A8
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Feud:
Continued from Page A1
“You make a choice,”
he said. “You can do one or
the other, but you can’t do
both. Because it’s a conflict
of interest and the different
difficulties that arise from
that.”
Senate Majority Leader
Rob Wagner, D-Lake
Oswego, later signed on as a
co-sponsor, and then moved
to chief sponsor, indicating
the bill would likely have
the votes to pass if it came
up for a vote in the Senate.
Findley said he spoke
with the chairs of several
other county Republican
central committees in his
district who supported the
bill, but had not had time
to convene their executive
committees. Those coun-
ties, unlike Baker, Malheur
and Morrow, are not listed
on Senate Bill 865.
Suzan Ellis Jones, chair
of the Baker County Repub-
lican Party, said in a Thurs-
day, May 6, statement that
the county’s party supports
the move.
“The Baker County
Republican executive
committee is supporting
the efforts of our Repub-
lican state senators Lynn
Findley and Bill Hansell,”
she said. “This bill simply
implements a similar struc-
ture in Oregon to what is
seen already in place in
other states.”
Findley said he believes
the bill is important because
legislators “can’t serve two
masters,” but said he can’t
cite any specific examples
of conflicts that resulted
from Republican lawmak-
ers also serving as officials
in the Oregon Republican
Party. Hansell also said
he is not yet aware of any
specific conflicts of interest.
Gun bill shows
dispute
The bill was introduced
the same day the Senate
voted 17-7 to approve
House revisions of Senate
Bill 554, a gun control
measure whose provisions
include a ban on firearms
in the Oregon Capitol and
rules requiring gun locks on
weapons.
Hansell told the East
Oregonian that the GOP
caucus was approached
prior to the final vote in
March by representatives
of the Oregon Firearms
Federation, which calls
itself “Oregon’s Only No
Compromise Gun Rights
Organization.”
The senators were firmly
asked by the interest group
to walk out of the vote and
deny a quorum. When they
refused and showed up to
the floor to oppose the bill,
some senators, including
Tumors:
Continued from Page A1
Edmiston said.
Officers in the depart-
ment have heard from
Studebaker’s wife, Shel-
ley, that his procedure went
well, but now, he begins the
long process of recovery.
Studebaker has served
in law enforcement for
18 years. He comes from
a family devoted to law
enforcement. His father
served in law enforcement,
his wife works with the
Pendleton Police Depart-
ment and his brother also
works in the Hermiston
Police Department.
Studebaker moved to
Hermiston when he joined
the department in 2012.
Studebaker leads the
investigation unit for the
Hermiston police. He was
promoted to lieutenant in
2017. And in April 2021, he
was appointed as the select
law enforcement profes-
sional in a “Children’s
Justice Act Task Force”
with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Justice.
“He takes public service
very seriously,” Edmiston
said. “He’s a huge asset to
our department and has
been for many years.”
Edmiston described
Studebaker as a trustworthy
person that can make
Hansell, received threat-
ening emails from gun
rights advocates, which
had to be turned over to
the state police. And some
senators, like Hansell and
Sen. Minority Leader Fred
Girod, R-Stayton, faced
recall efforts for showing
up that day.
“There is a fringe group
out there that is sure not
welcome in my office,”
Girod said. “It is not OK to
threaten people’s lives, their
staff. It’s not an appropriate
way to lobby.”
The seven “no” votes
were cast by six Repub-
licans: Hansell, Finley,
Girod, Sen. Dick Ander-
son, R-Lincoln City, Sen.
Tim K nopp, R-Bend,
and Sen. Bill Kennemer,
R-Canby. Sen. Betsy John-
son, D-Scappoose, joined
the opposition.
Four Republican sena-
tors were not present for
the vote: Heard, Linthi-
cum, Sen. Kim Thatcher,
R-Keizer, and Sen. Chuck
Thomsen, R-Hood River,
were marked as absent or
excused.
Also not voting were two
former Republican lawmak-
ers who had bolted the
Republican caucus earlier
this year and declared them-
selves as independents: Sen.
Brian Boquist, I-Dallas, and
Sen. Art Robinson, I-Cave
Junction.
Those who voted and
those who skipped the floor
session form the outlines of
a rift in the Senate Repub-
lican caucus that became
more heated this session
with the original vote on
SB 554.
The Senate currently has
18 Democrats, 10 Republi-
cans, and two independents.
Democrats had the
votes to pass the bill. But
the Oregon Constitution
requires each chamber of
the Legislature to have
at least two-thirds of its
members answer the roll
call of attendance to estab-
lish a quorum to do any
business.
Oregon is one of a hand-
ful of states where the
presence of a majority of
members is not considered
a quorum.
Senators had walked out
in previous sessions over
tax legislation and a carbon
cap bill that opponents said
would harm the state econ-
omy. Those walkouts were
led by then-Senate Minority
Leader Herman Baertsch-
iger Jr., R-Grants Pass.
