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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 12, 2017)
WEEKEND EDITION U.S. MILITARY “LOCKED AND LOADED” WORLD/10A LIVING IT UP AT THE FAIR DAN DORRAN TO RETIRE LIFESTYLES/1C FROM FAIR BOARD 2A AUGUST 12-13, 2017 141st Year, No. 215 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD UMATILLA COUNTY FAIR UMATILLA EO fi le photo The Army Corps of Engineers refur- bished 10 power units at the McNary Dam in Umatilla in 2014. Energy sec. Perry to tour McNary Dam East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Fairgoers brave the triple-digit heat to attend the Umatilla County Fair on Friday at the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston. Heat, attendance up from last year By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Fair and rodeo attendance is up this year, according to organizers, but exactly how much is unknown. “Attendance is defi nitely up each night,” Umatilla County Fair sponsorship and activities director Cyndie Driscoll said in an email Friday night. Earlier in the day, she said the fair’s organizers feel “pretty amazing” about the fair’s success in its new loca- tion, and said people have been saying they appreciate the extra elbow room. “That’s been a lot of the comments, that there’s so much more room that even though patrons know there are more people there they don’t feel crowded,” she said. On the rodeo side, Farm-City Pro Rodeo board member Dennis Barnett said they didn’t have exact atten- dance numbers, but based on factors such as beverage sales he would estimate attendance Wednesday and Thursday were up about 15 to 20 percent from previous rodeos. He said most years the Staff photo by E.J. Harris Suzi LeBaron of Milwaulkie tells Maria Castro of Umatilla about different lip colors offered by Lip Sense in a booth in the exhibit hall on Friday at the Umatilla County Fair in Hermiston. Saturday rodeo sells out, but thanks to an extra 2,500 seats in the new arena all interested fans will likely be able to get a seat for the week’s fi nal performance. “If we sold out this weekend you would see me jumping up and down, because we don’t expect that because of the increased capacity,” Barnett said. More online For video of the Umatilla County Fair after dark visit eastoregonian.com See FAIR/13A Rick Perry, the United States Secretary of Energy, will be in Eastern Oregon for a brief visit on Monday. He will tour the McNary Lock and Dam in Umatilla in the afternoon, one of several visits to energy facilities in the region early next week. After his visit to McNary, Perry will travel to the Pacifi c Northwest National Laboratory and the HAMMER Federal Training Center in Richland, as well as several facilities at Hanford. He will visit the Hanford site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant, the 2268 Building, the WTP facility and the AP Photo PUREX tunnels. Rick Perry Perry will be available to the press after each visit and will be accompanied by Oregon Rep. Greg Walden and Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell and Rep. Dan Newhouse. The Department of Energy owns the Bonneville Power Administration, an electric grid which draws power from McNary Dam, the Energy Northwest nuclear power plant, 30 other dams and a handful of renewable energy projects. Its service area covers about 12.5 million people. A proposal in President Donald Trump’s budget would seek to sell the BPA as a cost-saving measure, estimating savings of $4.9 billion over a decade. Fourteen U.S. senators from both parties sent a written request to Perry, who oversees the DOE, to oppose the plan to sell the BPA and other national transmission assets for fear of rate increases and loss of future development. Perry replaced George W. Bush as governor of Texas in 2000 and won three more terms before retiring in 2014. He ran for the Republican presidential nomi- nation in 2012 and again briefl y in 2016 but withdrew before the primaries. He was nominated by President Trump as the secretary of energy and was confi rmed by the Senate in March. PENDLETON HERMISTON Japanese students explore sister city Videos lead police to arrest in Fiesta theft First day is full of jitters and fun By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian By EMILY OLSON East Oregonian As Moe Kobayashi, 16, emerged from a crowd gath- ered in Pendleton’s Vert Club Room, she let her excitement show with a sprightly smile. She was fi nally meeting her American host family. The Pattersons greeted her with cheery hellos. But as the introductions fi nished, Kobayashi lowered her head and admitted a secret. See PENDLETON/13A Staff photo by Kathy Aney Miku Saito, of Minamisoma, poses during a visit to Happy Canyon on Tuesday, after donning costumes and accessorizing with guns from the prop room. Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston said his detectives arrested the suspect who ripped off Fiesta Foods for “tens of thousands of dollars.” Key to the investigation, Edmiston said, was video Wood evidence from an Oregon State Police traffi c stop linking Daniel Lee Wood III, 27, with the Hermiston theft. Hermiston police on Aug. 4 at about 7 p.m. responded to Fiesta Foods, 1875 N. First St., on a report of the theft of a bank bag containing a signifi cant amount of recently cashed payroll checks. The theft occurred about two hours earlier, Edmiston said, See THEFT/13A
