The early days of the pandemic can seem impossibly distant today, so much has happened in the nearly two years since the word “coronavirus” made its unwelcome intrusion into the worldwide lexicon.
The word “mandate” was mentioned many times during the Baker County commissioners’ work session Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 12, at the Baker County Events Center.
Brad Dunten and Josh Cobb talked, and people listened.
The current school year has been pretty normal for Baker School District students.
On Saturday, Nov. 27, 2021, one of the more exciting high school football games in many years played out on the grass at Baker Bulldog Memorial Stadium in Baker City.
There’s no good place to get stranded in a mountain blizzard.
Will the omicron variant do for the first quarter of 2022 what delta did for the late summer and early fall of 2021?
Though it’s hardly surprising, the generosity that is a defining characteristic of Baker County residents continues to make our hearts swell as it enriches our communities during the Christmas…
Signs are prominently posted outside the Baker County Courthouse stating that face masks are required inside.
The sequence of events is as predictable as it is frustrating.
As the governor of one of just six states that still require people to wear face masks in most indoor public places, Oregon’s Kate Brown has ample reason to be scrupulous with her personal mas…
The Oregon Legislature has acknowledged that the state has a responsibility to partially compensate ranchers for livestock killed by wolves.
Outside, the sun was shining and the temperature was reaching a record-setting 54 degrees on Wednesday, Dec. 1, but inside the Baker County Courthouse, the three county commissioners were talk…
They gathered in the parking lot at Baker High School, the Powder Valley Badgers fans clad in red and blue, the backers of the Adrian Antelopes in green and gold.
The pandemic has given many of us reasons to be thankful for things we might previously have taken for granted.
The pandemic has given many of us reasons to be thankful for things we might previously have taken for granted.
Baker City Police Chief Ty Duby’s plan to bring to the City Council a proposed ordinance limiting where and when people can camp on public property is a good one.
Something awful might have happened on the football field at La Grande’s Community Stadium on Nov. 5.
We’ll never know how many lives Baker County residents saved last week.
Picking up a prescription these days is primarily an exercise in patience.
The benefits of thinning crowded forests and igniting prescribed fires to get rid of the combustible debris that’s left hardly qualify as newly discovered truths.
The scenario sounds like a scene from a Hollywood blockbuster that also features helicopter crashes and the miraculous, last-second deft deployment of a multitool or a cellphone to prevent a c…
The Oregon Health Authority announced on Thursday, Oct. 21 that about 550 more Oregonians have died after testing positive for COVID-19 than the agency has reported. Most of these previously u…
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat representing Oregon, has some questions about the causes for a wave of pharmacy closures, most notably those in 56 Bi-Mart stores, including the Baker City store.
It’s a perverse irony that while technology lavishes society with more information than has ever been available, government officials use specious reasons to deprive the public of data.
There is no legitimate reason for Baker City, with the aid of a citizens group that has been working on the project for about two years, not to continue pursuing a railroad quiet zone designation.
The last time Oregon voters had a chance to decide whether the state could potentially execute convicted murderers, a majority — 55% — of those who cast ballots not only answered yes to that q…
The National School Boards Association’s definition of what might constitute domestic terrorism and hate crimes is awfully broad.
A group has been distributing fliers in Baker City urging residents to oppose Gov. Kate Brown’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers by refusing to pay their property taxes for Oct…
The six members of the Baker City Council have reached an apparent impasse in trying to fill the one vacancy on the Council, created by Lynette Perry’s resignation in August due to health issues.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is giving more than 20,000 state employees, many of whose only contact with the public might involve processing paperwork, an extra six weeks to comply with the COVID-19…
The potential situation that prompted Baker County Commissioners on Wednesday, Sept. 22 to declare a local emergency is indeed a troubling one.
The major rise in COVID-19 cases in Oregon that started in late July appears to have passed its peak, with the case rate declining.
Baker County prevailed in the lawsuit it filed more than two years ago to restore public access to a gated road near Lookout Mountain.
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash lays out a convincing case for killing all the wolves in the Lookout Mountain pack in his recent letter to Curt Melcher, director of the Oregon Department of Fi…
No student attending Baker High School now had yet been born on that sunny September morning that changed America forever.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown welcomed students back to their schools Tuesday, Sept. 7 with the equivalent of scrawling F’s on their report cards and sending them straight to the principal’s office.
The resolution of the criminal case against Shawn Quentin Greenwood in the January 2020 shooting death of Angela Parrish in Baker City might have failed to satisfy anyone, regardless of their …
It was a very bad place for a wildfire.
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash has many commendable attributes — he has a knack for finding missing people, to cite one noteworthy example — but he hasn’t previously been known for his writin…
Gov. Kate Brown has a laudable goal: To boost Oregon’s COVID-19 vaccination rate among health care and school workers.
The day when Baker students walk into their schools with nothing to obscure their smiling faces (or frowning, perhaps, depending on how the morning has gone) will be a welcome sight indeed.
Baker County can’t fairly be branded as an anti-vaccine place, in the broadest sense.
It is not a political scandal by any means, but the recent news Gov. Kate Brown spent a large chunk of taxpayer dollars to pay one of her former advisers to serve as a political consultant lea…
In late July, our school-age children and youth were once again thrust into the center of the COVID-19 pandemic when Gov. Kate Brown ordered new mask mandates for K-12 students.
The announcement this winter that the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, one of Baker County’s most popular visitor attractions, would be closed for about two and a half years for renovations n…
The Oregon Health Authority’s COVID-19 website is a cornucopia of data, a wealth of graphs, charts and other information.
It wasn’t state officials. It wasn’t our elected governor, nor our elected state representatives.
The delta variant has temporarily interrupted what had been a relatively tranquil period in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) was wise to authorize the killing of up to four wolves from the Lookout Mountain pack in eastern Baker County. According to ODFW investigation…
The demise of the COVID-19 pandemic has been greatly exaggerated.
During another fiery summer across the West, Baker County is faring well.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality ought to apologize to Baker County. And to Commission Chairman Bill Harvey in particular.
Miners Jubilee wouldn’t have been the same without the parade.
Baker City’s water supply situation would be troubling if today were Sept. 10.
With statewide COVID-19 restrictions ending June 30, much of the private sector quickly reacted. Restaurants no longer had to leave tables empty. Churches returned to regular in-person worship…
