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WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Wolf biologist questions hunter’s story of attack
By ERIC MORTENSON
EO Media Group
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File
This 2014 fi le photo provided by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife shows a female wolf from the
Minam pack outside La Grande after it was fi tted with
a tracking collar.
A retired U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service biologist
with 30 years experience said
it is unlikely a wolf shot by
an Oregon elk hunter was
attacking the man.
Carter Niemeyer, who
lives in Boise and oversaw or
consulted on wolf recovery
work throughout the West,
also said descriptions of the
bullet trajectory — in one
shoulder and out the other —
raise doubt about the hunter’s
account that the wolf was
running at him when he fi red.
“That’s a broadside shot,
not a running-at-you shot,”
Niemeyer said. “If the bullet
path is through one side and
out the other, it indicates to
me an animal could have
been standing, not moving,
and the shot was well
placed.”
A bullet that hit the wolf as
it was running forward most
likely would have exited
out the hips or rear end,
Niemeyer said. He acknowl-
edge the bullet or fragments
could have defl ected off
bone, but said a forensic
exam would have to explain
that. Michelle Dennehy,
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife spokesman, said
See WOLF/8A
395
Pilot Rock
74
204
UMATILLA
NATIONAL
FOREST
84
Female wolf
shot within
this area
Ukiah
ORE. Elgin
82
UMATILLA
Gr
ande
Ro
244
n de
La Grande
r
Rive
Cove
203
UNION
Union
WALLOWA
ALLOWA
WHITMAN
NATIONAL
TIONAL
FOREST
UMATILLA
NATIONAL
FOREST
237
North
Powder
N. Fk. Jo h n D a y R i ve
r
395
GRANT
NORTH FORK
JOHN DAY
WILDERNESS
Source: Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
UMATILLA
OSP bomb-bot gets new home
State police give
bomb-inspecting
robot to students
84
10 miles
30
Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
UEC lands
$48.8M
loan for
power lines
East Oregonian
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
East Oregonian
The students of the Umatilla
School District got a surprise on
Monday when they found out
they’re the new caretakers of a
robot. Not just any robot, either —
a bomb-inspecting robot formerly
used by the Oregon State Police.
Lt. Mike Turner told the students
of Clara Brownell Middle School
that he and some other offi cers
had heard about Umatilla’s active
robotics program, and wanted
to give the students the robot to
help them apply the skills they’re
learning in the real world.
“A lot of what state troopers
do is going out and patrolling the
highway, but there are many other
things we do as an agency,” he said.
“One of those things is the bomb
technician program.”
Turner and three members of the
explosives division demonstrated
three different robots for students:
an ICore robot, a lightweight
machine which can quickly climb
stairs and is primarily used to
observe and reach for objects, and
a Remotec F6A, a heavy-duty robot
which is used for visibility and to
manipulate or open packages. Both
robots had several cameras attached
to them.
The third one, a Green Cub
Robot, had a unique nickname.
“We call it ‘Dill Pickle’ because
it’s green,” said Detective Placido
Lopez.
The students were excited to
learn that the robot was there to
stay. A student from each grade was
picked out of the audience to learn
See ROBOT/8A
Area in
detail
Known wolf activity, OR30
Staff photo by Jayati Ramakrishnan
OSP Detective Placido Lopez discusses a robot with Umatilla High School and Clara Brownell Middle
School students.
A $48.8 million loan
from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture will help
the
Umatilla
Electric
Cooperative build 25 miles
of new power lines, while
improving another 41 miles
of lines and investments in
other “smart grid” projects.
One of the upcoming
projects is a new power
line from McNary to the
Hermiston Butte substation,
which will boost reliability
for UEC and Hermiston
Energy Services customers,
according to a UEC
spokesman.
The spokesman said the
loan provides low-interest
funding for the co-op to
update and improve its
2,250-mile
transmission
system.
Democratic Sens. Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley
announced the loan Monday.
“This is a smart invest-
ment in our infrastructure and
our future,” said Merkley,
who is the top Democrat on
the Senate subcommittee
that funds the USDA.
“Ensuring rural cooperatives
have the resources necessary
to maintain modern and reli-
able electric infrastructure
provides economic opportu-
nity that rural communities
across Oregon need to
thrive.”
The Harney Electric
Cooperative, based in Hines,
also received an $11.7
million loan to build 53
miles of line, among other
improvements.
Two men in a truck chase down Texas church shooter
By WILL WEISSERT
and JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Texas
— A former National Rifl e Association
instructor who grabbed his rifl e and ran
barefoot across the street to open fi re on
the gunman who slaughtered 26 people
at a small-town Texas church was hailed
as a hero Monday, along with the pickup
truck driver who helped chase the killer
down.
Stephen Willeford, 55, said he was
at his Sutherland Springs home Sunday
when his daughter alerted him that she’d
heard gunfi re at the First Baptist Church
nearby. Willeford said he immediately
retrieved his rifl e from his weapon safe.
“I kept hearing the shots, one after
another, very rapid shots — just ‘Pop!
Pop! Pop! Pop!’ — and I knew every
one of those shots represented someone,
“There was no thinking
about it. There was just
doing. That was the
key to all this.”
— Johnnie Langendorff, driver
who helped chase down church shooter
that it was aimed at someone, that they
weren’t just random shots,” Willeford
said Monday during an interview with
television stations KHBS/KHOG in Fort
Smith and Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Willeford said he loaded his magazine
and ran barefoot across the street to the
church where he saw gunman Devin
Patrick Kelley, 26, and exchanged
gunfi re.
“He saw me and I saw him,” Willeford
See SHOOTER/8A
Nick Wagner/Austin American-Statesman via AP
Johnnie Langendorff speaks to reporters about the mass
shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs,
Texas, on Monday. Langendorff says he and another man
chased down the gunman after he fl ed the church where he
killed more than 20 people.