NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, March 3, 2022
No ‘da’ — Oregon nixes sales of Russian-made vodkas
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — The
Oregon Liquor and Canna-
bis Commission banned the
sale of Russian vodkas in
all Oregon liquor stores on
Monday, Feb. 28, follow-
ing the Russian invasion of
Ukraine last month.
Independent operators of
liquor stores were directed to
take Russian 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
Russian operated businesses,
according to a press release
from the OLCC.
In Oregon, the OLCC
eff ectively owns the supply
of alcohol in the state, serv-
ing 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 guid-
ance. 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 prod-
uct. The liquor is owned by
the state.”
Customers in and out of
the liquor store commented
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Empty space Tuesday, March 1, 2022, marks where Russian Standard once stood on the shelf at La Grande Liquor & Smoke
Shoppe, La Grande. The Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission moved to ban the sale of all Russian vodkas after the Rus-
sian military invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
in passing about the banning
of Russian vodka from store
shelves. La Grande Liquor,
however, only had 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 under-
standing, according to O’Dell.
“I think everybody under-
stands why we’re doing
it,” he said. “The questions
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.”
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
| Go to AccuWeather.com
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Eastern Oregon produces
several vodkas, including
Glacier 45 vodka distilled in
Baker City and 276 Vodka
produced by Oregon Grain
Growers Distillery, Pendle-
ton. Both are quality vodkas,
according to O’Dell.
Across the state, about
5,000 bottles of Russian-
Teen presents on dating violence
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
Cooler with rain
and drizzle
Chilly with periods
of sun
50° 32°
47° 31°
Chilly with partial
sunshine
Plenty of sunshine,
but chilly
Sunshine
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
48° 27°
54° 35°
48° 32°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
56° 31°
53° 33°
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OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
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PENDLETON
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Seattle
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Kennewick Walla Walla
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Astoria
49/39
Pullman
Yakima 55/30
50/37
49/37
Portland
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53/41
The Dalles 56/31
Salem
Corvallis
52/36
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
43/30
PRECIPITATION
John Day
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Bend
52/38
49/31
49/31
Ontario
58/38
Caldwell
Burns
55°
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73° (1936) 10° (1993)
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Albany
51/37
0.06"
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58/35
54/31
0.11"
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3.02"
2.77"
through 3 p.m. yest.
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TEMP.
Pendleton 43/26
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
50/32
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PRECIPITATION
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49/35
Aberdeen
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Medford
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made liquor were for sale in
281 liquor stores, according
to the OLCC. Those vodkas
have since been removed from
store shelves. Oregon liquor
stores also are prohibited
from fulfi lling any customer
“special order” requests for
Russian manufactured liquor.
Vodkas with Russian
sounding names such as
Smirnoff and Stolichnaya
that are produced outside
of Russia and aren’t subject
to the ban, according to the
OLCC press release. Stoli
Group, the distillery that
makes Stolichnaya in Latvia,
offered up a statement on
its website that said “Stoli
Group has had a long history
of fi ghting oppression from
the Russian regime,” and
condemned the Russian mili-
tary actions in Ukraine. Stoli
is produced in Latvia, while
Smirnoff is produced in Illi-
nois.
The move to ban Russian
vodkas can be seen as largely
symbolic as very few Russian
vodkas are imported to
the United States. A small
number of bars have gone
viral online for pouring out
Stoli brand vodkas, despite
the vodka being produced
in Latvia, a NATO member
country.
A list of the vodka brands
that have been pulled from the
shelves can be found on the
OLCC website.
But even if the OLCC
didn’t outright ban the sale
of Russian vodka, O’Dell
said it would be something
he personally would have
liked to see pulled from store
shelves.
“I would be advocating to
do it,” O’Dell said. “Me, the
person, would be advocating
to do it.”
JOSEPH — A Joseph
Charter School eighth grader
recently headed up an assem-
bly to share with her fellow
students concerns about
dating violence among teens.
“I’m spreading awareness
about teen dating violence,”
said Harley Wanner before
the assembly Feb. 22. “I’m
doing this assembly; I’m
doing an FCCLA meeting.”
It’s part of her project as
a member of the school’s
Family, Career and Commu-
nity Leaders of America
chapter.
FCCLA is a nonprofit
national career and tech-
nical student organization
for youths in family and
consumer sciences education
in public and private schools
in grades six through 12.
There are about 30 students in
JCS’s chapter, Wanner said. A
dozen of them joined her in
putting on the assembly.
“I’ll go to present this
project at state and hopefully
at nationals if I make it,”
Wanner said. “I can present
my project at state and help
people in the community in
any way I can.”
She said her fellow
FCCLA members do a vari-
ety of projects with the same
goal as hers — of advancing
in the competition to state
and nationals. She said they
do projects such as teacher
appreciation, raise money
for cancer victims and their
families and one girl is
making a dress of recycled
materials.
Lisa Collier, the JCS
adviser for the FCCLA chap-
ter, said Wanner also brought
in representatives from Safe
Harbors, a nonprofi t group
that provides crisis interven-
tion and advocacy services
to survivors of domestic
violence, sexual violence,
dating violence, and stalking,
as well as community educa-
tion and outreach, according
to the group’s website. Kath-
erine Marrone and Marika
Straw from Safe Harbors put
on a slide show and talked to
the youths who attended.
“She wanted to work with
Safe Harbors,” Collier said of
Harley. “February is dating
violence awareness month.”
Harley, who is just 13, said
that kids today are dating
younger than in even recent
generations.
“Nowadays, kids as young
as 12 will date,” she said.
“But any relationship can be
toxic.”
She also said that the age
gap between dating part-
ners doesn’t make much of a
diff erence.
“It’s all the same,” she
said. “The age gap doesn’t
matter.”
But it comes down to
recognizing and avoiding
toxic or abusive relationships.
“You watch for signs of
abuse and toxic relation-
ships,” Harley said. “If
they’re mentally manip-
ulating you, that’s a sign
of a toxic relationship. An
abusive relationship is when
you’re physically harming
your partner. There are so
many other things.”
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
49/32
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Sunrise today
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Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:30 a.m.
5:45 p.m.
7:23 a.m.
7:06 p.m.
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Mar 10
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
IN BRIEF
Two La Grande residents
have plea hearing dates in
mail theft case
LA GRANDE — Two La Grande residents
facing dozens of charges each of mail theft
have a court date to enter a plea.
The state in Union County Circuit Court
on Monday, Feb. 28, arraigned George Kelly,
26, and Gracee Shelley, 22, on 79 counts of
mail theft and two counts of identity theft.
The court set Kelly’s plea hearing date for
1:15 p.m. March 15 and Shelley’s plea hear-
ing for 11 a.m. April 26.
La Grande police on Feb. 20 arrested the
pair after an investigation into reports of mail
theft and booked them into the Union County
Jail. The court set Kelly’s bail at $73,000 and
Shelley’s at $50,000.
Shelley is now out on bail, but Kelly
remains behind bars
Union County deputy district attorney
Ryan Rodighiero said Kelly received an earlier
plea hearing date because he is still in jail.
La Grande police said that all of the stolen
mail — taken from 54 addresses — has been
located and returned. One count of mail theft
was charged for each victim who had at least
one piece of mail stolen.
La Grande attorneys Jim Schaeff er is repre-
senting Shelley and Jared Boyd is represent-
ing Kelly. Neither were available for comment
March 1.
Mail theft is a federal crime, meaning the
federal government could choose to prosecute
the case.
— EO Media Group
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