7C — THE OBSERVER
MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2019
2019: YEAR IN REVIEW
The year in design: The Observer’s top front pages
Inside
Oregon FFA receives
state funding for fi rst
time in eight years, 2A
Photo by Ben Lonergan/
EO Media Group
The La Grande
Tigers celebrate
following their win
in Saturday’s title
game. The Tigers de-
feated Banks, 21-0,
for their first football
title since 1974.
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Good day to our valued subscriber Cheryl Hicks of La Grande
C ELEBRATING F REEDOM
Summer
projects
have cities
busy
By Dick Mason
The Observer
TIGERS CLAIM STATE TITLE
■ Former players, coaches, fans and parents celebrate as the Tigers blank Banks to win the school’s first football title in 45 years
By Ronald Bond, The Observer
Inside
LA GRANDE — Neil Cooper said watching the La Grande Tigers in Saturday’s Class 4A state
Complete
coverage of
the La Grande
Tigers’ state
football title
game victory
PAGES 1C-4C
championship game was much more intense than when he coached in a title game 45 years ago. That’s
because his grandson, Payton Cooper, was among the players on the field in Hermiston as the Tigers took on,
and eventually defeated, Banks, 21-0, Saturday night for La Grande’s first state football championship since
See Title / Page 6A
that 1974 team the elder Cooper coached on.
La Grande struggles to help the homeless McNary
Pub, La Grande, in a Nov. 13
email to the city stated the
shelter last year was 50 feet
from his business and that
prompted initial concerns
about the safety of employ-
ees and clientele.
“We had absolutely zero
incidents with this program,”
he wrote. “The staff and vol-
unteers operated this facility
with the utmost profession-
alism and concern.”
Rachel Edvalson, owner of
River Wynn Photography, La
Grande, in a Nov. 14 email
to the city stated, “A com-
munity that takes care of its
vulnerable is a community
that I would be proud to call
my home for many years to
come.”
The permit application
to operate the shelter, the
appeal and the letters are
available online here: www.
cityoflagrande.org/muraProj-
ects/muraLAG/lagcity/index.
cfm/city-offices/community-
development/planning-divi-
sion/union-county-warming-
station-appeal/.
By Dick Mason
and Phil Wright
The Observer
LA GRANDE — His
chapped and reddened
hands trembled as he
grasped the soiled cans and
bottles and stuffed them
one by one into the recycling
machine at the La Grande
Safeway.
He is 27, he said, from La
Grande, went to high school
here but did not make it past
his junior year. He is one of
La Grande’s homeless.
“Basically, I ended up
making some bad financial
choices when I was working,
and I’ve been paying for it
ever since,” he said.
He talked Wednesday
night on condition of ano-
nymity. Even a photo of his
hands would be too much,
he said.
Last winter he holed
up in a friend’s garage, he
said. Three walls and roof
Staff photo by Phil Wright
One of La Grande’s homeless walks Saturday though downtown on Adams Avenue.
The La Grande City Council meets Wednesday night to consider a land use appeal
that prevented the opening of a local warming station, which would provide shelter
for the homeless during winter months.
provided warmth and safety.
But he no longer has that
spot. This year he and many
others, he said, were waiting
for the Union County Warm-
ing Station to open.
“I was honestly planning
on it,” he said. “To hear it
was delayed due to being
appealed — I’m very disap-
pointed.”
COMMUNITY POURS OUT
SUPPORT FOR STATION
The station’s board on Oct.
8 received approval from the
La Grande Planning Com-
mission to operate at 2008
Third St. Ten days later, La
Grande businessman Al
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Wednesday
community agrees. The city
received three letters asking
the council
to side with
Adelsberger
in the wake of
his appeal. But
approximately
60 letters and
Vela
emails, primar-
ily from locals, came in urg-
ing the council to deny the
appeal and allow the shelter
to open.
“We really felt a positive
showing from the commu-
nity,” Vela said.
Bruce Rogers, owner of
Local Harvest Eatery and
Adelsberger appealed the
decision with the support of
several locals. Thursday, he
said the shelter comes with
the highest of stakes.
“When you do something,
you got to do it right,” he
said. “And human life is a
very important issue.”
The La Grande City Coun-
cil takes up the appeal at a
public hearing Wednesday at
6 p.m. at La Grande Middle
School, 1108 Fourth St.
Cody Vela is hopeful the
council denies the appeal.
