Visit Elite Guns & Bows in
Pendleton for a free hat
JOANNE ISON
OF PENDLETON
SALMON FISHING
CLOSES EARLY
ON COLUMBIA
BUCKS
BATTLE
BAKER
REGION/3A
SOCCER/1B
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2016
141st Year, No. 4
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Your Weekend
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A Very Poplar Run
Saturday in Boardman
Echo Oktoberfest;
music, food, drinks
Discovery Day at
Family History Center
“Hammerstein!”
musical revue at BMCC
Umatilla County Potato
Show in Weston
For times and places
see Coming Events, 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
59/43
Sat
61/43
Sun
60/46
One dollar
HERMISTON
Walden talks troubled VA fi xes
Congress has taken stronger hand
in oversight of veterans programs
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Rep. Greg Walden’s visit
to the Hermiston VFW on
Thursday stayed focused
on veterans’ issues despite
an ongoing presidential
campaign that has left little
room for political discourse
on anything else.
Walden
shared
with
veterans in attendance the
work that Congress has done
to promote their welfare,
including the recent passage
of an appropriations bill that
allocated additional funding
for veteran health care and
housing in rural areas.
“Additional help is on the
way for that,” he said.
After the 2014 controversy
caused by revelations that
the Department of Veterans
Affairs had been covering
up the extent of its claims
backlog while veterans died
waiting for care, Walden said
Congress has worked to hold
the VA more accountable.
They have begun requiring
quarterly reports on the
backlog and have improved
whistle blower protections
for VA employees who come
forward about unethical
practices. They also banned
the practice of giving adminis-
trators bonuses despite failing
to meet their performance
standards, and expanded
See WALDEN/3A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Rep. Greg Walden talks to veterans on Thursday at the VFW post in Hermiston.
Walden spoke about the Department of Veterans Affairs and later took
questions from the audience.
Watch a game
PENDLETON
vs.
Stanfi eld vs. Heppner
Friday, 7 p.m., at Heppner
Malheur
standoff
trial goes
to jury
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Closing
arguments
are fi nished in the trial of
seven people charged in the
occupation of the Malheur
National Wildlife Refuge
earlier this year. The case
now heads to the 12-person
jury for deliberation.
Attorney Matt Schindler,
hybrid counsel for defendant
Ken Medenbach, delivered
a thunderous argument to
the jury in defense not just
of his client, but of the occu-
pation as a whole.
“How did any of
these people benefi t from
protesting the death of rural
America?” Schindler said.
Defendants are charged
with conspiracy to impede
federal employees from
doing their jobs by force,
threat or intimidation.
Schindler cast the seven
See TRIAL/10A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Library gets parks-themed makeover
Volunteer Colleen Sanders of Pendleton dips a brush into a can of paint while painting trees on a forest mural Thursday at the
Pendleton Public Library. The library is transforming their programing space into a National Parks-themed room with grants from the
Wildhorse Foundation and from the Oregon Community Foundation. One of the stipulations of the grant from the Oregon Community
Foundation was that the money should be spent in a way that promotes the National Parks system.
DIVIDED AMERICA
Seeing options shrinking, white men ask why
EDITOR’S NOTE — This
is part of Divided America,
AP’s ongoing exploration
of the economic, social and
political divisions in Amer-
ican society.
By MATT SEDENSKY
Associated Press
DALLAS — The voices
cascade into the studio,
denouncing political hypoc-
risy and media bias and
disappearing values. Hillary
Clinton is a liar and a crook,
they say; Donald Trump is
presidential and successful.
By the time the 16th caller
reaches the air this day,
the Rick Roberts show has
reached an impassioned
crescendo of anger and
lamentation.
Roberts,
WBAP’s
AP Photos by LM Otero
Radio talk show host Rick Roberts speaks with a caller
during his program in Dallas on Sept. 6. “I want America to
be America,” he says. Listeners Jon Hayes (upper right) and
Ken Hindman (lower right).
bearded,
rodeo-roping,
husky-voiced host, has
heard enough, and he is
primed with a message for
his listeners.
“I want my country
back,” he begins.
He repeats that sentence
a half-dozen times in a
4½-minute rant that darts
from fear of crime to
outsourced jobs to polit-
ical correctness. He pans
soulless politicians and
has-been celebrities and
psycho-babble hug-a-tree
experts; he pines for a
time when everyone spoke
English and looked you in
the eye and meant what they
said. It’s a fervent soliloquy
that dismisses transgender
people and calls for faith to
regain public footing and
for economic opportunity to
return.
“I want America to be
America,” he says. “I don’t
recognize this country
anymore.”
This is a white male
voice preaching to a largely
white male audience that
has expressed similar senti-
ments, in dribs and drabs,
See POLITICS/10A