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NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Wildfi res down in Oregon in 2016 Recreational pot
shops set to open
SALEM (AP) — Oregon enjoyed one
of the least damaging forest fi re seasons
of the past decade, despite dry and warm
conditions.
The Statesman Journal reports wild-
fi res torched 186,317 acres in Oregon
this year, the
lowest
total Acres burned
since 2010 and
well below the 2016: 186,317
10-year average, 2015: 685,809
a c c o r d i n g 2014: 984,629
to data from 2013: 350,786
the
National 2012: 1,256,049
285,712
Interagency Fire 2011:
2010:
93,731
Center.
2009:
100,668
“We’ve seen 2008: 136,572
signifi cantly less 2007: 648,046
fi re activity than 2006: 545,870
last year,” said 2005: 155,331
Jessica Gardetto, 2004:
30,018
spokeswoman 2003: 160,191
for the inter- 2002: 1,010,952
agency
fi re
center.
Forest fi res are down nationwide
as well, with 4.9 million acres burned,
compared to last year’s record-setting 10
million acres blackened.
People caused 910 fi res and burned
126,409 acres this season, down from
1,397 fi res and 139,483 acres burned in
2015.
There is still the chance of fi res
popping up during October. However,
no large wildfi res are active in Oregon
and most fi re restrictions have been lifted
Police: Man blasted
hateful message to
disrupt rally
SPRINGFIELD (AP)
— An Oregon man faces a
charge of disorderly conduct
after police say he installed a
large speaker on his rooftop
and played a “pro-hatred”
message on loop as a group
rallied against hate crime at a
nearby park.
Springfi eld police say
the amplifi ed message could
be heard from blocks away
Thursday, and it attracted
about 30 people upset by the
volume, including the man’s
neighbors.
The suspect, Jimmy Marr,
has attracted attention for
years as a white supremacist
and Holocaust denier. In
2009, the state recalled
his personalized license
plate after protesters at a
neo-Nazi rally in southern
Oregon complained about its
inciweb.nwcg.gov via AP/fi le
In this Aug. 24 fi le photo, a plane drops fi re retardant near the northwest
side of Owyhee Canyon south of Vale.
after cool and wet conditions on the
state’s west side.
Offi cials said a major reason for the
overall improvement was the lack of dry
lightning strikes this summer, offi cials
said.
“The number of days where we had
thunderstorms or dry lightning events
was low compared to a normal year,”
said Matthew Cullen, meteorologist
for the National Weather Service in
Portland. “In a typical year, we have a lot
more outbreaks.”
Conditions also improved this
summer, compared to 2015 and 2014.
Snowpack this winter was far better
than in 2015 and ‘14. However, a hot
and dry spring — along with the Willa-
mette Valley’s fi fth-warmest summer
in recorded history — kept the state
abnormally dry or in drought, according
to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
“Even if the snowpack was just
decent, it at least delayed fi re season more
than during the past few years, especially
in the higher mountains,” Gardetto said.
BRIEFLY
anti-Semitic message.
He more recently drew
attention by repainting
the tailgate on his truck
from “Jew Lies Matter”
to “Trump: Do the White
Thing.”
Police say Marr told
offi cers Thursday he was
trying to get his message out.
Standoff judge
wants more proof
Cox had gun
PORTLAND (AP) —
The lone woman on trial in
Oregon’s refuge-standoff
case could have a weapons
charge dismissed unless
more evidence emerges.
The Oregonian/
OregonLive reports U.S.
District Judge Anna Brown
gave prosecutors until 5
p.m. Monday to provide
more evidence to support the
charge of fi rearm possession
in a federal facility against
SALEM (AP)
—
Starting Saturday, Orego-
nians can buy marijuana
for recreational use at shops
intended for that purpose.
The Oregon Liquor
Control
Commission
announced on Friday it
has approved licenses
for 26 retailers around
the state, meeting a key
deadline almost two years
after voters passed a ballot
measure legalizing pot.
“It’s a pretty exciting
day for the OLCC,” Steven
Marks,
the
executive
director of the commission
charged with regulating
recreational
marijuana,
said in a conference call
with journalists. He said 12
retailers can start operating
as soon as Saturday.
October had been set as
the month in which retail
store licensing would start
under an OLCC timeline.
Medical marijuana stores
have been permitted to sell
recreational marijuana since
last October. Such dispen-
saries won’t be allowed to
sell to recreational users
after Dec. 31.
The approved retail
shops are located in the
Portland area, and in
southern,
central
and
western Oregon.
The commission has
also licensed dozens of
recreational producers.
Ten testing laboratories
have also been licensed,
Marks said. Recently, the
head of the agency that
accredits labs that tests pot
for pesticides, potency and
other elements complained
that the agency was over-
burdened and at the point of
collapse.
Marks said those issues
seem to have been resolved
and that the Oregon
Environmental Laboratory
Accreditation
Program,
known as ORELAP, made
a “heroic effort” in dealing
with lab accreditation appli-
cations.
Marijuana sold legally
in Oregon had been tested
before, but now the labs
must be accredited, and the
packaging labeled with the
lab results.
One-year anniversary of UCC shooting
Associated Press
defendant Shawna Cox of
Kanab, Utah.
She’s one of seven
defendants on trial in the
41-day occupation of the
Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge.
All are charged with
conspiring to impede federal
employees from carrying out
their work at the refuge. Five
of them, including Cox, face
the gun charge.
Assistant U.S. Attorney
Ethan Knight told the judge
after the jury left Thursday
he regards Cox as someone
who aided and abetted the
possession of fi rearms.
The judge said the
government must point to
specifi c proof.
The trial that began Sept.
13 continues Monday.
Your Hearing
Keeps Getting
Younger...
ROSEBURG — To mark the one-year
anniversary of one of the deadliest shootings
in Oregon, a moment of silence fell Friday
over the campus of a community college
near Roseburg where the shooting occurred.
Saturday marks one year after Chris
Harper Mercer killed nine people and
injured nine others at Umpqua Community
College before dying in a shootout with
police Oct. 1, The Register-Guard reported.
To mark the somber occasion the campus
held a moment of silence on campus at 10:38
a.m. Friday, the same time of the shooting
but one day early.
“We’re really doing a fairly low-key,
solemn” remembrance, said college spokes-
woman Anne-Marie Levis said. “Campus is
still open, it’s still a day of classes, so we’ll
be solemn and remember but not have a big
thing that day.”
Other memorials were planned in the
area for Friday.
Sen. Ron Wyden announced on the
Senate fl oor Wednesday that he and fellow
Democrat and Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley
would be in Roseburg for the anniversary.
“This anniversary is going to be a painful
reminder of an extraordinarily diffi cult day,”
Wyden said.
“We’re so proud of that community we
call it ‘UCC Strong,’ and yet, we want to
remember those individuals whose lives
were ripped away that day and all in the
community who’ve been suffering.”
On the UCC campus, the school is
working to move forward. Snyder Hall, the
building where the shooting took place, is
set to be demolished in mid-October and
rebuilt for the next fall. Levis said the new
building will likely include an internal
refl ection garden but there are no offi cial
memorials yet on the campus.
“The recommendations from other
campuses (where shootings occurred), such
as Virginia Tech, was to wait until a year
after (the shooting) and then start planning,”
Levis said. “Because you really don’t know
what you want to do until after a year.”
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