25 years ago this week — 2000

HERMISTON – Kick. Uppercut. Squat and kick.

Some Armand Larive Middle School students are punching their way into fitness with the help of Billy Blanks, the master of Tae Bo.

No, he’s not in town personally, but his video tapes are being used by students in Todd Sprong’s elective course.

“There are all kinds of electives, but I wanted to offer something high impact and that used physical fitness,” said the Armand Larive physical education teacher.

Ten students work out to the Tae Bo tapes three days a week while weight-lifting the other two days in the four-and-a-half-week class.

Tae Bo used self-defence, dancing and boxing moves to give people a high-aerobic workout.

But besides the physical fitness, the students have fun.

“This is something a little bit different for them,” he said.

Maria Ena, a seventh-grader, said that she enjoys the class because it gives her a good workout and lets her exercise at her own pace.

“We have our own space and we can work out as hard as we want,” she said.

“We can have fun with it that way,” Sprong said.

———

SEATTLE (AP) – Kennewick Man was an early Indian, not some Norseman roaming the Pacific Northwest thousands of years ago, and that could clear the way to returning his contested remains to a tribe, the U.S. Department of the Interior says.

“We believe firmly that he a Native American person. We do not believe he wandered to the mid-columbia area. He was born here,” said Francis McManamon, chief archeologist for the National Park Service. He has been working with the Interior to pin down the origin of the mysterious remains discovered in the shallows of the Columbia River in 1996.

The finding is based on recent radio carbon dating tests conducted at three labs that put Kennewick Man’s age at between 9,300-9,500 years, as well as tests on river sediments, a spear point that he apparently carried in his hip bone for decades and other evidence, McManamon said at news conference Thursday at the Burke Museum, where the remains are stored.

Kennewick Man has been a source of controversy since the discovery of his scattered, 320-plus bones in the river near the city of Kennewick.

Some, including an Old Norse pagan group that has claimed Kennewick man as an ancestor in a lawsuit, suggest his facial structure is that of a Caucasian, not an Indian. Five Indian tribes have claimed Kennewick man as an ancestor and are pressing for burial of his remains, while a group of eight anthropologists has sued for the right to study them.

———

HERMISTON – On April 3, 1968, the eve of his assassination in Memphis, Tenn., the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I’ve been to the Mountain-top” speech before a crowd at the Mason Temple. Some historians consider King’s last world to be his most prophetic:

“I’ve been to the mountain top … He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain top and I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

From the vantage point of Earl Wilson, 34, and LeRoy Colbray, 40, it looks as though the promised land is just over the next hill. The two men are part of the newly formed Black International Awareness Club in the Hermiston area.

The focus of the group, which is open to the public, is to promote multicultural awareness and to “educate and assist the entire community in the history, needs and direction of the black community.” The group held a march in downtown Hermiston today in honor of King’s birthday.

A life-long Hermiston native, Colbray said he’s always had the advantage of being about “to drink out of the foundation.” Now in his fifth year as an electrical apprentice for Local Union 112, Colbray has capitalized on the opportunities before him.

50 years ago this week — 1975

Few issues dealt with in the 1975 Legislature will probably be as controversial or as clear-cut as field burning in the Willamette Valley.

Basically, it’s the right of the public to clean, smokeless air versus the contributions of a $64 million industry to Oregon’s hard-hit economy.

About 280,000 acres of grass straw are burned in the valet annually to preserve grass seed quality and to kill diseases that could strike the crops if fields were not burned.

Four years ago, the legislature voted to band field burning in the valley as of Jan 1., 1975. Seed growers were given four years to come up with an alternative way to dispose of straw.

Time is running short and grass growers say they will lobby intensively for an extension of field burning.

Impetus for the 1971 ban came from Eugene residents, who objected to the thick, stagnant smoke produced by open burning. Eugene Mayor Les Anderson has named a citizen’s committee to assemble information that will be used to inform legislators about the dangers of lifting the ban.

The city has allocated $5,000 to hire Fred Mohr, a part-time lobbyist, to present the city’s side of the field burning debate.

The seed industry is also gearing up for a legislative battle. The Oregon Seed Trade Association has hired Ted Hughes, a veteran lobbyist in Salem, and his firm to represent its interests to lawmakers.

———

The Pendleton School Board Tuesday night extended to Aug. 23, 1976, the date by which trainable mentally retarded classrooms must be moved from the Washington School site.

