TUESDAY
DUCKS ROLL PAST WASHINGTON STATE COUGARS IN SECOND HALF: PG. A5
In SPORTS, A6
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
November 16, 2021
Local • Home & Living • Sports
IN THIS EDITION:
QUICK HITS
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to
Herald subscriber Allen
Cook of North Powder.
Sports, A6
NORTH POWDER — The
Powder Valley High School
football team is on to the
Class 1A state semifi nals,
thanks to a dominant effort
in a win over Myrtle Point.
The Badgers came away
with a 36-0 win over the
Bobcats in the quarterfi nals
at home on Friday, Nov. 12.
“That was the best
football game we’ve played
all season on both sides of
the ball,” head coach Josh
Cobb said.
Powder Valley started
the game on a high note,
scoring on a fi ve-yard
quarterback keeper from
senior Reece Dixon early in
the game.
The win over Myrtle
Point sets up a semifi nal
rematch pitting Powder
Valley against St. Paul on
Saturday, Nov. 20 at 6 p.m.
at Caldera High School
in Bend.
BRIEFING
Pet food collection
drive underway
Bisnett Insurance is
hosting a pet supply drive
to benefi t Best Friends
of Baker through Dec. 17.
Donations of kitten and
cat food (wet or dry), dog
food, and cat litter can be
brought to Bisnett at 2001
Main St. (corner of Main
Street and Washington
Avenue).
WEATHER
Today
43 / 39
Mostly sunny
Wednesday
56 / 37
Mostly cloudy
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for
a postage label for issues
that are mailed.
$1.50
COVID
cases take
slight rise
‘NOTHING
SHORT OF A
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
MIRACLE’
 Anthony Leggett, 41, in the
hospital since Aug. 22 after
contracting COVID-19, is happy
to be alive and on the verge of
returning to his Baker Valley home
When he saw Anthony’s
condition, he told Kara to
call for an ambulance.
Kara Leggett was
The ambulance took
awakened from sleep,
Anthony to Saint Alphon-
and to the awful reality
of COVID-19, by a thump sus Medical Center in
Baker City.
from the kitchen of her
Both Kara and An-
Baker Valley home.
thony knew they had been
It was early morning,
infected with the virus.
Aug. 22, 2021.
Kara had felt ill for
Kara rushed to the
about a week, her symp-
kitchen.
toms gradually accumulat-
She found her hus-
ing.
band, Anthony Leggett,
Anthony, by contrast,
sprawled on the fl oor.
felt fi ne for several days
“He was breathing
heavily, like he was hyper- after his wife became sick.
But when the illness
ventilating,” said Kara, 41.
She managed to get her commenced, Kara said, it
advanced rapidly.
husband, who’s also 41,
Both Kara and
into a chair.
Anthony had recently
Kara, frightened by
Anthony’s labored wheez- had their fi rst dose of a
ing, asked him if that was COVID-19 vaccine. But
they recognized that their
really the only way he
inoculations had come too
could breathe.
late to potentially protect
It was.
She called her brother- them from the virus.
A few hours before
in-law, Dan Kolilis, who is
Kara was awakened by
a nurse.
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Kara Leggett/Contributed Photo
Kara Leggett gets a chance to kiss her husband,
Anthony, in the intensive care unit at Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center in Boise.
the thump, she had to
help Anthony walk to the
bathroom.
He couldn’t get there by
himself.
“They told me, he’s a
very sick man,” Kara said.
“I didn’t realize that was
code for he’s probably not
going to live.”
Doctors managed to
boost Anthony’s oxygen
‘Zero chance of
level to a point where he
survival’
At the hospital in Baker could be fl own to Boise.
But before the helicop-
City, doctors tried to stabi-
lize Anthony so he could be ter rose into the summer
sky, Kara said a doctor told
fl own by Life Flight heli-
copter to Saint Alphonsus her that Anthony had a
“zero chance” of surviving.
Hospital in Boise.
The doctor also told her
That’s the destination
he would happily “eat crow”
for most local COVID-19
patients, and in particular if Anthony proved him
those who are severely ill. wrong, that it would be the
best meal he’d ever eaten.
Kara said doctors
Kara was left to make
couldn’t intubate Anthony.
His oxygen saturation arrangements to follow
dropped to 40% — a level her husband to Boise.
In just a couple of
that can quickly prove
hours their life was irrevo-
fatal.
Anthony was placed in cably changed.
a tub of ice to combat his
fever.
See, Miracle/Page A3
Findley, Owens fi eld questions
By SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker County’s two state legisla-
tors, Sen. Lynn Findley and Rep.
Mark Owens, fi elded questions from
local residents during a town hall
on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at Oregon Trail
Electric Cooperative in Baker City.
Findley, of Vale, and Owens, of
Crane, are both Republicans.
Among the questions the lawmak-
ers took was regarding an initiative
petition for a law that would, among
other things, criminalize, under ani-
mal abuse laws, essential parts of the
ranching business, including brand-
ing and dehorning cattle, and castrat-
ing bulls. Even artifi cial insemination
could be classifi ed as sexual
assault of an animal, which
is a Class C felony.
Initiative Petition 13
would also in effect outlaw
hunting, fi shing and trap-
ping.
Owens
Findley said promoters
are gathering signatures in
an attempt to put the mat-
ter to Oregon voters.
He called the effort the
most fundamental chal-
lenge, by a small group,
to Oregon business and
recreation.
Findley
“So, please don’t sign
IP13 and tell everybody you know
not to sign IP13 because that
would be crippling to a guy
that runs cows and calves,”
Findley said.
Owens predicted the
signature-gathering effort
will fail this year. But he
believes the promoters would
not give up.
“It’s dead for now because
it didn’t make it but it will be
back,” Findley said.
Another question had to
do with water rights, and the
effects of irrigation on fi sh
habitat.
See, Questions/Page A3
Newsroom tax credit will empower local journalism
And it’s a timely question
because there is a bipartisan provi-
Imagine this page was blank
sion in the federal budget
except for one question:
reconciliation bill working its
“What if there were no
way through Congress that
local reporters?” That was
will give media companies a
the front-page question
temporary payroll tax credit
posed by our friends at
to hire and retain journalists.
Pamplin Media last week.
Oregon’s Sen. Ron Wyden
It’s a good question,
chairs the Senate Finance
and regardless of how
Wright
Committee that will have a
you get local news — by
watching TV, listening to local radio great deal of say on whether this
or reading a story in the newspaper provision makes it through to the
or on a news organization’s website fi nish line.
Wyden is a co-sponsor of the bill
— it’s not hyperbole to say commu-
nities suffer when there is no local written by Sen. Maria Cantwell,
D-Wash. Being the son of a promi-
news coverage or when indepen-
dently owned media companies are nent journalist, he is a longtime
gobbled up by hedge funds that gut champion of a free press. In a recent
interview with the Seattle Times,
newsrooms.
By HEIDI WRIGHT
TODAY
Issue 80, 14 pages
Calendar ....................A2
Classified ............. B4-B6
Comics ....................... B7
Community News ....A3
Crossword ........B4 & B6
Dear Abby ................. B8
Beavers
are bowl
eligible
Wyden responded to a question
about the potential for some to dis-
like government helping the press.
He said, “This is not the government
putting its hand on certain types
of speech. This is about generally
empowering local journalism in a
big way. By the way, there are plenty
of local journalism outlets that span
across the political spectrum, left,
right, center, you name it.”
On the House side, the bill
was co-authored by Rep. Dan
Newhouse, R-Wash., and Rep.
Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., and it
is strongly supported by two key
Oregon representatives — Peter
DeFazio and Earl Blumenauer.
See, Credit/Page A3
Home ....................B1-B4
Horoscope ........B4 & B6
Letters ........................A4
Baker County’s number of new
COVID-19 cases took a slight in-
crease last week after dipping the
previous week to the lowest total
in more than three months.
For the week Nov. 7-13, the
county reported 24 new cases.
That compares with 20 cases
during the week Oct. 31-Nov.
6, the fewest in any Sunday-
through-Saturday period since
July 18-24, when there were six
cases in the county.
Through the fi rst two weeks
of November, the month is on
pace to have the lowest case rate
since July, when the much more
contagious delta variant started
contributing to a major spike in
infections.
Cases more than tripled dur-
ing August — from 91 in July to
300, the most, at that point, in
any month during the pandemic.
The surge continued in Sep-
tember, with a record 465 cases,
and a record six deaths.
Weekly case totals topped 127
on two consecutive weeks during
September — 128 from Sept.
5-11, and a record 139 from Sept.
12-18.
Cases have dropped sharply
since.
October’s total was 168 cases,
down 62% from September, and
an average of 5.4 cases per day
compared with September’s 15.5.
For the fi rst 14 days of No-
vember, the daily average was 3.1
cases per day.
Baker County’s test positivity
rate dropped to 4.6% for the week
Oct. 31-Nov. 6, the lowest since
1.7% the week of July 11-17.
The test positivity rate
increased to 8.8% for the week
Nov. 7-13.
See, COVID/Page A3
Man kneeling
on train tracks
hit, killed
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
A 30-year-old Baker City man
was hit and killed by a freight
train Sunday evening, Nov. 14 in
what police said appeared to be an
intentional act by the man.
Michael Steven Myers-Gabiola
died at the scene.
The 200-car freight train, which
was traveling at about 40 mph, hit
Myers-Gabiola at about 5:29 p.m.,
said Sgt. Wayne Chastain of the
Baker City Police Department.
Chastain said police don’t
believe the incident was either ac-
cidental or a result of foul play.
He said Myers-Gabiola, based
on what the train crew saw, was
kneeling on the tracks near a
trestle across the Powder River
southeast of Wade Williams Park.
Chastain said the train was
rounding a corner when the crew
saw something on the tracks.
When the crew realized it was a
person, they initiated an emergen-
cy stop procedure, but the train had
no chance to stop quickly enough to
avoid hitting Myers-Gabiola.
None of the train crew was hurt,
said Robynn Tysver, a spokesper-
son for Union Pacifi c Railroad.
The train was stopped for about
three hours before being allowed to
resume its trip, Chastain said.
Lottery Results ..........A4
News of Record ........A2
Obituaries ..................A2
THURSDAY — GO! MAGAZINE ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE
Opinion ......................A4
Sports .............. A5 & A6
Weather ..................... B8