The chair of the warming
station board, he said the
need is evident and the
PENDLETON SHELTER
SERVES AS EXAMPLE
Some of what is playing
out in La Grande has a pre-
cursor in Pendleton, where
the nonprofit Neighbor 2
Neighbor has operated the
Pendleton Warming Sta-
tion since 2011. The station
hit speed bumps, but it also
helped kickstart the lives of
the less fortunate, protected
homeless from the cold and
avoided major pitfalls, said
By Jessica Pollard
EO Media Group
UMATILLA — Birds
trying to feast on juvenile
salmon at the McNary
Dam are facing a new
deterrent — bright green
lasers.
In the past, the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers
Walla Walla District relied
on a sprinkler system for
bird abatement. Sprinklers
would spray water near
the juvenile bypass outfall
pipe, but some waterfowl
weren’t deterred away from
snacking on the young
salmon. Last spring, the
system was wiped out by
high waters on the river, so
the district invested in its
first laser instead.
“The laser is still con-
sidered a trial effort,” said
USACE Biologist Christo-
pher Peery. “Initial obser-
vations appear promising,
but it is probably not going
to be the solution to all our
salmon predation worries.”
The laser has a range of
around 950 feet to a mile,
weather depending. Its
beam moves in random
patterns, and is meant to
trick birds into believing
a solid object is chasing
them. It fended off birds
See Homeless / Page 5A
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Tuesday
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Issue 143
3 sections, 20 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Union County’s three largest
cities are set to emerge from this
summer with signifi cant upgrades.
The public works staffs of the cit-
ies of La Grande, Elgin and Union
are in the middle of making mean-
ingful infrastructure improvements.
The City of La Grande’s summer
project list includes street improve-
ment work on a stretch of Willow
Street and a portion of Adams
Avenue from Island Avenue to Fir
Street.
The work on Adams Avenue will
include the installation of new side-
walk ramps that will better meet
the standards set by the Americans
with Disabilities Act. The improved
ramps will make the sidewalks
more accessible for those with mo-
bility issues.
Another major project on tap in
La Grande is the construction of a
850-foot sidewalk along H Avenue
from Central Elementary School to
Sunset Drive below Grande Ronde
Hospital. The sidewalk will boost
student safety, said Joe Justice,
chair of the La Grande School
Board.
Justice noted that many students
walk to school on Sunset Drive,
which has sidewalks, before turning
off on to H Avenue, which currently
does not have sidewalks.
The La Grande School District
announced in March that the side-
walk would be built this summer.
La Grande School District Super-
intendent George Mendoza told
The Observer then that the need
for the sidewalk was obvious when
one sees the number of cars parked
along H Avenue after school. The
vehicles of parents picking up their
children parked on H Avenue often
stretch west from Central all the
way to Sunset Drive. This means
children and their parents have had
to walk over ground that is often
wet and spongy or on the street
itself to get to and from Central.
The superintendent also noted the
convenience of a fi ve-foot-wide side-
walk will mean fewer people will be
walking on H Avenue to avoid wet
ground.
The City of La Grande received
federal funds for the project via a
Safe Routes to School grant. School
districts cannot apply for Safe
Routes to School grants but munici-
palities, such as cities and counties,
Photos by Dick Mason, Ellen Morris Bishop and Ronald Bond/EO Media Group
The nation’s 243 birthday was celebrated throughout Union and Wallowa counties Thursday. (Top left) At least 70 entries took part in
the annual Imbler Fourth of July Parade. (Top right) Three-year-old Isabella Jarquin gets her face painted by Cinda Johnston during the
festivities Thursday evening in Union. (Center) The sky was lit up during the annual Shake the Lake fi reworks display at Wallowa Lake.
(Bottom left) Local band AKA performed throughout the evening during Union’s Fourth of July celebration. (Bottom right) Hundreds of
spectators turned out for activities and the fi rework show in Union, which was held at the athletic complex for the second year in a row.
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
A citizen’s concern with fl ooding
at her parents’ home — and the sub-
sequent discussion on how to better
address fl ooding there and in the
town — highlighted a busy Tues-
day night at the Cove City Council
meeting.
Denise Merry addressed the
council to bring up what has been
a persistent issue for her parents,
Bruce and Joyce Coates, who live
on Ash Street in Cove. A city culvert
feeds into a natural stream that cuts
across a small portion of her parents’
property. The stream has fl ooded
several times in the past 16 years,
causing a high level of stress and
expense for her parents, who are
retired, and Merry was seeking an
assessment from the council.
