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East Oregonian
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Four dead after plane hits houses Campaign primer
RIVERSIDE,
Calif.
(AP) — Four people died
and two were injured when a
small plane carrying a family
returning from a cheer-
leading competition crashed
into two Southern California
homes and sparked a major
fire Monday, authorities said.
A husband, wife and three
teenagers were on the plane
that had just taken off from
Riverside Municipal Airport
at 4:40 p.m. intending to
return to San Jose after
the weekend cheerleading
event at Disneyland when
it crashed in the residential
neighborhood,
Riverside
Fire Chief Michael Moore
said.
One of the teenagers, a
girl, was thrown from a back
seat of the plane on impact
but had only minor injuries,
Moore said. Three witnesses
told TV stations she crawled
from the home asking for
help. She was able to talk to
firefighters about what had
happened as she was taken
to Riverside Community
Hospital, Moore said.
Firefighters entered one
of the burning houses and
pulled out an unconscious
resident. That victim is
Watchara Phomicinda/The Press-Enterprise via AP
Smoke rises from a fire after a plane crashed in Riverside,
Calif., Monday. The deadly crash injured several when a
small plane collided with two homes Monday shortly
after taking off from a nearby airport, officials said.
in surgery at Arrowhead
Regional Medical Center in
San Bernardino, Moore said.
Four bodies were found
in the combined wreckage of
the plane and the homes, but
firefighters have not sorted
out exactly how many were
passengers and how many
were residents. Moore said
firefighters are looking for
three to five more people
who may have been in or
near the homes when the
plane crashed.
“It’s horrible,” Moore said,
especially given that they had
gone to a cheer competition
and it was “supposed to be a
happy time.”
Moore did not give the
name of the cheerleading
competition, but the Jr. USA
Nationals for girls age 15 and
under was held at Disney
California Adventure Park
over the weekend.
The two homes that were
hit directly were destroyed,
and there was minor damage
to some neighboring houses,
Moore said.
The plane was broken
into hundreds of pieces, its
propeller sitting on the roof
of a nearby home, and the
fire burning with jet fuel
was still ablaze several hours
after the crash. Firefighters
found plane pieces about a
half-mile away.
H.L. Reyes, who lives
about a quarter-mile from the
crash site, told The Associ-
ated Press she felt the ground
shake and saw plumes of
black smoke.
“I thought it was a possible
earthquake, and we heard all
the birds just suddenly react
outside, too,” Reyes said.
“This was just like a night-
mare coming true.”
Shannon Flores, a teacher
at an elementary school
about three blocks away,
said she saw the plane out
her classroom window. She
said it was raining during the
crash, though other witnesses
said the rain was very light.
“As soon as we saw it
fly over, we knew it wasn’t
a good thing,” Flores told
KABC-TV. “We watched
it go down very quickly ...
Before we knew it, there was
a loud crash and huge plumes
of smoke.”
EOTEC: Doug Primmer said he worried about delays
while everything was legally transfered to the council
Continued from 1A
doing the heavy lifting.”
He proposed the council
also approve contracts, bids
and other EOTEC business
during a once-a-month
special session before their
regular meetings.
Mayor Dave Drotzmann
was skeptical.
“So we’re going to
accomplish more than
they’re accomplishing, in
one hour?” he asked.
“I believe so,” Kirwan
replied.
Drotzmann, who was on
a committee that raised $2
million for the event center,
said he shared Kirwan’s
frustrations that EOTEC
was not finished earlier
and there was still not an
operations plan in place.
But he said he didn’t think
“coming late to the party”
would make things move
any faster, considering the
depth of experience with the
project — and the Umatilla
County Fair and Farm-City
Pro Rodeo — that current
EOTEC board members
have.
City attorney Gary Luisi
said there would have to
be a rewrite of the inter-
governmental
agreement
with Umatilla County that
the county would have
to approve. Luisi also
commented that it would be
“difficult” because partners
like the fair, rodeo and hote-
liers who are used to having
a seat on the board would
want to see their interests
protected.
