Thursday, June 23, 2016
REGION
HOMICIDE: Freel to be tried as adult
TECH CAMP: ‘Pong’ programmed
Page 8A
East Oregonian
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had experience tinkering
with technology, having
taken repairs of his remote
controlled airplanes into his
own hands.
“I solder things together,
throw them at my brother
and see what happens,” he
said of his process.
The camp was built to
take this more informal
experience and mold it into
a deeper understanding
of technology through
activities on programming,
robotics and computer
hardware.
High school students did
many of the same activities
in a separate camp the week
before and some of them
returned as counselors for the
middle school week.
Carson McClelland of La
Grande raved about some of
the software and hardware
campers have been able
to use the past few weeks,
including Arduino, a proto-
typing software that creates
interactive electronic objects
and Google Cardboard, a
virtual reality software.
Ethan Jack of Helix used
a video game programming
course to create a game
similar to “Pong.” He
continued to modify the
game over the past week to
the point where the artiicial
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Gavin Young, 16, of La Grande and Emilio Jaimez, 11,
of Umatilla reinstall a heat sink in a computer tower
Wednesday at the InterMountain Education Service
District’s STEP Summer Tech Camp at Sunridge Middle
School in Pendleton.
intelligence that controls the
other panel isn’t completely
unbeatable.
Melinda Miller, IMESD
information technology ofice
operations manager, said the
high school students would
be given an opportunity to
assist the district beyond the
conines of the camp.
After the middle school
camp wraps at the end of
the week, many high school
campers will transition to
paid summer internships
with IMESD.
The interns will continue
to live in their home commu-
nities and help IMESD staff
set up technology for the
upcoming school year at
their local districts.
Additionally, students can
continue to work part time
during the school year after
their internships end.
Some of the middle
school campers had career
ambitions as well.
Ashley Halsey of Elgin,
Emily George of Union and
McKenzie Brogiotti of La
Grande grew interested in
technology through their
schools’ robotics programs.
Although all three wanted
to work with technology
when they got older, Halsey’s
career goal is clear —
biomedical engineer.
AGRITOURISM: Visitors can help
boost revenue for farmers in rural areas
Continued from 1A
said the industry as a whole
has been developing for
decades.
“It’s a chance to experi-
ence the Old West,” Carey
said. “These are opportuni-
ties people want to have.”
About 20 people attended
Tuesday’s workshop at the
Port of Morrow in Boardman,
which provided an overview
of where agritourism has
been in Eastern Oregon
and where it’s going. Data
compiled by Travel Oregon
offers a glimpse into what
agritourists look like and
what they’re looking for.
According to the agency,
agritourists tend to be
families with a moderate
income, highly educated and
mostly day-trippers. They
are searching for authenticity
and are more interested in
having a story to tell than a
T-shirt to buy.
“We want that explorer.
We want that person who’s
passionate about getting
outside and trying new
things,” Carey said.
One thing agritourists will
spend money on, however, is
food.
According to Travel
Oregon, 55 percent of visi-
tors between 2008 and 2010
participated in at least one
culinary experience, whether
it was at a restaurant, winery
or craft brewery.
Elena Vizzini, also from
Travel Oregon, said food and
drink is part of the tourist’s
immersion into the local
culture. Those seeking agri-
tourism came primarily from
urban centers like Portland,
Spokane and Eugene, based
on information gleaned from
the Travel Oregon website.
But farming is not always
lucrative business and it can
be a struggle to ind the skill
and capital needed to start
something like a farm tour or
tasting room. While Oregon
tourism is a $10 billion
business, Travel Oregon is
still working on an economic
analysis
speciically
pertaining to agritourism.
That study is expected to be
available by next year.
Carey and Vizzini did
point to several other Eastern
Oregon success stories, such
as a promotional campaign
for Wallowa County and the
John Day River Territory
brand. As a subregion,
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties — dubbed “Oregon’s
Rugged Country” — has the
potential, but participants
said they will need to do a
better job collaborating to
make it happen.
Alice Trindle, a rancher
from Haines and executive
director of the Eastern
Oregon Visitors Association,
said they are working on a
marketing plan with four core
initiatives — agritourism,
cycling, arts and heritage.
“Somehow, we have to
share those stories about
our wonderful producers,”
she said. “It really is about
building relationships.”
Working together in
groups, participants identi-
ied gaps they need to cover
in the plan, including better
communication,
forging
partnerships and inding new
funding sources. Carey said
regional collaboration is a
key to marketing to tourists.
“We care about consumers
that really want to partici-
pate in the products we’re
producing,” she said.
