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INSIDE WEE BIT O’ IRELAND RETURNS — IN
Wee Bi
t o ’ I r e
re
OLCC
bans
Russian
vodkas
Cove resident Grant Darrow
is articulating the frustrations
many Eastern Oregonians feel
By DICK MASON
The Observer
C
Stirred by the Russian
military invasion of
Ukraine, OLCC bans
Russian vodka from
liquor store shelves
OVE — Grant Darrow is a man of
letters.
The Cove resident has penned so
many letters to newspapers over the past
four decades about pressing issues that he
has lost count.
One stands out, however, with the gran-
deur of 12,662-foot Borah Peak in Cen-
tral Idaho. It is a letter clipped from The
Observer and kept in a black notebook.
The letter is fading slightly, unlike the
movement it helped ignite. Darrow, in his
391-word piece, published in The Observer
on June 29, 2015, pushed for a sea change
— the moving of Idaho’s border west so
Photos by Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Grant Darrow, a retired chimney sweep and Cove resident, poses for a photo outside his home
on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022. Darrow has been leading local eff orts in the campaign to change
the Oregon-Idaho border and allow Eastern Oregon to become part of Greater Idaho.
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — The Oregon
Liquor and Cannabis Commis-
sion banned the sale of Russian
vodkas in all Oregon liquor stores
on Monday, Feb. 28, following the
Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Independent operators of liquor
stores were directed to take Rus-
sian vodkas off their shelves,
aligning Oregon with other states
that have acted to ban the sale of
Russian-made products as a part of
economic sanctions against Rus-
sian-operated businesses, according
to a press release from the OLCC.
In Oregon, the OLCC eff ec-
tively owns the supply of alcohol
in the state, serving as a state-run
monopoly for the industry.
“The state controls all the liquor
that is in the store,” said Liberty
O’Dell, manager at La Grande
Liquor and Smoke Shoppe. “In
fact, they are still the owners of the
liquor. We’re beholden as agents of
the state to follow their guidance.
We don’t take steps ahead of the
OLCC when they make guidance
like that. It’s similar to a library
in that we don’t actually own the
product. The liquor is owned by the
state.”
Customers in and out of the
liquor store commented in passing
about the banning of Russian
vodka from store shelves. La
Grande Liquor, however, had only
two bottles of Russian-made vodka
— Russian Standard Vodka — and
O’Dell said it was “an item that
doesn’t sell very well in the fi rst
place.”
Customers were understanding,
according to O’Dell.
“I think everybody understands
why we’re doing it,” he said. “The
question we’ve been getting is
‘what’s Ukrainian vodka — and
how do I get some?’ So my next
order, that’s what I’ll be doing, is
ordering some Ukrainian vodka.”
SUPPORTING A
See, Border/Page A7
MOVEMENT
“Getting people at the state level to talk about it is the next step. We need to get more
dialogue, to get everybody talking about it. We have to get it out there.”
— Grant Darrow of Cove
See, Vodka/Page A7
Legislators push for money to train in the science of reading
Majority of Oregon’s 4th, 8th graders are not proficient in reading, national data shows
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Nearly 3,000
teachers in Oregon schools serving
students with the highest needs
could soon get paid to learn more
about the science of reading.
Rep. Barbara Smith Warner,
D-Portland, is asking her col-
leagues in the Joint Ways and
Means Committee of the legisla-
ture to allocate $31 million of Ore-
gon’s federal COVID relief funds
for schools, as well as money from
the state’s Student Investment
Account, to bring teachers up to
date in how to teach reading.
A portion of the funding would
also pay for tutoring that can get
struggling students up to grade
level in reading. Both the teacher
training and student tutoring would
be administered online by Eastern
Oregon University, La Grande, and
would be available to K-5 teachers
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Levy
Smith
Smith
Warner
and students in more than 60
school districts that have four-year
graduation rates below 67% and
that qualify for “targeted support
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and improvement” under the fed-
eral Every Student Succeeds Act.
“We know that kids are further
behind than ever in their learning,”
Smith Warner said. “This just feels
like such a smart, focused thing
that we can do. Not only are you
teaching teachers how to teach
reading better, but it will always be
with them no matter what school
they go to.”
Smith Warner has the support of
several colleagues, including Reps.
Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, and
See, Reading/Page A7
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 27
3 sections, 32 pages
La Grande, Oregon
Email story ideas
to news@lagrande
observer.com.
More contact info
on Page A4.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com