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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2021)
OFF PAGE ONE Saturday, February 13, 2021 East Oregonian A9 Digging: ‘You get through it and around it somehow’ Continued from Page A1 “One home just outside the town of Pendleton was a farmstead that was completely inundated with mud,” he said. “It was such a trauma for that family, which had young kids. To see the damage to the farm- land surrounding that home- stead, just knowing they had a long road to recovery ahead of them.” Taylor also remembers the devastation experienced by residents living in River- side Mobile Home Estates in Pendleton. “I remember that trailer park and the utter devasta- tion,” he said. “It was so hard for those homeowners.” Taylor said his teams don’t help residents rebuild, but rather to clear out muck and debris, and prep their homes for reconstruction. Some of the residences, however, were beyond repair. “In Pendleton, we saw homes that were washed completely off the founda- tion or sitting on the ground,” he said. “Home owners have to deal with flood plain maps and city ordinances. There may be f lood plain miti- gation that has to be done. They can’t simply get a building permit and replace their home. The structure may have to be elevated. It may be damaged beyond a certain threshold that will allow simple repairs to be made. It’s a detailed process to deal with a flooded home. We don’t want them to jump into things and make hasty decisions that could hurt them in the long run.” Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File Samaritan’s Purse volunteer David Fraze works at the River- side home of Dane and Candice Creger to remove sheetrock, paneling and insulation on Feb. 19, 2020. snowstorms. The common thread they share is a para- lyzing sense of loss. He finds that the simple act of listen- ing gets people into recovery mode. “When we listen, people want to tell their story,” Thompson said. “I really believe that starts them on the path of moving forward.” He tells them the despair they are feeling is a normal reaction to an abnormal situ- ation. He helps them realize there is a tomorrow. If they are spiritual, he goes there. If not, he doesn’t push it. “I don’t get them in a headlock and read tracts to them,” he said. If they welcome spiri- tual advice he recommends comforting passages in the Bible. “God reaches out and wraps his arms around you with his word,” Thompson said. Neit her Taylor nor Thompson can fully predict where disaster will lead them in 2021. The pandemic added its own brand of calamity. Samaritan’s Purse added COVID field hospitals to its repertoire. These temporary hospitals provide intermedi- ate COVID care for patients who don’t need ventilators, but require hospitalization. So far, the organization set up field hospitals in New York City, California, North Carolina, Italy and the Baha- mas. Thompson said disasters, whatever their flavor, leave an imprint on their victims. “You get through it and around it somehow,” Thomp- son said. “People are resil- ient. But you never forget it.” Memories of his time in Oregon haven’t faded for the chaplain. “I remember incredi- bly wonderful people who invited us not only into their homes, but also into their hearts and lives,” he said. “I was really blessed by that time in Pendleton.” BMCC: Bailey-Fougnier was hired in 2019 Brewery: is a national seltzer. Now, perhaps what you’re saying is that you’re saying that a national seltzer is a seltzer that is distributed nationally ... but there seems to be a big difference between saying that a seltzer is distributed nationally versus calling a seltzer national, expecting people to understand what you mean by that.” In his opinion, Simon wrote that Anheuser-Bus- ch’s interpretation of the words in its advertisement isn’t reasonable. He disting uished between coordinate adjec- tives — which appear in sequence modifying the same noun and gener- ally are set off by commas or the word “and” — and compound modifiers that function as a unit, such as the words “national USDA certified organic hard” in the Anheuser-Busch ad. The judge found the word “national” as used in the ad modifies “USDA certified organic” not seltzer and wrote that he doubted the word “national” was placed due to “careless copywrit- ing,” noting that Anheus- er-Busch spent roughly $590,0 0 0 to develop, produce and distribute its ads. “The challenged state- ments are literally false on their face,” he wrote. “Even if Defendants’ reading were reasonable, however, the challenged statements still are likely to mislead, confuse, or deceive consum- ers.” The judge further pointed to questions raised by a distributor of Suzie’s Seltzer, who asked the Suzie’s sales director whether Suzie’s was “really USDA-certified organic” after seeing the Michelob ULTRA commer- cial. “The fact that a presum- ably knowledgeable bever- age distributor could be misled by Anheuser-Busch’s commercial is additional circumstantial evidence that less sophisticated consumers were and can be deceived,” the judge wrote. In response to the judge’s ruling, Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman Jen nifer Morris said, “The truth matters. Michelob ULTRA Organic Seltzer is the first USDA Certified Organic hard seltzer distributed nationally. The Court’s Order allows us to continue making this true statement.” Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File Samaritan’s Purse volunteer Cal Payton clears flood debris in the yard of a Riverside home owned by Dane and Candice Creger on Feb. 19, 2020. Volunteers spent their days clearing away debris, tearing off sheetrock, ripping up flooring and pulling out nails. They treated the homes with Shockwave, a chemical that suppresses mold growth for 30 days and gives homes a chance to dry out. Ray Thompson, a chap- lain with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Rapid Response Team, which often teams with Samaritan’s Purse, also spent time in the Pendleton area with the crews. Thompson, a South- ern Californian who had a career as a fire captain in the Los Angeles Fire Depart- ment, has comforted victims of floods, fires, earthquakes, explosions, mass shootings, tornados, hurricanes and Continued from Page A1 Continued from Page A1 presidential search in 2018, when former President Cam Preus departed BMCC to take a job as the execu- tive director of the Oregon Community College Asso- ciation. After