OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
Redistricting: Pandemic disrupts once-a-decade legislative map drawing
Continued from Page A1
is headed to the Oregon
Supreme Court.
The Legislature has
decided to go ahead with the
10 legally mandated hear-
ings. Though two are focused
on each congressional district,
they also deal with legislative
boundaries as well.
“We will be proceeding as
if we’ll get an extension from
the Oregon Supreme Court or
whatever else it takes to get the
job done,” said Sen. Michael
Dembrow, D-Portland, a
senior Democratic lawmaker.
The pandemic has also
turned the every-10-year
“road show” of hearings into
a series of virtual hearings.
Democrats and Repub-
licans in the Legislature are
uniting to ask the Oregon
HEARING SCHEDULE
2nd Congressional District
Includes Deschutes, Umatilla, Jackson, Baker, Crook,
Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake,
Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, and
Wheeler and parts of Josephine County
• First hearing: March 10, 5:30 p.m.
• Second hearing: March 20, 1 p.m.
• Legislature’s redistricting website: www.oregonlegislature.
gov/redistricting/
• Map to locate your legislative and congressional
representatives: www.oregonlegislature.gov/
findyourlegislator/leg-districts.html
• Sign up to testify online or submit written comments:
olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Committees/SRED/
Overview
Supreme Court to reset the
clock on delays and give the
Legislature a shot at drawing
the maps for the 2022 elec-
tion. If the block-by-block data
needed to create districts that
meet federal and state civil
rights laws becomes available
on Sept. 30, lawmakers want
up to 60 days to draw the maps
and submit them to the gover-
nor for approval.
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, said last week that
if the courts agree, the Legis-
lature would return in the fall
for a special session to handle
redistricting.
The request to send the
mapping back to lawmakers
has bipartisan support.
Democrats have the
upper hand in shaping the
district maps to their liking.
The biggest prize is the sixth
congressional district that
Oregon is expected to receive,
its first in 40 years. The U.S.
Census Bureau has said it will
officially notify states of their
gain or loss in the 435-member
U.S. House by April 30.
While Democrats would be
in the driver’s seat for redistrict-
ing, Republicans want the maps
drawn and debated in the Legis-
lature. It gives the minority
Tuition: Many EOU students from low-income homes
Continued from Page A1
diverse, hail from rural areas
or are the first in their fami-
lies to attend college, accord-
ing to the press release. Data
suggests students and fami-
lies from these demographics
have been the most adversely
impacted by the effects of
COVID-19.
EOU returned to offer-
ing in-person classes in fall
2020. In holding tuition flat
for 2021-22, Insko said the
university has again chosen
the more challenging path to
serve its students.
“We’ve been having
robust conversations with
the university commu-
nity about this,” Insko said.
“This is a conscious choice
to forgo tuition revenues
that we would otherwise
receive in order to priori-
tize our mission and direct
state investment dollars to
students when they most
need it.”
EOU also has split online
tuition into two tiers: resi-
dent and nonresident.
Oregon undergraduates
will not see an increase in
online tuition this year, but
the new nonresident rate
will increase from $265 to
$305 per credit. The change
only applies to incoming
or new online students,
according to the press
release. Existing nonresident
online students will not see a
rate hike.
Although tuition won’t
party a chance to call attention
to districts it deems unfair.
“This is one of the most
important opportunities to
participate in when it comes to
our Constitutional Republic,”
said Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend,
a member of the Senate Redis-
tricting Committee.
Knopp said the hearings
“will give people the ability
to advocate for districts that
represent our community and
to help ensure the districts are
drawn with an open and trans-
parent process.”
The other scenarios would
be for Secretary of State
Shemia Fagan to draw the
legislative district, while a
five-judge panel would be
appointed to draw congressio-
nal districts. Most of that work
would be behind closed doors.
If the Oregon Supreme Court
decides to have courts redraw
the lines, that would also shut
out lawmakers from voicing
their opinions.
Under normal circum-
stance, the Legislature would
have received the necessary
data by April 1. It would
then have until the end of
the current regular legisla-
tive session on July 1 to send
maps to Gov. Kate Brown for
her approval.
If for any reason lawmak-
ers could not agree, the
mapping would then go to
Secretary of State Shemia
Fagan, who would have until
Aug. 15 to submit maps.
“We are going to blow by
all the deadlines at this point,”
Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake
Oswego, chair of the House
Redistricting Committee, said
late last month.
Serendipity: Goodwin
died in 1871 at age 49
Continued from Page A1
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Eastern Oregon University is not raising tuition for undergraduate students in 2021-22. The
EOU Board of Trustees voted on Friday, March 5, 2021, in favor of holding tuition flat for all
returning undergraduate students, on-campus and online, the university announced.
