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Page 8 l is May 13-15
Draft on Roe v. Wade draws predictable reactions
By WYATT TEGGINS
East Oregonian
UMATILLA COUNTY —
The leaked draft of the Supreme
Court’s majority opinion to over-
turn the landmark Roe v. Wade case
is bright-lining the diff erences on
the two sides of the debate from the
halls of Congress down to the local
level.
The political jou r nalism
company Politico on Monday, May
2, published the 98-page fi rst draft
on its website. In the draft, Justice
Samuel Alito stood in opposition
to the 1973 ruling, commenting
WALLOWA COUNTY
ODFW
approves
killing two
wolves
it, “Imposed a highly restrictive
regime on states.” Later he stated,
“The Constitution makes no refer-
ence to abortion.”
Oregon Executive Director of
Planned Parenthood Advocates,
An Do, stood in direct opposition
to this claim in a press conference
Tuesday, May 3.
“This is about what we care
about,” she said. “It’s about the
right to privacy, the right to marry
who you want.” Do portrayed the
dismissal of Roe v. Wade was open-
ing the fl oodgates to attacking civil
rights.
If passed, it will be in the hands
of each individual state to address
what restrictions they place on abor-
tion. While Oregon most likely will
stay pro-abortion, Planned Parent-
hood is looking to expand into
Ontario, anticipating a mass surge
of patients across the Idaho border.
In a press conference, Lisa
Gardener, CEO of Planned Parent-
hood in Southwestern Oregon,
made it clear that expansion into
Eastern Oregon is imminent, but
how soon is unknown.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little has made
several attempts to pass fetal heart-
beat laws that would make it virtu-
ally impossible for abortions to
occur in the state. Planned Parent-
hood brought a lawsuit to the Idaho
Supreme Court, temporarily block-
ing the bill before it could take eff ect
in April.
Little in a letter to the Idaho
Senate acknowledged this was a
likely outcome: “I fear the novel
civil enforcement mechanism will
in short order be proven unconsti-
tutional and unwise.”
Eastern Oregon will be the most
accessible place for Idahoans to
receive care. Planned Parenthood
offi cials made it clear that by doing
so they would be taxing an already
taxed system. Providing a brick-
and-mortar location in Eastern
Oregon would take service provid-
ers that Planned Parenthood doesn’t
have.
Eastern Oregon also has the
most dissent to abortion laws inside
of Oregon.
Father Daniel Maxwell of
the Hermiston Catholic Church
expressed nothing but support to
the possible Supreme Court ruling.
“We Catholics will be over-
joyed because it will make abor-
tion unthinkable by many people,”
he said.
See Reaction, Page A9
Snipping back the chill
Warming systems and a little
luck save Milton-Freewater
orchard from spring frost
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
By EMRY DINMAN
Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
JOSEPH — The Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife has issued a
kill permit for up to two wolves from
the Chesnimnus pack in Wallowa
County.
State wildlife biologists deter-
mined members of the pack were
responsible for two confirmed
attacks on livestock between April 25
and 27 on a public grazing allotment
north of Joseph, resulting in three
dead calves.
ODFW can authorize lethal take
of wolves that prey on livestock after
two confi rmed depredations in nine
months. That is the current standard
for “chronic depredation” in Eastern
Oregon, where wolves were removed
from the state endangered species list
in 2015.
Tom Birkmaier, who ranches
along Crow Creek, said Tuesday,
May 3, he received the kill permit
April 29. He is allowed to take
two Chesnimnus pack wolves in
Dorrance Pasture or Trap Canyon
Pasture, where the kills were
confi rmed.
“I asked for the removal of the
pack,” Birkmaier said. “They issued
me a kill permit for two.”
The kill permit is good through
May 24. He said his latest wolf
attacks were on April 30, when a cow
took wolf bites to protect her calf.
“She saved her calf … she had
two bite marks on her ribs,” he said.
