Page 10A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Friday, July 1, 2016
Oficial: Airport attackers
from Russia, Central Asia
Tesla driver killed
in crash while using
car’s ‘Autopilot’
ISTANBUL (AP) — As
the death toll from the
Istanbul airport attack rose
Thursday to 44, a senior
Turkish oficial said the three
suicide bombers who carried
it out were from Russia,
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan,
and Turkish police raided
Istanbul neighborhoods for
suspects linked to the Islamic
State group.
Turkish authorities say
all information suggests
the Tuesday night attack on
Ataturk Airport, one of the
world’s busiest, was the work
of IS, which boasted this week
of having cells in Turkey,
among other countries.
Police raided 16 locations
in three neighborhoods on
both the Asian and European
sides of the city that sprawls
across the Bosporus Strait,
rounding up 13 people
suspected of having links to
IS.
There was no immediate
claim of responsibility by
the militant group, which has
used Turkey to establish itself
in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
IS has repeatedly threatened
Turkey in its propaganda,
and the NATO member has
blamed IS for several major
bombings in the past year in
both Ankara and Istanbul.
Across Istanbul and
beyond,
funerals
were
held for the airport victims
Thursday, and heartbroken
families sobbed as they bid
their loved ones farewell,
including several local airport
workers.
Nilsu Ozmeric wept over
the cofin of her iance, Jusuf
Haznedaroglu, a 32-year-old
airport worker who was
fatally
wounded
while
waiting for a bus to go home.
“The wedding was next
week,” sobbed his mother,
Cervinye Haznedaroglu, as
visitors offered condolences.
A video obtained by the
Turkish newspaper Haberturk
purported to show a police
oficer asking one of the
WASHINGTON (AP)
— The U.S. announced
Thursday the irst fatality
in a wreck involving a car
in self-driving mode, the
40-year-old owner of a tech-
nology company who nick-
named his vehicle “Tessy”
and had praised its sophis-
ticated “Autopilot” system
just one month earlier for
preventing a collision on an
interstate. The government
said it is investigating the
design and performance of
the system aboard the Tesla
Model S sedan.
Joshua D. Brown, of
Canton, Ohio, died in the
accident May 7 in Williston,
Florida, when his car’s
cameras failed to distinguish
the white side of a turning
tractor-trailer from a brightly
lit sky and didn’t automat-
ically activate its brakes,
according to government
records obtained Thursday.
Frank Baressi, 62, the
driver of the truck and owner
of Okemah Express LLC,
said the Tesla driver was
“playing Harry Potter on the
TV screen” at the time of the
crash and driving so quickly
that “he went so fast through
my trailer I didn’t see him.”
“It was still playing when
he died and snapped a tele-
phone pole a quarter mile
down the road,” Baressi told
The Associated Press in an
interview from his home in
Palm Harbor, Florida. He
acknowledged he couldn’t
see the movie, only heard it.
Tesla Motors Inc. said
it is not possible to watch
videos on the Model S
touch screen. There was no
reference to the movie in
initial police reports.
Brown’s
published
obituary described him
as a member of the Navy
SEALs for 11 years and
founder of Nexu Inno-
vations Inc., working on
wireless Internet networks
and camera systems. In
Washington, the Pentagon
Haberturk newspaper via AP Photo
In this framegrab from CCTV video, made available by
the Turkish Haberturk newspaper on Thursday, people
believed to be the attackers walk in Istanbul’s Ataturk
airport June 28.
suicide bombers for identii-
cation before he was subse-
quently shot by the attacker.
The video shows the alleged
police oficer, in short sleeves,
approaching a man dressed in
black. The man in black then
appears to shoot the oficer,
who falls to the ground. The
Associated Press was not able
to independently verify the
location of the video or the
sequence of events.
A Turkish senior oficial,
who spoke on condition of
anonymity because govern-
ment regulations did not
authorize him to talk to the
media, said the attackers were
from Russia and the Central
Asian nations of Uzbekistan
and Kyrgyzstan.
A medical team was
working around the clock to
identify the suicide attackers,
the oficial said, noting their
bodies had suffered extensive
damage.
Kyrgyzstan’s
Foreign
Ministry denied that an
attacker came from that
country. Asked about the
possible involvement of
a Russian in the attacks,
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry
Peskov said he had no
information on that and there
was no comment either from
Uzbekistan.
Russian President Vlad-
imir Putin has said between
5,000 and 7,000 people from
Russia and other nations of
the former Soviet Union have
joined the Islamic State group
in Syria and Iraq. People
from Chechnya and other
provinces in Russia’s volatile
North Caucasus region have
had a visible presence among
Islamic State ighters.
Turkish state media said
the death toll in the attack
rose to 44 after a 25-year-old
airport worker succumbed
to his wounds. Interior
Minister Efkan Ala said the
dead included 19 foreigners.
Oficials said 94 of the over
230 people reported wounded
in the attack were still hospi-
talized.
