FROM PAGE ONE
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A7
VODKA
Continued from Page A1
Bobby Levy, R-Echo, she
said. She also has support
from the nonprofi t literacy
group Oregon Kids Read
and the Oregon chapter of
the nationwide advocacy
group Decoding Dyslexia.
The primary reason stu-
dents struggle to read is not
because of any cognitive
defi cits or learning disabil-
ities, but because they have
not learned phonological
skills — that is, how sounds
connect with letters —
according to the Journal of
Educational Psychology.
Yet students across the
United States struggle with
reading profi ciency, in large
BORDER
Continued from Page A1
The move to ban Rus-
sian vodkas can be seen as
largely symbolic as very few
Russian vodkas are imported
to the United States. A small
number of bars have gone
part because their teachers
were not instructed in how
to teach reading in ways
that line up with science and
best practices, according
to the Journal of Learning
Disabilities. This is because
of decades of political and
ideological battles over
reading science and how
students should be taught,
according to James Kim, an
expert on literacy interven-
tion at Harvard University.
Oregon is no excep-
tion to low reading profi -
ciency among students. For
years, schools in the state
have struggled to increase
reading profi ciency among
fourth and eighth graders.
The National Assess-
ment of Educational Prog-
ress is often called the
nation’s report card. It mea-
sures students’ grasp of
math and reading.
In 2019, the most recent
year for which data is avail-
able, just about one-third of
Oregon fourth graders and
eighth graders tested at or
above profi cient in reading.
This mirrors nationwide
scores for fourth and eighth
graders, too.
Profi ciency is defi ned
as having competency and
knowledge of subject matter
and an ability to apply it to
real world situations.
With the $31 million,
Smith Warner wants to
pay teachers to undertake
training in a program called
Language Essentials for
Teachers of Reading and
Spelling, which was created
by literacy expert Louisa
Moates. The training
involves learning the sci-
ence of how the brain learns
to read and how it develops
phonological awareness —
understanding how sounds
connect with letters —
learning how to identify
students with dyslexia, and
using research to come up
with targeted instruction for
students who are struggling.
Teachers in Port-
land, Beaverton and Lake
Oswego have already been
off ered such training by
their districts, and Smith
Warner wants it available at
schools statewide.
The training would be
over six to 12 months, and
would be administered
online through Eastern
Oregon University.
The training played a
large role in helping Mis-
sissippi fourth and eighth
graders make historic gains
in reading during the last
few years.
In 2013 the Mississippi
Legislature mandated that
new teachers pass an exam
on reading science to be
licensed to teach in elemen-
tary schools. The state had
some of the lowest reading
scores in the country.
At the urging of a Missis-
sippi governor’s task force,
college professors who
taught education as well as
elementary school teachers
around the state began to
undertake Language Essen-
tials training. By 2019, the
state’s fourth and eighth
graders increased their
reading scores by more than
10% over the previous year.
That was the largest gain of
any state.
In Oregon, the $31
million sought by Smith
Warner would pay for sub-
stitute teachers to fi ll in for
teachers taking time off for
the training.
Funds would also go to
paying for tutoring in the
Ignite! Reading program,
which involves individual
instruction over Zoom for
15 minutes a day, fi ve days
a week, until a struggling
student is caught up in
reading. The tutoring would
reach about 4,000 Oregon
students with the greatest
need, according to Smith
Warner.
“I put into words what
people are feeling, and Mike
puts legs under it,” he said.
“Even though this has
been talked about for 100
years, Grant’s letter piqued
the interest of a lot of people
in Eastern and Southern
Oregon,” McCarter said.
McCarter credits Dar-
row’s letter with leading to
the initial meetings in La
Pine of what is today Move
Oregon’s Border.
“Grant is an integral part
of this,” McCarter said.
react in a positive manner,”
he said.
Darrow collected more
than 700 signatures of regis-
tered voters to get Measure
31-101 on the ballot in Union
County.
