COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2022
Nonbeliever credits work, not ‘blessings,’ for success
family, although I am no longer
religious. We don’t attend church
services with the family, and it
seems they have adopted the phi-
losophy of mostly “don’t ask and
we won’t tell.” My dilemma is:
How should I respond to their
constant comments that we are
“so blessed” to be where we are?
I have worked extremely long,
hard hours to get to this point in
my career. I put myself through
school with no support from my
family and worked my butt off
to get us to where we are. Yes,
I’m thankful for the people I’ve
worked with who have helped
me to grow and reach this point.
However, it feels wrong for me
to equate my success to being
blessed from God.
That statement comes up
DEAR ABBY: My husband
and I have had some crazy life
swings since the beginning of
the pandemic, mostly positive. I
found a wonderful, well-paying
job that I enjoy. In our 16th year
of marriage, we have also brought
a healthy, happy daughter into our
lives. We recently bought a lovely
home, and have added another,
nicer, used car to our assets. In
addition, my job allows my hus-
band to live his dream of being
a stay-at-home dad with our
daughter.
I come from a very religious
numerous times during family
get-togethers. Normally, I ignore
it or say we feel very lucky to
have what we do. Should I con-
tinue saying that or ignore them
altogether? Is there a tactful
response I’m not seeing in this
kind of awkward situation? —
DESERVING IN MICHIGAN
DEAR DESERVING: In the
interest of family harmony, smile,
nod and agree with the person
making the comment. Of course
you have worked hard and are
deserving of your success. But
to announce it in this instance
and with those deeply religious
people would be braggadocious
and is uncalled for. This is not a
personal putdown, so continue to
resist the urge.
DEAR ABBY: I have been
happily married for 32 years.
My wife is going to a girls’ thing
this coming Saturday and asked
me what I will be doing. I said
I’m going to a funeral for a girl
I knew in high school. (We were
never boyfriend/girlfriend, just
friends.)
My wife asked me how I heard
about it, and I shared that one of
my friends mentioned it during
our Monday night football chat.
She said, “You haven’t talked to
her in more than 40 years. You
really didn’t know her anymore,
but you’re going to her funeral?” I
said yes. Then she said it is “eerie,
strange and weird” and it seems
inappropriate. I reminded her
that people print obituaries to let
people know.
I asked the guy who told me
what he thought about me going.
He said it sounded fi ne to him,
but I shouldn’t go stag. I said,
“Doesn’t ‘stag’ mean single and
looking? I’m an old married
man.” I’m perplexed about both of
these conversations. Am I missing
something? AM I a weirdo if I
go? Can I go alone? — PAYING
RESPECTS IN CALIFORNIA
DEAR PAYING RESPECTS:
The answers to your questions are
no and yes. If you feel the need
to pay last respects to a friend
from high school, there’s nothing
“weird” about doing so. Your
football friend may have substi-
tuted the word “stag” for the word
“solo,” which means “alone.” (I
see no reason why you shouldn’t
attend the funeral alone if the
spirit moves you.)
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Please hold: Pricey way to jump IRS phone line at tax time
By FATIMA HUSSEIN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — If
there’s one thing that pains
everyone trying to reach the
IRS at tax time, it’s being
stuck on endless hold.
Well, not everyone.
E. Martin Davidoff ’s
accounting fi rm spends
upwards of $5,000 a year to
a company that can zip him
and others to the front of
the line to get through to an
IRS customer service rep-
resentative. He says paying
for enQ’s line-jumping ser-
vice cuts out hours every
day that he would other-
wise spend waiting to talk
to an agent.
“It’s the epitome of
American entrepreneur-
ship,” says Davidoff , who
heads the National Tax Con-
troversy Practice for Prager
Metis in New Jersey.
Consumer advocates
are less enamored with
enQ, seeing it as a pay-to-
play arrangement that gives
those who can aff ord it a
way to get quick access to
what should be a free gov-
ernment service equally
available to all.
