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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2017)
Tuesday, December 5, 2017 OFF PAGE ONE MONUMENTS: Native American leaders said they expect to file a lawsuit Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A guess what? They’re wrong.” Roughly 3,000 demonstra- tors lined up near the State Capitol to protest Trump’s announcement. Some held signs that said, “Keep your tiny hands off our public lands,” and they chanted, “Lock him up!” A smaller group gathered in support, including some who said they favor potential drilling or mining there that could create jobs. Bears Ears has no oil or gas, Zinke told reporters, though Grand Staircase-Es- calante has coal. “Your timeless bond with the outdoors should not be replaced with the whims of regulators thousands and thousands of miles away,” Trump said. “I’ve come to Utah to take a very historic action to reverse federal over- reach and restore the rights of this land to your citizens.” Bears Ears, created last December by President Barack Obama, will be reduced by about 85 percent, to 201,876 acres. Grand Staircase-Es- calante, designated in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, will be reduced from nearly 1.9 million acres to 1,003,863 acres. Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File This May 8 photo shows Arch Canyon within Bears Ears National Monument in Utah. Both were among a group of 27 monuments that Trump ordered Zinke to review this year. Zinke accompanied Trump aboard Air Force One, as did Utah’s Republican U.S. sena- tors, Orrin Hatch and Mike Lee. Hatch and other Utah Republican leaders pushed Trump to launch the review, saying the monuments designated by the former Democratic presidents locked up too much federal land. Trump framed the deci- sion as returning power to the state, saying, “You know and love this land the best and you know the best how to take care of your land.” He said the decision would “give back your voice.” “Public lands will once again be for public use,” Trump said to cheers. Hatch, who introduced Trump, said that when “you talk, this president listens” and that Trump promised to help him with “federal overreach.” Earthjustice filed the first of several expected lawsuits Monday, calling the reduction of Grand Staircase-Escalante an abuse of the president’s power that jeopardizes a “Dinosaur Shangri-la” full of fossils. Some of the dinosaur WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries. This is not a final ruling on the travel ban: Challenges to the policy are winding through the federal courts, and the justices themselves ultimately are expected to rule on its legality. But the action indicates that the high court might eventually approve the latest version of the ban, announced by President Donald Trump in September. Lower courts have continued to find problems with the policy. White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said the White House is “not surprised by today’s Supreme Court decision permitting immediate enforcement of the President’s proclamation limiting travel from countries presenting heightened risks of terrorism.” Opponents of this and previous versions of the ban say they show a bias against Muslims. They say that was reinforced most recently by Trump’s retweets of anti-Muslim videos. fossils sit on a plateau that is home to one of the country’s largest known coal reserves, which could now be open to mining. The organization is representing eight conserva- tion groups. Native American leaders said they expect to file a lawsuit challenging the Bears Ears decision soon. Patagonia President and CEO Rose Marcario said the SHELTER: Was open 103 nights straight during last year’s winter “I feel like I’m doing something for the greater good. I’m not just throwing money at the problem, I’m putting time in.” Continued from 1A volunteer KaSandra Williams read a list of ground rules as part of the intake process. “You are not allowed to possess or use alcohol, marijuana or non-prescribed drugs in or around the warming station,” Williams intoned. “No weapons are allowed. …” She ticked off behaviors that would result in expulsion: refusing to follow instructions, physical coercion, tampering with any of the 16 surveillance cameras, repeated use of profanity, disruptive behavior and entering the staff area, among others. Carter listened, nodding. He signed a form agreeing to abide by each rule. Another volunteer led him to a storage room, where he stashed his backpack. The volunteer gave him sheets, pillow case and a blanket and led him to his bunk. He grinned at the pillow case — last year, he’d been issued a Barbie pillowcase. This new bedding, a gift from the Pendleton High School CommuniCare Club, all matched. There wasn’t a Barbie in sight. Bedding wasn’t the only upgrade at the warming station. Gone were the tarps and buckets set out last winter to collect rain leaking through a porous, deteriorating roof. Instead of mats and cots, bunkbeds populated the two sleeping rooms — one for men and the other for women — with sleeping space for 25. The warming station moved just prior to last season from a city-owned house near Washington Elementary School into the new location at 715 S.E. Court Ave. The approximately 3,000-square-foot building, gifted by St. Anthony Hospital, had good bones, but also the leaky roof, plumbing issues, a cantankerous heating system and the beginnings of dry rot. Space heaters helped when the heating system sporadically went on the fritz. “We limped through the season,” — KaSandra Williams, warming station volunteer Staff photo by E.J. Harris Jon Dickerson with Pendleton Electric installs wiring for a fan in a shower room at the Pendleton Warming Station. said Chris Clemons, chairman of the Neighbor 2 Neighbor board, which oversees the warming station. Clemons, also pastor of the Pendleton Church of the Nazarene, praised the community for stepping up. A $25,575 Pendleton Foun- dation Trust grant financed a new roof. Wildhorse Foundation granted $10,000 for new heat pumps. CAPECO paid for bunkbeds. Other smaller grants and community donations funded the installation of a shower and a third toilet and other improvements. Community tradesmen donated services. Clemons and other volunteers worked hundreds of hours getting the place ready to open for the 2017 season, painting, spackling, assembling bunkbeds and finishing numerous other projects. During last season’s harsh winter, the warming station