“This particular year (the fl ood-
ing) was so serious...the crawl space
was full of water,” Merry told the
council. “They have had consider-
able stress and expense to deal with
this issue. The same thing happened
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MONDAY
Online at
UNION COUNTY’S HOMELESS STUDENTS lagrandeobserver.com
6A
EOU women
picked as
TO BE HEALTHY AND ON THE FIELD CCC faves
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Sunday
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A settlement has
been reached in a case
regarding an ethics
complaint
fi led in 2017
against the
Union City
Council
by former
Patterson Union City
Administra-
tor Sandra Patterson.
The Oregon Govern-
ment Ethics Commis-
sion has approved a
negotiated settlement
in the case. In 2017,
Patterson filed a com-
plaint in which she al-
leged the Union City
Council violated Or-
egon’s public meetings
law.
Under the terms of
the settlement, Leon-
ard Flint, Union’s may-
or since January 2017,
and the six people who
were members of the
city council in June
2017 received “a letter
of education” from the
Oregon Government
Ethics
Commission
explaining the stat-
ute that appeared to
have been violated and
how it can best be fol-
lowed. The councilors
who received the letter
were Randy Knop, Jay
Blackburn, Matt Later,
John Farmer, Walt
Brookshire and Susan
Hawkins. All but Knop
are still members of the
city council.
“I’m glad that the
Ethics Commission will
require them to receive
training (via a letter of
education),” Patterson
said.
The former city ad-
ministrator, who still
lives in Union, would
like her ethics com-
plaint to result in
Union’s city govern-
ment taking a closer
look at Oregon’s public
See Ethics / Page 5A
Another person has
been arrested in the case
of the Loretta Williams
murder.
According
to a press re-
lease, Steve
Hamilton, 65,
was arrested
Hamilton Thursday on
charges of
murder and
conspiracy
to commit
murder by
the Union
Lee
County Ma-
jor Crimes
Team.
In criminal law, a con-
spiracy is an agreement
between two or more
persons to commit a
crime at some time in the
future, according to the
Shelf Law website.
Hamilton is the cur-
rent executive director of
Post Acute Rehab in La
Grande.
Williams’ ex-husband,
Ronald D. Lee, was ar-
rested in February on
The Observer
A body sighted fl oating
down the Grande Ronde
River — last seen near Riv-
erside Park in La Grande —
has not yet been found.
“
Everything was
a combination
effort by all teams
involved.”
— Nick Vora, Union
County Search and
Rescue lieutenant
Wednesday, after 1 p.m.,
the body of a white male
passed under the North
Spruce Street bridge face-
down before disappearing
in the rapids of the Grande
Ronde River. The search
and rescue eff orts contin-
ued from that time on until
about 6:30 p.m.
Unless more details come
to light or another sighting
emerges, recovery eff orts for
this case will not continue,
according to the La Grande
Rural Fire Department and
Union County’s Search and
Rescue team.
There has been wide-
spread speculation over the
man’s reasoning for enter-
ing the river, but nothing is
certain.
An Oregon State Police
trooper was pursuing a ve-
hicle at 1:43 a.m. Wednes-
day and found it unattend-
ed. Later, they spotted the
suspect walking on the side
of I-84. When the trooper
tried to make contact, the
man jumped into the river,
according to OSP Public In-
formation Captain Tim Fox.
Fox said it is not clear if
these two cases are related,
and until the body is found,
state police cannot confi rm
nor deny the man in the river
is also the man who eluded
police earlier in the morning.
La Grande Fire Chief Les
Thomas said the man in the
water near Riverside Park
was “obviously deceased”
when he briefl y surfaced.
See Murder / Page 5A
Cherise Kaechele photos/The Observer
On Wednesday afternoon, multiple fi rst responder
agencies set up efforts to recover a body in the river at
Riverside Park. In the photos, La Grande Fire Department
utilized their ladder truck and worked with the Wallowa
County Swift Water Team and the Union County Search
and Rescue members to probe the river for the man.
Thomas was in the middle
of setting up a rescue plan
with volunteers from Union
County Search and Rescue
and La Grande Rural Fire
Department when the body
passed beneath the North
Spruce Street bridge, the
intended rescue location.
See Rescue / Page 5A
Commissioners pass MERA grazing
moratorium, deny ordinance update
By Cherise Kaechele
The Observer
The Union County Commissioners
voted to put a one-year moratorium
on grazing at the Mt. Emily Recre-
ation Area on Wednes-
day due to the public
opinion that cattle get in
the way of recreational
activities.
