2A — THE OBSERVER
D AILY
P LANNER
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2020
LOCAL
Giving Back
Public Safety
Police
must
start
‘profiling’
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 25,
the 56th day of 2020. There
are 310 days left in the year.
By Bill Bradshaw
EO Media Group
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Feb. 25, 1964, Muham-
mad Ali (then known as
Cassius Clay) became world
heavyweight boxing cham-
pion as he defeated Sonny
Liston in Miami Beach.
ON THIS DATE
In 1793, President George
Washington held the fi rst
Cabinet meeting on record
at his Mount Vernon home;
attending were Secretary of
State Thomas Jefferson, Trea-
sury Secretary Alexander
Hamilton, Secretary of War
Henry Knox and Attorney
General Edmund Randolph.
In 1862, Nashville, Ten-
nessee, became the fi rst
Confederate state capital to
be occupied by the North
during the Civil War.
In 1913, the 16th Amend-
ment to the U.S. Constitu-
tion, giving Congress the
power to levy and collect
income taxes, was declared
in effect by Secretary of
State Philander Chase Knox.
In 1964, Eastern Airlines
Flight 304, a DC-8, crashed
shortly after taking off from
New Orleans International
Airport, killing all 58 on board.
In 1986, President
Ferdinand Marcos fl ed the
Philippines after 20 years of
rule in the wake of a tainted
election; Corazon Aquino
assumed the presidency.
In 1991, during the Per-
sian Gulf War, 28 Americans
were killed when an Iraqi
Scud missile hit a U.S.
barracks in Dhahran, Saudi
Arabia.
In 2018, China’s offi cial
news agency said the
country’s ruling Communist
Party had proposed scrap-
ping term limits for China’s
president, appearing to
lay the groundwork for Xi
Jinping to rule as president
beyond 2023.
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DELIVERY ISSUES?
If you have any problems
receiving your Observer,
please call the offi ce at 541-
963-3161.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Hero-worship is stron-
gest where there is least
regard for human freedom.”
— Herbert Spencer,
British philosopher
Staff photo by Sabrina Thompson
Community Kindness at 1315 Adams Ave., La Grande, is a nonprofi t thrift store that donates to local charities,
organizations and those in need. The store opened last summer.
Kindness matters
■ Nonprofit thrift store in downtown La Grande works on giving back to the community
By Sabrina Thompson, The Observer
LA GRANDE — In its fi rst seven months, Community Kindness of Eastern
Oregon has established a reciprocal relationship with the community it aims to
support. The organization donated the profi ts from its thrift store, at 1315 Adams
Ave., La Grande, to local charities, organizations and people.
“The community didn’t have to wel-
come us, but they did,” said Liz Meyer,
president of Community Kindness.
“And we are just amazed and grateful
for the support we have received.”
A small board of seven volunteers
oversees Community Kindness, with
Meyer’s husband, Grant Meyer, serv-
ing as executive director and as the
board’s treasurer. The couple explained
honesty and honor are vital to main-
taining the nonprofi t’s reputation
and fi nances, as the board alone has
oversight over fi nances.
“It is about integrity,” Liz Meyer said.
“We hold that extremely high here.”
Her husband agreed.
“Our board is the security to the pub-
lic in saying (the money) is going where
it should be going,” Grant Meyer said.
Grant Meyer could not provide a
total amount for the funds the store
has raised, but he and his wife talked
about what the organization has done
so far. During the holiday season, the
store hosted a free Christmas dinner;
used donations to purchase memory
dolls for residents at Wildfl ower
Lodge; provided donated clothing and
furniture directly to those in need; and
gave money to others in need in the
community.
Liz Meyer said one of her favorite
ways to give back has been random
acts of kindness.
“It’s things like buying a bunch of
Starbucks cards and just handing
them out to people we pass, or paying
for people’s meals at Denny’s,” she said.
“We do it to say, ‘there is somebody
here, we care about you.’”
The nonprofi t’s board plans to go
on sharing kindness as its fi rst year
continues and to establish new events,
including a fashion show in April that
will feature clothing the store sells and
a birthday celebration in July with
music, dancing and food.
Weather
Windstorm leaves damage in wake
■ Sunday afternoon storm shuts down Interstate 84 between La Grande, Pendleton
By Dick Mason
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A
windstorm that gusted up
late Sunday morning and
extended into the afternoon
took out power and shut
down Interstate 84 and
Highway 204 in Union
County.
