Fireworks stands seeing shortages | REGION, A3
E O
AST
145th year, no. 109
REGONIAN
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
$1.50
WINNER OF THE 2020 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD
Bailey’s Bill reaches the finish line after difficult journey
Brown may do
ceremonial signing
with teen who
inspired the law
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
saLeM — With several
strokes of her pen, Gov. Kate
Brown signed Bailey’s Bill
into law.
The bill, named for
Weston-Mcewen High
school student Bailey
Munck, increases penalties
for criminal sexual contact
with an underage victim if
the offender was the victim’s
teacher. Munck, now 17, testi-
fied to the Oregon Senate and
House judiciary committees,
telling of sexual abuse in 2019
during a volleyball road trip
by Andrew DeYoe, an English
teacher and also a scorekeeper
for the volleyball team.
sen. Bill Hansell, R-ath-
ena, who sponsored senate
Bill 649, likely did some
mental handsprings and back-
flips when Brown signed the
legislation Wednesday, June
23. The bill, despite attract-
ing no vigorous objections,
nearly ended up in the place
Munck
Bynum
where bills go to quietly die
when they don’t make it out of
committee.
“We had to be tenacious
in ways we never expected to
move this bill,” Hansell said.
Hansell took a few minutes
to recap the fraught journey
of his bill. First stop for the
proposed legislation was the
Hansell
Prozanski
Oregon Senate’s judiciary
committee, where Chair-
man Floyd Prozanski would
decide whether to schedule the
bill for a hearing. Hansell said
Prozanski, a practicing prose-
cuting attorney, was initially
skeptical about whether such
legislation was needed.
When the bill still wasn’t
scheduled within days of the
deadline, Hansell got worried.
Conversations were had and
eventually the bipartisan bill
got a hearing. On March 25,
Munck testified before the
committee via video chat.
“What is the significant
difference between a teacher
and a coach?” Munck asked
senators during the hearing.
“do coaches somehow carry
more authority than a teacher
might?”
after pleading guilty,
Munck’s abuser spent only
two days in jail and received
five years probation. He did
not have to register as a sex
offender. If he had been her
coach rather than her teacher,
he would have received up to
five years in prison.
The committee voted to
send the bill to the Senate floor
with a do pass recommenda-
tion. But it wasn’t a slam dunk.
Three Republican senators on
the committee, sen. dallas
Heard of Myrtle Creek, sen.
dennis Linthicum of Klam-
ath Falls and Kim Thatcher of
Keizer routinely vote against
every bill that comes before
the committee as a way to
express their displeasure about
See Bill, Page A9
Child
center
makes
play for
facilities
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
PendLeTOn — The
COVID-19 pandemic laid bare
the depth of the country’s child
care issues, and the Pendleton
Children’s Center is attempt-
ing to fill the local gap.
The center, a nonprofit,
has spent more than a decade
trying to establish a facility
to help solve Pendleton the
area’s child care crunch. as
the city begins to emerge out
of the pandemic, the children’s
center now is looking toward
Pendleton’s two biggest
educational institutions — the
Pendleton school district and
Blue Mountain Community
College — to help get a start.
Prior surveys from the
district and college have
shown a local demand for
affordable child care, but the
center got extra ammunition
when it distributed its own
survey in January and Febru-
ary 2020.
Of its 322 respondents,
more than 95% agreed there
was a need for more child
care. Four in five survey takers
indicated infant and toddler
care was needed and at least
two-thirds of respondents
wanted more quality, afford-
ability and flexibility out of
Pendleton child care.
Kathryn Brown, the secre-
tary and treasurer of the
children center’s board of
directors, said the need is only
more acute after the onset of
COVId-19.
“The results of the survey
See Facilities, Page A9
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Concertgoers listen as Shooter Jennings takes the stage Saturday, June 26, 2021, at the Happy Canyon Arena in Pendleton for the second
day of the Jackalope Jamboree.
Putting on a show
Jackalope
Jamboree first
major live concert
in Pendleton since
start of pandemic
By BRYCE DOLE
East Oregonian
P
e n dLeTOn —
Hundreds of people
danced and sang to
every flavor of blue-
grass, folk, country
and rock ‘n’ roll during the week-
end in Pendleton while enduring
oppressive heat at the Jackalope
Jamboree.
The two-day music festival at
Happy Canyon Arena tipped off
a summer of festivities as Pendle-
ton’s first major live concert since
the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“It definitely hit hard when
all the things on the calendar
started evaporating,” said Peter
Walters, the event’s co-founder.
“I think the industry really early
on realized we’re the first to get
shut down and will be the last
to come back. I think this feels
like, for everyone involved, from
the security to the staging and
lighting and the merchandise
managers, everybody has this
great feeling that this is the start
of everything coming back — of
live music coming back.”
The festival more than 12
acts on two stages, one behind
the grandstands and one in the
arena. The acts included shane
smith & The saints, The Lone-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Shooter Jennings performs Saturday, June 28, 2021, in the Happy Canyon Arena during Jackalope Jam-
boree. The music festival returned after a hiatus last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
some Billies, Jesse daniel and
headliner shooter Jennings.
For many concertgoers, it
was the first time they had seen
live music in months. several
said it felt freeing to finally be at
a concert again after months of
isolation.
sam Houghton, a former
Pendleton resident who now
lives in Grants Pass, said the
last concert she went to was the
first Jackalope Jamboree in 2019.
Though she said the day involved
some complaining from the swel-
tering heat, she was excited to
finally be back at concerts with
her friends.
“It’s awesome,” said Trina
Wicklander, a Pendleton resi-
dent and a friend of Houghton’s.
“It gives you something to look
forward to enjoying with friends.”
Crista Fisher, a former resident
of athena who lives in Redmond,
said she was glad to see people
in public without their masks on.
“I just love to see these smiling
faces, having a good time,” said
Fisher, who attended the concert
with a friend she met in middle
school decades ago.
no matter how enthusiastic
people were to finally see live
music again, one thing remained
top of mind for most concert-go-
ers — the heat.
See Show, Page A9