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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 5, 2019)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Friday, July 5, 2019 Timber Unity movement gets presidential invite know what the event would entail, or who else would be there, but he’s looking for- ward to the trip. “We have an opportunity to let the voice of rural Amer- ica to be heard,” Stoffel said. The Timber Unity Face- book page created its first post June 21, and already has more than 47,000 members. Those behind the group were chief organizers of a large rally at the Capitol on June 27, protesting House Bill 2020, which would have capped the state’s green- house gas emissions. Bowers said she got word from a political friend during the rally that the White House was watching what was happening in Ore- gon. She announced it to the crowd, which erupted with applause. Bowers said the White House reached out to Nick Smith, executive direc- tor for Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities, a log- ging-friendly nonprofit that started in Roseburg, during the rally. The White House asked Smith who from Ore- gon should attend the event, and he said Timber Unity, Bowers said. Bowers was told of the invitation after the rally, and got the official invitation Tuesday. The cap-and-trade pro- posal, which prompted Sen- By AUBREY WIEBER AND CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Two mem- bers of a quickly rising polit- ical activist community of Oregon loggers have been invited to the White House to attend a speech on “Amer- ica’s environmental leader- ship” on Monday, July 8, by President Donald Trump. Timber Unity, a group comprised mostly of log- gers but also truckers, farm- ers and other Oregonians opposed to a carbon-regu- lating program proposed by Oregon lawmakers, posted the invitation on their Face- book page on Tuesday night. As of Wednesday after- noon, the post had been shared more than 3,000 times and received more than 1,000 comments. A White House official confirmed the invitation to the Oregon Capital Bureau on Wednesday. Timber Unity organizers Marie Bowers, a farmer from Coburg, and Todd Stoffel, a log truck driver from Wash- ougal, Washington, will be representing the group at Monday’s event. Stoffel grew up in Monroe, and half the business of his company, GT Stoffel Trucking, is in Ore- gon, he said. Stoffel said he didn’t AP Photo/Sarah Zimmerman, File A convoy of trucks and tractors circle the Oregon Capitol on June 27, 2019, in Salem. ate Republicans to avoid the Senate for nine days in pro- test late last month to prevent a vote on it, died at the end of the legislative session. Stoffel said many have been surprised at how Tim- ber Unity took off, but he said there are parallels to the national uprising of rural, working-class Americans who have become more vocal since Trump took office. “A couple guys had an idea and they created a Face- book page. It’s been word of mouth from there,” Stof- fel said. “This is a voice for rural Oregon, rural Amer- ica, that we’re tired of being steamrolled, which is what a lot of the policies seem to do for us. The stuff that’s passed is about the big cities, espe- cially in Oregon. There are Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY SATURDAY Mostly sunny and pleasant Mostly sunny and comfortable 89° 58° 85° 56° SUNDAY MONDAY Intervals of clouds and sunshine TUESDAY Partly sunny and pleasant Increasing cloudiness PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 81° 55° 82° 56° 88° 60° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 94° 63° 89° 60° 85° 61° 87° 59° OREGON FORECAST 92° 65° Olympia 66/55 83/57 90/57 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 90/62 Lewiston 72/55 94/63 Astoria 66/54 Pullman Yakima 90/60 71/49 91/62 Portland Hermiston 78/59 The Dalles 94/63 Salem Corvallis 76/52 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 83/55 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 82/51 85/49 86/53 Ontario 93/62 Caldwell Burns 84° 55° 86° 57° 106° (1942) 38° (2012) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 78/53 0.00" Trace 0.03" 4.55" 5.10" 5.73" WINDS (in mph) 90/58 86/48 0.00" 0.02" 0.04" 9.59" 6.49" 7.61" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 80/51 80/53 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 89/58 85/60 83° 49° 86° 56° 107° (1975) 40° (1918) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 71/52 Aberdeen 85/60 85/63 Tacoma By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE AND AUBREY WIEBER, Oregon Capital Bureau through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 72/57 The bill was one of the last to pass, and gives politicians pork to bring back to districts PENDLETON TEMP. Today Boardman Pendleton Medford 91/55 Sat. WSW 6-12 NW 4-8 WSW 7-14 W 7-14 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 84/44 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 5:12 a.m. 8:47 p.m. 8:33 a.m. 11:18 p.m. First Full Last New July 9 July 16 July 24 July 31 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 106° in Gila Bend, Ariz. Low 30° in Stanley, Idaho NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY by Donald Trump’s divisive- ness, I worry this will take us in the wrong direction.” Stoffel said the issue is rural versus urban, Republi- can versus Democrat. He said Democrats at the Legislature “snubbed their noses” at loggers and truck- ers who wanted to under- stand the bill. Republicans embraced them, he said. But it was Senate Presi- dent Peter Courtney, D-Sa- lem, who ended the walkout and standoff over cap and trade by announcing that his own caucus didn’t have the votes to pass the bill. “The rural parts of this country have been ignored for years,” Stoffel said, add- ing Trump’s election proves that. “The majority of Ameri- cans are tired of the same old, same old.” Stoffel said he under- stands the majority of vot- ers put Democrats who ran on cap and trade in office, but said that’s because rural voters have routinely been pushed down. They stay home because they know they will be “steamrolled” by the Democratic agenda, he said. Democrats and environ- mentalists pushing climate legislation said House Bill 2020 was tailored to protect rural Oregon, driving dollars from the cities to projects in