4
Wednesday,June2,2021
Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
OPINION
The opinions expressed in the letters below are “your voice,” and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Columbia Gorge News, its staff, publisher or advertisers.
YOUR VOICE
Pass Wildfire
Safe Bill
Sunlit Showers
We need the Oregon legislature
to pass Senate Bill 762, the “Wildfire
Safe” bill, to protect Oregon from
future wildfire disasters.
Last year’s fires produced
irreparable damage to homes,
livestock and 1.2 million acres of
land. Thousands of people had to
be evacuated, and at least nine lost
their lives. The damage cost us $1.5
billion.
We can count on having wildfires
in the west, and they’re getting
more frequent and more intense
with climate change.
SB 762 will help mitigate the risk
because it:
• Invests in our communities
through restoration of forests and
rangelands to reduce wildfire risk.
• Adds firefighter capacity, and
additional resources for wildfire
response and firefighter safety.
• Establishes defensible space
standards.
• Provides financial resources to
protect communities and critical
infrastructure.
• Creates the Oregon Wildfire
Workforce Corps Program to reduce
wildfire risk to communities and to
provide workforce training to the
next generation of land managers.
I’ve asked my elected officials,
Rep. Anna Williams and Sen. Chuck
Thomsen, to support SB 762, and
I encourage others to do so too.
We’ve already seen the need for
improved wildfire safety in Oregon. Sunlight creates a rainbow above rocky cliffs and slopes filled with ponderosa pines above Mill Creek south of The Dalles. Spring showers have been frequent this
Cindy Allen spring, but fire danger remains high and burn bans and fire warnings are in effect throughout Central Oregon, including the Columbia River Gorge.
Hood River
Mark B. Gibson photo
Fire concerns
Columbia Gorge News an-
nounced state fire restrictions
began on May 15, the earliest in 40
years. Most concerning was the fact
that "to date, 22 human caused fires
have burned more than 200 acres.
The 10-year-average for this time
frame is 10 fires, burning 32 acres."
Having lived in Oregon my entire
life, the news of the escalating fire
season is concerning. As we see
our local fire season growing in
length and fires growing in force, I
recognize the expanding needs of
our communities. One of the vital
necessities being to weatherize our
communities' homes in order to
reduce people's exposure to smoke.
Weatherizing our homes not only
protects us from the elements, but
also reduces our energy bills and
creates jobs in home retrofitting.
I am an eager supporter of the
Oregon Clean Energy Opportunity
(OCEO) campaign, particularly
House Bill 2842 Healthy Homes.
The bill would support home im-
provements in low-income house-
holds across Oregon, including
smoke filtration and other improve-
ments that make homes more fire
resistant.
Everyone deserves to have a
healthy home as a refuge from
bad environmental conditions.
Additionally, we have Gorge com-
munity members who are energy
burdened (paying more than 6 per-
cent of monthly income on utility
bills). Home upgrades can reduce
family energy bills and help rural
counties in Oregon, which face the
highest rates of energy burden.
I really wish to highlight how
our home health and efficien-
cy affect so many areas of our
lives. Weatherization is vital to
Oregonians' health when we spend
$28 million on asthma-related
hospital visits each year. Not to
mention that asthma is the leading
reason for missed school days.
We also need to recognize
our community members who
have suffered due to contracting
COVID-19 and those who will be
permanently affected by lung and
breathing issues. Wildfire smoke in
their homes should not be another
worry they face.
As wildfire smoke becomes a
seasonal companion, I hope to see
our community disaster resilience
increase and our energy burdens
decrease with the passage of
HB2842. With that, I ask Rep. Anna
Williams and Sen. Chuck Thomsen
to vote yes on HB2842.
Lisa Muñoz
Hood River
between the Palestinian people and
the state of Israel. I believe that the
U.S., by tacitly supporting Israel's
apparent right to defend itself
but denying the same right to the
Palestinian people both in Gaza and
the occupied territories, is engaging
in a grave error.
We are complicit in the deaths
of hundreds of people (including
scores of children) who have been
killed by Israeli airstrikes which we
have funded by providing billions of
dollars of non-conditional military
aid to the Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF).
The U.S. has further compound-
ed its error by blocking the U.N.
Security Council from condemn-
ing the violence and calling for a
ceasefire.
The U.S. has been biased towards
Israel in this conflict for years, and
I am writing this letter about the President Biden's claim that we are
pressing issue of the recent conflicts neutral rings hollow when he has
made clear that the U.S. believes
that Israel has a right to defend
itself free from criticism, but that
any Palestinians who do so should
be labeled as terrorists. The U.S.
has clearly chosen a side, and our
government needs to immediately
take a step back, cancel its military
support for Israel (or at least place
reasonable conditions on it) and
reevaluate the situation from an
unbiased perspective that respects
the rights of both Palestinians and
Israelis equally.
Gabriel Roth
White Salmon
Grave error
BEHIND THE SCENES
On bylines and staffing changes at Columbia Gorge News
Trisha Walker
■ By Columbia
Gorge News
H
APPY JUNE, COLUMBIA
Gorge News readers! Here’s
a column that I’ve been
meaning to write since April. We’ve
undergone a few staffing changes
recently and will undergo a few
more this month — which makes it
a good time to go over bylines.
Bylines, for those not familiar
with the term, are the namelines
that indicate who has written a
story that appears in our paper:
For example, "By Trisha Walker."
Underneath is the byline title — not
always, but generally, and I’ll ex-
plain why in a minute — that indi-
cates where the writer is associated.
In my case, that would be Columbia
Gorge News, as I am a full-time staff
writer.
