NORTHWEST
Experts prepare plan to capture ill orca if necessary
East Oregonian
Page 2A
By PHUONG LE
Associated Press
SEATTLE (AP) — Fed-
eral biologists said Wednes-
day they are preparing a plan
to capture and treat a sick,
critically endangered orca if
there is no other way to save
her in the wild.
Officials said they will
intervene and rescue the
orca only if she becomes
stranded or separated from
the rest of her tightly knit
group of whales.
They want the 4-year-old
orca known as J50 to survive
in the wild and contribute to
the recovery of southern res-
ident killer whales, without
putting the rest of the orcas
in her pod at risk.
“We don’t intend to inter-
vene while she’s with her
family. If we are presented
with a situation where a
rescue is the only viable
alternative, we will rescue
her,” Chris Yates, assistant
regional administrator for
NOAA’s protected resources
division, told reporters
during a call.
Veterinarians
believe
they have exhausted treat-
ment options in the field that
included twice injecting the
free-swimming whale with
antibiotics in Pacific North-
west waters. Despite the
treatment, J50 is thinner
than ever due to undeter-
mined health issues.
Brian Gisborne/Fisheries and Oceans Canada via AP, file
In this Aug. 7, 2018, file photo, southern resident kill-
er whale J50 and her mother, J16, swim off the west
coast of Vancouver Island near Port Renfrew, B.C.
Nearly two months after an international team of ex-
perts began taking extraordinary measures to save
the young sick orca, the critically endangered whale is
skinnier than ever. Now NOAA Fisheries and its part-
ners are weighing whether to intervene further to help
the orca known as J50.
“This is a very sick
whale,” said Joe Gaydos,
a wildlife veterinarian and
science director of SeaDoc
Society. “We don’t think she
has long.”
Another whale in the
same pod, known as J35,
triggered international sym-
pathy this summer when she
kept the body of her dead
calf afloat in waters for more
than two weeks.
The two whales are
among just 75 of the fish-eat-
ing orcas that spend time in
Pacific Northwest waters.
The southern resident
killer whales don’t have
enough chinook salmon, the
staple of their diet. They also
face threats from toxic con-
tamination as well as vessel
noise and disturbances that
disrupt their ability to com-
municate and forage.
There hasn’t been a suc-
cessful birth in the popula-
tion since 2015. Losing J50
would also mean losing her
reproductive potential.
NOAA Fisheries said
the next steps could include
doing a hands-on physi-
cal exam, which could lead
to quick medical treatment
and release. Another option
at that point would be hold-
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
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Partly sunny and
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MONDAY
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comfortable
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
73° 49°
67° 43°
69° 44°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
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OREGON FORECAST
72° 44°
ALMANAC
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PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
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TEMP.
Seattle
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66/53
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63/53
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Kennewick Walla Walla
71/50
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64/52
76/49
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64/51
Pullman
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69/44
Portland
Hermiston
69/54
The Dalles 75/47
Salem
72/49
66/46
Pendleton 60/36
71/46
La Grande
Yesterday
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Eugene
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70/48
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Ontario
72/41
Caldwell
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74°
46°
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49°
96° (1953) 31° (2014)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
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John Day
66/41
0.00"
Trace
0.14"
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72/41
65/29
0.00"
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11.37"
8.56"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Albany
69/49
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
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Last year to date
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
70/50
Corvallis
71°
48°
79°
51°
95° (1892) 25° (1921)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
65/49
Aberdeen
65/46
70/49
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
74/47
Fri.
WSW 7-14
WSW 7-14
WSW 4-8
NW 6-12
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
65/32
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Sunrise today
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6:31 a.m.
7:11 p.m.
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First
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
ing her in a marine net pen in
Puget Sound for a short time
for rehabilitation and medi-
cal care before returning her
to the wild to reunite with
her family.
J50 has lagged behind her
group in the ocean, at times
trailing for miles, raising
questions about what criteria
would be used to determine
if she has separated enough
for scientists to attempt
capture.
Yates said J50 would
have to show more extreme
behavior than what she has
exhibited so far, and scien-
tists will act if they don’t
believe she’ll reconnect with
her pod.
An international team of
Canadian and U.S. whale
experts has mounted an
intensive effort to help the
orca since concerns were
raised in mid-July.
They have taken breath
and fecal samples but still
don’t know for certain
what’s wrong with J50.
Response teams have
tried to give her medica-
tion to help with parasitic
worms, which they believe
she has based on fecal sam-
ples taken from her mother.
Teams have also dropped
live salmon from a boat
as J50 and her pod swam
behind — a test to see
whether fish could be used
as a means of delivering
medication.
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Romance writer accused
of killing spouse wrote
how-to essay in 2011
PORTLAND (AP) —
A woman accused of gun-
ning down her chef husband
is a self-published romance
writer who once penned an
essay titled “How to Murder
Your Husband.”
Nancy Crampton Bro-
phy, 68, published the 700-
word treatise in 2011 on the
website See Jane Publish,
The Oregonian/OregonLive
reported .
“As a romantic suspense
writer, I spend a lot of time
thinking about murder and,
consequently, about police
procedure,” she wrote.
“After all, if the murder is
supposed to set me free,
I certainly don’t want to
spend any time in jail.”
She has also written such
titles as “The Wrong Hus-
band,” a 2015 novel about a
woman who escapes an abu-
sive spouse during a ship-
wreck in the Mediterranean
and falls in love with one of
the men sent to find her.
