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RICHARD ROBERT
OF MILTON-FREEWATER
HEPPNER
BACK IN
2A SEMIS
2016 SET TO BREAK
HEAT RECORD WORLD/7A
56/37
FOOTBALL/1B
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2016
141st Year, No. 21
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Marijuana
regulations
must be set
by Jan. 3
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Voters slap down
mosquito control
steps, but he could say that the
district’s fi nances were in good
enough shape that it wouldn’t
have to cut services in the
immediate future.
“Five years ago we set fi nan-
cial goals, and one of those goals
was getting away from the need
for these local option levies, and
we’re almost there,” he said.
Any extra money could have
gone toward additional controls
for West Nile virus, however.
Gerard said this year the district
had 34 samples of mosquitoes
Although Pendleton voters strongly
endorsed legalizing marijuana sales and taxing
them, residents shouldn’t expect new pot
shops in town overnight.
Land use regulations for marijuana busi-
nesses were approved by the Pendleton City
Council Nov. 1, but city attorney Nancy Kerns
said ordinances creating a special marijuana
business license and enacting a 3 percent sales
tax needs to be passed before potential retailers
can open their doors.
Kerns said she wanted to give staff more
time to review drafts of the laws before
proposing them to the city council, meaning
they’re not likely to be discussed at Tuesday’s
meeting.
Kerns said she is hopeful all city regulations
should be in place by Jan. 1.
Mark Pettinger is a spokesman for the
Oregon Liquor Control Commission, the
public agency that regulates recreational
marijuana sales for the state.
Pettinger said Pendleton and all the other
cities and counties that repealed bans on
marijuana sales will have until Jan. 3 to begin
issuing licenses, giving the city a grace period
to enact its fi nal spate of ordinances.
Potential retailers would have a high bar to
clear with both the city and the state to start
selling marijuana in 2017.
While a current iteration of the business
license ordinance isn’t yet public, staff did
write a draft when the city council briefl y
considered medical marijuana regulations in
June 2015, which required marijuana retailers
to get approval from the state before it could
See MOSQUITO/8A
See MARIJUANA/8A
EO fi le photo
A fi eld technician from North Morrow Vector Control District checks a sample for mosquito larvae while checking pools
of standing water in September 2012 in a pasture near Irrigon. The district passed a renewal bond in 2016, while the West
Umatilla Mosquito Control District did not.
Tax levy for West Umatilla County Mosquito Control rejected
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Voters in west Umatilla
County are more worried about
their tax bills than mosquito
bites, if last week’s election
results are any indication.
Unoffi cial results show the
West Umatilla County Mosquito
Control District’s proposed tax
levy of fi ve cents per $1,000
of assessed value failing by 33
votes.
In the past the levy, which
the district has pursued every
four years to bolster its funding,
USDA-Agricultural Research Service
has passed easily. Sixty-three
percent of voters approved the
levy in 2012 and in other years
support was even higher.
Board chair Glenn Chowning
said he suspected this year’s
“no” vote was more a commen-
tary on high property tax bills in
the area than it was a refl ection
on the district itself.
“Anything that looks like
another tax, people don’t want
it,” he said.
Chowning also said Herm-
iston has so many new people
that many of them don’t know
how bad the mosquitoes used
to be.
“People don’t know the
affect the district had,” he said.
Randy
Gerard,
district
manager, said it would be up
to the board to determine next
HERMISTON
Trump could have huge
Bus system gets green light
impacts on Oregon health care
Service to begin Jan. 2
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Hermiston’s free public bus
system is about to become a reality.
The Hermiston City Council
approved a contract with the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation on
Monday to begin the service on
Jan. 2.
Under the contract, Kayak
Public Transit will provide a
fi xed-route bus service free to any
member of the public for at least
9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through
Friday. The route will loop through
Hermiston once each hour, stop-
ping in residential neighborhoods
as well as grocery stores, medical
clinics and government buildings.
The bus will also provide doorstop
service for qualifying disabled
residents who cannot reach a bus
stop on their own but live within
three-fourths of a mile of a stop.
“This is a great start,” city
councilor Rod Hardin said. “It’s
something that’s been needed here
for years.”
The city expects to spend
$125,000 on the fi rst six months to
get the system up and running, then
apply for federal 5311 transporta-
tion funding that CTUIR planning
director J.D. Tovey told the council
he doesn’t “see any reason” would
See BUS/8A
By NICK BUDNICK
Capital Bureau
Oregon has plenty to lose when
it comes to President-elect Donald
Trump’s vow to change the nation’s
health care system.
His surprise victory threatens
state offi cials’ hope of plugging a
looming budget hole with $1.25
billion in federal health care reform
payments, and his vow to imme-
diately repeal Obamacare creates
uncertainty for more than 470,000
Oregonians who received coverage
or subsidies under the law.
However, Trump already
has signaled a willingness to
reconsider aspects of the federal
Patient Protection and
Affordable Care Act,
and observers believe
nobody’s coverage is in
immediate danger. Any
changes could take until
2018 to fi lter down.
Here’s what Orego-
nians should know as
Trump prepares to take
Trump
offi ce in January:
Oregon Health Plan
About 1 million Oregonians are
enrolled in the state’s version of
Medicaid, the government low-in-
come health care program.
Of those, 378,607 adults
qualifi ed under Obamacare’s
expansion of Medicaid,
which in Oregon boosted
the maximum income to
qualify from 100 percent
of the federal poverty level
to 133 percent. Instead of
having to earn $20,160 or
less to qualify, a family of
three could make a little
more than $26,800 under
the new cap.
But while Trump has vowed
to repeal and replace Obamacare,
it’s unclear how that might affect
Medicaid expansion.
Jeff Heatherington, CEO of Port-
land-based Family Care, one of 16
See HEALTH/8A
District attorney drops serious charges against protesters
Portland high schoolers
join anti-Trump protest
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian via AP
Portland Public School students walked out of schools Monday
and converge on Pioneer Courthouse Square and crossed the
Hawthorne Bridge for a protest against the results of last week’s
presidential election.
PORTLAND — Facing a huge
backlog of cases, prosecutors in Port-
land on Monday dropped more serious
charges against the more than 100
protesters who have been arrested in the
city since Donald Trump was elected
president.
The protests continued on Monday
as hundreds of high school students
took to the streets, chanting slogans like
“Peaceful Protest” and “No Trump, No
KKK” as they marched across the city
in the rain.
Almost a week of anti-Trump protests
in Portland have ranged from peaceful
to violent, when vandals smashed
windows of businesses and cars and
caused other mayhem. Portland Mayor
Charlie Hales on Monday accused them
of “criminal behavior.”
Police and prosecutors focused on the
vandals, putting photos of them online
and asking the public to help identify
them or to contribute their own photos
or video of them in the act of damaging
property.
But nearly all of the more than 100
people who were arrested on charges
such as attempted assault on a peace
offi cer and disorderly conduct will
instead receive traffi c citations for failing
to obey a police offi cer, according to a
joint statement from Portland police and
the Multnomah County District Attor-
ney’s offi ce. That offense is punishable
by a fi ne of up to $1,000.
The statement said the “sheer number
of arrests during protests over the last
See PROTEST/8A