COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
SATuRDAY, FEBRuARY 12, 2022
New mom doesn’t take kindly to MIL’s unwelcome opinions
My mother-in-law, “Ella,” is
sometimes very rude, and we have
never seen eye to eye. Four days
ago, my in-laws and other family
came to visit the baby. When the
topic of day care came up, Ella
said, “Babies in day care cry and
no one picks them up.” She also
said, “He’s going to be sick and
miserable all the time.”
Abby, I am furious about her
comments. As if I don’t already
have enough anxiety over sending
my baby to day care. I ignored her
because I didn’t want to cause a
scene in front of the other family
members. I know she said it
because she’s mad she’s not going
to be watching him. She has made
nasty comments in the past about
DEAR ABBY: I’m married to a
wonderful husband and I am a new
mom to an 11-week-old baby boy.
I am fortunate to have 12 weeks
of maternity leave, after which
my baby will be starting day care.
This decision was difficult, but
necessary. I enjoy my career, and
my husband has a good career as
well. My parents still work full
time, and his parents are too old
(in my opinion) to safely watch
their grandbaby while also keeping
him engaged.
other stuff, which I always let go.
I told my husband he needs to
stick up for me and tell her she
needs to cut it out, but he wants
me to ignore her comments as
he has his entire life. I told him
either he or we need to tell her we
will no longer tolerate her nasty
remarks or she’s no longer seeing
her grandson.
My husband hates confrontation
in general, but especially with his
mother. Ever since Ella said what
she did, I have been on edge with
him. I think he should stand up for
me, but he doesn’t want to rock
the boat. Am I being too extreme
by not allowing Ella to see her
grandson? — DAY CARE MOM
IN PENNSYLVANIA
kissing. I just can’t get past the
smell of her breath. How can I tell
her without hurting her feelings?
— AT ARM’S LENGTH
DEAR AT ARM’S
LENGTH: For the sake of your
marriage, speak up. Telling
someone their breath is “strong”
should not cause embarrassment.
(I would certainly want to know!)
There can be more than one
reason for halitosis. Could it be
her diet? Is she drinking enough
water? Does she need to make an
appointment with her dentist for a
checkup?
If none of those things helps,
she should consult her physician
to make sure her bad breath isn’t a
symptom of something serious.
DEAR DAY CARE MOM:
You have a wonderful husband, but
part of the package is his mother,
who has a big mouth and poor
judgment about what comes out of
it. While I sympathize with your
predicament, it occurs to me that
your dislike of her is coloring your
thinking in this instance. Rather
than take it out on your husband,
develop a thicker skin where Ella
is concerned. Of course she should
be allowed to visit her grandchild.
Remember above all, YOU are the
mother and YOU get to make the
decisions about your son’s care.
DEAR ABBY: I need help! I
don’t know how to tell my wife
of 21 years that her breath smells
awful. I really miss our passionate
Judge restores protections for gray wolves across much of U.S.
popularity of Yellowstone’s
wolf packs among tourists
who visit from around the
world.
Following the killings,
Interior Sec. Deb Haaland
published an op-ed this
week saying federal offi-
cials could give northern
Rockies wolves emergency
protection if the species is
put at significant risk.
“Recent laws passed
in some Western states
undermine state wildlife
managers by promoting
precipitous reductions in
wolf populations, such
as removing bag limits,
baiting, snaring, night
hunting and pursuit by
dogs — the same kind of
practices that nearly wiped
out wolves during the last
century,” Haaland wrote.
Wolves once ranged
most of the U.S. but were
wiped out in most places
by the 1930s under govern-
ment-sponsored poisoning
and trapping campaigns.
A remnant population
in the western Great Lakes
region has since expanded
to some 4,400 wolves in
Michigan, Minnesota and
Wisconsin. And more
than 2,000 wolves occupy
six states in the Northern
Rockies and Pacific
Northwest.
Yet wolves remain
absent across most of their
historical range. Wild-
life advocates argue that
continued protections are
needed so they can con-
tinue to expand in Cali-
fornia, Colorado, Oregon
and other states.
Democratic and Repub-
lican administrations alike,
going back to former Presi-
dent George W. Bush, have
sought to remove or scale
back federal wolf protec-
tions first enacted in 1974.