All of us who are part of the
regular Columbia Gorge News
staff have “Columbia Gorge News”
under our bylines, so we are easy
to pick out. Of course, you can also
see our names in the staff box that
always appears on A4 — our contact
information is also listed for those
wishing to comment on a story or
suggest an idea.
Slight tangent: Send in your tips!
Behind The
Scenes
Trisha
Walker
We rely on those. It’s not uncom-
mon for someone to ask me why
one of our staff didn’t cover a
particular event, and the answer is
usually that we didn’t know about it.
Mostly I think this is because we’re
the news, right?, so people assume
we magically know everything that’s
going on. I am sorry to say this, but
we are not magic. I know. I’m disap-
pointed by that too.
Back on topic: Sometimes
you will see the byline title, “For
Columbia Gorge News.” This
means content has come from
one of our freelance writers. There
has been some confusion on this,
with people thinking the “For”
indicates “paid content” — as in,
commercially-produced.
We rely on freelancers because
we are a small staff, but they operate
in the same way we all do; that is,
with the same journalistic princi-
ples. The only difference is that they
are used on an as-needed basis.
This comes in handy because we
don’t have enough regular staff to
attend all of the meetings or sports
events occurring in our five-county
readership area. Most of our free-
lancers live in the Gorge, as does
all of our regular staff — and most
of our freelancers have worked
for Hood River News or The Dalles
Chronicle in the past.
Sometimes, you’ll see “Staff
report, Columbia Gorge News,” as
the byline/byline title. This is used
when multiple press releases are
combined, or additional informa-
tion is added to a press release.
These reports don’t typically involve
original reporting, but do reflect
the input and judgment of staff to
a degree that readers need to be
aware of the full source of the story.
Additional information is some-
times added at the end in italics
to further explain sources and any
staff member associated with con-
tributing to the report.
Recently we’ve made an effort to
identify where our press releases
come from — who has written and
submitted the content. Because this
is a new policy, not all press releases
have bylines and/or byline titles,
but for those that submit regularly,
we do make it a point. I estimate
99 percent of our press releases
come from local agencies or groups
wishing to promote an event or
inform the wider community about
the work they do. This is why you’ll
see a “For Washington Gorge Action
Programs” or “For Hood River
County School District.” It’s another
way we can clarify for our readers
where the content is from.
There are some cases where you
just see a byline and no byline title.
These are generally on our reoccur-
ring columns — for example, those
written by our Lyle and Glenwood
columnists. Contact information is
included at the end of each column
to identify them as such.
This also sometimes happens on
content submitted for our opinion
pages, such as "Another Voice"
submissions: A byline identifies the
writer, and a brief explanation at the
end gives additional information
regarding their association with the
topic. Again, this is another way to
clarify for our readers where our
content comes from.
As I’m sure you have noticed, we
are down a couple of staff writers,
with both Emily Fitzgerald and
Regional news for the Gorge
Kirby Neumann-Rea leaving this
year for new publications. It has
taken us a while to replace them —
housing is an issue local businesses
struggle with when attempting
to attract new hires, and we are
no different. But we will have two
new staff writers to introduce to
you soon: Noah Noteboom, a 2021
graduate of University of Oregon
(and a Hood River Valley High
School graduate who previously
interned at Hood River News), and
Alana Lackner, a 2021 graduate of
Washington State University. Both
come to us with journalism back-
grounds and have worked on their
respective university newspapers
while finishing their degrees. We
will introduce them soon.
All right, that’s all I have to say,
really, but LisaAnn Kawachi, our
copyeditor, likes a clearcut ending,
so I will at least try: Bylines and
byline titles are used by newspa-
pers to demystify where content
comes from, be that from a staff
writer or freelancer, columnist or
agency. And if you have any further
questions about content, you are
always welcome to contact any of us
for further clarification. (How’s that,
LisaAnn?)
Mailing Addresses:
PO Box 1910, The Dalles, OR 97058
PO Box 390, Hood River, OR 97031
PO Box 218, White Salmon, WA 98672
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER | THE DALLES | WHITE SALMON
Columbia Gorge News (ISSN 0747-3443)
Published every Wednesday.
Known offices of publication: (Open by appointment)
1800 W. 10th Street, The Dalles, OR 97058
600 E. Port Marina Way, Suite B, Hood River, OR 97031
Elba Offices, 288 E. Jewett Street, Suite 650
White Salmon, WA 98672
Periodical postage is paid at The Dalles, Oregon.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
P.O. Box 1910, The Dalles, OR 97058
CONTACT US
The Dalles
541-296-2141
Hood River / White Salmon
541-386-1234
ColumbiaGorgeNews.COM
Publisher
Chelsea Marr
chelseam@gorgenews.com
Editorial:
Mark Gibson, Editor
Trisha Walker, Lifestyle Editor
LisaAnn Kawachi, Copy Editor
Jacob Bertram, Reporter
Kelsie Cowart, Reporter
News Tips/Press Releases
Markg@gorgenews.com
Trishaw@gorgenews.com
LisaK@gorgenews.com
JacobB@gorgenews.com
KelsieC@gorgenews.com
News@gorgenews.com
Billing/Office:
billing@gorgenews.com
Advertising:
Niki Piacente, Digital Ad Director
Kim Horton, Sales
sales@gorgenews.com
NikiP@gorgenews.com
KimH@gorgenews.com
Legals:
Oregon:
Washington:
ORlegals@gorgenews.com
WAlegals@gorgenews.com
Subscriptions:
Shania McElravy, Supervisor
Subscribe@gorgenews.com
ShaniaM@gorgenews.com
Obituaries:
obits@gorgenews.com
Classifieds:
classifieds@gorgenews.com