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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 2018)
HUMVEE ROLLS ON I-84 SPORTS/1B BLAZERS DROP A BIG ONE IN DENVER REGION/3A FEDS RAID TRUMP’S ATTORNEY NATION/7A TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2018 142nd Year, No. 123 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar Brown’s special session in question By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — Some observers say Gov. Kate Brown’s call for a special legislative session has more to do with politics than making the Oregon tax code more equi- table. Brown, a Democrat running for reelection this year, said Friday she’ll call a special session sometime before the end of June to extend to owners of sole propri- etorships the special tax rates passed in 2013 for owners of other small businesses. At the same time, she announced she’d sign Senate Bill 1528, a bill that prevents owners of certain businesses — sole proprietorships, LLCs, partnerships and S-corporations — whose business income “passes through” to their personal income taxes from taking a new federal tax deduc- tion on their state taxes. Supporters say that bill was necessary to plug a budget hole caused by federal tax reform. It’s critics call the measure a $244 million tax hike. Brown said it’s not fair to give another break to LLCs, partnerships and S-corpo- rations when sole proprietorships can’t get the favorable tax rates passed by the state in 2013. But Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, sees the special session as a political gambit. “This is about politics not policy,” Boquist wrote in an email to the EO/ Pamplin Capital Bureau on Monday. Staff photos by E.J. Harris City of trees ABOVE: A honey bee flies up to harvest nectar from a cherry blossom in a tree Monday on Main Street in Pendleton. At an April 3 Pendleton City Council meeting, Katie Lompa of the Oregon Department of Forestry granted the city a Tree City USA Award for 2017. To be given the award, the city needed to establish a tree board or department, pass a tree care or- dinance, create a community foresty program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita and an Arbor Day observation and proclamation. Pendleton joins 63 other Oregon commu- nities as a Tree City USA. LEFT: Cherry trees in full bloom line Main Street in downtown Pendleton. See SESSION/8A PENDLETON UMATILLA Witness: UAV crashed Growing museum captures town’s history from hundreds of feet By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Harold Nelson was out on the airfield around 11:10 a.m. on March 31, when he saw the PAE Resolute Eagle, a unmanned vehicle that weighs well over 100 pounds, flying from east to west. This sight wasn’t unusual to Nelson, who owns and operates Pendleton Aircraft Service, an airplane and helicopter repair business, near the Pendleton airport. But according to Nelson, the drone’s flight looked “wobbly” before it suddenly veered north, “away from the center of the airport,” and crashed to the ground from a height of about 200 to 400 feet. “It looked like a loss of power and control,” he said Monday. PAE, the Federal Avia- tion Administration and the Pendleton Unmanned Aerial System Range have all confirmed that the crash caused a small fire. No one was hurt and nothing was damaged during the incident. The drone crashed in a wheat field on airport prop- erty and a picture Nelson took from his plane shows a black, scorched blot where the wheat caught fire. Despite confirmation from the range, the company and the federal government, official details on the crash remain scarce beyond the basic sequence of events. Range Manager Darryl Abling said PAE is still reviewing data on the inci- dent and holds daily meet- ings with range officials to discuss the crash. Although PAE is expected to provide a report to the test range with the cause of the crash and the measures it will take to prevent it from happening in the future, Abling declined to comment until it’s released. Although the Pendleton Fire Department was the agency that extinguished the fire caused by the crash, Fire Chief Mike Ciraulo See WITNESS/8A By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Robert Robertson peered from behind the jail house bars while Judy Simmons took his photo. Maybe it would help, she said, if he opened the door and stepped forward into more light. Robertson slid the door open and stood in the metal frame. Simmons said that was better. Robertson was one of several visitors Saturday to the jail and other exhibits at the Umatilla Museum’s open house to celebrate a cleaner look and new displays. That small jail cell in the former police station held memories for Robertson. “I’m the last guy that got to stay in the jail,” Robertson said, but that was 20 years and a different life ago. He had to do 21 days, probably for “noncompli- ance,” he said, then the city found the jail was “unfit for human life.” Even so, the city let him finish his sentence. During work days the police let him out to wash patrol cars or lend muscle to other city work, he said. Weekends, however, were all inside the jail. Golf played on a small black-and-white TV the cops set outside the jail’s two cells, he said, and the bunk mattress was the same as when he was there. And there was the food. “Swanson TV dinners,” Robertson said. “They used to feed us TV dinners three Staff photos by Phil Wright Umatilla Museum & Historical Foundation member Sam Nobles talks about some of the museum’s upgraded exhibits Saturday during its open house in Umatilla. Umatilla Museum & Historical Foundation member Judy Simmons takes a photo of Robert Robertson in the old city jail exhibit during the museum’s open house Saturday in Umatilla. Robertson was the jail’s last inmate. times a day. I didn’t eat TV dinners for a long time after that.” Simmons said Robertson was a key reason for the open house. She is a member and volunteer of the Umatilla Museum & Historical Foun- dation, the nonprofit that took on the task of recording the community’s 156 years of history. Robertson popped into the museum last year, Simmons said, glanced around and announced it looked like nothing had ever changed. “That lit a fire under us,” she said. Fellow museum and foundation member Sam Nobles said for years people brought in old items to the museum, but much of that piled up. He and others worked to separate the junk from the historical and tidy up the place. See MUSEUM/8A