OFF PAGE ONE
Friday, January 3, 2020
East Oregonian
A7
Blagojevich: House Democrats would’ve impeached Lincoln, too
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Impris-
oned former Illinois Gov.
Rod Blagojevich argued in
a column that fellow Demo-
crats in the U.S. House who
impeached President Don-
ald Trump also would have
tried to remove Abraham
Lincoln.
Blagojevich, who is serv-
ing a 14-year federal sen-
tence for corruption, doesn’t
mention Trump by name in
the column titled, “House
Democrats Would Have
Impeached Lincoln.” How-
ever, his wife, Patti, tagged
the Republican president
when retweeting the col-
umn, published Wednesday
by the conservative website
Newsmax.
Trump has said he’s con-
sidering a commutation for
Blagojevich, who was con-
victed of trying to trade
former President Barack
Obama’s Senate seat for
campaign money. He also
tried to shake down execu-
tives from a children’s hos-
pital and within the horse
racing industry for cam-
paign contributions.
Blagojevich, who entered
federal prison in 2012, has
formally applied for a com-
mutation, and his wife has
lobbied hard on his behalf.
His relationship with the
AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File
In this March 15, 2012, file photo, former Democratic Illinois Gov.
Rod Blagojevich departs his Chicago home for Littleton, Colo.,
to begin his 14-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
president dates to 2009
when he was contestant on
Trump’s TV show, “The
Celebrity Apprentice.”
In the column, Blago-
jevich seems to compare
his own case with Trump’s
impeachment last month on
charges of abuse of power
and obstruction of Con-
gress for trying to recruit a
foreign ally to investigate
potential Democratic rival
Joe Biden in the 2020 elec-
tion. The House hasn’t yet
sent the articles of impeach-
ment to the Republican-led
Senate for a trial on whether
to remove the GOP presi-
dent from office.
He wrote that current
House Democrats would
have tried to impeach Lin-
coln, a Republican, for a
number of reasons, includ-
ing the Emancipation Proc-
lamation, which ended
slavery.
“No president is safe if
a majority of hyperpartisan
House members from the
opposition party are will-
ing to abuse the Constitu-
tion and vote to impeach,”
he wrote in the column.
“And the worst part of it
is, that should this happen,
those politicians are taking
from the people their right
to choose their own leaders
though free elections.”
Blagojevich was removed
from office in 2009, becom-
ing the first governor
in Illinois history to be
impeached.
Leaders: Expanding the region’s housing among future projects
Continued from Page A1
ties. In their new roles, both
commissioners will be mak-
ing frequent trips to Salem to
meet with state legislators on
the region’s behalf.
“We repeatedly hear about
the urban and rural divide,”
Murdock said. “And it’s often
an uphill battle making sure
our thoughts and interests
are represented on this side
of the state. I think we need
to be much more aggressive
in pursuing the agenda and
interests of the region.”
Doherty highlighted that
the two commissioners’ roles
allow for them to better con-
nect with and understand the
challenges facing the rest of
the state, and vice-versa.
“I’m much more of a
bridge builder than a politi-
cian,” he said.
While counties will be
lobbying for their interests
in Salem, state Sen. Bill
Hansell, R-Athena, is prepar-
ing for a relatively quiet 2020
legislative session, with just
one piece of legislation he’s
pushing.
Hansell said he hopes to
pass a bill to allocate fund-
ing for a coordinator to take
on water projects in Umatilla
and Morrow counties, while
continuing to be an advocate
for the region in the state’s
natural resource economy.
Education
throughout
Oregon got a boost from the
2019 legislative session, with
the passage of the Student
Success Act, which promises
to invest $1 billion per year
into the state’s early learning
and K-12 systems.
For Mark Mulvihill, the
superintendent for the Inter-
Mountain Education Ser-
vice District, going into the
new year with the opportu-
nity to add funds and expand
services of this magnitude
is something he’s never
experienced.
“These next three months
are going to be very, very
critical to develop our plan
for using those extra funds,”
he said.
Over that time, Mulvi-
hill said IMESD and the 18
school districts it serves will
use a variety of methods to
collect input from the public
in developing a plan for how
Student Success Act funding
will be utilized in the region.
That plan is due on April 15,
Mulvihill said, and then will
be reviewed by the Oregon
Department of Education for
final tweaks and approval.
Then,
Mulvihill
explained, each school dis-
trict will be able to figure
out how each will spend the
money it’s allotted.
At its root, the funding
is meant to provide greater
equity within the state’s edu-
cation system. Toward those
ends in Eastern Oregon,
Mulvihill said there’s four
groups that have been iden-
tified as “traditionally under-
Teacher: ‘I felt like
I was in a dream’
Continued from Page A1
Afterward, she quickly
called her husband Micah
Johnson, her high school
sweetheart at PHS, to tell him
the news, then phoned her
mother.
