HOOPS: Bulldogs ready to take on the MCC | SPORTS, 1B
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142nd Year, No. 30
REGONIAN
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Police catch
suspect in
Umapine
homicide
Question remains as to
suspect’s true name, but
local murder charge awaits
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Umatilla County Circuit Court Judge Eva Temple signs a certificate of completion for a new CASA volunteer after
a swearing-in ceremony on Monday in Hermiston.
Reinforcements swear in
More than half of county’s
foster children didn’t have
an advocate in October
See SUSPECT/8A
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
At age 23, Meagan Duncan-Osborn
is younger than most court-appointed
special advocates.
Because of her own history as a fos-
ter care adoptee, she said she wants to
be an example and a source of hope for
future generations of foster children.
Duncan-Osborn was removed
from her mother’s care when she was
“very young” and placed with strang-
ers for a while before her father’s par-
ents were cleared to become her foster
parents. They eventually adopted her
around age 7, and continued to provide
a home for other foster children. But
both died within a year of each other
before Duncan-Osborn was 17, leav-
ing her to “figure out life” on her own
after that.
She doesn’t remember having an
assigned advocate, but she considers
herself extremely lucky to have had
loving grandparents advocating for
her when she was in the system.
“These kids need support, someone
to stick with them,” she said. “They
might go from foster home to foster
home, from caseworker to caseworker,
and you want someone to stick with
them from start to finish and know
what their story is.”
The man police suspect of murdering
his co-worker at the Umapine Creamery
is in custody.
Umatilla County Sheriff Terry Rowan
said police found Decidero Vargas-Ortiz
staying at the Clover Island Inn, Kenne-
wick, and arrested him Tuesday at about
1:30 a.m.
Early reports identified the suspect
as Decidero Cruz Vargas. Rowan said
Decidero Vargas-Ortiz is the name the
sheriff’s office is using in this case. He
explained that stemmed from fingerprint-
ing, which generates state and FBI identi-
fication numbers.
“We were able to connect the dots
between that name and a legitimate FBI
number,” he said.
Umatilla County District Attorney
Dan Primus said his office issued a war-
rant for the arrest of the suspect on the
lone charge of murder and filed that count
PENDLETON
Chamber teams
with downtown
association
Will join under one roof
at Main Street center
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A new class of CASA volunteers pose for a photo with Umatilla County
Circuit Court Judge Eva Temple after a swearing-in ceremony for the new
volunteers on Monday in Hermiston.
More Umatilla County children
will have that opportunity after 10
new court-appointed special advocates
were sworn in Monday in a courtroom
at Stafford Hansell Government Cen-
ter in Hermiston.
Known as CASAs, the specially
trained volunteers are assigned to be a
child’s advocate as they move through
the court system. They visit with the
child at least once a month, attend
supervised visits and court hearings,
meet the foster parents and biological
parents, study the details of the case
and submit reports to the judge about
what they believe is in the child’s best
interest. In October, 73 foster children
in Umatilla and Morrow counties had
a court-appointed special advocate,
but 106 did not.
“Since we got these ones sworn in,
we can probably get another 15 to 20
kids CASAs,” said Jesus Rome, the
CASA manager.
See CASA/8A
“Maybe these kids are thinking about running away, maybe they’re
contemplating suicide. I want to tell them ‘I was there and look at me now.’”
Meagan Duncan-Osborn
The Pendleton Downtown Association
and Pendleton Chamber of Commerce
are moving in together, but they’re going
to keep some of their assets separate.
The two nonprofits announced Tues-
day that they signed a memorandum of
alliance that establishes a formal agree-
ment between the two entities, including
co-locating the association’s office at the
chamber’s 501 S. Main St. visitor infor-
mation center.
“We’re juggling a lot of balls, but it
will be fun,” association president Fred
Bradbury said.
Chamber Executive Director Janet
Duffy, who was hired in July, said she
was surprised that the two parties already
didn’t have a working coalition when she
arrived in town.
Bradbury said both sides have been
in discussions about the arrangement for
the past few months and the move has the
endorsement of both Oregon Main Street
and the city of Pendleton.
See PDA/8A
Money for Columbia River
tribal fishing village restored
Ancestors have fished
on Columbia River
for thousands of years
By MOLLY HARBARGER
The Oregonian/OregonLive
THE DALLES — After more
than a year of obstacles, the fed-
eral government will resume a
project to fulfill an 80-year-old
promise. The Trump adminis-
tration halted work in October
2017 on a plan to build a village
for tribal members who fished
the Columbia River for millen-
nia, but last week, money reap-
peared in the budget.
“We’re so delighted by the
White House’s decision to
restore and direct funds to the
Columbia River tribal housing
initiative,” said Charles Hudson,
intergovernmental affairs direc-
tor for the Columbia River Inter-
Tribal Fish Commission. “We
did a lot of scratching and claw-
ing to keep this project active
after a year of lapsed funding.”
Leaders from the Warm
Springs, Yakama, Umatilla and
Nez Perce tribes have lobbied
along with congressional offi-
cials from Oregon and Washing-
ton to find a way to circumvent
the barriers the Trump adminis-
tration put in the way.
A year ago, tribal members
who live along the Columbia
See TRIBAL/8A
AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka, File
This Aug. 22, 2014, file photo, shows the home of Ranetta Spino and her
family at the river’s edge at Lone Pine, a Native American fishing site on the
Columbia River near The Dalles.