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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 5, 2018)
E O AST REGONIAN WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018 The fog begins to lift over the Umatilla River on the Confeder- ated Tribes of the Umatilla Indi- an Reservation on Tuesday east of Pendleton. Patchy fog and freezing fog is forecast for the Columbia Basin through Satur- day, according to the National Weather Service. Page 2A Staff photo by E.J. Harris 143rd Year, No. 35 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Oregonians will have to dig deeper to fund budget Inmate’s inner artist roams wild and free Gov. Brown hasn’t said where $2.6 billion will come from By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Capital Bureau SALEM — Thousands of Oregonians could see more money taken out of their paychecks and compa- nies would be writing bigger checks to fund Gov. Kate Brown’s proposed budget and revamp the state’s edu- cation system. Brown needs to find $2.6 billion more than is already being paid in state taxes to cover her proposals for the state’s next two-year bud- get. It’s likely much of that sum would come from cor- porate or personal income tax increases. Currently, individual tax- payers are projected to pay $19 billion in state income taxes the next two years. And corporations are pro- jected to pay another $1.1 billion. The governor for the most part has been quiet about where she’s going to get the new money. She has proposed increasing a variety of taxes other than income taxes, but that gives her about one-third of what she needs to cover her pro- posed spending. The details on who would pay are yet to come. “The governor will be engaged in working with those who will be propos- ing ideas, which includes the business community, Legis- lature and other stakeholders across the state,” said Chris Pair, Brown’s communica- tions director. “It’s going to be a chal- lenge,” the governor said last week when she See BUDGET/8A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Inmate Kirk Charlton has been dubbed “the painter” inside the walls of the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton. Charl- ton is a prolific artist, whose work ranges from drawings to murals. He also teaches an art class for inmates at EOCI. ART INSIDE OUT Prison painter won over officials By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian irk Charlton isn’t the first man to find his calling in prison. But few have pulled it off in such a colorful way. With pencils and paints, Charl- ton has honed himself into the man he wants to be outside prison walls. The 56-year-old Hawaiian uses the cinderblock walls of the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution as his canvas. He teaches fellow inmates to find their inner artist and recently released a chil- dren’s book. At the prison, he is known as “the painter.” “He is the only person at the institu- tion to ever have that position,” said Ron Miles, the prison’s public information offi- cer and supervising executive assistant to the superintendent. Charlton, a former pawn shop manager who landed in prison after illegally repos- sessing a car, remembers being high at the time of the crime. He came to EOCI in 2012. After a correctional officer noticed him drawing, EOCI’s Tom Lemens asked him to K Staff photo by E.J. Harris “I Want to be a Marine Biologist” is the first illustrated children’s book published by EOCI inmate Kirk Charlton. front of the institution. “The walls were a bland white,” said Lemens, EOCI’s assistant superintendent of correctional rehabilitation. “We wanted him to liven things up a little bit and change the look of the institution.” Charlton submitted designs and spent the next several months transforming the drab wall into an eruption of pop culture and Americana. The assemblage includes Betsy Ross, Cesar Chavez, Batman, the Statue of Liberty, Babe Ruth, Louis Armstrong, Big Bird, the Golden Gate Bridge, Kiss, Elvis, Mark Twain, Darth Vader and Kermit the Frog. That mural was the first of many. Charl- ton became the prison painter. Along with murals, he has other responsibilities, such as face painting at family events. Several years ago, he tried to persuade the powers that be to let him teach an art pro- gram of his own invention called “Art Inside Out.” The object was not only to teach art, but also relate it to success in life. “He got rejected,” Miles said. “But when people told him ‘No’ he didn’t stop or curl paint a mural on long slab of wall that runs along a hallway near steel gates near the See ARTIST/8A Pendleton Warming Shelter struggles to stay open By PHIL WRIGHT East Oregonian Overnight lows in Pend- leton dropped below freez- ing this week while the Pendleton Warming Shelter struggles to stay open. Dwight Johnson, exec- utive director of Neighbor 2 Neighbor Pendleton, the nonprofit that operates the shelter, said a lack of volun- teers willing to stay through the night is forced the shel- ter to close Tuesday night with other weekdays look- ing sketchy. “We require two volun- teers present all night long with at least one awake,” he explained. “As we look at our scheduling calendar it is deeply concerning as we currently have very few of these shifts covered.” The National Weather Service predicts overnight Friday DECEMBER 7 th , 2018 Evening Gala | 6:00 pm lows in Pendleton hover- ing around 20 until Friday and staying below freezing through the weekend. John- son said the shelter’s pol- See SHELTER/8A Saturday DECEMBER 8 th , 2018 Family Day | 10am-2pm Pendleton Convention Center LOCATED AT THE For more information or to purchase tickets, contact St. Anthony Hospital Foundation at 541-278-2627