76/55
BUCKS
DEFEAT
DAWGS
Yoshioka takes
charge as interim
superintendent
SPORTS/1B
REGION/3A
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017
141st Year, No. 142
WINNER OF THE 2016 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Dufloth named Umatilla mayor
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Daren Dufl oth is the new mayor
of Umatilla.
Dufl oth
was
unanimously
appointed by the city council
Tuesday night after David Trott
resigned in March, and immediately
took up the gavel to run the rest of
the meeting.
“This is really exciting,” Dufl oth
said at the end of the meeting. “We’re
at the tipping point for some really
good things.”
Dufl oth has lived in the commu-
nity for 19 years
and owns the
Riverside Sports
Bar and Grill
in Umatilla, a
local strip club.
He is a former
city councilor,
Umatilla High
School sports
Dufl oth
booster and has
volunteered
with a variety of sports organiza-
tions, including Little League and
Babe Ruth baseball.
During a question and answer
portion between Dufl oth and fellow
candidate Lyle Smith, Dufl oth
said Umatilla’s greatest asset is its
approachable and open residents,
followed by its prime location along
the Columbia River.
“We have a lot to offer to the area,
we just have to polish the jewel off,
so to speak,” he said.
Dufl oth agreed with a previous
answer by Smith that one of Umatil-
la’s greatest challenges is getting
more people involved in the city, and
added that the city needed to create
trust and buy-in from its residents
by taking a “5,000 foot view” in
planning for the city’s future.
Smith, who is also a former city
councilor, told the council before
their vote that he would “absolutely”
be willing to run for one of the two
council positions declared vacant
Tuesday. He also praised Dufl oth and
said he wouldn’t want to see coun-
cilors vote for Smith only out of a
concern that there might be “outcry”
from the community over the fact
that the Dufl oth owns an establish-
ment that includes a strip club.
If councilors were concerned
See UMATILLA/8A
PENDLETON
An alternative site for alt school
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
The nomadic Hawthorne
Alternative High School
program in Pendleton could
be in line for more changes.
At a school board
meeting Tuesday, district
administrators
proposed
merging the alternative
education program into
Pendleton High School.
“I do think that under
the current circumstances,
given the very low numbers
of students that are attending
regularly at the alternative
school and in light of some
of the budget reductions,
this might be an opportunity
to do it,” interim superinten-
dent Matt Yoshioka said.
The
district
won’t
eliminate the alternative
education program under the
proposal, instead pushing it
under the Pendleton High
School umbrella.
Pendleton High School
principal Dan Greenough
compared the potential
move to a similar situation
in the Hermiston School
District, where adminis-
trators recently folded the
Innovative Learning Center
into Hermiston High School.
But before the district
can make the change, it will
have to sort through some
logistical and emotional
issues fi rst.
Greenough said he’s
still considering whether
to keep Hawthorne at the
Pendleton Technology and
Trades Center or move it to
the nearby PHS campus. If
he does move the alternative
program to the larger high
school, he wants to have a
space in the building specif-
ically for alternative school
students.
Greenough said one of the
main factors in this decision
is teacher availability and
One dollar
State tax
structure
ready for
remodel
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon
lawmakers began discus-
sions Tuesday on the broad
strokes of proposed changes
in state taxes that could raise
as much as $3 billion per
budget cycle.
The proposed changes,
under an outline formally
released Tuesday, could
include three main features
— a new tax on gross busi-
ness sales; the elimination
of the corporate income
tax; and reductions in the
personal income tax.
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Bea-
verton, co-chair of the legis-
lature’s newly formed Joint
Committee on Tax Reform,
said the plan released Tuesday
is an attempt to address what
he has described as a volatile
state revenue system that
relies on the personal income
tax.
The plan’s proposed reduc-
tions to the personal income
tax also seem intended to
counter criticisms that a tax
on business sales will increase
consumer prices.
Lawmakers
are
contending with a $1.6
billion gap between what the
state anticipates in revenue
and what it will cost to main-
tain current services in the
See TAXES/6A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Sophomore Matthew Gordon reads a website about early media in the Americas while studying English on
Tuesday at the Hawthorne Alternative High School in Pendleton.
Smith
stands up
for media
By PETER WONG
Capital Bureau
awarded for the top entries.
In addition, kids can deco-
rate their bikes and other
community members are
encouraged to get creative
and join the parade.
Beas Fitzgerald said the
parade’s grand marshal is
Francisco Maass, Oregon’s
Mexican consul general.
He will speak Saturday at
approximately 2 p.m.
“He will dedicate the
ceremonies,” she said.
Natali Armenta, Daisy
Cardenas and Jaleslie
Torres, who were recently
elected as the Cinco de
Mayo royalty court, also
will be introduced. The
PORTLAND — Gordon
Smith says President Donald
Trump is wrong when he
branded some news organi-
zations as “the enemy of the
American people,” a phrase
usually describing hostile
nations or
subver-
s i v e
groups.
Smith
made his
comment
Tu e s d a y
during a
keynote
s p e e c h Smith
at
the
17th annual breakfast of the
Portland Business Alliance.
More than 1,000 attended the
event at the Oregon Conven-
tion Center.
“Of all of President
Trump’s tweets, the one I
think that is most regrettable
is the one where he said the
media is the enemy of the
American people,” Smith
said. “It is not.”
Coming from the presi-
dent and chief executive of
the National Association of
Broadcasters since 2009,
Smith’s comment is hardly
surprising.
Coming from Pendleton’s
former Republican state
senator, Oregon Senate pres-
ident and one of Oregon’s
U.S. senators for 12 years
until 2008, Smith’s comment
may be surprising.
Trump’s original tweet
See CINCO/5A
See SMITH/8A
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Junior Mikeighla Velazquez monitors the progress
of a laser engraver during her robotics class at the
Hawthorne Alternative High School on Tuesday.
The Hawthorne Alternative High School is currently
in its new home at the Pendleton Technology & Trades
Center in Pendleton.
their ability to travel from
one campus to the other.
In talking with school
staff, Greenough was told
population.
Board member Steve
Umbarger said the issue
of Hawthorne identity
that
students
strongly
identify with the Hawthorne
name and its separation from
the rest of the high school
would fade after three years
because new high school
See HAWTHORNE/8A
HERMISTON
Two-day Cinco de Mayo event offers twice the fun
By TAMMY MALGESINI
East Oregonian
Organizers are gearing
up for double the merriment
Saturday and Sunday as
Hermiston’s Cinco de
Mayo celebration expands
to two days.
People can register
for the parade Saturday
between 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
at the Oxbow Trail, located
at 11th Street and West Elm
Avenue. The parade will get
rolling at 1 p.m., traveling
east on Elm Avenue. It will
head to Butte Park, 1245
N.W. Seventh St., the site of
the event.
Cinco
de
Mayo
committee
chairwoman
File photo
Members of mariachi band Los Temerosos participate
in the 2016 Cinco de Mayo parade in Hermiston. The
group will perform Sunday as part of this year’s two-
day celebration.
Clara Beas Fitzgerald
invites people to dress their
pets up in costumes for the
parade — prizes will be