La Grande Observer Paper 09-03-14

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"OLIVER!" PREVIEW INGO!, INSIDE

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SERVING UNION AND

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UNION COUNTY WILDFIRE SEASON

• Judgesays shelterfailed to stateaclaim becauseitdidnot plead an acquisition of property What do you think?

By Kelly Ducote The Observer TheAssociated Press

A large plume of smoke rises over the town of Oakridge as the Deception Complex Fire continues to burn last week. Compared to the rest of theWest, the fire season in Northeast Oregon has been about average, according to fire officials

NORTHEAST OREGON FIRE SEASON HAS BEEN

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• Oficials said most lightning storms have been accompanied by moisture

District. Statistics bolster Ruby's and Meyer's anecdotal "I would say it has been By Jayson Jacoby descriptions. VVesCom News Service fairlyaverage,"said Bret Through Tuesday there For much of the West, the Ru b y, fire staff officer for the have been 98 fires on the 2014 wildfire season has been Wallowa-Whitman National Wallowa-Whitman this year, a particularly destructive one. Forest."There was a lot of 91 of thoseignited by Blazes destroyed dozens lightning. activit y over afairly short ofhomes in Washington and p e r i od, and then the rains The yearly average for the California. Wallowa-Whitman, dating to came." In Oregon, fires menaced Ruby ' s colleague at the 1971,is 139 totalfi res.Over neighborhoods near Bend, Oreg on Department of the past decade, the annual The Dalles and Ashland. Fore s try's Baker City office, average is 105 fires. Meanwhile in Northeastern Steve Meyer, agrees with that Blazes have covered more Oregon, with the exception of a ssessment. acres than average this year an August fire that threateWe were just fortunate this — 51,885 acres compared ened residents in Imnaha in ye a r, so far, that most of the with an average of 34,555 eastern Wallowa County, the l i g h tning has come with mois-acres over the past decade. fire season has been compara- ture," said Meyer, protection But Ruby said the statistic tively tranquil. foracresburned thisyearis supervisor for ODFs Baker

slightly misleading because a handful of fires are responsibleform ore than 90 percent of those acres. Those blazes, including the 35,933-acre Somers fire, the 8,300-acre Pittsburg fire and the 4,524-acre 5 Mile fire, were all in the Hells Canyon country ithe Pittsburg fire was on the Idaho side of the canyon). The predominance there, especially in the lower elevations, ofgrassovertim ber means fi restend to burn"very far and very fast," Ruby said. In addition, a trio of lightning fires in the Eagle Cap Wilderness burned about SeeFires / Page 5A

NOV. 4 ELECTION

WilllowturnoutSlagueNov.election~ The Associated Press

ate; and especially the much lower the country, but the state this year is SALEM — Oregon's voter participrofile state legislative races that will mirroring a national downward trend pationrate hita nearrecord low for determine control of the state Capitol. in participation. the modern era in the May primary. Campaign experts attribute the Just 36percent ofregistered voters That begs the question: Why? turned in a ballot in May, the lowest low participation in May in part to a Did voters sitoutbecause there partici pation ratefor a primary since boringelection season.Aside from a weren't many high-profile races, Oregon eliminated polling places in marginally competitive Republican something that's naturally fixed in a 2000 and the second-lowest since primary for U.S. Senate, there were no high-profile statewide races to general election? Or are they turned 1960.By contrast,42 percent ofvotoff from politics and uninterested in ersparticipatedfouryearsearlier. nudge voters to fill out their ballots. 'There's a lot of time spent trying engaging? There were fewer television ads that The answer, and the likelihood that to modeland profile voters,"said remindvotersit'selection season,and Len Bergstein, a political consultant the campaigns can motivate people the campaigns didn't have the agwho agree with them, has implicawho has worked on ballot measure gressivestatewide field operations to tions in any of the races that have the campaigns.'You model who's likely to gettheir supporterstoparticipate. "Gettingvoterstorealizethat potential to be close thisNovember. come out for these various issues, and Those include ballot measures then what other issues are they likely there's an election going on is part of the challenge," said Stacey Dycus, to legalize pot and label genetically to vote on." engineeredfood;top-of-the-ticket Oregon has historically had among a Democratic political consultant the highest voter turnout rates in races for governor and the U.S. SenSeeElection / Page 5A

INDEX Business........1B Classified.......4B Comics...........3B Crossword.....SB Dear Abby ... 10B

WE A T H E R Education ......7A Record ...........3A Horoscope.....SB Sports ............SA Lottery............2A State.............12A Obituaries......3A Sudoku ..........3B Opinion..........4A Wallowa Life..6A

FRIDAY •000

Fu l l forecast on the back of B section

Tonight

Tuesday

39 iow

76/36

Mainly clear

Sunny and nice

While the issue of government surveillance has become dormant, at least publicly, a bipartisan group is working on ways to tighten control over the technology that's been used in at least five police departments in Oregon. Page 12A

WALLOWA COUNTY

County asks for public input on forest road maps By Katy Nesbitt The Observer

ENTERPRISE — Wallowa-Whitman NationalForestroad maps areon display atthe Wallowa County courthouse and the commissioners are inviting the public to weigh in on their accuracy. Commissioner Susan Roberts said after the forest's Travel Management Plan was released in March 2012, the county asked to seetheforest'sm aps tocompare to itsown. 'These are the maps that most closely align with what's on the ground now," Roberts said. The Travel Management Plan was rescinded for further review in April 2012, but the WWNF was able to create the maps in poster size for the county's review. cThe Forest Service has been working on See Maps / Page 5A

CONTACT US

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541-963-3161

Call The Observer newsroom at 541-963-3161 or send an email to news@lagrandeobserver.com. More contact info on Page 4A.

Issue 106 3 sections, 38 pages La Grande, Oregon

ARE PHYSICIANS IGNORINGGUIDELINES? •000

Inside

We want to hear An order for Shelter your' From the Storm to evict its community advocacy thoughts. center has been upheld in Email letters court. to the editor Visiting Judge Eva to news@ Temple granted a motion lagrandeobserver. from the county's counsel com and join the to dismiss the lawsuit conversation on brought against the The Observer county by Shelter From the Storm in a ruling filed Opinion page. in court late Tuesday. Temple, who serves as a judge in Hermiston, heard a day's worth of testimony last week on the matter. Shelter From the Storm sought an injunction in orderto stay atits advocacy center located on the county campus. The county notified the nonprofit in April that it must be out of the center, which was built with a Community Development Block Grant in 1998, by SeeLawsuit / Page 5A

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