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Former Capitol watchdog sues Oregon for $1.2 million

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Former Capitol watchdog sues Oregon for .2 million


As he threatened late final yr, the person who served as Oregon’s legislative fairness officer for 2 months in 2021 has filed a whistleblower lawsuit in opposition to the state of Oregon, saying he was pushed out of the job after reporting severe issues in his workplace and within the higher ranks of legislative administration.

The go well with paints a detrimental portrait of former Home Speaker Tina Kotek, now a number one candidate for governor, in addition to many others in energy on the Capitol, significantly legislative human assets chief Jessica Knieling.

Knieling mentioned Monday she couldn’t remark as a result of pending lawsuit.

Katie Wertheimer, spokesperson for the Kotek marketing campaign, mentioned, “Tina strongly believes the state Capitol needs to be a secure and welcoming surroundings for everybody.” Kotek declined to deal with the lawsuit straight, nonetheless, saying she doesn’t touch upon pending litigation.

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Nate Monson, who held the office watchdog job from April to June of 2021, filed the go well with in Marion County Circuit Court docket Monday. Attorneys Michael Fuller and Kim Sordyl signify him.

The place of legislative fairness officer, the top of a one-person workplace in control of investigating complaints of office harassment on the Capitol, was created within the wake of a damning 2019 report by the state Labor Bureau.

The company’s five-month investigation concluded that essentially the most highly effective lawmakers and directors within the Capitol mishandled, downplayed and ignored allegations of sexual harassment, together with inappropriate touching, sexually suggestive language and the lopsided energy dynamics that enabled the conduct.

Monson, employed after a nationwide search to be the workplace’s first everlasting fairness officer, says within the go well with that as quickly as he arrived in Salem, he reported considerations concerning the workplace’s shoddy operations previous to his arrival: no information, unpaid authorized payments, unreturned cellphone calls and allegations of harassment that had gone uninvestigated.

In his go well with, he additionally stories an environment of infighting, backstabbing, name-calling and the like. He attributes statements to his predecessor, appearing fairness officer Jackie Sandmeyer, Knieling, Kotek and others laced with f-bombs or accusing others of psychological instability or each.

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A sampling from the go well with: “Sandmeyer mentioned Rep. Dan Bonham filed a grievance in opposition to Rep. Kotek for telling him to ‘get the f*** out of my workplace.’ Sandmeyer didn’t take motion on the grievance. On Mr. Monson’s first day of labor, Sandmeyer advised him that Knieling is ‘loopy, evil, controlling and transphobic.’ Regardless of her function and place, Sandmeyer didn’t examine complaints in opposition to Knieling. On Mr. Monson’s third day, Knieling advised him that she cries most nights as a result of Sandmeyer bullies her.”

Monson, within the lawsuit, says that his good religion complaints about misconduct, conveyed to Kotek and to Senate President Peter Courtney primarily by way of Knieling, weren’t acted upon. Slightly, he was accused of falsifying data on his resume and, with out being given a possibility to rebut the accusation, was pressured out, the lawsuit says.

Monson says that Rep. Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, a co-chair of the Joint Committee on Conduct, performed a task in his firing. The lawsuit says Fahey advised Monson “he wouldn’t be capable of get well from Knieling’s allegations of resume discrepancies,” and that Fahey “reminded him that she had advised him early on that the LEO place was a nasty job and the place is ‘loopy.’”

The committee subsequently emailed what Monson mentioned ought to have been non-public personnel data relating to him to Capitol workers and the press, together with a write-up “attacking his character.”

Knieling then withheld his closing paycheck and solely gave it to him after he filed a proper grievance with the state labor bureau, the go well with says.

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The go well with seeks a minimum of $1.2 million in financial and compensatory damages.

The Conduct Committee has been recruiting candidates to turn into the subsequent legislative fairness officer for almost a yr and is now “partaking an out of doors agency” to help with the search, Knieling mentioned Monday. Within the meantime, two legislation companies, Stoel Rives and Jackson Lewis, are serving as appearing legislative fairness officers, she mentioned.

— Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol



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Sanctuary state Oregon rolls out program to help illegal migrants thwart ICE: ‘Do not open the door’

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Sanctuary state Oregon rolls out program to help illegal migrants thwart ICE: ‘Do not open the door’


The lefty attorney general of Oregon has rolled out a new program to help illegal migrants in the sanctuary state thwart ICE ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s promised mass deportations.

Ellen Rosenblum’s recent new guide, titled the “Sanctuary Promise Community Toolkit,” offers advice to illegal immigrants on what to say and do if ICE or other immigration authorities show up.

For the question, “How do I prepare myself and my family for encounters with ICE?” the answer includes legal guidance from the American Civil Liberties Union: “do not open the door, ask to see a warrant signed by a judge, tell them you do not consent to them being at your home and tell them please leave.”

Incoming border czar Tom Homan speaks to Texas law enforcement deployed to the southern border. The Washington Post via Getty Images

In answer to the question, “Is there a place I can call to report ICE or other federal immigration authorities active right now in my community?” the Oregon Department of Justice lists contact information for local nonprofits that work to warn migrants about federal operations.

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There are also multiple sections on how to report anyone who is suspected of violating Oregon’s sanctuary law and working with federal immigration authorities.

One section advises locals that they can sue any state or local agency that they suspect of violating sanctuary law.

However, the “Sanctuary Promise” guide admits that state laws can only do so much: “The outcome of a state investigation or a private civil suit does not change a deportation order, or any other decision/action by the federal courts or federal immigration authority to prosecute or remove a person from the United States.”

“Every person has the right to live, work, play, and learn safely in Oregon, period,” said Rosenblum in a statement. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

“Every person has the right to live, work, play, and learn safely in Oregon, period,” said Rosenblum when her office released the anti-ICE info.

“I asked my Civil Rights Unit here at the Oregon DOJ to do whatever we could to provide the people, businesses, and local governments of our state with easy-to-read materials to help them know their rights and educate others, and I’m so pleased with what they’ve put together,” she added.

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A woman holds a sign that reads “ICE stop hunting people” against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Getty Images

The Beaver State’s top cop said she recommends illegal migrants begin talking with family members to better “understand what protections Oregon’s sanctuary laws provide and what they do not provide, and make a plan for what to do if immigration officials come to your home or place of business.”

“Knowing your rights in advance is essential!” added Rosenblum.

Oregon became the nation’s first sanctuary state in 1987. And in recent years, the state has taken steps to enhance its crackdown on those who violate its sanctuary laws, including with the passage of the Sanctuary Promise Act in 2021 which opened a hotline for residents to report violators.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan recently The Post that the once and future president may increase the pressure on sanctuary leaders’ efforts to thwart ICE as it works to lock up and deport illegal migrant criminals.

“I’m hoping the president files a lawsuit against them and withholds federal funding,” said Homan.

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However, if that doesn’t work, “then we’ll wait til they get out of jail, then we’ll go out into the neighborhoods and get them,” said Homan.

He added: “If they’re not willing to do it then get out of the way — we’re coming.”



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A Tale of Two Trails: Sharing Indigenous stories from eastern Oregon

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A Tale of Two Trails: Sharing Indigenous stories from eastern Oregon


BAKER CITY — Coyote, the storyteller, has taken up residence at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City. And he’s using his voice to share a side of history sometimes forgotten.

The 23,000 square-foot facility, operated by the Bureau of Land Management, opened a new Native American exhibit at the end of October.

The displays include a gallery dedicated to the history, culture and languages of the tribes who have inhabited the land along the Oregon Trail for thousands of generations prior to the mass European American migration that began in the early 1840s.

In the language of the Umatilla Tribe, Coyote’s name is spilyáy. His role at the center is to teach visitors the Oregon Trail story from the Native American perspective.

“Great change is coming!” spilyáy proclaims in colorful signs along the center’s main gallery, lined with life-sized dioramas of settler men, women and children, covered wagons, oxen, sheep, horses, Native American men and a howling coyote.

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“I see the storm of your future,” he warns. “The ŝuyápuma (European Americans) will come in greater numbers than in any season past. Their need will be unquenchable. Their wagons bring wonders and comforts, but their ways are not your ways; their friendship brings pain. They are wildfire, consuming the land and all I have prepared.

“Are you listening?”

