Hey LaGrandeAlive! I’m sick, and this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, and Anything2Digital.com.
Scoutdoorsing I was a boy scout once. And then I realized I was a woman. What? Just kidding. About being a woman. Not about being a boy scout. I do, in fact, have vague memories of doing box-car derbies, getting badges, doing my darndest to remember the scout law, promise, and that one other code thing you have to remember. Can you see why I’m not a Boy Scout any more? But just because I’m not a scout any more doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate who they are and what they do. And the last several weeks I got the opportunity to put together a piece about the Boy Scouts right here in Eastern Oregon.
If you’re interested in getting your child involved with the Boy Scouts in Eastern Oregon you can learn more at their website.
Coffee With Will and Zeke Fetrow / Brahms Requiem It’s not often I get to geek out with people about one of my favorite subjects: art. But this week on Coffee With Will, I got to chat with a man who combines massive musical erudition with a fun-loving demeanor that wins even the stuffiest of people to his side: Zeke Fetrow. Zeke is the conductor of the Grande Ronde Symphony and a music nerd to the max. He knows a bunch about the musical history of the pieces he directs, pieces including Brahms Requiem that he is conducting tomorrow night at Eastern Oregon University.
Despite knowing everything about the history behind classical arrangements, Zeke isn’t hoity toity about his knowledge. He’s actually a super fun-loving guy. Zeke believes that his place is trying to bring people into the music and making classical music accessible to everyone from professors to poppers.
Overall the conversation was a wonderfully profound yet fun exploration of Brahms Requiem and emotion in music in general. The rest of this conversation is available on LaGrandeAlive’s Facebook page. And be sure to head up to Mackenzie Theater tonight, Thursday March 16, at 7:30 pm for Brahms Requiem in La Grande.
Upcoming Events And here’s your upcoming events with Emily Adair in Get Out and Go!
Local Sports In sports… Nothing! Not a lot going on in local sports these days, with basketball and wrestling all done. But here’s a video of a dancing banana just so you know we care.
Around the Mount And here’s your EOU sports with Evan and Chris in Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds.
La Grande Alive Live (And More…) And one more thing! Be sure to check out our newest service La Grande Alive Live! La Grande Alive Live is our weeknight live stream that catches you up with all our most-recent content. 6:00 pm every monday through Friday, tune into our Facebook page and our website and watch about two hours of live content at home, on your computer, or on your smartphone. La Grande Alive Live, our weekly evening live stream.
Also, be sure to check out our newest show Gun Talks, a show in which Brent, the owner here at LaGrandeAlive, talks about guns with local-business owner Clay Winton. That show can be found on our LaGrandeAlive Facebook page.
And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, and Anything2Digital.com. Be sure to like and share this video and tune into lagrandealive.tv for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
The Opera House Shows its True Colors, Austin Saunders Stops by the Studio
Weekly Newsish Roundup 6 News Stories in 13 minutes and 25 seconds!
Check out your weekly Newsish Roundup for February 16 – 22 In the news today:
Elgin Opera House Shows its True Colors
Coffee with Will and Austin Saunders
Get out and Go!
Grande Film Reviews – Moonlight
Local Sports
Around the Mountain
This video was brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything2Digital.com, and Direct Music Source.
Hey La Grande Alive! It’s b-e-a-utifully warm outside, and this is your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com, and Direct Music Source.
Elgin Opera House Shows its True Colors So, many of you know the story of Joseph. Joseph is one of twelve brothers who is, let’s be real, a little bit of a spoiled brat. He’s daddy’s favorite son who gets a fancy coat and, not only that, gets dreams of ruling over his brothers directly from God and, what does he do, well he tells them about it. He tells his brothers and, if Dreamworks movies have any historical credibility to them, goes on a musical tirade about how great he and his awesome new coat are.
Seriously, Joseph, are you asking to get sold into slavery, because, well, that’s exactly what happens in the story. Now, it’s a good thing that God’s favor for this little brat isn’t contingent on him not being a little brat because everything turns out alright. He ultimately becomes second most powerful man in Egypt and is reunited and restored with his family who are then, couple hundred years later, enslaved themselves. Guess what goes around comes around, guys. Anyways, all this to say that Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat is coming to the Elgin Opera House and for this show they’re hosting a guest director.