The one-year extension is contingent on a waiver by the Oregon Board of Education permitting the classrooms on a site that is not as large as recommended.

At a previous meeting, it had been suggested the Umatilla County Intermediate Education District move the classrooms before the start of the 1975-1976 school year, when additional Washington School classrooms are expected to be completed.

But IED Supt. Ken Stanhope said such a deadline would create a problem for the IED budget committee, which must complete its work by March 15.

Stanhope said that between now and the beginning of the 1976-77 school year, the IED would look for other sites for the TMR classrooms, and hoped Pendleton and other school districts would help in the search.

———

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Petrik and their 5-year-old daughter, Robin, leave Sunday for Seattle, where Robin is scheduled for a kidney transplant Wednesday. The donor will be her mother, Kay.

Robin’s kidneys were removed in October 1972 because they were infected. She has been on dialysis (an artificial kidney machine) since surgery.

A fund drive raised enough money to purchase a kidney machine for the Petriks to use at their home, some 15 miles west of Pendleton.

Robin will check in at the University of Washington Hospital Sunday night, where she will be started on anti-rejection serum. The hospital is at 1951 Pacific, Seattle 98095. Robin will be on the fourth floor, east wing.

The Petriks have rented an apartment near the hospital. It is unit No. 604 in the Coach House Apartments, 4725 25th Ave. NE, Seattle 98105.

Mrs. Petrik underwent final tests this week at Seattle to determine whether she could be the donor. The tests, which followed many in Pendleton, proved satisfactory.

Mrs. Petrik could be out of the hospital a week after the transplant, and Robin a week late. Both would have to return frequently for awhile, but could be home within a month after the operation.

Mrs. Petrik’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Doyle Nelson, of Springfield, Ore., will stay with the Petrik’s 3 ½ year-old son, Ryan.

100 years ago this week — 1925

A big program of activities has been carried on by the Umatilla project farm bureau during the past year, according to reports made at the annual meeting of the organization Saturday night in Hermiston. Many phases of work vitally interesting to farmers were included in the list of things done by the body. Both the social and economical needs of the farming district were served, according to the report of President F. B. Phillips. Picnics, motion picture entertainments and one of the most successful economic conferences held in the state included some of the activities.

The organization has 160 paid up members, Sidney Bernard, secretary, said. It organized the co-operative purchasing association which bought about $75,000 worth of goods during the year at a saving of $12,000. Ground has been broken for a new warehouse, and plans of deducting two percent of gross sales to pay for the building and are expected to retire the indebtedness within two years.

A.W. Agnew, of the board of directors, reported that the bull association has purchased two bulls during the year, co-operative was given the Hermiston Dairy & Hog show and a start has been made toward forming a cow testing association.

———

A request that the city add a desk man to the police force on condition that a group of business men employ a merchant policeman to aid in patrolling the business section of the city at night was refused last night when a delegation waited on the council.

J. J. Hamley was chairman of the group, and in addition to the talk made by him, remarks were addressed to the council by W. W. Green, E. J. Murphy and R. D. Sayres. They informed the council that a meeting was recently held by business men who pledged themselves to pay for the services of a merchant policeman, but they asked that a desk man be employed by the city.

“Day protection is satisfactory,” said W. W. Green, “but we do not believe that the protection can be afforded by two policemen at night is adequate. We are willing to bear some of the expense, but we want the city to employ a desk man to whom reports can be made at intervals of 30 minutes.”

Mayor Fee declared that the city has no funds with which to employ an extra man on the force and that the budget for the year will not allow the expenditure, unless enough money can be raised by subscription to pay for the services of two men.

———

Wide publicity for Oregon has been afforded and will be possible for another month by the advertising work that is being carried on nationally by the Burlington, Great Northern and the Northern Pacific railway systems, and something of the extent of the work in the state’s behalf was given by Herbert Cuthbert, manager of the publicity department of the Portland Chamber of Commerce, during his visit in Pendleton.

This advertising matter will appear again next month. Radio talks will also be broadcasted all over the country, lectures will be sent out and window displays will be used in the east and middle west to advertise the state.

The dining cars on the three railroad lines will feature Oregon products on their menus during March. Included among the Oregon products will be Oregon lamb, fish, butter, cheese, nuts, fruits and other good things to eat that have made the state famous.