FINALS
FROM 2A
TOURNEY
SPORTS/1B
GOP SETS
SIGHTS ON
NOVEMBER
Oil leak shuts
down Pilot Rock
Elementary
REGION/3A
OREGON/2A
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018
142nd Year, No. 99
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
One dollar
Black ice,
speed to
blame for
wrecks on
Cabbage
Twenty vehicles tangled
and nine people injured
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photos by E.J. Harris
Golden Eagle pride
Clockwise from top: Tribal drummers perform during the pre-game warmups of Nixyaawii’s 56-54 loss to County Christian
in the state 1A championship game on Saturday in Baker City. Sky Smith, 12, of Mission dances to tribal drummers during
halftime. Spectators and fans participate in a round dance as tribal drummers play a song during halftime.
For more on the game, see Sports, Page 1B.
Legislature adjourns
meeting narrow goals
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon
legislative leaders Saturday
celebrated a 28-day policy-
making session marked by
some bipartisan legislation.
The Legislature’s Demo-
cratic leaders launched the
session Feb. 5 with lofty
ambitions
of
universal
health care and a cap and
invest program. Adjourning
Saturday lawmakers left the
state Capitol having passed
smaller policy advancements
with consensus from the
Republican minority in many
instances.
“This session surprised
me,” said Senate President
Peter Courtney, D-Salem. “I
was worried that we were
over-committed, doing too
much, but we just adjourned
eight days before the consti-
tutional deadline.”
Lawmakers made a
fix to the state’s domestic
violence gun laws, passed
some measures to push back
on Trump administration
policies and made changes to
help fund affordable housing
and shed light on pharmaceu-
tical drug prices.
The Legislature’s “short”
session — held in even-num-
bered years — was sold to
voters in 2010 as a time to
fix laws and adjust the state
budget. In 2016, the Legis-
lature used the short session
to pass major policies such
as an increase in minimum
wage and limits on the use of
See SESSION/8A
Oegon State Police continues to
investigate the series of crashes on
the icy interstate near Pendleton that
injured nine people Saturday night.
Five suffered serious injuries,
according to state police. Ground
and air ambulances took victims
to St. Anthony Hospital, Pendleton
and Kadlec Regional Medical
Center, Richland. State police Lt.
Mike Turner in Pendleton said
having victims in hospitals in
different states adds another layer to
a complicated investigation.
“We’re just continuing to try to
put all the pieces together,” Turner
said.
Oregon State Police have not
confirmed the identities of the
victims. Turner said OSP has
received media questions about
a fatality from the crash, but no
agency or hospital involved has
confirmed any deaths. At this point,
he said, state police do not have
information that anyone died at the
scene or afterward.
State police reported 20 vehi-
cles — seven semi-tractors and 13
passenger cars — were involved.
Turner explained there was not one
large pile-up but instead separate
crashes on the westbound side of
Interstate 84 near milepost 223,
about 13 miles east of Pendleton.
The preliminary investigation
revealed speed and black ice helped
create a domino effect resulting in
the multiple collisions.
Around 6:20 p.m. a passenger
car stopped on the roadside because
a crash already was blocking traffic,
according to the daily log from state
See WRECK/8A
Two rallies converge on Capitol
Student demonstration focuses on gun control, immigrant allies support DACA
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Surrounded
by hundreds of students
demonstrating for stricter
gun laws, Gov. Kate Brown
Monday signed into a law
a bill that bans convicted
domestic abusers and
stalkers from buying or
owning guns.
House Bill 4145 also
prohibits those who have
a
domestic
violence
restraining order against
them from having firearms.
Proposed
by
the
governor, the legislation
was arguably the only signa-
ture law to emerge from the
Legislature’s 28-day poli-
cymaking session, which
ended Saturday, March 3.
The bill was approved in
the House with bipartisan
support and passed the
Senate with bipartisan
opposition.
Brown touted the legis-
lation as the nation’s first
gun safety law since the
tions already in place on gun
ownership and closes the
so-called “boyfriend loop-
hole” or “intimate partner
loophole,” as the governor
later started referring to it.
Domestic abusers who have
been married, cohabitated
or had children with their
victims were already banned
from having guns.
The bill signed into law
Monday expands that ban to
dating partners, with whom
the victim may not have
lived with nor had children
with.
“This loophole needed
AP Photo/Andrew Selsky
desperately to be closed,
High school students from Lake Oswego hold a and this bill closes it and
rally for gun control on the steps of the Oregon State protects victims of domestic
Capitol on Monday in Salem.
violence equally,” said
shooting rampage at the “Today marks an important Doreen Dodgen-Magee of
Marjory Stoneman Douglas milestone, but we know Moms Demand Action.
About 54 percent of
High School in Parkland, we have more to do. It’s
Florida, Feb. 14.
long past time we hold the mass shootings — those in
“I’m proud to sign this White House and Congress which four or more people
bill, making Oregon the accountable. Now’s the time are killed — between 2009
first state to take action to enact real change and and 2016 were related to
to prevent senseless gun federal gun safety legisla- domestic abuse, she said,
violence since the tragedy in tion.”
See RALLIES/8A
Parkland, Fla.,” Brown said.
The bill expands restric-
“I’m proud to sign this bill, making Oregon the first state to take action
to prevent senseless gun violence since the tragedy in Parkland”
— Kate Brown, Oregon governor