Wallowa County officials have released very little information on a baby whose body was found by fishermen near the Minam State Park Monday afternoon. According to a press conference held yesterday, Sheriff Fred Steen said the baby was “near full term”, but provided no further details. He said they do suspect foul play, and that they were working on several leads. Some persons of interest are being interviewed. Sheriff Steen said the body was found about a half mile from the Minam State Park campground on the South side of the road. The Union and Baker County major crimes team are helping in the investigation.

In 1984 a movie was released that took the U.S. by storm. Featuring a fresh, young leading man and a great soundtrack, ‘Footloose’ had people of all ages flocking to the theaters. Now Northeast Oregon audiences will get the chance to see the play based on the popular movie. Starting Friday it will be presented at the Elgin Opera House the next two weekends. Directed by Denise Wheeler, the stage adaptation is both similar and different from the movie. The shows star, Fuane Tuatala who plays Ren, says all of the characters from the movie are in the play- they just do more: ***/Footloose/Fuane Tuatala/…In the movie there are a lot of songs- but nothing is ever sung. With this play, it’s a musical, and so you have a lot of the actors who are not only acting, but they’re dancing and singing as well. Some of those elements weren’t used in the movie…/*** The play features local actors including some from the EOU Theater Department. Tuatala says ‘Footloose’ is appropriate for all ages. Performances will run this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 each night with a 2:30 matinee on Sunday. It will run again next Friday and Saturday at the same time. Tickets are $15, $10 and $6 and are available by calling 663-6324.

Just two days after the death of state treasurer Ben Westlund, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski announced yesterday morning that he had appointed Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler to fill the position until the general election in November. Wheeler says he had previously shown interest in the position, and that’s how he came to the Governor’s attention: ***/Wheeler named/Ted Wheeler/…It did probably come to the Governor’s attention that i had previously thought about the office of state treasurer. It’s consistent with my background, my skills and my aspirations. I just didn’t anticipate doing it this soon…/*** Wheeler had already filed to run for a second term as the Multnomah County Chairman, but he said yesterday that he would withdraw from that race and will run instead to serve out the final two years of Westlund's term. Wheeler has a background in the financial industry as an officer with Bank of America. Former State Senator Rick Metzger and State Senator Chris Telfer have also filed to run for the position in the May primary.

The county-by-county employment numbers for January were released yesterday, and there was a little good news for at least one Northeast Oregon County. Union County saw its unemployment rate drop from 11.3% in January of 2009 to 9.1% last month, and there were 335 less people unemployed last month vs. last year. The unemployment rate in Baker County rose last month, going from 9.5% a year ago to 10% this year with fifty-six more people unemployed. In Wallowa County it went from 11.1% to 11.3% in the past year. Over the past year, Union County has gained seventy manufacturing jobs and thirty retail jobs. They’re still down twenty construction jobs over the past year. Baker County lost 120 private sector jobs from January of 2009 to this January fueled mostly by a loss of eighty manufacturing jobs and sixty construction jobs in that span of time. Wallowa County lost twenty retail jobs and ten construction jobs. The statewide unemployment rate in January rose from 9.9% in January of 2009 to 10.7% this year.

Gas prices around the nation and across the state have shot up in the past week, and officials with Oregon Triple A say they don’t expect the price increases to slow down anytime soon. According to Marie Dodds with Triple A, the price of a gallon of regular unleaded nationally jumped .05 cents to $2.75 per gallon while the statewide average went up .06 cents to $2.86 per gallon. Dodds says the reason for the rapid increase is crude oil: ***/Gas prices/Marie Dodds/…I think we can blame it mostly on higher crude prices. We’ve seen crude at or just above $80 a barrel now for about the last couple of weeks…/*** And Dodds says that oil industry analysts say prices will continue rising, and they say we will see $3 per gallon gasoline before summer. Just how high prices will go depends on how quickly the economy recovers. Diesel prices are also on the rise, with the Oregon average at $2.93 per gallon.