May 18, 2011 11:56 am
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A reason to be mad about health care
To the editor:
Recently, I attended a presentation at the library by the “Mad as Hell Doctors” (Physicians for a National Health Program). They told how the American health system costs twice as much per capita as that of other industrialized countries which provide single payer health coverage. Not only is our system too expensive, it has gaping holes that leave so many people out.
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May 18, 2011 11:53 am
Most people, we suspect, tend to think of dog waste as a stinky mess but nothing more.
But it turns out the stuff can do something worse than foul up our shoes.
It can makes us sick, too.
And our kids are especially susceptible.
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May 16, 2011 01:58 pm
The Baker City Council was wise to get around to appointing a parks and recreation advisory board.
The Council’s decision to set up the seven-member volunteer board (councilors will appoint the members later this year) wasn’t belated.
But it was getting close.
After all, in just the past decade the city has built the Leo Adler Memorial Parkway and acquired the two-acre property along the Powder River where the new Central Park is under construction.
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May 13, 2011 11:47 am
We don’t object to Baker City charging a reasonable fee to people who want to burn yard debris, as officials have proposed doing.
But $25 for an annual permit isn’t reasonable by the standards of the city’s own fee schedule.
The annual cost for a dog license, for instance, is less than half as much — $10.50 for dogs that aren’t spayed or neutered, and $8 for ones that are.
Yet city employees spend considerably more time dealing with dog-related issues than with complaints regarding backyard burning.
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May 13, 2011 11:46 am
Let’s work together to solve problems
To the editor:
Baker County has some serious problems.
Baker ranked 29th out of 33 Oregon counties in health outcomes. One-fifth of Baker County residents do not have health insurance. One out of every four Baker County children lives in poverty. More than half of the students in our school system are on free or reduced lunch, and only 57 percent of students in the district graduate on time. The median family income in Baker County is $36,106: 30 percent below the national average. These are not the numbers we associate with a healthy community. These are statistics that paint a picture of a county with severe social and economic problems.
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May 13, 2011 11:45 am
I’ve gotten my rig stuck probably a dozen times, but never for a good reason.
And that’s even allowing for an especially generous definition of “good reason.”
Forget such legitimate excuses as “I was carrying life-saving serum to diphtheria patients,” or “my passenger just had a heart attack.”
I can’t even make the understandable, albeit silly, claim that I got high-centered on a snowdrift or mired in a mudhole while taking a shortcut because I was late for my kid’s ballgame or a friend’s wedding.
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May 11, 2011 03:09 pm
More tips about preventing breast cancer
To the editor:
I wanted to write in response to the paper’s article about digital mammography. I’d like to make a few clarifications and some additional points.
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May 09, 2011 03:24 pm
Tax burden should be equitable
To the editor:
I’m not against supporting children’s educations, but I think everyone should contribute evenly. The current method only taxes landowners to support schools. People who rent homes can have a dozen children and they don’t pay anything in the way of real estate taxes for their children to attend Baker County schools. I know there is going to be those who claim the landlord charges the tenant the taxes in the rent structure, but that is not true in most cases.
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May 06, 2011 11:45 am
Come on parents: Put your kids in helmets
To the editor:
I have to admit that when I am in Idaho and I see a motorcyclist not wearing a helmet, I secretly think that the rider has no intellect. I do, however, realize that having the freedom of choice is an American privilege. The rider is an adult and has the mental capability to decide if they want to protect one of their body’s most vital organs, or not.
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May 06, 2011 11:41 am
The burgeoning population of wolves in Wallowa County presents a problem, and potentially a serious one, for cattle ranchers there and in adjacent counties, including Baker.
But randomly killing a couple of wolves because wolves killed a calf east of Joseph last week will neither prevent that problem, nor soften its effects.
Yet killing two wolves is precisely what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) have proposed to do in response to the calf kill.
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