
fl oods. Oil trains pose grave threats
to public safety, the environment
and their treaty-reserved fi shing
rights, the tribes say.
Union
Pacifi c
Railroad
spokesman Justin Jacobs said
the company takes the concerns
seriously, but the railroad is feder-
ally obligated to transport crude
oil and other commodities for its
customers.
Davis Yellowash Washines,
chairman of the Yakama Nation
See TRAINS/2A