COFFEE BREAK B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD THuRSDAY, MARCH 10, 2022 Marriage reeling after family’s horrific loss place, but as soon as Jeff got home, he started hitting me and calling me a cheating slut. We have been together 20 years, and I have been faithful. If I go to the store or to run errands, he gets mad at me for being gone a little too long. If I try to explain what held me up, it’s automatically because I’m cheating, but Jeff feels he can leave and be gone for hours, and it’s OK for him. I love him, but I can’t take it anymore. When our son acts out and starts being mean to me, Jeff tells him to respect me, but I think to myself, “How can you tell him to respect me when you don’t?” Abby, please help me. — SO LOST IN THE EAST DEAR SO LOST: The fire and DEAR ABBY: Our house burned down a year ago, and we lost everything. My husband, “Jeff,” tried desperately to get to our 2-year-old daughter, but she perished in the fire. I managed to get our 3-year-old son out while he was trying to save our daughter. Jeff ended up in a burn unit on a ventilator for nine days because he burned his lungs. When he was released from the hospital, things got worse. We lived with my mom and stepdad for a bit until we found a I have tried to be unavailable, she has bullied me into seeing her anyway. My partner says I need to break up with her, but I don’t want to hurt her or have a confrontation. How can I gracefully exit this rela- tionship? — STRESSED IN THE WEST DEAR STRESSED: There may not be a graceful way to exit from a relationship with a bully. Ask yourself which would be worse: telling her exactly what you have written to me, or allowing yourself to be steamroll- ered into another exhausting and frustrating encounter with her. Once you have the answer to that question, you will know exactly what to do, which may start with blocking her number. thehotline.org. Do it now. DEAR ABBY: My high school friend returns to our hometown once or twice a year. Her last sev- eral visits were exhausting. She talked about herself for hours without asking one question about my life. She objectifies men and calls people weak for expressing their emotions. Our friendship has been a long one. I went to her wedding and did the flowers for her dad’s funeral. But the more I understand myself, the more I see how toxic she is for me. I have reached the hard reali- zation that I no longer want to be around her. I don’t like who she is or how she makes me feel. I would like us to simply drift apart, but she can be a bully. When tragic death of your daughter has done more damage to your hus- band than sear his lungs. It has also taken an emotional toll. It is important that you no longer allow him to take out his anger and frus- tration with himself on you. If you have any power at all in your relationship, insist he seek help from a licensed mental health professional. If he refuses, you cannot remain married to him because his physical and emotional abuse may continue to escalate, and seeing it will affect your son. Have an escape plan in place before you confront him. A safe way to formulate one would be to contact the National Domestic Vio- lence Hotline. The toll-free number is 800-799-7233 and the website is Realtors to conservatives living in liberal areas: Try Idaho The Associated Press SANDPOINT, Idaho — Linda Navarre moved to Sandpoint, Idaho, from Cleveland in 1978, when the town consisted of people in the timber industry and hippies “and they all got along.” Now she barely recog- nizes the small resort com- munity near the Cana- dian border that is quickly growing as people disen- chanted with big city life move there. Many are con- servatives fed up with lib- eral politics in blue states. “The division gets wider and wider,” Navarre said, adding many of the new arrivals are changing the civility of the community. “My concern is there are so many people who are not nice.” Sandpoint is a four- season resort town built along the shores of scenic Lake Pend Oreille. It had 7,300 residents in the 2010 LETTERS Continued from Page B1 against Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Real Estate Commis- sioner Steve Strode, alleging that forbidding these com- munications violates their First Amendment rights. Hernández’s legal opinion acknowledges Ore- gon’s “long and abhorrent history” of racist housing discrimination. He points to laws that outright prohibited people of color from owning Ruth Fremson/New York Times News Service, File A guitarist plays in downtown Sandpoint, Idaho, a town of 8,900 on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille. The mayor of Sandpoint and many residents worry that the trend of a growing number of real estate companies advertising to conservatives that they can help people move out of liberal bastions like Seattle and San Francisco and find homes in places like rural Idaho is not good for their community. trend, a growing number of real estate companies are advertising themselves to people on the right, saying they can take them out of liberal bastions like Seattle and San Francisco and find them homes in places like rural Idaho. Census, but grew 21% in the decade to about 8,900 in the 2020 Census. In addi- tion to the natural beauty, “people come here because it’s a red state,” said long- time resident Gail Cam- eron, 67. To capitalize on that masking,” Chabot said. Idaho has been the fastest growing state in the nation for five years run- ning, growing 2.9% in 2021, mostly from in-migration. But the influx of people to places like Idaho has made it harder for some long-time residents. People struggle to find housing in Sandpoint, with many houses sold the same day they are listed, after bidding wars, Cameron said. Many of those homes are converted into vacation rentals, which tightens the market for people who live in the area, Cameron said. Carolyn Knaack, asso- ciate director of the Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper conservation group, has lived in town for a year. She said the confluence of the coronavirus pan- demic and politics “has cre- ated a divisiveness among folks.” “I’ve been applauded and belittled for wearing a mask,” she said. “I have Sandpoint-based Flee the City is a consortium of four businesses that specialize in selling property to con- servatives in northern Idaho and western Montana. The company calls itself “a real estate firm for the vigilant.” Flee the City has part- nered with a company that provides “sustainable homes design with inte- grated ballistic and defen- sive capabilities.” Todd Savage, whose Black Rifle Real Estate firm is part of Flee the City, said in a brief email exchange that his busi- ness is booming, thanks to “insane” left wing politics. One of the bigger players among right-leaning real estate companies is Con- servative Move, based in a suburb of Dallas. Founder and chief execu- tive Paul Chabot said blue states have only themselves to blame for driving out conservatives. “People are tired of out- of-control crime and forced By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS weather | Go to AccuWeather.com AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION Astoria Longview 35/53 Kennewick 33/56 St. Helens 33/57 33/63 33/61 35/58 30/59 Condon FRI SAT SUN MON Periods of sun Mostly cloudy Cloudy with rain possible 17 43 23 49 30 Baker City Comfort Index™ La Grande 1 22 49 30 Comfort Index™ Enterprise 0 2 Comfort Index™ 1 Eugene 0 52 36 52 35 50 40 4 4 2 49 31 49 43 7 6 4 5 ALMANAC TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin NATION (for the 48 contiguous states) High: 91° Low: -32° Wettest: 3.82” 42° 27° 42° 30° 43° 31° Tuesday Trace Month to date 0.02 Normal month to date 0.17 Year to date 0.41 Normal year to date 1.46 0.02 0.21 0.42 2.08 3.32 Trace 0.87 0.63 6.42 6.24 PRECIPITATION (inches) AGRICULTURAL INFO. HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY Lowest relative humidity Afternoon wind Hours of sunshine Evapotranspiration 35% S at 7 to 14 mph 6.0 0.09 RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday) Phillips Reservoir Unity Reservoir Owyhee Reservoir McKay Reservoir Wallowa Lake Thief Valley Reservoir Powers 37/64 TUESDAY EXTREMES High Tuesday Low Tuesday 4% of capacity 37% of capacity 25% of capacity 51% of capacity 29% of capacity 63% of capacity STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday) Grande Ronde at Troy 3310 cfs Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder 1 cfs Burnt River near Unity 6 cfs Umatilla River near Gibbon 279 cfs Minam River at Minam 243 cfs Powder River near Richland 45 cfs Plant City, Fla. Antero Reservoir, Colo. Jackson, Miss. OREGON High: 62° Low: 21° Wettest: 0.55” Brookings Lakeview Meacham Reddish snowfall in France on March 10, 1869, was feared to contain blood. Investi- gation revealed that the storm picked up red sand over the Sahara Desert, where it originated. SUN & MOON THU. FRI. 6:15 a.m. 6:13 a.m. 5:51 p.m. 5:53 p.m. 10:14 a.m. 10:59 a.m. 1:46 