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About The Observer. (La Grande, Or.) 1968-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 2022)
COFFEE BREAK B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD THuRSDAY, FEBRuARY 17, 2022 Cousin desperate to help woman in abusive romance DEAR ABBY: I have always been extremely close to my cousins; we even refer to ourselves as sisters. The problem I’m having is with the boyfriend of one of them. They have been dating for almost 10 years. For the first few years we were all close, and I enjoyed spending time with them. The past three years, however, have been heart- breaking. He’s rude to her and her mother and belittles and ridicules everything she says and does. We all walk on eggshells when he’s around, not to mention he con- stantly stares at our chests. They recently moved hours away for his job. I feel he has purposely isolated her from all of us, and is mentally and emo- tionally abusing her. She used to want to get married and have a family with him, but now she is calling me selfish for being preg- nant. He’s dragging her down and has bought himself more time by getting her a dog. Even if they did get engaged, I’d feel sad she’s spending her life with this man. If he treats her like this in front of all of us, what is he doing behind closed doors? My cousin is very prideful and shuts down any criticism. How can I explain to her that I’m wor- ried about her without risking our relationship? — SCARED FOR HER IN THE EAST DEAR SCARED: Tell your cousin you love her dearly and will be saying this only once, so you want her to remember it. Then repeat to her what you have written to me. Explain that abusers erode the self-esteem of their “love object” through constant criticizing and belittling. Say you realize she has invested 10 years of her life in that relationship, but if she ever has doubts or changes her mind about living away from the family, you will be there for her. Then give her the con- tact information of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (800- 799-7233; thehotline.org) if there have been any instances in which he has hit or threatened her — or the dog — when he’s angry. DEAR ABBY: My hus- band will not do things unless I “remind” him. He has a med- ical issue and experiences painful symptoms if he forgets to take the medication his doctor prescribed. He’ll then have a flare-up, take his medicine and not take it again until another flare-up happens. Also, he’ll need to have an important doctor’s appointment for a procedure and he won’t even think about making the call to schedule it. I used to remind him about all these things but, frankly, I’m not his mother. I’m his wife. Please help. — NOT HIS MOTHER DEAR NOT HIS MOTHER: Being a loving spouse requires us to fill varying roles in the life partnership. Not only are we lovers, best friends and some- times nurses, but we must some- times act as “parents.” It’s hard to believe someone who has a chronic condition that brings painful flare-ups would forget to take a medication that would avert them, which makes me wonder about your husband’s mentation. Doctor visits can sometimes be uncomfortable, which may be why he hesitates to schedule them. If you love him, please shoulder that responsibility as you would want him to do if the situation were reversed. WOLVES “Sometimes I feel the pro- ducer is trustworthy, the claim seems reasonable and I support it. Sometimes the claim seems exagger- ated and/or doubtful. How to know what became of the missing livestock or, without independent ver- ification, even to know if the counts are accurate? For 2019, Wallowa County ranchers claimed $1,800 in direct losses, $47,000 in indirect losses. The dis- crepancy seems out of proportion. Even if the stock count is accurate, all missing cattle are not vic- tims of wolf predation.” What both groups agree on is that the fund has not led to an acceptance of wolves among ranchers. Adrian Treves, pro- fessor of environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the Carnivore Coexistence Lab at the university wrote in testi- mony, “The moral hazard is that negligent owners will reduce protections