Business AgLife
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Thursday, August 6, 2020
The Observer & Baker City Herald
Celebrating 20 years
The Potter’s Gift House
& Gallery hits a
landmark anniversary
By Dick Mason
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — About two
decades ago, artists Bob and Judy
Jensen tired of hauling their pot-
tery, paintings and ceramics to
sell at outdoor art galleries, so
they took things into their own
hands — they opened their own
gallery, the Potter’s House.
A hit from the start, the Pot-
ter’s Gift House & Gallery has
proven as enduring as the pottery
and paintings the Jensens create.
They are beginning a celebra-
tion of their 20th year in business
at their present location at the
corner of Sixth Street and Penn
Avenue, La Grande.
“We didn’t think we’d be open
this long. We thought we would
be too old by now,” Judy Jensen
said.
The years have been kind to
the Jensens, who today appear
as vibrant as ever, although they
are scaling back operations at
their gallery a bit to allow for
semi-retirement.
The Jensens do not miss the
trips they once made throughout
the Northwest while transporting
their works to galleries. Much of
their time was spent packing and
unpacking their crafts.
“It was exhausting,” Judy
Jensen said.
The roots of the Potter’s House
date back to 1995 when the Jen-
sens opened a summer gallery in
Joseph, Jensen Artforms, which
Editor’s Note
This article was originally
published by The Oregonian/Ore-
gonLive, one of more than a dozen
news organizations throughout
the state sharing their coverage
of the novel coronavirus outbreak
to help inform Oregonians about
this evolving heath issue.
By Mike Rogoway
The Oregonian/OregonLive
weight gain. More males mean
more beef and a smaller environ-
mental footprint.
But genome-editing is contro-
versial and complicated, and U.S.
Food and Drug Administration
regulations mean the likelihood
of Cosmo-like animals entering
the marketplace is slim.
Van Eenennaam said it all
started with a conversation.
“I was speaking to a producer,
and he flippantly said, ‘You
know, wouldn’t it be cool if you
could produce a bull that made
all boys?’ And I thought, ‘Well,
hmm, that might be possible.’”
When she won a $500,000
USDA grant, she and Joey Owen,
a graduate student, set to work.
To edit Cosmo, Owen and
Van Eenennaam used Crispr, a
genome-engineering technique.
Crispr uses a specialized stretch
of DNA that can act like a pair of
scissors to cut DNA strands.
SALEM — When the coro-
navirus shutdown hit Oregon in
March, Oregonians closed their
wallets.
Overall consumer spending
fell by as much as a third as the
state hunkered down to ride
out the pandemic. Spending in
a few categories, like transpor-
tation and restaurants, nearly
stopped, according to data from
Opportunity Insights, a Har-
vard-based economic research
team. Spending levels have
broadly recovered in the inter-
vening months, despite an enor-
mous spike in unemployment —
the state’s jobless rate was 11.2%
in June. Spending has been helped
along by stimulus payments and
supercharged unemployment ben-
efits. Oregon has paid out $3.2
billion in jobless claims during
the pandemic, even though tens
of thousands are still waiting for
their money.
As of mid-July, Oregon con-
sumer spending was off just 7%
compared to January.
That spending isn’t being dis-
tributed evenly, though.
Opportunity Insights esti-
mates that transportation, enter-
tainment and restaurant spending
in Oregon are all down more than
40% from January.
Health care and apparel
spending have largely rebounded,
meanwhile, and grocery spending
— which spiked as much as 60%
during the panic buying that
accompanied the early days of the
pandemic in March — remains
up 13%.
Opportunity Insights’ national
data show Oregon has closely
tracked national patterns.
“Most Americans believe that
the impact of the crisis on their
routines and personal finances
will last beyond the next four
months. This sentiment has made
consumers evaluate what they are
spending on and where more care-
fully,” consulting firm McKinsey
& Co. found in a survey released
See, Calf/Page 3B
See, Spending/Page 3B
Staff photo by Dick Mason/EO Media Group
Bob Jensen makes pottery at the Potter’s Gift House & Gallery, La Grande. Jensen creates stoneware and
raku pottery. The business is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
they ran for 10 years.
Since opening in 2000 in La
Grande, the Potter’s House has
been saluted by many, including
Oregonian columnist Gerry
Frank who listed the gallery as
one of the 400 best places to eat,
drink, stay or visit in the state
in the 2014 edition of his book
“Gerry Frank’s Oregon.” The
Potter’s House was one of two
La Grande stops Frank recom-
mended, the other being the Ten
Depot restaurant.
Frank’s recognition came two
years after the Union County
Chamber of Commerce named
the Potter’s House Gallery the
best gift shop in Union County.
Such honors recognize the
paintings, Judy Jensen’s restor-
ative furniture work and Bob
Jensen’s stoneware and raku
pottery.
