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.