A display at Legacy Ford on Island Avenue helps draw attention to the Cash for Clunkers incentive program. All of the area’s new car dealers are reporting increased sales. Observer photos/CHRIS BAXTER

All three new-car dealerships in La Grande have been cheering it. They like what the program is doing for business and they don’t want to see it end anytime soon.

“It’s huge. In the last seven days of July we sold 40 cars. It’s like the old days,” said Lindon Higbee, owner of Frontier Motors on Island Avenue in Island City.

 Source Tours visits Wallowa County farms, ranches

Woody Wolfe and his children work the fields at Wolfe Ranch. The ranch is among those that is visited regular by Source Tours. Photo/Meagan Wolfe

While trendy in other regions of the country, Wallowa Countians have been growing their own meat and produce all along. Backyard gardens and local farms and ranches have fed Wallowa County for generations and some of the same families have tended the land since pioneer settlement.

Wallowa County native Jenny Hawkins-Hogrefe and Source Tours has taken the local food movement one step further. With her tours of Wallowa County farms, ranches, inns and caterers she is drawing visitors into the area with a new carrot, so to speak.

LA GRANDE - Larry “Buck” Hunter and Bryant E. Behrmann, the two men who pleaded guilty in June to running a fraudulent business enterprise from headquarters in La Grande, aren’t the only ones who have found themselves in hot water with federal authorities in recent times.

Since 2007, a host of cooperating agencies, have closed down at least a half-dozen Oregon and Washington enterprises that cheated thousands of investors out of millions of dollars.

Consumers, beware: swindlers and crooks are always out there, using the Internet, the U.S. mail and any other tool at their disposal to part honest, hard-working people from their money.

GAINFULLY EMPLOYED: The work crew doing trail maintenance on Mount Emily takes a break and smiles for the camera during a work shift last Thursday. In all, 60 Union County youngsters are employed in Training and Employment Consortium’s Summer Youth Program, working on the Mount Emily Recreation Area, the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, at Ladd Marsh and other sites. Summer Youth Program funding got a boost this year from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Observer photo/BILL RAUTENSTRAUCH

Nothing could be finer, according to the Union County youngsters who have jobs this summer through Training and Employment Consortium’s Summer Youth Program.

“It’s good work. We get to come outside and see the great beauty of the outdoors,” said 17-year-old Keegan Fleming, one of 20 young people helping improve the Union County-owned Mount Emily Recreation Area.

Brothers Ethan, left, and Ryan Ermovick get to know a Brittany at a station run by the Sagebrush Pointers 4-H Club during Ladd Marsh Youth Outdoor Day. Ethan and Ryan are from Arlington, Va. The Observer/DICK MASON

About a dozen outdoor education stations were in operation at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s third annual Ladd Marsh Youth Outdoor Day.

Visitors learned about everything from firearm safety and waterfowl identification to hunting dog training.

Dayton Sibley, Union County’s marine patrol deputy, shows Georgia Larvik of La Grande how to best put on a life vest during the Ladd Marsh Youth Outdoor Day on Saturday. The Observer/DICK MASON

Moments later the teenagers were so exhausted they were almost helpless.

The jet skiers had fallen into Wolf Creek’s sub-60-degree water one day last month. The energy-draining chill of the cold water combined with fatigue from jet skiing left the young men too tired to swim back to their jet skis.

‘The key is, people can enjoy a staycation in La Grande or Baker and at the same time learn about the region.’— Marilyn Levine Dean of arts and sciences at Eastern. The Observer/BILL RAUTENSTRAUCH

In July and August, Eastern and BMCC are offering two-day courses that accent the history and heritage of Eastern Oregon. Several of the courses have been scheduled to coincide with festivals in Union and Baker counties.

“The key is, people can enjoy a staycation in La Grande or Baker and at the same time learn about the region,” said Marilyn Levine, dean of arts and sciences at Eastern.

retro styling: Community Connection’s new wheeled trolley runs on gas but has a look that harks back to the days of electric streetcars. Observer photo/BILL RAUTENSTRAUCH

By next month, Community Connection, which oversees public transit in Union, Wallowa and Baker counties, will put a vehicle into service that runs on gas but harks back to the era of electric streetcars.

It’s a wheeled trolley, sporting a retro look inside and out. Frank Thomas, manager of Community Connection of Union County, plainly loves it and thinks others will too.

Carol Knopp of Daniels-Knopp Funeral, Cremation and Life Celebration Center recently was awarded the gold level Presidential Volunteer Service Award for her service to MarineParents.com.

The President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation was established in January 2003 by executive order of then president George W. Bush.

The council was established to recognize the important contributions Americans of all ages are making within their circumstances through service and civic engagement.

UNION — Longtime Union resident Adina Ferguson is some entrepreneur. She started her business just a few months ago, and already she employs hundreds of workers.

It isn’t hard being in charge of so large a work force. There’s no payroll to speak of. All Ferguson does is make sure her employees have optimal working and living conditions, and plenty to eat.

Ferguson, a lady who loves science, nature and wildlife, is in the rather esoteric business of skull taxidermy. It’s the process of cleaning, degreasing, bleaching and mounting for display the skulls of animals hunters have taken in the great outdoors.