“I could not believe it
when we got on the ballot,”
he said.
Darrow said based on
what people told him, most
everyone who signed the
Union County petition sup-
ports Greater Idaho, but he
knows of several who did
not.
“One woman signed it
because she wanted to see
it get on the ballot so that
she could vote against it,”
Darrow said.
Such responses did not
bother Darrow, who said
his ultimate objective is to
give the people a chance to
decide about Greater Idaho.
“That is what citizen gov-
ernment is all about,” he
said. “It is about dialogue.”
Darrow said that while
he was collecting signatures
for Measure 31-101 he told
people, “I am not here to
argue or convince you. I am
here to give you a chance to
vote.”
need to get more dialogue,
to get everybody talking
about it. We have to get it
out there.”
Darrow said he has a
fi rsthand understanding of
the growing sense of frus-
tration people in North-
eastern Oregon have about
the state’s urban-rural divide
because he worked as a
chimney sweep in Union,
Wallowa and Baker counties
for 44 years before retiring
in September 2021.
“I would work in 12 to 15
homes a week,” he said.
The chimney sweep has
detected a growing sense of
disenchantment with Ore-
gon’s government during
the past decade, noting they
believe, like Darrow does,
that the needs and con-
cerns of Eastern Oregon
are largely ignored by the
Legislature.
“We have become
nothing more than window
dressing,” he said.
Darrow in his 2015 letter
to the editor expressed this
point even more starkly.
“It would appear to any
rural resident or outside
observer that most of Ore-
gon’s urbanites view Ore-
gon’s rural residents as
nothing more than third-
world inhabitants occupying
their weekend and vacation
playgrounds in what they
advertise to the world as
Oregon’s unique diversity,”
he wrote.
in Oregon today,” he said,
adding that every time gov-
ernment puts in a new reg-
ulation or fee it adds to the
red tape citizens must deal
with. “It gets to be abso-
lutely crazy.”
Darrow does not know
what Greater Idaho will lead
to, noting that it may push
to something benefi cial to
rural Oregon that might not
involve moving Idaho’s bor-
ders west.
“It could morph into any
direction,” he said.
He believes the Greater
Idaho campaign could lead
to a positive change in how
the Legislature perceives
rural residents, the creation
of a new state or Greater
Idaho
The Cove resident is
sometimes asked by people
who know how much he dis-
likes Oregon’s urban-rural
divide, why he doesn’t move
to Idaho.
“I tell them, ‘That is what
I am trying to do,’” Darrow
said.
Union County provides
a boost
Since the passage of
Measure 31-101 Darrow
has been urging the Union
County Board of Commis-
sioners to request in writing
that State Rep. Bobby Levy,
R-Echo, and State Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, work to
get Oregon legislators to dis-
cuss Greater Idaho.
Darrow said he is not
requesting that formal dis-
cussions about Greater
Idaho begin at that state cap-
ital. Darrow said it could be
something as simple as the
formation of a committee
to try to determine why
interest in Greater Idaho is
growing.
“Getting people at the
state level to talk about it is
the next step,” he said. “We
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Regulations are
choking businesses
Darrow objects to things
such as the way state gov-
ernment is imposing more
and more regulations and
fees that make it increas-
ingly diffi cult for Orego-
nians to start and operate
businesses in Oregon.
“It has gotten so bad that
I could not aff ord to start a
career as a chimney sweep
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Darrow said McCarter
played an instrumental role
in getting Measure 31-101 on
the Union County ballot in
2020. The measure, which
voters approved with a little
more than 52% of the vote,
requires the county commis-
sioners to meet three times
each year to discuss pro-
moting Union County inter-
ests relating to the county
becoming part of Idaho.
A total of 7,401 cast bal-
lots in support of the Union
County measure. Darrow
believes that everyone who
voted for Measure 31-101 are
supporters of Greater Idaho.
