NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Senior project targets those in need DOC settles lawsuit
Imbler senior
raising steer,
will donate meat
to food bank
By DICK MASON
The Observer
SUMMERVILLE — The
Northeast Oregon Regional
Food Bank is set to receive a
one-of-a-kind 1,200-pound
bonus thanks to the generos-
ity of an Imbler High School
senior.
Tel McBride is raising a
steer for his senior project
and plans to donate all of the
meat from it to the North-
east Oregon Regional Food
Bank, which is operated by
Community Connection of
Northeast Oregon. McBride
said he wants to make beef
available to those in need
because the price of meat
has gotten so high during
the past year.
Audrey Smith, manager
of the Northeast Oregon
Regional Food Bank, is
delighted about the prospect
of receiving meat from the
steer.
“Beef is our No. 1
requested item,” she said.
Unfortunately, the North-
east Oregon Regional Food
Bank rarely can provide
beef because the cost makes
it prohibitive. Smith said in
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Tel McBride poses with his cattle at a Summerville ranch on
Jan. 17, 2022. He is donating the harvested meat from one of
the steers to Community Connection of Northeast Oregon as
a part of his senior project.
the five years she has been
manager of the Northeast
Oregon Regional Food
Bank, it has been able to
offer beef only a couple of
times.
Smith is McBr ide’s
mentor for his senior project
and said she is impressed
by the steps he has taken
to make sure the meat from
the steer will be able to be
distributed by the food
bank. The Imbler senior is
ensuring the meat process-
ing company is properly
certified so the meat meets
government health standards
for public distribution.
The steer is one of five
McBride is now raising
and among about 30 he has
raised altogether.
McBride started raising
cattle at his family’s home
more than a decade ago. He
stopped for a few years and
then started raising cattle
again in 2017. He said raising
cattle is a process of perpet-
ual discovery.
“It is fun. Everyday I
learn something new about
them,” he said.
McBride, whose mother,
Susy, works for Community
Connection of Northeast
Oregon, added cattle can be
unpredictable.
“They keep you guess-
ing,” he said.
McBride said when cattle
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
| Go to AccuWeather.com
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
make up their mind to do
something they are hard to
stop.
“If they want to go some-
where they will go there,” he
said.
McBride’s interest in
cattle dates back 15 years
when he was visiting a ranch
in North Powder run by
Butch Mascall, who offered
a free calf to him if he could
lasso the animal with a rope.
“I lassoed it on my first
try,” McBride said.
McBride’s family took
the calf home and proceeded
to help raise it. McBride
went on to raise more cattle,
while receiving guidance
from Mascall and former La
Grande Police Chief John
Courtney.
McBride plans to sell off
his cattle after graduating
from high school so he can
have a chance to attend a
school in Hermiston for rail-
road conducting. After grad-
uating from there he plans to
pursue a career in the rail-
road field.
He will be following the
lead of his father, Kevin,
who works for Union Pacific
Railroad.
McBride said that he will
likely return someday after
high school to again raise
cattle at some level because
it is in his blood.
“It is something I really
enjoy,” he said.
with the former
diversity manager
By NOELLE
CROMBIE
The Oregonian
SALEM — The Oregon
Department of Correc-
tions has paid $350,000
to a former manager who
alleged the department
eliminated his job after he
helped prisoners and work-
ers pursue discrimination
claims against the agency.
Gary Sims of Salem
managed the Department
of Corrections’ diversity
and inclusion office. He
previously worked as a reli-
gious services administra-
tor and a human resources
manager.
In 2013, he became head
of agency’s Diversity and
Inclusion Office, where
he said he was expected
to address racial dispari-
ties among other inequities
within the prison system.
In his 2019 lawsuit,
he said the office was
intended to provide work-
ers and prisoners with “an
avenue to internally raise
concerns of discrimina-
tion and to correct those
disparities.”
According to his lawsuit,
Sims “went beyond simply
shuttling employee and
inmate complaints of
discrimination” through
the prison bureaucracy.
He claimed he helped staff
and inmates advance those
claims and advocated on
their behalf.
He alleges his efforts
didn’t go over well with
cor rections brass —
including Director Colette
Peters, who in 2017, he
said, told him “in no uncer-
tain terms to cease” his
advocacy and reminded
him his job was to forward
complaints to human
resources.
Later that year, he said
he was told the Diversity
and Inclusion Office would
be closed and those duties
would be taken on by
another division. He said
the decision was prompted
by budget concerns. Sims
alleges a human resources
manager told him he had
“nothing coming” from
the agency and he should
look elsewhere for work.
Sims, who works as a
supervisor for spiritual
care at Salem Hospital and
clinics, said his salary at
the time he left was about
$125,000.