The shows start this Friday, February 17, and run every weekend through March 4th. Showtimes are Fridays at 7:30 pm and Saturdays 2:30 pm and 7:30 pm every weekend. So if you like old Bible stories with a fun new musical twist, head out to Elgin Opera House next couple weekends. Visit their website at elginoperahouse.com for more information and to buy tickets. And remember, younger siblings, if you get a fancy new coat from Daddy and God promises you power over your brothers and sisters, don’t brag about it. You may just find yourself on a one-way train to Burma to become a piss-pot slave to some southeast Asian monarch. Not that I tried doing that to my sibling or anything.
Brought To You By This lead story was brought to you by Direct Music Source. Want your singing to go from this…to this…
Head down to Direct Music Source where they have instruments and music lessons for anyone from kids to adults that will bring your vocal prowess to the next level.
Coffee With Will and Austin Saunders This week in Coffee With Will, I sat down with Austin Saunders, the local representative for Oregon Rural Action. Austin is a EOU graduate. He graduated with a history degree and got a job right here in La Grande at the local social and environmental justice agency that is ORA.
Now, I asked Austin how people can help with social justice, and he said the best way that people can is by getting involved with ORA.
Overall the conversation was a serious chat about Austin and the Oregon Rural Action and it’s mission and purpose here in the Grande Ronde Valley. The rest of this video is available on LaGrandeAlive.tv.
Get Out and Go! And here’s all your upcoming events in this week’s Get Out And Go!
Grande Film Reviews And here’s Josh, Jeanie, and Bridger here to bring you this week’s Grande Film Reviews. This week they review Moonlight which could be, in their opinion, the one to win this year’s best picture at the Oscars.
Local Sports In sports, the LHS Tigers girls basketball team trashed the Ontario Tigers 62-33. Elgin girls, on the other hand, while the La Grande gals were trashing, were being trashed. Two games, two losses, both against valley teams Union and Imbler. 27-51 was the score v.s. Union, and Imbler handed them their tails 31-57. Union had their win against Elgin, but that was their only win of the weekend because, well, that was their only game! Imbler had only had one game, but that was a win 62-33 against Ontario.
Boys Tigers also had a weekend of wins, beating first McLoughlin again 49-31. And as if that wasn’t enough, the next day they smacked down Ontario 71-48 in one of their highest-scoring games of the season. Elgin boys, like their girl counterparts, also lost two versus their valley fellows, first v.s. Union 51-68 and second v.s. Imbler 25-54. Union, as I said, won their only game v.s. Elgin and Imbler had an additional game v.s. Enterprise which they also won with a close game, 55-43.
Around The Mount And last but not least, here’s your EOU sports with Evan and Christ in Around the Mount in 90 Seconds.
Behind the Streams And last, but certainly not least, the next iteration of our behind the streams look at La Grande Alive’s inner workings, this week we feature Jonathan Marvel, our Anything2Digital worker who has a unique experience starting at Brent Clapp Media Services.
And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hosptial, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com and Direct Music Source. Please like and share this video and tune in for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
This video was brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything2Digital.com, and Direct Music Source.
Weekly Newsish Roundup, January 19, 2017 – 6 News Stories in 11 minutes 56 seconds!
Check out your weekly Newsish Roundup for January 19-25. In the news today,
Know Your Snow
Adopt A Hydrant
Upcoming Events
Grande Film Reviews – Fences
Local Sports
Around the Mountain
This video was brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything2Digital.com and Direct Music Source
For more local content, visit our website at http://lagrandealive.tv! La Grande, OR, Wallowa Avalanche Center, Back Country Festival, Skiing, Back Country
This is your weekly Newsish Roundup, brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything2Digital.com and Direct Music Source!
Know Your Snow And here we are, just thinking the worst of it was over when, bam!, the worst storm since the movie Twister! The worst storm since the storm troopers in Star Wars! The worst storm since Halle Berry in Xmen, and that was bad! And while we’re talking about cold things not conducive to your health or comfort… Avalanches! Let’s talk about those! Last year 6 people died in avalanche-related accidents, according to the American Avalanche Association. It’s very easy to get caught in one, especially if you don’t know what signs to look for. But if you’re one of those avalanche-ignorant ice lovers that subsist off of powder days and downhill thrills, this weekend, at the annual Back Country Festival, like us, you’ll get the opportunity to learn why, exactly, being in the snow about avalanche and winter safety is so important plus some helpful tips about how to stay safe while out in the snow.