Crampton Brophy was
arrested last week on a pre-
liminary charge of domestic
violence murder in the death
of her husband of 27 years,
Daniel Brophy, at the Ore-
gon Culinary Institute early
on June 2. He was a well-
liked instructor there, and
Oregon wildlife officials to
hunt for killer cougar
BRIEFLY
SALEM (AP) — Oregon wildlife offi-
cials with guns and dogs are preparing to
search for a cougar believed to have killed
a woman on rugged terrain in the shadow of
the state’s highest peak.
Brian Wolfer of the state wildlife depart-
ment said if a cougar is tracked down, wild-
life officials will kill it and then check for a
DNA match with DNA left on hiker Diana
Bober, 55, whose body was found Monday
almost two weeks after she was last heard
from.
Wolfer acknowledged that other cougars
might be killed, but said killing and testing
is the only option and that capturing a moun-
tain lion in the steep terrain isn’t an option.
Bober’s death marked the first fatal attack
by a wild cougar in Oregon and the second
in the Pacific Northwest this year.
Washington OKs killing more
wolves that attacked cattle
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — State wild-
life officials will kill members of a new wolf
pack that have attacked cattle in northeast
Washington.
Department of Fish and Wildlife Direc-
tor Kelly Susewind authorized the killing
Wednesday. It’s the second time in a month
he’s approved lethal remove of wolves.
Officials say the wolves killed a calf and
injured five others on federal grazing land
in Ferry County this month. The attacks
occurred in an area once occupied by the
Profanity Peak wolf pack.
Susewind authorized “incremental”
removal of one or two wolves. Efforts to trap
or shoot the animal will begin after Thurs-
day afternoon.
Earlier this month, an agency marksman
shot and killed a male member of the Togo
wolf pack.
Two environmental groups won a tempo-
rary restraining order to stop the killing of
that pack, but a judge declined to extend that
order Aug. 31.
Fired Nike account executive
sentenced in fraud case
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PORTLAND (AP) — A fired Nike
wholesale account executive has been sen-
tenced to more than a year in federal prison
for defrauding his former employer out of
more than $750,000.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports
51-year-old David Reichert was sentenced
Tuesday after pleading guilty in April to two
counts of wire fraud.
Reichert, who worked for the Ore-
gon-based sportswear company for more
than 15 years, gave significant discounts
to two Missouri-based retail companies he
operated with a friend. He never disclosed
his ownership interests in the two companies.
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the killing baffled many.
Crampton
Brophy
announced the death of her
husband on Facebook a day
after the killing, saying she
was “struggling to make
sense of everything right
now.” Her attorney, Jane
Claus, declined to comment
to The Associated Press on
Wednesday about the charge
or her client’s writing.
The affidavit filed by
police in support of her
arrest remains under seal,
so many details of the case
have yet to be divulged.
Authorities have not pub-
licly suggested a possible
motive for the killing.
In her 2011 essay,
Crampton Brophy discussed
several potential motiva-
tions for wanting to kill a
spouse, including infidelity,
abuse or greed.
“Divorce is expensive,
and do you really want to
split your possessions?”
she wrote in a section about
financial motives.
“I find it is easier to wish
people dead than to actu-
ally kill them,” she wrote.
“I don’t want to worry about
blood and brains splattered
on my walls. And really,
I’m not good at remember-
ing lies.”
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Prosecutors say the discounts on Nike
merchandise averaged more than 57 per-
cent off the wholesale prices — nearly three
times the discounts he gave to other Nike
customers.
Reichert apologized in court to the com-
pany and his family, saying he was “embar-
rassed and ashamed.”
Report: Mental health
hospital failed to stop suicide
PORTLAND (AP) — A patient died by
suicide at a troubled Portland mental health
hospital two months after investigators told
the facility that it was failing to protect
patients, according to an inspection report.
The state Health Authority inspected the
Unity Center for Behavioral Health in late
July on behalf of the federal government,
finding many of the same deficiencies iden-
tified in an initial inspection in March, The
Oregonian/OregonLive reported this week.
Investigators in the report focused on one
example of when the facility’s policies failed
to stop a patient from killing herself.
A patient admitted to the facility in early
July was assessed as being at high risk of sui-
cide, according to the report released Mon-
day. Staff recommended that the patient be
checked every 15 minutes and that her bath-
room door should stay locked. Only paper
scrubs and an anti-suicide blanket were
instructed to be given to her.
A housekeeper found the patient dead
in the bathroom on July 11. Video foot-
age showed the patient carrying linens and
clothing in and out of the bathroom multiple
times that morning.
Investigators determined the patient’s
bathroom door had never been locked,
according to the report. The facility’s inter-
nal review into the death was started but
never completed.
Another patient attempted suicide with
clothing and bedsheets 12 days later. Inves-
tigators attributed the matter to similar
inconsistent or incomplete directions on the
patient’s medical forms.
“Our job is to ensure effective treatment
of patients and safety of patients and staff
members, which is why we initiative these
investigations,” said Andre Ourso, adminis-
trator of the state Public Health Division’s
Center for Health Protection. “We will mon-
itor this situation closely to ensure compli-
ance with state and federal requirements to
address all the issues we identified.”
The facility intends to have an improve-
ment plan in place this week to satisfy inves-
tigators, Unity President Trent Green said.
“We are trying to deinstitutionalize psy-
chiatric care in this community and treat
every patient with the respect and dignity
they deserve,” Green said.
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