“I walked that cow and her calf
down 7 miles to my ranch and I’m
now taking care of them.”
See Wolves, Page A9
ILTON-FREEWATER — Winter
weather in the middle of April could have
been disastrous for Dana Dibble, admits
the third-generation Milton-Freewater
grower as he inspects his orchards, vine-
yard and U-pick raspberries.
But with the Walla Walla Valley having warmed
up after a series of freezing nights, Dibble thinks
his plants escaped mostly unscathed, due in part to
preparation and good luck.
Dibble is quick to credit a lucky atmospheric
cloud cover with taking the bite out of the unlucky
cold front. A blanket of clouds acted as an insu-
lating layer on several particularly cold nights,
Dibble said, preventing temperatures from drop-
ping dangerously low.
“So, whether I did anything — we got really
lucky,” Dibble said. “We got really lucky. We had a
couple of nights that we should have got wiped out,
but clouds came over, and when the clouds come
over, it can save ya.”
The cold weather early in April was particularly
prolonged, with daily lows in the Walla Walla-area
fl uctuating from 31 to 33 degrees between April 10-16.
But cold weather is a common occurrence for
the region, Dibble said. This is the third year in a
row that a spring frost has threatened his fruit, he
continued, and temperatures at 5 degrees below
zero around New Year’s seem to have hit his apri-
cots hard, which are producing around 25% of their
normal crop.
Even if he has avoided losing fruit to this month’s
frost, he worries that weeks of colder weather
have made pollinators less eff ective, which would
reduce the amount of fruit produced by his apple
and cherry trees.
“There was fairly good pollination weather early
on,” Dibble said. “My plums are probably OK. Early
cherries may be OK.”
M
Photos by Greg Lehman/Walla Walla Union-Bulletin
Top: Dana Dibble looks over some very early cherries in his Milton-Freewater
orchard, April 19, 2022. Above: A bee does the important work of pollination in
Dana Dibble’s cherry orchard, April 19, 2022. The late-blooming Benton varieties
may be hampered by pollinators in a torpor from the unseasonably cold weather,
though the extent of this concern isn’t yet clear.
See Orchard, Page A9
Pendleton job fair beckons workers
Labor shortage
continues to be a
common hurdle
By JOHN TILLMAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — About
40 employers in Pendle-
ton participated in a job fair
Tuesday, May 3, aiming to fi ll
the ranks of their staff s.
Ta m my T hom p s on ,
regional recruiter of driv-
ers for First Student charter
bus rental, was among the
companies and businesses in
the main hall of the Pendle-
ton Convention Center. The
company recently won the
contract to serve the Pendle-
ton School District.
“We really need help,”
Thompson said. “We’re
desperate.
First Student off ers school
bus drivers $21.50 per hour,
depending on experience,
with a $4,000 sign-on bonus
for new hires and $6,000 for
those pre-certifi ed.
The nonprofi t Clearview
Disability Resource Center,
1114 S.W. Frazer Ave., also
was looking for part-time bus
drivers. It transports people
to medical appointments,
both in and out of town, to the
Tri-Cities or Portland.
“We need three drivers,
but they have to pass back-
ground checks,” recruiter
Jeremy Umbarger said.
Pendleton Chamber of
Commerce Executive offi-
cer Cheri Rosenberg and
schools to careers coordi-
nator Patti Hyatt organized
the event. Private companies
and government entities alike
came to the fair.
Rosenberg estimated
that by 4:30 p.m., approxi-
mately 200 people had gone
through the convention
center. She said the employ-
ment situation in Pendleton
is no worse and no better
than anywhere else.
See Workers, Page A9
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
Jeremy Umbarger of Clearview Disability Resource Center,
Pendleton, mans a table at a job fair Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at
the Pendleton Convention Center. Clearview has 10 vans and
off ers nonemergency medical transportation to people on
the Oregon Health Plan. The business faces a common prob-
lem — fi nding enough employees.