October 12, 2011 06:39 pm
‘Facts’ don’t fly To the editor: I of all people wish the article entitled “County officials explain about Columbia decision” was true that Columbia Basin Helicopters, Inc. had enough work that would justify making up to 14 flights per day, seven days per week. The real answer is one to two flights per month averaged over a year. Why was this information printed? I wish people would take the time to do their homework and get their facts straight. We support local farmers with aerial application and will store some of our helicopters in Baker over the winter when they typically have no contracts. David McCarty Baker City |
October 10, 2011 07:07 pm
Global warming not in real dispute To the editor: In a recent letter to the editor, Pete Sundin, who poo poos global warming theory, says he’s looking forward to a warmer climate such as Europe experienced in the Medieval Ages. He claims there are “thousands of scientists” who believe as he does. |
October 09, 2011 10:03 pm
Helicopter firm treated unfairly To the editor: There are some common reasons for injunctions, including stalking, domestic violence and harassment. Which of these has Columbia Basin Helicopters committed? This is outrageous. Columbia has made the Baker Valley its home from its inception in 1994. We are not talking about a fully fledged operating business that flies in and out every day like a traditional airport, but a business that employs from five to 20 Baker County residents depending upon the time of year. This year, the times that a helicopter has actually landed on the property is under a dozen. In the offseason, which is typically October through spring startup, the aircraft are parked in a shop and overhauled, again providing employment for these individuals all year long. |
October 09, 2011 10:02 pm
We wish President Obama were as eager to help Baker County resuscitate its flagging economy as he is to ensure that an Idaho company gets to build a power transmission line through the county. |
October 09, 2011 10:00 pm
Guns, as a general rule, don’t belong in schools. Trouble is, general rules, not to mention laws, sometimes get broken. And occasionally the people doing the breaking have guns, which they take to school and use to murder students and teachers and anyone else who gets in the way.
When that happens, the presence of another gun-toter — ideally, one who’s not suffering from any sort of psychosis — could, quite literally, be a life-saver. |
October 05, 2011 04:25 pm
There are good reasons to deny a person the privilege of buying a gun. That a person has a card allowing him to legally use marijuana is a bad reason. |
October 05, 2011 04:24 pm
What would Jesus do? Not war To the editor: I’ve heard about this road all my life but I never thought I’d actually see it being traveled by us, but it is and it’s happening right now. We’ve truly become “The Divided States of America,” eating away at our national psyche and many other sacred cows we’ve nursed into the spotlight. Ours is an undeniably dysfunctional government, caught in a stunning two-way inability to reason our way to solutions, given free reign by many to act in such a savage, stupid manner. |
September 30, 2011 04:33 pm
Facts and guesses in climate science
To the editor:
The writer of a recent letter to the editor obviously missed the whole point of my letter on climate change.
Within written human history there have been times when the earth’s climate was significantly warmer than it is today. Those warmer climates were actually more beneficial to mankind that today’s climate is. The above two statements are factual; they have been established through meticulous research by respected historians and archaeologists.
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September 30, 2011 04:30 pm
President Obama wants to boost the income tax rate for wealthy Americans.
The president’s proposal has provoked the predictable platitudes, as stale and as devoid of nutrition as last week’s doughnuts.
The phrases “pay their fair share” and “class warfare,” among others, ring with their usual hollowness across our fair land.
(Although that pair makes for a nice rhyme. I should mention this to my 4-year-old daughter, Olivia, who has recently taken to rhyming in a big way.)
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September 30, 2011 04:29 pm
We’ve begun to reconsider our optimism about the prospect that wolves will return to some of their former habitat in Oregon in anything resembling a peaceful manner.
Based on the exploits this year of the Imnaha wolf pack — until recently the biggest of Oregon’s three packs — our earlier sense of hope is being replaced by skepticism.
Last week the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), which manages wolves in far Eastern Oregon, announced that its agents would kill two of the four remaining Imnaha wolves. One of the targeted wolves is the pack’s alpha, or breeding, male.
ODFW killed two other Imnaha wolves in May.
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Opinion 