Members of Congress
from both parties have con-
cerns, too. The service was
expected to come up on
Thursday, Feb. 17, during
the Senate Finance Commit-
tee’s hearing on customer
service problems at the IRS,
where call volumes have
reached record levels.
“No taxpayers should
have to fork over $1,000 to
a private company to get
their phone calls answered
by the IRS. It’s maddening,”
committee chairman Sen.
Ron Wyden, D-Oregon,
wrote in an email to the AP.
“Rebuilding this agency so
it can serve hardworking
taxpayers is a top priority,
and the committee will
again examine the issue
this week.”
Last November, Sens.
Bill Cassidy, R-La.;
Todd Young, R-Ind.; Bob
Menendez, D-N.J.; and
Mark Warner, D-Va., wrote
do complicated tax work.
The service, which can cost
$300 a month or $1,000 a
year, claims to cut phone
hold times by up to 90%.
And the problem is
immense. At the height of
the 2021 fi ling season, the
IRS was receiving more
than 1,500 calls per second.
National Taxpayer
Advocate Erin Collins,
who serves as an IRS
ombudsman, told a House
subcommittee earlier this
month that taxpayers had
more diffi culty reaching
the IRS by phone in 2021
than ever before. Because
of staffi ng issues and an
overload of work, just 11%
of the 282 million phone
calls received last year
were answered.
Andrew Valiente,
founder and CEO of enQ,
declined to comment in
detail, stating in an email
that he was “hyper-focused
on building” the business.
In a video on his website,
he says his approach may
be “unorthodox,” but it’s
Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press, File
A sign is displayed outside the Internal Revenue Service building
May 4, 2021, in Washington. A private company, enQ, lets those who
are willing to pay jump to the front of the line to get their phone calls
answered at the IRS. That has attracted the attention of lawmakers
who want the IRS to investigate the company’s impact on the
agency’s phone capacity.
to the IRS to urge the
agency to investigate how
the company’s robocalls
to the IRS aff ect agency
phone systems.
The company’s bots
regularly get in the queue
for various IRS service
lines, and then clients who
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
dial in to enQ can swap in
to spots at the front of the
waiting list.
Tax professionals who
need regular access to IRS
services during the busy
fi ling season say that while
enQ may be controversial,
it’s necessary for them to
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
40/48
Kennewick
42/47
St. Helens
41/46
40/50
Condon
43/53
41/49
TUE
WED
A bit of snow
and rain
Colder with a
little snow
Cold with snow
showers
Quite cold
Turning cloudy;
very cold
Baker City
26 36 21
Comfort Index™
La Grande
0
7
0
5
3
27
0
34 16
21
0
28 33 21
Comfort Index™
24
0
34 37 27
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
3
32 14
0
19 -4
19 13
0
0
0
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Thursday
Low Thursday
High: 90°
Low: -28°
Wettest: 3.63”
37°
16°
49°
21°
51°
20°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
0.00
Month to date
Trace
Normal month to date 0.36
Year to date
0.38
Normal year to date
1.06
0.00
0.41
0.74
1.68
2.41
0.01
0.86
1.45
4.79
4.72
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
55%
WNW at 8 to 16 mph
2.0
0.04
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
40/46
3% of capacity
31% of capacity
22% of capacity
40% of capacity
25% of capacity
46% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
1690 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
1 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
6 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
201 cfs
Minam River at Minam
133 cfs
Powder River near Richland
50 cfs
Plant City, Fla.
Thief River Falls, Minn.
Cape Girardeau, Mo.
OREGON
High: 71°
Low: 11°
Wettest: Trace
Brookings
Alkali Lake
Astoria
WEATHER HISTORY
More than 60 twisters on Feb. 19, 1884,
ripped through Alabama, Georgia and
South Carolina, killing 420 people. With
warmer air’s return in late February, the
South often has its fi rst tornadoes.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
SUN.
6:48 a.m. 6:46 a.m.
5:25 p.m. 5:27 p.m.
9:00 p.m. 10:13 p.m.
