A dubious honor

Congratulations, Umatilla County.

It was recently reported our county of nearly 74,000 people, with less than half of them registered voters at 30,557, finished dead last in voter turnout during Tuesday’s election. The county had just under 63 percent of voters turn in ballots, while the statewide average was nearly 67 percent.

Umatilla County Elections manager Patti Chapman said it was nothing new or unusual for the county to have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the state. “We’re generally in the bottom 10 counties,” she said.

Way to go. Who wants to be in the bottom 10 when you can be dead last?

And it seems we’ve been heading that way for a few years. In the November 2004 general election, Umatilla County was last with 80 percent of registered voters turning in their ballots, 5 percent below the statewide average. Umatilla County finished tied for last with Washington County during the 2002 November general election, 6 percent below the statewide average.

But wait, in the 2000 November election, Umatilla County tied the statewide average of 80 percent and beat nine other counties, including Multnomah and Morrow.

So, three general elections in a row of finishing last. That’s a dubious honor none of us can be proud of.

Disrespecting our community

Most people work hard to keep their life in order. But that order can be as easily shattered as a piece of glass.

In the case of the Pendleton Heritage Museum, that’s exactly what happened. During the past few weeks, 18 windows were broken at the museum and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Around town, car windows have been broken by crowbars, bricks and rocks. Businesses around the region have had windows shot out.

And all for what? That’s what business owners and homeowners are wondering. And for most there are few answers, or at least any that make sense.

The problem is these things often occur late at night with no witnesses, making finding the culprits, and finding out reasons, impossible.

There may be few answers after the fact, but in the future we can hope vandalism can be prevented.

This destruction comes down to a lack of respect for the community and the town.

A foothold on Bigfoot

Jeffrey Meldrum is a tenured professor of anatomy at Idaho State University and a recognized authority on Bigfoot. Yeah, the large, hairy anthropoid that, legend has it, romps through the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Meldrum’s been drawing a lot of press this week for that belief. The EO even ran the story last Sunday.

Given news this week and last have been focused on elections coverage, reporters throughout the U.S. only can envy the schmo who was lucky enough to cover something as, well, fluffy as a Bigfoot story.

Be that as it may, no one should dismiss Meldrum outright for his belief. Just take a look at Adrian Shine. He heads up the Loch Ness Project. Yep, that lake in Scotland where folks see a monster. Shine went to the lake years ago, set on proving whether or not the thing was real.

Since then, he’s become the foremost authority on the Loch Ness’ ecology and biodiversity. He discovered there are probably more species of nematodes – worms – than any other living critter, including insects. And most of them probably live in sea and ocean floors.

Shine doesn’t give much credence to a real monster in the loch, but he’s used that pursuit to further our understanding of the natural world.

Hopefully Meldrum will do the same.

America’s favorite odd couple

We all are heartbroken that Britney Spears and Kevin Federline (K-Fed to his peeps and homies) are getting a divorce. How could such a perfect match come to an end so soon?

Throughout the relationship, K-Fed took a lot of heat for being, well, being nothing more special than Mr. Britney Spears. But during the past 12 months, he’s been trying hard to make a name for himself as his own man, and not Spears’ kept man. He’s trying to become a rapper, and was on a recent episode of “CSI: Las Vegas” as a bad guy. And he was OK.

That’s more than can be said for how Spears supposedly broke it off with Federline. She allegedly let him know the relationship was finished via a text message he received while he was conducting a TV interview. And she filed for divorce when he was filming in Canada. That’s class.

Now comes the fight over the kids and money and possessions. These two will make for tabloid fodder for months to come.

But maybe, just maybe, K-Fed can show he’s all grown up and not stoop to Spears’ level. If he does that, he may not get much money from this thing, but he might get the kids and a little dignity.

Drifting along with a tumbling tumbleweed

For the past three years, Pilot Rock has been dealing with a problem that has the potential to have very serious consequences. Tumbleweeds. And, as they are nomadic in their nature, the problem cannot be addressed solely at the city level.

Singularly, or in groups of half a dozen, they are harmless. But when they congregate and move in the thousands, it’s a different story, as the citizens of Pilot Rock can attest.

Houses, vehicles and lives are threatened by massive pile-ups of the flammable plant skeletons. But because the tumbleweeds come from abroad, there is very little Pilot Rock residents can do to address the issue.

It was apparent residents are growing frustrated and frightened at a recent council meeting, where the problem was brought to the attention of the mayor and the council.

It’s time for the entire region to take a look at the problem and work together to find a way to reduce the number of tumbleweeds before Pilot Rock suffers the consequences.

Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board comprised of Publisher Dave Balcom and Managing Editor Steve Brown. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian.