A2 The BulleTin • Tuesday, sepTemBer 21, 2021
The
Bulletin
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
How to reach us
CIRCULATION
Didn’t receive your paper?
Start or stop subscription?
541-385-5800
PHONE HOURS
COVID-19 data for Monday, Sept. 20
Deschutes County cases: 16,623 (225 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 102 (2 new deaths)
Crook County cases: 2,123 (3 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 38 (1 new death)
Jefferson County cases: 3,137 (32 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 46 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 313,161 (3,359 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 3,594 (25 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at
St. Charles Bend on Monday: 97 (15 in ICU).
The Bulletin had been tracking the seven-day average case
count based on state data since local coronavirus cases were
first reported in March of last year. Starting with the July Fourth
weekend, the state stopped providing county-level data for
weekends or holidays. When data is available, The Bulletin will
continue to publish information about the pandemic.
8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday
7 a.m.-11 a.m. Saturday-Sunday
and holidays
GENERAL
INFORMATION
541-382-1811
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
ONLINE
www.bendbulletin.com
EMAIL
Kotek cancels redistricting deal with GOP
Republicans cry foul,
call rescinding deal
an egregious move
bulletin@bendbulletin.com
AFTER HOURS
Newsroom ................................541-383-0348
Circulation ................................541-385-5800
NEWSROOM EMAIL
Business ........business@bendbulletin.com
City Desk .............news@bendbulletin.com
Features..................................................................
communitylife@bendbulletin.com
Sports ................. sports@bendbulletin.com
NEWSROOM FAX
541-385-5804
OUR ADDRESS
Street .............. 320 SW Upper Terrace Drive
Suite 200
Bend, OR 97702
Mailing ........... P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
B
ADMINISTRATION
Publisher
Heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
DEPARTMENT HEADS
Advertising
Brian Naplachowski .................541-383-0370
Circulation/Operations
Jeremy Feldman ......................541-617-7830
Finance
Anthony Georger ....................541-383-0324
Human Resources ................541-383-0340
TALK TO AN EDITOR
City Julie Johnson ...................541-383-0367
Business, Features, GO! Magazine
Jody Lawrence-Turner ............541-383-0308
Editorials Richard Coe ...........541-383-0353
News Tim Doran .......................541-383-0360
Photos .........................................541-383-0366
Sports Mark Morical ...............541-383-0318
BY SARA CLINE
Associated Press/Report for America
The Democratic speaker of
the Oregon House on Monday
rescinded a deal she made with
Republicans to share power
as lawmakers redraw political
boundaries and add an addi-
tional U.S. House seat for the
state.
The now-defunct agree-
ment made earlier this year
had drawn national attention
because Democrats, who have
overwhelming majorities in the
Legislature, had agreed to give
up that redistricting advantage
as they determine how voters
will pick state representatives,
state senators and members of
Congress for the next five elec-
tion cycles.
Oregon lawmakers re-
turned to the state Capitol on
Monday for a special session
to tackle the once-a-decade
task of redistricting, which
will determine how voters
pick state representatives,
state senators and members
of Congress for the next five
election cycles.
House Speaker Tina Kotek’s
about-face means her Dem-
ocratic Party will likely end
up with five U.S. House seats
to the GOP’s one. Currently,
Democrats control four of the
five House seats in Oregon.
Republican lawmakers ac-
cused Democrats of gerryman-
dering — the manipulation of
Andrew Selsky/AP
A handful of senators talk on the floor of the Oregon Senate on Monday as the Legislature conducted a spe-
cial session to consider redistricting. The aim of the session is to pass new legislative and congressional dis-
trict maps which the state will use for elections.
“What has just occurred is shameful and lacks integrity. It
shows the lack of ability to keep your word.”
— Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford
electoral district boundaries to
win an unfair political advan-
tage.
“What has just occurred is
shameful and lacks integrity,”
Rep. David Brock Smith, a Re-
publican, said on the House
floor. “It shows the lack of abil-
ity to keep your word.”
Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis,
who is now the sole Republi-
can on the three-person House
congressional redistricting
committee that is trying to cre-
ate and vote on the new map
— described Kotek’s decision
as “egregious.”
“The maps that we are look-
ing at are unfair, and the only
way they are going through is
by cheating,” Boshart said.
In a statement Kotek said
she was “disappointed that
after many months of work,
House Republicans did not
engage constructively despite
many attempts to address their
concerns” and lead to her deci-
sion to void the standing deal.
In April during the 2021 leg-
islative session Kotek made the
deal with Republicans that in
exchange for the GOP to stop
blocking bills with delaying
tactics Kotek would evenly split
the House Redistricting Com-
mittee — essentially granting
veto power to the GOP.
The deal gave Republicans
a weightier say over what the
six congressional districts and
the state’s 90 legislative districts
will look like.
The Senate on Monday
passed the Democrats’ con-
gressional redistricting bill by
a vote of 18-11. The House is
scheduled to reconvene Tues-
day morning.
It’s unclear whether Kotek’s
maneuver will work. Republi-
cans could react to the breach
of the earlier deal by walking
away from the Capitol to deny
Democrats a quorum.
The Democrats’ map pro-
poses that new congressional
District 6 should be south of
Portland and west of Interstate
5. Republicans also put it south
of Portland, but on the east
side of the interstate.
If maps are not passed
during the session, Democrats
have retained a backstop —
specifically when it comes to
legislative districts. If lawmak-
ers fail to successfully pass new
legislative boundaries by Sept.
27, the task will fall to Secre-
tary of State Shemia Fagan, a
progressive Democrat who few
Republicans would want to see
in charge of that process.
Furthermore, if lawmakers
fail to come to an agreement
on new U.S. House districts by
late September, then it would
be settled by a five-judge panel.
Lawmakers have succeeded
in passing redistricting plans
just twice since 1911.
Democrats in various states
— including Colorado, Vir-
ginia and Oregon — have ar-
gued that the redistricting pro-
cess should not be a partisan
brawl. Some lawmakers have
pushed for independent com-
missions to do the work of re-
balancing population changes
into congressional districts
and others have formed evenly
split committees made of law-
makers.
TALK TO A REPORTER
Bend/Deschutes Government
Brenna Visser .............................541-633-2160
Business
Suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117
Calendar .....................................541-383-0304
Crook County ..........................541-617-7829
Deschutes County ................541-617-7818
Education
Nicole Bales ...................................541-617-7854
Fine Arts/Features
David Jasper .................................541-383-0349
General Assignment
Kyle Spurr ...................................541-617-7820
Health
Suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117
Jefferson County ..................541-617-7829
La Pine ........................................541-383-0367
Public Lands/Environment
Michael Kohn ............................541-617-7818
Public Safety
Garrett Andrews ......................541-383-0325
Redmond
Nicole Bales ...................................541-617-7854
Salem/State Government .. 541-617-7829
Sisters .........................................541-383-0367
Sunriver .....................................541-383-0367
REDMOND BUREAU
Mailing address ..................P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829
CORRECTIONS
The Bulletin’s primary concern is that all
stories are accurate. If you know of an
error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367.
TO SUBSCRIBE
Call us ......................541-385-5800
• Home delivery
and E-Edition ..........................$7 per week
• By mail .................................$9.50 per week
• E-Edition only ...................$4.50 per week
To sign up for our e-Editions, visit
www.bendbulletin.com to register.
Newberg school employee goes
to work in blackface, put on leave
The Associated Press
An employee at a school
outside Portland went to work
in blackface last week and has
been placed on administrative
leave, according to a message
from the district.
KTVL-TV reports the
Newberg School District
wrote, “It is important to re-
member how Blackface has
been used to misrepresent
Black communities and do
harm. We acknowledge the
violence this represents and
the trauma it evokes regard-
less of intention.”
The school board has
scheduled a special meet-
ing Wednesday night to take
public comment on its “re-
cent actions, tabled motions,
and upcoming decisions that
may include the ban on polit-
ical or controversial displays,
changes to the Anti-Racism
Resolution 2020-04 language.”
In August the school board
People
protest on
Aug. 24
a school
policy that
bans Black
Lives Mat-
ter and
Pride flags
across
Newberg
School Dis-
trict.
Jozie
Donaghey/AP
voted to ban pride flags, flags
reading Black Lives Matter
and any broadly “political”
signs, clothing, and other
items. Supporters of the ban
said the signs were “divisive,”
and that signs don’t make
people feel safe.
The action went against re-
cent state efforts to highlight
support for students, includ-
ing the Oregon Department
of Education’s Black Lives
Matter October 2020 resolu-
tion and recent efforts to help
LGBTQ+ students.
The Department of Edu-
cation, the city of Newberg,
the American Civil Liber-
ties Union, some lawmakers
and others have called for the
board to reverse course.
STATE BRIEFING
$1M will fund more mental tervention services with this
major investment from Med-
health response teams
The Biden administration
announced Monday that Or-
egon will receive nearly $1
million of the $15 million
earmarked under the Amer-
ican Rescue Plan to help
launch nonpolice response
teams to respond to people
experiencing mental health
crises outdoors.
The national effort is spe-
cifically aimed at helping
expanded programs like the
one in Eugene, known as Co-
hoots, run by the nonprofit
White Bird Clinic.
“This grant will kick-start
the effort to help those ex-
periencing a mental health
crisis in Oregon get the ser-
vices they need and reduce
the prospect of an encounter
with law enforcement,” Or-
egon’s U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
said in a statement. “I’m op-
timistic that next year com-
munities around our state
and country will be able to
implement mobile crisis in-
icaid.”
Instead of sending police
to mental health or sub-
stance use emergencies,
the programs are intended
to send trained behavioral
health workers. The plan-
ning grants will pay for the
development of crisis inter-
vention teams. The fund-
ing is not long-term but is
intended to help build out
the infrastructure and train-
ing needed to launch these
teams.
The money can be used
to assess Oregon’s current
service structure, provide
behavioral health training,
seek technical assistance and
to build out the capacity of
information systems. The
$952,951 that Oregon is set
to receive will go directly to
the Oregon Health Authority
for planning to build a state-
wide mobile crisis program,
said Hank Stern, Wyden’s
spokesperson.
— The Oregonian
TO PLACE AN AD
Classified ......................................541-385-5809
Advertising fax ..........................541-385-5802
Other information ....................541-382-1811
OBITUARIES
No death notices or obituaries are
published Mondays. When submitting,
please include your name, address
and contact number. Call to ask about
deadlines, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Phone ..........................................541-385-5809
Fax .................................................541-598-3150
Email .......................obits@bendbulletin.com
$10 GIFT CARD
GET A
WHEN YOU CONVERT TO EZ PAY
$10
OTHER SERVICES
Back issues ................................541-385-5800
Photo reprints .........................541-383-0366
Apply for a job ........................541-383-0340
All Bulletin payments are accepted at the
drop box at City Hall or at The Bulletin,
P.O. Box 6020, Bend, OR 97708. Check
payments may be converted to an
electronic funds transfer. The Bulletin,
USPS #552-520, is published daily by
Central Oregon Media Group, 320 SW
Upper Terrace Drive, Bend, OR 97702.
Periodicals postage paid at Bend, OR.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The
Bulletin circulation department, P.O. Box
6020, Bend, OR 97708. The Bulletin retains
ownership and copyright protection of
all staff-prepared news copy, advertising
copy and news or ad illustrations. They
may not be reproduced without explicit
prior approval.
SAVE TIME. SAVE MONEY.
It’s FREE to enroll in EZ Pay, and it’s the most convenient
way to pay your subscription bill for The Bulletin. Automatic
renewal payments are drafted from your credit card.
No checks. No postage. No worries!
ACT NOW - THIS IS A
LIMITED TIME OFFER!
CALL NOW!
541-385-5800
Mention Code CALUSA10 to get your $10 gift card!
The listed merchants are in no way affi liated with The Bulletin
nor are the listed merchants considered sponsors or co-
sponsors of this program. Uses of merchant names and/or
logos are by permission of each respective merchant and all
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Terms
and conditions are applied to gift cards/ certifi cates. Please
see the merchant gift card/ certifi cate for additional terms and
conditions, which are subject to change at merchant’s sole
discretion. Merchants are not liable for any actual or alleged
claims related to this offer. Please call 541-385-5800 should
you have questions. All logos are registered trademarks. All
rights reserved. Must be 18 years or older to participate.
Other restrictions may apply.