84/57
HERMISTON TRAP
CLUB REPEATS
STATE TITLE
WEST NILE
REPORTED
IN UMATILLA
SPORTS/1B
REGION/3A
THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2017
141st Year, No. 183
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
FBI agent pleads not guilty to
lying about Finicum shooting
By STEVEN DUBOIS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — An FBI
agent pleaded not guilty on
Wednesday to charges that he
lied about shooting at a key
fi gure in last year’s armed
occupation of a national wildlife
refuge just before the man was
killed by Oregon police.
W. Joseph Astarita was
indicted on fi ve felony charges
after the inspector general of
the U.S. Justice Department
last year began investigating
possible FBI misconduct and
whether there was a cover-up.
He said nothing during a
brief court hearing and was
released on his own recogni-
zance, declining to comment as
he left.
Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a
spokesman for the group that
took over the remote bird sanc-
tuary to oppose federal control
of land in the Western U.S.,
was fatally shot Jan. 26, 2016.
Oregon State Police opened fi re
after he got out of a vehicle at
a police roadblock and reached
toward a handgun in an inner
jacket pocket.
Investigators
determined
the troopers were justifi ed in
shooting Finicum but also
found members of an FBI
See SHOOTING/8A
Lawmakers
strike deal on
transportation
package
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — State lawmakers have
reached an agreement on sticking points of a
multi-million dollar transportation package,
Gov. Kate Brown said Wednesday.
The details of the proposal will be
released later this week, Brown said.
Legislators have less than two weeks to
fi nish and vote on the package. The plan
includes new taxes and fees and increases
in other taxes and fees to fund maintenance
and improvements to roads, bridges, transit
and sidewalks.
The agreement addresses issues that
had previously threatened to undermine the
future of the transportation plan. The plan
still addresses about eight to 10 years of
needs, according to the governor’s offi ce.
Those included the overall amount of
taxes and spending in the package, what
the money went toward and cost controls
on the state’s low carbon fuels standard,
Brown said.
“In terms of the low carbon fuels stan-
dard, that is being institutionalized to bring
stability and certainty to the system. I think
there is a consensus amongst stakeholders.
You’ll see the consensus approach as the
bill draft comes out,” the governor said
Wednesday.
Brown declined to say how the overall
amount of the package has changed but said
she is excited “about the signifi cant invest-
ment we will be making in public transit.”
“Suffi ce it to say there is bipartisan
consensus on the levels,” she added.
PENDLETON
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Safeway cashier Mike Fitzmorris of Pendleton was recently recognized for his 45-years-and-going career with the company.
COMPANY MAN
There’s a little shine to Mike
Fitzmorris’ Safeway uniform
these days.
The grocery store chain
recently gave Fitzmorris a pin
with three stones on it — two
green gems, each representing
20 years of service, and a clear
gem that signifi es another fi ve.
The pin is one of the few
reminders that the unassuming
man working the checkout
counter has been at the grocery
store for 45 years.
For Fitzmorris, it’s a summer
job that never ended.
As a 16-year-old in 1972,
Fitzmorris became a courtesy
clerk at Safeway in Aloha as an
alternative to mowing lawns and
delivering newspapers.
“I didn’t have to wake up at
3 in the morning anymore,” he
said.
Fitzmorris met his wife,
Robin, at work and when she
sought to return to her home-
town 10 years ago, they moved
their family from the Willamette
Valley to Pendleton.
Fitzmorris
stuck
with
Safeway the entire time, even as
technology changed the way he
did his job.
While he now uses a touch
screen when scanning food into
bags, Fitzmorris said Safeway
cashiers used to have to memo-
rize item prices when customers
went through the checkout line.
When item prices changed,
Fitzmorris and other employees
would use hairspray to remove
the tag and replace it with a new
one.
Fitzmorris has held other
positions with the company,
like produce manager, but in his
East Oregonian
words, “that’s ancient history.”
He likes working the checkout
line, being able to greet
customers and build a rapport
with community members.
But Fitzmorris also has prac-
tical reasons for sticking with
the job.
He said Safeway’s health
benefi ts and paid vacation
package was a strong incentive
to stay with the company. When
Fitzmorris was interviewed
Monday, he had just returned
from a trip to the Redwoods
Pendleton residents looking for a
Fourth of July fi reworks show will have
to look elsewhere this year.
Becky Marks, who helped organize
the past three shows as a member of the
Fraternal Order of Eagles, said no one
took her place when she decided to take
a step back from
the
fundraising
More inside
effort. As a result,
there will be no
For a list of
fi reworks show.
Fourth of July
Marks
said
events around
there was no
the region
organized effort to
see Page 3A
raise the $10,000
needed for the
show and the April deadline to order the
fi reworks has long since passed. The last
time Marks checked the Eagles’ fi reworks
account, it contained only $500.
See SAFEWAY/8A
See FIREWORKS/8A
Fitzmorris took summer job at 16 and never left Safeway
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Fireworks show
canceled due to
lack of funds
Irrigon homes saved from fast-moving brush fi re
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A fi re fi ghter sprays down a hot spot while battling a brush fi re off
Washington Lane on Wednesday in Irrigon.
Several Irrigon families had a
close call Wednesday afternoon after
a fi re swept through about fi ve acres
of brush surrounded by homes off
Snyder Road.
One woman was transported by
ambulance to Good Shepherd Medical
Center to be treated for smoke inha-
lation and three sheds were burned,
according to a news release from
Morrow County Sheriff’s Offi ce. But
all three houses directly bordering the
burned area were saved.
Lt. Casey Zellars of Boardman
Rural Fire Protection District said the
fi re started when a property owner was
mowing the tall grass, trying to prevent
a fi re hazard. Instead, a spark from the
mower started the grass on fi re.
“He saw smoke and was unable to
stop it,” Zellars said. “He called 9-1-1
immediately.”
Irrigon
Fire
Department,
Boardman Rural Fire Protection
District, Boardman Ambulance,
Irrigon Ambulance, Morrow County
Sheriff’s Offi ce, Umatilla Rural Fire
Protection District and Umatilla
County Fire District 1 responded.
Around the edges of the fl aming fi eld
where fi refi ghters worked, groups of
neighbors also helped protect homes
and yards using hoses, buckets and
shovels.
One of those neighbors, Preston
Morris, had soot marks across his
chest and stomach. He said he was
sitting on his back porch when the fi re
started.
See IRRIGON/8A