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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 2018)
NIXYAAWII OPENS TOURNEY WITH BIG WIN LEGAL MARIJUANA INDUSTRY HAD BANNER YEAR EO PHOTOS OF THE YEAR SPORTS, B1 REGION, A3 LIFESTYLE, C1 E O AST 143rd Year, No. 52 REGONIAN DECEMBER 29-30, 2018 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Our New Neighbors 2018: The Year in Review MIDWIFE TAKES ON RURAL CARE By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Catherine O’Brien knew from the time she was in elementary school that she wanted to help deliver babies when she grew up. “There was no sec- ond choice,” she said. The mid- wife, who O’Brien started work at Good Shepherd Women’s Center on Nov. 1, got a run- ning start on her career when she started nursing school at age 17. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Nurse-Midwifery and a Doctor of Nurse Practice. O’Brien had been work- ing in Spokane, Washington, but was looking for a more rural setting to practice in when she saw the opening at Good Shepherd. The wom- en’s center had brought on its fi rst midwife only a few months before. She said early in her more than 30-year career she worked at large hospi- tals in San Antonio, and was shocked when she moved on to a much more rural area and realized how many resources were simply not available to patients there. She said she loved provid- ing services to women who would not otherwise have access to a midwife. “I said, ‘I can’t go back to a big city. They don’t need me there,’” she said. “They have everything because everyone wants to work there.” She eventually made her See Neighbor, Page A9 Staff photo by E.J. Harris 1 A trio of excavators work in concert while demolishing the old Albertsons building on Thursday, June 28, 2018, in Pendleton. 3. Lost Valley in deep manure East Oregonian MORE INSIDE T he year 2018 encapsulated the crossroads that is East- ern Oregon, with rodeo, big agriculture and legacy indus- try capturing our attention as much as local politics and drone development. Here are the top 10 stories of the year, as voted on by the East Oregonian newsroom: 1. Round-Up expands footprint 2018 saw the Pendle- ton Round-Up in the spotlight beyond the second full week of September. The Round-Up Association completed the purchase of the vacant Albertsons property next door to the rodeo grounds in January, confi rming rumors they were interested in the land for expansion purposes. But it wasn’t until June that the association announced its plans for the property, which involved demolishing the old supermarket to create more parking and building a retail and ticketing facility in the north- east part of the property. The Round-Up demolished the old grocery store over the summer, with the new facility to come later. The association’s more ambi- tious plans lie to the west of the rodeo grounds, where it’s been buying properties along South- west Byers Avenue and 18th Street. The Round-Up made a deal in October to acquire even more land in the area, allowing the association to lease land to Blue Mountain Community Col- lege for an indoor arena/class- This will be the last East Oregonian delivered in 2018, and it’s full of look backs at the year that was. For sports stories of the year, see Page B1. For photos of the year, see Page C1. room facility. The governor’s budget proposal includes fund- ing the Blue Mountain Regional Training Center’s construc- tion, but it has to survive the 2019 legislative session before proceeding. To top it all off, the rodeo earned its fourth consecutive Best Large Outdoor Rodeo award from the PRCA and reported record ticket revenue. 2. Hermiston native not bound for 9th Circuit Court A Hermiston High School graduate was pulled into the national spotlight this year, causing the partisan divide in the nation’s to 2 capital hit home for Herm- iston residents. R y a n Bounds, an assistant U.S. Bounds attorney, was nominated by President Donald Trump in Jan- uary for a seat on the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, one step removed from the U.S. Supreme Court. The nomination was initially rejected by Oregon’s Demo- cratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley for lack of review by a bipartisan selection com- mittee. It veered into more con- troversy in February, however, after the liberal advocacy group Alliance for Justice republished a series of Bounds’ college writ- ings for the Stanford Review in which he criticized multicultural clubs on campus, among other things. Bounds apologized for the op-eds, calling them a “tone- deaf” product of his youth, and Rep. Greg Walden and others from Bounds’ past stood by the Hermiston native. But Wyden and Merkley refused to return a customary “blue slip” of support for the nomination, and in June Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCo- nnell withdrew the nomination minutes before a scheduled vote. Less than a year into its oper- ation, the Lost Valley Farm near Boardman went udders-up in 2018 after a wave of environ- mental infractions, state penal- ties, fi nancial problems and per- sonal troubles for its owner. The mega-dairy ran afoul of state regulators almost imme- diately, being slapped with a $10,000 fi ne in January and being sued by the state for improperly discharging waste. The dairy settled with the state by agreeing to limit its wastewa- ter production and expanding its lagoons. But the larger fi nancial prob- lems were looming, as the Ore- gon state court in April ordered the liquidation of the nearly 15,000 cows so owner Greg te Velde could repay $60 mil- lion in defaulted debt to farm See 2018, Page A10 Staff photo by E.J. Harris 3 The Lost Valley Farm mega dairy outside of Boardman was ordered to sell their cattle to pay off debtors by the courts after only one year into operations. 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