LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
On Jan. 4, 2007, Nancy Pelosi
was elected the first female
speaker of the House as Demo-
crats took control of Congress.
In 1821, the first native-born
American saint, Elizabeth Ann
Seton, died in Maryland.
In 1935, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, in his State of the
Union address, called for legis-
lation to provide assistance for
the jobless, elderly, impover-
ished children and the disabled.
In 1948, Burma (now called
Myanmar) became indepen-
dent of British rule.
In 1964, Pope Paul VI began
a visit to the Holy Land, the first
papal pilgrimage of its kind
In 1965, President Lyndon B.
Johnson delivered his State of
the Union address in which he
outlined the goals of his “Great
Society.”
In 1974, President Richard
Nixon refused to hand over
tape recordings and documents
subpoenaed by the Senate
Watergate Committee.
In 1987, 16 people were
killed when an Amtrak train
bound from Washington, D.C.,
to Boston collided with Conrail
locomotives that had crossed
into its path from a side track in
Chase, Maryland.
In 1990, Charles Stuart,
who’d claimed that he’d been
wounded and his pregnant
wife fatally shot by a robber,
leapt to his death off a Boston
bridge after he himself became
a suspect.
In 1999, Europe’s new cur-
rency, the euro, got off to a
strong start on its first trading
day, rising against the dollar on
world currency markets. Former
professional wrestler Jesse Ven-
tura took the oath of office as
Minnesota’s governor.
In 2002, Sgt. 1st Class Nathan
Ross Chapman, a U.S. Army Spe-
cial Forces soldier, was killed
by small-arms fire during an
ambush in eastern Afghanistan;
he was the first American mil-
itary death from enemy fire in
the war against terrorism.
In 2006, Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon suffered a signifi-
cant stroke; his official powers
were transferred to his deputy,
Ehud Olmert. (Sharon remained
in a coma until his death in Jan-
uary 2014.)
In 2015, Pope Francis named
156 new cardinals, selecting
them from 14 countries,
including far-flung corners of
the world, to reflect the diver-
sity of the Roman Catholic
church and its growth in places
like Asia and Africa.
Ten years ago: Defying
Republican lawmakers, Presi-
dent Barack Obama barreled
past the Senate by using a
recess appointment to name
Richard Cordray the first
director of the Consumer Finan-
cial Protection Bureau.
Five years ago: President
Barack Obama urged congres-
sional Democrats to “look out
for the American people” in
defending his legacy health
care overhaul, while Vice Pres-
ident-elect Mike Pence stood
firm in telling Republicans that
dismantling “Obamacare” was
No. 1 on Donald Trump’s list.
One year ago: At a cam-
paign rally in Georgia for the
Republican candidates in the
state’s U.S. Senate runoff elec-
tions, President Donald Trump
declared that he would “fight
like hell” to hold on to the pres-
idency and appealed to Repub-
lican lawmakers to reverse his
election loss. Bracing for vio-
lence, the nation’s capital mobi-
lized the National Guard ahead
of planned protests by Trump
supporters in connection with
the congressional vote to affirm
Joe Biden’s election victory.
LOTTERY
Friday, Dec. 31, 2021
Megamillions
2-5-30-46-61
Megaball: 8
Megaplier: 3
Jackpot: $244 million
Lucky Lines
3-6-11-13-18-23-28-32
Jackpot: $63,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 1-6-6-3
4 p.m.: 1-4-1-2
7 p.m.: 2-8-5-7
10 p.m.: 7-2-3-4
Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022
Powerball
6-12-39-48-50
Powerball: 7
Power Play: 2
Jackpot: $540 million
Megabucks
1-4-20-23-40-46
Jackpot: $7.8 million
Lucky Lines
2-5-12-16-20-21-28-30
Jackpot: $64,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 2-9-7-8
4 p.m.: 8-3-4-6
7 p.m.: 5-1-1-1
10 p.m.: 7-4-5-7
Win for Life
28-52-55-70
Sunday, Jan. 2, 2022
Lucky Lines
4-8-12-15-20-24-26-32
Estimated jackpot: $65,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 0-6-1-8
4 p.m.: 7-0-0-6
7 p.m.: 6-6-3-2
10 p.m.: 4-5-1-1
TuESday, JanuaRy 4, 2022
Cattle, calves
rescued
from deep
NE Oregon
snows
La Grande rings in the new year
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Photos by alex Wittwer/The Observer
Above, crowds gather
to keep warm near fires
and, at left, revelers ring
in the new year as the
ball drops at the New
Year’s Eve block party on
Adams Avenue and De-
pot Street in La Grande
on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021.
