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DON KENNEDY
OF ATHENA
FEEDING
THE
WORLD
EOU FEELS
THE NEED
FOR SPEED
REGION/3A
FOOTBALL/1B
87/52
THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2016
140th Year, No. 224
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON STRONG
Coba picked
as Oregon’s
next COO
Pendleton native to helm
administrative services
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Balloons are prepared to be released during a candlelight vigil for James “JJ” Hurtado and Ken Valdez on Wednesday at
McKenzie Park in Hermiston.
Community remembers
victims during vigil
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Sniffl es and quiet sobs broke
the stillness Wednesday night
at McKenzie Park as hundreds
of people stood in a moment of
silence for the victims of a Herm-
iston shooting that claimed three
lives and left a fourth injured.
Community members gath-
ered in memory of the victims
and in support of their grieving
families, casting a glow with
candles, glowsticks and fl ash-
lights. They were there to honor
James “JJ” Hurtado, 14, and
Kenneth “Kenny” Valdez, who
were killed last Thursday, and to
support Andria Bye, Hurtado’s
mother who was injured in the
shooting, and the family of Jason
Huston, who shot the other
three before turning the gun on
himself.
“May we as a city be known
as a city that loves,” Pastor Terry
Haight of Hermiston Assembly of
God declared, before praying for
all those affected by the tragedy.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Braelyn Cragun, 10, lights a candle during a vigil for
James “JJ” Hurtado and Ken Valdez on Wednesday in
Hermiston.
See VIGIL/8A
MISSION
New Yellowhawk clinic entwines health, culture
Tribe to break ground on 63,000-square-foot facility
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
If Anna Wannassay could look at archi-
tectural renderings of the new Yellowhawk
Tribal Health Center, her eyes might go wide.
The beloved tribal elder and fi rst woman
on the tribe’s Board of Trustees spent years
advocating for a tribal health center to serve
the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation. Wannassay died in 1972
just prior to the opening of the fi rst clinic,
which bears the name of Wannassay’s family
member, Chief Yellowhawk.
On Thursday, the tribe will break ground
on a new $26.3 million health center that
likely would surpass Wannassay’s expecta-
tions. The 63,000-square-foot facility will
More inside
For a look at the design plans for the
new Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center
see Page 8A
provide about triple the square footage of
the current clinic, located on land just west
of the Tribal Governance Center in Mission.
See YELLOWHAWK/8A
Growing up on a Pendleton wheat
ranch, it’s no surprise Katy Coba says
she’s passionate about agriculture.
Coba, who has become the
longest-serving director of the Oregon
Department of Agriculture, remembers
helping her grandmother cook lunch
and dinners for the work crews during
summer
harvest.
Later, she became
the fi rst woman on
the ranch to drive an
18-wheeler, deliv-
ering loads of grain
to an export terminal
along the Columbia
River.
But life for Coba
was about more
than farming. Her Coba
father,
Mike
Thorne,
served
“Oregon
18 years in the
Oregon Senate, agriculture is
and her mother, very diverse,
Jill Thorne, is a
which is a
former aide to
then-Gov.
Neil
strength we
Goldschmidt. To
this day, Coba
have, but it
keeps a photo on
also brings
her desk of her
father and Robert
a lot of
F. Kennedy during
Kennedy’s 1968 challenges,”
presidential run.
— Katy Coba,
Coba said her
Oregon chief
parents
taught
operating
offi cer
her that public
service was just and director of the
something you do. Department of Ad-
“It’s
as ministrative Services
ingrained in me as
agriculture,” she
said.
That’s led to a career for Coba span-
ning more than three decades at the State
Capitol — including the last 13 years with
ODA. On Wednesday, Gov. Kate Brown
appointed Coba as Oregon’s newest
chief operating offi cer and director of the
Department of Administrative Services.
Coba begins her new job Oct. 1, pending
confi rmation from the Senate.
The job may be different, but Coba
said she will continue to advocate for
farms and rural Oregonians across the
state.
“I still feel very much connected to
our natural resources-based industries,”
Coba said. “I will be shameless in my
advocacy for those things, even in my
new job.”
Coba graduated from Pendleton High
School in 1980, and was named Queen
of the Pendleton Round-Up in 1982.
She continued to work on the family
ranch while attending Whitman College
in Walla Walla, where she earned her
degree in economics with a minor in
See COBA/8A
Hermiston man arrested after shooting friend ‘over a girl’
Victim treated, released
for gunshot wound to leg
East Oregonian
A Hermiston man shot a child-
hood friend Wednesday morning
“over a girl,” according to police,
and he now faces a charge of
second-degree assault.
Eduardo Rodriguez Barriga, 23,
was arrested in Umatilla soon after
the Hermiston shooting. His victim,
Daniel Lemus Carranza, 25, was
treated and released at Good Shep-
herd Medical Center, Hermiston,
with what police described as a
superfi cial gunshot wound to the leg.
Hermiston Police Chief Jason
Edmiston said offi cers around 8:15
a.m. responded to the area of the 11th
Street Market, 425 N.W. 11th St.,
guez Barriga for driving
Hermiston, after a report of
while suspended shows
a man there with a gunshot
that as his home address,
wound. Edmiston said the
according to state court
man was shot in the area
records, though Edmiston
of Elm Avenue and North-
said he now lives in Herm-
west Seventh Street, near
iston.
Butte Park, after a dispute
Edmiston
stated
“over a girl.”
Hermiston police, with the
After the shooting,
assistance of the Umatilla
Rodriguez Barriga drove
off and the victim tried to Rodriguez Barriga Police Department, took
Rodriguez Barriga into
keep up with him in his
own vehicle through the back streets custody, interviewed him, and later
near the butte while calling 9-1-1. booked him into Umatilla County
Dispatch told him to stop following Jail, Pendleton.
Offi cers served a search warrant
the vehicle and he parked at the
convenience store where police and at Rodriguez Barriga’s Hermiston
medical personnel met up with him. home at 460 E. Pine Ave. later
Police around 9:25 a.m. found Wednesday and recovered a
Rodriguez Barriga and a female handgun, Edmiston said, and a
outside a house at 1745 McFarland stolen shotgun from a Umatilla
Ave., Umatilla. A July 9 citation County Sheriff’s Offi ce case. He
Oregon State Police gave to Rodri- said the state police crime lab would
test the handgun to see if it was from
the shooting.
Edmiston said this was not Rodri-
guez Barriga’s fi rst arrest.
“Life is about choices, and the
decisions made today by those
involved are frustrating,” Edmiston
said in a written statement. “At some
point, people need to take responsi-
bility for what they value. Clearly
the values of Mr. Rodriguez differ
from the overwhelming majority of
people in this community and we are
going to ask that he be held account-
able for his reckless actions.”
The Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Offi ce and Oregon State Police are
assisting with the investigation.
Umatilla County Fire District 1
responded to the market to trans-
port the victim, and the Umatilla
County District Attorney’s Offi ce is
involved.