Councilor Doug Smith
said he was concerned
about how the move would
be perceived, while Doug
Primmer said he worried
about delays while paper-
work was adjusted and
everything was legally
transferred to the council.
“I think it would bring a
lot of that stuff to a grinding
halt,” he said.
Rod Hardin said he
thought that whatever
happened, there needed to
be more conversation with
the county.
“The two of us are a
team,” he said.
“The other half of the
team needs to show up,”
councilor Jackie Myers
replied.
Kirwan agreed with
Myers that it didn’t feel
like the county was placing
enough importance on
EOTEC, and the city needed
to push them to step up.
When asked what he
thought about the proposal,
city manager Smith replied
that EOTEC is a “compli-
cated thing.”
“I would be a little leery
of the concept,” he said.
At councilors request,
however, he said he would
set up a meeting with the
county to discuss it. He also
said he would try to push
the EOTEC board to move
faster on decisions such as
the lease with the Farm-
City Pro Rodeo, which
rodeo board member Mike
Kay said during Friday’s
EOTEC meeting was still
not completed after a year
of waiting for it to be done.
Smith said he did still
believe that the project will
be able to host the 2017
fair and rodeo. Contractors
broke ground on the barns
last week.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at
jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
HEALTH: Republicans have yet to win any Democratic support
Continued from 1A
to be paid to people, even if
they owed little or no federal
taxes.
Walker heads the Repub-
lican Study Committee, which
traditionally represents most
House Republicans. He said
in a statement that he could
not “in good conscience”
recommend support without
significant changes.
House Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Kevin
Brady, R-Texas, said Repub-
licans have made numerous
changes to that draft, but
Walker’s objections under-
scored internal tensions over
the effort.
For many in the party,
those problems, while major,
are outweighed by pledges
they’ve made for years to
repeal Obama’s 2010 law and
substitute a GOP alternative.
Conservatives favoring full
repeal are pitted against more
cautious moderates, and
governors looking to curb
Medicaid’s costs also worry
about constituents losing
coverage. But Republicans
see inaction as the worst alter-
native and leaders may plunge
ahead as soon as next week
with initial House committee
votes on legislation.
“I believe they have left
themselves no choice. Polit-
ically they must do some-
thing,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin,
a Republican economist and
health analyst, said Monday.
Trump spoke about health
care’s complexities on a day he
held White House talks with
dozens of governors worried
Republicans could shift a
huge financial burden to the
states by curbing Medicaid,
the federal-state program that
helps low-income people and
those in nursing homes pay
bills. Republican governors
told reporters later that
Trump would describe some
specifics of his own plan in
an address Tuesday to a joint
session of Congress.
Trump also met with
insurance
company
executives concerned that
AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Donald Trump, left, and Vice President Mike
Pence, right, participate in a meeting with health in-
surance company executives in the Roosevelt Room of
the White House in Washington, Monday.
uncertainty about possible
GOP changes could roil the
marketplace.
Trump said the current
health insurance market
is “going to absolutely
implode”— a contention
he and other Republicans
have made repeatedly. With
premiums, deductibles and
other out-of-pockets costs
increasing in many indi-
vidual markets, Democrats
concede that changes are
needed. But they contest
that dire description and
have no interest in helping
Republicans kill Obama’s
statute.
Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.,
told reporters that Repub-
licans have yet to win any
Democratic support for their
effort and said “the odds
are very high” Obama’s law
won’t be repealed.
Congress
returned
Monday from a recess that
spotlighted hurdles the GOP
faces.
Many
Republicans
endured rough receptions
at town hall meetings from
activist backers of Obama’s
overhaul. Governors meeting
in Washington received a
consultants’ report warning
that planned Republican
cuts in Medicaid and federal
subsidies for consumers
buying private insurance
would risk coverage for
many people and serious
funding gaps for states.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski,
R-Alaska, said she wouldn’t
support blocking federal
payments
to
Planned
Parenthood or repealing
the health law’s expansion
of Medicaid — two staple
GOP
proposals.
