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141st Year, No. 172
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WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
HERMISTON
Houfmuse charged with murder
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
Houfmuse
Tyree Quaddray Houfmuse,
arrested Monday in Umatilla
two weeks after being identi-
fi ed as a suspect in the killing
of James Cragun, was charged
Tuesday with murder.
The Umatilla County
District Attorney’s Offi ce fi led
charges of both fi rst-degree
manslaughter and murder
against Houfmuse, 35, of
Tacoma, for the May 27
death of Cragun. The district
attorney also fi led a charge
of felon in possession of a
fi rearm.
Houfmuse was arraigned
Wednesday
afternoon,
speaking via video from the
Umatilla County Jail, Pend-
leton. He was represented by
attorney Kara Davis of Inter-
mountain Public Defenders.
Davis asked to defer
entering a plea until the
defense had time to look at
preliminary police reports and
other relevant documents.
Prosecutor Jaclyn Jenkins
with the Umatilla County
District Attorney’s offi ce said
it would be possible to get
some of those documents to
the defense. She asked that
Houfmuse be held without
bail, due to his charges and
repeated offenses. She also
PENDLETON
asked for a couple of weeks
so the case could be taken to a
grand jury.
Davis insisted bail had to
be set.
“There’s no facts. We don’t
have an indictment yet,” she
said.
See HOUFMUSE/8A
Budget
committee
advances
health care
provider tax
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Mireya Nieves, 6, Marilla Holden, 9, and Aidan Woodworth, 9, all of Pendleton, sample cheese at the Umapine Creamery booth
at the Farmers Market on Friday in Pendleton.
Kid chefs take to farmers market
Parks and Rec gives lesson with local food
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
In the Pendleton Recreation
Center kitchen, Marilla Holden, 9,
Brandy Coleman, 9, and Mireya
Nieves, 6, huddle around a large
cutting board and carefully slice
fresh strawberries to make their
own shortcake cupcakes.
“We’re lucky,” said a grinning
Holden. “We get to use knives.”
Volunteers kept a close watch
on the girls as part of Kids in the
Kitchen, a class organized by
Pendleton Parks and Recreation.
The program is designed to get
children interested in food and
cooking through hands-on activ-
ities such as cupcake decorating
and making their own pizza.
The theme last Friday was
a little different, focusing on
the farm-to-table movement. It
included a fi eld trip to the rain-
soaked Pendleton Farmers Market.
Once they returned to the rec
center, the kids got busy prepping
a colorful garden salad, classic
grilled cheese sandwiches and
strawberry shortcake dessert.
“This tastes and smells really
good,” Holden raved as she popped
a bit of cupcake into her mouth.
Angie Nash, who supervises
the class, came up with the idea
See FOOD/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Angie Nash of Pendleton helps Aurelia Greenwald, 5, of
Pendleton, cut radishes during a Kids in the Kitchen cooking
class Friday in the Pendleton Recreation Center kitchen.
SALEM — The Legislature’s
budget-writing committee on Tuesday
advanced a bill over Republican objec-
tions that would increase the state’s tax
on health care providers to cover the
costs of expanding Medicaid.
The Joint Committee on Ways and
Means also advanced Tuesday a $19.9
billion total funds budget for the Oregon
Health Authority
for the next two
years,
including
$2.2 billion from
the state’s General
Fund.
Both bills now
go to the fl oor of
the Oregon House
of Representatives.
The increased
tax would raise
revenue from hospitals, insurers and
coordinated care organizations — the
regional networks of providers serving
patients on the Oregon Health Plan,
Oregon’s version of Medicaid — to
help cover the costs of the govern-
ment’s health care plan for the poor
and other qualifying groups.
The bill is expected to raise $673
million in the next two years to fund
Medicaid and to help fund reinsurance,
a reimbursement system that protects
insurers from high claims.
Currently, certain urban hospitals
are assessed a 5.3 percent provider tax
that is set to expire in 2019. The legis-
lation would extend the assessment to
2021 and increase it to 6 percent for
those hospitals, and establish a new
4 percent on net revenues of rural
hospitals.
Some Republicans criticized the
proposal, contending the costs of care
were likely to be shifted to consumers.
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, a
member of the committee, voted against
advancing the provider tax legislation.
See HEALTH/8A
PENDLETON
T-shirts, teamwork create special Relay for Life quilt
Will be raffl ed off to raise
money for Cancer Society
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Cindy Webb, left, made a quilt out of Relay for Life T-shirts
owned by Pete Wells as a raffl e item to raise money for the
American Cancer Society.
Interrupting her husband’s spring
cleaning efforts more than a year ago,
ElRae Wells came up with an idea to make
a quilt to raise money for the American
Cancer Society.
A former ambassador for Pendleton
Relay for Life, Pete Wells was going to get
rid of a bunch of his old event T-shirts.
“He was going to toss them and I said,
‘No, there is a better way to use them,’”
ElRae recalled. “They were either headed
to the dump or to the Salvation Army
because he was ready to throw them away.”
That’s when the idea of a quilt popped
into her head. ElRae thought it would be
neat to create a quilt out of the shirts and
then donate it for a Relay for Life raffl e.
However, lacking the needed skills for
the project, ElRae began searching for
someone willing to take on the task.
Pete said his fi rst thoughts were that
it was a huge undertaking. However,
knowing his wife, Wells said he knew that
wouldn’t stop her.
“It’s an ambitious project, but she’d
done ambitious projects in the past,”
he said. “So, I didn’t think it would be a
deterrent.”
One day while visiting Thimbles
Fabric-N-More, a sewer’s paradise in
Pendleton, ElRae approached owner
Cindy Webb. When Wells asked Webb if
she knew anyone who might be willing
See QUILT/8A