The United States of America will turn 244 in a couple of days, which is quite old for a dog but is something closer to middle age for a nation.
Support local businesses
Face masks and shields are not a panacea to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Baker School District’s plan for classes when the district’s 1,700 or so students return in late August is not ideal.
The summer when I was 15 I crossed the Berlin Wall, hiked in the Alps and was subjected to a modest dose of radioactivity of which I was not aware.
What would the gun-toters do if there were rioters?
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What would the gun-toters do if there were rioters?
Leaders from the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Island City, the epicenter for Oregon’s biggest COVID-19 outbreak, have declined to respond to multiple media requests for interviews, includi…
It was another disappointment in a season of disappointments.
I have been waging a war for several weeks against a clever and determined enemy that’s trying to invade, and potentially ruin, my home.
Support police but also hold them accountable
Baker County officials don’t have a timeline in their effort to persuade Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to further ease restrictions on local businesses and events during the coronavirus pandemic.
City needs to be sure new playground is sanitized
Achieving equality requires votes as well as protests
The proclamation that Baker City Mayor Loran Joseph read during the City Council’s Tuesday meeting, and that he and the six other councilors approved, was a well-crafted and welcome statement …
I had a dream the other night and the setting was the home and neighborhood where I grew up — chronologically, at least — but where I haven’t lived in 32 years.
We need to embrace all humanity in our hearts
We have as a country identified a problem — police brutality, and in particular the mistreatment, and too often the killing, of black Americans.
It all started with a big bang.
The struggle that black Americans endured to achieve basic civil rights was long and bloody, a period marked by some of our country’s greatest moments, and some of its more shameful.
You’ll be riding in cars Sunday afternoon rather than walking across the lush grass of Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium.
Investing in our community, not only in policing
The Bill of Rights has been on prominent display recently in America and we’re reminded yet again of the elegance of that enduring document, the great wisdom that went into its creation and th…
It lasted for only about an hour.
Letter criticizing other writers missed the mark
George Floyd should be alive.
Government officials, including Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, have said they don’t believe society can return to something approaching normal until a vaccine is widely available for the coronavirus.
I was puttering about in my yard the other evening, enjoying the carefree amble of a man whose lawn is freshly mowed and flower beds recently purged of at least the most obvious weedy infiltrators.
The Class of 2020 is special.
Wish there were more dine-in options in Baker
I grew up in Western Oregon during the 1970s and ’80s, which means I also grew up knowing who D.B. Cooper was.
Speculation about Trump’s mental fitness not out of order
The gradual reopening of Oregon’s economy has also included, to a limited extent, outdoor recreation, as both state and federal agencies have opened some parks, boat launches, trailheads, day-…
Letter writers not qualified to diagnose president
Diners at some Baker City restaurants sipped coffee, dug into omelets and poured syrup over their pancakes Friday morning. Others finally got their shaggy locks trimmed.
The spring snowdrift sprawling across a forest road sings a siren song, a charming melody that lures many an incautious traveler to a bad end.
Oregon state government hasn’t suffered the economic devastation that has plagued private sector businesses during the coronavirus pandemic, but the state’s budget is hardly immune to the effe…
Trump needs help — after he’s voted out of office
We support Loran Joseph for Baker County Commission
The news finally arrived Wednesday, and it ought not to have surprised anyone.
Crumpacker best choice to succeed Walden in Congress
As I stroll through Baker City neighborhoods most afternoons, pondering this improbable pandemic, my thoughts have also been straying just lately into the distant past.
I’m voting for Nichols
With three of Baker County’s signature events already canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic — Sumpter’s flea market and the Huntington Lions Catfish Derby during Memorial Day weekend, and t…
Social distancing is considerably easier when you’re 20 miles from the nearest paved road.
More than 550 Baker County residents have filed for unemployment benefits since March 15 — about 10% of the county’s nonfarm workforce. Given that nearly 60% of county residents live in Baker …
Grocery bags a health hazard
Baker County officials have struck a reasonable balance in pursuing a vitally important goal — removing the shackles that have stifled the local economy, but without opening the floodgates to …
Oregon lawmakers passed on a chance to help ailing rural hospitals on Thursday, including Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Baker City. The Legislature’s 20-member Joint Emergency Board needs …
Baker’s gas prices stand out — in a bad way
The coronavirus pandemic has created two new fans of one of the great characters in big screen history — Sheriff Buford T. Justice.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is considering easing some of the restrictions in her March 17 executive order, at least in rural counties. Officials in Baker County and other counties that have had no…
Although scientists are learning more about the coronavirus almost literally on a daily basis, for the general public a fundamental question remains unanswered — how many people, in a given ar…
S. John Collins’ layoff a loss to the entire community
The discussion among government officials has shifted this week from a focus on how much we should restrict society to combat the coronavirus, to how we can start resuming something resembling…
I went for a walk on the warmest day of the year and the mild April sunshine felt so fine on my cheeks, and so familiar, that for a few moments I could believe that this spring was proceeding …