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TUESDAY • February 23, 2021 • $1.50
Good day to our valued subscriber Sharon Tarter of Elgin
Congressman
hopes politics
align on dams
Proposal includes
removing earthen berms
at 4 Lower Snake River
hydroelectric dams
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — Nearly
two decades ago, Republican
President George W. Bush stood
on a bank of the Snake River
near Pasco, Washington, and
declared that four hydroelectric
dams would not be torn down on
his watch, though many blamed
them for killing endangered
salmon.
This month, Republican U.S.
Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho
issued a bold plan that called
for removing those same dams
to save the salmon. In between
those two acts were decades of
litigation that show no sign of
ending and $17 billion worth of
improvements to the dams that
did little to help fi sh.
Now the question is: Can
Simpson’s plan win approval
from Congress and the Biden
administration and help save an
iconic Pacifi c Northwest species
from extinction?
Other Republicans are vowing
to save the dams. Democrats
have come out in support of
Simpson’s plan, which calls for
spending $33 billion to breach
four dams, replace the lost
hydroelectric energy with other
sources and ensure that irriga-
tion, river navigation and fl ood
control will continue as before.
The issue of what to do with
the Snake River dams has long
divided the Pacifi c Northwest,
with Democrats generally siding
with saving the salmon and
Republicans saying it’s foolish to
remove hydropower resources in
the era of climate change.
But Lindsay Slater, Simp-
son’s chief of staff, said the polit-
ical winds are blowing in favor
of a solution to this decades-long
controversy.
For one thing, the Biden
administration is preparing a
massive economic relief package
for the nation, and Simpson
wants the Northwest to designate
this solution to the salmon issues
for the region’s share of the
package, Slater said. For another,
Democratic control of the Senate
has propelled numerous longtime
senators from the Northwest into
committee leadership positions
for the fi rst time in years, he said.
“There is all this seniority
in the Northwest,” Slater said,
pointing to Washington
Sens. Patty Murray and
Maria Cantwell and Oregon
Sen. Ron Wyden.
See, Dams/Page 3A
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Sheriff Cody Bowen stands in the Union County Sheriff’s Offi ce in La Grande on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. Bowen won the election in Novem-
ber 2020.
Changing of the sheriff
Cody Bowen brings new
eyes, new thinking to Union
County Sheriff’s Office
By PHIL WRIGHT
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A little dust and dirt
showed on the black polo shirt Union Coun-
ty’s new sheriff wore, a refl ection of the
work he’s been helping with just feet from
his cramped offi ce.
Sheriff Cody Bowen took time late
Friday afternoon, Feb. 19, for an interview
with The Observer. Three days earlier the
lanky Bowen kicked a hole through a wall
in a nearby room, signaling the start of some
demolition and renovation. The move was as
much symbolic as literal.
That wall divided the break areas for the
patrol deputies and their supervisors, cre-
ating small spaces for both. Removing it and
adding some other upgrades, he said, makes
the space more useful and roomy. It also
shows he wants the sheriff’s offi ce to func-
tion as a team.
Now almost two months into the post,
Bowen said he aims to be a hands-on
sheriff, out on patrol and available, who is
not looking to micromanage his staff. He
said the supervisors in the sheriff’s offi ce
are experienced and capable of overseeing
patrol, correction and dispatching services.
“I want them to be able to do their jobs,”
Alex Wittwer/The Observer
Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen leans over a piece of drywall in the sheriff’s offi ce on
Friday, Feb. 19, 2021. One of Bowen’s fi rst acts as sheriff was to begin making renovations
to the headquarters in La Grande, including tearing down a wall between deputies and
supervisors.
he said. “That’s why they’re there. Let them
shine.”
Getting into the job
Boyd Rasmussen was seeking a fi fth term
amid rumors the Oregon Department of
Justice was investigating him for misusing
the offi ce. The DOJ in late April revealed
it looked into several accusations against
Bowen jumped into the race for sheriff
in late January 2020 to defeat his then boss.
See, Sheriff/Page 5A
U.S. pandemic toll: in 1 year, half a million lives
By JOCELYN GECKER
Associated Press
Just one year ago, America
had no idea.
Life in February 2020 still felt
normal. Concern was building
about a mystery respiratory ill-
ness that had just been named
COVID-19. There was panic
buying, and a sense of trepida-
tion. Yet it was tempered by a
large dose of American opti-
mism. The coronavirus still felt
like a foreign problem, even as
U.S. authorities recorded the
country’s fi rst known death from
the virus.
Precisely a year later,
America is hurtling toward a
horrifying milestone of 500,000
deaths from COVID-19.
INDEX
Classified ...... 2B
Comics .......... 5B
Crossword .... 2B
Dear Abby .... 6B
A relentless march of death
and tragedy has warped time
and memory. It became easy to
forget the shocking images, so
many day after day, of scenes
once unthinkable in a country of
such wealth and power. As the
year unfolded, Associated Press
photographers formed a pictorial
record of suffering, emotion and
resilience. It shows the year that
changed America.
Looking back, we can see it
happened in phases.
The crisis felt far away
Last February, Americans
still greeted each other with
See, Toll/Page 5A
WEATHER
Home ............ 1B
Horoscope .... 3B
Lottery........... 3A
Obituaries ..... 3A
THURSDAY
Opinion ......... 4A
State .............. 6A
Sudoku ......... 5B
Weather ........ 6B
John Minchillo/AP Photo
Medical workers treat a patient on April 20, 2020, whom emergency
medical personnel delivered from a nursing home showing symp-
toms of COVID-19 at a hospital in Yonkers, New York.
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Wednesday
24 LOW
38/19
A little snow
Periods of sun
EOU LOSO HALL UPDATE
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 23
2 sections, 12 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page 4A.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com