The back country festival is this Thursday through Sunday. There’s gonna’ be Ski-films, Avalanche safety Clinics, a Back Country Tour day, drinks, raffles, and an up-down hill ski race at Anthony Lakes in remembrance of Kip, the ex-director of the Wallowa Avalanche center, who recently died in a mountaineering accident. The winners get two full-season passes to duh-duh-duh-dah-dah! Anthony Lakes! At which, if they so choose, they can utilize their newly acquired avalanche safety knowledge to, you know, not die from a snow accident. Passes are five bucks a pop and the festival kicks off at 7pm Friday night. So strap on your skis and pull out your pocketbooks, please, and head over to the Back Country Festival in La Grande only this weekend. The rest of the times and more information can be found on their website located in the description of this video.
This title story was brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress. Want a couch? How about a chair or a mattress? At Northwest Furniture and Mattress in La Grande, they have them. Just don’t die trying to carry it to your car on the ice. On second thought, maybe buying a couch right now isn’t the best idea. This just in: Northwest Furniture and Mattress is now open on non-stormy days in La Grande, if we ever get another one of those again…
Adopt-A-Hydrant So you know those things you pass by and never see these days because, well, because they’re covered with snow? Fire-hydrants. And here’s some insider knowledge about those hydrants: they’re useless when they covered in snow. And even if they’re partially exposed, according to the Observer newspaper, when a firefighter attaches a hose to it, if the hose has any sort of bump or incline because of the snow, the water pressure is severely reduced and the ability of the fire-fighter to fight is inhibited. But you, you La Grande Alive, can do something about this! Strap on your parkas and tie your comforter around your neck like a cape, La Grande Alive, you can be a bon-e-fied local winter superhero if you choose to adopt one of these poor little buggers and rescue them from the clutches of the evil winter! Here’s what you do. Just grab a shovel, tromp out to the location under the snow where you know a hydrant exists, and dig it out. It’s a great service to do for our local firefighters and ultimately, in a game such as fire-fighting where seconds matter when they’re trying to put a fire out, you may end up saving your own life or livelihood or that of someone else. That being said, after you’re done with fire hydrants, stop there. Don’t go around and start trying to dig-out anything else. Vigilantism only goes so far. Nobody wants to find you buried beneath, say, a windmill or something, dead with a broken shovel in your hand.
Upcoming Events So what else is going on this weekend? Well, the Eagle Cap Extreme dog-sled race is going on just outside of Joseph in Wallowa County. Now, the start of the race is done. You missed it. It was Thursday at 1pm. But, if you’re interested in seeing some tired, hungry doggies and their icicle-bearded mushers cross the finish line, some, head up to Fergie Ski Area just south of Joseph for the crossing the finish line this Friday and the banquet at the Joseph Community Center on Saturday night at 5:30 pm.
Grande Film Reviews – Fences And back after almost a month of winter weather automobile catastrophies (and a few films thrown in here and there), here’s this week’s Grande Film Reviews with Jeanie, Josh, and Bridger.
Local Sports In sports, the high-school basketball teams snuck in between storms this weekend to actually play some basketball! The result was only meh, however, the La Grande boy tigers losing their first game against Hermiston last Saturday to Hermiston 54-62. It was a close game all the way up to the final half-court shot, the score going back and forth until the final minutes in which the Hermiston bulldogs pulled ahead and finished strong at home, giving the tigers their first taste of long, quiet bus-rides home of the season. The tigers are still 2-0 league games, however, as their game against Hermiston was non-league. The tigers rallied themselves several days later, though, beating Nyssa 44-32. Their next game is this weekend against the Dalles. If the weather lets us through the pass, that is. Elgin boys didn’t have such a great weekend, taking two to the teeth against, first, Grant Union 32-49 and then, second, Enterprise 42-54 the next day. Union did a little better, winning one out of two, their loss against Imbler 24-50 followed by a rebound win against Grant Union 40-29 the next day. Imbler only had their one losing game against Union and so came out of the weekend a big-fat one and zero.
The ladies tigers had only one game this weekend, the other one—eeh!—cancelled because of the weather. They beat Ontario at home 52-32. The Elgin ladies dropped two against Grant Union 18-51 and Enterprise 21-50. Ouch. Union girls also sunk it, and not as in a lot of points, losing first to Imbler 27-49 and then Grant Union the next day 18-47. Double ouch. And as with the boys, Imbler had only one game against Union though, for the girls, it was a winning game. Overall the girls are, as of this weekend, still cold and hungry for wins, waiting in their hometowns for the cold spell to pass.
