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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2017)
Page 12A OFF PAGE ONE East Oregonian JOBS: 50 percent of Pendleton’s workforce commutes from elsewhere Continued from 1A nity College, Wal-Mart and Safeway. But Chrisman maintains that the basic message of the study remains — Pendleton doesn’t suffer from a lack of jobs. Rather than a dearth of employment opportunities, Chrisman said Pendleton is hurt more from its lack of housing. Along with his own study, Chrisman also pointed to a U.S. Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies inflow/ outflow analysis from 2011 that showed that more than 50 percent of Pendleton’s workforce commutes from elsewhere. Chrisman said that Pendleton’s tight real estate market means that commuters choose to remain living in their home commu- nities when they land a job in Pendleton, rather than relocate. Chrisman believes that these commuters eventually take jobs closer to home, contributing to the flat growth Pendleton has expe- rienced in recent decades. “That’s a fragile work- force,” he said. Some employers are always trying to build that workforce. Cayuse Technologies, a Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation enterprise that provides application development, digital marketing and tech support, has about 150 vacancies. Cayuse Technologies lead staffing recruiter David Filkins said his company’s main challenge is offering pay that is competitive with larger cities. Being based in Pendleton, Filkins said Cayuse Tech- nologies can’t offer the $12 to $15 per hour pay that a Portland call center might offer. Given that disadvantage, Filkins said Cayuse Technol- ogies is unafraid to present their entry level positions as starter jobs, labeling them a “building block” to manage- ment positions within the company or “the largest piece of a stepping stone” Report: Islamic State group’s ‘business model’ near collapse The Islamic State group is hemorrhaging money with every piece of territory it loses, according to a new analysis that found that the group’s “business model” is on the path to failure. The analysis released Saturday by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence and the accounting firm EY found that the self-proclaimed caliphate’s financial resources have been drained substantially since the days beginning in mid-2014 when it captured banks, oil wells and entire warehouses of weapons as it amassed land. The report found that Islamic State revenue has declined from up to $1.9 billion in 2014 to at most $870 million in 2016. “One of the mistakes that’s been made in the past when we were talking about Islamic State was talking about it purely as a terrorist organization. It is a terrorist organization but it is more than that. It holds territory,” said Peter Neumann, director of the center at King’s College London. “That also means it has a lot more expenses. It needs to fix roads. It needs to pay teachers. It needs to run health services. It needs to pay for these things that al-Qaida never had to.” But less money may not make the group less dangerous, the report said. “We know from the attacks in Paris and Brussels and Berlin that none of them was expensive,” Neumann said. Most of the recent attacks in Europe and the U.S. were self-financed by the people that carried them out, with little input or money from the IS leadership in the war zone of Syria and Iraq. to a tech job elsewhere that usually requires a college degree and 3-5 years of experience. Filkins said Cayuse Technologies staff typically focus their recruitment efforts locally. And if they do try to hire from outside the area, they often have them work from home rather than relocate because of the difficulty people face finding affordable housing. Across the street from Cayuse Technologies is another tribal enterprise that’s always hiring. At the time of Chrisman’s study, Wildhorse Resort and Casino had 40 vacancies, the third most on the list. Wildhorse spokeswoman Tiah DeGrofft said the team’s frontline staff, which includes housekeepers, jani- tors and culinary employees, tends to have frequent turn- over. Although Wildhorse recruits employees from Hermiston, Walla Walla, Tri-Cities, La Grande and other communities in the surrounding area, DeGrofft said the commute hasn’t been too big of a hindrance. While Wildhorse is comfortable with having a few dozen vacancies in a business with 850 employees, DeGrofft said Wildhorse is planning how to properly staff its casino and resort after a proposed expansion that will include a new hotel, bowling alley and event center. DeGrofft said the tribes haven’t studied how many jobs it could add, but it will be “substantial.” Each employee will need a place to live, however, and the odds of finding it in Pend- leton are slim. