Page 4A
NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Army Corps may privatize hatcheries
MEDFORD (AP) — A
change in how the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers interprets
its acquisition regulations
could mean operations at the
Cole Rivers Hatchery on the
Rogue River and six other Or-
egon hatcheries become pri-
vatized.
The agency is considering
contracting the Cole Rivers
Hatchery out to the lowest
bidder on a one-year contract
as early as this spring, report-
ed the Mail Tribune.
The Cole Rivers Hatch-
ery grows nearly 2.8 million
fish for release in the Rogue
River Basin. The Oregon De-
partment of Fish and Wild-
life has operated the hatchery
under a cooperative agree-
ment with the Corps since
it opened in 1974. The Or-
egon agency also runs six
other hatcheries associated
with Corps dams.
Corps spokeswoman Mi-
chelle Helms said a recent
review of the Federal Acqui-
sitions Regulations has led
officials to believe a contract
approach would be more ap-
propriate than the current co-
operative agreement.
“The understanding of the
law has developed over the
years, and that’s what’s driv-
ing this,” Helms said. “The
change will allow us to better
meet the requirements of the
FAR.”
Cole Rivers is the first of
the Corps’ hatcheries to move
forward with the new contract
approach. The agency could
start soliciting bids as early as
late February.
The other hatcheries like-
ly to face contract bids down
the line are Bonneville Hatch-
ery on the Columbia River,
Jamie Lusch/The Medford Mail Tribune via AP
In this photo taken Feb. 3, Jim Grieve, hatchery foreman with Cole Rivers Hatchery,
works with Coquille River Fall Chinook in Shady Cove, Ore. A change in how the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers interprets its acquisition regulations could mean operations
at the hatchery on the Rogue River and six other Oregon hatcheries become privatized.
“As an angler, I’d be concerned. There’s a
lot of uncertainty on whether we’ll see the
same level of fish production and quality.”
— Russ Stauff, ODFW’s Rogue Watershed manager
Marion Forks Hatchery on
the North Santiam River, the
South Santiam Hatchery on
the South Santiam River and
the Willamette, McKenzie and
Lieberg hatcheries in the Wil-
lamette Valley.
Russ Stauff, ODFW’s
Rogue Watershed manager,
said the hatchery’s produc-
tion might not be enough for
anglers if a private contrac-
tor takes over. He said some
contractors might not be as
accountable to Rogue Basin
anglers.
“As an angler, I’d be con-
cerned,” Stauff said. “There’s
a lot of uncertainty on whether
we’ll see the same level of fish
production and quality.”
Cole Rivers is a mitiga-
tion hatchery built to raise
fish annually to make up for
wild salmon and steelhead
lost when the Corps built Lost
Creek and Applegate dams.
It raises about 2.58 million
salmon and steelhead for re-
lease in the Rogue and Apple-
gate rivers.
SALEM — Legislative
leaders remained tight-lipped
Monday about a closed-door
meeting concerning budget and
tax issues they facilitated last
week between business and la-
bor groups.
The two politically power-
ful groups are generally at odds
over the cost of state govern-
ment and the mechanisms used
to fund it. They clashed last
fall over Measure 97, and un-
successful ballot measure that
would have created a tax on the
Oregon sales of certain corpo-
rations in excess of $25 million.
The measure would have raised
$6 billion per two-year budget
cycle.
But both sides attended a
meeting Feb. 1 hosted by Or-
egon Senate President Peter
Courtney and Speaker of the
Oregon House Tina Kotek.
As the legislative session en-
ters its first full week, Democrat-
ic lawmakers are sounding the
alarm about potential cuts to ser-
vices because of the nearly $1.8
billion gap between the state’s
resources and what it would take
to pay for existing services in the
next budget cycle.
The meeting’s occurrence
was announced Friday, but it’s
not clear what was specifically
was discussed. In a joint state-
ment Friday, Courtney and
Kotek called the meeting “pro-
ductive” and said “everyone
agrees that the current budget
environment is not acceptable.”
Perennial political flash-
points include the cost of the
state’s pension system for pub-
lic employees and the state’s tax
structure, including its reliance
on income taxes for its general
fund revenues.
In a meeting with reporters
Monday, Kotek said it is now
up to business and labor groups
to continue talks independently.