Rowell remembered the
moment aloud as she sat in
a booth recently at the Great
Pacific Wine & Coffee Co.,
sipping a latte. In town with
Micah and their four chil-
dren to spend Christmas with
family, she graciously agreed
to talk about teaching and her
roots in Eastern Oregon.
At Gresham High School,
Rowell teaches English lan-
guage learners who arrived
in the United States two or
three years previous. Accord-
ing to colleagues and admin-
istrators, she is known for her
engaging, relationship-build-
ing strategies that get stu-
dents proficient in English
years faster than other pro-
grams. Other ELL teachers
in the district come to Row-
ell’s classroom to observe or
watch videos of her class-
room sessions.
Rowell, a 1997 PHS grad-
uate, described herself as a
good student who played vol-
leyball and basketball and
who sometimes exhibited “a
little attitude.” She said two
teachers, Kathryn Youngman
(Spanish) and Shelle Bixler
(science), inspired her to pur-
sue a teaching career.
“What inspired me was
how they made me feel,”
Rowell said. “They made me
feel capable and confident.”
Youngman easily remem-
bered the girl who worked
hard in her class and went by
the Spanish name of Victoria.
“Academics were import-
ant to her,” Youngman said.
“You could tell she saw them
as a stepping stone to what
she wanted in life.”
Rowell earned a bach-
elor’s degree in Spanish at
Western Oregon Univer-
sity and a master’s in edu-
cation at Portland State with
endorsements in Spanish and
English to speakers of other
languages. She has worked at
Gresham High School for 10
years.
Rowell marvels at her stu-
dents’ resiliency. They hail
from all around the world.
Many immigrated from
Latin America, but others
originated in Egypt, Rwanda,
Burma, Germany, China and
elsewhere. Some have weath-
ered the deaths of family
members or other brutal life
experiences. Some lived in
refugee camps. Eventually,
they gain their bearings and
start moving forward.
“They are the epitome of
resilient,” Rowell said. “They
are so dynamic. They’ve
experienced adversity and
now they’re on the other side.
I adore them.”
Rowell admitted that
teaching can sometimes be
exhausting with little time
for grading and planning, but
she treasures seeing her stu-
dents master English, gradu-
ate high school and (often) go
on to college.
“The rewarding thing is
my students,” she said. “See-
ing them be successful, see-
ing them learn English and
being in a positive position
to fulfill their hopes and
dreams.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
served” in the region — stu-
dents who are poor, students
who have special needs,
indigenous populations and
second-language learners.
Mulvihill said IMESD
is also aiming to improve
its training and retention of
teachers, along with ques-
tioning its own place in fur-
thering the Student Success
Act’s purpose.
“Taking a closer look at
equity within our own cul-
ture goes hand in hand with
that funding,” he said.
Along with the state fund-
ing to bolster it this year, early
learning and preschool edu-
cation won in Oregon with
a $26.6 million federal grant
that was awarded in Decem-
ber. And, like IMESD, Uma-
tilla-Morrow County Head-
Start will be working within
its communities to figure out
how to put it to use.
“We’re working together
with early learning hubs and
coming together to see where
those holes and gaps are,”
Executive Director Maureen
McGrath said.
While HeadStart will
be hoping to expand capac-
ity in early learning facil-
ities for communities who
want it and providing more
resources to educate parents,
McGrath said they are com-
mitted to leveraging momen-
tum to secure even more
funding in 2020.
As it awaits the eventual
influx of state funding, the
Hermiston School District is
wrapping up its request for
proposal process of an archi-
tectural service to join proj-
ects made possible by the
2019 voter-approved school
bond. The district anticipates
having a contractor selected
by the end of January.
“We will break ground in
2020,” said Superintendent
Tricia Mooney.
The projects will include a
replacement of long-standing
Rocky Heights Elementary
School and a new elemen-
tary school on Theater Lane,
but Mooney is unsure where
construction will begin.
In addition to hopeful
improvements of the region’s
school districts, improve-
ments to infrastructure and
expanding commercial busi-
ness potential are on the
minds of its cities.
In Hermiston, Assistant
City Manager Mark Morgan
said the city is turning its
focus in the new year toward
the continuation of the water
tower project in the northeast
area of the city.
“It looks like it’s done,” he
said. “But the overall project
itself includes running the
piping, installing motors and
such.”
Morgan added that the
project — jointly funded
between the city and the
county — will add an antic-
ipated 900 housing units
across Hermiston over time.
In addition to the water
tower, the city is continu-
ing to set its sights on the
South Hermiston Industrial
Park project behind Herm-
iston Foods, which will
increase the amount of land
usable for smaller industrial
businesses.
“We’ve been slowly gob-
bling up the lighter industrial
land,” Morgan said.
He referred to the move
to create smaller parcels of
industrial land as “economic
gardening.”
