WEEKEND EDITION
THE WEEK
IN PHOTOS
EASTERN OREGON ADs CONTENT GOVERNOR TRYING TO
WITH OSAA’S DECISION TO PUSH RESURRECT PROJECTS
BACK START DATES KILLED BY COVID-19
SPORTS, B1
THE BACK PAGE, A12
NORTHWEST, A2
DECEMBER 12-13, 2020
145th Year, No. 25
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
List grows longer for Legislature’s special session
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The to-do list is
growing for the Oregon Legisla-
ture as lawmakers consider a third
special session this year, barely
a month before the 2021 regular
session gets underway on Jan. 11,
2021.
While most attention has
focused on another extension of
the moratorium on residential evic-
tions set to expire on Dec. 31 (for
Multnomah County, Jan. 8, 2021),
lawmakers are looking at drafts of
other proposed legislation.
Legislative leaders and Gov.
Kate Brown have said they are
open to a session. But they have
not yet agreed on what should
be considered, when the session
would take place and whether they
should invoke the “catastrophic
disaster” provision to do so. That
provision has never been used
since voters approved it in 2012.
It would allow lawmakers to con-
vene without having to come to the
Oregon Capitol in Salem — but it
also imposes other requirements.
Also, December special ses-
sions are rare, although then-Gov.
John Kitzhaber convened a one-
day session in 2012 for a tax break
to enable sportswear giant Nike to
keep its world headquarters out-
side Beaverton. (A 1963 special
session ran from Nov. 11 through
Dec. 2, although lawmakers took
a nine-day break after the death of
President John F. Kennedy.)
The list was made available by
the offi ce of House Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland, whose spokes-
man said that drafts also were
being made available to senators.
The Stable Homes for Oregon
Families coalition has pressed
for a special session to extend the
moratorium, which would be part
of a broader proposal to couple it
with a new state fund to compen-
sate landlords for part of their lost
income. Tenants would still have
to pay rent owed by the new date
of July 1, 2021, and certify they
are unable to pay as a result of
the coronavirus pandemic and the
economic downturn.
House and Senate Democrats
disagree about the proposal put
forth by the House Committee
See Special session, Page A10
UMATILLA COUNTY
Breaking tradition Chambers
warn of
Annual Christmas
corn dog stand in
Pendleton canceled
due to COVID-19
possible
protest
Protest aims to
overwhelm OSHA
with complaints
against businesses
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — Every
holiday season, they
came to Pendleton in
droves from near and
far, seeking one thing
— corn dogs.
Every holiday season since he
was 10 years old, Bernard Lind was
there, serving the people and pre-
serving a longstanding, deep-fried
tradition his father started 49 years
prior.
This season would have been
the 50th anniversary of the Christ-
mas corn dog stand run by Lind
and his wife, Julieanne. But due
to the coronavirus pandemic, that
streak has come to an end.
“I’m having a hard time looking
at the calendar this year and think-
ing about what would have been,”
Bernard Lind said. “I know what it
means to people. I know that they
have missed a lot of things this
year, just like we have. And it’s
hard. It really is.”
The recent spike in COVID-
19 cases and deaths, and the large
crowds that the stand typically
attracts around the holidays, make
it too risky to keep the tradition
going this year, Bernard Lind said.
“My husband and I are in
such a state of shock,” Julieanne
Lind said. “We’ve gone 27 years
together in this business, and we hit
a brick wall. It all stopped. We still
tell our customers, ‘It’s going to be
all right. It’s not forever.’ And if we
die, you’ll never see us again. We
have to protect you, and we have
to protect ourselves. We have to be
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
“I’m so sad right now that I
can’t be there for (the customers),”
Julieanne Lind said. “But I can’t
let that sadness ruin their future
of seeing me again. It will be bet-
ter. I want them to remember the
memories.”
Memories are what the Linds
cling to for a sense of hope in these
hard times. There are countless sto-
ries, but they come from a humble
beginning.
