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HERMISTON
Vigil planned for shooting victims
Details emerge in murder-
suicide investigation
East Oregonian
A candlelight vigil for the victims of last
week’s shooting in Hermiston is planned for
Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. at McKenzie Park.
The community has been mourning James
“JJ” Hurtado, 14, and Kenneth E. Valdez, 45,
who were killed last Thursday in what police
have characterized as a murder-suicide
by James E. Huston, 45, who died of an
apparent self-infl icted gunshot. Hurtado’s
mother Andria E. Bye, 35, was also shot but
survived.
Ky-Leigh Nelson, who helped organize
the vigil along with Bonnie Griffi th, Kari
George and Angie Hocker, said instead of
making the vigil for a specifi c person, orga-
nizers decided to invite anyone who wanted
to show support for those affected by the
See VIGIL/8A
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Contributed photo
A candlelight vigil will be held for James “JJ” Hurtado and
Ken Valdez, Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. at McKenzie Park.
Jason Huston fi red three
rounds from a 9 mm Glock pistol
Thursday into his lifelong friend
Ken Valdez at his Hermiston
home, killing him. Huston also
shot Andria Bye once and, in the
end, shot and killed himself.
Bye was taken to the hospital
after telling police what had
transpired, though she didn’t
know the whereabouts of her son,
14-year-old James “JJ” Hurtado.
HERMISTON
Perhaps no more than an hour
before, Huston is believed to have
shot and killed Hurtado, to whom
he was something of a father
fi gure, with the same pistol.
Hermiston Police Chief Jason
Edmiston and Umatilla County
Sheriff Terry Rowan revealed
more on Monday about one of the
most violent crimes in Hermiston’s
history.
Huston and Valdez, both 45,
had known each other as far back
See INVESTIGATION/8A
Citizens
panel backs
corporate
sales tax
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Umatilla County Fire District 1 is leasing the Bob Shannon Safety Center at 320 S. First St. from the city of Hermiston.
Fire hall deal done
Fire district will pay $200,000 over next four years
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
The Hermiston city council
approved leases with the fi re
district and school district on
Monday night.
The newly-formed Umatilla
County Fire District 1 will
lease the current fi re department
building at 320 S First St. from
the city for $75,000 during the
fi rst year, $50,000 the second
and third years, $25,000 the
fourth year and $1 per year after
that.
Hermiston Fire & Emergency
Services had leased part of the
Bob Shannon Safety Center from
the city for $1 per year since the
fi re department became its own
taxing district separate from the
city. But since voters approved a
new combined fi re district with
Stanfi eld in May, the district
must sign a new lease.
Assistant city manager Mark
Morgan told the city council on
Monday that due to compression
laws that cap property taxes in
Oregon, the new fi re district’s
higher share of the tax revenue
will mean the city gets about
$130,000 per year less in prop-
erty tax revenue for its own
general fund. The higher rents
for the fi rst four years of the new
See COUNCIL/8A
A citizens’ panel that reviews Oregon
ballot initiatives for the voters’ pamphlet has
endorsed a controversial corporate sales tax
measure on the November ballot.
Measure 97 would levy a 2.5 percent
tax on certain corporations’ Oregon sales
exceeding $25 million.
The Citizens Initiative Review Commis-
sion heard from both sides of the measure
before voting 11-to-9 on Sunday to endorse
the measure. Its key fi ndings will be
published in the state voters’ guide.
The tax would raise an estimated $6
billion every two years in additional revenue
at a time when the state faces an estimated
$1.4 billion shortfall in to maintain existing
services.
Supporters cited the shortfall and a study
by Ernst & Young ranking Oregon 50th
in the lowest rate of corporate taxation as
reasons for the endorsement.
“We are currently in a crisis of under-
funded public education, healthcare and
senior services,” the supporters wrote in
a statement. “The passage of Measure 97
would quickly fi x this.”
Commissioners who voted against the
endorsement cited a study by the Legislative
Revenue Offi ce that show the tax would hike
up the prices of daily items such as food and
fuel for the typical family by $600 a year.
That study also showed job growth would
slow signifi cantly in the private sector while
boosting public sector jobs.
“A regressive tax takes a larger percentage
of income from low income earners creating
an unnecessary burden on many Oregon
families,” commissioners wrote in a state-
ment of opposition.
The endorsement marks another victory
See MEASURE/8A
No plan for speed cameras in rural Oregon
State’s first ticket-
giving traffic cams
installed in Portland
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Drivers in Portland will have
a hard time getting away with
speeding now that the city has put up
the state’s fi rst fi xed speed enforce-
ment cameras.
The cameras, which were
installed on the Beaverton-Hillsboro
Highway earlier this month by the
Portland Bureau of Transportation,
send photographs of every speeding
car to the police, who can then mail
tickets to the offenders without ever
pulling them over.
Eastern Oregon residents who
don’t like the idea of Big Brother
checking their speed can breathe
easy for now, however. Tom Strand-
berg, spokesman for the Oregon
Department of Transportation’s
Region 5, said he hasn’t heard any
discussion on ODOT’s part about
bringing the technology to this side
of the state.
“I don’t know of any plans we
have to use those, at least in Eastern
Oregon,” he said.
The department isn’t using
cameras to ticket people who
run red lights in Eastern Oregon
either, despite rampant speculation
after ODOT installed cameras at
intersections on Highway 395 in
See SPEED/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Traffi c passes a speed sign on Highway 395 north of Hermiston.