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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 9, 2019)
BOYS HOOPS: dawgs top Walla Walla 71-57 | SPORTS, B1 E O AST 143rd year, no. 58 REGONIAN Wednesday, January 9, 2019 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Walden to hold town halls u.s. congressman to hold meetings in 16 counties By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian Greg Walden u.s. rep. Greg Walden will hold a series of town hall meet- ings in 16 counties this month, including umatilla and Morrow counties. The republican congress- man, who won re-election in november to his 11th term in a competitive race against chal- lenger Jamie McLeod-skin- ner, said in a press release that he is eager to hear directly from constituents of Oregon’s 2nd district. “I look forward to getting together with people on the ground and hearing your con- cerns and ideas and suggestions about this new session of Con- gress, and giving you an update on the things we’ve accom- plished and what we want to work on going forward,” he said in the prepared statement. McLeod-skinner and her supporters were critical of Walden’s lack of town halls in the years leading up to the mid- term. a “Where’s Walden” car- avan was created by the activist group Indivisible that traveled around the district counting the number of days since he’d hosted a public event. during his last in-per- WOrKInG In THe raIn son town halls in the spring of 2017, Walden faced hostility because of republican attempts to kill the affordable Care act. He attributed it to liberal activ- ists who had “weaponized” the events. Walden defended his record in the lead-up to the campaign, pointing to telephone town See Walden, Page A8 Agencies team up for after-school program response in community survey overwhelming By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian Pendleton residents want an after-school program, and the city and local school districts are pre- pared to give it to them. The Pendleton Parks and rec- reation department, Pendleton school district, and InterMoun- tain education service district are planning to collaborate on a new after-school program that’s expected to start during the 2019- 20 school year. Parks and recreation direc- tor Liam Hughes said he met with school officials shortly after he started with the city last Febru- ary. They told him that there was a strong community need for an after-school program. See Program, Page A8 Correctional facility takes STEPS away from isolation By AUBREY WEIBER Oregon Capital Bureau Staff photo by Kathy Aney A worker spends part of a rainy Tuesday morning in a cherry picker lift working on the exterior of the new Pendleton fire station on S.E. Court Avenue. The project, funded by a $10 million bond passed in May, broke ground eight months ago. Construction is projected to finish this summer. WOOdBurn — early on the Friday before Christmas, Zack sat in the passenger seat as he rode across the frozen grounds of MacLaren youth Correctional Facility. He had been sent to the juvenile equivalent of isolation following an outburst on his living unit. On his way, though, the 18-year-old encountered a staffer who instead took him to a less confining spot on campus to work through the trouble. See STEPS, Page A8 Effort underway to strengthen hate-crime laws By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press saLeM — Immigrants, Muslims, people of color, top law enforcement officers and state officials packed into a room to discuss the sharp rise of hate crime in Oregon, with the goal of strengthening the state’s lax laws against it. For all its imagery as a bastion of liberalism, Oregon has a dark history of racism and xenophobia, and today serious attacks and threats often make headlines. The gathering Monday night in Portland was the first of three planned this week by a task force created by attorney General ellen rosenblum. Hate crimes increased by 40 per- cent in Oregon from 2016 to 2017, according to FBI statistics. “It is appalling that hate-motivated crimes are on the increase in Oregon,” rosenblum said in a statement. “This reality requires us to act.” More than 100 people attended the “listening session” at unite Oregon, said seemab Hussaini, an organizer with the intercultural organization. rosenblum’s spokeswoman, Kris- tina edmunson, said she heard Mus- lims, Latinos, members of the trans- gender community and others speak powerfully in the standing-room-only crowd. One man, an immigrant from africa, described people shouting rac- ist slurs at him while he was walking down the street in Portland, Hussaini said. Hussaini, whose group is part of the hate crimes task force, marveled at how it has brought law enforcement AP Photo/Don Ryan, File See Effort, Page A8 In this July 13, 2016, file photo, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum poses for a photo at her office in Portland.