An email that prominently features the words “food” and “tester” and “free” is as irresistible to me as the film “Point Break,” the chorus of Duran Duran’s “Rio,” and Oreo cookie filling.
An email that prominently features the words “food” and “tester” and “free” is as irresistible to me as the film “Point Break,” the chorus of Duran Duran’s “Rio,” and Oreo cookie filling.
Thoughts on Veterans Day and train whistles
We don’t yet know whether the Baker City Council will commit public dollars to establishing a Quiet Zone in town, meaning freight trains would no longer sound their whistles as they approach s…
It’s easy to say, on this day devoted to them, that we should thank military veterans for their service to America.
I hadn’t thought of trick-or-treating as a particularly poignant event until I went to Meadowbrook Place and saw the smiles of residents as they dropped candy bars and lollipops into kids’ bags.
A series of public meetings that will be scheduled later this year could have significant effects on public safety in Baker City and Baker County, and everyone should consider attending one.
Greg Walden has effectively advocated for the beliefs of a majority of his constituents during his nearly 21 years representing Baker County and the rest of the 2nd Congressional District, whi…
Some pieces of Baker City’s history haven’t been exposed to sunlight for decades.
Planning Commission should reject proposed cell tower
No responsible gun owner would object to the basic premise that guns should be stored in a way designed to ensure that nobody who shouldn’t have access to the guns will have.
Baker City Fire Department should continue as ambulance provider
You might assume that because I derive my livelihood from working in the news media I would endorse any law intended to protect journalists from physical harm while they’re doing their jobs.
A poetic plea to keep cell towers out of town
The Baker School Board and its school improvement committee obviously learned something last November when voters defeated, by a wide margin, a $48 million property tax bond measure to build a…
Enough time has passed — 22 years — since the last Amtrak passenger train rolled to a stop in Baker City that some people likely have only a hazy memory, if any at all, of seeing the train par…
The record-shattering October chill, even as it was pilfering my bank account to keep the furnace stoked with kilowatt-hours, was stealing into my yard and ruining the riot of color I’ve come …
Ginger McCall did Oregonians a service in pointing out some of the serious flaws in the state’s public records law before she resigned last week as Oregon’s first public records advocate.
I never met Andy Dennis but I wish I had even once shared a wilderness campfire with him. I think we could have swapped stories for the better part of an evening, sharing the pleasant duty of …
Several hundred people have damaged their lungs by vaping, and around 20 have died in the United States recently, including two in Oregon.
Warner should either retire or keep working — not both
Like Kate Brown, who replaced him as Oregon governor, John Kitzhaber wanted to do away with the death penalty in the state.
City Council should not rehire Fred Warner as city manager
I haven’t paid much attention to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland in the 33 years since its first class was inducted.
Herald failed to do its due diligence with misleading story about Truck Corral
The scenario was complete fiction but the sense of dread was real.
Editorial on 10th Street striping misses the mark
Empathy for people who struggle with trailers
If I wrote that all liberals are the same because they support labor unions and believe restrictions on abortions are unconstitutional you might accuse me of both generalizing and stereotyping.
Baker City Councilor Lynette Perry took to Facebook this week to survey her constituents about the possibility of restriping 10th Street from its 4-lane configuration, with no center turn lane…
Idaho Power’s spending doesn’t justify building B2H
Oregon’s Public Employees Retirement System — PERS — is riddled with problems.
Change is in the air. It’s not just the falling temperatures or the return of the school year. Within the walls of The Observer and Baker City Herald, the way we do business is being completel…
It’s almost literally the million-dollar question, and for Baker County government, that’s a significant sum.
There is nothing quite so depressing as that moment when you must accept the reality of a new and spectacular example of your own unique brand of ineptitude.
“Waters of the United States” sounds like the title of a coffee table book but the reality is rather less benign than a hefty tome crammed with pretty photographs.
We must never forget 9-11-01
Deer returned to Baker City Hall Tuesday after a hiatus of somewhat more than a year.
Weather forecasters can spy on storms from space, and they have some of the cleverest computer models at their disposal, but the atmosphere still throws them an occasional curveball.
Gov. Kate Brown’s decision to hire Oregon’s first public records advocate in January 2018 was a promising step toward addressing deficiencies with how agencies, at both the state and local lev…
Gov. Kate Brown’s decision to hire Oregon’s first public records advocate in January 2018 was a promising step toward addressing deficiencies with how agencies, at both the state and local lev…
I slapped my left ear, rendering myself temporarily half-deaf and possibly concussed, and it was at that moment that I surrendered to the bugs.
Tuesday’s announcement was guaranteed to generate considerable publicity because it came from Walmart, which is to retailing what McDonald’s is to burgers and fries, and because it involved firearms.
Oregon income taxpayers are in line to receive the biggest refund next year due to the state’s unique tax “kicker” law. State officials said this week that tax revenue exceeded by $2.6 billion…
Congress needs to act to improve elections security
I underestimated Crater Lake.
Journalists can be annoying.
om full of what look like sheep but are really members of the Oregon Energy Facilities Siting Committee (EFSC). In the back of the court are what appear to be vultures but are actually Idaho P…
I was strolling a street in a town I’d never before visited, and most probably will never visit again, when I saw the man sitting on his front porch. He was, or so I surmised, enjoying the mil…
When I was about 9 I picked up the book that would infect a great many nights to come with a sense of dread, an unsettling feeling that had never been there before.
Lightning, for all its faults, works cheap.
To reduce waste, let’s focus on single-use diapers
The guns are the easier part.
The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, but even with 2.3 million acres available, a relative handful of scofflaws who fail to take advantage of …
I had a Facebook message the other day from Jeannie Wilhelm of Baker City, and it frightened me.
Amber Baskett