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OPINION:
THE COURT:
CITIZENSHIP:
IN DEFENSE
OF PATRIOTISM
PAGE 4A
TRUMP INTERVIEWS
POSSIBLE JUSTICES
PAGE 12A
HEPPNER GIRL
PREACHES IT
PAGE 13A
TUESDAY, JULY 3, 2018
142nd Year, No. 183
WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Fire held back from homes
Neighbors, fire crews
battle Southgate fire
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
A grass fire endangered
homes and forced the evacuation
of the Burger King restaurant
in Pendleton Monday, though
quick work by neighbors and
fire crews stopped it from caus-
ing major damage.
Interim Pendleton Fire Chief
Shawn Penninger said the fire
department received a call of a
brush fire at 11:58 p.m. and had
it out about 1:30 p.m., although
fire crews were on hand long
after to make sure the fire did
not restart.
Penninger said no one was
hurt and no structures were dam-
aged, but the fire but burned an
estimated 25 acres and came
close to threatening the old U.S.
Forest Service building.
The fire was complicated by
strong winds and the hilly ter-
rain, but Penninger said the fire-
fighting effort was helped by a
quick response by the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife
and other area agencies.
Penninger said the fire
department suspects the fire
was caused by a person riding
a motorized dirt bike through
the brush — the sparks from the
engine or a hot muffler can cause
fires — but the exact cause has
not been confirmed.
Charred brush was still visi-
ble from the Burger King drive-
through window, but business
had returned to normal an hour
after the fire was extinguished.
Supervisor Emily Laurson
said staff continued to work after
smoke was spotted but began
evacuating the building once
flames were visible.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A firefighter with the Oregon Department of Forestry fights
a wind-swept wildfire off of Southwest Hailey Avenue on
Monday in Pendleton.
Laurson said eight staff mem-
bers and 12-18 customers were
forced from the restaurant, with
employees shutting off all the
kitchen equipment and locking
the doors behind them.
See FIRE/13A
One dollar
District 2
challenger
looks for
common
ground
McLeod-Skinner thinks
unique upbringing and
life story give her an edge
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
On paper, Jamie McLeod-Skin-
ner might seem a long shot to win Ore-
gon’s conservative Second Congressio-
nal District.
She’s female, a Democrat and gay.
McLeod-Skinner, 50, last year joined
a crush of other female candidates vying
for a Congressional seat nationwide. The
wave of women included 339 Democrats
and 92 Republicans.
McLeod-Skinner prevailed over six
rivals to win the primary and take on Ore-
gon Rep. Greg Walden in November. The
Republican incumbent leads the state’s
massive Second Congressional District,
encompassing Eastern Oregon and most
of southwestern Oregon. Walden, who
has breezed through the past 10 elections
with ease, chairs the House Energy &
Commerce Committee.
Eastern Oregonians have known
Walden for 20 years, but McLeod-Skin-
ner is a less familiar name, though she’s
logged around 40,000 miles in a quest
to get to know the constituents in the
65,491-square-mile district.
Recently, she agreed to talk about her
life and what led her to run against an
incumbent who is lodged firmly in the
upper echelons of Congress. She sat down
See CANDIDATE/13A
HAPPY FOURTH!
An award-winning citizen
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Heppner fourth-grader Rylee Palmer holds her first place winning entry in the national “Character Counts!” essay
and drawing contest. Palmer wrote her essay on being a good citizen. For more on Palmer’s essay and philosophy on
citizenship, see Page 13A.
We hope you enjoy this expanded
holiday edition of the East Orego-
nian. We will not publish a paper on
Wednesday, July 4, but have included
both comics (Page 9A) and the TV
listing (Page 10) for that day in today’s
paper. We will publish our next edition
on Thursday, July 5.
Columbia River keystone of NW ag economy
Agriculture, navigation, power, the environment are
all factors in the Columbia River Treaty negotiations
By MATTHEW WEAVER
EO Media Group
As they meet this summer to
update the Columbia River Treaty,
U.S. and Canadian negotiators hold
Northwest farmers’ futures in their
hands.
The treaty was adopted in 1964
for the cooperative development and
management of the Columbia River,
the 1,243-mile-long river that winds
through British Columbia, Canada,
and Washington state and whose
tributaries are as far-flung as Mon-
tana, Idaho, Wyoming and Oregon.
Some provisions of the treaty are
set to expire in 2024, and U.S. and
Canadian negotiators met in Wash-
ington, D.C., in May to begin talks
on how to update them. The next
round of negotiations will take place
Aug. 15-16 in British Columbia.
“The Columbia River Treaty is a
huge deal for farmers,” said Clark
Kagele, a farmer in Odessa, Wash.,
and secretary of the Columbia Basin
Development League. “It’s basically
going to have control of all future
water supplies.”
For farmers such as Kagele, who
depend on the Odessa aquifer, hav-
ing access to Columbia River water
is crucial. He estimates he has less
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
See COLUMBIA/14A
The Columbia River at Crescent Bar, Wash., near Wanapum reservoir.