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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2015)
4 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS Opinion / Politics — Editorial — Beware the free subscription “We stopped subscribing to that publication a year ago, but they just keep sending it!” We heard this phrase three times last week alone regarding one publi- cation—at least 50 times in the past year. We imagine that for every time we’ve heard it, there are probably ten more instances of this situation hap- pening. In the cases we’ve heard, the former customers of XYZ Newspa- per quit subscribing one, two—and in one case, six years ago because they didn’t care for the publication, didn’t read it, and no longer wished to receive it. At first blush, receiving free copies of a magazine or newspaper sounds fairly innocuous. After all, as a customer, if one has legitimately cancelled or decided not to renew a subscription and continues to receive the publication every week, the responsibility falls on the publish- er, right? Worst case, the issues get tossed straight into the recycle bin at the post office, correct? Maybe not Let us explain the common reasons a customer keeps receiving a publica- tion months and years after cancella- tion. Sometimes the error is simply due to sloppy bookkeeping—but so very often, it’s not. When a newspaper or magazine has drastically falling circulation numbers, this is not a fact they’d like publicized. The number of subscrib- ers to which a publication is mailed shows up on their bulk mailing re- ports, and whether a large publication in a large city or a smaller publication in a small area, those numbers tend to leak out to the public one way or another. Thus, publications of the not-so- honest variety will pad their numbers by continuing to mail out a certain amount each week or month, using the addresses of cancelled subscribers to amp up their dwindling circulation. There are laws regulating this practice—somewhat. For example, at least in Oregon regarding newspa- pers—because this is the industry we know—a subscriber is not considered a legitimate subscriber in terms of adding to the circulation count for advertising bids, etc., unless they actually pay for their subscription and aren’t more than six months behind in that payment. So while it isn’t exactly illegal to continue mailing to a cancelled subscriber, it does become potentially criminal if a publication deliberately claims a circulation it doesn’t have when approaching advertisers. With circulation numbers miracu- lously maintained, or even showing an increase, the publication, which relies in large part on advertising dol- lars to operate, can verify on its rate card that it mails out a certain number of copies per issue. Do the recipients actually subscribe? No. Do they read the publication? Not often. But none- theless, a publication like this will fraudulently claim they do. For advertisers who are spending their hard-earned dollars, the effect of this fraud is devastating, particularly on small businesses. Imagine think- ing your ad is being seen by 2,000 residents inside your own home area, when in reality you’re reaching just 1,000 people who never shop any- where near your business. As you can imagine, this practice is also damaging to all the honest com- petitors who present themselves and their numbers accurately. There is a simple way to fight back against this deliberate fraud—and that’s to force the publication toward more accurate bulk mailing numbers. If you’ve been receiving a newspa- per or magazine under these circum- stances, call the editor or publisher. Help protect the businesses and the economy in your community. De- mand that your name be removed from their mailing list immediately. If that doesn’t work, report the issue to your local postmaster. —The Baker County Press Editorial Board — Contact Us — YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS President Barack Obama The Baker County Press 202.456.1414 202.456.2461 fax Whitehouse.gov/contact PO Box 567 Baker City, Ore. 97814 US Sen. Jeff Merkley Open Monday-Thursday for calls 9 AM - 4 PM Open 24/7 for emails Office location: TBA 503.326.3386 503.326.2900 fax Merkley.Senate.gov US Sen. Ron Wyden Phone: 541.519.0572 541.962.7691 Wyden.Senate.gov TheBakerCountyPress.com US Rep. Greg Walden Kerry McQuisten, Publisher Editor@TheBakerCountyPress.com Wendee Morrissey, Advertising and Sales Wendee@TheBakerCountyPress.com David Conn, Advertising and Sales David@TheBakerCountyPress.com Published weekly every Friday. Subscription rates per year are $29.95 all areas, e-mail delivery. $39.95 print issue, home delivery, Baker City city limits only. $49.95 print issue, mail delivery, outside Baker City city limits only. Payment in advance. A division of Black Lyon Publishing, LLC Copyright © 2014 Letter to the Editor Policy: The Baker County Press reserves the right not to pub- lish letters containing factual falsehoods or incoherent narrative. Letters promoting or detracting from specific for-profit business- es will not be published. Word limit is 375 words per letter. Letters are limited to one every other week per author. Letters should be submitted to Editor@TheBakerCounty- Press.com. Advertising and Opinion Page Dis- claimer: Opinions submitted as Guest 541.624.2400 541.624.2402 fax Walden.House.gov Oregon Gov. Kate Brown 503.378.3111 Governor.Oregon.gov State Rep. Cliff Bentz 503.986.1460 State Sen. Ted Ferrioli 541.490.6528 Baker County Commissioners Bill Harvey; Mark Bennett; Tim Kerns 541.523.8200 541.523.8201 Opinions or Letters to the Editor express the opinions of their authors, and have not been authored by and are not necessarily the opinions of The Baker County Press, any of our staff, management, independent contractors or affiliates. Advertisements placed by political groups, candidates, businesses, etc., are printed as a paid service, which does not constitute an endorsement of or fulfillment obligation by this newspaper for the products or services advertised. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 2015 Bentz summarizes complex legislative session at luncheon Brian Addison / The Baker County Press Baker County resident Steve Culley speaks to Oregon Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Dis- trict 60-Ontario) during the Chamber of Commerce luncheon August 5. Culley worked with Bentz to pass legislation to provide relief on fines to recovering drug addicts. • BENTZ SPEAKS AT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LUNCHEON BY BRIAN ADDISON Brian@TheBakerCountyPress.com Oregon Representative Cliff Bentz (R-District 60-Ontario) addressed about 35 Baker County residents at the monthly Baker County Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Wednesday, August 5. Bentz provided a brief summary of the latest Oregon legislative session that began February 2 and adjourned on July 6, 2015. Bentz had the task of summarizing a very active and complex legislative session in a short one- hour time period as he addressed the luncheon crowd. This included a list of what he referred to as “bad legislation Republi- cans stopped. Bad legisla- tion Republicans tried but failed to stop. Bentz bills passed. Bills Bentz sup- ported which passed. Tried but failed bills.” During the last legisla- tive session, Bentz had drafted a total 82 bills. Of that number, he told the crowd that 10 of his intro- duced bills were passed into law. Changes in land use laws regarding Greater sage- grouse habitat in Oregon topped the concerns voiced by Bentz. The Oregon Land Conservation and Develop- ment Commission passed regulation last week that greatly curtails all activi- ties on public and private land classified as primary habitat for the Greater sage-grouse. He said that exemp- tions were made to allow cattle grazing and haying operations but warned that environmentalist organiza- tions in the state are con- tinuing to target and limit those agricultural activities as well. “This is land use plan- ning of steroids—that’s what just happened on all public and private lands,” Bentz said. Interest in the Greater sage-grouse habitat protec- tion effort is expected to heighten next month as the US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to reach a decision on whether or not to include the bird on the nation’s endangered spe- cies list. Included on the list of what Bentz referred to as “bad legislation Repub- licans tried but failed to stop,” is Oregon SB 324 Low Carbon Fuel Stan- dard. The new law directs that carbon emission in the state of Oregon be driven down by 10-percent during the next decade. Bentz explained that carbon emission reduction will require conversions to lower carbon emitting fuel sources and by adding corn based alcohol to fuel. He said that a failure to meet the 10-percent carbon emission reduction would result in the required pur- chase of carbon credits. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality published estimates that place the increase in fuel prices at 19-cents per gal- lon under the new carbon emission standard. Bentz referred to industry ana- lysts who put the increase of fuel prices more toward $1.06 per gallon in order to adhere to the new law. There is a local con- nection to two of the bills drafted by Bentz and passed into law during this last legislative session. HB 3166 Teacher Licens- ing, originally brought to Bentz by a former Baker 5J District Superintendent, re- laxes the licensing require- ments for some technical industrial teachers. This law comes as the Baker Technical Institute, part of the education pro- gram offered by the Baker School District, offers a core technical program and has faced difficulty in finding licensed instructors for some training programs such as welding. HB 3168 Monetary Obli- gations of Defendants, was passed into law and was originally brought to Bentz by Baker County resident Steve Culley. The law pro- vides relief from fines on recovering drug addicts. Also included on the list of Bentz bills passed into law are the HB 3011 Self Service Gas Stations allowing Oregon citizens in counties with a popula- tion less than 40,000 to pump their own gas during nighttime hours; HB 3089 Mining Audit of Mineral Potential; HB 3402 Speed Limit Increase that will raise the interstate speed limit in Oregon to 70 mph; HB 3015 Options for Last Name Changes; SCR 16 Honoring Mabry Anders by renaming the state highway from Baker City to Sumpter in honor of An- ders who sacrificed his life in military service to his country; and, MOA and SB 5544 Sage-grouse Habitat Reservation and Preserva- tion Funding. Making the list of what Bentz referred to as “bad legislation Republicans tried to stop but failed” are, the SB 324 Low Carbon Fuel Standard; SB 941 Background Checks requiring private person to complete transfer of firearm by appearing with transferee before gun dealer to request criminal background check or ship- ping or delivering firearm to gun dealer in certain circumstances; underfund- ing K-12 education, with the budgeted amount for the 2015 through 2017 biennium passed at $7.373 billion. Bentz said that he had pushed for education funding at $7.5 billion of the states expected $70 billion biennium expen- ditures; SB 454 Misde- signed Paid Sick Leave; and, HB 2177 Automatic Voter Registration “Motor Voter,” which automati- cally registers to vote all people using services at the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles. Bentz provided a list of internet sites where detailed information may be found on all the legisla- tive activities from the 2015 legislative session. Those interested may visit the following web sites: https://olis.leg.state.or.us/ liz/2015R1/2015-01-12; https://www.oregonleg- islature.gov/lfo/Docu- ments/2015-17%20 Co-Chair%20Budget%20 Framework.pdf; and for revenue information, http:// oregon.gov/dor/pages/in- dex.aspx.