Originally, the pro-
Beverage posed moratorium was
for fi ve years, according
to the MERA Committee’s docu-
ments submitted to the commission-
ers. The fi ve-year period was con-
cerning to Commissioners Donna
Beverage and Paul Anderes because
the uneaten grass could create a fi re
hazard.
“The impacts of grazing on the
landscape and recreation as well
as site suitability were discussed in
detail,” according to the MERA staff
report. “Cost analysis has been con-
sidered in the report as well.”
MERA, a publicly owned recre-
ation area used for hiking, biking
and equestrian activities, has had
grazing leases for cattle from June 1
to Oct. 15 every year.
Multiple people submitted tes-
timony in support of the fi ve-year
moratorium on Wednesday. All of
them use the area for recreation and
stated the cattle slow them down
when they’re there.
Commissioner Matt Scarfo said
the business deal of the grazing lease
was a “bad business deal.”
The county receives between
$3,000 and $6,000 in annual reve-
WEATHER
MOnday
nue for the grazing lease, but it costs
approximately $15,900 to $18,900
every year to repair the damages
caused by the grazing cattle.
Because the commissioners felt
there was no valid reason to grant a
fi ve-year moratorium, the commis-
sion approved it for one year.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, the
commissioners denied a request
to update the Second Amendment
Ordinance that the county’s voters
passed in the November election.
The ordinance expands the defi -
nition of fi rearms and prohibits the
enforcement of laws that regulate
the manufacture, sale and posses-
sion of fi rearms in Union County.
It will require the sheriff to review
any state or federal laws aff ecting
See County / Page 5A
Follow us on the web
Good day to our valued subscriber Phyllis Hodgson of La Grande
Observer staff
One man was shot in
the face with a BB gun
but couldn’t tell law
enforcement where it
came from or who did it.
According to La Grande
Police Chief Brian Har-
vey, the victim was walk-
ing along Albany Street
near the Towne Center
when he received a glanc-
ing injury along the cheek
area caused by a BB.
“(The BB) went across
the face and hit the lens
of his eyeglasses, break-
ing them,” Harvey told
The Observer.
The man did not seek
medical attention at the
time of the incident.
Harvey said the man
had no idea who did it,
where it came from or
any details that could
help law enforcement
identify the suspect.
“He had his back to
the street and was walk-
ing into the building,”
Harvey said. “He has no
idea where the source
was at all.”
Harvey said the call to
dispatch was just before
3 p.m. Wednesday.
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Issue 35
2 sections, 16 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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Man
shot in
face with
BB gun
■ Details of
incident sparse
Ropes were thrown from
both sides of the river to at-
tempt to catch the body, but
rescuers were unable to cap-
ture it before it entered par-
ticularly dangerous rapids.
Over the next fi ve hours,
several local and state agen-
0DUFK
30
( 28
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7K SUH
MOnday • March 4, 2019 • $1.50
■ Search and rescue
efforts suspended
By Amanda Weisbrod
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STOP B2H REMAINS PERSISTENT Online at lagrandeobserver.com
Gov. Brown visits Baker City
on cap-and-trade bill, 2A
Body in river
sighted, not
recovered
INDEX
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com .
More contact info
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Issue 79
2 sections, 14 pages
La Grande, Oregon
The Observer
Nan Kiebert has dealt with
more than her fair share of inju-
ries during her soccer career.
An ACL tear as a senior in
high school. A tear of her other
ACL a year later as a college
freshman. And perhaps the most
unusual for a soccer player — a
liver laceration — during her
junior year at Eastern Oregon
University.
But this fall, the forward for
the No. 6 Mountaineers has
stayed healthy and stayed on the
fi eld.
“This year, knowing that it’s
my senior year, all I’ve really
been wanting is to have one
healthy season,” she said.
Kiebert has been able to turn
in her best season in an EOU
uniform, too, and help Eastern
reach uncharted waters as it
has its highest ranking ever. She
is one of three players to have
scored fi ve goals and one of two
players with four assists, which
is the top mark on the team in
both categories.
Individually, that surpasses
the number of goals she had
scored in her entire EOU career
prior to this season (four) and is
one short of the number of as-
sists she had (fi ve).
“That just goes to show and
is a credit to her for her passion
and love of the game to have
gone through all that and still
want to put in the time and
the effort to better herself for
the program,” EOU head coach
Jacob Plocher said. “(It’s nice) to
be able to get her healthy and
back to playing (at) the caliber
she feels she is capable of and be
the engine for the team.”
