2A — THE OBSERVER
TODAY IN
HISTORY
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Jan. 19,
the 19th day of 2021. There
are 346 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY:
On Jan. 19, 1981, the Unit-
ed States and Iran signed an
accord paving the way for
the release of 52 Americans
held hostage for more than
14 months.
ON THIS DATE:
In 1809, author, poet and
critic Edgar Allan Poe was
born in Boston.
In 1861, Georgia became
the fi fth state to secede from
the Union.
In 1915, Germany carried
out its fi rst air raid on Britain
during World War I as a
pair of Zeppelins dropped
bombs onto Great Yarmouth
and King’s Lynn in England.
In 1937, millionaire How-
ard Hughes set a transcon-
tinental air record by fl ying
his monoplane from Los
Angeles to Newark, New
Jersey, in 7 hours, 28 min-
utes and 25 seconds.
In 1944, the federal
government relinquished
control of the nation’s
railroads to their owners
following settlement of a
wage dispute.
In 1955, a presidential
news conference was fi lmed
for television and newsreels
for the fi rst time, with the
permission of President
Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1980, retired Supreme
Court Justice William O.
Douglas died in Washington,
D.C., at age 81.
In 1987, Guy Hunt became
Alabama’s fi rst Republican
governor since 1874 as he
was sworn into offi ce, suc-
ceeding George C. Wallace.
In 2005, the American
Cancer Society reported that
cancer had passed heart
disease as the top killer
of Americans age 85 and
younger.
In 2006, Osama bin Lad-
en, in an audiotape that was
his fi rst in more than a year,
said al-Qaida was preparing
for attacks in the United
States; at the same time, he
offered a “long-term truce”
without specifying the
conditions. Vice President
Dick Cheney defended the
administration’s domes-
tic surveillance program,
calling it an essential tool
in monitoring al-Qaida and
other terrorist organizations.
In 2009, Russia and
Ukraine signed a deal restor-
ing natural gas shipments to
Ukraine to end to the nearly
two-week cutoff.
Ten years ago: Chinese
President Hu Jintao, visiting
the White House, declared
“a lot still needs to be done”
to improve his country’s
record on human rights; the
exchange with President
Barack Obama over human
rights was balanced by U.S.
delight over newly an-
nounced Chinese business
deals expected to generate
about $45 billion in new
export sales for the U.S.
Five years ago: Republi-
can presidential front-runner
Donald Trump received the
endorsement of Sarah Palin,
giving the businessman a
potential boost less than
two weeks before Iowa’s
kick-off caucuses.
Rally draws positive response Baker
UMATILLA —
Three inmates who
tested positive for
COVID-19 in the
ongoing outbreak at
Two Rivers Correc-
tional Institution in
Umatilla died over the
weekend, according to
press releases from the
Oregon Department of
Corrections, bringing
the death toll among
adults in custody at the
prison to seven since
January began.
More than 500
inmates and 74 staff at
TRCI have tested pos-
itive for COVID-19
since infection began to
spread rapidly through
the prison in December.
The institution is suf-
fering the largest out-
break among prisons
in Oregon, with 268
active cases among
AICs as of Jan. 14,
according to data from
the Oregon Department
of Corrections.
The fi rst two inmates
who died over the
County
back in
extreme
category
By DICK MASON
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
United States electoral
process received a heartfelt
show of support Sunday,
Jan. 17, in downtown La
Grande.
Three Union County
residents expressed their
support of the 2020 pres-
idential election results at
a two-hour rally outside
La Grande City Hall at
the corner of Fourth Street
and Adams Avenue. The
trio held signs displaying
“Don’t Believe the Lies,”
“Support Democracy” and
“Support the Election.”
The FBI warned of
demonstrations and pos-
sible violent protests
objecting to the 2020 pres-
idential election results
at state capitals and in
Washington, D.C., as the
Wednesday, Jan. 20, inau-
guration of President-elect
Joe Biden approaches.
Toby Neuman of La
Grande, who organized
the event, said violence
certainly was not the point
of Sunday’s demonstration
in front of La Grande City
Hall.
“We wanted to show
our support in a positive
way,” Neuman said.
He said the event,
which ran from 11 a.m.
to 1 p.m, was not about
partisanship.
“We were not trying to
take a stand for one side or
another. We were trying
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
Dick Mason/The Observer
Union County residents Toby Neuman, left, and Sean Lerner participate in a rally Sun-
day, Jan. 17, 2021, in downtown La Grande to show support for the 2020 presidential
election results and the science regarding the pandemic.
