There are no adjectives that adequately describe the devastation that wildfires have brought to the West in the last month. At least 33 people are known to have died in the fires, and the damage to lives, livelihoods and property cannot be calculated.
Let’s face it, 2020 has not been a particularly good year. On top of a pandemic and all the hardships associated with it, extreme weather events have hit various parts of the country.
Idaho Power is still churning out fake news. Last week the company assured Union County Commissioners the Morgan Lake Route was chosen “after receiving extensive input from Union County reside…
The election of our Union County sheriff affects all of us who call the beautiful Grande Ronde Valley our home. My vote in the primary election was for Bill Miller. He was narrowly edged out f…
I am writing this letter concerning the outgoing Wallowa County sheriff, Steve Rogers. In a few months the new sheriff will be taking over. I wish him well. Sheriff Rogers is ending a career o…
Fires have ravaged the western part of our great state, displacing thousands, while smoke continues to linger in our county and elsewhere in Oregon.
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We should not be surprised that much of the West is on fire. Or that more than 3.1 million acres already have burned in California, another million in Oregon and in Washington, and that tens o…
Jim Walker is out as Oregon state fire marshal and the No. 2 of the office, Mariana Ruiz-Temple, is now serving as the acting state fire marshal.
Leaders of Oregon’s rural counties are right to be worried by the state’s emerging Western Oregon State Forests Habitat Conservation Plan. It has the potential to further shrink the amount of …
A little known fact about me: When I was in college some 40 years ago, I was raped.
Recently, a vandal (or vandals) defaced the floral mural that covers a wall just off Depot Street. La Grande residents have long enjoyed this work of public art, often posing for pictures as t…
I set out Wednesday morning, Sept. 9, to write a cogent column on Eastern Oregon reaching out to help the west side of the state in what has become something of an inferno.
Black Lives Matter is a phrase that rubs some folks the wrong way. The response is often All Lives Matter and, locally, an All Lives Matter billboard.
Is the president a bigot, a racist, homophobic, xenophobic, fascist? Some people think so. These accusations are not so much an insult to the president as they are to the American people.
If a police officer orders you to take five steps back and you take four, you in theory committed a misdemeanor in Oregon — interfering with a police officer.
These days our mental health is under assault more than ever before. The stress caused by the fast pace of our lives with news bombarding us 24/7 along with the uncertainty and unknowns about …
La Grande city leaders recently posted in the newspaper and on Facebook a link to a property tax increase legislative proposal the council voted to support in July. The link was posted alongsi…
Oct. 1 marks the date when millions of low-income renters will be under threat of eviction and homelessness. Millions have lost their jobs or income, and when people cannot work, they cannot p…
Redistricting is that once-in-a-decade event when maps for legislative and congressional districts are redrawn. The way redistricting is done in Oregon is not going to change for the next redi…
Labor Day kicks off the final stretch toward the Election Day showdown between incumbent President Donald Trump and the Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.
I am concerned about something that might happen in the near future. It has been suggested that we should stop having Social Security withholding held from our paychecks. This might seem like …
Saturday was a long day, but in the end rewarding. I was in Pendleton with my colleagues from the East Oregonian, who were covering the Black Lives Matter protest there plus the counter protes…
At its meeting July 1, the La Grande City Council voted to approve four legislative priorities to be forwarded to the League of Oregon Cities. Every two years, LOC asks all city governments in…
It’s rare that a simple tweet triggers in me the desire to write a column.
Mail: The Observer, 911 Jefferson Ave., La Grande 97850
Now is the time to start thinking of creative ways to solve our child care crisis as we rebuild our economy that has been so damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The evils of human trafficking and child abuse have seen increased attention in recent weeks. Increased awareness of such problems is good, because myths and misconceptions abound.
One of the most troubling things about the current chaos going on in some of the major cities is the attack on law enforcement. Sadly, because of extremely lax governors and city mayors — most…
The Oregon Legislature’s scheme last week to distribute $35 million in coronavirus relief through banks and credit unions is deserving of a sarcastic response, but the situation wasn’t amusing.
News consumption is growing exponentially, but for the past decade, the revenue to news publishers has been on a decline. This is, in large part, because of the unbalanced relationship between…
Human beings are wired to belong. We are social animals. This is obvious. But the depth and impact of this fact is not obvious and is only now being teased out by science, and it explains a lot.
Aug. 27 is the deadline for contesting Idaho Power’s proposed but unneeded power line through Union County and Eastern Oregon. For anyone who believes that Idaho Power’s Boardman to Hemingway …
What would my town be without a newspaper? If you haven’t asked yourself that question, perhaps it is time to consider just what the newspaper means to this community.
Most Oregonians would agree that grocery stores, doctor’s offices and libraries should not be out of reach to someone because they use a wheelchair or experience low or limited vision. Yet, 30…
Today I contacted the governor’s office asking her to change the Department of Fish and Game policy of forbidding vets to work on injured wildlife animals like certain kinds of squirrels here …
Our recent article about a local woman raising funds to display a Black Lives Matters billboard in La Grande lit up our Facebook feed like nothing else.
Contact tracing — until this year a process familiar mainly to epidemiologists — is elegant in its simplicity.
What happened to Karly Sheehan of Corvallis should never happen again.
COVID-19 is getting old — particularly for employees who’ve been working from home for months.
Though hardly the last word on Lower Snake River dams, federal agencies with jurisdiction have affirmed in a final environmental impact statement that breaching four dams in Eastern Washington…
Last weekend my family was traveling from Baker City to Enterprise for a junior rodeo that our girls were entered in. Just as we were rounding the last corner in Imbler, my husband, who was pu…
I thought trying to write about silver linings during the COVID-19 pandemic might be akin to searching for gold in McKay Creek, but if you turn over a couple rocks you can find them.
I appreciate The Observer’s thorough article about what it will take to get schools open and our children back into classrooms. If there is any issue that should get a community to come togeth…
Fire is the rapid oxidation of burnable materials in a chemical process requiring oxygen, heat, fuel, and a source of ignition.
Several dozen legislators and the governor's staff meet routinely by phone to discuss policy about COVID-19. On Tuesday they apparently discussed a policy with serious consequences for Oregoni…
The coronavirus pandemic continues to force us to adapt and change, sometimes daily. The Observer’s newsroom has reported on some of these changes, predominantly in business, education and sch…
Upon first reading the title of Roger Barnes' My Voice column ("Forgiveness is not forgetting," The Observer, July 28), my initial reaction was, "What, more?" But I thought he might have an in…
Thank you for your very wise editorial opinion regarding the "Greater Idaho" push (Observer editor Phil Wright's column "Greater Idaho does not warrant greater coverage" in the Aug. 4 edition)…
For more than four months, Oregon has largely been under the rules of emergency executive orders in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Perhaps Head Start should take a closer look as there is a lot of spurious information out there about children and coronavirus.
August includes anniversaries related to major challenges directly affecting lives of all Oregonians — nuclear war and voting rights. The final words of U.S. Rep. John Lewis are key to defendi…
My heroes have always been teachers, and I marvel at that mysterious something deep inside them. I'm not sure what it is or how they got it, but I'm positive the "something" they have is not f…
The La Grande City Council voted to support a legislative proposal to partially repeal Measure 5 at their July meeting. This matter was originally couched inside the "consent agenda," where ro…
I am writing to raise awareness for the growing amount of tax revenue bypassing La Grande and Union County on a regular basis.
We now know the damages from the Boardman to Hemingway transmission line will be even greater than we imagined. For example:
Some stories are worth a deep dive into data and analysis. Some only seem that way.