NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Merkley focuses on Oregon,
Oregon bottle redemption
postpones decision on 2020 bid rate reaches 90 percent
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Sen. Jeff
Merkley, one of the most
vocal critics of President
Donald Trump’s immi-
gration policies, seemed
content to meet with constit-
uents in Oregon and did not
say if he’ll run for president
in 2020.
Merkley has been post-
poning a decision on a
White House bid for some
time. Last year, he said
he’d decide soon after the
November midterm elec-
tion. Now, he says he’ll
decide before the end of this
first quarter.
Nine Democrats have
declared their intentions to
run — the most recent was
Sen. Kamala Harris from
California.
“One
every
day,”
Merkley said with a
grin during an interview
Monday before he hosted a
town hall in a community
college in Salem, Oregon’s
capital city.
Deciding whether to
run is a gamble as Merkley
faces an ever-expanding
field of Democrats and
would have to abandon the
option of being elected to
the Senate for a third term
— unless the Oregon Legis-
Zoe Selsky via AP
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley lis-
tens to Gwen Carr with
the Oregon Black Pio-
neers during a town hall
at Chemeketa Community
College in Salem Tuesday.
lature changes the law.
Merkley gained some
name recognition nation-
ally last June, when he tried
to enter a federal facility
in Texas where immigrant
children were being held.
An aide videotaped the
scene as he was refused
entry and police were
called. The video quickly
gained over 1 million views
in a day, and was repeated
in newscasts across the
country.
At a town hall Monday,
Merkley — wearing jeans,
cowboy boots and a work
shirt — described his
efforts to stop the intern-
ment of immigrant chil-
dren, including through
his introduction of the “No
Internment Camps Act.”
The Oregon Democrat
said it was “spooky” that
in this era, legislation in
America would have intern-
ment camps in its title.
Merkley, the son of a
millwright, was first elected
to the Senate in 2008 and
handily won re-election six
years later.
Asked if he might prefer
to be in the Senate if Demo-
crats gain control in 2020,
Merkley said: “Well I
tell you, I’ve been in the
majority, and I’ve been in
the minority, and the major-
ities are better.”
He said senators have
a huge ability to influence
the direction of policy,
even if they’re not the
chair of a committee or
subcommittee. Merkley is
a member of the appropri-
ations committee; the envi-
ronment and public works
committee; the foreign rela-
tions committee and the
budget committee.
Merkley, to support
Democratic candidates for
other offices in key states,
has hired field staff in states
such as Iowa and New
Hampshire.
THURSDAY
Periods of sun,
showers around
Low clouds and
fog
52° 37°
48° 37°
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Partly sunny
SUNDAY
Partly sunny
Times of clouds
and sun
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
48° 34°
56° 29°
50° 34°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
57° 37°
50° 36°
51° 33°
56° 37°
48° 33°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
52/43
41/31
53/29
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
51/38
Lewiston
53/42
55/35
Astoria
54/42
Pullman
Yakima 44/28
54/40
49/35
Portland
Hermiston
55/43
The Dalles 57/37
Salem
Corvallis
55/42
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
46/34
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
54/43
51/30
48/35
Ontario
44/30
Caldwell
Burns
46°
33°
43°
29°
64° (1968) -33° (1930)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
54/43
0.02"
1.16"
0.92"
1.16"
0.79"
0.92"
WINDS (in mph)
46/31
44/26
Trace
1.45"
1.07"
1.45"
1.15"
1.07"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 43/30
55/42
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
52/37
56/38
43°
32°
42°
28°
67° (1897) -26° (1930)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
53/40
Aberdeen
39/26
42/29
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
53/44
Today
Thu.
Boardman WSW 10-20
Pendleton WSW 10-20
Medford
50/39
W 3-6
SW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
47/29
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:26 a.m.
4:48 p.m.
8:18 p.m.
9:19 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
Jan 27
Feb 4
Feb 12
Feb 19
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 86° in McAllen, Texas Low -30° in Watertown, N.Y.
AP Photo/Kristena Hansen, File
Portland resident Sarah Marshall turns in empty water
bottles and soda cans in September 2017 at a BottleDrop
redemption center in Portland.
erative is looking at adding
more BottleDrop redemption
centers across the state.
“What we’re seeing is that
people are driving farther to
return their bottles than they
are to buy them,” Schoening
said.
When the Oregon bottle
bill passed in 1971, it added
a 5-cent deposit to the sale of
every bottle and can of beer,
soda and similar beverages
sold in Oregon, which could
be redeemed by returning the
bottle.
In 2016, the Oregon
Liquor Control Commission
announced the deposit would
be increased to 10 cents, after
redemption rates fell below
the levels set by the Legisla-
ture. The change occurred in
April 2017, and the redemp-
tion rate spiked from 59
percent to 82 percent for the
rest of the year.
Another major change
occurred at the beginning
of last year, when the state
expanded its list of acceptable
containers to include energy
drinks, juice, coffee, tea
and other beverages. Schoe-
ning said the raw totals of
redeemed containers predict-
ably spiked after the change,
but he said the redemption
rate increased despite the
volume of new recyclables,
a sign that more Oregonians
bought into the program.
Jackson County rancher uses
inflatable dancer to shoo wolves
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
BEND (AP) — The
Oregon Beverage Recy-
cling Cooperative, which
oversees the state’s bottle
deposit program, says about
90 percent of the containers
covered by the plan were
returned and redeemed in
2018.
