OREGON SCHOOL
DISTRICT BANS
CONFEDERATE FLAG
BLAZERS
WIN AT
BUZZER
NORTHWEST/2A
SPORTS/1B
32/31
Betsy DeVos
approved as
ed secretary
NATION/9A
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2017
141st Year, No. 82
One dollar
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
PENDLETON
School district to add
one week to school year
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Snowy conditions return to Main Street in Pendleton as a cold front
pushed through the region Tuesday. The Pendleton School Board voted
Tuesday to add fi ve days to the end of the school year to make up for the
seven days the district canceled due to inclement weather.
The
Pendleton
School
District now has a plan in place
to make up for its snow days,
although it doesn’t jive with
the wishes of many parents and
teachers.
The Pendleton School Board
voted Tuesday to add fi ve days
to the end of the school year
to make up for the seven days
the district canceled due to
inclement weather.
The last day of school for
grades K-11 is now June 15.
High school seniors’ last day
is June 2, but April 13 will be
a special “seniors only day,”
while the rest of the grade levels
will have the day off for parent-
teacher conferences.
Unless Pendleton is beset with
more school-canceling weather,
district offi cials think this move
will push the school system
beyond the state’s minimum
number of instructional hours,
although the board also voted to
apply for an Oregon Department
of Education waiver to count
14 hours of inclement weather
time as instructional hours. That
would get high school seniors
above the threshold.
Referencing the results of
a public survey the district
conducted to gather opinions
on making up snow days, board
member Dale Freeman ques-
tioned why the board wanted to
add school days when a majority
See SCHOOL/10A
MISSION
Tribes elect
new BOT
secretary
LIFE
DOWN
UNDER
Kat Brigham replaces
recalled David Close
By GEORGE PLAVEN
East Oregonian
There was also
a will that had a
precisely
trimmed
rectangular hole in the
center. Someone had
apparently taken the
phrase “I’m cutting you out of
my will” literally.
In a collection of “petty
sessions” court records (the
equivalent of today’s municipal
courts), whimsical doodles
covered the margins next to
descriptions of the proceedings.
A familiar face is coming back to the
Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation Board of Trustees.
Tribal voters elected Kat Brigham
Tuesday for CTUIR board secretary.
Brigham replaces David Close, who was
recalled in October.
Brigham garnered 155 of the 455
votes cast. Five others also ran for the
seat including Leila Spencer, Lawonda
Bronson, David
Wolf, Roberta
“I just want to
Kipp and Jiselle
Halfmoon.
thank everyone
Brigham
for their sup-
previously
served as tribal
port. I’m look-
board secretary
for 10 years ing forward to
before vacating
getting back.”
the seat to
run for board
— Kat Brigham,
chair in 2015, CTUIR board secretary
when she lost
to incumbent
Gary Burke. In an interview Tuesday night,
Brigham said she missed working for the
tribes and wanted to return.
“I just want to thank everyone for their
support,” Brigham said. “I’m looking
forward to getting back.”
There are a number of projects on
the horizon for the tribes, Brigham said,
including expansion of the Wildhorse
Resort & Casino and construction of a new
education facility.
“I’m just going to be glad to get back
See AUSTRALIA/10A
See CTUIR/10A
Contributed photo by Sheila Reynolds
Sheila and Garry Reynolds pose for a photo during a weekend outing in Melbourne, Australia.
Hermiston couple returns from mission in Australia
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Unexpected glimpses into the
lives of everyday Australians
punctuated Garry and Sheila
Reynolds’ life for the past 18
months.
The retired Hermiston couple
returned home last week from a
mission for The Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints in
Melbourne, Australia, where
they spent 40 to 50 hours a
week preserving digital copies
of historical documents at the
Public Records Offi ce Victoria.
“It gave us real insight into
the type of life people lived,”
Garry said.
That life was often a diffi cult
one. Death inquests from the
1800s, for example, discussed
women who died after their
heavy skirts caught fi re while
cooking and children who fell
into tubs of scalding hot water
used for laundry.
“There would be a fi sherman
who got a hook caught in his
hand, and from that he got
gangrene and died,” Garry said.
“It was an unbeliev-
ably dangerous time.”
Other
records
provided
more
light-hearted quirks
of personality, such
as Louisa Elizabeth Morant’s
offi cial, notarized last will and
testament from 1938 that for
some reason had a lemon butter
recipe scribbled upside-down
on the bottom, perhaps as a last-
minute bequeathment.
Sheila snapped a picture of
the recipe and tried it later.
“It was delicious!” she said.
Army to allow completion of Dakota Access Pipeline
By BLAKE NICHOLSON
Associated Press
BISMARCK, N.D. — The Army said
Tuesday that it will allow the $3.8 billion
Dakota Access oil pipeline to cross under
a Missouri River reservoir in North
Dakota, clearing the way for completion
of the disputed four-state project.
However, construction could still
be delayed because the Standing Rock
Sioux tribe, which has led opposition,
said it would fi ght the latest development
in court.
The Army intends to cancel further
environmental study and allow the Lake
Oahe crossing as early as Wednesday,
according to court documents the Justice
Department fi led that include letters
to members of Congress from Deputy
Assistant Army Secretary Paul Cramer.
The stretch under Lake Oahe is the
fi nal big chunk of work on the 1,200-mile
pipeline that would carry North Dakota
oil through the Dakotas and Iowa to a
shipping point in Illinois. Developer
Energy Transfer Partners had hoped to
have the pipeline operating by the end of
2016, but construction has been stalled
while the Army Corps of Engineers and
the Dallas-based company battled in
court over the crossing.
The Standing Rock Sioux, whose
reservation is just downstream from the
crossing, fears a leak would pollute its
drinking water. The tribe has led protests
that drew hundreds and at times thousands
of people who dubbed themselves “water
protectors” to an encampment near the
crossing. ETP says the pipeline is safe.
Details of the tribe’s legal challenge
to the Army’s decision were still being
worked out, attorney Jan Hasselman said.
But tribal Chairman Dave Archambault
See PIPELINE/10A
Tom Stromme/The Bismarck Tribune via AP, File
This Sept. 2016 fi le photo shows a section of the Dakota
Access Pipeline under construction in Morton County, N.D.
The Army notifi ed Congress Tuesday, that it will allow the
$3.8 billion pipeline to cross under a Missouri River reservoir
in North Dakota, completing the four-state project.