“What I saw in that room
was Oregonians who care about
their state, who just came off a
very difficult election where
they might have been on the
opposite sides, but understand-
ing that we have a bigger issue
that we all have to come togeth-
er to solve,” Kotek said. “And
so right now we’re stepping
back and letting them continue
to talk and we’ll see how that
goes. We just felt it was our job
to get it going, and we’re glad
that it’s going, and we’ll see
how it ends up.”
She said she and the senate
president wanted to “provide a
space” for business and labor
groups to have a “confidential,
honest conversation.”
Asked about why the meet-
ing was private, she said if the
conversations continue to prog-
ress, potential legislation will
be vetted in a public setting.
“We’re trying to bring peo-
ple together to say, OK, let’s
talk about it one more time, this
isn’t the first time we’ve had
this conversation,” Kotek said.
“And hopefully we’ll get some
guidance on how best to put
some legislation together and
that then you will have very
public conversations about it.”
Courtney’s office declined
Monday to comment further on
the meeting.
NATION
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Three refuge
defendants plead
guilty to trespassing
East Oregonian
Page 5A
Trump: Allow those who ‘want to love our country’
By DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
MACDILL AIR FORCE
BASE, Fla. — President Don-
ald Trump vowed Monday to
allow only people who “want
to love our country” into the
United States, defending his
immigration and refugee re-
strictions as he made his first
visit to the headquarters for
U.S. Central Command.
Trump reaffirmed his sup-
port for NATO before military
leaders and troops and laced
his speech with references
to homeland security amid
a court battle over his trav-
el ban on people from seven
majority-Muslim countries.
He did not directly mention
the case now before a feder-
al appeals court after a lower
court temporarily suspended
the ban.
“We need strong pro-
grams” so that “people that
love us and want to love our
country and will end up lov-
ing our country are allowed
in” and those who “want to
destroy us and destroy our
country” are kept out, Trump
said.
“Freedom, security and
justice will prevail,” Trump
added. “We will defeat radi-
cal Islamic terrorism and we
will not allow it to take root in
our country. We’re not going
to allow it.”
Trump touched upon var-
ious alliances in his remarks,
noting, “we strongly support
NATO.”
He spoke Sunday with
NATO Secretary General
Jens Stoltenberg. A White
House statement said the two
“discussed how to encourage
all NATO allies to meet their
defense spending commit-
ments,” and also talked about
the crisis in Ukraine and secu-
rity challenges facing NATO
countries.
Trump once dismissed
the trans-Atlantic military
alliance as “obsolete,” and
said he would decide wheth-
er to protect NATO countries
against Russian aggression
By STEVEN DUBOIS
Associated Press
Leaders remain mum about labor-business meeting
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
PORTLAND — Three of the final seven de-
fendants charged in the Ammon Bundy-led take-
over of a national wildlife refuge last year took
plea deals Monday instead of heading to trial
next week.
Sean and Sandy Ander-
son, a couple from Riggins,
Idaho, pleaded guilty in U.S.
District Court in Portland to
misdemeanor trespassing in
exchange for the dismiss-
al of felony conspiracy and
weapons charges. Also tak-
ing that step was Dylan An-
derson of Provo, Utah, who
is not related to the Idaho Sean Anderson
couple.
U.S. District Court Judge
Anna Brown sentenced the
three to one year of proba-
tion each and required each
one to pay $1,000 restitution
to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
They must also ask their
probation officers for per-
mission to camp on public Sandra Anderson
lands. All are required to
avoid the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge, located in
southeastern Oregon’s high
desert.
“The Malheur refuge is
not on my bucket list,” Sean
Anderson told Brown.
Ammon Bundy, joined
by his brother Ryan and a
band of followers, seized Dylan Anderson
the refuge on Jan. 2, 2016,
to protest the federal control
of Western lands and the imprisonment of two
ranchers convicted of setting fires.
The Bundys were arrested in a Jan. 26 traffic
stop that included the fatal shooting by police
of occupation spokesman Robert “LaVoy” Fin-
icum. Four holdouts, including Sean and Sandy
Anderson, refused to leave the refuge until Feb.
11.
A federal grand jury indicted 26 people on
conspiracy and weapons charges.
