>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

About 400 people turned out for the first Blue Monday celebration held in Max Square last spring. The aim is to end Child Abuse Awareness Month on a positive note. - Observer file photo

Event organizer Sandra Leavitt said the concept behind Blue Monday is to end Child Abuse Awareness Month on a positive note.

An application from the Union County Economic Development Corp. and Pendleton Grain Growers for $2.7 million to upgrade PGG’s Alicel shipping facility is headed for ConnectOregon II’s Final Review Committee.

UCEDC and PGG submitted the application to ConnectOregon II, the state program making $100 million available statewide for air, rail, freight, marine and public transit projects.

GUEST PERFORMER: Saxophone player Greg Johnson rehearses this morning with La Grande High School students for Thursday’s Band Box Jam. Johnson will be the guest performer at Thursday’s concert. LHS senior Martha McAlister is on the right. - The Observer/DICK MASON

The students’ talents will emerge at the annual Band Box Jam jazz concert that starts at 6:30 p.m. in the La Grande Middle School commons.

TEA TIME: The North Powder annual Silver Tea, carrying the theme “La Tea Da, Tea for Two,” will be held Thursday at 1 p.m. at the North Powder Elementary School Multipurpose Room. - Observer file photo

But Joyce Lawyer believes the tradition began 87 years ago.

In those days, women paid one silver dollar to attend the tea — hence the name.

By popular demand, a meteorite scientist will return to Northeast Oregon to present two final programs to encourage the public to search for meteorites that likely fell from the fireball that exploded overhead in the early hours of Feb. 19.

Dick Pugh, meteorite scientist with the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory at Portland State University, will give programs Tuesday at Pleasant Grove Grange, 67218 Hunter Road in Summerville, and Wednesday at the Elgin Public Library, 1699 Division St.

Both programs begin at 6:30 p.m. and all ages are invited to attend.

A former La Grande attorney shot and killed a man — apparently in self-defense — while having dinner in a restaurant in the Virgin Islands.

According to news accounts, Kip Roberson, who is employed as an assistant attorney general in the islands, was having a meal at the Smuggler’s Cove Bar and Restaurant in Christiansted when the incident occurred Friday.

The reports say that a dishwasher at the restaurant, Gabriel Thomas, 18, became upset when he was terminated from his job. Thomas armed himself with knives from the kitchen and tried to attack his former boss and employees.

Ciabatta, a slipper-shaped bread, uses two cups of biga starter dough. - The Observer/BRYAN PEARSON

Starters like biga can save a baker time, but much more importantly, biga lends depth of flavor and boosts a bread’s porosity. Some may say bread is bread and eat with no inquisitiveness from loaf to loaf, slice by slice, but I bake bread as a favorite hobby, and bread with an excellent crumb is something to be excited for. Biga will help bakers’ loaves develop big gas bubbles resulting in a gorgeous slice — an indication of a highly-desired chewy texture.

"Anne of Green Gables" spring tea was hosted at the Elgin Library Saturday in honor of the story's 100th anniversary. Twenty-eight guests were served a three-course menu from the turn of the century. In attendance at this table was (left) Destiny Greene, Kim Erwin, server Miah Slater, library board member Sarah Cunningham and Becci Scott, all of Elgin. - Photos/TRISH YERGES

Library board member Holly Krause was the hostess for the three-course tea celebration.

Addressing those in attendance, Krause said, “I found a couple of cookbooks of ‘Anne of Green Gables,’ and that’s what you’re having today.”

Powder Valley High School science teacher Brian Wachs, right, and senior Josh Gorrell collect stream profile information near North Powder. - The Observer/DICK MASON

Wachs wants his Powder Valley High School students to see the formula at work for themselves.

So once a week Wachs, a science and agriculture teacher, hops behind the wheel of a small white school bus and transports about 14 students to Curt and Cheryl Martin’s North Powder ranch. There students haul out GPS surveying equipment, set it on tripods and study the banks of Wolf Creek

Television viewers in Union County ill-equipped for the digital age will not lose their reception early next year.

“Screens will not go white, dark or snowy,’’ Greg Spence, chairman of the Blue Mountain Translator District Board, said Monday night.

The same is true for Wallowa County television viewers.