Two memorial services
for victims were held at the
airport, one of them honoring
taxi drivers slain in the attack.
Five funerals were held
elsewhere, including for four
members of the Amiri family.
Abdulmumin
Amiri
escaped death because he
went to look for a taxi while
his relatives watched their
luggage. “At that time, the
bomb went off,” he told The
Associated Press. “I was
about four or ive meters (13
to 16 feet) away.”
At the funeral for Ferhat
Akkaya, who had gone to
the airport to see off a friend,
his wife and three children
sobbed as they clutched his
cofin in the northern province
of Ordu. His relatives railed
against Turkish authorities,
blaming them for failing to
ensure airport security.
“Damn it! The state should
hear our voices and take the
necessary precautions,” said
Ferhat Kabakci, the victim’s
brother-in-law. “Now a
widow and three orphans
have been left behind. Who
will look after them?”
In Paris, the Eiffel Tower
was illuminated in the
red-and-white colors of the
Turkish lag to honor the
victims in Istanbul.
The U.N. Security Council
condemned the attack, saying
that any acts of terrorism are
criminal and unjustiiable and
are “one of the most serious
threats to international peace
and security.”
Unconirmed details about
the attack looded Turkish
media. The private Dogan
news agency said the Russian
attacker had entered the
country one month ago and
left his passport in a house the
men had rented in Istanbul’s
Fatih neighborhood.
The Karar newspaper,
quoting police sources, said
the attackers were part of
a seven-member cell that
entered Turkey on May 25.
The assailants raised suspi-
cions of airport security on
the day of the attack because
they wore winter jackets on a
summer day, media reported.
conirmed Brown’s work
with the SEALs and said he
left the service in 2008.
Brown was an enthusi-
astic booster of his 2015
Tesla Model S and in April
credited its sophisticated
Autopilot
system
for
avoiding a crash when a
commercial truck swerved
into his lane on an inter-
state. He published a video
of the incident online.
“Hands down the best car
I have ever owned and use
it to its full extent,” Brown
wrote.
Tesla didn’t identify
Brown but described him
in a statement as “a friend
to Tesla and the broader
EV (electric
vehicle)
community, a person who
spent his life focused on
innovation and the promise
of technology and who
believed strongly in Tesla’s
mission.” It also stressed the
uncertainty about its new
system, noting that drivers
must manually enable it:
“Autopilot is getting better
all the time, but it is not
perfect and still requires the
driver to remain alert.”
A man answering the
door at Brown’s parents’
house who did not identify
himself said he had no
comment.
Tesla founder Elon
Musk expressed “Our
condolences
for
the
tragic loss” in a tweet late
Thursday.
Preliminary
reports
indicate the crash occurred
when Baressi’s rig turned
left in front of Brown’s
Tesla at an intersection of
a divided highway where
there was no trafic light, the
National Highway Trafic
Safety Administration said.
Brown died at the scene of
the crash, which occurred
May 7 in Williston, Florida,
according to a Florida
Highway Patrol report.
The city is southwest of
Gainesville.
WEBB’S: Committee will seek private, state, federal grants
Continued from 1A
from Webb’s.
The committee includes
representatives from the
city of Pendleton, Umatilla
County, CAPECO, the Pend-
leton Farmers Market, Bank
of Eastern Oregon, Eastern
Oregon Business Source,
Round-Up
Development
Corp. and the Pendleton
Center for the Arts.
The committee is being
led by Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners
Chairman George Murdock,
who took interest in the
project through his involve-
ment with the Umatilla
County Health Department
and the Pendleton Down-
town Association.
Murdock said involve-
ment from multiple commu-
nity organizations will help
the project move past the
planning stage.
“I’d like to see things
happen rather than just be
talked about,” he said.
Besides funding from the
city and county, Murdock
said the committee will seek
grants from private founda-
tions, the state and the federal
government, which could be
receptive to the project’s
health angle.
The next plaza committee
meeting is open to the public
and will be held on Thursday
at 1:30 p.m. at the Umatilla
County Courthouse.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
SHORT: Compares the subtleties of pot to ine wines
Hermiston Police community watch-crime preven-
tion oficer talks with a group of children while they
eat lunch Thursday at the Umatilla-Morrow Head
Start in Hermiston.
recreational cannabis become
legal in Colorado, Washington
and, a year ago, in Oregon.
The legality gives people
like Short some elbow room,
but he still operates outside
the state and the law. Even
in-state cannabis operations
face obstacles: zoning restric-
tions, problems getting bank
accounts, black market weed
and local bans on businesses.
The prices, he said, are out of
whack — cannabis is “grossly
overpriced” and hash (a
byproduct) is “grossly under-
priced.” It’s a gray market
with all of the outlines blurred
to some extent, but Short isn’t
worried.
“I’ve been functioning
underground for so long,” he
said. “I’m going to do what
I’m going to do regardless.”
Short resists coming
completely into the open. He
avoids cameras. He doesn’t
invite reporters and most
others to his home or work-
space.