”We were not trying to take a stand for one side or
another. We were trying to show support for our
democracy. We wanted to have a positive infl uence.”
— Toby Neuman, La Grande
to show support for our
democracy,” Neuman said.
“We wanted to have a pos-
itive infl uence.”
Neuman’s wife,
Meghan Moore, their
3-year-old son, Jasper, and
a friend, Sean Lerner of
La Grande, joined in the
showing.
“A lot of people honked
in support or gave us a
thumbs-up,” said Neuman,
who relied on text mes-
sages rather than social
media to organize the
event and talked with La
Grande police about it as
well.
Neuman said only two
people openly objected
with obscene gestures.
The party’s signs also
included one stating,
“Believe in Science.”
Neuman explained this
was to encourage people
to take seriously the infor-
mation medical profes-
sionals are providing
about the COVID-19 pan-
demic. Neuman said it is
unfortunate many people
are ignoring what doctors
are saying because of an
anti-intellectual sentiment.
Lostine residents feel earthquake
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
WALLOWA COUNTY
— Gay Behnke was up
reading late Monday
evening, Jan. 4, when
she heard what she fi rst
thought was a sonic boom.
“I just happened to
be up, about 11:30 at
night, (and heard) this
loud boom, and I mean a
boom,” she said. “I have
since learned that that
does accompany an earth-
quake. I did not realize
that.”
Her home, on Tamarack
Road about 7 miles south
of Lostine, started shaking
shortly after.
“I have a real old
antique lamp, and it
started swaying,” she said.
Behnke and her neigh-
bors — two who were
awake at the time and six
others who were awakened
— had felt the shaking
from a small tremor, a
magnitude 2.4 on the
Richter scale. The quake
shook about 9.3 miles
southwest of Lostine —
and just under 7 miles
west of Behnke and her
neighbors — at 11:30 p.m.,
Umatilla prison
COVID-19 outbreak
claims three more lives
East Oregonian
TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 2021
LOCAL/REGION
weekend were between
75 to 85 years old and
died Saturday, Jan. 16,
the press releases said.
The third was between
55 and 65 and died
Sunday. Each died at a
local hospital.
The corrections
department did not dis-
close the names of the
inmates who died. It
also did not disclose
whether or not they
had underlying health
conditions.
Two Rivers
has reported more
COVID-19 cases among
AICs than any other
prison in Oregon since
the pandemic began,
with 599 cases, and
the third most among
staff, with 107 cases,
according to ODOC
data.
Since the pandemic
began, 32 inmates in
Oregon prisons have
died after testing pos-
itive for COVID-19.
In all, nearly 2,994
inmates and 744 staff
have tested positive.
according to data on the
United States Geological
Survey website.
It’s not the fi rst time
Behnke has been close to
an earthquake.
“I was over in the Wil-
lamette Valley when the
big earthquake hit and did
damage in Sublimity,”
she said, referring to a 5.6
magnitude quake east of
Salem in 1993.
This quake, though,
had an element she hadn’t
heard in Sublimity — the
loud boom.
“This was new to me,”
she said. “I have been in
earthquakes.”
She noted a couple dif-
ferences between the two
quakes.
“First, there was no
boom to get my attention,”
she said of the Sublimity
shake. “The ground just
started rolling. My house
did shake, and it was early
in the morning.”
The quake early this
month was one of two that
hit in the same region that
night.
A second quake was
recorded early Tuesday
morning, Jan. 5, at
United States Geological Survey/Screenshot
Two earthquakes, including one felt by residents south
of Lostine, hit during the overnight hours of Jan. 4-5,
2021. The two were among four earthquakes in less than
four weeks that had an epicenter in Wallowa County,
though none of the other three were reportedly felt.
1:24 a.m. The quake was
smaller at magnitude 1.7,
but was about 1.9 miles
closer to Lostine.
The fi rst quake that
night was relatively
shallow at just over a mile
deep. The second quake,
which was not felt, was
registered at a depth of 6.2
miles.
The earthquakes are
actually the third and
fourth in Wallowa County
reported by the USGS in
the past month — all of
them in the same region.
Warm glow of a winter
wonderland
Phil Wright/The Observer
The display on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, in
the front window of Clank-Tronix in downtown La Grande
is just one of the treasures inside. Clank-Tronix owner
and operator Tim Osterloh said he has managed to keep
the business that buys, sells and trades everything from
video games to comic books going through the pandemic
with the help of grants and the customers who continue
making appointments.
