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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 10, 2018)
Tuesday, July 10, 2018 OFF PAGE ONE STUDENTS: ‘It’s a great way to introduce them to America’ says organizer Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A of 10 young people selected from across China to com- pete in the international competition. The theme of this year’s contest is “Earth,” and Wong said her speech is about biodiversity. Felicity said she’s been to the U.S. before, but she was enjoying her first trip to a small town as opposed to a big city. Tobby Wang, a rambunc- tious 10-year-old from Gui- lin, talked about how much he enjoyed Pendleton’s dry climate. Tobby’s home- town in southern China has a subtropical climate with high humidity and an aver- age rainfall of 74 inches per year. “It feels like a boiler room,” he said. The student’s trip was organized by Kerry Yu, the fiancée of Hamley’s co-owner Blair Woodfield. Yu said she reached out to the group because she wanted to give them an authentic experience in a place where few Chinese tourists venture. “It’s a great way to intro- duce them to America,” she said, adding that tours from China to Eastern Oregon could increase in the future. Kristen Dollarhide, tour- ism and hospitality man- ager for Travel Pendleton, said she’s talked with Yu about organizing a week- Staff photo by E.J. Harris Jack Jing, 10, of Hong Zhou, China, looks up while try- ing on a cowboy hat Monday while touring the Pend- leton Round-Up Grounds. long camp for Chinese tour- ists revolving around Pend- leton’s western and tribal cultures. The Round-Up Travel Pendleton and have MERKLEY: Toured saw mill, ag research station Continued from 1A rate children from parents as a deterrent to illegal immi- gration, but that’s indeed what Attorney General Jeff Sessions said was the goal. He said the administration created a “big mess,” and after a belated decision to change the policy, it is now just incarcerating families who have applied for legal asylum. “Family incarceration is what we did in World War II with Japanese-Americans,” he said. And the whole scene is unnecessary, he said. Cus- toms and Immigration Ser- vices had a Family Case Management Program to process asylum seekers, until the Trump adminis- tration spiked it. The pro- gram provided asylum seek- ers with someone who spoke their native language, mon- itored them and kept them on track for hearings. Merk- ley said the Homeland Secu- rity inspector general report found participants in the pro- gram showed up for asylum hearings nearly 100 percent of the time. Merkley also said the confirmation of the next Supreme Court justice should wait not just until after the election, but until special counsel Robert Mueller concludes the Rus- sia investigation. The sen- ator also pounded on the Supreme Court’s 5-4 deci- sion from 2010 on Citi- zens United, which decided political spending is a form of free speech under the First Amendment. Presi- Staff photo by Kathy Aney Sen. Jeff Merkely, D-Oregon, listens to a question during a town hall meeting Sunday at the Pendleton Early Learning Center. dent Thomas Jefferson said the heart of the Constitution is giving equal voice to the people, Merkley asserted, and the Citizens United decision did away with that principal. Protecting Medicare and Social Security were top issues from questioners at the events. Merkley said he and others are fighting for health care and to keep Social Security solvent. On the road Merkley and his team on Friday visited the lumber mill in John Day. He and Oregon’s senior U.S. senator, Ron Wyden, also a Democrat, supported lengthening forest steward- ship contracts for logging, which kept the mill open. Merkley said the mill now has two dozen openings and is looking to hire. And Sunday morning he toured the Columbia Basin Agricultural Research Cen- ter, Adams. He and Wyden worked to include funding for ag research in the farm bill, which passed the Senate in late June on a 86-11 vote. The bill now is in the con- ference committee to work out differences in the House version. During a meeting with reporters, Merkley said staunching the flow of immigrants has not harmed wheat country, probably due to the mechanized nature of harvest and production. But certainly other crops feel the pinch. worked with European and Asian media organizations and tourism groups to pro- mote Pendleton for years, but there’s been some new developments in the interna- tional tourism industry. Later this month, Dol- larhide said a representa- tive from the Globe-Trotter Travel Guidebook will come to Pendleton to create an entry about Pendleton and some of its attractions. A recent filming of the Dutch reality TV show “The Mole” continues to pay divi- dends for the Round-Up and Pendleton: Round-Up Gen- eral Manager Casey Beard said he continues to field inquires from Dutch tour- ists every week about stop- ping by Pendleton to sneak a peek at the filming location. In the meantime, the Chi- nese students made the best of their time in Pendleton before they head for the East Coast. As the tour browsed through the store at the Round-Up and Happy Can- yon Hall of Fame, Yu said they were going to take a quick trip to D&B Supply for cowboy gear before end- ing the night at the Slickfork Saloon, where the students would model their brand new Western duds for their parents. ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastoregonian. com or 541-966-0836. COURT: Dems face choice “A lot of folks who would normally show up are not showing up,” Merkley said. “That’s a big problem.” Merkley touched on these topics and others when he met Friday with the East Oregonian edito- rial board. He spoke of vis- iting the Hidalgo Port of Entry in Texas, where fam- ilies seeking to make asy- lum claims had to camp out on the bridge between the U.S. and Mexico. He recalled meeting a young mother fleeing a Honduras drug cartel. He said under Sessions’ new rules, Cus- toms and Immigration will deny her claim because she is fleeing the cartel and not the government. Merkley has made a point of visiting every county in Oregon each year he has been a U.S. senator. This latest round started Thursday in Clackamas, Friday over to John Day, Saturday in La Grande and Wallowa and wrapped up Sunday in Pendleton and Boardman. The Morrow County town hall was his last of the year and marked his 360th since taking the office. Continued from 1A and effective writing style, universally regarded as one of the finest and sharpest legal minds of our time,” Trump said in his prime- time televised White House announcement. He added: “There is no one in America more qualified for this position, and no one more deserving.” With Kavanaugh, Trump is replacing a swing vote on the nine-member court with a staunch conservative. Kavanaugh, who serves on the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is expected to be less receptive to abortion and gay rights than Ken- nedy was. He also has taken an expansive view of exec- utive power and has favored limits on investigating the president. Speaking at the White House, Kavanaugh pledged to preserve the Constitution and said that “a judge must be indepen- dent and must interpret the law, not make the law. A judge must interpret the Constitution as written.” Some conservatives have expressed concerns about Kavanaugh, questioning his commitment to social issues like abortion and not- ing his time serving under President George W. Bush as evidence he is a more establishment choice. But his supporters have cited his experience and wide range of legal opinions. With Democrats deter- mined to vigorously oppose Trump’s choice, the Senate confirmation bat- tle is expected to dominate the months leading up to November’s midterm elec- tions. Senate Republicans hold only a 51-49 majority, leaving them hardly any margin if Democrats hold the line. Democratic sena- tors running for re-election in states Trump carried in 2016 will face pressure to back his nominee. “Tonight the president begins a forced march back to the days when women’s health care choices were made by government,” Oregon Senator Ron Wyden said. “There can be no mistaking Trump’s Supreme Court nomina- tion for anything but what it is: a direct attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade.” GoodHealth LIVE WITH JENNIFER POSTE, M.D., ENDOCRINOLOGIST TIRE: Grandchild first noticed roof Continued from 1A Emmons first noticed the depression in the roof on Saturday morning when his grandchild called him out back to point it out. Thinking termites had caused the dam- age, Emmons went to investi- gate in the attic. He found the tire had smashed through the roof and plywood, cracked a two-by-four support beam, and nestled itself in the insulation. “I look out here on the freeway and I don’t under- stand how it could have got- ten here,” said Emmons. There is little evidence of destruction in the path from the freeway to the house. The outermost fence was dam- aged diagonally from where the tire landed. What’s more, Emmons isn’t the owner of the house. He’s been renting the prop- erty for about a month with his wife, two daughters, and two grandchildren. He moved in two weeks after Memo- rial Day, when his own home caught fire and is now being repaired. “People say, ‘You’re hav- ing some bad luck,’” said Emmons. “But I’m having some good luck. We’ve had two catastrophes and no one is hurt.” A police log from around the same time states that a blue Dodge Caravan struck a semi-truck tire while travel- ing eastbound on I-84 around mile marker 210. The vehi- cle was damaged significantly and had to be towed. Emmons filed a report with Oregon State Police about the damage, but no one at the office was available Monday to comment on the case. 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