Political hyperbole aside, U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz’s concerns raised during a floor speech of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding a bill to protect more than 4,500 miles of rivers and streams in Oregon as part of the federal Wild and Scenic Act are valid and deserve more than a passing…
Political hyperbole aside, U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz’s concerns raised during a floor speech of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding a bill to protect more than 4,500 miles of rivers and st…
One of the arguments alleged by proponents of thinning or logging forests is that it would preclude wildfires and reduce carbon emissions from wildfire. Proponents argue that more trees surviv…
Providing the right number of law enforcement can be as important and difficult a decision as providing the right kind of law enforcement.
Nick Kristof for chief of staff ... or something Oregon at some future time.
If the Philadelphia Housing Authority operates anything like its Northeastern Oregon counterpart, the recent horrific roadhouse inferno was a tragedy waiting to happen.
I read in the "La Grande Pride" news what the La Grande School District thinks needs to be improved or replaced and The Observer has reported about the school board wanting to pass a bond.
Bud Pierce, a 2022 Republican candidate for governor, visited Eastern Oregon recently with visits in Ontario, John Day and Baker City, and his campaign tour will surely be one of many by the h…
Brad Dunten and Josh Cobb talked, and people listened.
There is a place along the upper Grande Ronde River that has a hold on my heart. As a kid, I would camp there with my grandfather, him teaching me to build a fire, split kindling, play gin rum…
Tom Herrmann’s Other views column (The Observer, Dec. 18, 2021) deserves another view. There is much I agree with, including that the SARS-CoV 2 virus is here to stay and that true learning re…
The courts are full of cases in which one party agrees to do something in return for money or other assets and, for one reason or the other, welches on the deal.
Thank you, Union County Commissioners, for having the integrity to move forward with the restoration and management of MERA.
I found the article concerning test drilling for Lithium in Oregon very interesting ("Test drilling OK’d for proposed lithium mine," Dec. 23 edition). Especially given the number of green new …
Idaho Power is continuing their bullying of Oregon landowners. The law does not allow a utility to force landowners to enter their property absent a Certificate of Public Convenience, which wo…
It is time for potential gubernatorial candidate Nick Kristof to abandon his attempt to be placed on the 2022 ballot and set his sights on the next election.
For a long time, I’ve wondered whether it’s even possible to live a life that is both mainstream and moral, if you define moral as a life that doesn’t harm other people or the planet we live o…
Oregon has one of the lowest rates of hospital beds per capita in the country. The number of staffed hospital beds per 1,000 population is about 1.7.
I was a Depression baby, born toward the end of the Great Depression. The young couple who bore me and my siblings had very few resources, but they took advantage of the possibilities offered …
Oregon’s latest “Annual report of statewide internal audit activities” might be a perfect sleep aid. But that annual report is a really good idea.
In October, our county commissioners — Paul Anderes, Donna Beverage and Matt Scarfo — sent a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden asking him to remove all Union County waterways from the proposed federal …
For years, I have worked closely with high school kids in many areas, as a teacher, advising students in various social clubs and coaching high schoolers in basketball, softball and soccer. I …
Residents have an opportunity to get involved with their local communities because several county advisory committees have openings.
Like most people, I’ve been desperately searching each day for any tiny sliver of joy that I can find. And, after 649 days of “pandemic-ing,” I’m happy to report that I’ve been mostly successful.
No getting around it, the past year was tough one.
A year ago, we couldn’t wait to see 2020 in the rearview mirror. We eagerly looked ahead to 2021 hoping for relief from the pandemic. And then the 2021 roller coaster ride of variants said, “B…
What’s broken about Oregon’s public records laws remains broken. And every year that goes by with it broken, the public’s ability to know what its government is doing is diminished.
Thanks for all of the comments about the COVID-19 pandemic. The more information we receive about a problem, the higher the likelihood of finding an effective solution. Of course, each bit of …
The COVID impact spotlight has rested — rightfully — on the thousands of dedicated men and women in the state’s medical system who have remained on the front lines of the pandemic for nearly t…
The following is perhaps the most famous example of a child wanting to know if Santa is real.
"The Elk Arrive" (The Observer, Dec. 16) provides information about 10 local elk feeding stations operated by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Elk are fed to keep them out of ranchers’ …
Here is something to think about as we enter the winter months, with the potential for an uptick in COVID-19 and the variants of delta and omicron. This information was updated as of Dec. 5, 2…
Let’s face it — we’re all tired of COVID-19.
The sequence of events is as predictable as it is frustrating.
I have a lot of respect for Joel Hasse, but he needs a clearer understanding of what the dry Owyhee uplands — and the rest of the interior Northwest — are facing. The idea that keeping develop…
We have written before about how unfortunate it was that late in the 2021 legislative session a bill popped up to delay Oregon’s paid family medical leave program.
Using the opening gambit of excessive wasteful spending in our nation — supposedly $8.5 billion for political campaigns in 2020, and another $13.9 billion for Super Bowl bucks — Union County P…
Well, here we are again: a battle over the debt ceiling and funding to keep the federal government operating that will bring us to the brink of a government shutdown, or over the edge into a f…