Around the Mountain And, yes, you know what time it is, time for the big ATM, around the Mountain with Evan and Chris, EOU Sports in 90 seconds, more or less!
And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup! This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Anything to Digital, and Direct Music Source. Please like and share this video and tune in to LaGrandeAlive tv for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Weekly Newsish Roundup, January 11, 2017 – 6 News Stories in 11 minutes!
Check out this the weekly Newsish Roundup for January 11 – 18!
Snow Says No! To the Valley
Coffee with Will and Olivia Westenskow
Eagle Cap Extreme
Upcoming Events
Local Sports
Around the Mount in 90 Seconds
Big thanks to our sponsors Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Direct Music Source, and Anything to Digital.Com!
Pull up your covers and break out your space heaters, La Grande Alive, it’s your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Northwest Furniture, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything to Digital and Direct Music Source.
Snow Says No! To The Valley
Monday this week I was running down Cove Avenue–yes, people training for marathons still have to run in this weather–and the berms were so bad they had closed the road down. Some poor DOT SOB had a big-old industrial sized snow blower and was clearing off the road. Poor guy looked like he had snow in every single crevasse of his body, and I mean every one. And then today I saw a man in overalls spreading gravel on a sidewalk. This weekend, a pipe burst in the Underground Marketplace and spread two inches of water throughout the entire place, ruining many of the hand-painted floors. Monday, with the post-weekend thaw, I opened up the doors of Brent Clapp Media Services to find, what’s this?, half the office sopping wet from a drain leak on the outside of the building. And these are just a few of the cold-weather-caused catastrophes that have been plaguing the valley these last weeks. According to the Observer, dozens of people were stuck in Imbler, Cove, and elsewhere when the roads closed this weekend. One man had his barn collapse. One five-decade resident of La Grande said this is the worst he’s ever seen it in the valley. Last Thursday La Grande had a record -9 degrees for January 5th, only 16 degrees colder than the all-time low at -25 in 1990. And in all of this, County Commissioner Jack Howard to the position of impromptu weather reporter and fed us some videos of the weather off the street.
Now, according to the National Weather Service, the ice-age is gonna last all week. Temperatures are supposed to remain below freezing until Sunday at least, coupled with some spickle-spackling of snow over the course of the week. So pull on your snow boots and pull out your wallets for the hefty heating bill, La Grande Alive, it’s gonna be a cold one for at least a week.
Go Live For Alive
And by the way, have you heard of Go Live For Alive? Go Live For Alive allows you to be a live reporter for LaGrandeAlive, like Jack Howard was in that last story, anywhere in the Grande Ronde Valley. Just pull out your phone, click off a quick video or photo and send it with some text to LaGrandeAlive via Facebook Messenger. Or you can just send us a news update through the same medium.
This title story was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital. Grande Ronde hospital is a small-town hospital that, actually, has surprisingly short emergency room waiting times. I would know. I’ve been there several times since I moved here when I did silly, silly things. Grande Ronde Hospital. Big city medicine. Hometown care.
Coffee With Will and Olivia Westenskow
Okay. Full disclosure time here. Brutal honesty. Total vulnerability time. I’m going to trust you, La Grande Alive, that you’re open-minded enough not to send me cruel emails and make mean memes ridiculing me for my effeminate silliness based on the fact I’m going to reveal here. I do Zumba. Yes, I do. Big-bearded Will, Will-the-Alaskan-Bear-Man Will, Will that gets up every morning and goes and reads philosophy in the second-floor of the new Marketplace, this Will, shakes his butt to bad pop music in Zumba Class every week. And I love it. It’s a fantastic way to just let go and goof off and burn some extra calories in the process. Yes, the music is terrible and I look like a robot with body hair doing it, but I love it. And this week my long-time Zumba instructor Olivia Westenskow came in for a chat on Coffee With Will. Now Olivia is an exercise enthusiast of the highest caliber. And she has a very interesting story of how, exactly, she came to like exercise so much.
Now, it’s 2017. And I know many of you New-Year’s-Resolvers have nice idealistic exercise routines you’re just getting into. And probably starting to doubt. But have hope! Liv has a tip for you so that you can successfully get into long-term exercise instead of just puttering out after six visits to the gym.
