WEATHER
East Oregonian
Page 2A
REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
FRIDAY
TODAY
SATURDAY
Very hot
Sunny, breezy and
not as hot
110° 70°
99° 62°
SUNDAY
Sunshine and
cooler
Mostly sunny
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
86° 54°
92° 60°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
102° 65°
111° 73°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
105°
89°
111° (1972)
61°
59°
40° (1893)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.00"
0.00"
0.09"
6.49"
11.30"
8.04"
through 3 p.m. yesterday
HIGH
LOW
102°
89°
108° (1972)
58°
59°
40° (1934)
0.00"
0.00"
0.05"
5.10"
6.59"
5.97"
SUN AND MOON
Aug 11
Aug 18
Full
5:48 a.m.
8:13 p.m.
3:34 a.m.
7:08 p.m.
Last
Aug 26
Sep 2
John Day
107/65
Ontario
106/64
Bend
103/61
Caldwell
105/61
Burns
103/53
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
73
106
103
64
103
103
97
107
111
107
98
106
104
103
65
68
106
109
110
98
107
99
105
105
96
110
106
Lo
58
54
61
53
53
63
57
70
73
65
52
61
58
66
57
58
64
65
70
64
60
60
70
55
61
77
67
W
c
s
s
c
s
s
s
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
c
c
s
s
s
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
pc
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Fri.
Hi
69
105
92
64
99
101
80
97
102
101
90
102
98
92
65
68
106
104
99
85
96
81
101
96
83
102
102
Lo
60
54
47
53
46
57
57
59
65
55
45
57
53
59
57
59
70
64
62
62
46
58
62
49
60
67
58
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
c
s
s
c
s
s
pc
s
s
s
pc
s
s
s
c
c
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
93
91
86
66
74
75
72
89
90
65
86
Lo
76
81
69
52
55
55
52
72
78
46
79
W
pc
pc
s
c
t
pc
r
s
t
s
r
Fri.
Hi
94
88
88
69
74
80
75
89
94
72
89
Lo
77
81
70
54
55
57
56
72
77
53
79
W
pc
t
s
pc
t
s
pc
s
pc
s
pc
WINDS
Medford
103/66
PRECIPITATION
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
First
Albany
96/57
Eugene
97/57
TEMPERATURE
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
96° 54°
Spokane
Wenatchee
105/70
105/76
Tacoma
Moses
94/58
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 109/67
105/64
75/58
96/55
106/67
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
90/58
110/77 Lewiston
109/70
Astoria
112/70
73/58
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
98/64
Pendleton 103/63
The Dalles 111/73
110/70
108/75
La Grande
Salem
106/61
99/60
Corvallis
96/57
HERMISTON
Yesterday
Normals
Records
90° 53°
Seattle
93/61
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
87° 54°
Today
MONDAY
Sunny to partly
cloudy
83° 54°
Thursday, August 9, 2018
(in mph)
Boardman
Pendleton
Klamath Falls
98/52
REGIONAL FORECAST
Eastern Washington: Hazy sunshine today,
but sunnier across the south. A star-studded
sky tonight.
Cascades: Hot today with plenty of sun-
shine. Hazy tonight. Sunny to partly cloudy
tomorrow.
Northern California: Partly sunny at the
coast today; hazy elsewhere.
Friday
WSW 10-20
W 8-16
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Coastal Oregon: Low clouds, then perhaps
some sun today. Low clouds tonight. Mostly
cloudy tomorrow.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Very hot today
with blazing sunshine. Clear tonight. Very
hot tomorrow.
Western Washington: Sunny today, except
low clouds followed by sunshine at the
coast.
Today
NNW 3-6
NNW 4-8
2
4
7
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211
333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211
Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed major holidays
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Local home delivery Savings off cover price
EZPay
$14.50
41 percent
52 weeks
$173.67
41 percent
26 weeks
$91.86
38 percent
13 weeks
$47.77
36 percent
*EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit or debit card/check charge
www.eastoregonian.com
East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and
postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to
East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
Single copy price:
$1 Tuesday through Friday, $1.50 Saturday
Circulation:
541-966-0828
Copyright © 2018, EO Media Group
2
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255
or go online to www.eastoregonian.com
and click on ‘Subscribe’
4
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
Subscriber services:
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
7
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Drenching thunderstorms will focus over the South Central states
where there is a risk of flash flooding today. Storms will be scattered about the Northeast
and Upper Midwest. Much of the West will stay dry.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 108° in Needles, Calif.
