The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current, July 11, 2020, Image 2

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The Observer., July 11, 2020, Page 2, Image 2

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Newspaper Page Text2A — THE OBSERVER SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2020 LOCAL/REGION DAILY PLANNER TODAY Today is Saturday, July 11, the 193rd day of 2020. There are 173 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT On July 11, 1804, Vice President Aaron Burr mortally wounded former Treasury Secretary Alexan- der Hamilton during a pistol duel in Weehawken, New Jersey. (Hamilton died the next day.) ON THIS DATE In 1533, Pope Clement VII issued a bull of excommu- nication against England’s King Henry VIII for the annul- ment of the king’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon and subsequent marriage to second wife Anne Boleyn. In 1798, the U.S. Marine Corps was formally re-es- tablished by a congressional act that also created the U.S. Marine Band. In 1859, Big Ben, the great bell inside the famous London clock tower, chimed for the ﬁ rst time. In 1915, the Chicago Sun- day Tribune ran an article titled, “Blues Is Jazz and Jazz Is Blues.” (It’s believed to be one of the earliest, if not the earliest, uses of the word “jazz” as a musical term by a newspaper.) In 1936, New York City’s Triborough Bridge linking Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx was opened to trafﬁ c. In 1955, the U.S. Air Force Academy swore in its ﬁ rst class of cadets at its tempo- rary quarters at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado. In 1960, the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee was ﬁ rst published by J.B. Lippincott and Co. In 1972, the World Chess Championship opened as grandmasters Bobby Fischer of the United States and defending champion Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union began play in Reykjavik, Iceland. (Fischer won after 21 games.) In 1974, the House Judi- ciary Committee released volumes of evidence it had gathered in its Watergate inquiry. In 1979, the abandoned U.S. space station Skylab made a spectacular return to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and showering debris over the Indian Ocean and Australia. LOTTERY Megabucks: $3.7 million 27-32-36-37-38-45 Mega Millions: $73 million 16-20-25-30-43—18 x3 Powerball: $69 million 3-10-34-36-62—PB-5 x10 Win for Life: July 8 14-25-33-71 Pick 4: July 9 • 1 p.m.: 6-2-4-9; • 4 p.m.: 6-1-4-4 • 7 p.m.: 2-0-3-2; • 10 p.m.: 9-8-2-9 Pick 4: July 8 • 1 p.m.: 2-4-3-5; • 4 p.m.: 0-5-4-1 • 7 p.m.: 5-7-4-8; • 10 p.m.: 1-2-1-2 DELIVERY ISSUES? If you have any problems receiving your Observer, call the ofﬁ ce at 541-963-3161. Man convicted of sex crimes out on appeal The Observer and living under the same LA GRANDE — roof as Altherr, court docu- Michael Jacob Altherr of ments stated. She revealed La Grande faced 18 the abuse in 2017. A years in prison for Union County jury sexual abuse but is in July 2018 con- now free on appeal victed Altherr of and waiting for a three counts each of retrial. third-degree sexual Altherr The state accused abuse and ﬁ rst-degree Altherr of abusing a sexual abuse. girl younger than 14 years Circuit Judge Thomas old on multiple occasions Powers sentenced Altherr, from 2013-16. At the start now 35, to 18 years in of the abuse, the girl was 11 prison. This May, however, the Oregon Court of Appeals reversed the verdict and sent the case back to Union County. According to court doc- uments, the reversal was due to a change in case law. Powers did not allow expert testimony from two of the defendant’s wit- nesses, and Union County District Attorney Kelsie McDaniel said while Altherr was in the process Minam curve construction complete By Dick Mason The Observer Photo by Ellen Morris Bishop/EO Media Group The Oregon Department of Transportation ﬁ nished construction of the Minam curve on Oregon Highway 82. “There is some miscellaneous clean-up left to do,” according to Mike Remily, ODOT’s resident engineer in La Grande, “but the project is complete.” Rated as a 45 mph curve, it is intended to be safer than the previous hairpin curve above the Minam River, which was implicated in multiple crashes and deaths. The construction of the new embankment completely ﬁ lled in the old highway and curve. No sign of missing teen in Baker County By Chris Collins The foster family, with whom Bah had been living RICHLAND — Baker for a few months, told County Sheriff’s Ofﬁ ce searchers he had taken a marine deputies walk about 5:30 p.m. were continuing to on July 3. The family patrol the waters of reported the boy Brownlee Reservoir