Editorials

We know it’s likely that either Steve Ashworth or Jonathan Cannon will be the new Baker City manager.

Some day — and it’s a day that can’t arrive too soon — when we head out for a meal at a local restaurant we’ll need to think only about what we plan to order.

Gov. Kate Brown was justified in taking action to try to reverse Oregon’s unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases over the past couple weeks.

Baker County’s pandemic problems worsened Monday when Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced that the county, along with eight others, including Union, would begin a 2-week “pause” on Wednesday.

The Trump administration’s decision last week to remove wolves from the endangered species list in the Lower 48 states provoked predictable complaints and vows of legal challenges from environ…

President Donald Trump’s slogan is “Make America Great Again.”

We know what happened.

Baker County bucked the statewide and national trends of rising COVID-19 infections for a couple weeks.

The first part of the greatest American tradition has happened.

If you wondered what possible connection there could be between a $1.5 million federal grant to build a wellness center for people undergoing treatment for addiction or mental health issues, a…

The possibility that six of the seven Baker City Council members who plan to hire a new city manager later this year won’t still be councilors when that person starts work seems at first glanc…

Imagine you were deprived easy access to a COVID-19 vaccine simply because you lived on the west bank of the Snake River rather than the east, in Oregon rather than in Idaho.

The gap between reasonable optimism and a reckless disregard for reality isn’t always as wide as the difference in those terms might suggest.

We’ve almost made it.

When the 2020-21 school year for the Baker School District started Sept. 8, students weren’t were they normally are.

Nothing delights politicians more than the chance to rub someone’s nose — figuratively, of course — in a steaming, aromatic pile of hypocrisy.

The newest addition to Geiser-Pollman Park has brought kids to Baker City’s biggest park who in the past weren’t able to play there.

The terms “coronavirus pandemic” and “good news” have not often collided recently in a single sentence. But the latter is appropriate for describing the former regarding the current situation …

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, in a recent interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation,” used perhaps the most apt and succinct term to describe the wildfires that have devastated parts of western and south…

On the worst day imaginable to be reckless with fire, at least two people were.

The scenario sounds farcical, more like a skit on “Saturday Night Live” than reality.

We’ve been waiting for vaccines.

Flames destroy but they do not educate.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash and other administrators at the County Jail to make difficult decisions since March.

Convincing Baker City residents to run for a seat on the City Council has sometimes proved a major challenge.

It’s hard to imagine a better way to encourage people to stay 6 feet apart than to offer them $500 checks on a first-come, first-served basis.

Oregon education and health officials, in setting limits by which schools can resume in-person rather than online classes, this week wisely recognized that the coronavirus pandemic has had dis…

Contact tracing — until this year a process familiar mainly to epidemiologists — is elegant in its simplicity.

The Baker School Board made a disappointing decision Thursday.

The East-West Shrine All-Star Football Game has featured plenty of memorable football plays since the game moved to Baker City in 1973.

Baker City has money to spend and a deadline for spending it.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has given the Baker School District a series of tests to pass before the district can resume limited in-person classes for students starting Sept. 8, a plan the district…

The protesters who gather nightly in downtown Portland should start carrying fire extinguishers as well as signs. The vast majority of the protesters, based on a review of videos, are not igni…

The Baker School District is preparing to welcome students to classrooms, most likely on Sept. 8, for the first time since schools were closed in March due to the pandemic.

Baker County is on Oregon’s COVID-19 “watch list.” This designation, which county officials announced Wednesday, sounds troubling. But the statistics show that Baker County’s situation is one …

The Baker City Council is wise to try to make it easier for residents to file as candidates for the Nov. 3 general election, during which six of the seven seats on the Council will be open.

We have been inundated with numbers since the coronavirus pandemic started.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

We have as a country identified a problem — police brutality, and in particular the mistreatment, and too often the killing, of black Americans.

You’ll be riding in cars Sunday afternoon rather than walking across the lush grass of Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium.

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.

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.

The Class of 2020 is special.

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-…

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.

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…

The news finally arrived Wednesday, and it ought not to have surprised anyone.