Low 27° in West Yellowstone, Mont.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
90
89
87
89
95
89
106
86
93
83
89
85
91
87
86
94
63
88
87
93
87
93
92
106
81
94
Lo
65
72
71
68
61
71
73
72
75
66
68
67
76
60
66
73
44
61
77
76
68
74
69
83
70
71
W
pc
t
pc
pc
s
t
s
t
t
pc
t
s
c
pc
pc
pc
c
s
t
t
s
t
s
s
t
s
Fri.
Hi
82
87
87
89
97
88
107
86
92
83
82
82
93
85
83
88
65
92
87
92
86
93
91
104
87
89
Lo
62
72
73
70
64
71
68
68
76
67
66
63
75
59
63
69
48
63
78
76
66
73
67
82
70
69
Today
W
pc
t
pc
pc
s
t
s
s
t
pc
pc
t
t
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
r
t
pc
t
t
s
t
s
Hi
Louisville
89
Memphis
85
Miami
91
Milwaukee
85
Minneapolis
88
Nashville
89
New Orleans
90
New York City
87
Oklahoma City
87
Omaha
94
Philadelphia
90
Phoenix
101
Portland, ME
83
Providence
87
Raleigh
92
Rapid City
87
Reno
103
Sacramento
97
St. Louis
93
Salt Lake City
96
San Diego
89
San Francisco
69
Seattle
93
Tucson
92
Washington, DC 89
Wichita
91
Lo
71
72
77
68
69
69
78
72
68
69
72
83
66
69
69
59
63
61
70
67
77
53
61
74
73
67
W
pc
t
pc
t
s
c
t
pc
t
s
pc
t
t
t
pc
s
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
s
t
pc
s
Fri.
Hi
89
85
90
78
88
87
88
88
90
90
89
100
82
89
93
91
99
97
92
98
88
69
81
92
90
93
Lo
72
70
77
66
69
68
78
71
68
66
72
83
59
67
69
62
64
62
69
69
75
53
60
73
73
67
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
ADVERTISING
Regional Publisher and Revenue Director:
Christopher Rush
541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com
Advertising Services: Grace Bubar
541-276-2214 • gbubar@eastoregonian.com
Multimedia Consultants:
• Kimberly Macias
541-278-2683 • kmacias@eastoregonian.com
• Jeanne Jewett
541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com
• Dayle Stinson
541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com
• Angela Treadwell
541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com
• Audra Workman
541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com
Classified & Legal Advertising
1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678
classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com
NEWS
• To submit news tips and press releases:
call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com
• To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News:
email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini at
541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818.
• To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries:
email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit www.eastoregonian.
com/community/announcements
• To submit sports or outdoors information or tips:
541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Manager: Janna Heimgartner
541-966-0822 • jheimgartner@eastoregonian.com
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
With strong economy, FBI agent denies firing shots
state jobs go unfilled
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Amid a
strong economy and a tight-
ening labor market, pri-
vate employers across Ore-
gon are struggling to fill job
openings.
And while state officials
say there’s no definitive data
on the subject, anecdotal
evidence suggests that state
government is having simi-
lar problems.
“We are definitely see-
ing the same thing as the pri-
vate sector,” said Steve Cox,
workforce planning adminis-
trator at the Oregon Depart-
ment of Corrections.
Using data reported
by the state’s businesses,
the Oregon Employment
Department says about 64
percent of vacant positions
in the private sector are “dif-
ficult to fill.”
About 30 percent of dif-
ficult-to-fill vacancies were
hard to fill due to a lack of
applicants. About 17 per-
cent did not attract qualified
applicants, and 14 percent
were hard to fill, employers
said, because of unfavorable
working conditions.
State government had
more than 5,800 job vacan-
cies as of July 18, accord-
ing to data provided by
the state’s Department of
Administrative Services.
For context, as of June,
there were 40,285 paid state
workers, including full-time,
part-time, seasonal and tem-
porary workers.
However, there are a
number of circumstances
that would cause a state job
to remain vacant, says DAS
spokeswoman Liz Craig.
Vacancies may mean
that the agency is holding
the position unfilled to save
money, or that it’s recruit-
ing for the position but hav-
en’t hired yet. Alternatively,
the position may be being
re-classified, or another
employee is doing some
of the position’s work as
a rotation or development
assignment.
EO Media Group
A robust economy is tightening the labor pool. Or-
egon is actively trying to fill nearly 400 of the
5,800 authorized state government positions
that are vacant.
It may be more useful to
look at open positions the
state is actively recruiting
for: as of July 18, the state
had nearly 400 active job
postings, and about 60 inter-
nal job openings, according
to DAS.