The city anticipates
receiving funding from the
U.S. Economic Development
Administration to bolster the
project this coming year and
break ground toward the end
of 2020.
“We’re still going to be
doing all of our regular road
maintenance; we’re not going
to be doing as many big proj-
ects people have noticed this
year,” Morgan added.
Pendleton Mayor John
Turner said until the city
reevaluates its goals at the
end of January, it’s full-
steam ahead in progressing
on the ones it set three years
ago.
Among them are expand-
ing housing options. Turner
said the city is optimistic
about handing out “a couple
hundred” new housing per-
mits in 2020, along with its
longtime commitment to fix-
ing the roads, which the city
is hoping its most recent plan
will satisfy.
“Everything is sort of
slower than you want it to
be,” Turner said. “The real-
ity is our roads have been
neglected for so long that
we’re going to have to spend
more to fix them.”
How the city allocates the
money for its road projects
and impacts its general fund
is among the concerns for
Pendleton Police Chief Stu-
art Roberts, who is preparing
his department to institute
body cameras on its officers
thanks to a federal grant.
“It seems like a fairly
obvious piece of equipment
that most stations would
have, but that’s not really the
case,” he said.
The program can be
cumbersome, Roberts said,
because it requires figur-
ing out how the station will
store all of the data recorded
on the cameras. While that’s
Roberts’ biggest concern
with the new program, pri-
vacy concerns of the public
and the labor hours it takes
to go through footage and
redact faces is also some-
thing he’s considering.
From the census and Stu-
dent Success Act to fix-
ing roads and implementing
police body cameras, lead-
ers in Eastern Oregon will be
busy in 2020. But most, like
Doherty, are ready to get to
work.
“I’m very excited,” he
said. “It’s going to be a
whirlwind.”
Neighbors: ‘I’m not big into the cold during the winter’
Continued from Page A1
with OTEC, she’s primar-
ily responsible for switch-
ing lines back on, tak-
ing care of power outages
that may occur and other
maintenance.
While some days are
spent in her Hermiston
office, others are spent
out in the field confirm-
ing what exactly is out
there as UEC updates the
mapping of its systems, an
especially important task
as the cooperative’s foot-
print grows throughout the
region.
UEC broke ground Dec.
23 for the construction of
its new substation at Juni-
per Canyon West, accord-
ing to a press release,
becoming the fourth proj-
ect that’s already under
development with more
planned for 2020.
“Some days are busier
than others,” Kennington
said.
Kennington grew up in
Washington and graduated
from Northwest Naza-
rene University in Nampa,
Idaho, with a degree in
music. But after Kenning-
ton ended up working at
OTEC in Baker City, she
decided to dive into her
eventual career path when
a lineman apprenticeship
opened in La Grande.
Kennington took it,
completed the three-year
apprenticeship and spent
nine years out in the field,
erecting and tending to
power lines.
When she’s not on the
clock in Hermiston these
days, Kennington lives in
an apartment in Pendleton
with her husband, who still
works in La Grande for
the Oregon Department
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Kathryn Kennington poses for a portrait at her workstation at Umatilla Electric Cooper-
ative in Hermiston on Monday morning. Kennington, a system operator for the coopera-
tive, is responsible for switching lines on and off as well as taking care of power outages
and other maintenance.
of Transportation.
A self-described animal
lover, Kennington spends
at least a few hours once
per week volunteering
at the Pendleton Animal
Welfare Shelter. Kenning-
ton and her husband have
two pets of their own —
a Great Dane, Tara, and a
cat, Snuggie.
Kennington also enjoys
going for walks around the
parks near her in the city,
and says she and her hus-
band have appreciated the
greater availability of din-
ing options compared to
La Grande.
There have been some
adjustments to make as
well.
“It’s a new terrain,”
Kennington said. “I’m
used to the mountains, and
there’s not as much timber
over here.”
But the biggest chal-
lenge is the distance
between the terrains.
The commute for Ken-
nington’s husband to La
Grande is cumbersome
and logs a lot of mileage.
Plus, Kennington’s parents
have lived in La Grande
since retiring and the pets
at home present problems
for trying to travel between
the cities to see family.
It’s likely the cou-
ple’s change of scenery
won’t last long, Kenning-
ton said, as they’re look-
ing into returning to La
Grande this spring. Ken-
nington is planning to
stick with UEC, she said,
and will be renting a place
to stay during the week in
Hermiston.
However,
Kenning-
ton and her husband are
already preparing for the
move after that.
The couple already
owns a house in St.
Thomas, one of the U.S.
Virgin Islands in the
Caribbean, and are eye-
ing retirement and one last
move in the next three to
four years.
So
despite
spend-
ing most of her life in the
region, Kennington is
headed toward a new ter-
rain altogether.
“I’m not big into the
cold during the winter,”
she said. “And I’ve had my
share of snow.”