That’s a jump of around 35
percent over where the figure
stood just two years ago.
The Bulletin reports
Oregonians recycled around
2 billion containers last
year, the most ever under the
program.
Joel Schoening, commu-
nity relations manager for the
cooperative, attributed the
uptick primarily to two recent
efforts to revamp the state’s
bottle redemption program:
dramatically expanding the
types of containers included
in the program and raising
the deposit from 5 cents to 10
cents in April 2017.
“That dime did what it
was supposed to,” Schoening
said.
Additionally, the cooper-
ative announced the number
of BottleDrop accounts
increased by 50 percent last
year, with about 300,000
households now enrolled in
the program.
In part because of this
increase in participation,
Schoening said the coop-
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
MEDFORD (AP) — A
rancher in Jackson County
who has had gray wolves
eat his livestock is now
using a lime-green inflat-
able dancing man to keep
the predators at bay.
Ted Birdseye began using
the contraption Saturday in
his pasture after the pack
killed another calf in the
same field where the wolves
have already eaten five
calves and one guard dog,
The Mail Tribune reported
Tuesday.
The device is the same as
those commonly seen a used
car lots and is powered by a
generator that blows air into
the balloon so it jumps and
wiggles in the air.
“He’s all lit up and
dancing around in the field,”
Birdseye told the news-
paper. “He’s lime green. It
looks like an alien at night.”
Birdseye said he doesn’t
know whether the flailing
dancer will be a long-term
deterrent to the pack preying
on his cattle in the remote
field, but the first two nights
proved successful.
“Last night was the
best sleep I’ve had since
September
with
these
animals,” Birdseye said. “A
solid eight hours of sleep.
There was no howling or
barking going on.
“We don’t know if the
deterrence was a factor or if
it’s a coincidence,” he said.
The air dancer is one of
two that arrived Saturday,
the day after the latest attack,
Birdseye said. They were
sent by the Defenders of
Wildlife conservation group,
but only one generator came
with them, so he could deploy
only one, he said.
At around 1 a.m. Friday,
Birdseye was awakened
by wolf howls and his
dogs barking, so he went
out on his four-wheeler to
investigate. Birdseye said
he apparently scared the
wolves away, but he found
a wounded 4-month-old,
180-pound calf on the
ground.
The calf had about 8 feet
of intestine protruding from
its anus, so Birdseye used
a pistol to euthanize the
animal, he said.
The dead calf was inves-
tigated later that day by a
biologist with the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife whose report states
the calf showed clear signs
of predator attack, with the
size, number and location of
the wounds similar to wolf
attacks on calves.
Friday’s attack marked
the 10th confirmed live-
stock or dog kill attributed
to the Rogue Pack since
late September in the pack’s
known area of activity
in western Jackson and
eastern Klamath counties,
according to the Oregon
Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
“People need to realize
these wolves are majestic
creatures,
but
they’re
killers,” Birdseye said. “It’s
getting pretty frustrating.”
Of the 10 predation cases
involving the Rogue Pack
since late September, five
were on Birdseye’s ranch
in the Boundary Butte
area, and one was in the
Rancheria area, according
to ODFW. Four were in
late September and early
October in the Wood River
Valley near Klamath Falls.
Birdseye also lost a guard
dog to the wolves last fall.
Birdseye said he has
about 90 calves in the field
where the killings have
occurred. In the past, he’s
used guard dogs, elec-
tric fences installed by
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, lights, bright flags
and noisemakers to scare
off the offending pack. He
turned to the inflatable
dancers after hearing about
some success with them in
Eastern Oregon.
Birdseye said OR-7 has
been near his ranch almost
annually since the wolf
settled in eastern Jackson
County after his famous
migration from Eastern
Oregon in search of a mate.
BRIEFLY
Medical examiner: Oregon
family slain with ax, knives
PORTLAND (AP) — The Oregon State
Medical Examiner says the weapons used
to kill four people Saturday at their Oregon
home were an ax and knives.
The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office
said Tuesday that sharp-force trauma was
the cause of death for 9-month-old Olivia
Gago, 31-year-old Shaina Sweitzer and
64-year-old Pamela Bremer.
The medical examiner said 66-year-old
Jerry Bremer died of a combination of blunt-
force trauma and sharp-force trauma.
The sheriff’s office says Mark Gago
killed his parents, his girlfriend and their
daughter Saturday night before deputies
fatally shot him as he attacked an 8-year-old
girl who was Sweitzer’s daughter.
The sheriff’s office says deputies shot
Gago before he could kill the girl.
A roommate was also hurt.
The incident remains under investigation.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
50s
ice
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
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
EastOregonian.com
To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255
or go online to EastOregonian.com
and click on ‘Subscribe’
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.
Copyright © 2018, EO Media Group
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely
regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
Subscriber services:
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
EZPay
52 weeks
26 weeks
13 weeks
Local home delivery Savings (cover price)
$14.50
41 percent
$173.67
41 percent
$91.86
38 percent
$47.77
36 percent
*EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit
or debit card/check charge
Single copy price:
$1 Tuesday through Friday, $1.50 Saturday
Circulation Manager:
Bonny Tuller, 541-966-0828
ADVERTISING
Regional Publisher and Revenue Director:
• Christopher Rush
541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com
Advertising Services:
• Angela Treadwell
541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com
• 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
• 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 eastoregonian.
com/community/announcements
• To submit sports or outdoors information or tips:
541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Manager:
541-966-0822
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com