100 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Oct. 6, 1920

A representative of the U. S. reclamation service is here organizing a crew to make a topographic survey of the McKay Creek reservoir site. This work will include a subsurface investigation and will be supplementary to work already accomplished by the government. The site has been approved by the reclamation engineers but they have not yet acquired all the data desired. This information will be obtained by the topographic survey. It is expected the surveying work will require two months. West end people have strong hopes of getting actual work on the reservoir started soon through an appropriation by congress providing for starting the project.

50 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Oct. 6, 1970

The streets of Hermiston are becoming unsafe for junior high students to walk in broad daylight in fear of getting a beating for being suspected of being “narcs,” John Cermak, director of elementary education and junior high principal, said. An older youth delivers narcotics in Hermiston on Tuesdays and Fridays and his identity is known by city police, according to Cermak, but they have not been able to catch the youth in the act of pushing the drugs. In recent weeks three Hermiston Junior High students have been beaten by older boys. One boy suffered a double fracture of the jaw. The junior high has an enrollment of 650. Cermak said approximately 25 of the students have admitted to him the use of narcotics. In several cases he has called in the parents. “Students have asked us not to be called to the office because they will be suspected by the pushers and will be beaten up,” Cermak said. “I am greatly concerned about the youth of the community.”

25 Years Ago

From the East Oregonian

Oct. 6, 1995

Huddled around televisions and radios, people in all parts of Umatilla and Morrow counties took a collective coffee break to hear the verdict of American’s most-watched trial. The silence was shattered several minutes later with sighs, shouts and a few I-told-you-sos as northeast Oregonians handed down their own appraisal of the guilt or innocence of football star O.J. Simpson, who was acquitted of killing his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. People running errands downtown found themselves gathered outside of M.J.’s Hallmark, where an outdoor speaker broadcasting spooky Halloween sounds stopped long enough to bring news of the verdict. Some saw the verdict as a statement on the state of the judicial system, which has been in question since the Rodney King trial — which sparked riots in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers who were videotaped beating him.