The storm blew down a
power line along Interstate
84 near Meacham, forcing
the Oregon Department of
Transportation to close the
freeway’s eastbound and
westbound lanes between
Pendleton and La Grande
from 12:45 until 2:31 p.m.,
the state road agency
reported.
The department selected
La Grande and Pendleton
because they are good places
for motorists to wait during
closures.
“We didn’t want motorists
to get stranded (between
La Grande and Pendleton),”
said ODOT spokesperson
Tom Strandberg.
The strong winds also
caused the shutdown of Or-
egon Highway 204 between
Elgin and Weston from
about 1:30-3:44 p.m. The
high winds created hazard-
ous conditions, including
blowing dust and debris, and
even knocked over semitrail-
ers and blew down power
lines, Strandberg said.
Crashes and wind-blown
debris also led to the closure
of Highway 11 between
Pendleton and Milton-
Freewater for a portion of
Sunday afternoon.
Power outages occurred
throughout the Grande
Ronde Valley as a result
of the storm, according to
an Oregon Trail Electric
spokesperson.
In the Middle Road area
north of Elgin, 151 OTEC
members lost power from
about 1:20-4:39 p.m., and
in Summerville, another
71 members were without
power from 2:36-5:47 p.m.
There also were other loses
throughout the Grande
Ronde Valley, none of which
affected more than 20
members.
The storm started in the
Grande Ronde Valley between
10:30-11 a.m. and ran to about
2:30 p.m., according to Ann
Adams, an assistant meteorol-
ogist for the National Weather
Service office in Pendleton.
The Weather Service
recorded a top speed of
47 mph for a gust at the
La Grande/Union County
Airport. The peak veloc-
ity at the Eastern Oregon
Regional Airport, Pendleton,
was a gust of 63 mph.
ENTERPRISE — Enter-
prise police will be required
to begin profi ling motorists
July 1 when they make traf-
fi c stops, according to Chief
Joel Fish.
But “profi ling” is not the
dirty word some make it
out to be, as it is often a
useful and necessary tool
for law enforcement, Fish
said.
“To say a guy looks white
is part of the information we
get and collect,” he said. “But
to stop someone solely based
on race is illegal.”
In his Feb. 10 report to the
city council, Fish said the
state requirement began in
2018 with the largest law
enforcement agencies such as
Portland. Now, it’s the turn of
smaller agencies — such as
Enterprise — with one to 24
offi cers.
The chief told the council
he was recently contacted
by the Oregon Criminal
Justice Commission grant
coordinator to ensure his
department was on track to
comply with state require-
ments in time.
“They just want to make
sure we’re doing it correctly,”
he said.
According to the Crimi-
nal Code of Oregon, data
collection in offi cer-initiated
traffi c and pedestrian stops
is designed to identify and
address problems with bias-
based policing, Fish said.
Offi cers are to report to the
Criminal Justice Commis-
sion:
•Thedate,locationand
time of the stop.
•Theapparentrace,
ethnicity, age and sex of the
pedestrian or the operator
of the motor vehicle stopped,
based on the observations
of the offi cer responsible for
reporting the stop.
•Thenatureofandthe
statutory citation for the al-
leged traffi c violation or other
alleged violation that caused
the stop to be made.
•Thedispositionofthe
stop, including whether a
warning, citation or sum-
mons was issued, whether
a search was conducted, the
type of search conducted,
whether anything was found
as a result of the search and
whether an arrest was made.
Data acquired under the
code is allowed to be used
only for statistical purposes.
Fish told the council,
“There’s a right way and a
wrong way,”
Honoring National Heart Month—Supporting Stroke Awareness
There’s treatment if you act FAST!!
F
A
S
T
FACE DROOPING
ARM WEAKNESS
SPEECH
TIME TO CALL 9-1-1
DOES ONE SIDE OF THE
FACE DROOP OR IS IT
NUMB?
IS ONE ARM WEAK OR
NUMB?
IS SPEECH SLURRED?
DOES ONE SIDE OF THE
FACE DROOP OR IS IT
NUMB?
Ask the person to smile.
Is the person's smile
uneven?
Ask the person to raise
both arms. Does one
arm drift downward?
Is the person unable to
speak or hard to under-
stand? Ask the person to
repeat a simple sentence,
like “The sky is blue.”
Ask the person to smile.
Is the person's smile
uneven?
Call 9-1-1! Time is critical when a stroke occurs. Time lost is brain lost.
Join us at one of our Stroke Education Seminars on Tuesday, March 3:
Grande Ronde Hospital: 10 AM—12 PM
-or-
La Grande Fire Department: 2 PM—4 PM
Visit grh.org/actFAST for full event details.