“THIS IS GOING TO TAKE
SACRIFICE, BUT WE ARE CHOOSING
TO TAKE THAT CONSIDERED RISK
AND PRIORITIZE STUDENTS.”
— EOU President Tom Insko
go up for on-campus or
online resident undergrad-
uate students, EOU expects
to increase on-campus fees
in 2021-22. Insko said the
university aims to keep
future tuition increases
minimal, between 1.5-3.5%
per year. Administrators
held discussions with student
leaders and internal groups
to garner feedback.
“This is going to take
sacrifice, but we are choos-
ing to take that consid-
ered risk and prioritize
students,” Insko said.
EOU and the other six
public universities are
working together to request
a $63 million increase in the
Public University Support
Fund, bringing the total allo-
cation to $900 million.
Street. He also built a bridge
over the Umatilla River to
make it easy for travelers to
reach the new hotel. A sign
pointed the way.
An ad for “Goodwin’s
Hotel” in the Columbia
Press describes “good
hay corrals attached to the
place” and “prices to suit the
hard times.” The bridge, the
ad said, was free to travel-
ers. That sentence vanished
from advertisements in 1868
when travelers apparently
started paying tolls.
In late 1868, the Good-
wins deeded 2.5 acres to
the county, which erected a
combination county court-
house and jail on the site.
Goodwin’s brick smoke-
house became part of the
courthouse.
The newly platted town,
also the new county seat,
was named Pendleton, after
Ohio Sen. George Hunt
Pendleton, a Democratic
candidate for vice president
in 1864. Residents numbered
250 at the time. When Pend-
leton was officially incorpo-
rated in 1880, the population
had grown to 730.
Goodwin died in 1871
at age 49. Photographs of
the entrepreneur are hard
to come by. His wife, Aura,
who lived to age 84 and is
often called “the mother of
Pendleton,” is memorialized
in a bronze statue on Main
Street.
Some Pendleton streets
bear the Goodwin name —
Goodwin Avenue, Goodwin
Lane and Goodwin Place.
Aura Avenue pays tribute
to Aura, who eventually
married Henry J. Raley.
Last month, Pendle-
ton Mayor John Turner
proclaimed Moses Good-
win’s birthday, Feb. 15, 2021,
as Moses Goodwin Day.
“As Mayor of Pendleton
I feel a direct connection to
the man who founded Pend-
leton, Moses Goodwin,”
Turner said. “So I thank
him for this legacy and feel
honored to follow in his
footsteps as we celebrate his
200th birthday.”
Tur ner said Moses
packed a lot into his five
decades of life.
The proclamation reads:
“In January 1871, after a life
well filled with good deeds,
and leaving a record few
will ever equal, Mr. Good-
win passed from earthly
scenes to those of another
world. Now, therefore, be it
proclaimed that I, John H.
Turner, Mayor of the City
of Pendleton, and on behalf
of the City of Pendleton,
honor Mr. Moses Good-
win, declaring February
15, 2021 — the date of the
200th anniversary of Mr.
Goodwin’s birth — Moses
Goodwin Day.”
Phinney: Editor covered rural Oregon’s growth, change over four-decade career
Continued from Page A1
the CUJ, asked him to stay
on while the COVID-19
pandemic spread through the
reservation. With the vaccine
now being distributed among
tribal members, Phinney
followed through on putting
away the editor’s pen.
Over a career that spanned
four decades, Phinney not
only covered some of rural
Oregon’s most important
events but also a remarkable
period of growth and change
for the CTUIR.
Phinney said he caught
the writing bug earlier when
he entered a fifth grade essay
contest.
He was born in South-
ern California, but spent the
remainder of his childhood
in Eastern Oregon after turn-
ing 2, jumping from town to
town as his father’s career
advanced at Safeway. Phin-
ney eventually ended his
school years in Hermiston,
where he was editor of Herm-
iston High’s student newspa-
per.
He tried his hand at
college by attending the
University of Oregon, but
after a year, Phinney dropped
out to work for the hometown
Hermiston Herald in 1975.
A 19-year-old Phinney
made enough of an impres-
sion on then-owner Jerry
Reed that he was soon
named editor of the Heppner
Gazette-Times. But he soon
looked to venture outside the
confines of the Northwest.
He spent several years
working as an editor and
publisher at newspapers in
Wyoming and Montana,
not only further refining his
editing and reporting skills,
but learning the entirety of
the newspaper business like
layout, production, ad sales
and photography.
Phinney returned to
Oregon in 1983 to take a
job with The Dalles Weekly
Reminder, a publication look-
ing to transition away from
mostly printing advertise-
ments and into more news
coverage.