Wednesday’s session, in
Hermiston, focused more
on speciic business models
to making agritourism prof-
itable. That workshop was
held at the Eastern Oregon
Trade and Event Center.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
PROTEST: Dems want to force a vote
Continued from 1A
break!” and waved pieces
of paper with the names of
gun victims, continuing their
protest in the well of the
House even as lawmakers
voted on a previously sched-
uled and unrelated measure
to overturn a veto by Presi-
dent Barack Obama.
Ryan attempted to ignore
the outbursts and announce
the business of the day,
pounding down his gavel
over shouting. “Shame!
Shame! Shame!” Demo-
crats yelled, but Ryan left
the lectern and the voting
continued. Then Democrats
began singing “We Shall
Overcome,” still holding up
the names of gun victims.
The scene presented a
radical, almost shocking
departure from the normal
orderly conduct of the House.
It was uncertain what would
happen as the night stretched
on. Republicans planned to
attempt to adjourn the House,
and hoped to present them-
selves as soberly attending
to business and Democrats
as disruptive. Democrats
said they would stay until
Republicans yielded to their
demands to hold votes on
bills to strengthen back-
ground checks and prevent
people on the no ly list from
getting guns in the wake
of last week’s massacre in
Orlando, Florida.
“Are they more afraid
than the children at Sandy
Hook?” asked Rep. Mike
Thompson, D-Calif., refer-
ring to the 2012 shooting that
killed 26 people, including 20
elementary school children,
in Newtown, Connecticut.
“What is so scary about
having a vote?”
Rep. John Lewis, a veteran
civil rights leader, asked what
Congress has done, then
answered his own question:
“Nothing. We have turned a
deaf ear to the blood of inno-
cents. We are blind to a crisis.
Where is our courage?”
Ryan dismissed the protest
as “nothing more than a
publicity stunt,” and in an
interview with CNN, made
clear there would be no vote.
“We’re not going to take
away a citizen’s constitutional
rights without due process,”
he said.
The protest began around
11:30 a.m., interrupted
briely when Rep. Ted Poe,
R-Texas, tried to start the
House’s work at noon. The
customary prayer and Pledge
of Allegiance went ahead,
but Poe was forced to recess
the House when dozens of
Democrats refused to leave
the well.
By evening, 168 House
Democrats — out of 188 —
and 34 Senate Democrats
joined the protest, according
to the House minority leader’s
ofice. One after another, they
spoke of the need for gun
control and talked of constitu-
ents who had been killed.
Scattered around the
House loor were signs
reading “Disarm Hate.”
Visitors
watched
from
the galleries. A crowd of
several hundred gun control
advocates gathered outside
the Capitol and cheered as
Democrats addressed them.
Congress remains grid-
locked over gun control, a
divide even more pronounced
in a presidential election year.
The sit-in had the feel of a
1960s-style protest, as some
lawmakers sat on the loor,
others in their seats.
Republicans had staged
a similar protest in 2008.
Democrats controlling the
House at the time turned off
the cameras amid a GOP push
for a vote to expand oil and gas
drilling. Republicans occupied
the loor, delivering speeches
after then-Speaker Nancy
Pelosi sent the House on its
August recess. Pelosi ordered
the cameras turned off.
Republicans ultimately
forced the drilling provision
to be attached to a stopgap
spending bill.
C-SPAN, a cable and
satellite network that provides
continual coverage of House
and Senate loor proceedings,
does not control the cameras.
They’re run on authorization
by legislative leaders.
Although the cameras
were turned off Wednesday,
lawmakers relied on social
media to transmit video,
using Facebook, Twitter and
Periscope. C-SPAN broad-
cast live video streamed on
Periscope and Facebook
from lawmakers’ accounts.
Democrats posted the Capi-
tol’s main telephone number,
which was overwhelmed,
and urged constituents to call
and request a vote. They also
encouraged tweeting under
the hashtag #NoBillNo-
Break.
Continued from 1A
to consider further court
proceedings before the trial.
He remains in the Umatilla
County Jail, Pendleton.
•Thadd Nelson, 44, died
from gunshot wounds the
morning of Jan. 27 at his
property in Meacham.
Joseph Aaron McIver
of Umatilla and Hermiston
residents Edward Duarte
Ayala and Armando Ruben
Vargas have pleaded not
guilty to federal weapons
charges in a case stemming
from Nelson’s homicide.
Vargas also faces federal
assault charges.
Federal court documents
revealed two shooters killed
Nelson and the federal case
is relying on evidence from
the local homicide inves-
tigation. Umatilla County
District Attorney Dan
Primus has not ruled out
bringing murder charges
after the federal case
concludes.
The three defendants are
in a Portland jail.