A longtime educator, Bob
Jensen was burning the candle
at both ends in the early years
of the gallery for he also was an
art teacher at La Grande High
School. He taught there for 12
years before retiring after a
See, Celebrate/Page 3B
Meet Cosmo, the gene-edited Crispr calf
By Sierra Dawn McClain
Capital Press
DAVIS, Calif. — Five years of
research, half a million dollars,
dozens of failed attempts — and
now the calf was seven days late.
His due date, March 30, had
passed. Alison Van Eenennaam,
animal genomics researcher
at the University of Califor-
nia-Davis, recalled feeling
worried.
The calf’s surrogate mother,
Cow 3113, or “Elle,” was dilated,
but nothing was happening.
Finally, the vets broke the water,
put chains on the calf’s legs and
pulled him out.
“He had his tongue hanging
out of his mouth, and I was so
nervous. That would’ve been the
worst of all outcomes to lose him
then,” said Van Eenennaam.
He lived: 110 pounds, black
with a snowy spray on each back
leg and soon romping.
But this was no ordinary calf.
Cosmo was the grand finale of
Oregon
consumers
revive
spending
levels
Photo contributed by UC Davis/Capital Press
Cosmo, the genome-edited calf, with his surrogate mother, Cow 3113,
or “Elle.”
a series of experiments to create
a line of genome-edited cattle tai-
lored for the beef industry. He
was designed to produce 75%
male offspring.
Livestock researchers say
male cattle are 15% more effi-
cient at converting feed into
No masks, no distance: Pandemic wedding horrors for vendors
By Leanne Italie
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Wedding
planners, photographers and other
bridal vendors who make the
magic happen have a heap of new
worries in the middle of the pan-
demic: no-mask weddings, rising
guest counts and venues not fol-
lowing the rules.
Now that weddings have slowly
cranked up under a patchwork
of ever-shifting state and local
restrictions, horror stories from
vendors are rolling in. Many are
desperate to work after the coro-
navirus put an abrupt end to their
incomes and feel compelled to put
on their masks, grab their cameras
and hope for the best.
No-mask weddings, no social
distancing and dance floors pro-
hibited in many states have been
the talk of online groups for ven-
dors around the country.
“People have worked in venues
outright looking the other way on
masks and size,” said photogra-
pher Susan Stripling in New York.
Reports of COVID-19 out-
breaks traced to weddings remain
rare. One wedding was shut down
by local officials at a San Fran-
cisco church; the nearly 100
guests had been instructed by
the bridal couple to avoid the
public entrance and go in through
an underground parking garage
instead.
pher voluntarily remained inside
to work.
“I truly love my brides and
grooms, and then to be pressured
to risk my life is extremely dis-
appointing,” she said. “I have an
80-year-old mom.”
Working with deception
Photographer Cherie Schrader
in Chicago said she felt deceived
when she showed up for a July
wedding with 165 unmasked
people indoors after being assured
all safety precautions would be
taken.
There was no social distancing.
The crowd mingled at a happy
hour and the dance floor was
lively.
“I was told by the bride that it
was an indoor-outdoor venue, but
it was 95 degrees and they never
opened the doors,” she said. “The
tables were, at the most, 3 feet
apart,” she said, noting masks
should have been required at all
times under those conditions.
“It looked like a normal wed-
ding pre-COVID,” Schrader said.
The rule for indoor gather-
ings in her state was half a ven-
ue’s capacity or up to 50 people,
whichever was lower, she said.
Payment versus safety
AP Photo/Jorge Saenz, File
Groom Raul Benitez and bride Jenny Bonet wear protective face masks
as they kiss during their wedding ceremony at the Civil Registry office,
in Asuncion, Paraguay, on June 13.
Schrader, wearing two masks,
said she forced the bridal party
outside for formal pictures in the
heat and humidity.
“They complained because
they were all sweating, but I was
spending the least amount of time
as possible inside,” she said.
Schrader entered the venue,
which she would not name out
of fear of professional retribu-
tion, for short stints to shoot spe-
cial moments, such as the cake
cutting. An associate photogra-
Alexis Alvarez, a wedding
planner in Chicago, said she and
other vendors often have no prac-
tical recourse to recoup deposits
or full payments if they pull out.
She has a long-scheduled wed-
ding with a guest list of about
100 planned for October in Wis-
consin, where state health offi-
cials recently advised residents to
avoid gatherings of more than 10
through late August. The couple
had postponed once and might
do it again, as some couples have
done three times or more.
That, vendors said, has helped
drive a desire among brides and
grooms to just get it done, with
many choosing small, micro-wed-
dings instead of the larger affairs
they had dreamed of.
Whether the weddings are
See, Weddings/Page 3B