Baertschiger stepped
down from his Senate seat
at the end of the walk-
out-shortened 2020 legisla-
tive session to successfully
run for Josephine County
commissioner. Baertsch-
iger was also elected GOP
state party vice chairman
in alliance with Heard and
Linthicum.
split-second decisions.
“There’s things that
happen in law enforcement
where you have to trust
your people,” he said. “And
I trust Randy implicitly.”
Edmiston also said he,
as well as the rest of the
department, appreciates
Studebaker’s witty sense of
humor.
Studebaker would often
write posts on the depart-
ment’s Facebook page. In a
recent post, he wrote: “The
weather has been beauti-
ful this week. To enjoy a
gorgeous sunrise or sunset,
head for the top of the butte
or other local areas with
an unobstructed view. You
won’t regret it. Avoid places
that lack windows, like the
local HPD holding cell and
the county jail over in Pend-
leton. The view there is just
not so great.”
In a 2018 story in the
Hermiston Herald, Stude-
baker said his proudest
moment was when he some-
how “made my wife think
that marrying me was a
good idea.”
“She’s helped me raise a
reasonably normal, well-ad-
justed and polite son,” he
said. “I’m not sure how that
happened with me for a
father, but whatever we did
seemed to work. He leaves
next month for the Coast
Guard and, eventually, he
wants to be a police officer.
I’m pretty proud of them.”
Saturday, May 8, 2021
David Moir/Bravo
CTUIR Board of Trustees member Armand Minthorn, center, holds a plate during filming of an episode of “Top Chef” in Cas-
cade Locks last year. Also pictured are Board of Trustees Chair Kat Brigham, left, and Vice Chair Jeremy Wolf.
CTUIR: Smelt-crusted rabbit is winner
Continued from Page A1
to please the judges and
advance to the next round of
the competition, but also to
honor the Brighams and the
CTUIR’s culture and heri-
tage.
“At the end of the day, we
have to cook for the judges,
but I need to pay homage to
these people,” Maria Mazon,
a chef from Tucson, Arizona,
said during the show. “I feel
blessed.”
The contest opened
and closed with Armand
Minthorn, a member of the
CTUIR Board of Trustees
and a tribal elder, who deliv-
ered a Washat prayer to begin
proceedings, and then made
some remarks as it drew to
a close.
“When those Indian foods
began to grow, they prepared
themselves for today,” he
said. “And because you
cooked our food, our food
knows who you are now.
You’ve honored us today.”
Two days worth of events
at Cascade Locks were edited
down to 45 minutes, but the
slickly edited package belied
the months of preparation
and coordination between
Magical Elves, the produc-
tion studio behind “Top
Chef,” and the CTUIR.
Doneen Arquines, a
producer with Magical Elves,
said the process started when
“Top Chef” began scouting
locations after committing
to basing their 18th season in
Portland.
“ To p C h e f ” s o o n
connected with Brigham
Fish Market, a Cascade
Locks business run by sisters
Terrie Brigham and Kim
Brigham Campbell, who are
both enrolled members of the
CTUIR.
As the producers learned
more about the sisters and
the Tribes, they decided to
expand their focus to encom-
pass the Tribes and the First
Foods.
Magical Elves reached out
to the CTUIR in early 2020
and eventually connected
with Wenix Red Elk, a
public outreach and educa-
tion specialist for the CTUIR
Department of Natural
Resources.
Red Elk said she and a
group of tribal members went
out and gathered roots and
berries for the production,
eventually providing “Top
Chef” with First Foods like
duck potato, elderberries,
huckleberries and choke-
cherries.
Red Elk said she requested
Pacific lamprey be included
as one of the ingredients, but
with fresh lamprey unavail-
able in September when the
episode was shooting, the
show decided to substitute
catfish for lamprey.
The production crew also
wanted fish from Brigham
Fish Market and to film
a fishing session with the
sisters. But with filming
coming relatively late in the
season, Terrie Brigham said
they couldn’t provide whole
fish that time of year and
opted to do a fishing demon-
stration instead.
The CTUIR sent a contin-
gent of tribal leaders to
Cascade Locks for the film-
ing of the episode, providing
the contestants and the televi-
sion audience with an intro-
duction to First Foods, and
then tasting the completed
meals along with the judges
the following day.
Filming in the midst of
the COVID-19 pandemic,
“Top Chef” had strict proto-
cols for its Portland season.
All contestants stayed in a
bubble at their hotel when
not on location, and all
guests, including the CTUIR
members, had to test negative
multiple times and self-quar-
antine before arriving.
The production also had
to deal with the temperamen-
tal weather of the Columbia
River Gorge.
Cascade Locks experi-
enced heavy rain on the first
day of filming. Arquines
said they had to scrap plans
to film on nearby Thunder
Island and instead relocated
most proceedings to a river-
side tent.
