First Militiaman Arrested In Connection With Oregon Standoff

As a standoff at an OR wildlife refuge hits the two-week mark, local residents are growing increasingly tired and wary. That’s the name the occupiers have given the wildlife refuge.

“If we all keep a calm about us everything will be OK”, Brenda Pointere said Thursday as she exited a Burns restaurant. We’d like to hear from you about this or any other stories you think we should know about.

The occupation started January 2 as a protest over two area ranchers who had been convicted of arson being returned to prison to serve longer sentences.

Bundy said he understood the frustration of Harney County residents.

Burns, nearby Hines and the local area have been in an economic tailspin for decades after the loss of a lumber mill that some blamed on federal restrictions involving timber harvests.

Though they are often, incorrectly called “public” lands, the “public” has no fundamental right to enter them or utilize their water and other resources.

Photos from the Harney County Sheriff’s Office showed a van and a pickup truck.

Hogwash, it’s just a PR stunt, says Barfblog’s Doug Powell. But, he noted, “There’s a split camp, so to speak”.

A spokesman for the armed group occupying a national wildlife refuge in OR says they still want to have a meeting with local residents, perhaps early next week.

No arrests had been made until Friday, and leaders of the group have also said they have broken no laws, arguing that the refuge itself is public land.

Law enforcement agencies dealing with the standoff have kept a low profile and have not moved against the armed group at the refuge.

Locals who agreed to be interviewed were themselves conflicted, expressing anger toward federal land policies but bothered by the armed takeover. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is grateful for the quick actions from law enforcement”, Nagel said.

But if the wildlife refuge falls out of federal control, he said he expected no trespassing signs to go up. From May to November 2015, Medenbach lived in a small cabin he built on Bureau of Land Management property near the Sugar Pine Mine on Peavine Road in the Southern Oregon town of Galice.

This isn’t the first time Medenbach has had a run-in with federal officials.

Meanwhile, nobody is too sure how it will end.

“Government certainly can’t exclude the group simply because it disagrees with their beliefs”, said Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C., and senior vice president of the First Amendment Center.

Associated Press writer Michelle Price contributed from Salt Lake City.