Her fi rst ACL injury to the left
knee happened during club sea-
son and resulted in her missing
the entirety of her senior season
for Sandpoint High School in
Idaho.
But Justin Wagar, who was
the EOU head coach at the time,
had already seen Kiebert play
and intended to bring her to the
Mountaineers anyway.
“Justin had been recruiting
me and watched me play. He still
wanted me to come here,” she
said. “I thought that was saying
something, and motivated me to
want to rehab.”
Kiebert, who is pursuing a
bachelor of science in nursing
and plans to be a registered
nurse, made an immediate
impact as a freshman at EOU in
2016, breaking into the starting
lineup six times in seven games
and tallying three assists.
That sixth start, however,
lasted only a few seconds.
“(It was) our fi rst conference
game at Evergreen,” she said. “At
kickoff I passed the ball, got the
ball back, took a step and tore
my other (ACL).”
It meant more rehab time for
Kiebert, but as a sophomore she
was able to play in all 19 games
for Eastern — starting in 13 of
them. She scored a pair of goals
and was an important piece of
a team that reached the NAIA
national playoffs.
Her junior year, though, was
cut short by what she called the
“scariest and most traumatic” of
the injuries she had suffered —
one that took place during the
Mountaineers’ fourth game of
the season, Sept. 6, 2018, against
Hope International in Tahoe
Vista, California.
Kiebert was trying to make
a play on a ball played back by
an HIU defender and hoping
to head it into the goal, but the
HIU goalkeeper came out to
make a play on the ball.
“We had a 1-on-1, but the
Observer staff
See Cove / Page 2A
541-963-3161
HEAD OVER HEELS
By Ronald Bond
■ Former city
administrator
filed complaint
in 2017
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Badgers settle for second
The Observer
Second
arrest
made in
Cove
murder
the adjacent properties, and she
has had little luck getting help from
neighbors, she said.
“There are two people above me
and one on the other side that will
not clean out their ditches,” she
claimed, pointing out they have
paid several thousand dollars for
repairs through the years. “The
water comes up to (our property)
and there’s a curve where it all gets
hung up. If (the ditches are) not
clean, it backs up.”
about four years ago to this extreme.
There’s got to be a way to manage
that water.”
Joyce Coates told the council it’s
not the fi rst time she has come to
the city seeking help, pointing out
that Mayor Del Little is the fourth
mayor she has come before. She said
in the past, she has not received
adequate help for an issue that is
beyond her control.
Coates pointed out, too, that there
are no assigned water rights for
what runs through her place and
Friday
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Wednesday, October 9, 2019
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Settlement
reached in
Union City
Council
ethics case
The Observer
Flooding issues discussed by Cove City Council
See McNary / Page 5A
FRIday-sUnday •March 22-24, 2019•$1.50
By Dick Mason
See Projects / Page 2A
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Inside
Baker County comissioner
on state wildfi re council, 2A
Monday, June 3, 2019
The Observer
twiCE as niCE!
Lee
granted
court-
appointed
attorney
Observer Staff
Ronald Bond/Observer fi le photo
Madison Crews and the EOU women’s
basketball team are the CCC favorites.
The Eastern Oregon University
women’s basketball team was named the
favorite to win the Cascade Collegiate
Conference in the CCC preseason coaches’
poll, which came out Tuesday.
The Mountaineers, which have won the
past three CCC championships — includ-
ing the last two outright — and are the
See CCC / Page 8A
Eastern Oregon University senior Nan Kiebert executes a fl ip throw during the Mountaineers’
game against Carroll College last Friday. Kiebert has fi ve goals and four assists for EOU this fall.
Ronald Bond/The Observer
Kiebert has dealt with two ACL injuries and a liver laceration
during her soccer career in high school and at EOU.
ball was in the air,” Kiebert
said. “When I jumped for it, she
jumped too, and her knee came
right under my rib cage.
“It’s hard to explain the
feeling, but I knew something
was wrong.”
Kiebert said she struggled to
get her breath back for a while
after the incident.
The nine-hour bus ride back to
La Grande following the match,
though, was worse. Kiebert
didn’t know it at the time, but
she was bleeding internally.
“Blood was pooling in my
lower abdomen,” she said. “It
was sensitive. I couldn’t walk
straight (and) I was getting
shooting pains down my neck.
The next morning I went to the
school to turn in my jerseys, and
my trainer said to head to the
hospital.”
Within 20 minutes of get-
ting a CT scan at the hospital,
LifeFlight had been called to
transport her from La Grande to
Boise.
