WEEKEND EDITION
A young cowpoke watches
the start of the Western Se-
lect Ranch Horses Preview
in the Round-Up Pavilion on
Saturday, May 1, 2021.
TIGERSCOTS’ BLANE HERMISTON COUNCIL
PEAL FINDS HIS TO CONSIDER GRANT
GROOVE PROGRAM
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
SPORTS, B1
E O
AST
145th Year, No. 87
REGION, A3
REGONIAN
MAY 8-9, 2021
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Republican feud surfaces with new bill
Introduced legislation
targets colleagues’
roles in state GOP
By BRYCE DOLE, JAYSON
JACOBY and GARY WARNER
EO Media Group
SALEM — A long-simmering
feud among Oregon Senate Republi-
cans surfaced on Wednesday, May 5,
with the introduction of a bill pitting
the main factions of the 11-person
caucus against each other.
Senate Bill 865, co-sponsored
by Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Athena, and
Sen. Lynn Findley, R-Vale, would
make it a fi neable off ense to serve
simultaneously as a state office-
Hansell
Heard
Findley
holder and an offi cer of a state central
committee of a political party. Viola-
tors would be fi ned $250 per day.
The bill has a clause that would make
it law as soon as it was signed by the
governor.
While generic in its official
language, the bill’s most immedi-
ate eff ect is to challenge Sen. Dallas
Heard, R-Roseburg, who earlier
this year was elected chair of the
Oregon Republican Party. It would
Hermiston
police offi cer
undergoes
surgery for
brain tumors
Linthicum
also take aim at Sen. Dennis Linthi-
cum, R-Klamath Falls, a Heard ally
who was elected the state GOP party
treasurer.
The bill says it was introduced “at
the request of Malheur, Baker and
Morrow Counties Republican Exec-
utive Committees.”
Hansell said he was recently
contacted by a group of mostly
Republicans regarding Heard
and Linthicum. The group voiced
concerns about whether the state’s
strict ethics and campaign laws
permit their election, telling Hansell
that “you’re walking a fi ne line when
you wear two hats,” he said.
Hansell said that he and his
colleagues sought advice from
co-legislative counsel who said there
was potential for ethics violations for
the senators elected to the commit-
tee. He added that the bill would
mirror laws in other states.
‘You make a choice’
The move for the bill, Hansell
said, became especially motivated
when Heard voted “no” in protest
of all the bills in the committee,
which include bills to fi ght child
pornography and sex traffick-
ing that have received widespread
See Tumors, Page A8
See Feud, Page A8
Cooking
show
highlights
tribal
traditions
EO SPOTLIGHT
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
HERMISTON — A lieutenant
with the Hermiston Police Depart-
ment underwent a procedure this
week to remove
two brain tumors
identifi ed by medi-
cal professionals
just days before,
according to Herm-
iston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston.
Randy Stude-
Studebaker
baker, the depart-
ment’s sole lieutenant, informed
Edmiston about a week ago that
he was beginning to have vision
problems. Studebaker fi rst went to
an eye doctor before going to the
emergency room on April 29. The
following day, he went to a neurol-
ogist who discovered that Stude-
baker had developed two brain
tumors that would need an imme-
diate procedure, Edmiston said.
“I know that every person in this
department’s concerned about his
short-term health and long-term
health as well,” Edmiston said.
Between 60 to 80 friends and
family gathered in a prayer circle at
the Hermiston Police Department
on Tuesday, May 4, before Stude-
baker was transported to a clinic
in the Tri-Cities for his procedure,
Republican support.
“When you’re representing the
ORP, are you just representing
Douglas County? Are you represent-
ing the state?” Hansell said. “Enough
people said, ‘He doesn’t represent me
and he’s making these statements
and making these votes, and we need
to have some separation.’ It reached
the point where we had Republican
folks supporting a bill like this, and
because of the priority deadline Sen.
Findley used a priority bill to move
it.”