By MATTHEW BROWN and
JOHN FLESHER
The Associated Press
BILLINGS, Mont — A
judge restored federal pro-
tections for gray wolves
across much of the U.S. on
Thursday, Feb. 10, after
their removal in the waning
days of the Trump admin-
istration exposed the pred-
ators to hunting that critics
said would undermine their
rebound from widespread
extermination early last
century.
U.S. District Judge Jef-
frey White in Oakland,
California, said the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice had failed to show
wolf populations could be
sustained in the Midwest
and portions of the West
without protection under
the Endangered Species
Act.
Wildlife advocates had
sued the agency last year.
The ruling again puts
wolves in Western Wash-
ington, Western Oregon
and California under fed-
eral protection.
The decision does not
cover wolves in Eastern
Washington, Eastern
Oregon, Idaho or Montana.
Wolves in those areas will
remain off the federally
protected list of species
and will still be managed
by state officials.
Attorneys for the
Biden administration had
defended the Trump rule
that removed protections,
arguing wolves were resil-
ient enough to bounce
back even if their numbers
dropped sharply due to
intensive hunting.
At stake is the future of
a species whose recovery
from near-extinction has
been heralded as a historic
Allison Coffin/Shutterstock/TownNews Content Exchange
A judge on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022, has ordered federal protections for gray wolves across much of the U.S. after they were removed in the
waning days of the Trump administration. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said in his ruling that the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to show
wolf populations could be sustained in the Midwest and portions of the West without protection under the Endangered Species Act.
quotas, killing 218 wolves
in four days.
“Wolves in the Great
Lakes region have a stay
of execution,” said John
Horning with the environ-
mental group WildEarth
Guardians.
None of the Great Lakes
states with established wolf
populations — Michigan,
Minnesota and Wisconsin
— had scheduled addi-
tional wolf hunts prior to
the judge’s ruling. All three
were updating their wolf
management programs
and officials said that work
would continue.
A state judge in Wis-
consin in October had
blocked a hunt two weeks
before it was to begin,
conservation success. That
recovery has brought bitter
blowback from hunters
and farmers angered over
wolf attacks on big game
herds and livestock. They
contend protections are no
longer warranted.
Interior Department
spokesperson Melissa
Schwartz said the agency
was reviewing the deci-
sion and offered no further
comment.
Wildlife advocacy
groups said the judge’s
order would most immedi-
ately put a stop to hunting
in the Great Lakes region,
where Wisconsin offi-
cials had come under crit-
icism after a wolf hunt last
year blew past the state’s
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
responding to a lawsuit
that claimed it was illegally
scheduled.
In Michigan, where the
wolf population numbers
about 700, Republican leg-
islators introduced pro-
hunting resolutions but no
formal proposal was before
the wildlife commission
that sets hunting seasons.
Before hunting is con-
sidered, Michigan offi-
cials want their legal status
more permanently settled
“given the long history of
legal challenges to del-
isting decisions and the
resulting shifting status of
wolves,” said Ed Golder
with the state Department
of Natural Resources.
The status of northern
Rockies wolves was not
challenged in the lawsuit
decided Thursday. How-
ever, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service in Sep-
tember began a separate
review of whether protec-
tions should be restored
for the region’s wolves,
after Republican state law-
makers in Montana and
Idaho passed laws last year
intended to drive down
wolf numbers by making it
easier to kill them.
Under the loosened
rules, hunters and trappers
primarily in Montana have
killed a record 23 wolves
that wandered outside Yel-
lowstone National Park
this winter. That’s sparked
public outrage due to the
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
37/56
Kennewick
32/56
St. Helens
33/57
35/56
31/54
35/55
37/58
31/59
Condon
SUN
MON
TUE
WED
Mainly clear
Mostly sunny
Cloudy with a
bit of snow
A touch of
afternoon rain
Low clouds
38 24
41 20
40 19
Eugene
1
1
1
34/62
42 29
44 30
44 28
0
3
1
Comfort Index™
La Grande
3
27 42 33
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
3
3
2
21 46 32
Comfort Index™
6
42 26
3
3
0
ALMANAC
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High: 91°
Low: -9°
Wettest: 0.30”
40°
16°
60°
29°
55°
27°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Thursday
0.00
Month to date
Trace
Normal month to date 0.21
Year to date
0.38
Normal year to date
0.91
0.00
0.29
0.44
1.56
2.11
0.00
0.64
0.87
4.57
4.14
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION SUNDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
45%
S at 8 to 16 mph
8.2
0.07
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Friday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
2% of capacity
29% of capacity
21% of capacity
38% of capacity
23% of capacity
41% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Thursday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
1330 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
1 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
13 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
225 cfs
Minam River at Minam
126 cfs
Powder River near Richland
86 cfs
Santa Ana, Calif.