“I know what kind of person
she is and how tough she is,”
Plocher said. “When the (HIU)
trainer said she had a really
bad bruise and it turned out to
be something more, your heart
drops a little bit. We obviously
just wanted her to be able to get
better and not have to worry
about anything.”
The diagnosis was a Grade 4
lacerated liver, she said.
“I don’t think (the severity)
really hit me until my stepmom
and everyone started telling me
how traumatic it actually was
and that my life could have been
taken away from me,” she said.
Kiebert said the injury was
comparable to what “usually
happens in motorcycle accidents
(or) car accidents.” Her liver was
about 75% torn.
“The doctor and everyone I
talked to thought it was unbe-
lievable to receive an injury like
that on the soccer fi eld,” she said.
Kiebert spent fi ve days in the
hospital in Boise but didn’t end
up needing surgery. She said had
she been admitted in California
right after the injury, or been
originally admitted to a larger
hospital, she likely would have.
But because the liver is an
organ that can regenerate itself,
according to the Mayo Clinic
website, the healing process had
already begun.
“With the trauma, it made
an outlining pocket for itself.
It created a pocket around the
laceration, so I wasn’t actively
internally bleeding,” she said.
“It’s hard to imagine, (but) that’s
how they explained it to me.”
Rather than having surgery
to repair it, Kiebert was moni-
tored for fi ve days in Boise, then
released.
She wasn’t able to step on the
soccer fi eld until her liver was
completely healed, but she began
school on time a few weeks later.
While it was the most trau-
matic injury, it was the one she
was able to come back from
the quickest. She actually was
healthy enough to take the fi eld
on Nov. 17 — barely two months
after the injury occurred — and
play in the Mountaineers’ 2-1
win at Grace, Indiana, in the
NAIA playoffs.
She also played 10 days later
in the round-of-16 game against
eventual national champion Wil-
liam Carey.
“Being able to play after being
out the whole season was a high-
light. Standing on the sidelines
had been hard,” she said.
Kiebert said she has asked the
question anybody would facing
as many injuries in as short of a
time as she did, but she wasn’t
going to stop playing.
“I must have some bad luck
going on,” she said. “It defi nitely
ran through my head, why it
was happening to me, but it’s
too hard to give up when you’ve
been doing it your whole life.”
She’s been playing soccer since
■ Study says eating organically could reduce cancer risk by 25 percent
By Amanda Weisbrod
The Observer
Observer staff
Ronald Bond/The Observer
You are what you eat
No five-set
thriller this
time: LHS
falls in three
to Pendleton
In 2016, 22.9 million
U.S. adults reported hav-
ing cancer at least once in
their lifetime, according
to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
Cancer is the second-most
common cause of death
behind heart disease in the
U.S., taking 185.1 lives out
of a population of 100,000
in 2016, according to the
CDC website.
Everyone knows some-
one, has heard of someone,
or has even been that some-
one battling the slow and
suff ocating growth of can-
cerous cells. Some are victo-
rious, others, sadly, are not.
But what if there were a
way to reduce cancer risk
by simply changing an ev-
eryday habit?
A French study pub-
lished in October 2018 by
the American Medical As-
sociation in its monthly
peer-reviewed
medical
journal claims there is.
The NutriNet-Santé Pro-
spective Cohort Study
“
When we’re facing
challenges like climate
change and epidemic
levels of diabetes and
cancer, you would think
we’d pay attention to the
science that we have.”
— Trudy Bialic, director of
public affairs and quality
standards at Puget
Consumers Co-op
analyzed the relationship
between the diets and
new cancer diagnoses of
more than 68,000 French
adults from 2009 to 2014
and found a diet high in
organic foods is linked to
a 25 percent reduced risk
of developing cancer. Most
notable was the correlation
between organic food con-
sumption and the risk of
non-Hodgkins lymphoma,
which the data shows as
decreasing by 86 percent
for those who most often
consumed an increased
amount of organic food.
The study speculates the
lack of residual pesticides
in organic foods as a pos-
sible catalyst for this result.
“Because of (organic
food’s) lower exposure to
Photos courtesy of Val’s Veggies
TOP LEFT: ValerieTachenko, owner and operator of Val’s
Veggies, shows off her apron at a farmers market.
TOP RIGHT: Although Tachenko’s farm isn’t USDA-certi-
fi ed organic, she practices organic farming techniques
like rotating crops and not adding anything extra, like
pesticides or fertilizers, to her soil.
pesticide residues, it can be
hypothesized that high or-
ganic food consumers may
have a lower risk of develop-
ing cancer,” the study states.
