The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current, April 21, 2020, Image 2

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The Observer., April 21, 2020, Page 2, Image 2

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Newspaper Page Text2A — THE OBSERVER TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2020 REGIONAL DAILY High school seniors get recognition in lights PLANNER EO Media Group TODAY Today is Tuesday, April 21, the 112th day of 2020. There are 254 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT On April 21, 1976, clinical trials of the swine ﬂ u vaccine began in Washington, D.C. ON THIS DATE In 1509, England’s King Henry VII died; he was succeeded by his 17-year-old son, Henry VIII. In 1789, John Adams was sworn in as the ﬁ rst vice president of the United States. In 1816, Charlotte Bronte, author of “Jane Eyre,” was born in Thornton, England. In 1930, ﬁ re broke out inside the Ohio Penitentiary, killing 332 inmates. In 1975, with Communist forces closing in, South Viet- namese President Nguyen Van Thieu resigned after nearly 10 years in ofﬁ ce. In 1989, the baseball fantasy “Field of Dreams,” starring Kevin Costner, was released by Universal Pictures. In 2016, Prince, one of the most inventive and inﬂ u- ential musicians of modern times, was found dead at his home in suburban Minneap- olis; he was 57. LOTTERY Megabucks: $3.2 million 8-11-15-17-31-45 Mega Millions: $164 million 13-35-39-46-55-14 x4 Powerball: $29 million 4-44-46-56-63—PB-19 x2 Win for Life: April 18 35-53-73-77 Pick 4: April 19 • 1 p.m.: 1-4-0-6; • 4 p.m.: 6-4-8-8 • 7 p.m.: 9-1-7-4; • 10 p.m.: 0-5-5-1 Pick 4: April 18 • 1 p.m.: 2-6-1-4; • 4 p.m.: 7-9-2-8 • 7 p.m.: 7-8-4-0; • 10 p.m.: 0-1-8-5 Pick 4: April 17 • 1 p.m.: 9-0-7-9 • 4 p.m.: 0-8-5-7 • 7 p.m.: 0-7-4-8 • 10 p.m.: 8-0-2-5 DELIVERY ISSUES? If you have any problems receiving your Observer, call the ofﬁ ce at 541-963-3161. TODAY’S QUOTE “I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward.” — Charlotte Bronte (1816- 1855) ENTERPRISE — Wal- lowa County schools are lighting up their three foot- ball stadiums each Monday to honor each graduating seniors. The recognition began Monday, April, 13, and is part of a national trend. Mitch Frye, Wallowa High School athletic director, said the idea traveled to Oregon from Colorado and caught on Madras and spread across the state, especially in rural schools. Wallowa High School principal David Howe heard about it and last week all three schools in Wallowa County jumped on the movement. The principals of the high schools in Wallowa, Enterprise, and Joseph a joint statement said, “We want all of our students and especially our seniors to know how important they are to us and we care for each and every one of them.” The stadium lights will continue to come on each Monday night at 8:20 p.m. and will remain on for one minute of each school day lost during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Ellen Morris Bishop/EO Media Group Wallowa High School Athletic Director Mitch Frye checks an image of the lights at Joseph High School after turning on the lights remotely from Wallowa. Pearl Harbor survivor shares stories — on Instagram By Kyle Spurr EO Media Group BEND — Dick Higgins has stories to tell and wants to share them before he forgets. The 98-year-old great-grandfather from Bend may be living in a pandemic, but he’s survived some of history’s greatest crises. He grew up in small town Oklahoma and lived through the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. He enlisted in the Navy after high school and was pro- pelled into history when he awoke Dec. 7, 1941, to the attack on Pearl Harbor. So last month he turned to Instagram. He is using the social media platform to share short videos of his history and post them to the account he calls quaran- tine_chats_with_gramps. Higgins is one of the oldest living survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which the U.S. surgeon gen- eral recently compared to the coronavirus pandemic. Higgins has ﬁ ve videos so far and a following of about 40 people. He’s doing it from his Photo by Ryan Brennecke/EO Media Group Dick Higgins, a 98-year-old Pearl Harbor survivor, laughs with his granddaughter Angela Norton on their front porch after re- cording a video for his Instagram page in Bend on Wednesday, April 15, 2020. With the help of his family, Higgins started the Instagram page — quarantine_chats_with_gramps — to share stories and the ways he has stayed busy while staying home during the coronavirus pandemic. Bend home he shares with his granddaughter, Angela Norton, her husband, Ryan, and their two children. Higgins, who spent his career in radio engineering after serving as a radio operator in the Navy, never heard of Instagram until his granddaughter set up the account for him. “I don’t even know what it is,” Higgins said in the ﬁ rst video he recorded on Instagram on March 22. “That came along after I got out of the electronics business.” Keeping memory alive Norton uses her cell- phone to record her grand- father’s stories for the Ins- tagram account. The posts follow the events of his life State faces steep drop in income taxes; seeks federal aid Oregon has $3 billion in reserve funds  By Peter Wong Oregon Capital Bureau SALEM — Even as a legislative panel prepares this week to draw from the state’s emergency fund, Oregon faces a steep drop in income taxes that the state government relies on to aid schools and to pay for services, and the state may need federal help. Estimates of tax losses still are in development, but Oregon and all other states are likely to require bil- lions in federal aid that may dwarf the amounts given during the Great Reces- sion a decade ago — and far more than Congress has approved so far to counter the economic downturn prompted by the corona- virus