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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2021)
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 A3 TODAY Today is Thursday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 2021. There are 316 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Feb. 18, 1970, the “Chicago Seven” defendants were found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention; five were convicted of violating the An- ti-Riot Act of 1968. (Those con- victions were later reversed.) In 1546, Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, died in Eisleben. In 1564, artist Michelangelo died in Rome. In 1930, photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a “dwarf planet”) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. In 1943, Madame Chiang Kai- shek, wife of the Chinese leader, addressed members of the Sen- ate and then the House, becom- ing the first Chinese national to address both houses of the U.S. Congress. In 1967, American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 62. In 1972, the California Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty. In 1983, 13 people were shot to death at a gambling club in Seattle’s Chinatown in what became known as the Wah Mee Massacre. In 1988, Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as an associate jus- tice of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1997, astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tune-up of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane. In 2001, veteran FBI agent Rob- ert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia. (Hanssen later pleaded guilty to espionage and attempted espi- onage and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.) Auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49. In 2003, an arson attack involv- ing two South Korean subway trains in the city of Daegu claimed 198 lives. Ten years ago: The United States vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have condemned Israeli settlements as illegal and called for a halt in all settlement building; the 14 other Security Council members voted in favor of the measure. Five years ago: In what was seen as a criticism of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Pope Francis said that a person who advocated building walls was “not Christian”; Trump quickly retorted it was “dis- graceful” to question a person’s faith. (A Vatican spokesman said the next day that the pope’s comment was not intended as a “personal attack” on Trump.) Dallas-based Heritage Auctions said a rare copy of a comic book featuring the first appearance of Spider-Man had been sold to an anonymous collector for $454,100. One year ago: Japanese health authorities confirmed 88 more cases of the coronavirus aboard the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing the number of cases on board to 542; U.S. officials said Amer- icans who chose to remain on board could not return home for at least two weeks after coming ashore. Health officials in the Chinese city of Wuhan announced that a hospital director who’d mobilized the hospital’s resources to deal with the thousands of sick people arriving daily had died from the virus. The Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection in the first step toward creating a huge compensation fund for men who were molested as youngsters decades ago by scoutmasters or other leaders; the organization urged victims to come forward. Today’s Birthdays: Singer Yoko Ono is 88. Singer-songwriter Bobby Hart is 82. Singer Irma Thomas is 80. Actor Jess Walton is 75. Singer Dennis DeYoung is 74. Actor Sinead Cusack is 73. Singer Randy Crawford is 69. Rock musician Robbie Bachman is 68. Actor John Travolta is 67. Game show host Vanna White is 64. Actor Jayne Atkinson is 62. Actor Matt Dillon is 57. Rapper Dr. Dre is 56. Actor Molly Ringwald is 53. Actor Sarah Brown is 46. Actor Ike Barinholtz is 44. Actor Kristoffer Polaha is 44. Rock-sing- er musician Regina Spektor is 41. Opera singer Isabel Leonard is 39. Actor Shane Lyons is 33. Actor Sarah Sutherland is 33. — Associated Press LOCAL, STATE & REGION NORTHWEST WINTER STORMS More than 150,000 without power in Portland area The Associated Press PORTLAND — More than 150,000 remained without power in the greater Portland area Wednesday, and authori- ties warned that outages caused by a fierce weekend storm could continue for several more days. The Seattle area saw more than a foot of snow, and West- ern Oregon was hit with snow and ice that toppled more than 5,000 power lines. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency for the greater Port- land region. Portland General Electric’s map of power outages listed about 150,000 customers with- out electricity, while Pacific Power listed about 6,000. While temperatures have re- turned to seasonal norms in the Northwest, some people in the Portland area have been with- out electricity for nearly a week. Steve Corson, a spokesman with PGE, said “right now we need people to be prepared for the fact that it could be several days yet” before power is re- stored. Late Tuesday the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office con- firmed four deaths over the weekend due to carbon monox- ide poisoning. While authorities didn’t immediately provide any details about the deaths, they did urge people not to use alter- native heat sources like camp stoves or barbecues to stay warm. Rob Hendrickson, medical director of the Oregon Poison Center, said the center took 19 calls about carbon monoxide poisoning over the weekend, as opposed to one they receive on a typical weekend. “It is extremely important not to use outdoor grills or gener- ators inside your home,” Hen- drickson said in a statement. “These appliances should be used outdoors, well away from windows, doors and ventilation systems.” Also late Tuesday Brown said because of reports of price gouging at local hotels she de- clared an “abnormal market disruption” and issued an order empowering the attorney gen- eral to investigate. Police guard dumpsters of groceries The Associated Press PORTLAND — About a dozen po- lice officers guarded dumpsters filled with perishable food outside a Portland Fred Meyer as people attempted to take the items that were discarded when the store lost power. The Oregonian reported that on Tuesday employees at a Fred Meyer in the northeast part of the city threw out thousands of items that were deemed no longer safe for consumption. The store was one of many that lost power following a weekend winter storm. As of Wednesday, more than 150,000 re- mained in the dark in the greater Port- land area. In a statement sent to KOIN, Fred Meyer said the food was thrown away “out of an abundance of caution.” The Oregon Health Authority also has re- quirements for licensed facilities during a power outage in order to prevent foodborne illnesses. Images on social media showed piles of unopened packaged meat, cheese and juice in the store’s dumpsters. “We appreciate people speaking out against hunger. We get it, throwing Beth Nakamura/The Oregonian Portlanders forage in large dumpsters full of perishable food after Fred Meyer tossed out food due to losing electricity. away food is never a good thing,” the Fred Meyer statement said. “Unfortu- nately, some perishable food that re- quires refrigeration at our Hollywood store was out of temperature for a pro- tracted period of time.” According to The Oregonian, people began gathering at the dumpster around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Within hours, about a dozen officers arrived to guard the food that had been thrown out. Fred Meyer said it “engaged law en- forcement, as the safety of our associ- ates and customers is always our top priority.” People at the scene said police threat- ened to arrest them for trespassing. Eventually, officers left the area, and people jumped into the dumpsters to take items. Winter blast felled trees on the northern Oregon Coast BY KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Astorian Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian A broken tree branch in Astoria. The ice that struck the North Coast on Friday night melted by Saturday afternoon. The only real evidence of the weekend winter storm on the North Oregon Coast is the many shattered and fallen trees. In neighborhoods, fallen Series of Eastern Oregon snowstorms set records BY ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian PENDLETON — Back-to- back-to-back storms blanketed Eastern Oregon in more than a foot of snow, but local meteo- rologists don’t expect the after- math to create the kind of con- ditions that led to the Umatilla County floods last February. Rob Brooks, a meteorologist with the National Weather Ser- vice Pendleton office, said three successive systems, starting on Feb. 11, and running through Monday morning, combined to pelt the region with massive snowfall amounts. According to the weather service, the Pendleton area saw 16.4 inches of snowfall over the four-day period, good for the fourth highest total over four days in recorded history. The Pendleton area set a record with three consecutive days of 4 inches of snow or more. Brooks said reports coming from other parts of Umatilla County show that most other areas also saw well over a foot of snow by early Monday. While still a far cry from the all time record of minus 4, Pendleton’s recorded low on Valentine’s Day was 8 degrees. Although precipitation is ex- pected to continue throughout the region, significant snowfall is not. With temperatures expected to exceed freezing during day- time hours, Brooks said resi- dents should expect a “wintry mix” of rain, freezing rain and snow over the next week. Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian Icicles hang from an awning Sunday along Main Street in Pendleton. boughs blocked driveways, dented cars and sometimes only narrowly missed causing damage to houses. In almost every neighborhood, trees bear fresh scars where branches tore away under the weight of the ice. All day Monday, chain saws buzzed and a steady stream of pickup trucks hauled debris to a transfer station in Astoria. Crews cleared many fallen trees and branches from As- toria park property Monday. There is ongoing concern about limbs that may have cracked but have yet to fall from trees. The city tempo- rarily closed a portion of the Astoria Riverwalk east of the Columbia River Maritime Mu- seum because limbs still dan- gled from cottonwood trees that line the path. Tree branches still litter roadsides. In some areas, lit- tle more than a path has been cleared to buildings. Cleanup efforts are likely to continue for several days, Astoria Fire Chief Dan Crutchfield estimated on Tuesday.