“A recent review concluded
that the role of pesticides for
the risk of cancer could not
be doubted given the grow-
ing body of evidence linking
cancer development to pes-
ticide exposure.”
The NutriNet study ad-
mits it has some limita-
tions to its fi ndings, such
as the likelihood of partici-
pants already being health-
conscious individuals, the
qualitative nature of the
data, the short follow-up
time, and the chance of re-
sidual confounding, which
is the distortion of a con-
clusion by additional, un-
seen factors even after the
study has been controlled.
Charles Benbrook, an or-
ganic food analyst and hold-
er of a PhD in agricultural
See Organic / Page 5A
Baseball and softball
fields get an upgrade
The Observer
The community of Union
County is stepping up to
the plate in a big way for
the Optimist and Sam Mar-
cum baseball and softball
fi elds at Pioneer Park.
The City of La Grande
Parks and Recreation De-
partment is partnering
with the La Grande School
District, community volun-
teers and donors to make
major improvements at the
two fi elds and replace the
Kathy Aney/EO Media Group
Jayce Seavert attempts a kill for the La
Grande Tigers at Pendleton Tuesday.
By Brett Kane
EO Media Group
PENDLETON — The Buckaroos and
Tigers had already clashed once before
this season, where it was Pendleton’s vol-
leyball team that made off with the fi ve-
set win. In Tuesday’s rematch, the Bucks
swept in three.
In a nonleague contest at Warberg
Court, the Bucks cruised to 25-12 and
25-14 wins to claim the fi rst two sets
from the 4A Greater Oregon League’s
top-ranked La Grande Tigers, but were
forced to rally to complete the sweep with
a 26-24 third-set victory.
The home win highlighted the Bucks’
“Dig Pink” night, which was held in sup-
port of cancer awareness.
“We didn’t play our game in the fi rst
two sets,” La Grande coach Melinda
Becker-Bisenius said. “We came out and
stayed in it in game three, but it was the
See Kiebert / Page 8A
See Tigers / Page 7A
shared concession stand.
“It is going to be amaz-
ing,” said Fred Bell Jr. of
La Grande, who is work-
ing as a volunteer for the
project.
The project has been
slowed considerably by the
unusually late winter snow-
storms Northeast Oregon
has received. The storms
left a blanket of snow on the
softball and baseball fi elds.
Community volunteers
began taking on Old Man
winter this weekend, how-
ever, using snowblowers to
push snow off the baseball
and softball fi elds Friday and
Saturday. Bell began blow-
ing snow late Saturday af-
ternoon off the softball fi eld
and worked until midnight
and then returned Sunday
to continue from 5 a.m. to 8
a.m. Bell said the work on the
softball fi eld was quite chal-
lenging until the wind began
blowing and helped move the
snow in the right direction.
Bell said getting the snow
off the fi elds now, before it
melts, will prevent the fi elds
from becoming muddy.
Wednesday
See Lee / Page 5A
Pasta
dinner
benefits
Angel
Fund
By Francisca Benitez
tors’ side at Optimist Field.
The softball fi eld will re-
ceive the majority of the
work. Improvements set to
be made there include new
dugouts for the home and
visiting teams, a new back-
stop, new fencing down the
fi rst and third base lines,
new benches and tempo-
rary outfi eld fencing.
The softball dugouts
will include a back wall,
The annual Angel Fund
Spaghetti Feed fund-
raiser will be held in the
La Grande High School
Commons from 5 p.m. to
7 p.m. March 5. The An-
gel Fund provides cloth-
ing, food and other vital
supplies to students with-
out homes in La Grande.
Tickets are $6 for adults
and $4 for children
younger than 12.
The event is host-
ed and facilitated by
La Grande RE/MAX.
About 19 local business-
es are sponsoring the
event. Shawna McK-
innis, the owner of La
Grande RE/MAX, said
that last year the event
raised $4,693 for the
Angel Fund.
Kathleen McCall is
the Youth in Transi-
tion Liason for the An-
gel Fund. She identifi es
students and families
who do not have a regu-
See Fields / Page 5A
See Dinner / Page 5A
Dick Mason/The Observer
The new concession stand building now being completed at Pioneer Park will include
an announcer’s booth on top.
The list of improvements
to be done at the complex
will include replacing the
concession stand between
the baseball and softball
fi elds. The new conces-
sion stand will have an an-
nouncer’s booth and dress-
ing room for umpires.