“I’m optimistically pessi-
mistic. Things will get better,
but for whatever reason, they
have to get worse irst,” he
said. “There’s no crystal ball
for the future of cannabis
law.”
FOOD: Free to all kids under 18
Continued from 1A
he lives locally, rather than
a more marijuana-friendly
locale.
“I love Eastern Oregon,”
said Short. “It is my favorite
place on the planet to be. The
environment, the climate, the
people — it’s special here.”
He said he started growing
pot in 1978 under a luores-
cent desk lamp at the foot of
his bed. Using knowledge of
phenotypes and genotypes
garnered from his college
botany classes, the 21-year-old
experimented with light,
soils, fertilizers, terpenes and
cloning techniques. Even-
tually, the luorescent lamps
became halide lights and then
sodium lights. He succeeded
in crossing Sativa and Indica
plants to create fast-growing
varieties with various aromas
and physical effects. In 1979,
he started selling clones. In
1988, he moved to Eastern
Oregon.
The Michigan native said
he comes by his marijua-
na-whispering skills naturally.
His Romanian great-grand-
mother, a gypsy herbalist
who grew cannabis and other
herbs for medicinal reasons,
passed her skills down the line
to her daughter. According to
family lore, his grandmother’s
cannabis cultivation landed
her in jail.
“She got busted in 1938
for growing pot in the city
of Detroit shortly after it was
made illegal,” Short said.
His grandmother often
sewed with hemp, a variety of
cannabis used for its iber.
“Tablecloths, curtains and
my mom’s baptismal gown
were all made of hemp,” he
Image by Ralf Schuetz of Mushroom
Dreams
D.J. Short is an icon in
the world of cannabis
breeding stock, but is still
something of an enigma.
said.
Short’s irst taste of pot
didn’t come from his grand-
mother’s pharmacy, but in
a more typical way when he
and friends purchased a bag.
At the time, Short said, he
was a skinny teenage boy
who struggled with depres-
sion sparked by his parent’s
divorce.
“I started with cannabis
when I was about 14,” he said.
“In essence, it saved my life.
It gave me an appetite I lacked
and set me on my path.”
Short said he was shocked
at the gentleness of his irst
exposure to pot, calling it “a
benign, intimate, natural expe-
rience.” This was in the early
1970s, shortly after President
Richard Nixon had launched
the War on Drugs and
declared them “public enemy
number one.” Short, then and
now, chafes that marijuana is
considered a dangerous drug.
In truth, he said, shaking his
head, cannabis heals more
effectively than most phar-
maceuticals and is “the safest
substance known to human
beings,” except for maybe
oxygen.
“Even water you can drink
enough to kill yourself,”
Short said. “Cannabis is a
mild, nontoxic inebriant
that doesn’t allow us to put
enough in ourselves to harm
ourselves.”
In addition, cannabis heals,
he said. Marijuana soothed his
mother’s pain after a stroke.
His girlfriend, after under-
going chemotherapy for her
irst bout of stage three breast
cancer, survived a second
bout by taking massive doses
of cannabis oil.
Short often compares the
subtleties of pot to ine wines.
The olfaction chart used by
cannabis connoisseurs is
much like the wine wheel.
Tasters can detect a diverse
array of aromas such as fruit
and berries, grasses, teas and
even ozone, funeral parlor
lowers or chemical astrin-
gents. The latter, much like in
wine, aren’t necessarily bad,
he said.
The breeder said he
watched with interest as
Enjoy the
Jazz sounds of
Brass Fire
July 2nd, 2016
7 pm - 10 pm • No Cover
In the Red Lion Lounge
304 SE Nye
Pendleton
541-276-6111
Continued from 1A
year they averaged 25
students a day. She said the
staff came together to brain-
storm ideas for this summer
to increase awareness and
attendance. So far their
efforts seem to be working.
The program has averaged
50-55 kids each day.
“It seems the hotter it is
the more people come out,”
Eddy said. “No one wants
to cook in the hot weather.”
Eddy works with local
businesses to try and
procure as much fresh,
local food as she can. Peach
Tree Produce in Umatilla
has donated apricots, K&K
Bluberries in Hermiston
provided fresh berries, and
S.R. Walker Farms near
Hermiston will be offering
fresh
watermelon
in
mid-July. This week Dave’s
Killer Bread of Portland
donated 1,056 loaves.
The
food
service
program is administered
through the Oregon Depart-
ment of Education and
offered for free to all kids
under 18. Parents choosing
to volunteer with the
program can also eat at no
cost. The price of an adult
lunch is otherwise $2.
The UMCHS backyard
is grassy and shaded.
Families can choose to eat
picnic-style on the grass or
seated at the umbrella-cov-
ered tables.
A schedule of daily
activities in July is posted
on the UMCHS website
and Facebook page.
Oficer
Sandoval
emerged from the tank after
a series of dunks and high-
ived the girl whose pitch
dropped her in the water.
“It actually feels so
good!” Sandoval said.