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A man in a wheelchair and his female companion were arrested in an alleged shoplifting scheme at Best Buy in Lady Lake. Matthew Mehrhoff, 48, of Umatilla, was in a wheelchair in the store shortly before 11 a.m. Saturday and was being pushed by 21-year-old Miranda Sue Chapman, also of Umatilla, when store personnel noticed that the pair were behaving in a suspicious manner, according to an arrest report from the Lady Lake Police Department. They were seen on surveillance making contact with merchandise packaging followed by Mehrhoff placing an item in his jacket and zipping it up. Store personnel...

Army Corps of Engineers working with native American tribes to coordinate burial A local tribe, the Umatilla, had claimed the Kennewick Man as an ancestor; the Native American group wanted to lay the skeleton to rest according to custom.

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Government offices around the state on Monday received suspicious mail, some of which contained an unknown substance, according to Oregon State Police. Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer was rushed to the emergency room at Blue Mountain Hospital on Monday evening. The East Oregonian reported that Palmer opened an envelope addressed to him at the sheriff's office in Canyon City. The envelope contained a white substance and Palmer quickly developed a rash on his arms.

MILTON-FREEWATER The East End Rod & Gun Club’s application to continue operations was approved by the Umatilla County Planning Commission Thursday night, but a number of restrictions were placed on its activities. #The Milton-Freewater club, which has about 800 members, has operated a shooting range since 1994 on 85 acres of leased property, but was never officially approved by the county. #The club initially filed a land use application last fall to expand onto addition land and receive official approval for their current operations, but later withdrew the request for an expansion because the land was no longer available. #Thursday...

George Knapp was joined for the full four hours by David Paulides, a former lawman turned investigative journalist, for a discussion on a series of weird and odd disappearances in U.S. national parks and forests that no one can explain. -snip Acknowledging that animal attacks and accidents do occur in the forest, he contended that these disappearances are different because they leave no clues to suggest such prosaic explanations. Over the course of the evening, he detailed instances where people vanish within minutes, never to be seen again, and where bone fragments of victims were found, as if they'd been...

Man exposed to mustard agent at Umatilla chemical depot Posted: Mar 31, 2010 5:48 PM Updated: Mar 31, 2010 5:53 PM Video Gallery Man exposed to mustard agent at Umatilla chemical depot 0:57 KENNEWICK; Wash-- SNIPPET: "The depot is still waiting to hear back from independent lab results but early indications from the CDC are positive. About two weeks ago, a worker developed a blister on his skin, which is one of the symptoms." SNIPPET: "The man's name has not been released. He also hasn't missed any work as a result of the exposure."

Note: The following text is a quote: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nov. 16, 2009 Time: 1:30 p.m. PDT Farm tractor driven through fence at Umatilla Chemical Depot Umatilla Chemical Depot, Hermiston, Ore. –A large farm tractor drove through a Umatilla Chemical Depot fence last night, and the driver abandoned it. The person responsible has not been apprehended. Security at the depot remains high. The tractor did not get near the depot’s chemical weapons storage area. Depot security and off-post law enforcement officials are investigating. No damage was sustained to chemical munitions or the Umatilla Chemical Agent Disposal Facility (UMCDF). The UMCDF...

A trace amount of the chemical weapon gas sarin was detected Friday at the U.S. Army's Umatilla Chemical Dept in Umatilla, Ore., according to a statement released by the Army. A spokesman for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality said the amount of GB, or sarin, was so small that it did not pose a threat to people. Determining exactly which container is leaking will probably not be done until Monday, according to the DEQ. The leak was detected Friday by a crew conducting a daily monitoring routine, according to the Army. The gas was stored in a structure called...