Weekly Newsish Roundup, August 18, 2016
– 6 News Stories in 5 Minutes 35 Seconds!
Check out our weekly news roundup for August 18 to 24, 2016!
In the news today:
- Pot Is Hot
- Lost Youths Found It’s A Trap!
- Upcoming Events
- Local Sports
For more local content, be sure to visit http://lagrandealive.tv! Marijuana, Search and Rescue, Pavement Scam, Cove Cherry Festival, Jace Billingsley, Elkhorn Relay
Hey LaGrandeAlive, this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Direct Music Source and Grande Ronde Hospital.
Pot is hot in the valley, these days, and everybody’s talking about it except the hillbillies, and that’s honestly because they’re probably the ones growing it. The question of how exactly to handle the new federal deregulation of the drug is popping up all over the valley. Several weeks ago, Union residents proposed a ban on the growth and sale of non-medical weed in their city. It will probably be on the voting ballot here coming soon. This weekend, the DEA in Salem refused to take the drug off the “dangerous drug” list and reinforced their resolution that all hemp (another cannabinoid) products are still illegal despite pretty much every state and it’s brother saying they’re not. And now North Powder is trying to get it figured out too. They will also be voting on it here soon, two ballots on the November 8th election that, if passed, would legalize the sale of recreational and medical pot. So here’s ultimate the question for you, La Grande Alive. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a lollipop? Just kidding. What should we do about the pot? How should small towns deal with this? They have legitimate concerns for the health and well-being of their towns. But at the same time, the pot train is rolling, and how long can they really hold out before the growers and smokers get it legalized. So how should they deal with the quickly rising rate of legalization? What kind of taxes should be imposed? Answer with your thoughts in the box below.
Alright, here’s the moral of this next story: kids, don’t get drunk, wander off into the woods, break somebody else’s stuff, then get lost and have to have search and rescue come and find you. Four youths age 20 and younger were found this weekend by search and rescue about 20 miles out of la grande, a little Northeast of Interstate 84. They were dehydrated and tired, the rescuers said. And now three of them are being charged with criminal mischief, the crime involving the damage of another person’s property. Now, as of now none of these youths have been indicted or found guilty, so don’t go around telling people that they’re just a bunch of bad kids with worse directional skills. But the moral still stands: kids, don’t drink and hike. And if you do, make sure you bring a park ranger or, I don’t know, a compass with you so that you don’t have to call search and rescue come rescue your thirsty ass with your tail between your legs and some famer on your butt for drunkenly crashing his tractor into a cliff. Disclaimer: creative license was taken with this story for emotional effect.
And speaking of criminal activities, here’s another moral: if someone calls you and wants to pave your driveway here sometime soon, don’t believe them! Well, believe them but don’t do it! It’s a trap! Apparently there’s a new scam going around Union County: a group of pavers will call at random a household and offer to repave their driveway at a reduced rate with leftover materials. The deal is so good to be true the residents agree and, several weeks and a crappily-done driveway later, they’re slammed with an inflated bill that’s much higher than the original quote and a heavy obligation to pay-up on the job they wouldn’t otherwise have needed. And the worst part of it: the scammers aren’t really doing anything illegal. Apparently everything they’re doing falls within the letter of the law, and though the residents aren’t required to pay them, most feel guilted or intimidated into actually paying the bill. Fortunately awareness is growing about the issue and these people are backing off. But it never hurts to share this video along and warn a few other poor souls about the infamous asphalt bandits! Not that we’re shamelessly plugging ourselves or anything.
Anyways, there’s a lot going here in the Grande Ronde Valley that’s not criminal too! Tonight there’s music at Max Square on Adams Avenue in La Grande. Things do actually happen there outside of electronic Pokemon duels. Also, all this weekend the Week Like ‘Em Short film festival is in Baker City. The films are short, but the fun is long, apparently, and the screenings start tonight and run until Saturday. Also this weekend in Baker, Dr. Balthazar wants to sell you special medicine! There’s a play going on at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and you should go on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday at 7pm, 7pm, and 11am respectively. There’s also live music at Barley Brown’s in Baker at 8 pm friday. And cherries! There’s cherries out the wazoo this weekend in Cove, Oregon. Their annual cherry festival will including live music, a run, hot air balloons, contests, a pancake breakfast, and presentations, just as a start. For more information on the festival, read Go Magazine this week. They have a full spread on all the events and start times. Also this weekend, the Eagle Cap excursion train is having an early bird ride on Saturday at 9 am. Lunch is included. And last, all you Pink Floyd fans, head to McKenzie Theater at EOU on Saturday for Pigs on the Wing, a tribute band that’s coming to Eastern Oregon.
In Sports, Billingsley has gone big-time and he’s already scoring. Jace Billingsley is an ex-EOU football star and he’s gone on to train with the Detroit Lions and had a touchdown last Friday. The game was against the Pittsburgh Steelers and they won 30-17. Billingsley had three receptions including a 27-yard catch-and-run touchdown for the game. Man, with our runners going to Olympic trials and our football players getting touchdowns football the Detroit Lions, La Grande is like one 7 millionth of the way toward becoming a bon-e-fied sports-center of the Northwest United States!
And in less impressive news, I finished the Elkhorn Relay. And so did everyone else. I did it slowly, but I rescued an elk from barbed wire in the process. Only in Eastern Oregon, baby. The winning team was the OSUsuals, a track-and-field-turgid team from OSU that traveled over to win the race with about a 27.5 hour finish time. Great job guys. Overall the race was extremely well put together. There was food and outhouses at every pit stop for all the nervous pre-race eaters and poopers (which is pretty much every runner ever). The volunteers were pleasant and eager to keep the waiting team-mates entertained with talk. And despite the race officials cutting my 9-mile up-and-down to a 6 mile mostly-drop, the runs were challenging but not excruciatingly so. Overall, if you’re a runner, the Elkhorn Relay is a pleasant 30-plus hour experience of running in backwoods Grande Ronde Valley and enjoying the company of five other sleep-deprived, sore, and coffee-crazed casual runners and doing something that will make most people’s eyes get wide when you tell them about it.
Anyways, that’s your weekly news roundup! This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital and Direct Music Source. Today, I’m going to leave you with a little taste of Pendulum Swing, a local swing and jazz group that came in, did a Coffee with Will, and sung us a song. For the full interview and song, check out our website at www.lagrandealive.tv or our Facebook page. I’m Will Bowman.