opened 103 nights straight and sheltered 101 different people from the cold. Thirty-seven volunteers worked at the facility. “We could easily use twice that many,” Clemons said. “We won’t open without at least two volunteers on site.” The Pendleton Warming Station is one of two such shelters in Umatilla County. The Hermiston Warming Station opened on Nov. 20 and has served six to eight guests each night. Volunteer Trish Roselle said 30 different people have stayed so far and she expects that number to hit 100 by the end of February when the warming station closes. On this first night of the season in Pendleton, the warming station welcomed four guests — three men and one woman. On Sunday, seven people stayed the night. The census should rise as word spreads. Each guest gets a warm meal. Clemons praised eateries such as Big John’s, the Sundown Bar and Grill and PHS culinary students for regularly bringing food. KaSandra Williams said she volunteered at the facility for some- thing to do and fell in love with it. “I feel like I’m doing something for the greater good,” she said. “I’m not just throwing money at the problem, I’m putting time in.” She genuinely likes the people who come out of the cold into this place. “These guys and gals are pretty awesome,” Williams said. She urged anyone interested in volunteering to attend one of the periodic trainings. The shelter’s lodgers can’t all be put into the same box. Neighbor 2 Neighbor vice chairman Dwight Johnson has volunteered at the warming station since near the beginning of the facility’s history seven years ago. He said some of the guests are simply down on their luck. Others struggle with substance abuse or mental illness — or both. Sometimes the two are so entwined that they can’t be teased apart or ordered. “Do they develop mental illness because of substance abuse, or did substance abuse lead to mental illness?” Johnson said. He shrugged. It doesn’t really matter, at least in respect to the warming station’s mission. A guest is a guest — someone who needs to get out of the cold and doesn’t have a home or money for a hotel room. The warming station board maintains laser-like focus on its reason for existence. “We offer shelter for anyone who needs a place to stay on a cold winter night,” Clemons said. “We don’t want anyone freezing on the street.” The mission, he said, is simple, narrow and basic. The warming station offers people a chance to sleep in a warm bed and live to see another day. “They’ll have tomorrow and they’ll walk away with a little bit of hope,” Clemons said. ——— Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@ eastoregonian.com or 941-966- 0810. outdoor-apparel company will join an expected court fight against the monument reduction, which she described as the “largest elimination of protected land in American history.” No president has tried to eliminate a monument, but some have reduced or redrawn the boundaries on 18 occasions, according to the National Park Service. TREE: Will be adding extra lighting to the area this year Continued from 1A This year’s tree comes from Victory Square Park, where parks and recreation director Larry Fetter said it was crowding out a number of smaller trees and needed to be removed. “It’s a cedar,” he said. “It’s a really nice shape, and it’s got a great color to it.” Vehicle traffic on Second Street between Gladys Avenue and Main Street will be blocked during the month of December while the tree is in place. In the spring the city plans to begin turning that block into a festival street featuring decorative brick- work, landscaping, lighting and other features. “I’m hoping construction on the festival plaza is done for next year,” Fetter said. “Looking at the schedule, it looks like it will be, otherwise I’ll have to find a temporary spot for this.” On Monday morning the tree traveled across town in horizontal position on the back of a UEC truck before arriving in front of city hall, where about six feet of trunk was lowered into the hole in the street and packed in with dirt. Fetter said the city will be adding extra lighting to the tree and the street surrounding it this year after people commented it could use more. This is the third year the city has placed a giant tree on Second Street. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@eastorego- nian.com or 541-564-4536. DEFICIT: $21B unfunded liability in the public retirement system Continued from 1A more than 350,000 low-in- come Oregonians. Its repeal would compel state leaders to come up with a way to offset the loss in revenue, including the possibility of reducing subsidies for health coverage. Any state tax overhaul conversation likely would spark calls for the state to curtail employee benefit costs and up employee contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System to help offset a $21 billion unfunded liability in the system. “I think the role of the state is to make sure that we are incenting local employers … on paying down their (unfunded actu- arial liability) so the entire number comes down,” Brown said. “That will even- tually reduce employer rates and enable us to put more money into classrooms … and services that vulnerable Oregonians need.” She said she also could ask employees to “have some skin in the game.” “We are looking at cost sharing/risk sharing,” she said. Her staffers also are examining recommendations by a PERS task force to come up with policy proposals for February. “I have asked my team to put together a handful of options and I look forward to working with the business community on what those look like,” Brown said. The 15th annual summit — founded by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden — drew more than 1,200 businesspeople, policy wonks, politicians and others to the Oregon Convention Center. The event also serves as the vehicle for unveiling the annual Oregon Business Plan, a policy roadmap for stimulating the economy and supporting business in the state. GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT Please join us for a... Holiday Celebration Dinner Tuesday, December 5th 5:00 - 7:00pm The menu will include: Prime rib and ham, bourbon sweet potatoes, vegetable du jour & pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert. Adults - $10.00, children 6-12 - $5.00, under 5 - FREE We will honor November and December Birthdays, as well as Resident and Staff of the Month. ***Please RSVP by November 30th*** McKay Creek Estates 1601 Southgate Place Pendleton, OR 97801 (541) 276-1987