Critics have pounced, predictably, on the Oregon Legislature for considering a bill that would change the state song.

But we don’t mind. We haven’t seen any evidence that the bill to replace “Oregon, My Oregon” with “No Place Under the Sun Like Oregon” is diverting lawmakers from more vital matters.

Baker City Mayor Dennis Dorrah needs help.

Dorrah, who was elected to the largely ceremonial job by his fellow councilors in January, tried awfully hard to prevent the Council’s April 28 meeting from devolving into a shouting match.

He did pretty well, considering the circumstances.

We’ve read a lot of words recently from Washington, D.C., about how vital it is to restore the public forests, and the economy, of Northeastern Oregon.

What we haven’t seen are dollars.

Which makes all the talk, as the saying goes, pretty cheap.

For all that’s been said against swine flu, the virus has at least one good thing going for it.

It has scared people into washing their hands and covering their mouths when they cough.

This, of course, is sound advice under any circumstances.

Beef brings more dollars to Baker County than any other agricultural commodity.

But until recently, local beef was conspicuously absent from one place: the menus of the county’s public schools.

Baker County ranchers intend to correct that oversight.

Wolves have killed 24 lambs and one calf this month in Baker County.

Livestock raising is the biggest industry in Baker County.

The country is mired in a recession.

The Oregon Legislature’s response to this unsettling equation?

Silence.

President Obama and the Democrats who control Congress think America should spew less carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into its skies while getting more of its energy from renewable sources.

We agree on both counts.

We think people who discard cigarette butts or cigars any place other than an ash tray or trash can are thoughtless cretins.

But they’re not criminals.

At least not to the extent that an Oregon lawmaker believes they are.

We recognize that Baker City Manager Steve Brocato’s proposal to hire a private contractor to run the planning department is, in essence, a pre-arranged deal.

But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad deal.

It’s hardly a secret that the privatization idea is designed to accommodate Don Chance.

Chance, whom Brocato hired as planning director in 2007, wants to spend more time at his home in Richland, Wash.

Would you prefer Oregon’s Legislature and other state officials, or Baker County’s three commissioners, decide where a destination resort can be built in the county?

We’ll take the commissioners.

At least we had a say in choosing all three of them.

We get to vote on just two of the state’s 90 legislators.