Business
State’s
climate
program
faces
challenge
Businesses aim to
block Oregon’s
Climate Action
Plan, which was
passed in December
AgLife
Thursday, March 24, 2022
The Observer & Baker City Herald
TOGETHER
AGAIN R
Oregon FFA state
convention returns
in person for 2022
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
By APRIL EHRLICH
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — A coalition
of businesses wants a court
to block Oregon’s new Cli-
mate Action Plan adminis-
trative rules.
The rules, passed by
the Oregon Environmental
Quality Commission in
December, target a 90%
reduction in greenhouse
gas emissions from trans-
portation fuels and natural
gas by 2050.
In a petition for judi-
cial review fi led Friday,
March 18, 12 industry
trade groups say the rules
“hold fuel suppliers directly
accountable” for the state’s
greenhouse gas emissions.
The groups represent
farming, ranching, fossil
fuel, logging, manufac-
turing and retail businesses.
Mary Anne Cooper of
the Oregon Farm Bureau in
a statement said the Oregon
Department of Environ-
mental Quality “over-
stepped its authority.”
“Oregonians should not
stand for a state agency
writing policies that it does
not have the authority to
write, and it sets a dan-
gerous precedent for the
future,” Cooper wrote.
For years, Oregon
Democratic lawmakers
have tried to launch an
economy-wide cap-and-
trade program to reduce
the carbon emissions
that contribute to climate
change. When they failed
to get enough votes, Gov.
Kate Brown last year
ordered DEQ to develop
B
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Students run through the doors to enter the First Interstate Bank Center for
the opening session of the Oregon FFA State Convention at the Deschutes
Fair & Expo Center on Thursday, March 17, 2022.
EDMOND — Watching the opening
session of the 2022 Oregon FFA State
Convention, Hayden Bush could feel
tears welling in his eyes.
“I’m an emotional person,” said Bush, an agriculture teacher
and FFA advisor at Tillamook High School. “There is some-
thing about being in that session hall and feeling that excite-
ment that you can’t get virtually.”
More than 2,500 Oregon FFA members and guests gathered
starting Thursday, March 17, for the fi rst in-person convention
since the start of the pandemic, bringing a rush of energy and
unbridled enthusiasm to the Deschutes Fair & Expo Center in
Redmond. The convention culminated March 20 in the election
of state offi cers.
For Codie-Lee Haner, a freshman at Sherman County High
School in Moro, it was her fi rst live convention experience. She
likened it to a rock concert, particularly in the main session
hall where members crowded around the stage to dance with
their friends.
“So far, I’ve made a lot of friends along the way,” Haner
said. “I’m not good at making friends, but I’ve opened up to a
lot of people here.”
It is precisely that element of togetherness that FFA members
and advisors say can’t be duplicated online.
See, FFA/Page B6
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Students dance and sing together in the First Interstate Bank Center
before the opening session of the Oregon FFA State Convention at the
Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center on Thursday, March 17, 2022.
See, Climate/Page B6
Find your album at Ruby Peak Music
“Those crackles tell you that
it’s been played and loved,”
Michelle said.
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
ENTERPRISE — Who
doesn’t enjoy that warm, fuzzy
feeling of a vinyl LP on a turn-
table? Yeah, CDs or lives-
treaming may produce high-
er-defi nition sound, but they skip
the memories the LPs evoke.
That’s what Greg and Michelle
Mitchell are off ering at Ruby
Peak Music, a small music shop
in what used to be a garage
behind their home.
“It was a two-car garage and
now it’s our shop,” Greg said.
“Most of this stuff was our
own and we were like, you can
only have so many boxes in the
house and they were stacked to
the ceiling,” Michelle said. “We
decided we wanted to do this place
about four years ago and really
started busting (the garage) out
the last couple years and started
cooking on it last spring. We had
to get rid of the garage doors.”
They actually opened in
mid-December with mostly
records they’d collected on their
own over the years.
Collecting
Although the Mitchells started
with mostly their own collection,
they did obtain some from friendly
sources.
“We have this friend we met
at an outdoor fl ea market and he
was selling boxes of records and
we hadn’t really bought them until
The whole gamut
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Michelle and Greg Mitchell hold a brand-new sealed “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album by the Beatles surrounded
by other classic music and instruments in their Ruby Peak Music shop in Enterprise on Wednesday, March 2, 2022.
then,” Michelle said.
“We were doing the CD thing
at that time,” Greg added.
“We thought, ‘Oh, these are
cool. Let’s check this out.’ So we
bought a bunch from him for like
nothing and we ended up being
good friends,” Michelle said. “He
would go to a storage unit and
would end up with all of these
records and he would call us every
time he got some and so Greg, of
course, was like, ‘Yeah, we want
them all.’ This was becoming a
once-a-week thing. It’s crazy, but
it’s — with some exceptions —
what we have collected.”
Greg said that friend has now
passed, but they keep a picture of
him there “to watch over us.”
Greg said he had to start over
collecting records after his par-
ents sold many of his originals at a
yard sale.
“We didn’t know records would
be coming back,” Michelle said.
“It was all CDs then. Who knew?”
But the crackle — not a skip —
of a vinyl record adds to its charm.
Greg said they don’t sell records
that skip. If a record skips, he’ll
take it for a return credit and try to
clean and repair it.
“That’s part of it,” Michelle
said. “Obviously, you want some
that don’t, but it’s like if you put
on an old Mamas and Papas and
there’s some crackling there, you
know people have listened to it.”
“They’re so much warmer than
CDs and streaming,” Greg agreed.
“Streaming just sucks terribly.”
But they don’t limit their
wares to just vinyl. They also
sell CDs, cassettes and even
a few eight-tracks, along with
players for all and some instru-
ments and amplifi ers. They even
have 45 and 78 rpm records and
several genres of books.
In their shop music afi cionados
will fi nd everything from classic
rock such as Led Zepplin, 1950s
Elvis Presley, pop, jazz, blues,
easy listening like Frank Sinatra
and Dean Martin, Herb Alpert,
country-western, classical,
gospel, disco and even movie
sound tracks.
The LPs aren’t all old, used
and scratched. Many are new and
still sealed from the manufac-
turer. They have sealed, unopened
records such as the Beatles’
groundbreaking “Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band,” Pink
Floyd, Robert Johnson, and newer
artists such as Sturgill Simpson.
“We have some more obscure
things, like an album by the
Black Angels that is one of only
500 made,” Greg said. “We have
some oddities, some rarities. We
want to cover the whole gamut of
music, like we have done in our
personal lives.”
Some of their collectibles
See, Music/Page B6