Eleven defendants pleaded guilty last year
and charges were dropped against one man.
In a high-profile trial last fall, jurors found the
Bundy brothers and five others not guilty of fel-
ony charges.
Prosecutors decided after their loss in the tri-
al to go ahead with a February trial for the re-
maining seven defendants. They changed their
prosecutorial strategy by adding misdemeanor
charges such as trespassing to the mix.
Another one of the final defendants, Darryl
Thorn, of Marysville, Washington, was sched-
uled to join the Andersons in changing his plea
Monday, but his hearing was canceled. He was
similarly on the cusp of accepting a plea agree-
ment last June before changing his mind.
Thorn’s decision leaves him headed to trial
next week with co-defendants Duane Ehmer, Ja-
son Patrick and Jake Ryan.
The jurors will determine whether the four
are guilty of felony conspiracy and weapons
charges.
The misdemeanor charges will be heard in a
non-jury trial after the felony trial ends.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh
President Donald Trump gesture from the top of the steps of Air Force One at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa,
Fla., on Monday before returning to Washington.
Oregon files brief supporting lawsuit against travel ban
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon is
seeking to join a federal law-
suit by Washington to chal-
lenge the constitutionality of
President Donald Trump’s
executive orders on immi-
gration.
The executive orders
sought to temporarily ban
refugees and visa holders
from seven predominant-
ly Muslim countries. En-
forcement of the order was
halted when a Washington
based on whether those coun-
tries “have fulfilled their obli-
gations to us.”
Speaking as commander
in chief, Trump repeated his
promises to defeat “radical
Islamic terrorists” but provid-
ed no specifics on any policy
changes he wants in the fight
against the Islamic State. He
complained about media
coverage of terrorist attacks,
suggesting there were many
attacks going intentionally
state federal judge
several days on the
granted that state’s
Trump administra-
request for a tem-
tion’s appeal of the
porary restraining
restraining order
order last week.
“If the appellate
Attorney Gen-
court upholds the
eral Ellen Rosen-
TRO (temporary
blum has signed
restraining order),
and filed an amicus
which we hope it
brief with the U.S.
will, it is likely to
9th Circuit Court Rosenblum
send it back to the
of Appeals in sup-
trial court in Wash-
port of Washington’s case. ington state for further pro-
Another 15 states have filed ceedings,” Attorney General
similar briefs supporting the Rosenblum said in a state-
challenge. The court is ex- ment Monday. “We want
pected to decide in the next to be ready to help in any
unreported by the media.
In response to requests
for evidence to support that
claim, the White House re-
leased a list of 78 attacks it
described as “executed or in-
spired by” the Islamic State
group since September 2014.
Most on the list did not get
sufficient media attention, the
White House said.
The list included incidents
like a truck massacre in Nice,
France, that killed dozens and
received widespread atten-
tion, as well as less high-pro-
file incidents in which no-
body was killed.
The AP could not verify
that each of the incidents had
connections to the Islamic
State group.
Earlier, Trump sat down
for lunch with a room full of
troops in fatigues from the
Army, Navy, Air Force and
Marines, as well as senior
members of his White House
way we can to establish the
permanent illegality of the
Executive Order.” Oregon
also is coordinating with the
Washington attorney genearl
and will ask the Washington
judge to allow Oregon to be
added to the lawsuit, as soon
as Tuesday, according to
Rosenblum’s office.
The Washington com-
plaint alleges that President
Donald Trump’s immigra-
tion order is unconstitutional
on multiple grounds, includ-
ing religious and national or-
igin discrimination.
staff.
Trump made small talk
with some of the soldiers, dis-
cussing everything from foot-
ball to military careers.
“Gonna make it a career?”
Trump asked one person.
“C’mon, you have to stay,”
he urged another.
Trump also hailed New
England Patriots quarterback
Tom Brady, saying he “ce-
mented his place” in football
history after his fifth Super
Bowl win Sunday.
Trump stopped at the base
on the way back to Washing-
ton after his first weekend
away from the White House.
Trump spent the weekend
at his estate in Palm Beach,
Florida, with first lady Mela-
nia Trump, who had not ap-
peared in public since shortly
after her husband took office.