A magnitude 2.2 quake
was reported at 4:31 a.m.
Dec. 18, 2020 — though
about 7 miles deep — and
a week earlier, on Dec. 11,
a quake of 1.5 magnitude
just after 5 a.m. hit at a
depth of 6.9 miles.
Behnke, a retired edu-
cator, said she didn’t
expect to be feeling any
quakes — even small
ones — after moving to
rural Wallowa County.
“I just thought I
was done with earth-
quakes,” she said.
BAKER COUNTY —
Baker County’s respite from
Oregon’s most extreme
COVID-19 restrictions will
last just two weeks.
The county, which
moved from the extreme-
risk category to the high-
risk on Jan. 1, returned
to the extreme designa-
tion Friday, Jan. 15. Baker
County Commissioner
Mark Bennett said he was
disappointed.
“I thought I could lobby
our way out of extreme,”
said Bennett, who has
served as the county’s inci-
dent commander during
the pandemic. “We’re not
happy. It’s not what we
wanted.”
Restaurant owner Tyler
Brown shares Bennett’s
dismay. Brown owns Barley
Brown’s Brew Pub and Tap
House, and his family also
owns Sumpter Junction
restaurant, all in Baker City.
Sumpter Junction has
been closed since March
because the layout of its
booths makes it unfea-
sible to operate even with
limited indoor dining. But
Brown said his pub has
been open for indoor dining
— albeit with a limit of 50
people, including staff and
customers — since Baker
County dropped to the
high-risk category.
Business was brisk last
weekend, and Brown said
he had nine to 10 employees
working.
With the county
returning to the extreme-
risk category, and restau-
rants limited to takeout,
Brown said he’ll need just
three or four workers.
“It’s incredibly frus-
trating,” Brown said of
the biweekly shifts from
limited indoor dining to
takeout. “We are not in con-
trol of our future.”
As a county with a pop-
ulation between 15,000 and
30,000 (Baker County has
about 16,800 residents),
Baker is in the extreme-risk
category if it exceeds either
of two measurements:
• a test positivity rate of
10% or higher during a two-
week measuring period.
• 60 or more new cases
over the two-week mea-
suring period.
The county’s risk level,
for Jan. 15-28, is based on
COVID-19 fi gures from
Dec. 27 through Jan. 9.
Baker City has new mayor
SAMANTHA O’CONNER
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — Kerry
McQuisten is Baker City’s
new mayor.
City councilors, who
choose the mayor from
among their colleagues,
elected McQuisten by a 6-1
vote Tuesday night, Jan.
12, at city hall. Councilor
Lynette Perry nominated
McQuisten.
Councilor Heather Sells
voted for Shane Alderson.
Sells and Alderson are, like
McQuisten, new councilors
who were elected Nov. 3.
“I feel humbled by the
confi dence voters and then
the other elected coun-
cilors have shown in me,”
McQuisten said. “I’m also
grateful for the chance to
do some good in the com-
munity as mayor. My hope
is that more citizens will
turn out and start making
their voices heard. I think
the new city manager and
council will bring some
positive new changes,
which is exciting.”
The council, also by a
6-1 margin, elected Perry as
vice mayor. Councilor Jason
Spriet voted for Alderson.
McQuisten nominated
Perry.
Baker City’s charter
doesn’t give the mayor veto
power. The mayor presides
over city council meet-
ings, enforces council rules
and signs ordinances and
resolutions.
The vice mayor assumes
those duties when the
mayor isn’t available.
The 20-minute meeting
was the fi rst for fi ve of the
six councilors elected Nov.
3 — McQuisten, Sells,
Alderson, Joanna Dixon
and Johnny Waggoner Sr.
Spriet, the lone incum-
bent on the Nov. 3 ballot,
also was elected.
Perry was elected to a
four-year term in 2018 and
was not on the ballot.
It also was the fi rst
meeting for City Manager
Jonathan Cannon, whom
the previous council hired
in November.
All seven councilors
attended the meeting in
person at city hall.
Four of the new coun-
cilors — McQuisten,
Dixon, Waggoner and
Alderson — gathered on
the front steps of city hall
Jan. 12 at 4 p.m. to be
sworn in. The councilors
requested that option due
to occupancy limits in city
hHall prompted by the
COVID-19 pandemic.