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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2016)
ROLLOVER SENDS TWO TO HOSPITAL REMATCHES ON TAP IN SEMIFINALS A tip of the hat to our local House Republicans PENDLETON/3A FOOTBALL/1B OPINION/4A FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016 141st Year, No. 24 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD JOHN HUNTSMAN OF ATHENA Visit Elite Guns & Bows in Pendleton for a free hat Your Weekend • • • • “Ravenscroft” at BMCC Bob Clapp Theatre “The Butler Did It Again” at Hermiston High School Oregon Grain Growers distillery grand opening Altrusa of Pendleton annual holiday bazaar For times and places see Coming Events, 5A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Vodka pours into a bottle as Cliff Bracher adds an empty to the six-spout fi ller while a crew bottles a batch of Ouragon Vodka on Thursday at Oregon Grain Growers Brand Distillery in Pendleton. Catch a movie Jaap Buitendijk/Warner Bros. via AP The wondrous world of witches and wizards returns to the big screen in “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” For showtime, Page 5A For review, Weekend EO Weekend Weather Fri Sat Sun 49/36 50/39 55/39 2A Football Semifi nals vs. Heppner vs. Regis Saturday, Noon, at Liberty High School, Hillsboro vs. Stanfi eld vs. Kennedy Saturday, 5 p.m., at Liberty High School, Hillsboro Pendleton’s first microdistillery prepares for grand opening By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The assembly line is taking bets. It’s Thursday night and about a dozen friends and family have gathered at a re-purposed car dealership in east Pendleton to help Rodney and Kelli Bullington bottle a batch of vodka ahead of Oregon Grain Growers’ grand opening Saturday. Cliff Bracher, whose a business partner with the Bullingtons along with his wife Judy, was taking $1 wagers for anyone willing to guess how many bottles a transparent container of newly proofed vodka would produce. The team quickly got to work after the bets were recorded, the crystal clear liquor fl owing from the container to six machines that quickly fi lled the bottles placed under them. From there, the bottles were handed to volunteer hands ready for a cap and seal, before moving further down the line to get the “Ouragon Vodka” label slapped on them, a reference to the Beaver State’s original name. “When we say everything is handmade, we mean it,” Rodney Bullington said. “When we say everything is handmade, we mean it.” — Rodney Bullington, Staff photo by E.J. Harris Oregon Grain Growers Rodney Bullington gestures while talking about the distilling process at Oregon Brand Distillery co-owner Grain Growers Brand Distillery in Pendleton. Body found at Sand Station investigated as a homicide East Oregonian Authorities believe a man found dead Nov. 4 near Sand Station was the victim of a homicide. The man was identifi ed Thursday as Jose Antonio Leyva, 52, from Pasco. Leyva’s body was found the afternoon of Nov. 4 near the closed recreational area located on the Columbia River, about 10 miles northeast of Hermiston. The Umatilla County Sher- iff’s offi ce, which is leading the investigation, said it took them days to identify the body using fi ngerprints, and days longer to locate relatives. His identity was not released publicly until Thursday. Jim Littlefi eld, Umatilla County undersheriff, said law enforcement does not know when or where the crime occurred, or “when the body was placed at Sand Station.” Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan said his offi ce is working with the Pasco Police Department. The case is under investigation. What Bullington and his partners think sets Oregon Grain Growers apart, besides being Pendleton’s fi rst micro- distillery, is its commitment to agriculture and locally sourced ingredients. (Even the family’s six-month old Newfoundland is named Barley.) The red wheat used to make the vodka was is grown in La Grande while the corn used for Oregon Grain Growers’ white whiskey is from the Brachers’ farm just north of Pendleton. The grain sits in giant sacks on the distillery fl oor, some of the base ingredients used to start the two-week process. To start, the grain is ground into a coarse fl our and thrown into a 1,000-ton tank of near-boiling water, which allows the distillers to remove the starch from the grain. After malt is added to sweeten the concoction, it’s pumped into a fermenter where the temperature is See DISTILLERY/3A LA GRANDE Teen, DA reach plea deal in alleged school shooting plot Conspiracy to commit aggravated murder charges dismissed By JOSH BENHAM La Grande Observer The long and turbulent case against Micah Schultze, the La Grande High School student arrested in April on allegations of planning a school shooting, ended with a settlement at a disposition Thursday, Nov. 10. It offered a peek behind the curtain into the investigation from two distinct vantage points. Perhaps a statement at the tail end of the 1-1/2 hour proceeding from Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel best summed up the divide between the state and defense. “I think both parties disagree vehemently about what the facts actually mean and how (both sides have) interpreted them,” she said. “And I don’t think any amount of arguing at the court or at each other would be successful in changing either of our minds.” Several days of settlement conferences brought forth an agreement — Schultze, 16, pleaded guilty to a pair of fi rst-degree disorderly conduct charges, one a Class C felony, the second a Class A misdemeanor. The fi ve counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated murder charges that the DA See PLOT/12A
