From the editor’s desk
Published 10:00 am Sunday, March 12, 2023
- Mike Ellwood accepts the first responder of the year award March 1, 2023, at the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce’s 53rd annual Distinguished Citizens Awards at the Hermiston Community Center.
Let’s talk about the biggest news in Eastern Oregon, maybe the state — The Oregonian’s lengthy feature on how Umatilla police failed to take seriously the report of a predator sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl.
We were alerted to the $27 million lawsuit against Umatilla city and police officials for that when The Oregonian broke it. That’s frustrating for us not to be first, and it presents a community paper with a couple of options.
One, we continue and crank out our own story, although it would be several days, perhaps, before we could publish it, and we would be treading old ground. Two, we ask for permission to run The Oregonian’s story.
We read that story, and it casts a harsh light on the Umatilla Police Department for sure, but reporter Maxine Bernstein also did thorough work, which we supplemented. That story went online Saturday morning at hermistonherald.com and will be in next week’s print edition.
It also is ripe for lots of follow up. We’re already moving on some of those.
But we also have some solid work coming from Hermiston Herald reporter Beau Glynn about Good Shepherd Health Care System ending treatment for a non-binary patient.
In less conflict-driven news, Beau will have a recap of Boardman’s 33rd Distinguished Citizens Award Banquet tomorrow night. And he has a feature for next week on Hermiston School District’s Jerad Farley receiving the administrator of the year award. And if you are interested in chicken coop building, stay tuned.
Andrew Cutler is the publisher of the Hermiston Herald.