for their domestic ani- mals because they reason the government will pay them anyway.” Continued from Page B1 decide whether it’s likely the animal was lost to wolves. The committee then asks the Department of Agricul- ture for reimbursement for the livestock owners. Also, at least one-third of the wolf compensation fund money is set aside for helping owners pay for nonlethal-le- thal methods of keeping wolves away, like alarm or scare devices, fencing with electric wires and paying range riders who patrol live- stock grazing areas. According to Jonathan Sandau, a special assistant to the director at the state Agriculture Department, 79% of the wolf compen- sation money paid out over the last four years has gone to nonlethal wolf mitiga- tion methods. About 9% of the money has gone to reim- bursing owners for con- firmed wolf kills. Between 2017 and 2021, Sandau said, the department received $1.6 million in requests from the fund. The department was able to pay out only $725,000 — about $181,000 a year. It didn’t have enough money to reimburse all of the claims for missing cattle that the ranchers had requested. “We’ve never been able to meet the full requests since the inception of the program,” Sandau said. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo, File A trail camera in January 2016 caught this image of two adult wolves from the Walla Walla Pack in northern Umatilla County. the end of 2019, according to the Fish and Wildlife Department. But livestock owners say they are losing a growing number of animals to wolf kills but don’t receive ample compensation. They also say they have to wait a year to be paid because county commissions get to request the funds only once a year. Nash, of Wallowa County, said many ranchers and farmers want to with- draw from the program because of low and slow payouts and are becoming increasingly weary of the state’s protection of wolves. “It’s really disheartening to not see full support to fully fund the program that pays just a small portion of what we have to put up with and the losses we’ve endured,” he said. For Danielle Moser, a wildlife program coor- dinator at Oregon Wild, the number of claims for missing livestock against confirmed kills, and the Disappointment on both sides The wolf compensation fund aimed to keep both sides happy, allowing the wolves to roam while com- pensating livestock owners. The number of wolves in the state has continued to grow since 2009, from 14 wolves to at least 173 by men’s Association, Eastern Oregon Counties Associ- ation and Oregon Hunters Association — submitted letters supporting the proposal. Nash said many owners believe the state is under- counting wolves and the number of livestock killed by them. number of wolves in the state, seem dispropor- tionate. She said the fund hasn’t been audited or reviewed since it was cre- ated in 2012. “The overarching thing is that we need to take a step back and review the program,” Moser said. “Is it achieving its intended goal? Making sure we’re actu- ally building social toler- ance? Like many programs, we don’t think we should add more to the pot until we ensure it’s being spent correctly.” “I’ve got $500,000 worth of asks and only $100,000 to go around,” said Nash, who is also a county commissioner who helps review reports. But another member of Wallowa County’s Wolf Compensation Com- mittee, Wally Sykes, said he opposes the bill: Testing the ‘social tolerance’ for wolves Prior to the Feb. 9 hearing, 50 individuals, ranchers, conservation and animal rights groups and a Wallowa County Com- mission wolf committee member had submitted tes- timony opposed to the bill. Five powerful groups — the Association of Oregon Counties, Oregon Farm Bureau, Oregon Cattle- weather | Go to AccuWeather.com AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 41/49 Kennewick 43/49 St. Helens 41/53 Hood River 38/59 40/53 Condon 39/63 42/53 FRI SAT SUN MON Partly cloudy Mostly sunny Mostly cloudy Cooler with snow showers Cloudy with a little snow 42 25 39 22 36 15 Eugene 3 1 1 36/55 49 33 40 27 38 20 5 0 0 La Grande 26 49 32 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 5 5 5 21 47 26 Comfort Index™ 