Editor’s note: The following was written Thursday night in response to an Observer editorial and submitted Friday morning before Friday’s significant turn of events in the Elgin murder case.

Thursday’s Observer editorial surprised and disappointed me. Surprised, because newspaper editorials are supposed to be objective and factual. This one was neither. It disappointed me, because Observer editorials almost always are.

This community is understandably upset and concerned by the recent discovery of human remains in and around a pond near Elgin. Those of us involved with the Major Crime Team are, too. The paper got pretty strident in taking us to task for not releasing very much information. Let me try to explain why we haven’t.

Levesque, Snaza-Alexis, Barber

Letters and Comments for July 30, 2009

Lucas

Keeping county fairs viable these days isn’t easy to do. All counties seem to be faced with challenges in keeping their county fairs alive. Throw in the recession and they’ve got an added challenge on their hands.

But in Union County, fair directors have been fine-tuning and looking for new ways to attract fairgoers. Last year the fair added free admission, partly offset by paid parking. But still a good bargain for anyone looking for inexpensive entertainment.

Letters and Comments for July 28, 2009

Some people name their cars terms of endearment like Marge, Doris, Dave or Herbie the Love Bug.

I call my car Ralph, as in, what I want to do every time I see another repair bill.

The repair guys’ eyes light up whenever they see me drive up. It may be because they think they’re going to get a big check. Or they could be hoping that I will have again tried a repair in the driveway, which gives them a chance to ride in like heroes and fix the damages.

Long before Joseph was known as Oregon’s bronze capital and that beautiful little arts community at the foot of Wallowa Lake and the Wallowas, Joseph was best known for its rodeo and its sign telling people not to “drive like hell’’ through town.