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A4 The BulleTin • Tuesday, June 8, 2021 TODAY LOCAL, STATE & REGION NORTHEAST OREGON Firefighters aided by cooler weather BY ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press SALEM — Firefighters were getting the upper hand Monday on a wildfire burning on the Oregon-Washington border, aided by cooler temperatures and moderating winds, officials said. The Joseph Canyon Fire scorched 4,000 acres as of Sunday night but grew by only 300 acres that day, according to Larisa Bogardus, a spokeswoman with the Bu- reau of Land Management. “We won today,” incident commander trainee Andy Hayes said late Sunday. “We didn’t win Saturday, but we won today.” Some 200 people have been assigned to fight the fire, the largest this fire season in the region. It was burning in Northeast Oregon and southeast Washington state in rugged terrain covered by grasses and patches of trees, creating thick plumes of gray smoke. Firefighters were assisted by at least 12 engines and seven helicopters. Saturday’s high winds challenged air re- sources but also pushed the active fire line back onto itself in some areas, aiding crews. “This is probably one of the most dif- ficult places to fight fire in Oregon,” Matt Howard, of the Oregon Department of Forestry, said over the weekend. Ranchers and permittees moved cattle out of the fire zone. “The private landowners involved are no stranger to fire,” Howard said. Another fire was burning 10 miles to the southeast, in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area on the Wallowa-Whit- man National Forest. Two Hotshot crews, smokejumpers and rappelers are working to secure a line to anchor suppression efforts. Fire personnel from the state forestry department, the Wallowa-Whitman forest, the Vale BLM district and the Washington Department of Natural Resources are in- volved in suppressing both fires. WESTERN WASHINGTON Rail union: Sabotage caused oil-train derailment Associated Press SEATTLE — A rail union official re- portedly told investigators that a fiery oil car train derailment late last year was caused by sabotage. Seven train cars carrying crude oil de- railed and five caught fire in Custer, Wash- ington, on Dec. 22, sending a large plume of black smoke into the sky close to the Canadian border. There were no injuries in the derailment. An official with the union representing the driver has told authorities the derail- ment was not an accident. “We know from the FBI investigation, from how trains operate, how trains work, how the couplers work, how the pin lifters work, that this incident was caused with- out a doubt by sabotage,” Korey McDaniel with the union’s safety team told BNSF Railway investigators, according to a hear- ing transcript obtained by the station. The incident happened near where two people had been arrested a month before and accused of attempting a terrorist at- tack on train tracks to disrupt plans for a natural gas pipeline. The cause of the derailment won’t be of- ficially declared until the FBI, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the National Elaine Thompson/AP file A firefighter sprays foam on a burning, derailed train car Dec. 22 in Custer, Washington. Streets were closed and evacuations ordered during a large fire response in the community just south of the Canadian border. Transportation Safety Board finish their inquiries. Two people were on board the 108-car train headed from North Dakota to the Ferndale Refinery, owned by Phillips 66. Home to five oil refineries, Washington state sees millions of gallons of crude oil move by rail through the state each week. STATE BRIEFING Oregon speaker supports push to expel lawmaker over Capitol assault Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek wants to expel a Republican lawmaker who allowed violent protesters into the state Capitol in December. Kotek introduced a resolution that says if two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives concur, Rep. Mike Nearman would be expelled from the House. Minutes before the House opened its floor session late Monday morning, her office announced that Kotek appointed a committee to consider expulsion. The committee, composed of three Democrats and three Republicans, will convene this week and take up the resolu- tion, Kotek’s press release said. The incident Dec. 21 rattled lawmakers and staff inside the Capitol and foreshad- owed the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by rioters spurred on by then-President Donald Trump. Security camera video emerged showing Nearman opening a door to the state Capitol, which was closed to the public because of the pandemic, allowing protesters to enter. Nearman allegedly told people in a video days earlier that he would let them in if they texted him, and he pro- vided his cellphone number. In her resolution, Kotek said personnel who were authorized to be in the Capitol described the events Dec. 21 as intense and stressful, terrifying and distressing. “Law enforcement officers were visibly injured and shaken due to the demonstra- tors’ action,” Kotek added. Nearman also faces two misdemeanor criminal charges and has said he will seek a trial by jury. He hasn’t responded to re- peated interview requests. Police: 4 fatally shot in Portland home Police said four people were fatally shot over the weekend at a home in Portland. Officers responded to reports of a shooting at 10:25 p.m. Sunday at a home in the southeastern part of the city and found the four people dead from apparent gun- shot wounds, police said in a statement. Investigators do not believe the shoot- ings were murders and a suicide, police spokesman Lt. Greg Pashley told The Or- egonian. No one is in custody, but police do not believe there’s a risk to the public, Pashley said. He said he didn’t know the relation- ships of the people who died. Sonia Clark, who lives in a duplex across the street from the home where the people were killed, said she saw workers from the medical examiner’s office Monday morn- ing remove two