missing about 9 p.m. on Friday but with no Friday when he failed success in ﬁ nding a to return to camp. teenage boy from the It was not unusual Thierno Portland area who’s for Bah, origi- Bah been missing since nally from the West July 3. African country of The deputies are Guinea, to take long walks, focusing on areas of the his family said. reservoir around Holcomb They are offering a cash and Hewitt parks 3 miles reward to anyone with cred- east of Richland just off ible information leading to Highway 86, said Ashley his whereabouts. To make McClay, sheriff’s ofﬁ ce a report, call Sheriff Travis spokesperson Ash at 541-523-6415. “There have been no Ash also has been in sightings at this point,” the Richland and Halfway McClay said Friday areas checking out reports afternoon. of possible sightings, none Thierno Bah, 17, had of which has panned out, been camping at Hewitt McClay said. Park where his foster family “We appreciate those and friends were vaca- tips coming in,” she said. tioning, when he disap- Chris Galiszewski, peared, McClay said. Baker County Sheriff’s EO Media Group Search and Rescue Team coordinator, spent the week in the Richland area inter- viewing people and dis- tributing ﬂ iers that include photos of Bah. He is described as having a thin build and short hair. He is 5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds. He was last seen wearing gray pants and a dark-colored T-shirt. Bah speaks French and Spanish ﬂ uently, but is not a ﬂ uent English speaker, the ﬂ ier states. More than 35 people helped search for the teen, McClay said. Search and rescue teams from Baker, Malheur and Umatilla counties during the weekend searched by ground and air and used sonar technology to scan the waters of Brownlee Res- ervoir trying to ﬁ nd Bah. Oregon State Police and Oregon Department of For- estry employees also partic- ipated in the search. EO Media Group place the night of July 17, 2018.” The ﬁ re totally destroyed the home, but Palmer later discovered partial human remains at the site, which DNA testing identiﬁ ed as belonging to Terry Smith, the release stated. Palmer also discov- ered other partial remains that could not be identiﬁ ed but have been accepted as belonging to Sharon Smith, according to the release. Evidence was found, including witness testi- mony and suspect cell- phone locations, that place Connery and his mother, Gabrielle Connery, 46, at the Smith home at the time of the ﬁ re, according to the press release. The Connerys had been associated with La GRANDE AUTO REPAIR 975-2000 the Smiths, both in Hawaii and Oregon, prior to the incident. The Smiths’ pickup was later discovered abandoned in the Boise, Idaho, area after the ﬁ re, and follow-up interviews with witnesses indicated Isaac Connery took the pickup the night of the ﬁ re, the release states. He was indicted June 23 for unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and a nationwide warrant was issued for his arrest. Grant County Under- sheriff Zach Mobley and Sgt. Danny Komning, along with FBI Special Agent Ben Jones, traveled to Albu- querque, New Mexico, to interview Isaac Connery. Mobley learned he and his mother had dropped off The Observer LA GRANDE — The Union County Sheriff’s Ofﬁ ce reported arresting a woman and ﬁ ve juveniles Thursday after a shooting. The sheriff’s ofﬁ ce a few minutes after 5 p.m. Thursday received a report of a light green vehicle with juveniles inside shooting in the 68200 block of Booth Lane, Cove. A witness to the shooting began following the vehicle, which reached high speeds, according to a press release from the sheriff’s ofﬁ ce, which identiﬁ ed the driver as Kari Ann Joseph, 38, of La Grande. The sheriff’s ofﬁ ce reported she dropped off ﬁ ve juveniles with the ﬁ rearm at or near Riv- erside Park, La Grande. Sheriff’s Sgt. Ralph Graf- funder spotted two of the juveniles near the park’s walking path bridge. They ﬂ ed. Law enforce- ment caught them on the walking path, but the pair did not have a ﬁ rearm. The sheriff’s ofﬁ ce reported bringing out its police dog, Molly, to search for the gun. It took the dog about 6 minutes to ﬁ nd a .22 caliber revolver handgun in tall grass under the footbridge. The sheriff’s ofﬁ ce arrested Joseph and the ﬁ ve juveniles. Joseph is in the county jail, La Grande, on three counts of crim- inal conspiracy. The investigation is ongoing, the sheriff’s ofﬁ ce reported, and also involved the La Grande Police Department and Oregon State Police. 