The announcer’s booth
will provide a good view of
Optimist and Sam Marcum
fi elds. Optimist Field is for
baseball, and Sam Marcum
Field is for softball. All La
Grande High School home
baseball and softball games
are played on the fi elds.
Upgrade plans also call for
removing trees that obstruct
the view of the softball fi eld
from the announcer’s booth,
installing new ADA (Ameri-
cans with Disabilities Act)
sidewalks connecting the
fi elds’ west parking area to
the complex, and putting in
new bleachers on the visi-
WEATHER
Home .............1B
Lottery............2A
Record ...........3A
Obituaries ......3A
Ronald Bond/The Observer
The La Grande softball team celebrates after receiving the championship trophy following its 4-2 win over Henley in
Saturday’s state championship game in Eugene. It’s the second year in a row the Tigers have beaten Henley for the title.
The Observer
INDEX
Classified .......4B
Comics ...........3B
Crossword .....5B
Dear Abby .....8B
Ronald Bond/The Observer
La Grande’s Kara Gooderham hugs teammate Taryn
Miller after Miller scored a run during the third inning.
■ Organized by
La Grande RE/
MAX, fundraiser
helps homeless
students
■ City, schools, volunteers team up to
improve Pioneer Park fields
By Dick Mason
Not a lot of new infor-
mation came out of the
status check for Ronald
D. Lee, the
man who
is
being
held without
bail for the
murder of
Lee
his ex-wife
Loretta Wil-
liams, which occurred in
November 2018.
Lee was able to get a
court-appointed attorney,
previous Umatilla County
District Attorney Dean
Gushwa, who specializes,
according to his website,
in criminal defense.
Lee’s next hearing is
a plea hearing set for
April 24, according to
court records.
Lee was arrested Feb.
Opinion ..........4A
Sports ............6A
Tonight
Tuesday
21 LOW
40/31
Mostly cloudy
Rather cloudy
NUTRITION WITH THE DIET DOC
NORTHEAST OREGON
CONTACT US
Full forecast on the back of B section
541-963-3161
Issue 27
2 sections, 16 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Ronald Bond/The Observer
La Grande’s Allie Brock struck out 12 batters in seven innings during Saturday’s win.
Ronald Bond/The Observer
The LHS infield huddles up during a pivotal point in the sixth inning Saturday.
Tigers topple Henley again Family meets expectations,
to win second straight title pressure for championship
By Ronald Bond
The Observer
The high expectations. The pressure. The
target on their backs as being the defending
state champions.
None of that kept the La Grande Tigers
from doing what they intended to do all
season — repeat as state champs.
The Tigers scored four early runs to build a
lead it would never relinquish and put a stop
to a late rally on the way to a 4-2 win over the
Henley Hornets Saturday in the 4A softball
state championship game at Jane Sanders
Stadium in Eugene.
“The expectation of us coming back (to the
championship game) and to win motivated us
to play well,” junior pitcher Allie Brock said
after a 12-strikeout effort in the win. “We play
really well under pressure, and I think that
contributed to our performance today.”
The Tigers faced their share of pressure
See Repeat / Page 7A
T
he family that makes up the La Grande
softball team accomplished what its
players expected and what its coaches
expected.
And, probably, what LHS softball fans
expected.
Heck, even the coach who guided the
Tigers to the title a year ago expected it.
And he expects it to continue.
“I’ve been keeping tabs on them all season
long,” said former coach Kirk Travis, who
RONALD’S REPORT
RONALD BOND
now lives in Fairview. “I’m impressed with
the way they’ve played. You’ve got some of
the best athletes in the state over there in
La Grande when it comes to softball. I see a
few more years under their belt. They’ve got
See Family / Page 8A
HAVE A STORY IDEA?
Call The Observer newsroom at
541-963-3161 or send an email to
news@lagrandeobserver.com.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com
NORTHEAST OREGON
January 2, 2019
april 10, 2019
www.gonortheastoregon.com
www.gonortheastoregon.com
TunesmiTh nighT
Kassi Valazza
Karin blaine
elwood p. 7
Writer in Residence
SuSan
DefrEitaS
p. 3
art CEntEr East’s
wintEr tErm musiC
prOgram
English COuntry
danCE
Oregon Trail
Interpretive
Center’s spring
events
p. 6
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Thank you to our patients
and community.
We love to put a
smile on your face!
2502 Cove Ave., Suite D, La Grande • www.kozafamilydentalcare.com
541-963-4962