Overall the conversation was a fun-filled back-and-forth for all people interested in fitness and exercise. If you’re interested, Olivia teaches many more classes than Zumba and all her class information can be found on her website. The rest of this interview is available on our Facebook page and on our website at LaGrandeAlive.tv.
Eagle Cap Extreme
Have any of you ever been to a sled dog race? It’s an extremely visceral experience. Announcements blaring over the speakerphone, the smell of hay and fur, the cacophony of dogs. Being from Alaska I used to go and watch these events. And next weekend, the Eagle Cap Extreme sled dog race is bringing the dogs to Eastern Oregon.
The Eagle Cap Extreme is the west coast’s only Iditarod qualifying dog race. It’s a big deal. It’s held every year just outside of Joseph, Oregon. It has races of 200 miles, 100 miles, 31 miles, and a 20 mile sprint. The race starts next Thursday at 9 am at the Fergi Ski Area 9 miles south of Joseph.
So if you love the poochies and don’t mind a little drive in the snow, seriously, sled on over to Wallowa county next Thursday to Saturday to experience the Eagle Cap Extreme. It’s an experience like none you’ve ever had. Watch your feet, though. Those doggies have to eat quite a bit to keep up the calories to race 200 miles.
Upcoming Events
So, what else is going on this upcoming weekend? Well, just one thing new. Starting next Wednesday if you feel like getting a little English (who doesn’t?), according to Go! Magazine, there will be eight sessions of English Country Dance to teach you how to hold your tea and dance with the highest British regality. There’s going to be professional dancers and professional musicians to play music to accompany the dance. Contact the Art Center East for more information.
Local Sports
In sports, cancelled, cancelled, cancelled! That’s what the diagnosis has been for many of the valley’s basketball teams this week. The La Grande Tigers boys beat the Baker Bulldogs last week 51-36. But that was their only game this weekend, their other TWO the first v.s. Pendleton and the second v.s. Hermiston both were swallowed up by the snow. The other teams in the valley were little different: Imbler boys beat Pilot Rock 51-37 last Friday but then lost their game v.s. Stanfield to the snow. Union lost to Heppner 34-58 and then didn’t have any other games this weekend.
In girls basketball, La Grande also had three games but won only one. While the boys were winning, the girls were losing to Baker by a slim margin 36-51 last Friday. They beat Nyssa the next day 59-54. Then the weather had their way with their game against Pendleton and it was Ehhh! cancelled. Imbler gals beat Pilot Rock 45-39 then lost v.s. mother nature in their game against Stanfield. Ehhhh! Canceled. And lastly, Union gals lost their game against Heppner 31-45.
Around the Mountain
And now, after a several-week holiday hiatus, here to warm your hearts and toast your sportsy sense is Evan and Chris with EOU sports in Around the Mountain in 90 Seconds.
And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Anything to Digital, and Direct Music Source. Please like and share this video and tune in for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Big thanks to our sponsors Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, Direct Music Source, and Anything to Digital.Com!
Hey La Grande Alive! It’s freezing cold outside, so cuddle up around your computer screen and watch this your weekly Newsish Roundup brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Direct Music Source, and Northwest Furniture and Mattress.
Barreto Boosts La Grande High School
You know, back in the day, (and this is just one of my personal observations) big-businesses often cared a lot about social projects. I recently read a billboard at the Columbia Gorge Hotel about a timber tycoon who donated millions of dollars to make the Columbia River Highway a reality. But it seems to me that these days businesses and social projects don’t seem to be on as good of terms. Social services like roads, schools, and libraries are instead largely taken care of by the state. But recently, according to the Observer, Barreto Manufacturing, a local multi-million dollar company, stepped up to the plate for the new high school career technical education building being added to the La Grande High school. The Tech Education building is a big-honkin complex being added to the high-school in which kids are going to be able to study trades like welding, drafting, and construction. Barreto Manufacturing is a local multi-million dollar company that manufactures landscaping equipment that has their headquarters right here in the Grande Ronde Valley. And over the break, they actually opened up their doors, facilities, and personnel to the kids to use over the break to construct welding booths for this new building, free of cost. They also got materials donated for the booths from companies from companies in Eugene to Idaho. The result: a bunch of high-school kids with life skills in their belts, a reduction of the high school’s budget from about 16 thousand to 4.5 thousand, and hopefully a small step in returning social services like education into a genial relationship with local public education providers.