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Nicole Cathey Shooting leads to arrest of woman, ﬁ ve juveniles PACIFIC NORTHWEST MOST ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE Joe Horst two Connery minor chil- dren at a local campground, likely Clyde Holliday State Park, on the afternoon or evening of July 17, 2018, and then Gabrielle Connery drove Isaac Connery to the Smith home and dropped him off, before returning alone to the campground to pick up the children, according to the release. “Isaac Connery went to the Smith home and shot Terry, then Sharon Smith, and set ﬁ re to their home,” the sheriff and district attorney reported. “Then Isaac Connery took their pickup and drove to meet Gabrielle Connery” in the Boise area. The process to extra- dite Isaac Connery to Grant County has begun. LA GRANDE — The cost of lunches in the La Grande School Dis- trict likely will change in 2020-21. The La Grande School Board heard a proposal Wednesday to boost the price of lunches for ele- mentary school students by 10 cents to $2.75, middle school students by 10 cents to $2.90 and high school students by ﬁ ve cents to $3. Chris Panike, the La Grande School District’s business manager, said the increases are needed to allow the district to con- form to the federal 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. The law requires schools charge meal prices that are within 40 cents of the full reimbursement rate the federal govern- ment pays. Panike said school dis- tricts that charge less than the reimbursement rate must regularly increase their prices. The proposal would boost the average price of La Grande school lunches to $2.85. The school board will vote on the lunch price increases in August. No school board members voiced opposition to the plan during the meeting Wednesday. Panike also told the school boar the district might have the oppor- tunity to provide free lunches to all students in kindergarten through eighth grade in 2020-21. The reason is that 41.5% of its K-8 students are in the Community Eligi- bility Provision. CEP stu- dents qualify for help from at least one government assistance program out- side what school districts provide. The La Grande School District is set to qualify for 67% reimbursement from the federal govern- ment for meals for its K-8 students because 40% are in the CEP category. Panike said a reimburse- ment rate of 67% would not be high enough for the La Grande School District to afford to provide free K-8 lunches. However, it would be able to do this if the state provides a least $40 mil- lion in funding to its Fueling Students for Suc- cess nutrition program in the next special legislative session, which could come this month. Such a step would mean the La Grande School District likely would receive enough funding to boost the total federal and state reim- bursement the district would get for K-8 students to 90%. ALASKA, WASHINGTON, OREGON, IDAHO, MONTANA www.lagrandeautorepair.com ACDelcoTSS shortly after. Since getting out, Altherr has ﬁ red two attor- neys while awaiting his retrial, court records show. Jacklyn Jenkins, special deputy district attorney for Umatilla County, is han- dling the prosecution. Jenkins has extensive courtroom experience and has handled some of the most signiﬁ cant criminal cases in recent years in Umatilla County. LG School District lunch prices likely to change in 2020-21 Suspect arrested for murder, arson in 2018 deaths JOHN DAY — Almost two years after a ﬁ re destroyed a home east of Mount Vernon, a sus- pect has been arrested on two counts of ﬁ rst-degree murder and arson. Isaac Connery, 23, was arrested in Berna- lillo County, New Mexico, June 26, according to a Wednesday press release from the Grant County sheriff and district attorney. Connery is accused of shooting Terry and Sharon Smith on July 17, 2018, and setting ﬁ re to their home on Nans Rock Road in the Laycock Creek area between Mount Vernon and John Day, according to the release. “The Grant County Sheriff’s Ofﬁ ce has worked for the past two years in solving this crime where we have taken the lead in this case, and our due dili- gence and hard work never ceased,” Sheriff Glenn Palmer said in the release. “With what we have in a case like this, and as trau- matic (as) it has been for the families of Terry and Sharon Smith, hopefully this will be a step toward understanding what took of appealing his convic- tion, case law that allows for the expert testimony was changed, thus the higher court granted the appeal. McDaniel said the change also provided Altherr with conditional release from Eastern Oregon Correctional Insti- tution, the state’s medi- um-security prison in Pendleton, and his mother posted his $5,000 bail 10106 N. ‘C’ • Island City 541-975-1364 Toll Free 1-866-282-1925 northwestfurnitureandmattress.com Medicare, Auto, Home insurance and Annuities www.reed-insurance.net Kevin Reed