81/51
WIENER
WEEKEND
STRETCHED
LITTLE
LEAGUE
SOFTBALL
TOURNEY
REGION/3A
SPORTS/1B
TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 2016
140th Year, No. 177
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
Fire damages, shuts down
Columbia Court Club
By ALEXA LOUGEE
East Oregonian
A fi re spread through the
Columbia Court Club north of
Hermiston Monday morning,
bringing fi refi ghters from
around the region to douse the
blaze that did massive damage
to the city’s oldest health and
fi tness club.
Hermiston Fire Department
fi rst received a call of black
smoke fi lling the Columbia
Court Club building at 11:24
Staff photo by Alexa Lougee a.m.
Firefi ghters work to contain a structure fi re at the Co-
Firefi ghters located a
lumbia Court Club north of Hermiston.
fi re on the fi rst fl oor near
the women’s locker room, and
the fi re spread upwards to the
second fl oor. Crews contained
the fi re within a half hour of
the initial 9-1-1 call, but black
smoke could still be seen coming
from windows, doors and vents
throughout the busy lunch hour.
Steve Watkinds, owner of
Columbia Court Club since
he established it in 1978, was
repairing a drinking fountain
toward the back of the building
when the lights fl ickered and
then turned off. Knowing there
were people using the facilities,
See COURT CLUB/8A
Disney’s mouse is top fi ctional write-in
candidate in Oregon’s primary;
handwritten votes tedious for offi cials
New fi res
erupt as
heatwave
sears West
LOS ANGELES (AP)
— New wildfi res erupted
Monday near Los Angeles
and chased people from their
suburban homes as an intense
heatwave stretching from the
West Coast to New Mexico
blistered the region.
Towering columns of
smoke rose from the San
Gabriel Mountains as two
fi res a few miles apart
devoured brush on steep
slopes above foothill suburbs.
Police in the city of Azusa
and parts of Duarte ordered
hundreds of homes evac-
uated. Others were under
voluntary evacuations.
“It’s crazy. It’s super
close,” said 17-year-old
Tawni Atencio, whose family
was evacuating their home in
Bradbury.
She said the fl ames were
just a couple miles away
and were making the house
hot despite air conditioning.
She watched as smoke from
the fi re billowed outside and
helicopters dropped retardant
on the fl ames.
“It looked like a bomb
exploded,” she said. “It’s
scary. We’re just praying it
doesn’t get to our house.”
The two fi res had grown
to a combined 5 square miles.
The fi rst was sparked by a
fatal car crash, the California
Highway Patrol said.
The second was much
closer to foothill neighbor-
hoods and brought quick
evacuations. Its cause has not
been found.
Clinton,
Trump or
Mickey?
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
The Umatilla National Forest veterans crew, facilitated by the VetsWork GreenCorps
program, heads to a practice fi re Friday near the Marcus Whitman Trail off Summit
Road.
Heat of battle
Veterans team up
to take on northeast
Oregon wildfi res
See WRITE-IN/8A
MILTON-FREEWATER
Offi cials discuss creating
Hispanic committee
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
The military veterans
marched single fi le toward
a plume of white smoke,
dressed in full gear and ready
for their fi rst taste of action on
the front lines.
Armed with pulaskis,
shovels and chainsaws, they
quickly surrounded the slow-
moving forest fi re and dug
a ring of dirt to stop it from
spreading. Taking cues from
their squad boss, the team
worked in lockstep and called
out every move in order to
stay together.
It’s not exactly the same as
the military, but Ben Barnett
said there’s a structure and
As voters contemplate a likely choice between two
of history’s most widely disliked presidential nominees
in November, they have other options.
They can vote for a third-party nominee. But thanks
to America’s write-in system, they can also vote for
Mickey Mouse, Archie Bunker, Miss Piggy or Elmer
Fudd —— all “candidates” who received write-in votes
in Umatilla County during the May primaries.
One voter in Umatilla County
voted for Mickey Mouse as a
“We would
Democrat, but elsewhere the
Disney character — who is the
like for them
most popular fi ctional character
all to be
write-in candidate in the state
— received an even higher
number of votes for Republican serious votes,
and Independent nominations.
because it
A total of 70 votes for Mickey
does take
Mouse were cast in statewide
races, according to data obtained
time to count
from the Secretary of State’s
them.”
offi ce.
Kim
Lindell,
Umatilla
— Kim Lindell,
County elections manager,
Umatilla County
said even though the write-in
process was meant for real, live elections manager
candidates, people can write in
whatever name they wish. There
are always some who take the opportunity to cast a vote
for a fi ctional character or a celebrity instead.
“Every election and every race we see a few of
those,” she said.
The write-in space can be used to elect candidates
who fail to fi le for a spot on the ballot before deadline
but have decided that they want to run anyway. It can
also be used by incumbents in the primary to stave off a
challenger in the general election.
State Representatives Greg Smith (District 57) and
Greg Barreto (District 58) are both members of the
Republican Party, for example, but will also be running
as the Democratic Party and Independent Party nomi-
nees in November. No Democrats or Independent Party
candidates fi led to run for their seat in the primary, so
by urging their supporters from those parties to write
in their name, they managed to clinch the nominations
from all three of Oregon’s major parties, which could
weaken any write-in campaign from a latecomer to the
general election.
State Senator Bill Hansell (District 28) also locked
up the Democratic nomination through the write-in,
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Two members of the Umatilla National Forest veterans
crew, facilitated by the VetsWork GreenCorps program,
cut line around a practice fi re Friday near the Marcus
Whitman Trail off Summit Road.
discipline to wildland fi re-
fi ghting that reminds him of
his four years in the Navy. He
missed that brotherhood while
attending college in Georgia,
and decided to make his way
west to Oregon to embark on
a new career.
Barnett, 31, is one of
several young veterans partic-
ipating in this year’s Vets-
See HEAT/8A
Leaders in Milton-Freewater are considering spin-
ning off an idea used by Hermiston on the other side of
Umatilla County to increase Hispanic participation in
city government.
Two members of Hermiston’s Hispanic Advisory
Committee met with Milton-Freewater city offi cials
June 8 to discuss starting a similar committee there.
Umatilla County Commissioner Bill Elfering said
he asked committee member Eddie de la Cruz and
former Hermiston City Councilor George Anderson
to give a presentation on Hermiston’s committee
after Milton-Freewater offi cials expressed interest in
increasing civic participation from its sizable Hispanic
population.
See HISPANIC/8A