Baker City Herald paper 2-20-15

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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityheralckcom

February 20, 2015

POWDER VALLEY'S TANNER EUBANKS HELPS BADGERS BEAT PINEEAGLE

iN mis aonioN: L ocal • Health@Fitness • Outdoors • TV $ < QUICIC HITS

Savinglives ThroughOrganllonation

Good Day Wish To A Subscriber

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A special good day to Herald subscribers Robert and Sha Brady of Baker City.

Outdoors, 1C Baker County's best-known canyon is Hells Canyon but to be geographically honest, the canyon isn't Baker County's to claim. Not alone, anyway. The deepest stretch of that famous canyon is in Wallowa County. But Baker County boasts other canyons that are (mostlyj within the county's borders, and the lower Powder River Canyon is an option for early-season hiking.

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• The Bingham family prepares for more heart transplant surgeries Lwa"t rvttmsv ggma4 assr

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• Policegettipthatprom pts second search of a Baker City home whereahalf-pound of meth was found Feb. 10 1' kslvA WM a

Oregon, 5A SALEM — Kate Brown became Oregon's governor with a pledge not to accept money from outside sources and to ensure anyone who pays her family and staff does not have business before the state of Oregon. Brown took the oath of office in a short ceremony at the state Capitol Wednesday. The Democrat, who was formerly the secretary of state, becomes the first openly bisexual governor in the nation. Brown replaces fellow Democrat John Kitzhaber, who was Oregon's longest-serving chief executive before his swift fall from grace in an ethics scandal that culminated with his announcement Feb. 13 that he'd step down.

BRIEFING

Baker School superintendent finalists to meet with public today The three finalists to replace Walt Wegener as superintendent of the Baker School District will meet with the public today from 4 p m. to 6 p.m. at the Baker High School commons, 2500 E St. Wegener is retiring June 30. The finalists are Betty Palmer, principal at South Baker Intermediate School; MarkWitty, superintendent of the Grant School District at John Day; and Robert Vian, superintendent of Joint School District171 at Orofino, Idaho.

WEATHER

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Lisa Brittan/ Far the Baker City Herald

Stacy Bingham, left, and her daughter, Lindsey, attend an eventWednesday honoring the Oregon DMV for encouraging people to register as organ donors. Lindsey had a heart transplant on Feb. 14, 2013. For the Baker City Herald

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indsey Bingham giggles, jumping from foot to foot as she talks about the antics of her younger brother, Gage. Around her neck she wears a medallion engraved with "2.14.13" and "Brave." Without the event on that date, Lindsey wouldn't be here to talk about Gage. On Feb. 14, 2013, she underwent surgery to receive a new heart at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. A little more than six years before that, in August 2006, her older sister, Sierra, also received a new heart at the same hospital. Gage — the rambunctious 6-year-old — has a pacemaker and will one day need a new heart. The three Bingham children

were diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy. Their two siblings, Megan and Hunter, don't have the same condition. Now their parents, Stacy and JasonBingham, are facing another harsh reality — Sierra has coronary heart disease and this week she goes back on the transplantlistfora heart. She is 15. She will be listed as a 2 for urgency ila is the most urgent when the patient is in the hospital) and should be able to stay home and live her life until the call comeswhich doctors estimate will take atleasta year. When Lindsey's heart failed, she was put on a Berlin heart, an artificial support that helpedher heart pump. That enabledher to waitfora donor heart. Sierra's condition, with her donorheart,isdifferent— a Berlin heart is not an option.

''When they crash, they crash," Stacy says."There's no

back up." She said Sierra is fully involved in her medical condition — and knows what is coming. "She wants to know everything," Stacy said.

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he Binghams have been forcedto learn about organ donation the hard way, and this week Stacy and Lindsey helped share their knowledge during an assembly at Baker

High School. Their talk was part of an eventhonoring the DMV and its 40-year partnership with Donate Life Northwest, which educatesresidents ofOregon and Washington about organ, eye and tissue donation and the Oregon or Washington Donor Registry.

Baker County SherifFs deputies planned to continue to search today for Logan Richard Handy, a 16-year-old Baker City boy who ran away from his home Wednesday morning Three deputies and six Handy members of the county's search and rescueteam were unable to fi nd Handy despite a day-long search Thursday, Sheriff Mitch Southwick said this morning. Police believe Handy might be a danger to himself, Southwick said. See Search IPage8A

Woman sentenced

in cattle theft case The Sumpter woman convicted Feb. 12 of two counts of first-degree theft and four counts of unauthorized use of a livestock animal was sentenced Thursday to six months in the Baker County Jail. A jury found Lynette Bullington, 64, of 39554 Cemetery Road in Sumpter, guilty of illegally keeping a stray black Angus calf belonging to Cal and Vicki Foster of Bowen

Valley. In addition to the six-month jail term, Judge Greg Baxter also sentenced Bullington to two years probation on each count, and orderedher to pay the Fosters$5,000 forloss oftheuse oftheircow for breeding purposes.

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CnmmissisnersIetupdmte onTUdistrict trouhles By Joshua Dillen

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By Lisa Britton

A second police search of a Baker City home where a man was arrested on drug charges last week has yielded one pound of methamphetamine and more than $3,500 in cash. Baker City Police searched the home at 3025 D St., near the railroad tracks in north Baker City, about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. On Feb. 10 police arrested Jose Daniel Padilla-Albrido, 38, at that home. During a search of the home Feb. 10, police found abouthalfa pound ofmeth,with an estimatedstreetvalueof$8,000.

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Broadcast television channels are in danger of disappearing in rural areas of Baker and Union counties. Baker County Commissioners heard a report Wednesday on the

Sunday

TO D A T

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Issue 121, 20 pages

Blue Mountain Translator District iBMTDl from District Manager Beverly Beach. Due to lack of funding, BMTD might cease to exist in the next two to three years, Beach said. The only monies the non-profit dis-

trictreceivesisfiom a $100yearly fee Beach said other districts in the billed every July to users of its signals. West have stable funding in the form attaxrate orothertypesoffees She talked to the commission about of afl financial troubles the district is havand or levies. ''We are on our own," she said. mg. There are several reasons for those troubles. SeeTV SignalslPage GA

Calendar....................2A C o m m u nity News ....3A He a lth ...............5C & 6C O b i t uaries..................2A Sp o r ts ..................6ASA Classified............. 1B-4B C r o ssword........ZB & 3B Ja y son Jacoby..........4A Op i n i on......................4A T e l e vision .........3C & 4C Comics... ....................5B Dear Abby.... .............6B News of Record... .....3A Outdoors..........1C & 2C Weather.....................6B

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