He said Union County is
not alone in its support of
Greater Idaho. Darrow noted
that Malheur, Baker, Grant,
Harney, Sherman, Lake and
Jeff erson counties have all
passed similar measures. He
also said Klamath, Douglas
and Josephine counties will
likely vote on comparable
measures in May.
He said the measures are
making it possible for people
to civilly voice their frustra-
tion. Darrow explained that
when people believe they
are disenfranchised they
can react either violently or
peacefully. Measure 31-101
and similar initiatives are
providing people an oppor-
tunity to do the latter.
“These are pressure
valves that allow people to
BACKED BY A YEAR-ROUND
N
that it could include Eastern
Oregon and other rural por-
tions of the state.
“Imagine for a moment
Idaho’s western border
stretching to the Pacifi c,”
Darrow wrote at the end of
the letter.
Almost seven years later,
many Oregonians are imag-
ining just as he hoped they
would, which means the the
Greater Idaho movement is
gaining momentum.
“We are gaining sup-
port,” Darrow said. “This is
an exciting time.”
Those who have taken
note include The Atlantic
magazine, which refers to
Greater Idaho as “Modern
America’s Most Successful
Secessionist Movement” in
a story that appeared in its
Dec. 23, 2021, edition.
Darrow is not surprised
by the growing momentum,
especially when he refl ects
on the response his letter
received in the days and
weeks after it was fi rst pub-
lished. He said about 40
other rural Oregon newspa-
pers printed the letter after
he sent it to them.
“Some newspapers even
called me up and requested
a copy so they could run it,”
he said.
Today, the letter, which
stated that Eastern Oregon
should be part of Idaho
because its people are
ignored by Oregon’s west-
side leaders, is viewed as so
integral to the Greater Idaho
movement that a copy is
reprinted on the website of
a leading group pushing for
Greater Idaho — Move Ore-
gon’s Border, whose leader
is Mike McCarter, of La
Pine.
Darrow credits McCarter
with doing much of the
heavy lifting, which has
given Greater Idaho the
momentum it now has.
oppression from the Russian
regime,” and condemned the
Russian military actions in
Ukraine. Stoli is produced
in Latvia, while Smirnoff is
produced in Illinois.
didn’t outright ban the sale
of Russian vodka, O’Dell
said it would be something
he personally would have
liked to see pulled from
store shelves.
“I would be advocating to
do it,” O’Dell said. “Me, the
person, would be advocating
to do it.”
15 % & 10 %
2
Continued from Page A1
press release. Stoli Group,
the distillery that makes
Stolichnaya, off ered up a
statement on its website that
said, “Stoli Group has had
a long history of fi ghting
viral online for pouring out
Stoli brand vodkas, despite
the vodka being produced
in Latvia, a NATO member
country.
A list of the vodka brands
that have been pulled from
the shelves can be found on
the OLCC website.
But even if the OLCC
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Oregon-made vodkas sit on the top shelf at La Grande Liquor and Smoke Shoppe, La Grande, on Tuesday,
March 1, 2022.
RD
READING
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Empty shelf space where Russian Standard was formerly sold at La
Grande Liquor & Smoke Shoppe, La Grande, is photographed on
Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commis-
sion moved to ban the sale of all Russian vodkas after the Russian
military invasion of Ukraine on Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022.
TH
Eastern Oregon produces
several vodkas, including
Glacier 45 vodka, which is
distilled in Baker City, and
276 Vodka produced by
Oregon Grain Growers Dis-
tillery, Pendleton. Both are
quality vodkas, according to
O’Dell.
Across the state, about
5,000 bottles of Rus-
sian-made liquor were for
sale in 281 liquor stores,
according to the OLCC.
Those vodkas have since
been removed from store
shelves. Oregon liquor
stores also are prohibited
from fulfi lling any customer
“special order” requests
for Russian-manufactured
liquor.
Vodkas with Rus-
sian-sounding names such
as Smirnoff and Stolichnaya
that are produced outside of
Russia aren’t subject to the
ban, according to the OLCC
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