INSIDE: Check out the 8-page Progress special section
E O
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143rd year, no. 180
REGONIAN
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
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WINNER OF THE 2018 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Affidavit reveals stabbing victim may have known attacker
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
MILTOn-FReeWaTeR — Milton-Free-
water police officer James Farr found Chris-
tian Rodriguez-Calvillo on his kitchen floor,
soaked in blood.
Farr was on duty in the small town Fri-
day when he got the callout at 12:24 a.m. to
respond to a stabbing at 604 Ward st., the
duplex Rodriguez-Calvillo, his girlfriend and
their toddler called home, according to the
police affidavit to search the residence, sur-
rounding area and vehicles. Milton-Freewater
detective Morgan Dunlap drafted the affida-
vit, a public record, later that day to investigate
the death of Rodriguez-Calvillo as a murder.
Fresh blood soaked Rodriguez-Calvil-
lo’s shirt and covered his hands, arms, torso
and face. Rodriguez-Calvillo gripped his
chest with both hands. He labored for air
and grimaced. Farr applied pressure to
help stop the flow of blood from the wound
in Rodriguez-Calvillo’s chest. The affida-
vit also recounted the officer asked Rodri-
guez-Calvillo who stabbed him.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
an ambulance rushed Rodriguez-Calvillo
to Providence st. Mary Medical Center,
Walla Walla, which transferred him to Kadlec
Regional Medical Center, Richland, Wash-
ington. He died en route at 3:25 a.m. He
was 22.
Officers interviewed Rodriguez-Calvillo’s
girlfriend and their neighbors, photographed
much of the residence and obtained a dna
sample, according to the affidavit. Police saw
droplets of blood in the living room but noted
there was no visible blood on the sidewalk or
the covered porch. Police also looked at Rodri-
guez-Calvillo’s cellphone messages.
The affidavit revealed Milton-Freewater
police questioned whether Rodriguez-Calvil-
lo’s did not know who stabbed him. Still, offi-
cers have yet to make an arrest. Police Chief
doug Boedigheimer has stated the homicide
is an open investigation.
Rodriguez-Calvillo also went by the name
Cristian alejandro Rodriguez, among other
aliases. Munselle-Rhodes Funeral Home of
Milton-Freewater is in charge of arrange-
ments for his services.
SALEM
High-tech
tools help with
2020 census in
remote areas
Census Bureau using aerial
and geographic technology
to gather needed data about
remote communities
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS
Associated Press
Peter. House Bill 2020 does not have
the votes on the Senate floor. That
will not change.”
some of his fellow democrats in
the chamber — who are divided on
the bill — appeared caught off guard.
Courtney didn’t say outright that
the legislation is done for. But sen-
ate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick,
d-Portland, did.
“These votes are not suddenly
going to turn to yes,” Burdick told
reporters Tuesday afternoon. “We are
certain of that. I would call it dead.”
Over the past few weeks, the vote
count in the Senate has been in flux
aLBuQueRQue, n.M. — The u.s.
Census Bureau is using new high-tech tools
to help get an accurate population count next
year as its faces challenges tallying people of
color who live in remote places and can be
wary of the federal government.
The agency is using aerial images of rural
communities and hard-to-reach areas to ver-
ify addresses and determine where to send
workers to ensure everyone is counted, Cen-
sus Bureau director steven dillingham said.
satellites and planes take photos, and
bureau employees compare the housing cap-
tured in the images to digital maps from the
last census, in 2010. It takes a fraction of the
time needed by workers in the field.
The agency has used geographic technol-
ogy since 1990 but has never had access to
such accurate tools from the air, said deirdre
dalpiaz Bishop, head of the bureau’s geogra-
phy division.
That technology — known as geographic
information system, or GIs — uses comput-
ers to analyze neighborhoods, land forma-
tions, rivers and other data captured by sat-
ellites or traditional mapping.
The new technology to improve the cen-
sus comes amid concerns that tribal areas
and communities of color may be under-
counted in the every-10-year tally that deter-
mines the amount of federal money states
receive and whether they gain or lose u.s.
congressional seats.
The u.s. supreme Court is deciding
whether the Trump administration can add
a citizenship question to the 2020 census,
which opponents say would suppress the
count of immigrants who fear revealing their
status to federal officials.
The Census Bureau also is facing crit-
icism for planning internet and telephone
questionnaires, which advocates say would
be more likely to overlook rural areas with-
out reliable communication infrastructure.
See Climate Bill, Page A8
See Census, Page A8
AP Photo/Sarah Zimmerman
Protesters flood the steps of the Oregon Capitol on Tuesday to push back against a Republican walkout over a climate change
bill that has entered its sixth day in Salem. The president of the Oregon Senate said Tuesday there weren’t enough votes in
his majority Democratic caucus to approve a landmark climate bill that has sparked a walkout by Republicans and left other
key issues, such as the state budget, in limbo.
senate President Peter
Courtney says HB 2020
doesn’t have votes to pass
senate
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE,
AUBREY WIEBER AND MARK
MILLER
Oregon Capital Bureau
SaLeM — seven minutes.
That’s all it took for senate Pres-
ident Peter Courtney to thrust the
already tense Capitol into sheer chaos
Tuesday.
senate Republicans have vacated
the Capitol in protest of landmark leg-
islation to cap the state’s greenhouse
gas emissions, making the building
a tinderbox sensitive to tiny political
sparks.
senate democrats can’t vote on the
bill — which passed the House last
week — unless at least two Republi-
cans are present.
Courtney, an old-timer demo-
crat from salem who has led the sen-
ate since 2003, stepped up to the dais
Tuesday morning with a remarkable
declaration: House Bill 2020, a land-
mark proposal, did not have the votes
to pass the senate.
“no one has told me to say this,”
Courtney said. “There is no strategy
to what I’m about to say. There’s just
Over 100 years, and nearly 500 miles
echo Rural Fire Protection
district covers a sizable
chunk of umatilla County
with a slim crew
By JESSICA POLLARD
East Oregonian
eCHO — In a city that spans
less than 1 square mile, an unas-
suming fire station sits at the edge
of downtown.
The echo Rural Fire Protection
district, made up entirely of vol-
unteers, covers 496 square miles,
handling all fire and medical calls
that originate south of Stanfield
between Pendleton and the Morrow
County line. and they are currently
doing it with a crew of fewer than
20.
“We really want to keep our
numbers higher because you really
don’t know in a volunteer fire
department how many people are in
town or in-district,” said Fire Chief
delbert Gehrke.
In the last two months, two
active volunteers moved away.
and while eRFPd has never been
unable to respond to a call, volun-
teer availability during emergen-
cies has been slim before.
“It’s a concern of mine,” Gehrke
said.
The eRFPd came into about a
third of the land it protects today
a few decades ago when uma-
tilla County wanted to reduce the
amount of “no man’s land” — land
that doesn’t have fire district pro-
tection — in the county, accord-
ing to Gehrke. The East Orego-
Staff photo by Jessica Pollard
See Echo, Page A8
A golden fire hydrant outside the Echo fire station stands in memoriam to
Murl A. Berry, former fire chief of Echo Rural Fire Protection District.