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0836. Saturday, February 18, 2017 BUDGET: Farmers decried proposed cuts to ag extension centers Continued from 1A said taxes need to be raised to prevent proposed cuts that will cause low-income Oregonians to lose health insurance, while Joy Post said new revenue was needed to save programs like those that help her care for her disabled son in her own home. Preserving funding for Eastern Oregon Devel- opmental Disabilities Resources, which is on the chopping block in the gover- nor’s proposed budget, and maintaining funding levels for the Oregon Consortium of Family Networks brought out a crowd of yellow-clad supporters who advocated on behalf of individuals with developmental disabilities and their caretakers. Courtney Bissinger of Pendleton said she lost her home and her job of 12 years after becoming a mother of a severely disabled child. She said she “didn’t know what to do” until the Family Networks program stepped in to help. Nazario Rivera, a Good Shepherd Health Care System employee, said scaling back the Oregon Health Plan as proposed would harm low-income families who cannot other- wise afford insurance. “The families we serve in the ER wait until the last minute (to seek treatment) because they can’t afford health insurance,” he said. “When asked to follow up with their primary care provider they are unable to do so.” On the law enforcement side, more than a dozen people asked the committee to reconsider the gover- nor’s proposal to close the Oregon State Police crime lab in Pendleton and cut funding for drug task forces including BENT. They pointed out that evidence samples would need to be sent more than 200 miles away to the Clackamas lab, while forensic analysts would have to travel equally as far to testify in court or provide training. District attorneys and police chiefs from the region also pointed to homi- cides where the evidence, say in an outdoor crime scene, would have been destroyed if analysts needed hours or days to arrive from Portland. “With these types of scenes, time is of the essence,” said Umatilla Police Chief Darla Huxel. Students from Blue Mountain Community College and Eastern Oregon University also asked legis- lators to fund higher educa- tion in the state at a level that would not require more than a five percent increase in tuition. Larissa Golightly said BMCC helped her get her higher education back on track, after serious health problems had previously derailed it. Carlin Sacco said the college gave her an opportunity to pull herself out of homelessness. Farmers, ranchers and 4H students showed up to decry proposed cuts to agricultural extension centers. Bryan Wolfe of Hermiston said the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center has helped his family — now in its sixth gener- ation of farming — grow better-quality crops more efficiently. Other funding initiatives that citizens supported through testimony Friday included the Oregon Cultural Trust, K12 educa- tion, noxious weed control, mental health and addiction services, and communi- ty-specific projects such as the Farm II project that would help BMCC and the city of Pendleton replace the Round-Up pavilion with a center giving students hands-on experience with livestock handling and other agricultural subjects. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. Autopsy on N. Korean inconclusive as fourth person arrested KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia performed a second autopsy on the estranged half brother of North Korea's leader because the first procedure was inconclusive, piling on the intrigue surrounding what appeared to be a well-ex- ecuted assassination at an airport in Kuala Lumpur, an official said Saturday. Police arrested a fourth suspect, identified as a North Korean man. The second autopsy clearly enraged North Korea, which has vowed to reject the results of any post- mortem and demanded that Malaysia turn over the body immediately. Speaking to reporters outside the morgue late Friday, Pyongyang's ambassador said Malaysian officials may be “trying to conceal something” and “colluding with hostile forces.” A Malaysian official with knowledge of the investiga- tion confirmed the second autopsy started Friday night and said that the results of the first one were inconclusive. He asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The inconclusive autopsy results raise all sorts of questions about the myste- rious death of Kim Jong Nam, but a lack of closure and a lingering sense of the unknown aren't unusual when it comes to North Korea. While South Korea has blamed North Korea for a slew of notable assassina- tions or attempted killings in past decades, the North often denies involvement or simply doesn't comment. The death of Kim Jong Nam, the exiled half brother of North Korea's powerful and mercurial ruler, has unleashed a torrent of speculation, tales of intrigue and explosive, unconfirmed reports from dueling nations. Malaysia has arrested four people so far, the lastest a man carrying an ID that identified him as 46-year-old Ri Jong Chol. He was picked up Friday night. Authorities were still trying to piece together details of the case. Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46 and had lived in exile for years, suddenly fell ill at the Kuala Lumpur airport on Monday as he waited for a flight home to Macau. Dizzy and in pain, he told medical workers at the airport he had been sprayed with a chem- ical. He died while being taken to a hospital. South Korea has accused its enemies in North Korea of dispatching a hit squad to kill Kim Jong Nam at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, saying two female assassins poisoned him and then fled in a taxi. On Friday, Indonesia's police chief said an Indo- nesian woman arrested for suspected involvement in the killing was duped into thinking she was part of a comedy show prank. Indonesian police chief Tito Karnavian, citing information received from Malaysian authorities, told reporters in Indonesia's Aceh province that Siti Aisyah, 25, was paid to be involved in “Just For Laughs” style pranks, a reference to a popular hidden camera show. He said she and another woman performed stunts which involved convincing men to close their eyes and then spraying them with water.