More than 100 braved
the frigid temperatures
— which dropped to 11
degrees below zero and
shattered the previous
record — to welcome
in 2022. Free hot dogs,
hot chocolate, cider and
cookies, as well as a scav-
enger hunt, were some of
the attractions featured
at the annual event.
Native grasses damaged by a vandal
Twenty acres of native grassland ruined
at Cove Ascension School Camp
By DICK MASON
The Observer
COVE — The Ascen-
sion School Camp and
Conference Center in Cove
will be involved in exten-
sive reseeding work this
spring.
The reseeding will be
necessary after a vandal
damaged a field filled
with native grasses in late
December.
“Someone went four-
wheeling and really ripped
out all of the grass,” said
Amy Jayne, executive
director of the Ascension
School Camp and Confer-
ence Center.
The vandal drove a
vehicle over 20 acres of
land filled with 12 native
grasses being grown by the
Ascension School Camp
and Conference Center.
The native grasses dam-
aged include big bluegrass,
Idaho fescue and western
wheatgrass.
It will cost more than
$1,000 to reseed the native
grasses, Jayne said.
The 20 acres of partially
damaged land is part of 80
acres of land at the Ascen-
sion School Camp where
native vegetation is grown.
It includes a 40-acre field
where native plants are
being grown as a part
of a federal government
Conservation Resources
Enhancement Program. A
small portion of this land
was also damaged by the
vandal.
The Ascension School
Camp and Conference
Center and the federal gov-
ernment share the cost of
maintaining the native veg-
etation on the Conserva-
tion Resources Enhance-
ment Program land.
The 80 acres of land,
in addition to its native
grasses, has native vegeta-
tion including willow trees,
serviceberries and camas.
All of this native vegeta-
tion is protected by fencing
around individual plants.
Jayne said one reason it
is important to reseed the
land is that it is part of the
Ascension School Camp’s
outdoor school program,
which serves school groups
throughout the state who
come to participate in four
day, three night programs.
Jayne said it was dis-
heartening to first see the
damage inflicted in late
December.
“It was really disap-
pointing,” she said.
Jayne said the native
plant program has been
very popular in Cove and
that the vandalism incident
was out of the ordinary.
“It was an isolated inci-
dent. The community has
been overwhelmingly sup-
portive,” she said.
Suspect in New Year’s Eve shootout on I-84 dies
The Observer
PENDLETON — The
Pendleton Police Depart-
ment in a press release Sat-
urday, Jan. 1, reported the
suspect law enforcement
pursued on New Year’s Eve
from Union County into
Umatilla County has died.
Police identified the sus-
pect as Nicholas Russell
Proudfoot, 30, of North
Bend, Washington.
The pursuit began the
morning of Friday, Dec.
31, after the theft of a
vehicle in Ukiah at 6 a.m.,
according to a press release
that day from the Uma-
tilla County District Attor-
ney’s Office. The Union
County Sheriff’s Office at
about 10:45 a.m. attempted
to stop the vehicle in Union
County.
The report from Dec.
31 stated law enforce-
ment caught the suspect
at 11:53 a.m. and took him
into custody at gunpoint.
Officers took the suspect
to a hospital for medical
attention.
But the press release
Jan. 1 from the Pendleton
Police Department presents
more information.
Pendleton police
reported the chase ended
on Interstate 84 at approx-
imately milepost 223 on
Cabbage Hill, about 13
miles east of Pendleton.
The suspect fired sev-
eral rounds at an Oregon
State Police trooper and
civilians as he fled and car-
jacked occupied vehicles
on the interstate, Pend-
leton police reported. The
trooper and one civilian
who was a victim of a car-
jacking returned fire at the
suspect.
“The incident ended
after the suspect’s stolen
vehicle became disabled,”
according to the press
release, “and he was found
unresponsive with an
injury to his head.”
Pendleton police
reported law enforce-
ment performed lifesaving
efforts and an ambulance
took Proudfoot to a hos-
pital, but he succumbed to
his injuries at 9 p.m. Dec.
31.
No civilians or law
enforcement officers were
injured during this chase
and shooting.
At approximately
noon that day, Pendleton
Police Department, at the
request of the Umatilla
County District Attorney’s
Office and in compliance
with the Umatilla County
Deadly Physical Force
Plan, assumed control of
the investigation. Police
also reported there will be
an autopsy to determine
the manner and cause of
Proudfoot’s death.
