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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, November 1, 2017 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW EO file photo East Oregonian newspaper carriers sprint out of the office in 1945 to deliver the critical news. The front page headline reads “War is Over.” An ode and elegy to newspaper carriers Newspaper carriers have been and guarantee your paper will get to employed in Umatilla County you each and every publication day. longer than electric light. Beginning Instead of the doorstep, your paper in the 1880s, the East Oregonian will arrive in your mailbox. hired people to deliver our product Still, we will miss the couriers around Pendleton when the city who climbed the hills of Pendleton was first platted, and later to area and hustled down the streets of farms and nearby Hermiston, and communities. Soon, the drivers who we were delivering navigated the dusty It’s the end of an to multiple counties county roads before era, one we in sunrise. and utilizing the mail to send our As many people the business are remember, newspapers across for a sorry to see go. century the East the country and the world. Oregonian was an The mail delivery afternoon paper. will still take place. But as of today, Hundreds of locals count delivering no longer will someone come to the EO after school as their first the back door of our Pendleton paying job. There’s no doubt that the production facility, take a paper word paperboy (or girl) does spur a off our press and deliver it by foot, bit of Americana — nostalgia for the bicycle or motor vehicle right to child biking with their wares down your doorstep or newspaper tube. a sunny suburban street, grown men hawking competitively on a New It’s the end of an era, one we in the business are sorry to see go. Our York City subway platform, or a paper being delivered in the still- circulation department has always dark morning from a coughing van been a critical part of our operation. — the day’s shocking news resting No matter how much hard work we silently, ready to inform a mind and did to collect and unearth the news, change the world when it is picked it was useless if it didn’t get to your up and read. hands on time and in one piece. But the way people consume That was getting harder to journalism is changing, as is the way guarantee and harder for us to it is delivered. We were one of the afford. So starting today, we hand last newspapers in Eastern Oregon to that responsibility over to the deliver our product via carrier, and always-reliable U.S. Postal Service. that has come to an end after almost Though it may arrive later in the 140 years. Thanks to everyone who day for some customers, we think it will solve a lot of delivery problems did the job those many, many years. After Trump dossier revelation, FBI is next I nvestigators looking into the In recent months, Nunes has been Trump dossier were not surprised trying to force the FBI to reveal just when news broke recently that what it did in the dossier matter. The the Hillary Clinton campaign and the intel chairman issued a subpoena DNC, working through the Democrats’ to the FBI on August 24, and in the law firm, Perkins Coie, financed the time since, not a single document “salacious and unverified” compilation has been produced to the committee. of allegations of Trump collusion The FBI, and the Justice Department, with Russia in the 2016 presidential have spent most of that time talking Byron campaign. (The “salacious and about possibly complying with this York unverified” description comes from or that part of the subpoena. But so Comment former FBI Director James Comey.) far — nothing. There had been plenty of talk about The same is true of Grassley’s the Democrats and Perkins Coie, so much inquiries. that investigators almost assumed that was the Republican investigators had two big case. But it wasn’t until the Washington Post questions about the dossier. One was who paid broke the story that it was confirmed. for it, and that now seems answered. (It was “I’m shocked,” one lawmaker joked upon also recently revealed that the conservative hearing the news. “Who publication Washington Free could have ever guessed?” Beacon financed an earlier And why did the anti-Trump oppo project story break when it did? with Fusion GPS.) The Credit the much-maligned other question was: Did the Devin Nunes, chairman FBI or other agencies use of the House Intelligence any information from the Committee. Nunes has been dossier as a basis for warrant pursuing the dossier more requests before the Foreign aggressively than anyone Intelligence Surveillance else, and it was his Oct. Court? In other words, did, 4 subpoena for the bank say, the FBI use the dossier’s records of Fusion GPS, the “salacious and unverified” information to make the opposition research firm case that the bureau should that handled the dossier, be granted the authority to that finally shook loose the conduct intercepts? information. Nunes, as well as But knowing that the Grassley and Senate Clinton campaign, the DNC Judiciary Committee and Perkins Coie supported colleague Lindsey Graham, the dossier is not the end of have been pushing for the story. The most important months for the FBI to next step is the FBI. Sometime in October answer that question. So far, 2016 — that is, at the they’ve gotten nothing. height of the presidential When the Post story campaign — Christopher broke, some journalists Steele, the foreign agent hired by Fusion GPS noted that Democrats involved in the story to compile the Trump dossier, approached the had been lying about their role. “When I tried FBI with information he had gleaned during to report this story, Clinton campaign lawyer the project. According to a February report Marc Elias pushed back vigorously, saying in the Washington Post, Steele “reached an ‘You (or your sources) are wrong,’” tweeted agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the New York Times’ Ken Vogel. “Folks the election for the bureau to pay him to involved in funding this lied about it, and continue his work.” with sanctimony, for a year,” added the Times’ It was an astonishing turn: the nation’s top Maggie Haberman. federal law enforcement agency agreeing to Yes, they did. But the importance of the fund an ongoing opposition research project Democrats’ involvement in the dossier is that being conducted by one of the candidates in it could be one step on the road to a bigger the midst of a presidential election. “The idea story. What did the FBI do with the dossier that the FBI and associates of the Clinton material? Did judges make surveillance campaign would pay Mr. Steele to investigate decisions in the Trump-Russia investigation the Republican nominee for president in the based in whole or in part on the dossier? To run-up to the election raises further questions what degree is the “salacious and unverified” about the FBI’s independence from politics, dossier the source of what we think we know as well as the Obama administration’s use of about allegations of collusion between Russia law enforcement and intelligence agencies and the Trump campaign? for political ends,” wrote Senate Judiciary In the end, a House subpoena squeezed Committee chairman Charles Grassley. the information out of the key players in the In the end, according to reports, the FBI who-funded-the-dossier side of the story. But did not pay Steele. But the dossier did not go so far, the FBI has been much harder to crack. away. Indeed, in January 2017, Comey briefed ■ President-elect Trump (and President Obama) Byron York is chief political correspondent on the dossier’s contents. for The Washington Examiner. The nation’s top federal law enforcement agreed to fund an ongoing opposition research project being conducted by one of the candidates in the midst of a presidential election. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. YOUR VIEWS Stanfield garden waste dump should be open to taxpayers I am really very irritated by a recent discovery with the Stanfield garden waste area. We have used this site for at least five years. Our home has an Echo address even though we live on the Stanfield/Echo dividing line. But we have a Stanfield phone number and pay taxes in Stanfield. My husband went down to empty some garden waste only to discover the site now has a locked gate. The posted sign read: “For Stanfield residents and commercial use.” So he went to city hall to ask about it. We can no longer use the site because we do not live in Stanfield. This is disappointing since for years we have been responsible users of this site. Many times we have collected paint cans, soda cans and other trash to take home to our trash container. Some people were definitely not using the site responsibly, so I do understand that some screening of people using the site was necessary. But just last week a friend, who does live in Stanfield, went to city hall to see about emptying his truck loaded with weeds and shrub clippings. He was informed that because he lives just outside city limits on Bartley Road, he couldn’t use the site. He pays taxes in Stanfield, too. This is discrimination, limiting the site to people inside the city limits and excluding people who pay Stanfield taxes. Beverly Stoddard Echo The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
