4A
MONDAY, JANUARY 13, 2020
The Observer
OUR VIEW
Leaders
needed on
vaccination
Oregon lawmakers have tried at least a couple of
times to make it more difficult for parents to avoid
vaccinating their children, unfortunately with little
success.
And while those who support the idea may face
an uphill battle this year when the Legislature
meets, they must keep trying.
Gov. Kate Brown, along with state Sen. Herman
Baertschiger, R-Grants Pass, killed the 2019 effort
to save the massive new business tax bill Demo-
crats wanted so badly.
At least 28 Oregonians came down with measles
in 2019, in part because at least three travelers
passed through the Portland airport when they
were ill. The measles is particularly contagious.
The virus can live in the air for two hours, infecting
those who pass through or touch surfaces that have
been contaminated, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Worse, measles can be a killer. In Samoa in late
2019 an outbreak claimed nearly 80 lives in a coun-
try where only 31% of the population had been vac-
cinated. Herd immunity, which generally prevents
measles from spreading much, kicks in only when
93% to 95% of a community is vaccinated. Oregon’s
kindergarten vaccination rate is 93%, right on the
ragged edge of real problems should an infected
child show up at school. The overall vaccination
rate for adults and children is only 78%.
Meanwhile, Beth Crane, who chairs the Oregon
Public Health Association’s policy committee, noted
recently in an article for The Oregonian that even
without mass outbreaks measles cases cause prob-
lems.
A third of those who caught measles here in 2019
spent time in the hospital being treated for serious
complications, for one thing. Here’s another: Cancer
patients, whose immune systems are often weak-
ened by chemotherapy, are at extra risk for the
disease, even if they’d been vaccinated earlier.
Crane writes that some 20,000 Oregonians will
be diagnosed with cancer this year.
Brown may well hold the key to vaccination
legislation in her hand again this year, though she
apparently plans to do nothing about the problem,
if a statement released Thursday by her press
secretary, Charles Boyd, is any indication. “Gover-
nor Brown will not be introducing a bill on vaccina-
tion during the short February session. However,
especially in light of recent outbreaks of measles
and other diseases for which effective vaccines ex-
ist, she continues to believe vaccination is critically
important to the health of all Oregonians, and that
parents should make sure their children receive all
the vaccinations they need to live healthy lives.”
It’s a disappointing, but probably not unsurpris-
ing, stand from the woman elected to lead Orego-
nians to better things.
Delivering ‘fresher’ news to readers
T
his first three letters of “news” is
“new.” This is no coincidence.
The goal of The Observer and our fel-
low newspapers is to bring to you, our
readers, information that is new to you.
In many cases this information is
about an event that just happened,
that is itself “new” — how a public body
voted, the outcome of a sporting event
or a wildfire that burned only hours be-
fore the paper reaches you, for example.
But we also publish stories about
things that did not happen so recently,
but perhaps you haven’t read about
before.
That also is news.
The Observer since June of 2012
has published three issues per week
— Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
But starting the week of Feb. 4, when
we move to delivering The Observer
through U.S. Postal Service, we’re shift-
ing our schedule to publish on Tues-
days, Thursdays and Saturdays.
This will affect the freshness, as it
were, of the news we bring to you.
On the balance, this move helps us to
provide news that is, well, newer. We’re
going to take advantage of the revised
schedule and not deliver the paper a
day later. Saturday’s paper will get to
you Saturday. The same goes for Tues-
day’s paper and Thursday’s paper.
We often cover the Union County
Board of Commissioners, La Grande
City Council and other governing bod-
ies. The people serving on those are our
elected representatives, and they decide
how to spend public money, so we try to
keep on eye on them.
The county board typically meets
Wednesday morning, and La Grande
City Council holds most of meetings
Wednesday nights, so we don’t have
coverage of what happened at those
public meetings until the Friday paper.
The new schedule means we report
about what happened at those meet-
ings in the Thursday paper.