The investigation of
multiple crime scenes led
to the shutdown of I-84
between mileposts 237
and 223 on both the east
and westbound sides until
about 9:30 p.m.
The investigation also
is relying on resources
from Hermiston Police
Department, Umatilla
Tribal Police Department,
Umatilla County Sher-
iff’s Office, Union County
Sheriff’s Office, Oregon
State Police and its crime
lab and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
“Once the investigation
is complete,” according to
the press release, “all mate-
rial will be turned over to
the Umatilla County Dis-
trict Attorney.”
NEWS BRIEF
Home builders association
offering scholarship
opportunity
HERMISTON — The Northeast
Oregon Home Builders Association
is offering two $1,500 scholarships
to help educate and train individuals
in a profession related to the building
industry.
Scholarship recipients will be
selected on the basis of their potential
to succeed.
Applicants must currently be
a senior enrolled in high school,
enrolled as a college student or
in a qualified apprenticeship pro-
gram. The students must be a res-
ident of Umatilla, Morrow, Union,
Baker or Wallowa counties and have
an interest in or intend to pursue a
career in the construction profes-
sion, including welding, heating and
ventilation, heavy equipment oper-
ator, carpentry, electrical, plumbing,
concrete, construction management,
architecture/engineering.
To learn more about building trade
career opportunities, go online to the
Oregon State Building and Construc-
tion Trades Council or visit the dif-
ferent colleges that offer construction
management degrees.
Scholarship application forms are
available online at www.neohba.com
or www.columbiabasinstudenthomes.
org.
The deadline to apply is April 15.
— The Observer
IMNAHA — Rescue
efforts are still underway
to save dozens of cattle
stranded in up to 7 feet of
snow on a Northeastern
Oregon grazing allotment.
The cattle — many of
which had young calves —
were mired in deep snow
on U.S. Forest Service land
in the Upper Imnaha area,
Wallowa County Sheriff
Joel Fish confirmed on
Friday, Dec. 31.
Fish said the sher-
iff’s office is investigating
and “assisting with the
retrieval of the cattle on
the Forest Service grazing
permits on the Marr Flat
C&H Allotment. We have
had deputies on snowmo-
biles assisting.”
Numerous volunteers
were helping in the rescue
efforts, according to Todd
Nash, chair of the Wal-
lowa County Commission,
and volunteers with the
Wallowa County Humane
Society.
Social media alert
One of the first wide-
spread alerts came in a
Facebook post by Craig
Stockdale, who was one
of the first to discover the
cattle on the 200 Road
south of Salt Creek.
“I just came upon them
snowmobiling,” Stockdale
said Jan. 1.
He said his social media
post mobilized rescuers —
both those out finding the
cattle and those with facil-
ities to care for the rescued
livestock.
On Dec. 29, Kathy
Gisler Reynolds, a vol-
unteer with the Humane
Society, also shared a post
of the cattle. Photos posted
on Facebook showed a cow
up to its neck in snow and
unable to move.
“I was alerted to it yes-
terday by the ranchers who
have been out there trying
to save them,” Reynolds
said Dec. 30.
“Some were too weak to
even move,” she said of the
cattle, adding that although
rescuers were able to
retrieve calves, some of
the adult cows had to be
euthanized.
Stockdale and Anna
Butterfield, who with her
husband, Mark, ranches
northeast of Joseph, con-
firmed the cattle are on the
Bob Dean Oregon Ranch
managed by B.J. Warnock.
Dean lives out of town and
Warnock was unavailable
for comment Jan. 1.
County involved
Nash — who is a
rancher and president of the
Oregon Cattlemen’s Asso-
ciation — said Dec. 30
information on the situation
was limited.
“The things we do know
is that this was a Forest
Service permit for the
Upper Big Sheep Creek and
the Upper Imnaha. It takes
in a large area — 72,000
acres — known as the
Marr Flat Grazing Allot-
ment. They had a viable
permit to go on sometime
in the spring. They were
supposed to have all cattle
removed, according to the
Forest Service permit,”
Nash said.
“There is a rescue effort
being made right now to
try and rescue as many
as possible. We’ve com-
mitted county resources to
it. There’ve been a number
of people who have volun-
teered or have contributed
time,” he said. “There have
been helicopters that have
flown feed into some that
were extremely isolated,
and the rescue continues.
Those are the basic facts
that I do know.
Compounding the heavy
snowfall that came all at
once, rain and heavy snow
brought down trees across
a lot of the access roads in
the area, Nash added.