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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 2018)
WEEKEND EDITION FBI PROBING CLINTON FOUNDATION NATION/8A CONQUER FEAR LIFESTYLES/1C GOLDEN EAGLES SOAR OVER BADGERS SPORTS/1B JANUARY 6-7, 2018 142nd Year, No. 58 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Pot tax brings in $131,000 in fi rst 6 months By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Tax revenue from Pendleton’s marijuana dispensaries has given the city more green than it knows what to do with. According to the Pendleton Finance Department, the city has received $131,963 thus far from marijuana taxes in the current fi scal year, which runs from July 2017 through June 2018. The fi gure caught both City Manager Robb Corbett and Mayor John Turner by surprise. “I’m surprised that it’s that high,” Turner said. When city staff put together the budget last spring, they projected the city would make $25,000 from marijuana revenue in the entire fi scal year, a conservative estimate made while staff waited to see how the local mari- juana industry developed. Pendleton has three marijuana dispensaries — High Desert Cannabis, Kind Leaf Pendleton and Pendleton Cannabis — that it receives tax revenue from. The city also receives its share of the 17 percent sales tax the state levies on cannabis retailers, in addition to a local 3 percent tax that was approved by voters in 2016. Corbett said the local sales tax was a bigger revenue driver than the state tax. With a six-fi gure windfall and more revenue coming before the fi scal year is over, the decision on how to spend the money now lies with Pendleton City Council. Turner said the council hasn’t had the chance to discuss where the money will go, but added that there’s plenty of city projects and ideas in need of funding. Staff photo by E.J. Harris Long-time Pendleton doctor Dan Marier has retired after serving patients in the area for 33 years. So long, Doc Dr. Dan Marier retires after 33 years of caring for Pendleton patients By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Dr. Dan Marier clearly remem- bers his fi rst day of doctoring in Pendleton. Marier had moved to Oregon from Denver to practice with Dr. Norm Sitz and two other doctors at Pendleton Internal Medicine. “I started at 8 o’clock on Oct. 15, 1984 — the fi rst day of bird season,” Marier recalls. “There was a note on my desk from Norm that said, ‘Gone bird hunting.’” Marier saw 20 new patients that day and 20 the next day. He was off and running and didn’t slow down — until recently. The internist retired in December after 33 years in practice. Marier said he and his then- wife, Cheryl (an obstetrician) selected Pendleton because it satisfi ed their list of criteria. “We took vacations and trips all over the western U.S. investi- gating where to move,” he said. “We chose Pendleton because it was away from a major metropol- itan area, it had four seasons and it didn’t have a boom-and-bust economy.” Turns out, the town needed him. “They had been recruiting for an internist and had given up,” Marier said. Marier said he felt at home practicing medicine in the same vein as Marcus Welby, the main character in a long-running televi- HERMISTON Cowboy and Indian restaurant opens By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian It may look like business as usual from the outside, but those walking into the old Stockman’s Steakhouse building on North First Street will be in for a surprise — it’s now home to an Indian restaurant and buffet. “We will change [the signs] within a week or so,” said co-owner Gaurav Bhatia, who stood in the middle of a bustling lunch crowd on Friday, the restaurant’s third day of operations. Soon, he said, the outside of the building will bear the new restaurant’s name: Indian Kitchen and Steakhouse. The inside of the building, too, looks familiar, with the booths and deçor still the same. Even the menus still bear Stockman’s name and offer the same fare. The biggest difference is a buffet fi lled with eight to 10 steaming Indian dishes, from Tandoori sion show about an affable family doctor who got involved in his patients’ lives. “I could develop long-term relationships with my patients,” Marier said. “I could practice the specialty of internal medicine to pretty much its full scope.” Marier, who is now 68, described himself as a science nerd who grew up in the rustbelt town of Binghamton, New York. As a See MARIER/10A Trump wants another round of Bounds for Circuit Court East Oregonian Staff photo by E.J. Harris Robert Leinweber fi lls his plate at the lunch buffet on Friday at the Indian Kitchen and Steakhouse in Hermiston. chicken and saag paneer to chana masala and vegetable korma. Bhatia, who opened the restaurant with his wife, Rosy Sidhu and his cousin, Raman- deep Singh Malhi, said the idea for opening an Indian restaurant in Hermiston came together quickly. “A lot of our customers have See BUFFET/10A “As of lately, I’ve seen more variety. Especially with this place and the Hibachi place — I think people want more.” — Otey Muniz, Hermiston resident Ryan Bounds, an assistant U.S. Attorney for Oregon and a Hermiston native, has been nominated for a second time by President Donald Trump for a seat on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The White House announced the nomi- nation of Bounds and 20 other justices on Friday in states it said are “suffering from judicial emergen- cies.” Bounds was fi rst nominated by Bounds Trump in September to replace Appellate Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, who took semi-retirement senior status on Jan. 1, 2017. Bounds’ nomination was effectively blocked at the time by Oregon Sens. Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, both See BOUNDS/10A