The Reminder was one of
the first newspapers to cover
the controversy surrounding a
Wasco County commune that
was established by followers
of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh,
an Indian mystic.
Phinney remembers being
flooded with 54 letters to the
editor from angry Rajneeshis
who were critical of the
Reminder‘s coverage of their
settlement. He relished their
responses.
“I made a point to run
every damn Rajneeshi letter,”
he said.
In 1985, he moved back
home to take a job as sports
editor with the East Orego-
nian before eventually
moving to the news side.
Hal McCune, who worked
with Phinney in the news-
room during his time at the
EO, remembered Phinney as
extroverted and self-start-
ing. Foreshadowing his time
with the CUJ, McCune said
Phinney was the best tribal
reporter the paper had.
“He definitely made his
mark,” he said.
Before becoming his
colleagues at the CTUIR,
Deb Croswell and Chuck
Sams’ first experience with
Phinney was as young interns
helping out in the EO dark-
room in the 1980s.
As time passed, eventu-
ally Croswell would ascend to
become the CTUIR’s director
of public affairs. One of the
tasks the Tribes gave to her
was revitalizing the Confed-
erated Umatilla Journal,
which had been established
in 1977 but had fallen out of
regular publication.
When Croswell turned to
Phinney in 1996 to become
the editor of the CUJ, she was
hiring a local with decades of
experience in every facet of
the newspaper business and
had developed sources on
the reservation from his time
at the East Oregonian. But
there was also talk among the
community about whether a
white man should be the one
to lead a tribally owned news-
paper.
But Croswell, who now
works as the executive
managing director of Cayuse
Holdings, said Phinney put in
the time to earn the respect of
the tribal community.
Marcus Luke, who worked
as a reporter under Phinney
from 1999 to 2005, remem-
bers the many weekends
they went out to events on
the reservation. It got to the
point that tribal members
started seeking them out to
talk about the comings and
goings of the community, and
if the CUJ wasn’t there, Luke
and Phinney would be sure to
hear about it.
Although he wasn’t a
tribal member, Phinney knew
he had a special role in cover-
ing tribal life, often being one
of the only nonmembers to
cover CTUIR religious and
cultural ceremonies.
Phinney was the only
member of the media to
witness the 2017 burial of “the
Ancient One,” a 9,000-year-
old body that was connected
to several Northwest tribes.
Sams, who managed as the
Tribes’ communications
director and later as the
interim executive director,
said the Tribes knew they
could trust Phinney to not
disclose the location of the
event, an important condi-
tion for all the tribes involved.
Although the CUJ derives
part of its income from
advertisements, the newspa-
per is owned by the CTUIR
and overseen under the
umbrella of tribal govern-
ment.
Phinney said the fact
that he was covering a tribal
government that was also
responsible for signing his
checks occasionally caused
some tension, but his super-
visors never stepped in to
interfere in the CUJ‘s news
coverage.
Sams said it was important
for the integrity of the news-
paper to maintain a level of
independence, and under
Phinney’s tenure, it’s always
operated under the Society of
Professional Journalists’ code
of ethics.
Throughout most of his
tenure, the CUJ was mostly a
two-person operation, mean-
ing Phinney was often front
and center in reporting the
developments of the Tribes.
Phinney said he felt fortu-
nate to cover the CTUIR as
it went through a period of
tremendous growth. The
economic success of the
Wildhorse Resort & Casino
not only pushed the CTUIR
to becoming a commercial
attraction and one of the top
employers in the region, it
led to an expansion in the
Tribes’ cultural pursuits. By
the time of Phinney’s retire-
ment, he had seen the Tribes
build a new school, health
clinic, cultural museum and
governance center, and had
been on reporting trips to
New Zealand and Washing-
ton, D.C.
Phinney’s ink-stained days
aren’t completely over. He said
he’s looking into occasion-
ally freelancing at the CUJ
and elsewhere, but he’s also
looking into pursuing other
opportunities, like coaching
the Nixyaawii Community
School golf team.
His wife, Carrie, contin-
ues to work as an admin-
istrative assistant at the
school. His three daughters
are now grown, and after
doing some journalism in
their high school years, are
all now pursuing careers in
other fields.
“I told them all to get
newspaper work out of their
systems, but I’m encouraged
that they still read the news,”
he said.
When Phinney retired,
the Tribes promoted reporter
Cary Rosenbaum to editor
as Phinney’s permanent
replacement.
Phinney said Rosenbaum
should be a good fit for where
news is heading, more expe-
rienced in working on the
internet and social media.
“I’m an old dog that didn’t
learn the new tricks,” he said.
But for 46 years, Phinney
put out a newspaper each
month that told the story of
not just the CTUIR, but also
the rural West.
“It’s the only thing I’ve
ever done,” he said.
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