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TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, 2018
142nd Year, No. 59
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
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Bob Jenson: May 11, 1931 - Jan. 6, 2018
Elder statesman leaves lasting mark
Former educator won races as Democrat, Independent and Republican
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
The Dean of the House has
died.
Bob Jenson, who died Saturday
at age 86, served 18 years and
nine terms in the Oregon House
of Representatives until he retired
in 2015. The Pendleton legislator
started his fi rst term in 1997 and
served so long his colleagues
dubbed him “the Dean of the
House.”
“He was unique in that he ran
as a Democrat, as an Independent
and as a Republican,” said former
state senator David Nelson. “He
won every time.”
Jenson’s wife, Evelyn, remem-
bers her husband wrestling with
the idea of changing his political
affi liation.
“He was a Democrat at heart,
but he recognized that it wasn’t a
good fi t with his district,” Evelyn
said. “He tried to be an Indepen-
dent, but that leaves you bereft of
any infl uence.”
He did, however, get a kick
out of being “a caucus of one.”
Neither of the parties completely
fi t Bob, she said — fi scally, he was
more conservative and socially, he
leaned left. He seemed unfettered
by party lines.
Evelyn still hasn’t wrapped
her head around the idea that her
beloved husband of 46 years is
gone. The normally clearheaded
Evelyn says she’s feeling fuzzy
and disoriented as she grapples
with the loss. Their large close-
knit family is unmoored. Even
the dog, a Chesapeake Bay
Retriever who spent recent weeks
camped out at Bob’s bedside,
wanders around the house looking
confused and unsettled.
“She’s been inconsolable,”
Evelyn said.
Their family — four chil-
dren, 11 grandchildren and 13
great-grandchildren — fl owed
in and out of Jenson’s Pendleton
home on his last day. His death
ended an on-and-off struggle with
cancer that lasted fi ve years.
His time in the Oregon Legis-
See JENSON/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Rep. Bob Jenson sits on the Ways and Means committee Feb. 5, 2013,
in the state capitol in Salem.
Pendleton Round-Up buys Albertsons, adds to collection of properties
Cliven Bundy
emerges free,
defi ant after
case tossed
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press
hard to compete with Boardman,
Patterson and other regional Lamb
Weston facilities for the expansion,
which is expected to bring in at least
140 new jobs. The jobs are required
to meet or exceed Umatilla County’s
average wage — currently about
$18 per hour — with a total compen-
sation package worth 130 percent of
the average wage.
“It’s safe to say this investment
would not occur without the approval
of this agreement,” Morgan said.
The Umatilla County Commis-
sion has already approved the
agreement.
LAS VEGAS — The Nevada
rancher accused of leading an
armed standoff that stopped federal
agents from rounding up his cattle
in 2014 walked out of a courthouse
in Las Vegas a free and defi ant man
Monday, declaring that his fi ght
against U.S. authority is not over.
Cliven Bundy emerged to
supporters’ cheers, while environ-
mental and conservation advocates
worried that
the dismissal
of his charges
would bolster
“violent and
racist anti-gov-
ernment”
followers who
aim to erode
established
parks, wildlife
refuges
and Bundy
other public
lands controlled by U.S. offi cials.
“We’re not done with this,” the
71-year-old Bundy declared in his
fi rst minutes of freedom since his
arrest in February 2016.
The family patriarch and states’
rights fi gure said he had been held
as a political prisoner for 700 days
and promised that if U.S. Bureau
of Land Management agents come
again to seize his cattle over unpaid
grazing fees, they will encounter
“the very same thing as last time.”
“The whole world is looking
at us,” he said. “‘Why is America
acting like this? Why are we
allowing the federal government,
these bureaucracies, to have
armies?’ That’s a big question the
whole world wants to know.”
The stunning collapse of the
federal criminal case against Cliven
Bundy and his sons Ryan and
Ammon marked a new low for
government lawyers whose work
is now under review by the Trump
administration. Prosecutors have
faced several losses in Oregon and
Nevada arising from armed Bundy
standoffs over federal control of
vast stretches of land in the U.S.
West.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff
Sessions launched an investigation
into the Nevada case last month
after Chief U.S. District Judge
Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial.
On Monday, she dismissed outright
all 15 counts against Bundy, his
sons and Montana militia leader
Ryan Payne.
“The court fi nds that the
universal sense of justice has been
violated,” Navarro said as audible
gasps and sobs erupted in a court
See HERMISTON/8A
See BUNDY/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pat Beard, left, gestures while giving a tour of the Round-Up Grounds to a group with Travel Pendleton on Monday. The Round-Up
Association announced it has purchased the old Albertsons store across from the Round-Up Grounds.
REAL ESTATE ROUND-UP
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Months of rumors were fi nally
confi rmed Monday: the Pend-
leton Round-Up Association has
acquired the Albertsons property.
Located across Southwest
Court Avenue from the Round-Up
Grounds, the vacant grocery store
and its accompanying parking lot
will join a host of properties on
Southwest 18th Street and South-
west Byers Avenue, to the east of
the Round-Up Grounds.
“This acquisition marks a
huge step for our organization,”
Round-Up
President
Dave
O’Neill said in a statement. “It is a
welcome addition to our campus as
we continue to experience success
and the growth of our event.”
Round-Up Publicity Director
Randy Thomas said the property
has been on the rodeo association’s
radar since the Albertsons building
was vacated in 2014 and the prop-
erty was put on the market.
“It’s a pretty obvious, strategic
piece because it’s right across the
See ROUND-UP/8A
HERMISTON
Lamb Weston gets extended tax break,
will pay $1 million a year for 15 years
City, county will use
revenue for water
infrastructure project
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
A planned $220 million expansion
of Lamb Weston’s french fry making
operation in Hermiston will come
with a 15-year property tax break.
The Hermiston city council voted
unanimously on Monday to offer
its fi rst Long Term Rural Enterprise
Zone Agreement, in contrast to
previous three to fi ve year agree-
ments with DuPont Pioneer Seed,
Shearer’s Foods and Eastern Oregon
Telecom.
While other enterprise zone
agreements
have
exempted
companies from paying anything in
property taxes at all, however, the
15 year agreement offered to Lamb
Weston includes payments in lieu of
property taxes that will equal about
42 percent of what the company
would have paid in property taxes.
Those payments will total $1 million
per year for 15 years, split evenly
between the city of Hermiston and
Umatilla County.
Assistant city manager Mark
Morgan said the city had to work