Our title story today was brought to you by, first, the Observer who published it first. It was in their Wednesday paper. And second by Direct Music Source. Direct Music Source is a positively quaint little music store on the strip in La Grande owned by Margaret and Tony. Head there if you need lessons, parts, or just a good conversation about all things musical.
Coffee With Will and Nichole Lewis
It’s not often that I get an opportunity to sit down with big stars and chat about, well, anything on Coffee With Will. I’m a bit goofy and awkward, and I think the peace lily reminds them too much of between two ferns with Zach Galifianakis. But that’s exactly what happened last week. I got a one-time, red-hot shot at an interview with a small-town-star who probably has more followers on Facebook than I have dollars in my bank account. (It’s not true, I checked, but not by much, I’m sorry to say…) Nicole Lewis grew up in La Grande. She’s the daughter of Susan Lewis, a close friend of mine, and she recently moved to Nashville to get serious about her music her writing. And over Christmas break, she came in and did three songs with us including a new song she recently wrote called “Cuddle Up”, a song perfect for all you lovebirds sick to death of snow.
Nichole and I talked about many things in our interview including writing, a shared passion of ours. Nicole writes country-western music, a genre that is well-known for it’s simple and plain-spoken lyrics. But, she said, writing simple is anything but. Writing things tersely and not wasting words is a discipline, she said, that she’s learning more about in Nashville.
It’s not often I get the opportunity to sit down with a quality musician and pick their brains, especially one of the caliber of Nicole Lewis. The rest of this interview is available our our website as are the three songs she performed for us.
Upcoming Events
A new art gallery is opening up at Art Center East, according to GO! Magazine. Hiroko Cannon paints local wildlife from the Plateau region near her home in Pendleton. Her show will be open January 6th at 6pm for the reception, and will remain open until February 24th. And speaking of skiing, Anthony Lakes is having a free nordic skiing and snowshoeing day this Sunday 8am to 4pm. Also, Lonni the Eclectic Cowboy is playing next thursday night at 6pm at Local Harvest Eatery. Lonni’s a small-town, cowboy-boot-wearin’ Mormon who’s gig is writing and reading cowboy poetry and some of it’s pretty dang-tootin’ good.
Local Sports
In sports, the La Grande Tigers cooked it this weekend in the SCTC Holiday classic, taking two against stayton 55-40 and Amity 62-45. That puts them at 9-0 entering into this weekend’s league game against Baker. And this week, we here at LaGrandeAlive got a chance to talk to them about the upcoming season.
Their first game is tomorrow against Baker City at Baker City, leading off the season with their big rivalry against the dogs from across the hill. In other boys basketball news, Elgin went one and one this weekend, beating Cove 42-33 at the La Grande Optimist Tourney. But they couldn’t keep it up. Powder Valley stomped them 29-49 the following day. Union boys also split their weekend, beating Baker JV 52-33 but losing to Imbler 34-52 the following day. And Union wasn’t the only team Imbler beat this weekend: the day before they cruised by La Grande JV 48-33 at the Optimist tournament, putting them one up one down overall for the weekend.
In ladies basketball, if the La Grande boys dunked, the ladies sunk. The lady Tigers lost both of their games by pretty large margins this weekend, first v.s Molalla 39-75 and then versus Hermiston 25-53. The Union ladies did slightly better, winning one losing one, their win against Wallowa 43-28 and their loss against Cove by a hair of 37-40. So La Grande won zero, Union won one, but the Imbler girls took two. They won both their games against Elgin and Powder Valley this weekend, beating Elgin by a double-up score of 60-30 and Powder Valley by a smaller margin–but still quite the margin nonetheless–40-25.
Now let’s jump up to EOU for their first games of 2017. The men’s basketball team picked up twin wins against Northwest University and Evergreen State. They beat Northwest 92-71 and then Evergreen State with the ever-so-slightest of margins 98-92. And the ladies were right there with them. The lady Mountaineers took the same teams, same result, Northwest 67-66 and Evergreen State 70-38. Both men’s and women’s teams will play against Warner Pacific and Multnomah this weekend 5:30 pm Friday and Saturday respectively at home in Quinn Coliseum.
And that’s your weekly Newsish Roundup. This roundup was brought to you by Grande Ronde Hospital, Northwest Furniture and Mattress, and Direct Music Source. Please like and share this video and tune in to La Grande Alive for more local content. I’m Will Bowman.