Cross-county commuters account for
more than a third of regional workforce
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
Freezing fog this
morning
Partly sunny with
freezing fog
Freezing fog in the
morning
Cold with clouds
and sun
Mostly cloudy and
chilly
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
36° 24°
35° 20°
36° 18°
42° 31°
35° 20°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
38° 27°
38° 23°
37° 20°
42° 30°
35° 21°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
50/32
36/25
36/21
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
35/24
Lewiston
47/28
35/25
Astoria
52/35
Pullman
Yakima 31/22
47/31
41/28
Portland
Hermiston
49/30
The Dalles 38/27
Salem
Corvallis
47/28
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
37/25
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
47/29
51/25
42/24
Ontario
35/25
Caldwell
Burns
33°
31°
44°
29°
63° (1935) -16° (1949)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
47/26
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
58/27
0.00"
0.89"
0.90"
0.89"
0.46"
0.90"
WINDS (in mph)
37/28
37/16
0.00"
1.47"
1.21"
1.47"
0.67"
1.21"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 36/18
50/28
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
36/24
41/29
31°
29°
43°
29°
71° (1935) -15° (1930)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
44/28
Aberdeen
31/23
31/21
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
45/33
Today
Wed.
NNE 3-6
N 4-8
NE 4-8
NNW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
48/17
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:24 a.m.
4:51 p.m.
12:25 a.m.
11:08 a.m.
Last
New
First
Full
Jan 25
Jan 31
Feb 8
Feb 16
SALEM — More than
a third of Eastern Oregon’s
workforce commuted across
county lines for their jobs in
2019, according to federal
census data.
In some areas, that
percentage is even higher.
“Its a product of the econ-
omy,” said Christopher Rich,
regional economist with the
Oregon Employment Depart-
ment, “and places people are
and the jobs that are available,
and the housing market that’s
available.”
Roughly 38.5% of Union
County residents commute
for work in a different county,
while 41% of Grant County
residents commute for work.
In Umatilla County, 35.8%
of residents commute across
county lines for work, while
24.4% of Wallowa residents
commuted to other counties
for work.
A staggering 58.7% of
Morrow County residents
worked in other counties,
according to the data.
Rich said the data does not
distinguish between commut-
East Oregonian, File
Late afternoon traffic begins to get heavy on Highway 395
on June 26, 2018, in Hermiston. Data from the Oregon Em-
ployment Department shows more than a third of Eastern
Oregon’s workforce commuted across county lines for their
jobs in 2019.
ers who travel between coun-
ties on a daily basis and those
who might travel for seasonal
work, such as nurses or wild-
land firefighters.
“There’s likely to be some
more long term commut-
ers that come in for maybe a
season,” Rich said. “The data
doesn’t specifically say that.”
Most of the workers who
cross county lines do so to
neighboring counties, though
a fair few will skip more than
one county, such as living in
Baker and working in Pend-
leton, but that could be due to
imperfect data, according to
Rich, who has been updating
articles on Oregon’s economic
data website, qualityinfo.org
with data from 2019.
“I think in general, people
are looking for jobs that fit
with their skill sets and their
lifestyle,” Rich said. “They’re
also looking for homes that fit
the same thing, so in some
cases, you end up having to
commute a little longer.”
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 80° in Palm Springs, Calif. Low -32° in Clayton Lake, Maine
IN BRIEF
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Wallowa County population
continues slow increase
WALLOWA COUNTY — Wallowa Coun-
ty’s population had a growth rate during 2021
that put it in the middle third of the state’s coun-
ties, according to a Portland State University
report.
The state’s population increased by .54% to
4,266,560, PSU’s Population Research Center
showed. Eastern Oregon counties, including
Wallowa, had a combined increase of .45%.
The eight counties — Baker, Grant, Harney,
Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, Union and
Wallowa — had a combined population as of
July 1, 2021, of 190,444.
In Wallowa County, the increase was .43%,
or 32 people, to a total of 7,433. Its growth rate
was fifth among the eight counties, and overall
was 22nd in the state.
Neighboring Union County had the lowest
growth rate in the state, as it actually saw a
population drop of 1.62%, or 434 people.
By city, Enterprise has a population of
2,080. Joseph’s population has moved to 1,158,
and Wallowa is at 799. Lostine, the only other
city named in the study, has a population of 242.
The breakdown by age shows the county
with 1,406 youths under the age of 18, which
makes up 18.9% of the population. Adults
18-64 account for just more than half (50.2%)
of the population, or 3,730 people. And adults
65 and older make up 30.9% of the population,
or 2,297 people.
The county has the fourth highest rate of
individuals 65 and older, and is tied for 25th in
terms of its youth population.
— EO Media Group
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
E AST O REGONIAN
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