•Tony Jimenez, 27, died
early March 19 at a friend’s
house on the Umatilla Indian
Reservation when possible
gang members opened ire
during a confrontation.
Julian Darryl Simpson,
23, faces federal murder
charges for shooting and
killing Jimenez. Simpson is
currently serving a six-year
sentence in Idaho State
Correctional
Institution,
Kuna, Idaho, for violating
his parole on a drug charge,
according to online offender
information from the Idaho
Department of Corrections.
He is up for parole in
February 2018.
But the United States
Attorney’s Ofice in Port-
land iled a motion June
7 to have U.S. marshals
bring him to court by
Thursday, July 7, at 1:30
p.m. Court records also
show federal Judge Anna
J. Brown also set Simp-
son’s ive-day trial to start
Oct. 11 in Portland.
•Maria Villegas, 24, died
May 26 from knife wounds
police and prosecutors
believe were inlicted by
her husband inlicted.
The district attorney’s
ofice charged Oscar Pastor
Garcia Villegas, 26, of
Milton-Freewater,
with
Villegas’s murder. The state
accused him of slaying her
with a knife and stabbing
and cutting their two young
children. He also faces four
counts of attempted murder,
two counts of irst-degree
assault, three counts of
unlawful use of a weapon
against another, and two
counts of irst-degree crim-
inal mistreatment.
He is in the Umatilla
County Jail and has a bail
hearing July 5.
•Dominic
Freel,
5
months, died June 8 from
blunt force trauma. His
father, Evan Freel, 16, faces
charges of murder by abuse
and irst-degree criminal
mistreatment for the infant’s
death.
Evan Freel, 16, of
Milton-Freewater, has a
bail hearing July 8. The
district attorney charged the
teen with murder by abuse
and irst-degree criminal
mistreatment in th death of
his infant son. Murder falls
under Measure 11, Oregon’s
mandatory
minimum
sentencing law, thus the
state is trying Freel as an
adult and not a juvenile. He
remains in a juvenile jail,
though, in The Dalles.
There is one case
involving a Umatilla County
victim in which a suspect
has not been identiied.
• And Gabriel Ledezma
Rodriguez,
34,
of
Milton-Freewater, is the
focus of another murder
investigation. He went
missing in April. The Walla
Walla Police Department
reported inding his body
May 28 by Walla Walla
River Road near Harris Park
in Umatilla County. The
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
reported police said there
was no deinitive cause or
manner of death and the
investigation was waiting
the results of toxicology
tests.
OVERTIME: 17,000 nonproits in state
Continued from 1A
proposed rules, including
from pro-business groups
such as Associated Oregon
Industries.
“The proposed overtime
wage threshold increase
unevenly affects Oregon
businesses due to Oregon’s
lower wages while failing
to address the varying
characteristics of local and
regional economies,” Asso-
ciated Oregon Industries
and other business groups
wrote in a letter to the labor
department.
“Instituting
such an increase endangers
both job security and
advancement opportunity
for far too many Orego-
nians.”
While
for-proit
employers have been vocal
about how the changes will
impact their bottom lines,
nonproit organizations also
anticipate a boost in costs or
a reduction in services due
to the new rules.
There are more than
17,000 nonproit organi-
zations in Oregon. A vast
majority of those have no
paid staff. But between
those that do, there are
about 172,000 employees,
said Jim White, executive
director of the Nonproit
Association of Oregon.
It’s unclear how many
of those are exempt from
overtime and how many are
hourly.
In discussions with
the association, nonproit
leaders have generally
been supportive of the new
overtime rules but have felt
burdened by the fact that the
new rules will take effect
shortly after Oregon’s new
higher minimum wage rate
takes effect July 1.
“We
have
heard
concerns that it wasn’t
one or the other but the
back-to-back succession,”
White said. “Nonproits
have expressed concerns:
How are we going to do
this? How are we going
to make these changes
simultaneously? They are
concerned with being able
to absorb changes without
cuts in program services or
cuts in staff.”
Oregon SMART (Start
Making a Reader Today),
a nonproit organization
that provides one-on-one
reading support in schools,
has ive to 10 employees out
of 36 who could be eligible
for overtime under the new
rules, said Nell Whitman,
director of inance and
administration.
“We are, like many
organizations, trying to ride
the right line between fair
compensation and making
sure we keep the business
side within budget and
provide all the services to
the community,” Whitman
said. “I think we can make
the rules work. I think they
provide a pretty reasonable
balance between those
things.”
SMART will review its
positions and determine
whether to make some of
them hourly or raise salaries
to make employees exempt
from overtime, she said.
“Organizations with a
lot of government contracts
and a set amount to spend
will have more dificulty
with the new rules,” she
said. “We are not in that
situation.”