Hamley Giving Tree harvests holiday spirit | RECORDS/COMMUNITY, A6
E O
AST
145th year, No. 27
REGONIAN
Thursday, december 17, 2020
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
County, Tribes
provide
updates on
key issues
Officials from the
Tribes, county
discuss cOVId-19,
floods, Thorn
hollow bridge
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
PeNdLeTON — Leaders
from the confederated Tribes of
the umatilla Indian reservation
met with umatilla county com-
missioners and other county offi-
cials on Wednesday, dec. 16, to
discuss the current state of the
cOVId-19 pandemic, the Thorn
hollow bridge and how local
communities are jointly planning
for the upcoming flood season.
The meeting began with
updates from tribal officials who
confirmed that Yellowhawk Tribal
health center will be receiving
the first 300 doses of the COVID-
19 vaccine on Thursday, dec. 17.
Inoculations of health care staff,
frontline first responders and Yel-
lowhawk patients over the age of
75 will begin on saturday, dec.
19, and sunday, dec. 20, accord-
ing to tribal officials.
The vaccines, which are being
distributed by the Indian health
service and shipped from the
Lummi Nation, must be kept in
a deep freeze, and because of the
transportation, the vaccines will
begin to defrost Friday, dec. 18,
Chuck Sams, the deputy director
of the cTuIr, said in the meeting.
That means all vaccinations must
be completed by monday, dec. 21,
or they will expire, sams said.
“Yellowhawk staff are working
hard to protect the cTuIr com-
munity and now they are start-
ing to get health care employ-
ees and elders vaccinated. We
greatly appreciate their concerted
efforts,” cTuIr board of Trust-
ees chair Kat brigham said in a
press release on Tuesday, dec. 15.
“but let me be clear. Just
because the first vaccine shipment
is coming in, the war with this
invisible enemy is not over. There
is no silver bullet. We must con-
tinue social distancing so we can
knock down the numbers before
they get worse.”
Joe Fiumara, umatilla coun-
ty’s public health director, said
the county has yet to receive any
vaccines. he added that “things
are still fluid,” and the department
is hoping to see local hospitals
receive their first shipments on
either dec. 21 or Tuesday, dec. 22.
The first Oregon health care
workers were vaccinated Dec. 16
Julie Aichele, a game and puzzle buyer at the Walla Walla Book & Game in Washington, said customers’
demand for games has spiked.
See Updates, Page A7
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
A customer at Walla Walla Book & Game in Washington browses in the puzzle section on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020. The popularity of board
games has shot up during the pandemic. Sales of both classic and contemporary tabletop games are soaring.
Board games are back
Board games
and puzzles
fly off shelves
during COVID-19
pandemic
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
P
eNdLeTON
—
monopoly anyone?
The popularity of
board games has shot
up during the pan-
demic. sales of both
classic and contempo-
rary tabletop games
are soaring. Turns out people are
hunkering down at home and
playing games as a way to fend off
boredom and avoid the depressing
news cycle. It’s harder to dwell on
a deadly virus if you are engaged
in a lively game of yahtzee, scat-
tergories or Taboo.
Julie aichele, game and puz-
zle buyer at the Walla Walla
Book & Game in Washing-
ton, said customers’ demand for
See Games, Page A7
Levy and Barreto sign letter supporting Texas lawsuit
“WE BELIEVE THAT FAIR ELECTIONS ARE VITAL
TO OUR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC AND THAT
THE SUBMISSION OF ELECTORS BY THESE FOUR
STATES SHOULD BE AT LEAST POSTPONED.”
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
saLem — bobby Levy will
replace Greg Barreto as District 58’s
state representative in 2021, but they
got a chance to collaborate before
the end of barreto’s tenure on a let-
ter supporting the effort to halt the
Electoral College vote in several key
swing states in the 2020 presidential
election.
barreto and Levy signed a dec.
11 letter from a group of GOP leg-
islators to Oregon Attorney Gen-
eral ellen rosenblum requesting
she join a Texas lawsuit that sought
to block electors in Georgia, Mich-
igan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin
from voting for President-elect Joe
biden.
The letter didn’t sway rosen-
Barreto
Levy
blum, a democrat, who joined 22
attorneys general in filing a brief
opposing the lawsuit. On the same
day the Oregon legislators sent
the letter, the u.s. supreme court
declined to hear the case, asserting
that Texas didn’t have standing to
sue other states over their election
systems.
In the lawsuit, Texas attorney
General Ken Paxton argued that
the changes these states made to
their voting processes in light of the
— Letter from a group of GOP legislators to Oregon Attorney General
cOVId-19 pandemic led to a dra-
matic increase in mail-in ballots that
weakened election security and led
to “significant and unconstitutional
irregularities in those four states.”
The letter from the republican
legislators quoted a few sections
from the lawsuit and urged rosen-
blum to join the lawsuit.
“We believe that fair elections
are vital to our democratic repub-
lic and that the submission of elec-
tors by these four states should be
at least postponed,” the lawmakers
wrote.
Levy said she signed the letter
not because she wanted to overturn
the election, but because she wanted
to support election integrity after
seeing a video of vote counting in
Georgia.
a clip from the security video
of a ballot counting site in Ful-
ton County, Georgia, shows elec-
See Letter, Page A7