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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 3, 2015)
re PENDLETON, PILOT ROCK, Grassfi in WMHS, MAC-HI TO STATE relights Boardman SOFTBALL/1B 73/49 REGION/3A WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 139th Year, No. 164 WINNER OF THE 2013 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Brown says email leaker shouldn’t be prosecuted One dollar Senator, veterinarian battle domestic violence with legislation Use of strangulation Passed the senate Bill 788 requires petitioners predicts future homicide in •Senate family law proceedings to disclose By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian District attorneys in Yamhill and Marion counties are still considering Zhether to ¿ le charges against a state employee who admitted last week that he leaked former Gov. John Kitzhaber’s personal emails to a newspaper. Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement Tuesday morning that it would not serve the public interest to prosecute the employee, Michael Rodgers. “Since Michael Rodgers has now come forward to explain his actions and has taken responsi- Brown bility for leaking former Governor Kitzhaber’s emails to the media, it doesn’t seem to me to be in the public’s interest to pursue a case against him,” Brown said in the written statement. Brown acknowl- Rodgers edged that district attorneys will decide whether to ¿ le charges against Rodgers, who is interim director of the state data center where Kitzhaber’s emails are stored. According to the Willamette Week newspaper, a Marion County prose- cutor offered Rodgers’ lawyer a deal last month: Rodgers could resign, or prosecutors could charge him with one count of of¿ cial misconduct for each of the approximately 6,000 emails Oregon State Police suspected he leaked to the newspaper. Brown said she hopes district attorneys do not bring charges against Rodgers. “Leaking internal emails to the public was an extraordinary act made in an extraordinary situation; an act based on a lack of trust in the system around him,” Brown wrote. “Instead of wasting public time and resources pursuing charges in this case, I would rather focus on rebuilding trust and accountability.” Yamhill County District Attorney Brad Berry, who said he is “collabora- tively reviewing the case” along with Marion County District Attorney Walter Beglau, had not yet read Brown’s state- ment Tuesday morning. Berry said the Marion County District Attorney’s Of¿ ce requested a peer review of the case, because Kitzhaber’s nephew is a Marion County prosecutor. “No formal decision has been made as of yet,” Berry said of Rodgers’ case. Berry acknowledged this is “an unusual case in that it deals with a rela- tively high level of management within state government,” and Rodgers’ situ- ation has attracted attention from other See EMAIL/2A At ¿ rst glance, Bill +ansell and Andrew Clark might seem like an odd couple ¿ ghting for an unlikely cause. The Republican state senator from Athena and the former State Veterinarian of Oregon — a Pendleton Democrat — are battling domestic certain protective orders •Senate Bill 790 requires schools to add domestic violence to current cur- riculum on teenage dating violence violence. The men are backing three bills sponsored by +ansell to address the problems in courts and schools. Senate Bill 789 increases the penalties for strangulation and Musti¿ es the use of physical force by domestic violence victims who are in imminent danger, Senate Bill 790 requires schools to add domestic violence to current curriculum on teenage dating violence and Senate Bill 788 requires petitioners in family law proceedings to disclose certain protective orders. The interest in quashing domestic violence started when Clark accompanied his wife, Barbara, to hear Louise Bauschard at their See VIOLENCE/8A Rural students less likely to go to college EO fi le photo A Pendleton graduate sports a little Western fl air with a pair of cowboy boots and spurs during the commencement ceremony in 2006. Study found 55 percent enroll in post-secondary education By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian A new study of Oregon high school graduates suggests a college-going culture is less prevalent in the rural parts of the state, but local educators say that is changing. The study by Education Northwest analyzed data on Oregon students who began high school in 2005-2007. It found that 63 percent of urban students but only 55 percent of rural students have enrolled in some form of post-secondary education in the years since graduation. Approximately one third of “For higher education leaders, they should dig further into their data to see if additional supports should be provided to rural students, as they often face different barriers to college success compared to nonrural students.” — Ashley Pierson, lead author of the study Oregon’s students were counted as “rural” because they live outside of a populated cluster of 50,000 people or more. Researchers found that the gap in enrollment persisted across achievement levels as measured by state test scores. Education Northwest also found that rural students were somewhat less likely to persist with post-secondary education once enrolled. Only 78 percent of rural students came back for a second year of college, compared to 83 percent of their urban peers. +eidi Sipe, superintendent of Umatilla School District, said it’s an issue that educators in the region are aware of and are doing something about. The last batch of Education Northwest’s study participants — those who started in 2007 and took ¿ ve years to graduate — ¿ nished school in 2012. Sipe said in 2012 only 15 Umatilla +igh School students went on to college in the fall. This year, however, 45 of the 77 seniors graduating on Saturday have enrolled in a post-secondary program. “We’ve really worked to See COLLEGE/8A PENDLETON City council marijuana discussion goes stale By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Arts have class Staff photo by E.J. Harris Sherwood Elementary School fourth-graders Sydnee Enright, Kacie Parker, Rylee Demianew and Julianna Ortega work on mosaic collages on Tuesday at the Pendleton Center for the Arts. More than 150 students from Pendleton and Helix are participating in the week-long Arts Have Class program in Pendleton. The program is supported by the Pendleton Center for the Arts and Arts East. Ostensibly held to discuss a special business license for medical marijuana dispensaries, the Pendleton City Council’s Tuesday workshop instead veered back into questions of whether the city wanted to allow any type of marijuana sales in the ¿ rst place. Councilwoman Becky Marks opened the meeting by saying the council needed to answer that question before they could vote on a business license that would allow medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in Pendleton, given they followed a number of conditions. Marks said the council should consider that there were 600 medical marijuana card holders in Umatilla County and county voters opposed a state measure legalizing recreational marijuana in November. Several other councilors voiced their reservations as well. Councilman Tom Young said a vote for a marijuana business license would violate his oath as a city councilor, which states the city council must uphold city, state and federal laws. See MARIJUANA/8A
