Following the evening’s program, Rasmussen visits with attendees of the event including brothers Travis, right, and Tim Bullard of Union. CHRIS BAXTER / The Observer

By Bill Rautenstrauch / The Observer

About 450 people jammed the Blue Mountain Conference Center Tuesday night, listening raptly as a series of speakers decried firearms legislation being proposed in Washington, D.C.

The rally, hosted by Union County Sheriff Boyd Rasmussen, focused on a perceived threat to the people’s right to bear arms under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, particularly proposals to ban or restrict ownership of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. 

Wolves already have spread throughout Northeastern Oregon, and to California

The great debate over wolves in Oregon ranges from those who wanted them artificially introduced to demanding they be shot on sight.

Exit Interstate 84 in La Grande and head northeast on state highway 82. You will see a direct dichotomy in two different billboards. The first promotes wildlife from wolves to coyotes to bald eagles. The second billboard shows a wolf baring his teeth. An anti-wolf sign adorns a fence in Elgin.

Wolves have played a unique role in the human psyche throughout history, and the argument continues whether the two should share the landscape.

Hunkering yards away from human campfires, living, in part, off discarded scraps, the more docile members of ancient wolf packs became the ancestors of domestic dogs.

The last Oregon gray wolf was killed on the Umpqua National Forest for a bounty in 1946, until a female wolf from Idaho made her way to the Middle Fork of the John Day River in 1999.

In those intervening 53 years, American attitudes changed about natural resources, the environment and wildlife. In 1973 the federal Endangered Species Act was passed.

At the time, a few gray wolves were known to reside in northern states along the Canadian border.

Curt Jacobs remembers the spring of 2009, when his Baker County ranch was the scene of the first confirmed attacks by wolves on livestock

Curt Jacobs remembers those spring nights with the unusual clarity forged by the combination of concern and anger.

As the chilly April dawns broke on his ranch near Keating, about 20 miles northeast of Baker City, Jacobs wondered what he’d find in the sheep pen near his home. 

Laura Daugereau of Leavenworth, Wash., won this past weekend’s 200-mile Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race, which was trimmed to 150 miles by inclement weather. KATY NESBITT/The Observer

By Katy Nesbitt / The Observer

In a sport with a growing inclusion of women, Laura Daugereau is a rising star as the first woman from Washington to enter and complete the Iditarod. 

Daugereau, who this weekend pulled out all the stops in winning Wallowa County’s the 200-mile Eagle Cap Extreme Sled Dog Race, said she first got interested in sled dogs in the unlikeliest place — the tropics of Guam — when at the age of 8 she read about four-time Iditarod winner Susan Butcher. Two years later her family moved to Leavenworth, Wash., where she taught her Labrador/Samoyed mix, Buster, to pull her up the sledding hill.

Close to 50 photos of Jadin Bell were displayed at a vigil for the La Grande High School sophomore Wednesday at the Art Center at the Old Library. Bell was seriously injured in a suicide attempt last Saturday. CHRIS BAXTER/The Observer

By Dick Mason

A La Grande High School student clinging to life in a Portland hospital received an outpouring of support from his classmates Wednesday night. 

Close to 200 people, the majority of whom were LHS students, attended a vigil for Jadin Bell, a 15-year-old sophomore who was seriously injured in a suicide attempt last Saturday.

Wolf pups from the Wenaha pack. The photograph was taken on May 30, 2012. ODFW photo

By Katy Nesbitt 

Wolves already have spread throughout Northeastern Oregon, and to California 

The great debate over wolves in Oregon ranges from those who wanted them artificially introduced to demanding they be shot on sight.

Troy attracts thousands of visitors each year, primarily for fishing and rafting. KATY NESBITT / The Observer

Residents ask county officials for help in getting drivers to obey speed limit signs 

By Katy Nesbitt

Some of  Wallowa County’s more out-of-the-way spots are what puts it on the map. 

Troy, far down in the Grande Ronde Canyon, is a popular destination for fishers, rafters, hunters and adventure-seekers exploring the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness.

There are at least three roads that go into Troy, none of them good, as one local said. Driving Highway 3 north from Enterprise one can turn left between mileposts 9 and 10 and go through Flora before diving down the Redmond Grade, a windy, dirt road of about 11 miles to the bottom of the canyon.

The Observer is looking for "La Grande’s Greatest Love Stories."
Love is all around us, especially as February and La Grande’s season of valentines draws closer. We want you to help us celebrate.

1. Send us your story: Send us photos, video and/or prose that tells us your love story: first kiss, first date, unique engagement, favorite romantic spot in La Grande, etc. The due date is the morning of Feb. 1.
   Drop your love story videos, photos and words off at The Observer, 1406 Fifth St., or email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with "Our Love Story" as the subject line. Include your name, address (not to be published) and contact information.
2. Read your story and others: We'll post your stories online at lagrandeobserver.com/lovestories or navigate to the "Love Stories" section.
3. Win: Observer staff will choose the top three to five and have the community vote on a top pick starting the afternoon of Feb. 1 online at our website.

The couple who is voted as the most creative or touching story will win a $50 gift card to Ten Depot and be featured in a Valentine's Day story on Feb. 13.

Call 541-963-3161 for more information.