conducting a national search, the college hired Bailey-Fougnier in 2019, the veteran admin- istrator emerging from a group of 44 applicants and four finalists. Despite his experience, Bailey-Fougnier didn’t come to BMCC with a spot- less record. Before moving to Eastern Oregon, Bailey- Fougnier had resigned from his last job as the chief executive of West- ern Colorado Community College. According to The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado, Bailey- Fougnier left 17 months into his tenure over disagree- ments with the president of Western Colorado’s parent university. The newspaper reported that there had been friction between the two men over the college’s enrollment numbers. But Bailey-Foun- gier offered another expla- nation during the final round of interviews for the BMCC position. He said he resigned from the job after the president ordered him to fire two employees who had challenged the president at can continue to adver- tise that its Michelob hard seltzer is “the only” or the “f irst” USDA-cer tif ied organic hard seltzer that is distributed nationally. Ch r is Ba rhy te, t he founder and chief execu- tive officer of Suzie’s Brew- ery, said his family-owned business was distributing its USDA-certified organic hard seltzer for at least five months before Anheus- er-Busch’s Michelob brand. Suzie’s Seltzer received its national certification on June 1, 2020, and entered the market the following month. East Oregonian, File Blue Mountain Community College president Dennis Bailey-Fougnier, left, sits in on a 2019 college coordinating council meeting at the college campus in Pendleton. The col- lege’s board of education accepted Bailey-Fougnier’s resignation on Thursday, Feb. 11, 2020, marking an abrupt end to the brief tenure of the college’s top employee. an open forum. Bailey-Fougnier faced numerous challenges during his short tenure at BMCC, especially within the last 12 months. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the college to shut down its campuses, moving most of its classes online. The resulting decline in enrollment and shortfalls in the state budget led to staff layoffs and the postponement of the FARM II project. W hen t he O regon Department of Corrections announced it intended to bring its inmate education programs in-house, Bailey- Fougnier helped negoti- ate a new contract to save BMCC’s adult education programs at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution and Two Rivers Correctional Institution, although the resulting deal will still lead to some layoffs. Although BMCC will be without a permanent president while the college is dealing with a number of ongoing issues, Hill said she’s confident in the school’s executive team to create stability and lead the college over the next several months. “The college is resilient,” she said. BMCC will turn to Fields as the acting president until it can hire an interim pres- ident to fill the job. Fields was hired in 2018 from Florida State College at Jacksonville, where he was a professor and dean. Hill said the board’s next task is to map out the process for hiring a perma- nent replacement for Bailey- Fougnier. Prisons: EOCI third highest inmate case count with 458 Continued from Page A1 how many inmates will elect to be vaccinated, but added “it appears more AICs are interested than not.” Linda Simon, a public information officer from TRCI, said in an email the prison also expects to receive more vaccines on Feb. 9, but it’s unclear how many doses will be shipped. Simon said that many inmates at TRCI are inter- ested in getting the vaccine. “The TRCI staff are working well together with great collaboration with all departments to get this done in the most efficient manner without much disruption to the operations,” Simon said. The new vaccines come after a federal judge earlier this month ordered the state to immediately begin offer- ing the vaccine to the state’s 11,000 inmates. The order came during a larger case from a group of inmates who criticized state officials and Gov. Kate Brown for their response to COVID- 19 outbreaks in Oregon prisons, saying the state has violated the U.S. Constitu- tion. In the past two months, COVID-19 cases surged throughout the state’s prison system, with more than 1,900 new cases reported among adults in custody through Decem- ber 2020 and January. In the first eight months of the pandemic, 1,400 cases were reported in Oregon prisons. Twenty inmates with COVID-19 died in Janu- ary alone, with 15 of those reported at TRCI in Umatilla. T he t wo Umat il la County prisons have expe- rienced some of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the state. Since the pandemic began, TRCI has reported 755 COVID-19 cases among the inmate population, the most in the state. Most of those cases have been reported since Dec. 10, 2020, when the virus began to spread rapidly through- out the prison during a power outage. Since then, 650 inmates at TRCI have tested positive for the virus. And at EOCI, 458 inmates have tested posi- tive, the third highest total in the state. Super Bowl showdown over seltzer M i c h e l o b U LT R A Organic Seltzers began selling in January after the product was certified as organic on Aug. 19, 2020, and is available in all states except Utah, which has a unique regulatory scheme, according to court records. All Suzie’s Brewery is asking for is a “fair, even playing field,” attorney Daniel C. Peterson told the court during a hear- ing on Monday, Feb. 8. He acknowledged that Suzie’s Seltzer is available only in six states. “We don’t dispute that we are not nationally avail- able,” Peterson said. “The bottom line is the way that they are advertising this is false. They are not the only entity or the only product certified as organic by the USDA and Suzie’s is enti- tled to the relief requested.” Anheuser-Busch’s lawyer James F. Bennett countered that its ads could reason- ably be interpreted as accu- rate and urged the court to consider the adjectives used. “We believe our words can be interpreted to mean that all of those adjec- tives — ‘first’ or ‘only,’ ‘national,’ ‘USDA certi- fied,’ and ‘hard,’ all modify ‘seltzer,’” he said during the hearing. The judge interrupted. “I have no idea what is a national seltzer,” Simon said. “I know what a deli- cious seltzer is. I know what a hard seltzer is. I know what a low calorie or no calorie seltzer is. I know what a flavored selt- zer is. I have not a clue what