Hansell said the response from
Republicans so far has been mostly
positive, but the move has nonethe-
less upset some offi cers from the
ORP.
‘Top Chef’ gets a
taste of the CTUIR’s
First Foods
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Firefi ghters use a hose and hand tools to try to douse a hotspot while mopping up a brush fi re near
Southeast Nye Avenue in Pendleton on Wednesday, May 5, 2021.
Conditions raise
fi re concerns
Much of Eastern
Oregon has
formally declared
a drought disaster
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
ENDLETON — The
fi re started when a wire
detached from a power
pole, igniting the grass
near Perkins Avenue and 17th
Place in Pendleton on Wednes-
day, May 5. Then, the snapped
wire’s electrical current met the
ground behind the Red Lion
Hotel, starting a second fi re.
Fi ref ighters event ually
contained the blaze, but Pendle-
ton Fire Chief Jim Critchley said
if conditions were even slightly
drier, it may have been a diff er-
ent story.
“We’re lucky today because
we still have some green in our
grasses,” he said. “But if this
were to happen later on in the
season, that would have caused
a bigger problem.”
Some Eastern Oregon fire
chiefs are concerned that the
county’s already dry condi-
tions could lead to an increased
risk of vegetation fi res heading
into a summer where drought is
consuming much of Oregon.
“We’ve been worried about
this for a while,” Critchley said.
“We’ve got fl ash fuels. So they’re
going to move fast, especially
right now when everything’s
(growing) or is just starting to
dry out.”
Boardman Fire Chief Mike
Hughes said his team is currently
responding to roughly four vege-
tation fires each week in the
Boardman and Irrigon areas.
Critchley said Pendleton fire-
fi ghters are responding to “one
or two a week.”
“We’ve been running to vege-
tation fi res every day,” Hughes
said. “Every single day we’re on
controlled burns that have gotten
out of control because the winds
came up.”
Critchley and Hughes each
said fi res are occurring earlier
this season than normal, attrib-
uting it to this year’s lack of mois-
ture.
“This is early in the season, so
we’re a little bit concerned that,
already, we’re catching these
little grass fi res so early,” Hughes
said. “Because you remem-
ber what happened last year in
Oregon. The whole other part of
the state tried to burn down.”
Umatilla County Fire District
Chief Scott Stanton said he has
yet to notice an uptick in vege-
tation fi res in his district, which
covers areas around Hermiston
and Stanfi eld, but added he had
not taken a look at the recent data.
He added with the predictions
showing a drier, warmer summer,
See Fires, Page A8
LET'S GET VACCINATED
VISIT SAHPENDLETON.ORG
TO FIND OUT WHERE TO GET
YOUR COVID VACCINATION
CASCADE LOCKS — For its
18th season, “Top Chef” tried to
make the most of its Oregon loca-
tion.
Throughout the reality cook-
ing show competition, chefs from
around the country were asked to
cook with craft beer from Portland,
fruit from Hood River and wine
from the Willamette Valley.
But for the season’s sixth
episode, which premiered on
Thursday, May 6, the production
ventured from Portland to Cascade
Locks, where contestants were
challenged to work with ingredi-
ents that predate Oregon’s status as
an American territory, much less a
state — the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s
First Foods.
The First Foods — water, fi sh,
wild game, roots and berries — are
not only cuisine, but a fundamen-
tal aspect of life for the Umatilla,
Walla Walla and Cayuse peoples
since “time immemorial,” a collec-
tion of foods that inform the Tribes’
yearly activities and rituals and a
motivating factor in the CTUIR’s
environmental protection eff orts.
Behind the scenes
with the CTUIR
During the first half of the
episode, the chefs blindly selected
a knife labeled with a fi sh or meat,
and then were ordered to pair with
another contestant to make a surf
and turf dish revolving around the
theme of First Foods.
Several chefs remarked about
the pressure they felt, not only
See CTUIR, Page A8