pandemic. While Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and the Democratic majority in the U.S. House have made aid to states a priority, Treasury Secre- tary Steven Mnuchin says it’s more likely such aid will take a backseat to replen- ishing federal help for small businesses, which already have exhausted the $350 billion Congress made available for them. Wyden was more opti- mistic: “We are trying to work out an agreement to address all of these issues.” But one expert said Con- gress will have to do more for states. “States face mas- sive budget shortfalls that will be more severe than they saw during the Great Recession,” said Michael Leachman, senior director for state ﬁ scal research for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progres- sive-leaning think tank. “Those cuts will make an already-weak economy even weaker and will hurt families and communities when we are already vul- nerable,” said Leachman, who once worked for the Oregon Center for Public Policy. More than 90% of Ore- gon’s general fund, which represents its most ﬂ exible state spending, comes from just two sources: Personal and corporate income taxes. The state’s next quarterly economic and revenue fore- cast is scheduled May 20. “We are being impacted by a loss of revenue because there are fewer people working,” Gov. Kate Brown said last week. “The needs are great in terms of our public health capacity and for our safety net. Of course, unlike the federal government, the state has to balance our budget.” In addition to almost 300,000 Oregonians ﬁ ling unemployment claims in the past few weeks as a result of business shut- downs and curtailments linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, demands have increased for public health, state-supported health insurance under the Oregon Health Plan, and other ser- vices during the downturn. Slowdown accelerates State economist Mark McMullen warned in sev- eral recent forecasts that Oregon’s economy was likely to slow, despite con- tinued growth in jobs and tax collections, as the national economic expan- sion passed a record 10-year mark. The 2019 Legislature set a total of $23.7 bil- lion for the current two- year budget from general taxes and lottery proceeds, with an ending balance of about $600 million. Total state spending for 2019-21 is $85.8 billion, but more than 70% consists of federal grants or other restricted funds, such as fuel taxes and vehicle fees earmarked for highway and bridge work. While there are no ofﬁ - cial projections yet of how much less state tax collec- tions will fall short, Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scap- poose, said some of the early numbers are scary: Losses between $2 billion and $3 billion during the rest of the current two-year cycle ending in mid-2021. in chronological order. In one video, Higgins recalls his ﬁ rst childhood memory of a circus coming to his small Oklahoma town. “We were running down the street following the circus wagon,” he said in the video. “Seeing all those tigers and lions and stuff we had never seen before.” In the latest video, posted Thursday, Higgins talks about living through the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Soon he will discuss Pearl Harbor, Norton said. Recalling the day that will live in infamy Higgins’ Pearl Harbor experience is a story his family knows well. Higgins was a 20-year-old Navy radio operator two years into his service, when Japanese planes roared over his bar- racks on Ford Island on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941. Through gunﬁ re and bombs dropping, Higgins cleared the wreckage from the airﬁ eld to salvage planes that were still intact and prepared them for ﬂ ight. Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the WWII Valor in the Paciﬁ c National Monument in Honolulu, Hawaii, said the airﬁ eld where Higgins served is considered ground zero of the Japanese attack. “He would have wit- nessed the opening of the attack on Pearl Harbor,” Martinez said. It is difﬁ cult to track how many Pearl Harbor sur- vivors are still alive since there is no ofﬁ cial count being kept, Martinez said. But Higgins is among the oldest living survivors in the nation, he said. A person who was 18 during the attack would be 96 today. The number of survivors keeps dwindling. Higgins was one of six survivors in Bend, and now he’s the only one. At the national anniver- sary ceremony in Hono- lulu last year, only about a dozen survivors were in attendance. At the 75th anniversary, three years ago, about 200 survivors made the trip to Hawaii. FAMILY OWNED 215 Elm Street La Grande (541) 963-5440 northwestfurnitureandmattress.com DOC TALK Q&A: COVID-19 (NOVEL CORONAVIRUS 2019) A: Travel limitations have now been recommended by our Governor, the President, local and state Public Health Departments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Unless your job requires it, or you have a special exception due to family needs, I urge you to stay home and practice physical distancing. Countries and US states that have initiated “no travel” recommendations have a much lower and slower spread rate of COVID-19. Limiting travel, along with good hand hygiene and physical distancing have been the best ways of preventing viral spread. -Brian Reynolds, MD, GRH Emergency Department Physician Your trusted GRH doctors are answering your COVID-19-related questions through this Doc Talk Q&A series. For more information on physical distancing and Oregon ’s coronavirus response, visit healthoregon.org/coronavirus. As we navigate COVID-19, we want to be sure and remind you that the safety and health of our patients, staff and community is our number one concern. We are working closely with CHD, OHA, and other partners to respond appropriately and as effectively as possible. For the latest updates from GRH, visit our web page dedicated to COVID-19 News & Updates: grh.org/covid19.