For an agency that writes press releases to tout its sales of high-end booze, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s newfound concern about people who brew beer or make wine in their garage, with no intention of selling their wares, strikes us as passing strange.

And preposterous.

We have a couple of simple questions for Baker County’s three commissioners — questions they need to answer should they decide later this month to accept the gift of Anthony Lakes ski area.

Question 1: Based on the current owners’ 12 years of records, how many skier visits would the county need to break even?

Question 2: In how many of those 12 years did Anthony Lakes attract at least that many skiers?

The answers could go far in persuading skeptical residents that the county, by taking over the ski area, would not be risking any of their tax dollars.

That risk looks to us to be relatively low.

The ashes were still warm when at least one media outlet speculated that some disgruntled logger, millwright or rancher might have torched the Forest Service office in Enterprise.

This connection annoys us not so much because it’s premature, published before fire investigators have even determined whether the blaze was arson, but because, even by the meager standards of insinuation, it’s lacking in logic.

The facts show that, in cases when arsonists target a Forest Service facility, the felons’ motivation is apt to be opposite what’s implied in a story posted on The Oregonian’s Web site.

The early June flooding that devoured a section of the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway created more than just a mess that will cost millions to remove.

The raging waters of North Pine Creek also spawned a cartographic confusion that could drive tourists away from Baker County during the lucrative summer season.

Fortunately, straightening out the travel implications of the flood is simpler, and considerably cheaper, than is fixing the road.

The problem has much to do with names.

The Hells Canyon Scenic Byway doesn’t, strictly speaking, go to Hells Canyon.

But a popular side excursion does delve into the canyon. That route follows Highway 86 to Oxbow, and from there Idaho Power Co.’s paved road that leads to Hells Canyon Dam and the U.S. Forest Service’s Visitor Center and boat launch just below the dam.

Oregon is finally trying to quell the deplorable practice known as “passing the trash.”

That’s the process by which school employees who are suspected of sexual misconduct with students move from job to job because officials, rather than report the accusations or fire the worker, agree to conceal the charges from prospective employers if the worker resigns.

In 2008 the Legislature, by unanimous votes in the House and Senate, passed House Bill 2062, which outlaws the practice in public and private schools.

The law, unfortunately, didn’t take effect until July 1 of this year.

One thing, though, annoyed us about what should have been, without exception, a cause for celebration.

The Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford quoted an official from the public school district in that city who, although he lauded the new law, also complained about the paperwork involved in complying with it.

Despite evidence to the contrary, in the form of dead sheep in Baker County last year and dead cattle this year in Wallowa County, we believe wolves and livestock can both thrive in Northeastern Oregon.

But achieving that goal will require compromise.

And not between wolves and their domestic prey.

We’re talking about the relationship between the state and federal agencies responsible for managing wolves, and the coalition of groups that celebrate the return of wolves to Oregon after an absence of more than half a century.

What happened last year in Baker County, when a pair of wolves killed more than two dozen livestock in Keating Valley, proves that that relationship can work.

Although we’ll concede that that situation was more straightforward than what’s taken place this year in Wallowa County.

In Baker County there was ample evidence, including photographs, linking the two wolves to the livestock kills.

The Baker City Council needs to hire a city manager.

Fortunately, councilors have had quite a lot of practice at this task over the past year.

Which is why they ought to be able to finish this important job before the current manager, Steve Bogart, resigns on Sept. 23.

Last year, after the Council fired Steve Brocato on June 9, 6fi months elapsed before councilors offered the job to Tim Johnson.

Johnson eventually declined that offer, citing the need to care for his ailing mother. The Council then hired Bogart.

After Bogart announced his resignation, Mayor Dennis Dorrah said he “had the thought that we could give Tim Johnson a call.”

That’s a good idea.

(Dorrah said Tuesday that he hadn’t yet made the call.)

The recent discovery that employees at two Western Oregon school districts had tossed usable classroom supplies and textbooks into Dumpsters is no great scandal.

What it is is awfully stupid.

The sort of ill-conceived stunt that leads reasonable people to wonder whether all government workers treat all tax dollars as badly as they did those bottles of glue and books.

The answer, of course, is no.

More than half of those dollars, after all, go directly to the workers as wages, retirement, health insurance and other benefits. We can safely presume those dollars are not discarded.

Nonetheless, publicity about the two school incidents has prompted the predictable complaint that school officials have no legitimate reason to whine about budget shortfalls.

The Baker City Council has handed the Baker County Board of Commissioners an opportunity.

And $136,000.

What the three commissioners choose to do with that money, which is collected from people who stay in local motels, RV parks and bed-and-breakfasts, will largely determine whether the City Council’s recent decision to disband the city’s community and economic development department was wise or foolhardy.

The county used to send that money to City Hall.

The city used the dollars to run the now-defunct department. Its two employees, Jennifer Watkins and Gene Stackle, both lost their jobs when the Council last month approved the budget for the fiscal year that started Thursday.

With that decision, the city’s $136,000 share of lodging taxes reverted to the county’s coffers.

The loss of Watkins’ position is potentially troublesome because she was instrumental in the city’s success over the past decade or so at obtaining state and federal grants for projects such as the extension of the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway.

But the county commissioners can alleviate that concern by using some of the $136,000 to create a job that’s very much like Watkins’ former post as community development director.

Pine beetles and other tree-killing insects don’t as a rule make much noise.

But even their stealthy munching seems boisterous compared with Congress’ attitude toward the nation’s sickly federal forests.

This troubling trend persists even as millions of acres of western forest burn each summer. In many cases these fires burn hotter, and spread faster, than historic blazes did because forests are more crowded, and less healthy, than they used to be.

Members of Oregon’s delegation have tried to roust their colleagues by touting the job-creating potential of accelerating the existing campaign to restore public forests, as well as the ecological benefits, but to little avail.

Greg Walden, for instance, the lone Republican among the Oregon contingent, has been pushing a pair of bills since late 2009.

One is designed to expedite the cutting of small, low-value trees in dense stands most vulnerable to fires.