NATION/8A
17/5
SNEAK
PEEK AT
FUTURE
TECH 6A
TRAIN
CRASH
INJURES
100
Data security
must be a
top priority
OPINION/4A
THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2017
141st Year, No. 58
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
Battle lines drawn on Obamacare
Repealing law No. 1 on Trump’s list
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Barack Obama, joined by, from second from
left, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., Rep. Joseph Crow-
ley, D-N.Y., Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer
of N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Ca-
lif. arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday to
meet with members of Congress to discuss his signa-
ture health care law.
WASHINGTON
—
Hardening battle lines for
the brawl to come, Presi-
dent Barack Obama urged
congressional Democrats to
“look out for the American
people” in defending his
legacy health care overhaul,
while Vice President-elect
Mike Pence stood fi rm
Wednesday in telling Repub-
licans that dismantling
“Obamacare” is No. 1 on
Donald Trump’s list.
“We’re going to be in the
promise-keeping business,”
Pence declared at two sepa-
rate Capitol news confer-
ences. Just 16 days before
Trump takes over the Oval
Offi ce, he said repealing and
replacing Obama’s law will
be the president-elect’s “fi rst
order of business.”
“The American people
voted decisively for a better
future for health care in this
country, and we are deter-
mined to give them that,”
Pence said.
Outnumbered in the new
Congress, Democrats didn’t
sound confi dent in stopping
the Republicans cold but
signaled they wouldn’t make
See OBAMACARE/8A
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
Vice President-elect Mike Pence joins House Speaker
Paul Ryan of Wis., and other House Republican lead-
ers at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington,
Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017, following a closed-door meet-
ing with the GOP caucus to discuss repeal of President
Obama’s health care law now that the GOP is in charge
of White House and Congress.
Little hope
for higher
wheat price
in new year
PENDLETON
By MATTHEW WEAVER
EO Media Group
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton graduate Ellie Richards, third from left, speaks about attending Notre Dame on a panel of college students on Wednes-
day at Pendleton High School.
College days discussion
Pendleton alumni share first semester experiences, advice
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
They wouldn’t be college
students if they didn’t mix the
genuine with the irreverent.
On Wednesday, Pendleton
High School hosted panel
discussions featuring class of
2016 graduates sharing their
experiences during their fi rst few
months of college.
In interviews before the panel
and during the actual discussion,
the six PHS alums were candid
about their fl edgling college
careers.
• Dakotta Bridges is attending
Eastern Oregon University
through the ROTC and is
majoring in physical activity and
health with a minor in military
science.
Bridges said he went through
the ROTC route because they not
only pay for his education but
provide him with a monthly $900
stipend.
He was also looking forward
See COLLEGE/8A
Five workplace deaths in 2016
None in 2015; crashes still top cause of death
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla and Morrow counties
had fi ve workplace deaths in 2016,
up from a year before when none
were reported in either county.
The fi gures are from initial
fatalities reported to the Oregon
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration, which considers the
data preliminary and unoffi cial. Two
died from natural causes at work
in Irrigon and Pendleton, and three
others died in accidents including
an onion shed fi re in Hermiston,
a farming wreck in Helix and in a
garage mishap in Milton-Freewater.
The initial reports also show
four other people died at their
jobs throughout Eastern Oregon
counties, seven more than in the
region in 2015 and three more
than in 2014. The data also show
63 workplace deaths statewide last
year, while there were 58 in 2015
and 61 in 2014.
Aaron Corvin, Oregon OSHA
spokesperson, reported the agency
would have fi nal numbers around
spring, but Oregon Workers’
Compensation Division received
notifi cation of 27 compensable fatal-
ities in 2015. Compensable deaths
are those eligible for payments
under worker’s compensation.
“This is the second lowest number
of fatalities ever recorded and lower
than the 10-year average of 31.2
fatalities,” Corvin said in an email.
State data show the lowest year
for compensable fatalities was 17
in 2010, and from 2011-14 there
were 28-31 a year.
Corvin also stated motor vehicle
crashes remain the leading cause of
death among workers in Oregon
and the United States.
“Between 2010 and 2014, 136
people covered by the Oregon
workers’ compensation system
died on the job,” according to
Corvin.
“Highway
vehicles
accounted for 38 percent of those
deaths. Of 47,718 work-related
deaths reported by the federal
Bureau of Labor Statistics between
2003 and 2011, 17,037 (36 percent)
involved motor vehicles.”
Initial reports for 2016 show
crashes killed one person each on
the job in Condon and Baker City.
Wheat prices are likely to remain
low in 2017 unless severe drought or
some other weather catastrophe curtail
a signifi cant portion of this year’s global
crop, market analysts say.
The USDA predicts a total wheat
supply of roughly 992 million metric
tons for the
2016-2017 crop
year, up from 953 “There’s go-
million
metric
ing to have
tons last year.
That includes 252
to be some
million tons of
sort of crop
carryover.
“There’s going
failure in
to have to be
some sort of crop some of our
failure in some of
our key competi- key compet-
tors — Australia,
itors (be-
Europe
and
fore wheat
Canada” before
wheat prices will
prices will
rebound,
said
Darin Newsom,
rebound)”
senior analyst for
DTN in Omaha, - Darin Newsom,
Neb. “There’s a senior analyst for DTN
lot of things that
have to happen. None of them seem like
they’re realistic at this point.”
Earlier in 2016, Newsom wrote a
column saying that if the U.S. stopped
planting wheat and took itself out of
the global marketplace, there would
still be enough left in the world. The
U.S. produced roughly 62.9 million
metric tons of the 752 million metric
tons produced worldwide, up from 735
million metric tons last year.
Such a scenario isn’t realistic,
Newsom said.
“The fear would be from the global
community that the U.S. is trying to
start a supply scare,” he said. “Maybe
that’s what it takes.”
Dan Steiner, grain merchandiser
for Morrow County Grain Growers in
Boardman, estimated that the world
needs a reduction of roughly 40 million
to 50 million metric tons — roughly
the equivalent of the total U.S. hard red
winter crop — for prices to return to
profi table levels.
Because of the high global supply,
average weather and an average crop
this year could send prices 40 cents per
bushel lower, he said.
Farmers are raising wheat on fewer
total acres in the U.S., said Byron
Behne, marketing manager for North-
west Grain Growers in Walla Walla,
Wash.
But “the carryover supplies are so
big, that creates quite a buffer,” Behne
said.
The strong dollar is working against
See WHEAT/8A