Recruitment is top of
mind for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Corrections: the
agency has created a recruit-
ing team, increased its social
media presence and held
special one-day recruiting
events in an effort to shep-
herd job applicants through
the process more quickly.
The state’s corrections
department has about 200
vacancies, says Steve Cox,
the agency’s workforce plan-
ning administrator.
“With Department of
Corrections, we have 14
institutions in the state, and
each of those is like a small
little city, so we’re hiring
everybody from adminis-
trative personnel to doctors,
dentists and nurses,” Cox
said Tuesday.
Cox says it’s hardest to
fill openings for nurses, doc-
tors and correctional officers,
especially when the agency
has to deal with negative
public perceptions about
working in corrections. It’s
also competing against coun-
ty-level law enforcement
agencies and private sector
employers, such as Amazon,
which is opening several
new centers in the state this
year and plans to hire thou-
sands of workers.
The Oregon Department
of Transportation is also
working to attract employ-
ees, setting up a specific
ODOT jobs account on
Twitter, sending postcards
to recent graduates, attend-
ing job fairs and advertising
online.
It’s hardest to fill posi-
tions for engineers, land sur-
veyors and electricians, says
Kevin Beckstrom, a pub-
lic information officer for
the department. He says it’s
especially challenging to
hire for licensed professions
in the midst of a construction
boom.
“We’re competing against
other (departments of trans-
portation), and against con-
sultants, so it’s just diffi-
cult to grab that top talent,”
Beckstrom said. He said that
“compensation and location”
are usually significant fac-
tors in causing applicants to
choose other opportunities.
Corrections
Wednesday’s story “National Night Out block par-
ties spread out” reported Shauna Altman and Lisa Bork
work for the Pendleton School District. They each work
for different neighboring districts. The EO sincerely
regrets the error.
W
pc
t
t
pc
s
t
pc
pc
s
s
pc
pc
s
s
pc
s
pc
pc
s
pc
pc
pc
c
c
pc
t
PORTLAND (AP) — An FBI agent who
is on trial on obstruction and other charges
denied Wednesday he fired any shots at a
militia leader who participated in the armed
takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge.
W. Joseph Astarita, who began testifying
in his own defense late Tuesday, said he has
never fired his weapon in the line of duty and
did not remove shell casings from the scene.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Astarita
also described his background and detailed
his training.
Astarita has pleaded not guilty to charges
of making false statements and obstruction of
justice after telling investigators he did not
fire two shots that missed Robert “LaVoy”
Finicum, a key figure in a group that seized
the refuge for several weeks in early 2016
while protesting the imprisonment of two
ranchers.
The errant shots came as Finicum left his
pickup while authorities tried to arrest him at
a roadblock on Jan. 26, 2016. Oregon State
Police fatally shot Finicum seconds later — a
killing deemed legally justified.
Investigators looking into the shooting
were able to quickly identify those responsi-
ble for six of the eight rounds fired that day.
No one owned up to the other two. After an
investigation into the mystery shots, Astarita
was indicted in June 2017.
During Wednesday’s testimony, Astar-
ita said he didn’t fire his rifle when Finicum
stepped from his truck because he was con-
cerned about a potential crossfire situation.
Astarita said his initial role was to “man
the roadblock,” standing on a small ladder
behind the front hood of an FBI rental truck
that formed part of a V formation in the north-
bound lane of U.S. 395.
Agent John Neidert was on a ladder
behind the hood of another FBI truck in the
southbound lane.
Astarita said he saw Finicum’s truck
speeding toward them. He said he got onto
the hood of the truck in front of him, and tried
to get a sight on the driver’s side of Finicum’s
pickup to see if he “could apply effective fire
on that driver.”
But he couldn’t see inside the cab of Fin-
icum’s truck. Soon, the pickup veered into a
snowbank and he heard a supervisor com-
mand, “Bail out! Bail out! Bail out!”
“I saw the truck come through the snow.
I saw John disappear,” Astarita testified. “At
that point, I thought John was dead.”
Astarita testified that he started moving to
help Neidert, and felt tremendous relief when
he realized the agent had not been hit by the
pickup.
Astarita said he saw Finicum exit the
truck, but noticed an Oregon State Police offi-
cer in his backdrop.
“Did you fire your weapon at that
moment?” defense lawyer Robert Cary asked.
“No, I did not,” Astarita responded.
“Did you fire your weapon at all that day?”
Cary continued.
“No, I did not,” Astarita said.
Prosecutors who rested their case earlier
this week contend Astarita is the only one
who could have taken the disputed shots.