WINNING
STREAK
BROKEN
SPORTS/2B
52/33
STRANDED
IN ATLANTA
AIRPORT
Death rate to
outpace birth
rate by 2027
OREGON/2A
NATION/6A
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2017
142nd Year, No. 44
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
Fire takes everything from family
Mother in hospital with newborn as fi re guts home
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by Phil Wright
Kyle Bannick points a fl ashlight to where he was
sleeping Saturday morning when he escaped the fi re
that destroyed his home in Pendleton.
Kyle Bannick was sound asleep on
the couch Saturday morning when a text
message from his girlfriend woke him.
That text, he said, probably saved his life.
“I looked up, and the fl ames were
coming over and stuff was raining down
around me,” he said. “It just, like, went
up in seconds.”
The Pendleton Fire Department
responded at about 7 a.m. Saturday
to the trailer home at space 21 of
Riverside Mobile Estates, 2712 N.E.
Riverside Ave., Pendleton. Bannick, 24,
was salvaging what he could Monday
afternoon. Soot and char covered almost
every surface.
He shined a fl ashlight on the stove
fl ue and said the fi re started there, only a
few feet from where has been sleeping.
When he realized his home was afl ame,
he said, he fi rst saved the cat, then
grabbed some family photos. That was
about all he could save, he said. The fi re
even took Christmas gifts.
“All the presents just melted,” he said.
His pet frog, however, survived in
its large tank, though smoke blackened
the glass.
His girlfriend, Andi Davis, 33, and
their two children were not at home
when the fi re began. He said they were
See FIRE/8A
Pheasant
hunters bag
two suspects
on the lam
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Burglary suspects on the run Sunday in
south Morrow County picked the wrong
canyon for a getaway.
Daniel Faustino Arce, 28, and Desireea
Delane Devin, 23, ended up behind
bars after pheasant hunters on TREO
Ranches, Heppner, held the desperate
duo at gunpoint until
offi cers
arrived.
Morrow
County
District
Attorney
Justin Nelson said a
dogged neighbor also
played a key role in
their capture.
Nelson said Roger
Britt of Heppner
spotted a neighbor’s Daniel Arce
garage open on the
54400 block of Upper
Rhea Creek Road and
their Jeep Cherokee
taking off. Britt
found that suspicious,
Nelson said, and
decided to follow.
That became a
car chase, and the
suspects fi red one
round at Britt. Nelson Desireea Devin
said Britt broke off
and decided to bring in law enforcement.
Meanwhile, he said, the Jeep thieves
broke into a shed on the 60100 block
of Valby Road and stole gas cans. From
there, they ended up stuck in a ditch and
tried to set fi re to the Jeep on property
belonging to TREO Ranches, where
owner Phil Carlson was conducting a
pheasant hunt.
Carlson and his crew drew guns
on Arce and Devin until offi cers from
Oregon State Police and the Morrow
County Sheriff’s Offi ce arrived. Carlson
did not return a call for comment from the
East Oregonian, but he posted photos of
the apprehension on his Facebook page.
Police booked the pair into the
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Cars from an Amtrak train lay spilled onto Interstate 5 below alongside smashed vehicles as some train cars remain on the
tracks above Monday in DuPont, Wash.
Derailed on fi rst run
Washington Amtrak train hurtles onto highway, killing several people
By RACHEL LA CORTE, GILLIAN FLACCUS
and MICHAEL SISAK
Associated Press
This image
from video
provided by
KOMO-TV,
shows the
site of an
Amtrak
train that
derailed
south of
Seattle on
Monday.
DUPONT, Wash. — An Amtrak train making the fi rst-
ever run along a faster new route hurtled off an overpass
south of Seattle on Monday and spilled some of its cars
onto the highway below, killing at least three people,
injuring dozens and crushing two vehicles, authorities said.
Attention quickly turned to the train’s speed. A website
that maps location and speed using data from Amtrak’s
train tracker app showed the train was going 81.1 mph
about a quarter of a mile from the point where it derailed,
where the speed limit is signifi cantly lower.
There were 80 passengers and fi ve on duty crew when
the train derailed and pulled 13 cars off the tracks. Author-
ities said there were three confi rmed deaths. More than 70
people were taken for medical care — including 10 with
serious injuries.
KOMO-TV via AP
See TRAIN/8A
See HUNTERS/8A
New year to bring in taxes on bikes, vehicles
Will pay for state’s new
$5.3B transportation package
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
A new year will also ring in new taxes
in Oregon.
The Oregon Department of Revenue is
reminding citizens that the taxes created
to pay for the state’s new $5.3 billion
transportation package kick in next year.
The package, passed by the legislature
this summer, will provide billions of
dollars in upgrades to the state’s trans-
portation infrastructure, but the state must
raise the revenue to pay for it.
Starting Jan. 1, a fl at $15 fee will be
assessed on each bicycle with at least
26-inch wheels sold for more than $200.
Businesses will collect the money during
the sale and turn it over to the state on a
quarterly basis.
Two new taxes will be levied on
purchases of new vehicles in January.
A vehicle privilege tax, applied to car
dealers in Oregon, equals .5 percent
of the retail sale price of new vehicles,
including RVs, motorcycles, vehicles
weighing 26,000 pounds or less and
leases on new vehicles. A vehicle use tax,
also .5 percent, is applied to vehicles in
the same categories that are purchased
outside of Oregon but will primarily be
used in Oregon or by an Oregon resident.
Starting July 1, a statewide transit
tax will take one tenth of one percent
of the wages of Oregon residents and
anyone who works in Oregon. Oregon
employers are required to deduct the tax,
and Oregon residents who work outside
See TAXES/8A
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
A sign in front of Scott’s Cycle & Sports in Hermiston
advertises a Christmas special. After the end of the month
bicycles with 26 inch wheels or larger costing at least $200
will be subject to a $15 tax.