53/38
Armchair
Books to
close store
WELLY TOSS
AND PARADE
RESULTS
PENDLETON/6A
WEE BIT O’IRELAND/3A
Bucks
sweep
Roseburg
BASEBALL/1B
TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016
140th Year, No. 112
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2015 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
MISSION
One dead in reservation shooting
FBI continues to investigate,
second victim remains in hospital
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
One Pendleton man is
dead and another wounded
after a shooting Saturday
morning on the Umatilla
Indian Reservation.
Tony Jimenez, 27, died
after emergency efforts to
save his life, while Beau
Welch, 31, suffered a
gunshot to a leg. He had
surgery Monday at St.
Anthony Hospital, Pend-
leton. Welch is a member of
the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reser-
vation.
Tribal
police
and
FBI agents arrested one
man in connection to the
violence — Victor Joseph
Contreras, 23, of California.
Police booked him into the
Umatilla County Jail, Pend-
leton, on local charges of
attempted murder, ¿ rst-de-
gree assault, second-degree
assault, unlawful possession
of a ¿ rearm and felon in
possession of a ¿ rearm. He
was due Monday in federal
court in Portland.
Assistant United States
attorney Scott Kerin is
prosecuting the case. He is
the top drug prosecutor in
the attorney’s of¿ ce for the
District of Oregon.
Tony Jimenez,
who was shot
and killed
on Saturday
morning
in Mission,
poses with his
two sons in
this photo.
Photo contributed by
Marisol Jimenez
See SHOOTING/8A
“When people engage in music, it becomes a more beautiful world.”
COST OF TRANSPARENCY
— Josh Rist, Hermiston choir director
Legislators
rival agencies
in high fees,
long waits
MUSIC MATTERS
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Staff Photo by Jennifer Colton
Fourth-grader Sydney Stocker helps Raul Cortes DeLaPaz during a Wednesday music class at Desert View Elementary in
Hermiston.
Hermiston schools make music programs a priority for all ages
By JENNIFER COLTON
East Oregonian
In Hermiston, the halls are
alive with the sound of music.
Every student, preschool
through high school, has the
option to make music a part of
their education, and the Herm-
iston School District is seeing
the bene¿ ts of keeping the
programs alive through budget
cuts and space constraints.
Each elementary school
continues to house a full-
time music teacher, and the
secondary schools offer music,
band and choir programs.
“Research has shown a
connection between partic-
ipation in music education
programs and student success,
such as improvement in brain
function and a person’s ability
to process language,” Bryn
Browning, assistant super-
intendent, said in a written
statement.
“Foundational
skills for teaching reading and
language begin with song and
rhyme — think back to your
own childhood or the types of
books, songs and poems we
read/sing to our own children.”
For the past two years,
Hermiston has been named
a “Best Community for
Music Education” by the
National Association of Music
Merchants Foundation. Last
year, 388 districts nationwide
were selected for the designa-
tion; Hermiston was the only
district in the state of Oregon.
The district has applied again
this year, and the winners will
be announced in April.
On Wednesday afternoon,
students hummed with activity,
ready for spring break. At
See MUSIC/8A
SALEM — Lawmakers just wrapped up a
packed session in which they passed important
laws on minimum wage, housing and renewable
energy that were negotiated behind closed doors.
Their response to a public records request
shows how time consuming and expensive it
can be Ior reporters — and the public — to ¿ nd
out who attended and helped shape legislation
during those closed-door meetings.
The Pamplin Media Group/EO Media Group
Capital Bureau on Dec. 18 requested the calen-
dars of 11 legislators. Lawmaker calendars are
considered a public record under state law. The
bureau planned to examine the schedules to ¿ nd
out how legislative leaders and committee chair-
persons spent their time and whom they met
with leading up to votes on key policy proposals.
While many state agencies provide public
records for free, the two most powerful people
in the Legislature, House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, and Senate President Peter Courtney,
D-Salem, were among lawmakers who slapped
the highest price tags on their calendars.
,nitially, ¿ ve of the 11 lawmakers volunteered
to waive fees associated with releasing their
calendars. The other six legislators, including
Kotek and Courtney, provided the bureau with
estimates that totaled $1,200 to release less than
12 months of their calendars. To reduce the cost,
the bureau narrowed its request to the calendars
of Kotek and Courtney.
As of March 16, the bureau had yet to
receive any of the records. Suzanne Trujillo,
deputy legislative counsel, said she did not yet
have a timeline for when the request would be
complete.
Waiving the fees
Excessive fees and long delays for public
records are “a barrier to access,” said Jack
Orchard, attorney for the Oregon Newspaper
Publishers Association, and a longtime advocate
for inexpensive access to public records. “It is
See RECORDS/8A
PENDLETON
Farmers market considers return to Main Street
Season starts May 6
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The Pendleton Farmers Market
may stay on Main Street after all.
A week after announcing the
Farmers Market would seek a new
home for its 2016 season, board
president Mary Ann McCune said
Monday the board wants to reopen
negotiations with the city of Pend-
leton to keep the seasonal event on
Main Street after receiving public
support to keep it there.
The original desire to move
arose from a conÀ ict between the
market’s board, the city and several
Main Street business owners.
Each Friday afternoon from
May through October, the nonprof-
it-operated market opens on the
300 block of Main Street, where
vendors offer regionally sourced
produce, crafts and food. The
event closes the block to traf¿ c and
parking for about ¿ ve hours each
week.
After
¿ elding
complaints
from downtown businesses the
past few seasons, the city and the
farmers market agreed to keep
vendors’ ofÀ oading trucks away
from parking spaces in front of
MaySon’s Old Fashioned General
Store and Alexander’s Chocolate
Classics as a condition of its street
closure permit.
According to City Manager
Robb Corbett, the farmers market
See MARKET/6A
EO fi le photo
Patrons purchase fruit at a booth at the Pendleton Farmers Market.