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145th year, No. 76
REGONIAN
Tuesday, april 13, 2021
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WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Oregon Supreme Court rules on redrawing districts
Justices decide
Oregon lawmakers
can have first crack
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
saleM — a decision by the
Oregon supreme Court will enable
lawmakers, not secretary of state
Shemia Fagan, to get first crack
at redrawing legislative district
boundaries despite a pandem-
ic-caused delay in
federal census data.
The court, in
an opinion issued
on Friday, april 9,
gives legislators
until sept. 27 to
come up with a plan
Fagan
— even though the
Oregon Constitution sets a deadline
of July 1. after sept. 27, if legisla-
tors do not come up with a plan, the
Constitution gives the task to the
secretary of state.
The Census Bureau says it will
be late summer before it will release
census-block data, which Oregon
and other states rely on to redraw
their political maps after each
10-year census. Nothing in state
law bars Oregon from using other
sources of data.
senate president peter Court-
ney and House speaker Tina Kotek,
joined by republican minority lead-
ers, asked the court for an extension
beyond July 1. Fagan said the court
lacked the authority to order an
extension, and that any delay would
interfere with the timetables for the
2022 primary election. The filing
deadline is March 8, 2021, for the
May 17, 2022.
The justices decided the matter
based entirely on written arguments
and did not conduct a hearing.
The court’s order takes effect on
april 19, unless Fagan requests a
reconsideration from the court — a
request that the court rarely takes
up.
The court, in the opinion written
by Chief Justice Martha Walters,
said the deadlines specified in
the Oregon Constitution are less
The migraine that never stops
Medical issues
continue to
present issues for
Pendleton couple
P
See Migrane, Page A9
Democrats react
Courtney, a democrat from
salem, and Kotek, a democrat from
portland, issued this statement after
the court announced its decision:
“The supreme Court has done
its job. Now it’s time for the legis-
lature to do its constitutional duty:
to redraw the district boundaries for
See Redistricting, Page A9
OREGON SENATE
Hansell
facing
backlash
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
eNdleTON — More than
most, dave Wallace knows
that life can change in an
instant.
up until 13 months ago,
Wallace enjoyed an easy-go-
ing existence with his wife danielle
and their two children. The close-knit
family liked to camp and mushroom
hunt and take vacations together
at the coast and Wallowa lake.
some people know dave as former
round-up groundskeeper and master
chef of the pendleton High school
Mud Wars tug-of-war pit. Wallace
and his crew spent a couple of days
each year masterfully bringing the
pit to pudding-like consistency for
the annual slimy event.
More recently, dave worked as a
saw filer at Blue Mountain Lumber.
He was there when a sudden stabbing
headache brought him to his knees.
dizzy and numb, he had trouble
standing. doctors checked him for
a brain bleed, but the CT scan came
back normal.
a visit with a neurologist
followed, as well as an Mri and a
spinal tap. all showed no irregulari-
ties. The neurologist concluded that
Wallace was suffering from a severe
migraine.
The migraine, if that’s what it is,
has lasted 13 months.
He must walk with a cane and
suffers brain fog, tremors, earaches,
tinnitus, numbness and sensitivity
to noise. His eyes also are affected.
When an ophthalmologist checked
his vision, dave couldn’t read any of
the rows on the eye chart.
“My vision was 20/100,” he said.
“i couldn’t see anything.”
as he said this, he looked dole-
fully at danielle on the couch next
important than the process laid out
in amendments that voters approved
in 1952 and updated in 1986.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Dave Wallace misses his easy-going existence with wife Danielle and children Hadlee, 13, and
Kyler, 5. Thirteen months ago, he experienced a baffling medical episode that left him with
head pain, vision problems, tremors and an unsteady gait.
saleM — When Oregon state
sen. Bill Hansell told a colleague
he was planning to show up to
work on March 25,
he received a firm
warning.
“His immedi-
ate words to me
were, ‘Bill, you’ll
be crucified,’” the
athena republican
said.
Hansell
Hansell was
one of six senate republicans who
showed up to the floor on March 25
as the chamber took up a proposal to
ban firearms in state buildings and
lay the foundation for other bans.
The bill passed despite opposi-
tion from Hansell and other repub-
licans, who fought the bill for more
than six hours on the floor, pointing
out holes and sections they consid-
ered unconstitutional, Hansell said.
Now, several republicans, includ-
ing Hansell, have received back-
lash for showing up and not leading
a walkout.
“We’ve gotten some very nasty
emails,” Hansell said. “even to the
extent that we’ve had to turn over
some of the emails to the state police
because we were threatened to be
shot.”
Hansell said the Oregon Firearms
Federation had requested senate
republicans deny the quorum prior
to March 25 with a walkout. He
caucused with other republicans
about the proposition. some agreed
to walk out, but Hansell said he,
and five other colleagues, decided
to “stand and fight, rather than run
and hide.”
since then, Hansell said his
constituents have been contacted
to gather signatures to recall him,
though they have so far declined to
do so.
“i’ve been told by others that
See Hansell, Page A9
M-F, A-W schools make the jump to full days
By JEREMY BURNHAM
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
MilTON-Fr eeWaTer —
Oregon schools faced stricter
restrictions earlier in the COVid-
19 pandemic that prevented them
from moving to a hybrid schedule
as fast as many Washington schools.
Now, however, the Milton-Free-
water and athena-Weston school
districts are jumping to full days of
in-person learning faster than most
of their neighbors to the north.
The athena-Weston district
made the jump for the remainder of
their students on april 5.
younger athena-Weston students
have been back for full days for
some time. However, the high school
classrooms are too small to accom-
modate full classes if students need
to sit 6 feet apart.
Now, Gov. Kate Brown’s deci-
sion to follow Centers for disease
Control and prevention recom-
mendations and switch to 3 feet of
distancing for students have allowed
high schoolers to return as well.
“We’ve been in hybrid for those
students,” superintendent laure
Quaresma said. “But with 3 feet of
distancing, we have been able to
bring them back.”
like several other area super-
intendents, Quaresma said how to
handle lunch was a concern due
to the requirement that students
remain distanced by 6 feet while
eating. However, this was not an
See Schools, Page A9
Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
Ferndale Elementary School fourth grade teacher Heidi Smith talks to Prin-
cipal Don Davis about the coming start of full-time, in-class students on
Wednesday, April 7, 2021, in Milton-Freewater.