3 37 26 32 21 5 0 0 8 TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High Tuesday Low Tuesday High: 83° Low: -44° Wettest: 0.22” 38° 23° 43° 28° 46° 31° PRECIPITATION (inches) Tuesday 0.00 Month to date Trace Normal month to date 0.32 Year to date 0.38 Normal year to date 1.02 Trace 0.41 0.66 1.68 2.33 0.15 0.79 1.30 4.72 4.57 AGRICULTURAL INFO. HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 40% SSE at 6 to 12 mph 5.9 0.07 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir 3% of capacity 30% of capacity 21% of capacity 40% of capacity 24% of capacity 45% of capacity STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday) Grande Ronde at Troy 1860 cfs Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 1 cfs Burnt River near Unity 9 cfs Umatilla River near Gibbon 277 cfs Minam River at Minam 153 cfs Powder River near Richland 101 cfs Pecos, Texas Kabetogama, Minn. San Diego, Mont. OREGON High: 57° Low: 16° Wettest: 0.04” The Dalles Prineville Roseburg Powers 39/63 On Feb. 17, 1980, Albany, N.Y., had its only subzero temperature of the season. The following year, on the same date, tempera- tures in nearby Connecticut soared into the 60s. SUN & MOON THU. 6:51 a.m. 5:22 p.m. 6:38 p.m. 7:47 a.m. FRI. 6:49 a.m. 5:24 p.m. 7:48 p.m. 8:08 a.m. MOON PHASES Last Feb 23 New Mar 2 First Mar 10 37/54 Full Mar 17 Jordan Valley 23/50 Paisley 28/61 23/61 Frenchglen 28/57 36/67 Brookings 30/64 City Astoria Bend Boise Brookings Burns Coos Bay Corvallis Council Elgin Eugene Hermiston Hood River Imnaha John Day Joseph Kennewick Klamath Falls Lakeview SAT. Hi/Lo/W 49/41/c 66/31/c 50/29/s 62/40/pc 55/25/pc 54/35/c 53/33/c 40/22/s 50/27/s 55/36/c 63/35/pc 59/40/c 54/34/pc 55/27/pc 46/27/s 61/32/pc 59/24/c 58/23/c Hi/Lo/W 49/40/r 61/34/pc 53/33/pc 56/42/s 56/26/pc 50/40/c 49/38/c 39/25/pc 49/33/c 50/39/c 57/42/pc 52/43/c 53/35/c 54/30/pc 48/27/c 60/42/c 61/28/pc 60/25/pc Grand View Arock 26/51 24/56 26/59 Klamath Falls 23/59 Lakeview 22/58 McDermitt Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs. FRI. Diamond 28/55 Fields Medford 45/62 Boise 25/50 Silver Lake Chiloquin Grants Pass 26/54 26/63 23/54 RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY REGIONAL CITIES WEATHER HISTORY Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset Beaver Marsh Juntura 23/55 25/61 23/58 Roseburg Ontario 26/48 Burns Brothers 34/60 Coos Bay Huntington 25/53 29/66 Oakridge 18/40 25/44 Seneca Bend Elkton Council 16/41 28/55 27/65 Florence TUESDAY EXTREMES ALMANAC 22/47 John Day 25/63 Sisters 37/54 Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable. 18/39 Baker City Redmond 39/51 39/51 Halfway Granite 34/53 Newport 37/53 50 27 27/58 36/61 39/55 Corvallis Enterprise 21/47 26/49 Monument 34/65 Idanha Salem TONIGHT 3 25/50 La Grande 33/61 Maupin Comfort Index™ Elgin Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg Lewiston 34/53 35/54 33/59 TIllamook 16 41 19 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022 Walla Walla 33/61 Vancouver 40/51 38/52 Baker City Computer not running as fast as when it was new? Let us install lightning-fast solid state drive! Still running unsupported Windows 7? We’ll help you avoid critical issues by installing Windows 10! City Lewiston Longview Meacham Medford Newport Olympia Ontario Pasco Pendleton Portland Powers Redmond Roseburg Salem Spokane The Dalles Ukiah Walla Walla FRI. SAT. Hi/Lo/W 53/36/pc 49/40/c 51/31/s 64/32/pc 51/40/c 49/39/c 48/29/s 59/32/s 59/34/pc 53/40/c 63/37/c 63/26/c 54/38/c 55/37/c 45/32/c 63/38/pc 51/28/pc 54/39/pc Hi/Lo/W 55/40/c 46/41/r 48/33/c 60/37/pc 49/41/r 47/38/r 49/31/pc 57/41/c 57/40/pc 48/40/c 54/41/c 60/33/pc 52/41/c 52/40/c 43/34/c 58/43/c 49/29/c 53/38/c Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice ANTHONY LAKES PHILLIPS LAKE Mostly sunny Mostly sunny 35 20 49 22 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. Mostly sunny Mostly sunny 43 31 47 26 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Mostly sunny Mostly sunny 38 17 48 23 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR Mostly sunny Partly sunny; mild 46 27 61 37 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK Partly sunny Mostly sunny 41 19 49 32