bodies from the home, a tan house with brown shutters shaded by a large pine tree. Clark said a man in his late 20s to early 30s lives in the house and was often tinker- ing with or fixing cars. The investigation is continuing and au- topsies will be performed, according to police. No other information about the shooting was immediately made public. Be Our Guest! Contact Kari Hutchison Regency Village at Bend is excited to announce that we will be doing live on-site tours! CALL NOW! 541-317-3544 127 SE Wilson, Bend — Bulletin wire reports Today is Tuesday, June 8, the 159th day of 2021. There are 206 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On June 8, 1968, authorities an- nounced the capture in London of James Earl Ray, the suspected assassin of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for another term as president during the National Union (Republican) Party’s con- vention in Baltimore. In 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that restau- rants in the District of Columbia could not refuse to serve Blacks. In 1962, 20th Century Fox fired Marilyn Monroe from its produc- tion “Something’s Got to Give,” saying she was unreliable. (Fox lat- er changed its mind, but Monroe died before filming could resume, and the movie was abandoned.) In 1966, a merger was announced between the National and Amer- ican Football Leagues, to take effect in 1970. In 1967, during the six-day Middle East war, 34 American servicemen were killed when Israel attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy intelli- gence-gathering ship in the Medi- terranean Sea. (Israel later said the Liberty had been mistaken for an Egyptian vessel.) In 1972, during the Vietnam War, an Associated Press photographer took a picture of a screaming 9-year-old girl, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, as she ran naked and severely burned from the scene of a South Vietnamese napalm attack. In 1978, a jury in Clark County, Nevada, ruled the so-called “Mor- mon will,” purportedly written by the late billionaire Howard Hughes, was a forgery. In 1995, Mickey Mantle received a liver transplant at a Dallas hospital; however, the baseball great died two months later. In 1998, the National Rifle As- sociation elected actor Charlton Heston to be its president. In 2009, North Korea’s highest court sentenced American jour- nalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years’ hard labor for trespassing and “hostile acts.” (The women were pardoned in early August 2009 after a trip to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton.) In 2015, siding with the White House in a foreign-policy power struggle with Congress, the Su- preme Court ruled 6-3 that Amer- icans born in the disputed city of Jerusalem could not list Israel as their birthplace on passports. Ten years ago: Rep. Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania became the first Democratic House col- league to call for Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York to resign after he admitted sending a lewd photo of himself to a woman via Twitter and lying about it. OPEC unexpectedly left its production levels unchanged, causing oil pric- es to jump. Five years ago: Maria Shara- pova was suspended for two years by the International Tennis Federation for testing positive for meldonium at the Australian Open. (The ban was later reduced to 15 months.) One year ago: Thousands of mourners gathered at a church in Houston for a service for George Floyd, as his death during an arrest in Minneapolis continued to stoke protests in America and beyond over racial injustice. France’s top security official said police would no longer permit chokeholds that had been blamed for multiple cas- es of asphyxiation and had come under renewed criticism after George Floyd’s death. The police chief in Portland resigned, just six months into her job, amid criticism of her department’s handling of protests. New Zealand appeared to have completely eradicated the coronavirus for the time being; health officials aid the last person known to have been infected in the country had recovered. Today’s Birthdays: Actor Millicent Martin is 87. Actor James Darren is 85. Singer Nancy Sinatra is 81. Sing- er Chuck Negron is 79. Musician Boz Scaggs is 77. Actor Kathy Baker is 71. Country musician Tony Rice is 70. Rock singer Bonnie Tyler is 70. “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams is 64. Actor-director Keenen Ivory Way- ans is 63. Musician Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran) is 59. Actor Julianna Margulies is 54. Actor Dan Futter- man is 54. Actor Kent Faulcon is 51. R&B singer Nicci Gilbert is 51. Actor Kelli Williams is 51. Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., is 51. Actor Mark Feuerstein is 50. Contemporary Christian musician Mike Scheuchzer (MercyMe) is 46. Actor Eion Bailey is 45. Former ten- nis player Lindsay Davenport is 45. Rapper Kanye West is 44. TV per- sonality-actress Maria Menounos is 43. Country singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson is 43. Blues-rock musician Derek Trucks (The Derek Trucks Band) is 42. Folk-bluegrass singer-musician Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek) is 40. Former tennis player Kim Clijsters is 38. Actor Torrey DeVitto is 37. Tennis player Jelena Ostapenko is 24. — Associated Press George Earl Buss of La Pine, OR Randy Louis Davis of Redmond, OR Jan 11, 1934 - June 2, 2021 Arrangements: Baird Memorial Chap- el of La Pine is hon- ored to serve the Buss family. Please visit our website, www.bairdfh.com, to share condolences and sign the online guestbook. Jan 9, 1952 - April 25, 2021 Arrangements: Autumn Funerals, Red- mond 541-504-9485 www. autumnfunerals.net Services: No Services will be held at this time. OBITUARY DEADLINE Call to ask about our deadlines. Monday - Friday, 10am - 3pm. No death notices or obituaries are published Mondays. When submitting, please include your name, address and contact number. Phone: 541-385-5809 Fax: 541-598-3150 Email: obits@bendbulletin.com