rural communities. Oregon’s ‘Christmas tree bill’ pumps out more than a billion to local projects ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. Seattle other parts of the state of Ore- gon other than just Portland.” The Timber Unity move- ment casts itself as purely grassroots, according to sev- eral Republican lawmakers and protesters. However, they are in part financed by Stimson Lum- ber CEO Andrew Miller, a frequent GOP donor who is prominent on the Timber Unity Facebook page and has a letter explaining his $5,000 seed donation on their website. Stoffel said he didn’t know what their current funding level is. Its political action committee shows $31,457, according to state campaign finance records. A GoFundMe campaign that popped up when the group was getting organized received money from several sympathetic business part- ners, though the group has moved to a direct funding channel on their website. Stoffel said Timber Unity shut down the GoFundMe as organizers learned it didn’t comply with state require- ments to report political spending and contributions. Timber Unity’s website shows its organizers as three truckers: Jeff Leavy, Adam Lardy and Scott Hileman. The White House invi- tation is the apparent cul- mination of several weeks of national attention on the Republican walkout, which was picked up by outlets from the New York Times to Vice to Fox News. At least one environmen- tal advocate worried it could “deepen” divides between parties on the issue of how to tackle climate change. “Growing up here, there was not this strong, partisan us-versus-them divide,” said Meredith Connolly, Oregon director for Climate Solu- tions, which was a strong supporter of cap and trade. “And I think adopting this mantle of Trump’s White House and his agenda, I fear, will deepen those divides here in Oregon, and I want us to be moving forward toward solutions that work for all of Oregon. And I think the more this is influenced SALEM — Christ- mas has come to Oregon’s legislators. In one of the final steps of the 2019 Legislature, lawmakers overwhelm- ingly passed a massive bill to deliver about $1.32 bil- lion to projects across the state, from Clackamas to Harney counties. One of the least con- troversial bills to pass this session, it was released less than a week before law- makers went home for the year. “It’s Christmas in July,” said Rep. Cedric Hayden, R-Roseburg. Hayden was referring to the bill’s colloquial term: the Christmas Tree bill. It’s a biennial tradition. The bill, line by line, appropriates money for projects in nearly every legislative district in the state — a catalog of polit- ical favors. It gives money to nearly 100 projects that will help local districts, plus bolsters many more statewide initiatives. A new jail, the remodel of a historic theater, sus- tainability funds for a fed- eral fish hatchery — it’s all in House Bill 5050. Some lawmakers rail against it, while others relish the opportunity to bring pork back home to constituents. “Sometimes what you receive for Christmas is a great thing, and some- times you are disappointed in what you did or did not get,” Hayden said. Hayden expressed some concern with the bill, but it also included $1.4 million he had been asking for to keep the Leaburg Hatchery east of Eugene in operation. Hayden said the Christ- mas Tree bill acknowledges problems in rural parts of the state that go ignored. “Often these cities feel as if their voices aren’t heard,” he said. While the bill received a unanimous vote in the Sen- ate, there were four dis- senters in the House: Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton, Rep. Mike Nearman, R-In- dependence, Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, and Rep. E. Wer- ner Reschke, R-Klamath Falls. Reschke, who could not be reached for com- ment Tuesday, tweeted that he voted “no” on the most bills of any state repre- sentative this session: 277 times. Nearman and Post are former winners of the self-awarded honor. Post didn’t return a request for comment, but bashed the bill on Twitter, referring to it as the “pork roll bill” that only works for those who play the game. The bill funds projects of all kinds: • $200,000 to buy 160 acres of forest alongside the Willamette National Forest Opal Creek Scenic Recreation Area. • $1 million to the city of Salem for the Gerry Frank/ Salem Rotary Ampitheatre. • $1 million to the develop a former seafood packing plant, $2 million for a new jail and $1 mil- lion to improve a local the- ater, all in Astoria. The legislation also funds statewide projects, such as $200,000 to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife for predator control, $275,000 for jail data analysis and $78,242 to process reports of police profiling. The bill also includes money for internal auditors at the Oregon Liquor Con- trol Commission and the Oregon Business Devel- opment Department — a problem lawmakers high- lighted before the legisla- tive session. Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, led the budget writing committee, along with Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, and Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hay- ward, D-Portland. The three ran a tight ship: Rayfield said budget writers left a larger than usual balance at the end — but some wanted to use that money for more projects. “Every single day, peo- ple wanted you to dip into that ending fund balance,” Rayfield said. “You really were, like, slapping hands away from the cookie jar. For the last two weeks, I felt that’s all I was doing.” Throughout the ses- sion, budget writers get keen attention from advo- cates, lawmakers, and state agencies asking for cer- tain investments in their communities. “Everybody comes call- ing,” Rayfield said. “Cit- ies and counties are the number one, I would say, folks that hop on the list, where their pocketbooks are somewhat constrained by what they can do. Some- times they’re constrained by voters, but there are essential functions in that county that need to occur,” such as building or renovat- ing jails and courthouses. Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group 70s 80s 90s 100s warm front stationary front 110s high low CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818. 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