Nearly 50 years ago, Bernard
Lind’s father, Francis Lind, started
UMATILLA COUNTY —
Eastern Oregon chambers of com-
merce are warning local businesses
of a protest effort that could target
them.
In a joint letter, the Hermis-
ton, Pendleton, Umatilla, Board-
man, Irrigon and Heppner chambers
shared a message they had received
from the Oregon State Chamber
of Commerce, citing a post on the
Open Oregon Facebook page asking
people to fl ood the Oregon Occupa-
tional Health and Safety Adminis-
tration with complaints against busi-
nesses in order to overwhelm the
agency.
“We realize that local busi-
nesses are at their breaking point
and wanted to make you aware of
this effort,” the message from the
state chamber said. “OR-OSHA
anticipates hundreds/thousands of
new anonymous complaints against
businesses across Oregon, and these
complaints could result in compli-
ance letters being sent to your mem-
bers by OR-OSHA.”
In their own joint message on
Wednesday, Dec. 9, the local cham-
bers of commerce asked their mem-
bers to reach out if they appeared
See Tradition, Page A10
See Protest, Page A10
Antonio Sierra/East Oregonian, File
Julieanne, left, and Bernard Lind opened their fried food concession stand in the parking lot of Aaron’s in
Pendleton in 2017.
smart in this.”
The pandemic has taken its toll
on the Linds. They own the family
concessions business together, and
when events were postponed indef-
initely in February, they lost their
sole source of income, Bernard
Lind said.
They have relied on unemploy-
ment relief and funds from grant
programs like the CARES Act to
get by. But it hasn’t been nearly
enough.
For the couple, who have served
hungry locals for decades, “the
refrigerator wasn’t really full,” Ber-
nard Lind said of their hardest days.
In late July, help fi nally came in
the form of insurance and unem-
ployment relief. But the pandemic
had already worn them down,
fi nancially and emotionally.
Days once spent traveling to
fairs and events across the North-
west and chatting and smiling with
customers are now spent in a lonely
isolation, the Linds said. The anx-
iety and stress is relentless, and
because of it, Bernard Lind is now
experiencing heart problems and
chest pain, for which he recently
received X-rays and tests.
Chatbot offers answers without judgment
BMCC goes to artifi cial
intelligence to enhance
communication
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pendleton, meet
Timboto.
Blue Mountain Community Col-
lege recently launched an artifi -
cial intelligence-powered chatbot to
improve communication with stu-
dents and the community. Conver-
sations happen online or via text
message.
“Timboto is a robot version of our
beloved mascot,” said Daniel Ander-
son, BMCC’s dean of instruction for
arts and sciences.
The chatbot is the cerebral side of
the school’s mascot, a wolf named
Timber who was known pre-COVID
for his high fi ves and hugs. His brainy
alter ego, Timboto, helpfully responds
prises both a university and a commu-
nity college, uses a chatbot to improve
communications and credits the tech-
nology for increasing enrollment and
the graduation rate at the community
college.
Anderson fl oated the idea on
his own campus in Pendleton.
The bot, he said, would be avail-
able to students outside of normal
business hours whenever they felt
to computer queries at any time of the
night or day.
Such bots are emerging in aca-
demia and in many other venues.
They are powered by a knowledge
base of questions and answers, and an
algorithm that detects nuances in the
written dialogue. The chatbots learn
as they go.
Anderson said he learned about
the technology in an academic con-
text during a presentation by Georgia
State University. GSU, which com-
COVID-19 NUMBERS
See Bot, Page A10
2 WEEK TOTALS FOR WEEK ENDING 12/12/20
IN UMATILLA COUNTY
RISK LEVEL
HIGH
TOTAL
2 WEEK
CASE COUNT
533
TOTAL
CASE GOAL
40
OR LESS
OVER 2
WEEKS
POSITIVE
TEST RATE
%
12.5
POSITIVE
21.3 TEST GOAL
%
%
5