Coyote’s narrative adds to numerous Native American exhibits already woven throughout the center, including a diorama depicting the importance of trade among settlers and Native Americans, and a display describing contact and confrontation on the frontier, often a result of cultural differences, lack of communication and government inaction.

Baker City resident John Bearinside was one of the first visitors to see the new exhibit at the Interpretive Center and related the plight of the Umatilla, Cayuse, Walla Walla and Nez Perce —who were moved to reservations through the Treaty of 1855 — to that of his own ancestors.

A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and Apache, Bearinside grew up on the Choctaw Reservation. His great-great-great grandparents were removed from their homeland in Mississippi and forced to relocate to a reservation in Oklahoma.

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Bearinside, who speaks on Native American culture and history, emphasized that not all written accounts of Native American history are accurate.

“It’s amazing to me how much transpired, but it’s not put into books technically, it’s put into books not realistically, it’s put into books in a way to sell the books—bigger than life,” he explained.

“My grandmother would tell us, ‘Read between the lines, of your history books, of your newspapers, your stories, your wanted posters. You know, when they say he murdered 25 people, he might have murdered two people,’” Bearinside said.

“If a person has a real serious interest and we feel that we can trust them, only then can we tell them our stories.”

The stories of many diverse groups of people whose lives were forever altered by the Oregon Trail are told through photos, films, artifacts and quotations at the Interpretive Center.

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The idea for an Oregon Trail museum began as part of former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt’s “Oregon Comeback” plan following the 1980s recession, said Dave Hunsaker, the Interpretive Center’s original project manager and its first director.

Planning was tied in with construction of several other cultural centers: The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Oregon City, the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center in The Dalles, Tamástslikt Cultural Institute on the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton and the Four Rivers Cultural Center and Museum in Ontario. Each of those centers focused on the way the Oregon Trail affected their region, Hunsaker noted.

“We’re the one that really focused broadly on the Oregon Trail itself,” he said.

The Baker City facility was the first to open, in May 1992, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation blessed the building at its grand opening. The original plan focused on six themes, Hunsaker said, one of which was Native Americans, with the goal of expanding that theme later, after Tamástslikt was up and running.

The seed for developing the new Native American exhibit was planted in 2015, said Bobby Reis, curator of collections and exhibitions at the Interpretive Center, but development was delayed due to renovation work and COVID-19. Bobbie Conner, director of Tamástslikt Cultural Institute, was involved in the early planning stages. Tamástslikt opened in 1998 and is the only Native American museum directly on the Oregon Trail, focusing in detail how settlers’ arrival caused diseases, wars, broken treaties and attempts at assimilation, including boarding schools.

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The new displays at the Interpretive Center are a permanent addition and are viewable year-round.

Read more: Tamástslikt museum shows Oregon history through a Native American lens

The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center’s winter hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday; 22267 Hwy. 86, Baker City; free admission in December; Jan. 2-March 31, $5 for 16 and older, $4 for seniors, good for two days with receipt; blm.gov/learn/interpretive-centers/national-historic-oregon-trail-interpretive-center

Another exhibit making the rounds through Oregon highlights the history and resilience of the Wallowa Band Nez Perce, or nimiipuu.

Titled “Nez Perce in Oregon: Removal and Return,” the traveling exhibit was created by the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph through a grant from the Oregon State Capitol Foundation, said Rich Wandschneider, director of the Josephy Library of Western History and Culture and a Wallowa County historian. Currently on display at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, the exhibit will move in mid-January to Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton before finding a home at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem next September.

Wandschneider consulted with Nez Perce tribal elders in developing displays that interpret the history of the Wallowa Band Nez Perce and how the lives of its people, who had lived in the Wallowa Valley from time immemorial, were changed irrevocably by the arrival of European American explorers, fur traders, missionaries, gold miners and settlers.

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The exhibit discusses settlement and conflict in the Wallowa Valley, starting with the wave of Oregon Trail settlers who edged ever-nearer to Nez Perce territory in the 1860s. Old Chief Joseph constructed stone monuments to keep them out, but after his death in 1871, settlers began flooding in. Although the Nez Perce were friendly toward the newcomers, tensions grew between them.

