THE OUTDOOR COLUMN: Resolutions
from the regulations book. PAGE 9
HOMEMADE GOODNESS COLUMN: Warm
comfort foods for the season. PAGE 8
The
Baker County Press
TheBakerCountyPress.com
75¢
All local. All relevant. Every Friday.
Friday, January 8, 2016 • Volume 3, Issue 2
A $15 minimum wage?
• REP. BENTZ
HOLDS TOWN HALL
IN BAKER CITY TO
DISCUSS OREGON
MINIMUM WAGE
BY GINA K. SWARTZ
Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com
$9.25 per hour. That’s the
current minimum wage in
Oregon. That translates to
around $20,000 per year.
Tuesday evening Rep-
resentative Cliff Bentz
hosted a town hall meet-
ing at the Sunridge Inn to
discuss proposals to hike
Oregon’s minimum wage
to $15 per hour over the
next three years.
Bentz is against this
proposal.
Oregon minimum wage
is higher than the Federal
Minimum Wage, which
has held steady without
increase at $7.25 for
several years with Idaho
among the approximately
two dozen states that have
kept their minimum wage
in line with that Federal
wage.
The District of Co-
lumbia, and neighboring
California are currently the
highest at $10 or above.
In June of 2014 Seattle
City Council approved a
City ordinance raising the
minimum wage within the
City limits to $15 per hour
while the rest of the state
remained at $9.47.
As Bentz opened to the
meeting he stated that his
purpose for the meeting
was “not to lecture the
panel of people up here,”
as he motioned to area City
and County leaders gath-
ered at the meeting.
“I’m going to guess that
most of us all agree on the
challenges an increase in
the minimum wage will
present. What I’ve been
trying to do as the legisla-
tor from this area is fi gure
out a way of making your
voices heard by those that
will be making these deci-
sions,” he said.
Bentz provided a list
of email addresses and
strongly urged the group
gathered, around 30, to
send as many emails to
these decision-makers as
possible.
He also advised that
“blanket” emails were of-
ten not regarded as priority
and suggested that more
personalized emails would
garner better responses.
Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press
SEE MINIMUM WAGE
PAGE 9
Rep. Bentz fi elds comments from Burger Bob’s
owner, Bob Brady.
Hammonds imprisoned
New Years
baby born
• RALLY,
CONTROVERSIAL
TAKEOVER OF
PUBLIC BUILDING
SPUR NATIONAL
MEDIA COVERAGE
BY KERRY McQUISTEN
News@TheBakerCountyPress.com
On Monday, Harney
County ranchers Dwight
and Steven Hammond,
ages 73 and 46, turned
themselves in to Federal
authorities and were trans-
ported to prison in Cali-
fornia. The father and son
were required to purchase
their own airline tickets,
but have been allowed to
share the same cell.
The Hammonds’ incar-
ceration unleashed a fi re-
storm of protests around
Harney County, Oregon,
and across the nation
after the U.S. Department
of Justice appealed the
original sentence they had
already served. That fi rst
conviction came in 2012
for arson charges, which
fell under the Federal Anti-
terrorism Effective Death
Penalty Act of 1996, after
the Hammonds burned
approximately 130 acres of
the Bureau of Land Mana-
ment (BLM)-managed
grazing land adjoining
their own property.
Prosecutors argued
during trial that the Ham-
monds had set one fi re to
cover up poaching, and
offered testimony from
a hunting guide and one
member of the Hammond
family described as hav-
ing mental issues. Deer
carcasses, which do not
completely incinerate in
wildfi res, were never found
after the fi re and no poach-
ing charges were ever
brought.
The 9th Circuit Court
granted the appeal in Octo-
ber 2015, and ordered the
Hammonds to fulfi ll a fi ve-
year minimum sentence,
which had been waived by
Submitted Photo.
Amanda, Cinthia and Sophiaa Choate.
Submitted Photo.
A row of fl ags adorned the route of the support rally.
the previous judge.
The penalties didn’t just
come with what most feel
is an excessive sentence.
The Hammonds, during
the course of their legal
battles, were also given a
$400,000 fi ne—they have
paid half so far—and have
been ordered to give the
BLM the right of fi rst re-
fusal should their fi nancial
situation force them to sell
their family ranch. To date,
the family has incurred
over a million dollars in
legal bills, and now, after
the incarceration of their
husbands, the Hammond
wives will carry the day-
to-day operations of the
family ranch alone.
Last year, the BLM was
at the center of another
similar controversy in Ne-
vada, resulting in a nation-
ally televised standoff with
another ranching family—
that of Cliven Bundy.
Tribe plans
to release
condors
• LIKELIHOOD OF BIRD MIGRATING
FROM NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO
OREGON HIGH, LEAD AMMO DISCUSSED
BY TODD ARRIOLA
Todd@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Submitted Photo.
Dwight Hammond (baseball cap, center) and wife,
Susie Hammond (top right) greeted supporters.
SEE HAMMONDS PAGE 5
Friday
Mostly cloudy and cool, highs near freezing.
Mostly cloudy at night with a low in the mid
teens.
Saturday
Mostly cloudy and cooler with lows near 30.
Mostly cloudy at night with lows in the mid
teens.
Sunday
Partly sunny and cooler, high in the mid 20s.
Clear and cool at night with lows in the lower
teens.
Saint Alphonsus Baker City is pleased to announce the
arrival of the hospital’s fi rst New Years baby.
Sophiaa Choate was born on January 4th at 3:48 p.m.
weighing 6 lbs., 10 oz. and measuring 18 ½ inches. She
was born to Amanda Choate. Sophiaa is also welcomed
by her older sister Cinthia. Both mother and baby are
doing well.
To commemorate the hospital’s New Year’s baby, Saint
Alphonsus Baker City presented the family with a basket
fi lled with baby clothes, diapers, blankets and other
items parents of newborns need and enjoy.
Research, efforts, and comments have suggested the
high possibility of the migration to Oregon, courtesy of
the northern California Yurok Tribe, of the largest fl ying
land bird in North America—one not seen for over a
century here: the California Condor.
SEE CONDORS PAGE 3
Your weekend weather forecast for Baker County.
Our forecast made possible by this
generous sponsor:
Offi cial weather provider for
The Baker County Press.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Guest Opinion: Hammond issue
Classifi eds
Names released in train collision
Book sale volunteers needed
Sumpter: New Years bonfi re
County Commissioners session
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
Page
4
6
8
8
10
10