LOCAL
A2 — THE OBSERVER
TODAY
In 1413, the coronation of
England’s King Henry V took place
in Westminster Abbey.
In 1939, Marian Anderson per-
formed a concert at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington, D.C.,
after the Black singer was denied
the use of Constitution Hall by
the Daughters of the American
Revolution.
In 1940, during World War II,
Germany invaded Denmark and
Norway.
In 1942, during World War II,
some 75,000 Philippine and Amer-
ican defenders on Bataan surren-
dered to Japanese troops, who
forced the prisoners into what
became known as the Bataan
Death March; thousands died or
were killed en route.
In 1959, NASA presented its
first seven astronauts: Scott Car-
penter, Gordon Cooper, John
Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra,
Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton.
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, 91,
died in Phoenix, Arizona.
In 1968, funeral services, private
and public, were held for Martin
Luther King Jr. at the Ebenezer
Baptist Church and Morehouse
College in Atlanta, five days after
the civil rights leader was assassi-
nated in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1979, officials declared an end
to the crisis involving the Three
Mile Island Unit 2 nuclear reactor in
Pennsylvania, 12 days after a par-
tial core meltdown.
In 1996, in a dramatic shift of
purse-string power, President Bill
Clinton signed a line-item veto
bill into law. (However, the U.S.
Supreme Court struck down the
veto in 1998.)
In 2003, jubilant Iraqis cele-
brated the collapse of Saddam
Hussein’s regime, beheading a
toppled statue of their longtime
ruler in downtown Baghdad and
embracing American troops as
liberators.
In 2005, Britain’s Prince Charles
married longtime love Camilla
Parker Bowles, who took the title
Duchess of Cornwall.
In 2010, Supreme Court Justice
John Paul Stevens announced his
retirement. (His vacancy was filled
by Elena Kagan.)
In 2020, the government
reported that 6.6 million people
had sought unemployment ben-
efits in the preceding week,
bringing the total to 16.8 million in
the three weeks since the corona-
virus outbreak took hold. The Food
and Drug Administration sent a
warning letter to conspiracy the-
orist and radio host Alex Jones,
telling him to stop pitching bogus
remedies for the coronavirus.
Ten years ago: A Florida spe-
cial prosecutor said a grand jury
would not look into the Trayvon
Martin case, leaving the decision
of whether to charge the teen’s
shooter in her hands alone. (Prose-
cutor Angela Corey ended up filing
second-degree murder charges
against George Zimmerman,
who pleaded not guilty, claiming
self-defense; Zimmerman was
acquitted at trial.)
Five years ago: Suicide bombers
struck hours apart at two Coptic
churches in northern Egypt, killing
43 people and turning Palm Sunday
services into scenes of horror and
outrage. Sergio Garcia beat Justin
Rose in a sudden-death playoff at
the Masters for his first major.
One year ago: Britain’s Prince
Philip, husband of Queen Eliza-
beth II, died at the age of 99; he
was Britain’s longest-serving con-
sort. Hip-hop icon DMX died at
a hospital in White Plains, New
York, days after suffering what offi-
cials called a catastrophic cardiac
arrest; the Grammy-nominated
rapper and actor was 50. Kentucky
Gov. Andy Beshear signed a par-
tial ban on no-knock warrants a
year after the fatal shooting of Bre-
onna Taylor.
Today’s birthdays: Satirical
songwriter and mathematician
Tom Lehrer is 94. Actor Michael
Learned is 83. Actor Dennis Quaid
is 68. Country musician Dave Innis
(Restless Heart) is 63. Talk show
host Joe Scarborough is 59. Actor-
model Paulina Porizkova is 57.
Actor Cynthia Nixon is 56. Rock
singer Kevin Martin (Candlebox)
is 53. Actor Keshia Knight Pul-
liam is 43. Rock musician Albert
Hammond Jr. (The Strokes) is 42.
Actor Kristen Stewart is 32. Actor
Elle Fanning is 24. Rapper Lil Nas
X is 23.
LOTTERY
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Lucky Lines
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10 p.m.: 7-0-7-0
SaTuRday, apRil 9, 2022
Capturing the moment
EOU photography
class takes real-
world experience
to the big stage
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
When it comes to photog-
raphy skills, there is no
better way to improve than
by gaining experience.
Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity students did just
that and more this past
week, traveling to Treefort
Music Fest in Boise to
hone their photography
skills. Eleven students in
the university’s first-ever
special topics in concert
photography class took
photos across the five-day
event, capturing the
musical performances and
overall experience of
Boise’s storied festival.
“To be able to travel
and see another city and
spend time in this atmo-
sphere is invaluable,” said
Michael Sell, the associate
professor of art at Eastern
who teaches the class. “It
gave them the ability to
take pictures in an inter-
esting way to engage with
the performers. The stu-
dents really got into it.”
Students in the 300-
level class were required
to photograph at least six
different shows across
four or more venues in
Boise and were encour-
aged to go out of their
comfort zones to capture
the best photos. In addi-
tion to photographing
live music performances,
the students were tasked
with capturing the overall
ambiance and festival
experience — the fin-
ished product was com-
piled into two portfolios
and graded as the largest
project of the course.