Angel Fire, N.M.
Grand Marais, Minn.
OREGON
High: 85°
Low: 16°
Wettest: none
Brookings
Baker City
WEATHER HISTORY
On Feb. 12, 1899, an Atlantic coast bliz-
zard pulled extremely cold air southward,
causing a low of 8 below zero in Dallas.
Savannah, Ga., received 2 inches of snow.
SUN & MOON
SAT.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
6:59 a.m.
5:15 p.m.
1:09 p.m.
4:52 a.m.
SUN.
6:57 a.m.
5:17 p.m.
2:06 p.m.
5:41 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Full
Feb 16
Last
Feb 23
New
Mar 2
Beaver Marsh
Powers
47/69
First
Mar 10
39/66
Silver Lake
Jordan Valley
25/52
Paisley
27/65
25/60
Frenchglen
30/60
34/67
Klamath Falls
24/64
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
Hi/Lo/W
56/42/c
69/41/s
46/31/s
60/45/pc
53/29/s
58/43/pc
57/41/c
38/25/s
45/30/s
62/43/pc
53/34/pc
54/41/pc
53/39/s
54/36/s
47/34/s
48/31/pc
64/31/c
60/33/s
Hi/Lo/W
49/38/sh
53/30/c
51/32/sh
52/39/r
50/26/r
47/38/r
49/34/r
38/27/sh
45/31/sn
47/36/r
50/34/c
51/43/r
52/38/r
51/30/sn
46/27/sn
48/31/sh
53/25/r
52/25/c
22/45
Lakeview
24/60
McDermitt
25/55
RECREATION FORECAST SUNDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
MON.
Grand View
Arock
21/50
26/61
Shown is Sunday’s weather. Temperatures are Saturday night’s lows and Sunday’s highs.
SUN.
Diamond
28/57
Fields
Medford
Brookings
Boise
24/46
41/71
48/60
24/45
23/67
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Juntura
22/53
22/62
22/58
Roseburg
Ontario
26/46
Burns
Brothers
39/67
Coos Bay
Huntington
22/51
29/69
Oakridge
17/38
24/40
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
Council
14/39
26/54
25/68
Florence
THURSDAY EXTREMES
High Thursday
Low Thursday
20/45
John Day
24/69
Sisters
39/58
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.
16/37
Baker City
Redmond
40/56
Halfway
Granite
31/57
Newport
37/62
40 26
25/59
38/66
34/61
42/55
48 27
5
Corvallis
Enterprise
21/46
27/42
Monument
32/64
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
14 39 22
Elgin
23/45
La Grande
31/59
Maupin
Baker City
30/48
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
38/60
31/54
Hood River
28/53
TIllamook
Lewiston
Walla Walla
26/48
Vancouver
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
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
54/38/s
56/45/pc
44/34/s
67/37/pc
55/43/pc
55/41/pc
46/29/s
50/31/pc
53/39/s
58/43/pc
69/44/pc
69/41/s
66/43/pc
61/45/c
42/32/pc
55/41/pc
54/33/s
48/38/pc
Hi/Lo/W
51/40/c
49/39/sh
44/30/sn
50/33/r
47/41/sh
49/36/sh
45/34/r
50/32/c
47/33/c
48/41/sh
49/40/r
52/27/c
47/39/r
51/37/r
42/32/c
57/41/sh
49/30/sh
44/35/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
36
26
41
26
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
39
34
44
27
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
36
19
46
29
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
47
34
57
41
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
39
22
42
33