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16-year-old
remains
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CANO HITS
HOMER IN
THE 10TH
TRUMP JR.
RELEASES
EMAILS
REGION/3A
ALL-STAR GAME/1B
NATION/9A
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 2017
141st Year, No. 192
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Rotarian, newspaper carrier restart fundraising efforts for fi reworks show
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The Pendleton Fourth of
July fi reworks show hasn’t had
a consistent sponsor since the
local chapter of the U.S. Junior
Chamber of Commerce folded,
but now a former Jaycee is
leading the charge to revive the
Independence Day display.
Although the Fraternal Order
of Eagles have organized the
show for the past three years,
a lack of fundraising killed the
show this year
Jerry Imsland, a former
member of the Junior Chamber
of Commerce and current
real estate broker and Port
of Umatilla commissioner, is
proposing that the Pendleton
Rotary Club become the new
sponsors
for the fi re-
work show.
Imsland
remembers
launching
fireworks
from the
Round-Up
Grounds as
a member
of
the Imsland
Jaycees
in the 1970s and 80s and was
disappointed when the tradition
was discontinued this year.
Imsland is the early stages
of studying how to coordinate
a modern-day fi reworks show
— he plans to meet with Becky
Marks, the Eagles member who
helped helm the fundraising
effort during their tenure, and
the Wildhorse Resort & Casino,
which does a fi reworks show
every year during the casino’s
anniversary in March.
Like
his
predecessors,
Imsland wants to raise $10,000
for a show that would be staged
near the Wal-Mart.
When he spoke about
restarting the fi reworks show at
a recent Rotary Club meeting,
he ginned up enough enthu-
siasm to raise $500 in promised
donations.
Imsland’s
next
major
donation could come from a
Sunridge Middle School eighth
grader.
When news broke that
the Pendleton wouldn’t get a
fi reworks show this year, Max
Driskell and his 13-year-old
son, Deven, started talking
about potential solutions.
“Instead of whining, let’s do
something about it,” Max said.
After Max “put a bug in his
ear,” Deven started running
New health
bill likely
keeping
tax boosts
on wealthy
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A revised
Senate Republican health care bill will
likely retain a pair of tax boosts President
Barack Obama imposed on wealthier
Americans that have helped fi nance his
law’s expansion of coverage, a leading
Senate Republican said Tuesday.
The two levies — one on investment
income and another on the payroll tax
that helps fi nance the Medicare health
insurance program for the elderly — are
among the biggest that Obama’s 2010
statute imposed. Some of the money
would be used to increase a fund the
GOP bill would disperse to states to help
insurers contain consumers’ premiums
and deductibles, said No. 2 Senate GOP
leader John Cornyn of Texas.
Preserving those taxes “seems to
be where we’re headed,” Cornyn told
reporters. He said the reworked bill will
also provide $45 billion over a decade
to help states combat abuse of drugs
including opioids, and make it easier for
states to get federal waivers to decide
how to spend money under their Medicaid
health programs for the poor, elderly and
nursing home patients.
Cornyn spoke after Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.,
announced he will introduce his party’s
altered health care bill Thursday and begin
trying to muscle it through the Senate next
week. The effort comes with the fate of
the GOP measure in doubt, with internal
divisions threatening to mortally wound
their top-tier goal of repealing much of
Obama’s overhaul.
See BILL/10A
Hot weather
prompts forest
restrictions
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Deven Driskell, determined that Pendleton will have Fourth of July fi reworks next summer,
decided to give $1,000 he earned as an East Oregonian paper carrier to the cause. He hopes
Pendleton businesses and clubs will match him.
with the idea of leading the
coordination efforts for the
Fourth of July show.
Deven said he has $1,000
saved in his bank account from
his job delivering newspapers
for the East Oregonian. Their
plan was to challenge busi-
nesses to match his $1,000
donation until they were able to
raise at least $5,000.
Now that Imsland has gone
public with his plans, Max said
he and Deven would be happy
to join their effort.
Deven can still donate the
money and play an active role
in fundraising, Max said.
Even if the Rotary Club
passes on sponsoring the fi re-
works show, Imsland plans to
press on with the effort. People
interested in donating to the
fi reworks show can contact
Imsland at jerry@imsland-
offi ces.com.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com or
541-966-0836.
an Oregon driver’s license would
no longer have been suffi cient to
get through a TSA checkpoint at
the airport starting in January. Now
Oregonians will have the option to
pay an extra fee to get a license or
other state ID that complies with all
See SESSION/10A
See FORESTS/10A
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Sen. Hansell
Rep. Barreto
He said the most signifi cant is
Senate Bill 374, which will allow
Oregonians to continue to use
their driver’s licenses to board
commercial fl ights and enter
federal facilities. The state was
previously out of compliance with
the federal Real ID Act of 2005,
and if the legislature had not acted
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
Northeast Oregon is feeling the summer
heat, and local forests have started phasing
in guidelines meant to minimize the risk of
human-caused wildfi res.
Both the Umatilla and Wallowa-
Whitman national forests have implemented
Phase A public use restrictions, which regu-
late campfi res, smoking, off-road travel and
chainsaw use.
A similar set of restrictions, known as
regulated use closures, have also been set
on the Oregon Department of Forestry’s
Northeast Oregon District, covering more
than 2 million acres of private, state, county,
municipal and tribal forestland. The district
formally entered fi re season on June 26.
So far this year, the Blue Mountain
Interagency Dispatch Center in La Grande
has reported 26 fi res burning roughly 87
acres, including 18 lighting-caused fi res
and eight human-caused fi res. Fire danger
is moderate to high across the region, as
lighter grasses become dried out at lower
elevations.
In order to keep people from accidentally
starting wildfi res, the Forest Service enacts
public use restrictions that dictate certain
activities on national forest land. Phase A
restrictions include:
• No off-road or off-trail vehicle travel in
areas not cleared of standing grass or other
fl ammable material.
• Smoking is allowed only in enclosed
vehicles, buildings or cleared areas.
• Chainsaw use is not allowed between
1-8 p.m. Operators need to stick around for
one hour after work is completed to watch
Legislators reflect on session
As legislators return to their
normal lives after months in Salem,
they are bringing back to their
districts tales of triumph — and of
ways the legislature fell short this
session.
It was Sen. Bill Hansell’s
fourth regular session since he was
elected in 2012. The senator from
District 29 said there were bills he
was proud of passing, but he also
found it disappointing that the
legislature did not make progress
on tackling the Public Employees
Retirement System’s massive
unfunded liability or passing more
cost-containment measures to keep
state spending in check.
Hansell was a sponsor of 42
bills signed by the governor.
Trying to curtail wildfi re risk
Rep. Smith