The festival began
in 2012 and has evolved
into a beloved down-
town gathering that wel-
comes indie rock bands
and fans from all over.
The five-day event brings
in hundreds of bands and
performers, stretching
across the live music
venues in the city.
Sell noted that the
Treefort experience mir-
rored how professional
photographers often
operate.
Knox
retiring
after 12
years at
chamber
Wallowa County
administrative assistant
excited to get out from
behind desk
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Koedi Birmingham/Contributed Photo
The Regrettes perform at the Treefort Music Fest main stage in Boise, Idaho, on Saturday, March
26, 2022. Students from Eastern Oregon University photographed the festival as part of a first-
time course at the university.
Jan Ng/Contributed Photo
Prism B!tch performs at Sonic Temple Blue in Boise, Idaho,
on Saturday, March 26, 2022, during Treefort Music Fest. The
special topics in concert photography class at Eastern Oregon
University presented 11 students with the opportunity to
photograph the regional music festival and improve their live-
performance photography skills.
“That was a new thing
for many students, to
be out in the field, so to
speak,” he said.
Experience levels in
the class varied, with a
number of art students
joining non-art stu-
dents looking to share
in the common goal of
improving their photog-
raphy skills. Emily Wad-
kins came into the class
with experience taking
portraits and photog-
raphy on the side, and
found concert photog-
raphy on a large scale like
Treefort as a welcoming
challenge.
“Learning how to take
low-light photos was a
little bit of a learning
curve the first day, but by
the second day I started
to get a grasp on it and I
got some great photos out
of it,” Wadkins said.
Wadkins noted that the
class and other photogra-
phers at the festival made
for a helpful atmosphere
for advice and tips. While
not an art major herself,
Wadkins was excited at
the opportunity to take
part in the first rendition
of the concert photog-
raphy class at Eastern.
“It’s not something I
would normally take in
my schedule, but art has
become a really great
hobby and creative outlet,”
Wadkins said. “I’ve never
been good at drawing or
painting, but being able to
do digital art is something
I’ve always been really
passionate about.”
Corinna Stadler, who
attended the entirety of
the festival, noted that the
Treefort festival expe-
rience created a com-
munity of performers,
fans, photographers and
other attendees alike.
After photographing and
meeting numerous bands
throughout the festival,
Stadler and several other
student photographers
were able to intrigue
some of the performers
with the possibility of
performing in Eastern
Oregon as well.
“I am hoping to return
as a photographer again
next year and felt like it
was a great experience,”
Stadler said.
For Carolyn Brandt-
Griffith, Treefort was the
first time she had photo-
graphed a big concert.
“Overall, it was a really
great experience and cool
to see a show from a dif-
ferent perspective,” she
said. “We all looked at it
with different perspectives
while looking for unique
ways to capture it.”
Sell noted that the
idea for the topics in con-
cert photography class
had been in the works
for a while and may be
an option for students
at Eastern in the future.
The concept allows for
professor like Sell, who
has a background in pho-
tography and music, to
create a curriculum based
on a more specific topic.
He stated that the festival
organizers were accom-
modating to the group,
allowing college students
to gain valuable real-
world experience.
“Top to bottom it
was a great experience,”
Sell said. “For photog-
raphy students, it’s super
valuable to have these
experiences.”
NEWS BRIEFS
Gun show comes to Elgin
ELGIN — A gun show will be
conducted at the Elgin Stampede
Grounds on Saturday, April 30,
and Sunday, May 1. The event will
run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April
30 and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on
May 1.
Admission will be $5 for adults.
Everyone age 12 and under will be
admitted for free. Breakfast and
lunch will be available at the show,
and there will be a raffle for an
AR-15.
To reserve a table as a vendor
or for more information, call Kylie
Evans at 541-786-1751.
Union County to receive
$41,614 in wolf funding
LA GRANDE — Union
County is set to receive a $41,614
grant from the Oregon Depart-
ment of Agriculture to compen-
sate ranchers for livestock lost to
wolves and to help protect their
animals from the predator.
This is the largest grant Union
County has received from the
Oregon Department of Agriculture
program that provides wolf depre-
dation funding, according to Union
County Administrative Officer
Shelley Burgess. The $41,614
total is almost 80% of the $52,000
Union County applied for.
The grant will pay livestock
producers in Union County $9,308
to compensate them for animals
killed by wolves in 2021. This sum
is the full amount requested by the
county for this purpose.
The grant will also provide
$11,306 to ranchers for the live-
stock losses that are believed to
be due to wolf activity, which is
about half of what was requested,
Burgess told the Union County
Board of Commissioners at its
Wednesday, April 6, meeting.
A total of $21,000 from the
grant is to be provided to ranchers
to help them protect their livestock
from wolves. The money can be
spent on increasing the number of
workers riding horses near live-
stock, purchasing fence flags and
guard dogs.
The Board of Commissioners
voted unanimously to accept the
$41,614 grant from the state.
