TRUMP PLEDGES
TO END POLITICAL
LIMITS ON CHURCHES
NIXYAAWII
BEATS ECHO
IN OVERTIME
FAITH/7A
SPORTS/1B
Protests
erupt in
Romania
WORLD/8A
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2017
141st Year, No. 79
Your Weekend
•
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Brown signs orders to thwart
Trump immigration policies
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Quilts of Valor National
Sew Day in Pendleton
Ugandan Kids Choir
Concert at BMCC
For times and places
see Coming Events, 5A
Weekend Weather
Fri
Sat
Sun
Paris Achen/Pamplin Media Group
29/25
44/34
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
40/32
Gov. Kate Brown announced efforts to resist the
Trump administration’s executive order temporarily
barring refugees and visa holders for several pre-
dominantly Muslim countries.
SALEM — Gov. Kate
Brown signed an executive
order Thursday barring the
use of any state resources to
enforce federal immigration
policy and called on the state
Attorney General’s Offi ce
to sue the Trump adminis-
tration over the president’s
executive order on immigra-
tion.
“The president’s recent
executive orders that divide
and discriminate do not
refl ect the values enshrined
in the U.S. Constitution
or the principles we stand
for as Oregonians or
Americans,” Brown told
reporters Thursday. “I want
to make it very clear that
here in Oregon, where thou-
sands have fought for and
demanded equality, where
millions have put down roots
and become integral to our
economy and to our culture;
we will not retreat.”
The governor said her
order was a response to
Trump’s temporary ban on
refugees and visa holders
from several predominantly
Muslim countries, but also
a proactive step in anticipa-
More inside
Iranian infant needs visa
waiver for heart surgery
in Portland Page 2A
tion of further action by the
Trump administration.
“We are hearing rumors
of the fact that the federal
government may consider
creating a Muslim registry,”
Brown said. “This would
forbid our state agencies and
our state agency workers
from participating in that.”
See BROWN/8A
Watch a game
ARLINGTON
vs.
Cash
for
trash
The Dalles vs. Hermiston
Friday, 7 p.m., at Hermiston
Sheriff’s
partners
skeptical
of pitch
for new
dispatcher
30-year Metro
garbage contract
will soon expire
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
“One of the things I love about being on the school board is using policy and being
able to infl uence people — whether it’s teachers, parents or the children themselves.”
For nearly 30 years,
trash day in Portland has
meant payday in rural
Gilliam County.
A fl eet of 50 garbage
trucks arrives every
day from the big city
to a remote, wind-
swept plateau south of
Arlington, home of Waste
Management’s Columbia
Ridge
Landfi ll
and
Recycling Center. The
12,00-acre dump employs
90 people — roughly 5
percent of the county’s
population — and kicks
in millions of dollars
annually to local coffers.
The landfi ll faces an
uncertain future, however,
as Portland now considers
different alternatives for
disposing of its solid
waste. If that happens, it
may cost jobs and signif-
icant revenue for Gilliam
County, which uses host
fees from Columbia
Ridge to help pay for
things like roads, small
business loans and tax
rebates for homeowners.
Portland’s trash is
regulated by Metro, an
independently
elected
regional government that
also runs the Oregon Zoo,
Portland Expo Center and
an array of city parks.
When Waste Manage-
ment opened Columbia
Ridge in 1990, it secured
90 percent of all garbage
Metro collects — up to
half a million tons annu-
ally.
That contract is set
to expire in 2019. Paul
Ehinger, director of solid
waste operations for
Metro, said the council
is weighing whether to
continue its relationship
with Columbia Ridge, or
go in a different direction.
“It’s a matter of what
are the best choices we
can make,” Ehinger said.
The Columbia Ridge
— Debbie McBee, chair of the Pendleton school board
See LANDFILL/3A
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
Umatilla County Sheriff
Terry Rowan wants to hire
another dispatcher for his
department’s busy 9-1-1 and
communications center.
But the multiple agencies
that contract for dispatch
services are not keen on
paying for it.
The
communication
center had nine dispatchers
in 2000, and they handled
9,468 emergency calls and
82,490
non-emergency
calls, according to data from
Lt. Kathy Lieuallen, the
sheriff’s
communications
commander. That’s
an
average of about 10,217
calls per dispatcher per year.
The sheriff’s offi ce now
employs 17 dispatchers,
and in 2016 they fi elded
29,606 emergency and
125,955
non-emergency
See DISPATCH/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton School Board member Debbie McBee, left, goes over scholarship possibilities with senior Kristelle
Isidro at the ASPIRE program on Thursday at Pendleton High School.
GET ON BOARD
Statewide campaign aims to get more people to run for school boards
East Oregonian
Each year, hundreds of
volunteers from across the
state raise their hands to
coach, mentor, teach and
campaign for their commu-
nity’s schools.
But when it comes to
volunteering for Oregon’s
school boards, fewer hands
get raised.
According to the Oregon
School Board Association,
nearly three-quarters of the
seats for school boards,
education service districts
and community college
boards were uncontested
during the last round of board
elections in 2015.
While the majority of
these races drew at least one
person, 8 percent of the seats
drew no candidates at all.
That year marked the lowest
number of school board
candidates in a decade.
The grim statistics spurred
the association to launch a
campaign to recruit more
candidates to participate in
the upcoming school board
elections in May, spokesman
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Pendleton School Board member Michelle Monkman helps senior William Royer
fi ll out paperwork for college Thursday at the ASPIRE program at Pendleton High
School.
Alex Pulaski said.
The association doesn’t
have any data as to why
people aren’t interested in
these seats, a problem espe-
cially acute in rural Oregon,
but Pulaski said Oregonians
might not know enough
about how schools boards
affect education policy to take
the plunge. The association’s
“Get on Board” campaign
will attempt to reverse the
trend by holding webinars on
Feb. 9 and Feb. 15 that will
explain the responsibilities of
See SCHOOL/8A