At MacDill, the president
was briefed by CENTCOM
and SOCOM leaders. A num-
ber of his advisers, including
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff, and Michael Flynn,
Trump’s national security ad-
viser, also attended.
Trump met with Florida
Gov. Rick Scott before de-
livering his remarks, telling
the crowd at CENTCOM
that Scott’s endorsement of
his candidacy for president
“makes him a better friend of
mine,” adding that with those
who don’t offer their endorse-
ment, “it’s never quite the
same.”
CENTCOM oversaw a re-
cent raid by U.S. special op-
erations forces on an al-Qaida
compound in Yemen, the first
military operation authorized
by Trump. A Navy SEAL,
Senior Chief Special Warfare
Operator William “Ryan”
Owens, 36, of Peoria, Illinois,
was killed, making him the
first known U.S. combat ca-
sualty under Trump.
Three other U.S. service
members were wounded in
the operation. More than half
a dozen suspected militants
and more than a dozen civil-
ians were also killed, includ-
ing the 8-year-old daughter
of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical
cleric and U.S. citizen who
was targeted and killed in
2011 by a U.S. drone strike.
Trump made no mention
of Owens or the raid in Yemen
during his remarks Monday,
but he paid recognition to the
sacrifices of American mili-
tary families and the spouses
of American soldiers, vowing
his support to those who risk
their lives for the country.
Tech firms take stand against Trump’s travel ban, risking backlash
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)
— Through a Super Bowl
ad, public statements and
court filings, Silicon Val-
ley’s biggest companies are
taking a strong stand against
President Donald Trump’s
travel ban, saying high tech
needs immigrants’ creativity
and energy to stay compet-
itive.
Although the compa-
nies are risking a backlash
from customers who side
with Trump, they say the
pushback is necessary for
an industry dependent on
thousands of highly skilled
foreign workers.
About 58 percent of the
engineers and other high-
skill employees in Silicon
Valley were born outside
the U.S., according to the
Silicon Valley Leadership
Group, an industry trade
group.
“Immigration and inno-
vation go hand in hand,”
said Carl Guardino, the
group’s CEO. “This cuts so
deeply into the bone and
marrow of what fuels the in-
novation economy that very
few CEOs feel the luxury of
sitting on the sidelines. So
people are going to stand up
and speak up.”
The tech industry con-
tends there aren’t enough
Americans with the special-
ized skills these companies
need. Though critics contend
that companies favor immi-
grants because they can pay
them less, tech companies
argue that the ban would
pressure them to move some
operations abroad.
“A lot of these compa-
nies will really struggle if all
of a sudden we turn off the
spigot,” said Greg Morri-
sett, dean of computing and
information sciences at Cor-
nell University.
In a court filing Sunday
against the ban, 97 compa-
nies, including such major
tech players as Google, Ap-
ple, Microsoft, eBay, Net-
flix, Facebook and Twitter,
also spoke of the entrepre-
neurial spirit of “people who
choose to leave everything
that is familiar and journey
to an unknown land to make
a new life.”
Google CEO Sund-
ar Pichai and Microsoft
CEO Satya Nadella both
came from India. Google
co-founder Sergey Brin
is a Russian refugee who
moved to the U.S. as a boy.
The father of Apple’s late
co-founder, Steve Jobs, im-
migrated from Syria.
Chamber
Members!
UPCOMING CHAMBER EVENTS
We're runninb a
special section in
Monday Minute
(the Chamber’s
weekly email
update) and on the Chamber's website for
Valentine's Day Sales & Specials. Send us
yours! Please email
communications@pendletonchamber.com to
be included. Deadline for Monday Minute
content is Fridays at NOON!
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N E W MEMBER
M E M B E R WELCOME
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The Chamber is seeking donations for the
Coaches & Officials Hospitality Room!
Cash, Food, & Volunteer Time are welcome!
Call the Chamber at (541) 276-7411
to let us know how you can help!
fe Chamber would like to
thank all the members who
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ave renewed their membershi
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the foundation of the Cham-
Thursday, February 16, 2017
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aintain
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Have the right answer when a visitor asks what
there is to do or where to eat in Pendleton!
Tune in to 1290AM KUMA for the Chamber’s Coffee Hour on February 22nd at 8:30 am!
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