As the exhibit explains, treaties are part of “The supreme Law of the Land,” according to the U.S. Constitution. In 1877, Young Chief Joseph was forced to comply with the Nez Perce Treaty of 1863—although his father had refused to sign it—and lead his people out of the Wallowa Valley to a reservation in Lapwai, Idaho Territory.

On the way to Lapwai, overwhelming emotions sparked a young Nez Perce man, whose father had been murdered by a settler, to lead a deadly revenge attack on Idaho Territory settlers, and according to the exhibit, “the Nez Perce War was on.”

The fighting retreat sent some 800 Nez Perce people on a nearly 1,200-mile journey across four states, with the U.S. Army close behind. Just 40 miles from the Canadian border, with his people cold, exhausted and starving and most of his chiefs killed in some 13 battles and skirmishes, Chief Joseph surrendered. He and most of his tribe were exiled to Kansas and Oklahoma, and finally sent to the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, while Chief White Bird and 200 others escaped to Canada.

Charlie Moses, 88, who grew up on the Colville reservation in Nespelem, Wash., and now lives in Vancouver, has close ties to the Nez Perce War. His grandfather and great-grandfather both fought in the war, and his great-uncle was killed at the bloody Battle of the Big Hole.

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“My tribe really is the White Bird,” Moses said, “but after we came back from Oklahoma, my grandfather, Black Eagle, followed Joseph to Nespelem.”

Moses, who retired following a 30-year career with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, has spent much of his time speaking about his family lineage and history in the Nez Perce War, providing that information to the Josephy Center, which created the new exhibit. He’s been involved with the Wallowa Homeland Project since the 1990s and makes regular journeys to Wallowa County to participate in the Tamkaliks Celebration and the Chief Joseph Days Rodeo.

Chief Joseph remained an activist for his people until his death in 1904, and although never allowed to go back to his Wallowa Homeland, he made several trips to Washington, D.C., to plead for his people’s return. In 1879, he summarized his thoughts on the relationship between Native Americans and European Americans:

“Whenever the white man treats an Indian as they treat each other, then we will have no more wars. We shall be alike—brothers of one father and one mother, with one sky above us and one country around us…that all people may be one people.”

“Nez Perce in Oregon: Removal and Return” is viewable 7 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday; Loso Hall, Eastern Oregon University; Sixth Street, La Grande; no admission fee. The exhibit will move to Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton in mid-January and to the Oregon State Capitol in Salem in September; library.josephy.org/the-nez-perce-in-oregon-removal-and-return

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— Kathy Patten, for The Oregonian/OregonLive



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Oregon State MBB Falls To Nebraska In Diamond Head Classic Championship

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Oregon State MBB Falls To Nebraska In Diamond Head Classic Championship


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HONOLULU — — Brice Williams scored 11 of his 25 points in the final six minutes and Nebraska closed on a 6-0 run to beat Oregon State 78-66 on Wednesday night in the championship game of the Diamond Head Classic.

Nebraska claimed its first tournament title since winning the San Juan Shootout in 2000 when the Cornhuskers won three games by a total of four points. Fred Hoiberg also became the first coach to win multiple Diamond Head Classic titles, including his Iowa State squad in 2013.

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After Oregon State tied it at 51-all with 10:20 to go, Nebraska used a 10-2 run to take control as the Beavers went five-plus minutes without a field goal. The Cornhuskers’ lead didn’t drop below four points the rest of the way.

Berke Buyuktuncel banked in a 3-pointer with 1:51 left to extend Nebraska’s lead to 72-63.

Buyuktuncel finished with 16 points and three 3-pointers, and Juwan Gary added 14 for Nebraska (10-2).

Nate Kingz scored 19 points and Damarco Minor added 16 for Oregon State (10-3).

Williams scored 10 points in the first half to help Nebraska take a 34-33 lead at the break. The Cornhuskers shot 50% from the field, including 6 of 11 from 3-point range in the first half.

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It was the second straight year Nebraska and Oregon State met at a neutral site, with last year’s game being played in South Dakota.

Nebraska returns home to play Southern on Monday, when Oregon State hosts Portland.

AP

MORE: TE Jackson Bowers Commits | Beavers Land Duke QB Maalik Murphy | Beavers Land UCF OL Keyon Cox | Beavers Land Nevada OL



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