“Top Chef ” got some
karmic balance when the
second day of filming
included sunny skies and a
rainbow, but Terrie Brigham
was caught off guard in a
different way.
Brigham said she arrived
on set unaware that she would
be on camera with the rest of
the CTUIR group. She hadn’t
dressed in tribal regalia like
the rest of the members pres-
ent, but she decided to go
with the flow.
“There I sat, in my sweat-
shirt and my hair pulled
back,” she said, laughing.
Kat Brigham, the chair of
the CTUIR Board of Trust-
ees and Terrie’s mother, said
the food was delicious but
prepared very differently
than what the tribal members
are used to.
The winning dish was
a smelt-crusted rabbit loin,
while other cooking teams
paired their dishes with
molé, a Mexican marinade
and sauce.
Lessons learned
T he episode ended
with two chefs eliminated
from the competition, but
Arquines hoped the viewers
took away something deeper.
“I think that the Pacific
Northwest tribes definitely
have an abundance of beau-
tiful ingredients around,” she
said. “We wanted to show
that off, and I think that the
reverence that you’ll see from
the tribe, and from the chef’s
cooking for the tribe, or the
ingredients is really special.”
For the Tribes, they got the
chance to share with a poten-
tial audience of millions the
importance of First Foods
and the tribes that they feed.
“We learned a little bit
more about how ‘Top Chef’
operates and all the processes
that they go through,” she
said. “But they also learned
from us about our tradition,
our first foods. I think it was
a good day for all of us.”
Red Elk remembered
when Mariah Watchman, an
enrolled member, competed
on American’s Next Top
Model in 2012, and the Tribes
organized watch parties. The
pandemic meant there will
be no watch parties, but Red
Elk was still excited to see
the result.
“It’s really exciting to
watch it,” she said in an
interview before the episode
aired. “We’re going to tell
a little bit about where our
foods are coming from and
highlight the Tribes.”
Fires: State warns of another busy fire season
Continued from Page A1
he’s worried there could be
an earlier start to fire season.
“It could be a busy year,”
he said. “And that’s what
they’re forecasting at the
state level — that this could
be another busy year.”
Conditions rival driest
on record
The fires come as some
areas of Umatilla County
report conditions that rival
the driest on record.
The month of March was
the sixth driest on record in
Pendleton and the second
driest in Hermiston. And
in April, conditions hardly
improved, with Pendleton
reporting the seventh driest
month on record and Herm-
iston the third driest, accord-
ing to the National Weather
Service in Pendleton.
Since October 2020,
precipitation in both Umatilla
and Morrow counties have
been reported “well below
normal,” according to Mari-
lyn Lohman, a hydrologist
with the National Weather
Service in Pendleton.
With much of the county
already experiencing some
level of drought, the Umatilla
County Board of Commis-
sioners last month unani-
mously declared a drought
disaster and asked Gov. Kate
Brown to follow suit.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Pendleton firefighters use a hose to mop up a hotspot at a
brush fire near Southeast Nye Avenue on Wednesday, May
5, 2021.
And last week, the
Morrow County Board of
Commissioners declared a
drought and sent a letter to
Brown. The resolution, dated
April 28, stated that half the
county is experiencing severe
drought conditions, while the
rest is either experiencing
moderate drought or abnor-
mally dry conditions.
“There is a potential for
Morrow County agricul-
tural and livestock, natural
resources, recreational and
tourism, and related econ-
omies to experience wide-
spread and severe damage
resulting in extreme weather
conditions in the County,”
the letter stated.
The declarations come
as more than three-fourths
of the state is already in
some stage of drought. The
National Weather Service
Climate Prediction Center
has said drought will likely
continue throughout the
summer in Southern, Central
and Eastern Oregon, as
reported by Oregon Public
Broadcasting on Monday,
May 3.
What residents can do
Fire officials pointed to
several different common
causes for vegetation fires,
including illegal fireworks,
cigarette butts, downed
power lines, controlled burn
piles being kicked up by
the wind, and even vehicles
and lawn mowers moving
through dry grass.
They also noted several
things that residents can do
to prevent fires from sparking
in their communities.
Critchley said it’s import-
ant for homeowners and land-
owners to create a “defensible
space” by “making sure that
grasses or light fuels are
mowed down within 30 feet
of your residence.” In addi-
tion, he advised that home-
owners clear dry leaves out of
roofs and gutters, and move
flammable materials like
wood piles away from their
homes.
Stanton said for his
district, residents should
adhere to burning regulations
and remain “extra cautious
and careful, because it is
extra dry.”
If residents have questions
about how to mitigate the risk
of fires, Critchley advised
they contact their local fire
departments for advice. He
also advised residents to
check the department’s Face-
book page for updates and
guidance.
“Fire is just part of our
lives,” Critchley said. “We
just need to make sure that
it doesn’t injure anybody or
damage property too much.
That’s what we’re trying to
stay in front of.”