Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 2019)
NEW HELIX VOLLEYBALL COACH LOVES SMALL-TOWN LIFE CENSUS WORK BEGINS IN UMATILLA COUNTY REGION, A3 DEMS SEE OPENING ON ECONOMY, RESIST CHEERING RECESSION NATION/WORLD, A6 SPORTS, A8 E O AST 143rd year, No. 221 REGONIAN Friday, august 23, 2019 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2019 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD PENDLETON Your Weekend Watching out for each other Watch groups aim to protect neighborhood • Celebrate Oregon Agri- culture, SAGE Center • Back to School Supply Dash, Riverfront Park, Hermiston • Meet the Author: Peg Wil- lis, Irrigon Public Library By ALEX CASTLE East Oregonian they started Laker Broadcasting at Lake Oswego High school, broadcasting football and bas- ketball games. they enrolled in university of Oregon’s school of Journalism and Communications with strong studying electronic media and Olson headed toward a career in print journalism, pref- erably with the San Francisco Chronicle. “My dream was to be the beat writer for the san Francisco giants,” Olson said. strong, however, pressed him to do various broadcasting gigs with him and Olson good-na- turedly helped him out. Nor- mally, strong did play-by-play and Olson provided color. as sophomores and juniors, they announced the university of Ore- gon softball games for the cam- pus radio station. For that job, Olson was asked for a demo. “i downloaded a 1989 san Francisco giants/Chicago Cubs game from the computer,” Olson recalled. “i muted it and did the play-by-play. My first baseball demo is a game from when i was 4 years old.” they interviewed athletes PENdLEtON — Five years ago, donna Murdock was walking through her neigh- borhood when she stumbled across a scene she had never expected to find. A neigh- bor’s house had been broken into and burglarized. shards of glass littered the floor from a smashed window. “it was a sort of eerie feel- ing,” she said. Feeling like her own safety and privacy had been infringed, Murdock took action into her own hands. Fol- lowing the break-in and with her leading the way, Murdock and her neighbors formed a neighborhood watch group along Northwest Johns Lane. the group has since expanded and now winds through the neighborhoods of the North Hill to include nearly 90 families. today, the group stands as Pendleton’s only formally organized neighborhood watch and in the last year has suc- cessfully reported two sep- arate incidents that led to arrests by the Pendleton Police department. “the more eyes and ears we have out there the better,” com- munity services officer Shelly studebaker said, who works to guide and assist neighborhood watch groups in the city. those extra eyes and ears have already made their impact. in one case earlier this year, Murdock said a neighborhood couple from the watch group had their house broken into while they were out for the night. While nobody knew at the time what had happened, some neighbors noticed a man walking down the street with a large bag slung over his shoulder. that same night, Murdock said, neighbors noticed a sus- picious vehicle driving up and See Sidekicks, Page A7 See Watch, Page A7 FOR TIMES AND LOCATIONS CHECK COMING EVENTS, A5 Weekend Weather FRI SAT SUN 86/62 85/56 81/51 Northwest farmers wrap wheat harvest Contributed photo Erick Olson takes a moment for a selfie in the booth as he assists FOX Sports broadcaster John Strong during a MLS game with statistics and research. By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian u.s. wheat farmers have lost $430M in trade to China U By ANNA KING Oregon Public Broadcasting MauPiN — there’s a lot of time to think while sitting behind the wheel of a combine. right now, Northwest wheat farmers are wrapping up their harvest in many areas. But across the country, farmers are los- ing money on every load of that golden grain. “you have to be wired differ- ently to do this work,” said farmer and grain consultant Kevin dul- ing, of Maupin. “it’s very frus- trating. it’s very stressful.” the wheat price was already suffering under President don- ald trump’s trade wars and robust global competition. the Northwest used to export the vast majority of its grain, largely to Pacific Rim countries and China, according to the Wash- ington grain Commission. the National association of Wheat See Harvest, Page A7 MatiLLa — FOX sports soccer broad- caster John strong has a secret weapon and his name is Erick Olson. during the men’s FiFa World Cup final last summer in Rus- sia, strong broadcast to millions of soccer fans as Olson fed him stats and other research using a white board, hand signals and quick exchanges with strong’s microphone muted. the boyhood buddies have mind-reading capa- bility that developed over years of friendship. strong draws com- fort from Olson’s presence in the booth. “it’s having a second brain, a second set of eyes, a second ver- sion of me sitting there next to me,” strong said. Olson parachutes into the weird world of international soc- cer broadcasting for a few weeks every summer. the rest of the year, he teaches language arts and communication at umatilla High school, coaches uHs softball and does news and sports com- mentary for KOHu KQFM radio and the Oregon student athletic Photo courtesy of John Strong FOX Sports soccer broadcaster John Strong got his start doing play by play at Lake Oswego High School with his friend Erick Olson. association. Olson, the Voice of the Bulldogs, has his nickname — “Windbag” — inscribed on a special chair at Hermiston High school’s Kennison Field. this summer, Olson again joined strong’s team to cover the CONCaCaF gold Cup, which determines the men’s cham- pion of North america, Central america and the Caribbean. the two men, both 34, grew up in Lake Oswego. they played middle school basketball on the same team. in high school, Pendleton native bears ‘Dark Tidings’ to publishing career Kris Jerome starts his own publishing company called dark tidings Press By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian aLBaNy— as he was graduat- ing from Oregon state university, Kris Jerome had a predicament. the Pendleton native wanted to become a published novelist, but he wanted to maintain control over the editorial and production process. a college student working the night shift at shari’s, Jerome was still hav- ing trouble finding the motivation to write a novel until he took a class that required him to write one in three weeks. the draft he produced in that class would become his first book. As he finished up college in 2016, Jerome focused his attention on pub- lishing his first book, “Wrath of the Fallen,” a fantasy novel that takes place in the wake of an existential bat- tle between the “gods of Light and the gods of darkness.” desiring control over his own mate- rial and equipped with various media skills from his college major, Jerome decided to strike out on his own. dark tidings Press was born, its logo a crow foregrounded by a drip- ping wax candle. dark tidings specializes in publish- ing Jerome’s favorite genres: fantasy, science fiction, and horror. “i like “the godfather” as much as the next guy, but I want my fiction to See Dark, Page A7 Photo courtesy of Kris Jerome Kris Jerome, left, mans a Dark Tidings Press booth at Wizard World Comic Con in Portland in 2018. Standing next to him is Finn John, whose class helped inspire Jerome to write and publish his first novel.