a.m. 2:44 a.m. MOON PHASES First Mar 10 Full Mar 17 Last Mar 24 31/63 New Mar 31 Jordan Valley 18/49 Paisley 23/62 18/57 Frenchglen 25/54 30/70 Brookings 27/67 City Astoria Bend Boise Brookings Burns Coos Bay Corvallis Council Elgin Eugene Hermiston Hood River Imnaha John Day Joseph Kennewick Klamath Falls Lakeview SAT. Hi/Lo/W 53/43/pc 63/32/s 51/30/s 58/42/pc 58/27/s 56/35/s 59/34/s 39/22/s 50/29/pc 63/36/s 62/37/s 63/35/pc 49/34/pc 54/32/s 43/28/s 60/39/pc 59/21/pc 56/23/pc Hi/Lo/W 51/43/r 63/36/r 61/38/s 51/45/r 60/33/s 51/43/sh 52/41/sh 48/33/pc 54/34/pc 54/45/sh 59/43/pc 56/45/c 55/34/c 62/35/pc 51/31/pc 60/45/c 60/28/pc 55/32/s Grand View Arock 20/52 18/56 21/56 Klamath Falls 16/59 Lakeview 15/56 McDermitt Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs. FRI. Diamond 25/55 Fields Medford 40/58 Boise 22/51 Silver Lake Chiloquin Grants Pass 22/57 22/62 15/51 RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY REGIONAL CITIES WEATHER HISTORY Sunrise Sunset Moonrise Moonset 17/57 Roseburg Juntura 19/58 24/58 Beaver Marsh 31/56 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. Ontario 22/50 Burns Brothers 31/66 Coos Bay Huntington 21/53 28/63 Oakridge 14/39 23/46 Seneca Bend Elkton 30/62 52 31 25/54 28/63 Council 17/43 John Day 24/63 Sisters Florence 34/54 13/40 Baker City Redmond 34/52 28/63 2 Halfway Granite 15/45 29/60 31/58 Corvallis 19/57 28/59 Newport Enterprise 14/44 22/49 Monument 32/65 Idanha Salem 46 34 1 4 14 44 27 48 30 Elgin 17/50 La Grande 29/59 Maupin Mostly sunny and chilly 32/55 Pendleton The Dalles Portland Newberg Lewiston 28/50 Hood River 27/58 35/56 TONIGHT Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022 Walla Walla 27/60 Vancouver 33/58 TIllamook Cloudy and cold Computer not running as fast as when it was new? Let us install lightning-fast solid state drive! Still running unsupported Windows 7? We’ll help you avoid critical issues by installing Windows 10! Hernández suggests two alternatives that were orig- inally included in Pacific Legal Foundation’s legal claim. Lawmakers could allow love letters but require real estate agents to edit out any information that could reveal the buyer’s race, reli- gion, sexual orientation or marital status. On top of that, lawmakers could pro- hibit buyers from providing personal photos to sellers. With this preliminary injunction, HB 2550 can’t be enforced until Hernández makes a final decision. land in Oregon, as well as governmental policies and industry practices that con- tinue to enable housing dis- crimination to this day. Even so, Hernández says he doesn’t think HB 2550 could stand against a First Amendment claim in court, mostly because it’s too broad. Instead of spe- cifically prohibiting “love letters,” the law bans all written communication out- side of “customary docu- ments.” The law doesn’t specify what “customary documents” include. friends who refused to get vaxxed.” Savage was asked if it was desirable for people to segregate themselves by political ideology. “I don’t agree with the term ‘segregate,’” he wrote. “Folks simply ‘vote with their feet’ relating to issues such as crime, taxes, home- schooling, gun laws, mask and vaccine mandates, Orwellian laws and out of control tyranny in the sanc- tuary states.” Not everyone is a fan of what Savage and conser- vative real estate agencies are doing in Sandpoint and elsewhere. Mayor Shelby Rogn- stad, a Democrat, worries real estate firms that serve only conservatives “pushes Idaho more and more into a playground for extremism. “It doesn’t bode well for our sense of community here,” said Rognstad, who is mounting a campaign for governor. “It’s a challenge to civility.” City Lewiston Longview Meacham Medford Newport Olympia Ontario Pasco Pendleton Portland Powers Redmond Roseburg Salem Spokane The Dalles Ukiah Walla Walla FRI. SAT. Hi/Lo/W 50/38/c 56/37/pc 47/30/pc 67/33/pc 52/40/s 55/37/pc 50/26/s 58/39/pc 58/38/pc 58/38/pc 64/37/s 63/30/s 63/35/s 58/35/pc 44/35/c 61/37/s 51/28/s 55/41/pc Hi/Lo/W 56/41/c 48/44/sh 55/35/pc 61/40/pc 50/44/sh 46/40/sh 59/39/s 60/42/c 58/37/pc 51/46/sh 55/45/sh 62/34/r 55/45/sh 53/45/sh 47/37/pc 59/44/r 57/32/r 60/42/pc 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 31 22 46 21 MT. EMILY REC. BROWNLEE RES. Mostly sunny Some sun; chilly 39 30 45 24 EAGLE CAP WILD. EMIGRANT ST. PARK Mostly sunny Some sun; milder 31 21 46 23 WALLOWA LAKE MCKAY RESERVOIR Mostly sunny Milder 43 28 57 36 THIEF VALLEY RES. RED BRIDGE ST. PARK Sunshine; chilly Mostly sunny 43 23 49 30