The hang-up comes, of course, with
the council’s night meeting. Depending
on the length of the meetings
FROM THE
EDITOR’S DESK
PHIL WRIGHT
, we may have a shorter account in
Thursday’s paper, then a more thorough
article as a Saturday follow-up. Still, a
shorter account is getting to readers a
day earlier.
Our new sister publication, the East
Oregonian, had to make this kind of
transition years ago and found a real
benefit to delivering a brief meeting
story and then providing a deeper look
in a follow-up.
Moreover, technology allows us to de-
liver news all but instantaneously, and
we’ll continue to take advantage of that.
As a subscriber you have unlim-
ited access to our website — www.
lagrandeobserver.com — and we will
continue putting news and informa-
tion there to let you know what’s
happening in our community. That
includes posting stories about city
council meetings before the paper copy
lands in your box.
We used that approach in covering
the La Grande City Council decision in
December to allow the Union County
Warming Station to open. We broke the
news first online the night of Dec. 4,
and two days later in the Friday paper
we provided a story complete with reac-
tions of people involved. Going forward,
we’ll follow that model and continue
using our website and Facebook page
to push information and bring you the
latest local high school sports results,
regardless of what day they take place.
In other respects, the impending
change to Tuesday, Thursday and Sat-
urday issues allows us to pack fresher
news into those papers than we can do
now.
Here’s why: The EO Media Group’s
press in Pendleton prints The Observer
the morning of delivery rather than the
evening before. So the newsroom aims
to finish the paper no later than
9:45 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and
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A division of
— Phil Wright is the
editor of The Observer.
STAFF
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Fridays.
That morning deadline frequently
makes it difficult, and sometimes
impossible, for us to gather informa-
tion from law enforcement and other
sources about events that happened
the previous day or overnight in time to
publish a thorough story — or even any
story at all.
Our new evening deadline in large
measure does away with that di-
lemma.
Let’s say a snowstorm ices up Inter-
state 84 and causes a rash of crashes on
a Monday, Wednesday or Friday morn-
ing. The 9:45 a.m. deadline makes it a
serious struggle to put together a story
and photo package for that day’s issue.
But after we switch to the evening
deadline the first week of February, we
would have time to assemble a compre-
hensive report about that storm and
get it into an issue you will be reading
before the ice has turned to slush.
Storms also happen on Tuesdays and
Thursdays, of course.
But for events that happen on days
when we don’t publish, we’ll do just as
we do now, and use our digital sites to
deliver fresh news.
No doubt, The Observer on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays has become
part of your routine, as ingrained as
your favorite time and place to sip a
mug of coffee.
I do hope most of you belong to that
group because it means you value The
Observer. I and the crew here have
sincere appreciation for that.
And even minor shifts in routine can
be unsettling. Having recently moved
to La Grande as a new editor, I get
that. But I see more advantages to the
coming changes than downsides. We’re
going to bring you fresher news — even
get it into your hands before darkness
falls regardless of the season — to
enrich that part of your day when you
settle down with The Observer.
541-963-3161
An independent newspaper founded in 1896
(USPS 299-260)
The Observer reserves the right to adjust subscription
rates by giving prepaid and mail subscribers 30 days
notice. Periodicals postage paid at La Grande, Oregon
97850. Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
(except Dec. 25) by EO Media Group,
1406 Fifth St., La Grande, OR 97850 (USPS 299-260)
COPYRIGHT © 2020
THE OBSERVER
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copy, photos and news or ad illustrations. They may
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Fax: 541-963-7804
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Publisher........................................Karrine Brogoitti
Classifieds ........................................ Devi Mathson
Regional circulation director ....................Kelli Craft
Home delivery advisor.................Amanda Fredrick
Editor .....................................................Phil Wright
Customer service rep ......................... Mollie Lynch
News clerk....................................Lisa Lester Kelly
Advertising representative...............Juli Bloodgood
Sports editor .......................................Ronald Bond
Advertising representative...................... Amy Horn
Reporter................................................Dick Mason
Graphic design supervisor................Dorothy Kautz
Reporter....................................Sabrina Thompson
Graphic design ..............................Cheryl Christian
IT support ........................................Nicole Gilbride
Chris Rush, Regional Publisher