And
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former House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio, predicted
at a Florida forum last week
that full repeal and replace-
ment of Obama’s law is
“not going to happen” and
suggested they’d end up
leaving much of the law
intact.
The plan House Republi-
cans are considering includes
helping people pay doctors’
bills with tax credits based
on age, not income, and
expanding tax-advantaged
health savings accounts.
They would also gradually
end Obama’s expansion of
Medicaid to more low earners
and the open-ended federal
payments states currently
receive to help pay for the
program.
Although “Obamacare”
has never been popular, public
opinion polls show most
Americans want changes but
not a complete takedown of
the law.
draws crowd
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla County has
more than 100 seats avail-
able on school boards,
fire districts and more. A
dozen possible candidates
for those seats took a
campaign primer Monday
night in Pendleton.
Pete Wells, commu-
nity activist and former
Pendleton city attorney,
walked the group through
the overview of “Running
for Office in Oregon,”
touching on the basics
of taxing districts to
campaign finance rules.
He said a good way to
get started in local public
policy is to get on one of
those boards.
Even before that, he
said, someone running for
office has to answer basic
questions about why they
are doing it and if they can
do the job.
“You need to be able
to articulate to the voters
in the district why they
ought to vote for you,” he
said, such as experience or
what sets you apart from
an incumbent.
Candidates also need
to consider what it takes
for a successful run. He
stressed that campaigning
takes time and the ability
to reach voters in multiple
ways. Wells said going
that road alone is hard and
the reason why candidates
need to build a community
of people to help you get
elected.
“It is an effort to partic-
ipate and get elected to
office,” he said,” “unless
of course you are the only
candidate running.”
Wells was the only
Democrat running in 2010
when he entered the race
for Oregon House District
58. He told the group he
was running as “back-up
candidate” to help ensure
Republican Rep. Bob
Jenson won another term.
Jenson the year before
supported a tax increase,
and in the 2010 primary
he drew challenger Mike
Matheson, a conservative
hardliner.
Wells told the modest
crowd he and Jenson
were and are friends, and
they agree politically.
The House Democratic
Committee asked him
to run in case Matheson
prevailed in the primary.
That would have been an
opening for the Dems.
Jenson won the primary
by a scant 212 votes.
“It was the most
successful loss I ever had,”
he said. “It was a fun expe-
rience.”
Melissa Shumake of
Pendleton said she has
been thinking of running
for the school board the
past couple of years.
“I care deeply about the
state of education,” she
said.
But a campaign this
year is out. She said he
feels she still needs to
know more people. She
also is the city planner for
Walla Walla, and work
does not leave much time
to run a campaign.
Still, Shumake said, she
might give it a shot in a
year or two.
SEARCHES: Similar
laws have been passed
in Rhode Island
Continued from 2A
being overturned and
additional litigation over
convictions.
Kimberly McCullough,
legislative director for
ACLU of Oregon, said
there is no judicially
defined standard of proof
for officers to initiate a
consent search during a
traffic stop. That means
that consent searches can
“effectively facilitate racial
profiling and other types
of profiling,” McCullough
said.
“The
ACLU
is
concerned that what may
often
be
purportedly
consensual searches may,
in many cases, actually be
coercive to individuals who
either don’t understand the
implications of consent,
or that they have a right
to refuse a search, or
that feel intimidated into
consenting,” McCullough
said.
Frederick’s proposal was
considered for inclusion in
a higher profile omnibus
racial profiling bill crafted
by a Department of Justice
task force, but was omitted
due to law enforcement
opposition.
Similar laws have been
passed in Rhode Island and
in municipalities around the
nation, said McCullough of
the ACLU of Oregon.
“Some of the members
of the community that I
deal with there is a sense of
being under siege, and it’s
not just the kind of thing
that you hear headlines
about in terms of any sort
of use of force but also sort
of drip, drip, drip of harass-
ment or concerns of not
(feeling) they’re not being
treated fairly,” Frederick
said.
Another bill by Fred-
erick aims to reduce the use
of traffic citation quotas in
law enforcement.
———
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Call for Vendors!
Community Health Fair
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