Big thanks to our sponsors Northwest Furniture and Mattress, Grande Ronde Hospital, and Direct Music Source!
This week in Coffee With Will, I sat down with Austin Saunders, the local representative for Oregon Rural Action. Austin is a EOU graduate. He graduated with a history degree and got a job right here in La Grande at the local social and environmental justice agency that is ORA.
Adopt-A-Hydrant 
Monday this week I was running down Cove Avenue–yes, people training for marathons still have to run in this weather–and the berms were so bad they had closed the road down. Some poor DOT SOB had a big-old industrial sized snow blower and was clearing off the road. Poor guy looked like he had snow in every single crevasse of his body, and I mean every one. And then today I saw a man in overalls spreading gravel on a sidewalk. This weekend, a pipe burst in the Underground Marketplace and spread two inches of water throughout the entire place, ruining many of the hand-painted floors. Monday, with the post-weekend thaw, I opened up the doors of Brent Clapp Media Services to find, what’s this?, half the office sopping wet from a drain leak on the outside of the building. And these are just a few of the cold-weather-caused catastrophes that have been plaguing the valley these last weeks. According to the Observer, dozens of people were stuck in Imbler, Cove, and elsewhere when the roads closed this weekend. One man had his barn collapse. One five-decade resident of La Grande said this is the worst he’s ever seen it in the valley. Last Thursday La Grande had a record -9 degrees for January 5th, only 16 degrees colder than the all-time low at -25 in 1990. And in all of this, County Commissioner Jack Howard to the position of impromptu weather reporter and fed us some videos of the weather off the street.
Have any of you ever been to a sled dog race? It’s an extremely visceral experience. Announcements blaring over the speakerphone, the smell of hay and fur, the cacophony of dogs. Being from Alaska I used to go and watch these events. And next weekend, the Eagle Cap Extreme sled dog race is bringing the dogs to Eastern Oregon. 
So if you love the poochies and don’t mind a little drive in the snow, seriously, sled on over to Wallowa county next Thursday to Saturday to experience the Eagle Cap Extreme. It’s an experience like none you’ve ever had. Watch your feet, though. Those doggies have to eat quite a bit to keep up the calories to race 200 miles. 
You know, back in the day, (and this is just one of my personal observations) big-businesses often cared a lot about social projects. I recently read a billboard at the Columbia Gorge Hotel about a timber tycoon who donated millions of dollars to make the Columbia River Highway a reality. But it seems to me that these days businesses and social projects don’t seem to be on as good of terms. Social services like roads, schools, and libraries are instead largely taken care of by the state. But recently, according to the Observer, Barreto Manufacturing, a local multi-million dollar company, stepped up to the plate for the new high school career technical education building being added to the La Grande High school. The Tech Education building is a big-honkin complex being added to the high-school in which kids are going to be able to study trades like welding, drafting, and construction. Barreto Manufacturing is a local multi-million dollar company that manufactures landscaping equipment that has their headquarters right here in the Grande Ronde Valley. And over the break, they actually opened up their doors, facilities, and personnel to the kids to use over the break to construct welding booths for this new building, free of cost. They also got materials donated for the booths from companies from companies in Eugene to Idaho. The result: a bunch of high-school kids with life skills in their belts, a reduction of the high school’s budget from about 16 thousand to 4.5 thousand, and hopefully a small step in returning social services like education into a genial relationship with local public education providers.
It’s not often that I get an opportunity to sit down with big stars and chat about, well, anything on Coffee With Will. I’m a bit goofy and awkward, and I think the peace lily reminds them too much of between two ferns with Zach Galifianakis. But that’s exactly what happened last week. I got a one-time, red-hot shot at an interview with a small-town-star who probably has more followers on Facebook than I have dollars in my bank account. (It’s not true, I checked, but not by much, I’m sorry to say…) Nicole Lewis grew up in La Grande. She’s the daughter of Susan Lewis, a close friend of mine, and she recently moved to Nashville to get serious about her music her writing. And over Christmas break, she came in and did three songs with us including a new song she recently wrote called “Cuddle Up”, a song perfect for all you lovebirds sick to death of snow.
In sports, the La Grande Tigers cooked it this weekend in the SCTC Holiday classic, taking two against stayton 55-40 and Amity 62-45. That puts them at 9-0 entering into this weekend’s league game against Baker. And this week, we here at LaGrandeAlive got a chance to talk to them about the upcoming season.