Town hall on opioid
misuse planned
LA GRANDE — The Union
County Safe Communities Coali-
tion will host a community town
hall at La Grande High School
on Thursday, April 28, to discuss
rising opioid misuse and preven-
tion of drug use in Union County.
Guest speakers Deputy David
Gomez of the Boise County Sher-
iff’s Office and Dale McQeeney
of the Center for Human Develop-
ment will give presentations during
the town hall. Gomez serves as
a school resource officer and
McQeeney specializes in addic-
tions and mental health services.
The session will include an open
discussion, allowing community
members to ask experienced pro-
fessionals questions about opioid
misuse and how to prevent it.
Further information on the town
hall can be found by contacting
Union County Safe Communities
Coalition at 541-963-1068 or online
at www.ucsafecommunities.com.
Greater Idaho movement
organizers get OK to
gather signatures
WALLOWA COUNTY — Pro-
ponents of the Greater Idaho move-
ment are again making a push to
add Wallowa County to the fold.
Organizers announced
Thursday, April 7, that Wallowa
County Clerk Sandy Lathrop
approved circulation of a petition
to get the Greater Idaho ballot ini-
tiative in front of voters during the
November general election.
The group needs to gather
242 valid signatures and submit
them to Lathrop by Aug. 10
to garner a spot on the Nov. 8
ballot. According to information
on the website greateridaho.org,
the group’s goal is to gather 295
signatures.
“It’s a percentage of the amount
of people that actually voted for the
(governor race) back in 2018” in the
county, said Lathrop, who approved
the petition April 3. That year is
chosen, she added, because it was
the most recent year that a governor
was elected to a full term.
The clerk added it’s a pretty
simple procedure on her end. She
received several forms from the
petition-seekers, then just had to
verify the content.
“I double-check to make sure
that everything (is OK),” she said,
and she checks that it all “conforms
to the regulations.”
Should the ballot initiative make
it to voters and pass in November,
it would require the county com-
missioners to meet twice annually
“to discuss the issue of moving
the Oregon/Idaho border to
include rural Oregon into Idaho,”
according to a press release. The
measure is almost verbatim the
one that Wallowa County residents
turned away by just 41 votes in the
2020 general election, as that mea-
sure would have required commis-
sioners to meet three times a year.
— EO Media Group
ENTERPRISE — Visitors will
only have until the end of April
to see Diane Knox’s smiling face
greet them at the offices of the
Wallowa County Chamber of
Commerce in Enterprise. After
that, she’ll be out in the woods
enjoying her retirement.
After 12 years
as the chamber’s
administrative assis-
tant, Knox is step-
ping down.
“There’s other
things I want to do,”
she said. “I have
Knox
family I want to go
see and there are different projects
I haven’t gotten to because I’m too
busy here.”
Knox said she hopes to do
more hiking, huckleberry picking
and looking for morel mush-
rooms, in particular.
“You know, get out in the
woods more, no longer sitting at a
desk,” said Knox, who moved to
the county in 1986.
Knox’s retirement plans take
her back to what she spent most
of her working life doing. For 20
years, she worked for the U.S.
Forest Service in wildlife man-
agement, as a silviculturist and in
reforestation. Her Forest Service
work was mostly here, but also in
the John Day area.
After leaving the Forest Service,
she spent a couple years working
for the Wallowa County Nursery
before landing the chamber job.
Knox said that although
she prefers to be outside, she’s
found her work at the chamber
interesting.
She said she’s liked “working
with different members, the dif-
ferent businesses and getting them
to work more on our web page,
putting more about their busi-
nesses because we’ve enhanced
our website so they can have a
better description. They can put
a photo gallery displaying their
businesses and working with them
trying to promote them.”
That doesn’t mean she’s neces-
sarily a computer guru.
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,
but I know enough to get where I
need to be,” she said.
The most interesting part of the
job, Knox said, has been meeting
all the different people who stop
in to learn about what the county
has to offer.
“I’ve been working with a lot
of visitors, giving them ideas of
where to go and what to go see in
the county, promoting all the local
businesses that we have here so
that they can find them,” she said.
“Different people want different
things. Sometimes we’ll promote
the barn tour, sometimes busi-
nesses at the lake, hiking trails
and telling them where to get
more information, etc.”
She said she’s visited with not
only people from elsewhere in the
country, but from foreign coun-
tries as well.
“People come here from all
over the world and that’s pretty
cool,” she said. “I’ve had people in
here from Australia, South Korea,
China, France, Germany, Austria,
Sweden, the United Kingdom, all
over the world.”
Chamber Executive Director
Jennifer Piper said Knox won’t be
easy to replace.
“Diane has kept everything
running and has been a tremen-
dous help and resource to me
and getting myself established
in this role,” said Piper, who has
been in her post since December
2020. “She has very big shoes
for someone to fill. I’m making
it sound a little bit intimidating,
but we’re excited to find the next
person as the chamber continues
to evolve in a new phase of the
organization. We know the right
fit is out there. I just really appre-
ciate everything that Diane has
done in my time at the chamber
and prior to my time. She’s given
a lot to this organization.”