8:28 a.m. 8:49 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Last
Feb 23
New
Mar 2
First
Mar 10
Full
Mar 17
29/40
Beaver Marsh
26/33
Roseburg
Powers
Brothers
36/40
Coos Bay
40/45
Burns
Jordan Valley
27/38
Paisley
28/43
Frenchglen
31/40
Klamath Falls
25/43
Hi/Lo/W
48/36/sh
44/27/sf
45/27/pc
53/38/pc
41/23/sn
47/37/sh
47/33/sh
37/18/sn
39/26/sn
46/35/sh
51/37/pc
50/37/pc
42/30/sn
36/26/sn
33/21/sn
54/34/pc
43/21/c
45/22/c
Hi/Lo/W
48/30/r
42/16/sn
41/25/sf
52/35/pc
38/16/sf
44/30/sh
46/27/r
36/11/sf
34/16/sf
45/29/r
47/24/c
49/25/r
36/14/sf
32/14/sf
29/9/sf
45/24/sn
39/18/sn
36/17/sn
Grand View
Arock
29/42
28/43
Lakeview
25/45
McDermitt
27/44
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Diamond
32/38
28/43
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
MON.
Boise
30/45
Fields
33/50
SUN.
33/44
Silver Lake
26/38
Medford
Brookings
Juntura
30/41
36/47
41/53
Ontario
32/47
27/41
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Huntington
31/35
33/44
Oakridge
27/37
30/40
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
THURSDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
Florence
Council
26/36
34/36
32/44
40/47
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.
27/30
John Day
31/44
Sisters
40/46
32 12
0
Eugene
40/46
0
27/37
Baker City
Redmond
41/45
42/47
Halfway
Granite
37/47
Newport
8
27 12
33/41
36/41
40/49
Enterprise
28/33
34/37
Monument
40/51
Idanha
Salem
Corvallis
0
1
Elgin
33/39
La Grande
37/45
Maupin
MON
38/46
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
38/49
Lewiston
40/49
Hood River
38/45
40/47
SUN
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
41/54
Vancouver
39/48
TIllamook
TONIGHT
also a “no-brainer” to avoid
wasting time on hold.
Mark Steber, chief tax
offi cer at Jackson Hewitt
Tax Service, is among the
many CPAs who use enQ.
“We’re confl icted that
it costs money to access a
free government service,’”
Steber said, “but in the
service of serving Amer-
ican taxpayers, I kind of
fault the IRS for not having
funding and resources
— but they haven’t been
funded for 20 years.”
Legislation that would
have given the IRS bil-
lions of dollars to bolster
its enforcement capacity
and update everything from
printers to photocopiers
to the agency’s staffi ng
levels and improving tele-
phone service is stalled in
Congress.
Robert Nassau, director
of the Low Income Tax-
payer Clinic at Syracuse
University College of Law,
said getting through to an
IRS agent can feel like win-
ning the lottery.
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
SUN.
MON.
Hi/Lo/W
49/34/sn
47/39/sh
36/26/sn
50/31/c
45/38/sh
49/31/sh
47/30/pc
55/31/sh
45/33/sh
49/37/sh
46/38/sh
44/27/sf
45/35/sh
49/36/sh
42/24/pc
53/40/pc
35/25/sn
46/33/sh
Hi/Lo/W
41/22/sn
47/32/r
33/16/sf
48/29/sh
45/33/r
46/28/c
46/26/sf
44/24/sn
41/19/sf
48/29/r
44/33/sh
42/17/sn
42/33/c
48/29/r
29/12/c
50/27/r
33/7/sf
39/19/sn
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
Snow, 1-2”
A little snow
16
7
34
21
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Snow, 1-2”; colder
A little snow
27
20
39
22
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Snow, 1-2”; colder
Snow, 1-2”; colder
20
8
32
24
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
A little a.m. snow
Rain/snow showers
33
21
43
31
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
A little a.m. snow
A little snow
36
21
Veterans Appreciation Day
at Anthony Lakes
Complementary skiing for Veterans and their families
February 28, 2022
Details at AnthonyLakes.com
37
27