B6 THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2022
COFFEE BREAK
Queer couple plan life together on their terms
We have repeatedly faced backlash
from conservative family members
and family friends about those we are
attracted to. One of my mother’s best
friends is extremely homophobic. She
has, at various holiday parties my par-
ents have hosted, loudly voiced her
homophobic views, including how
proud she was to vote against same-sex
marriage.
How can I kindly explain to my
mother that my girlfriend and I are not
straight, and it’s wrong to attach the
straight label to us when we don’t iden-
tify that way? Also, I want to say that
I don’t feel comfortable around her
friend. A lot of what she talks about
involves denigrating the sexuality of
folks I have deep affection for.
DEAR ABBY: I’m a 30-something
bisexual man who is in a relationship
with a bisexual woman the same age.
We both lived different lives and dated
a variety of people before we met, but
now I am pretty certain she is The
One. The issue arises when it comes
to how others, particularly my parents
and their friends, perceive us.
To us, we are two queer people who
have identified as some form of queer
or bisexual since we were teenagers.
My mother is extremely defensive
about her friend. She didn’t take it
kindly when I told her I deserve an apol-
ogy for having to sit through this wom-
an’s homophobic diatribes given that I
am LGBTQ myself. We would like to
be married in the next couple of years
and make it a homophobia-free wed-
ding. Can you help? — UN-STRAIGHT
IN MICHIGAN
DEAR UN-STRAIGHT: The way
to explain to your mother that you
and your soon-to-be fiancee are not
straight would be to tell her that in
plain English. If you want to ensure
that you and the woman you love have
a homophobia-free wedding, plan it
yourselves and control the guest list.
DEAR ABBY: I have been married
to “Jeff” for nearly 50 years. He sud-
denly learned through DNA that he
has a 52-year-old son. The son has vis-
ited him, and they have talked on the
phone. The guy was conceived in the
summer of 1970. I started seeing my
husband in September of that year.
Jeff wants this man to leave him
alone, and I can’t deal with it either.
We have three grown children, two of
whom have become friends with this
guy. There’s no denying him. He looks
more like Jeff than our son does. Evi-
dently, the mother (who is deceased)
never told him who his dad was. Are
we wrong to feel this way? — DON’T
WANT TO DEAL WITH IT
DEAR DON’T: What does this man
want from your husband? If it’s in-
formation, it should be shared. How-
ever, if what he’s seeking is the father
he never had and a sense of belonging
in your family, and you don’t have it
in your hearts to give it to him, then
your feelings are your feelings. You
have a right to them. I would gently
remind you, however, that our society
has changed a great deal over the last
half-century. While the kind of news
you received used to be shocking or
embarrassing, people today are far less
judgmental and more welcoming than
they used to be.
█
Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren,
also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded
by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear
Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box
69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Dogs gifted by Kim Jong Un at center of South Korean row
land zoo, 16 quarter-sized turtle
hatchlings represent a growing
worry for conservationist Lou
Perrotti.
These eastern musk turtles,
known for spending much of
their lives in swamps and ponds
and emitting a foul smell when
threatened, were confiscated
recently in a wildlife bust. And,
though the reptiles are com-
mon, their illegal sale on the in-
ternet greatly concerns Perrotti,
who directs conservation pro-
grams at Roger Williams Park
Zoo in Providence.
“We are seeing an uptick in
turtle poaching,” he said. “It’s
getting ruthless where we are
seeing thousands of turtles leav-
ing the United States on an an-
nual basis. ... Turtle populations
cannot take that kind of a hit
with that much removal coming
out of the wild.”
Wildlife trade experts be-
lieve that poaching — driven by
growing demand for pets in the
U.S., Asia and Europe — is con-
tributing to the global decline of
rare freshwater turtle and tor-
toise species. One study found
over half of the 360 living turtle
and tortoise species are at risk of
extinction.
Such concerns have
prompted a dozen proposals to
increase protection for fresh-
water turtles at the 184-nation
Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)
meeting in Panama Nov. 14
through Nov. 25.
Precise figures on the turtle
trade, especially illegal trade,
can be hard to find. Based on
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
data, Tara Easter, a University
of Michigan doctoral candi-
date who studies the trade, es-
timated the commercial export
trade for mud turtles in the
United States increased from
1,844 in 1999 to nearly 40,000
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEOUL, South Korea — A
pair of dogs gifted by North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un in
2018 are now mired in a South
Korean political row, with the
country’s former president
blaming his conservative suc-
cessor for a lack of financial
support as he gave the animals
up.
Moon Jae-in, a liberal who
left office in May, received the
two white “Pungsan” hunting
dogs — a breed known to be
indigenous to North Korea —
from Kim following their peace
summit in the North Korean
capital of Pyongyang in Sep-
tember 2018.
The dogs are officially con-
sidered state property, but
Moon took the pair and one
of their seven offspring home
after he left office. The move
was made possible by a change
of law in March that allowed
presidential gifts to be managed
outside of the Presidential Ar-
chives if they were animals or
plants.
But Moon’s office on Mon-
day said he decided he could no
longer raise the three dogs be-
cause the current government
of President Yoon Suk Yeol was
refusing to cover the costs for
the animals’ food and veteri-
nary care. The Ministry of the
Interior and Safety said that the
dogs were returned to the gov-
ernment on Tuesday and that
the parent dogs originally sent
from Kim were being examined
at a veterinary hospital in the
city of Daegu.
In its statement released on
Facebook, Moon’s office ac-
cused Yoon’s office of “inexpli-
cably” blocking the ministry’s
proposal to provide govern-
ment funds for the animal’s
care.
The ministry confirmed
it had drafted a budget plan
South Korea Presidential Blue House/Contributed Photo
In this photo provided in October 2018 by South Korea Presidential Blue House, then-South Korean President
Moon Jae-in greets a white Pungsan dog named Gomi in Seoul, South Korea.
to provide a monthly $1,810
in subsidies, including $360
for the dogs’ food and veteri-
nary care and $1,450 for hiring
workers to look after them. But
the ministry said the plans were
put on hold for months because
of unspecified “opposing opin-
ions” from within the ministry
and the Ministry of Govern-
ment Legislation.
“It seems that the presiden-
tial office, unlike the Presiden-
tial Archives and the Interior
and Safety Ministry, has a neg-
ative view about entrusting the
care of the Pungsan dogs to for-
mer President Moon,” Moon’s
office said.
If that’s the case, Yoon’s
government should be “cool”
about ending that entrustment,
Moon’s office said.
“There would be disappoint-
ment and regrets as they were
companion animals (Moon)
grew attached to, but there
would be no way to reject the
termination of entrustment,”
it said.
Yoon’s office shifted the
blame to Moon, saying it never
prevented him from keeping
the animals and that the discus-
sions about providing financial
support were still ongoing.
“It was entirely the deci-
sion of former President Moon
Jae-in to return the Pungsan
dogs to the Presidential Ar-
chives” instead of waiting out a
legislative amendment to secure
the subsidies, Yoon’s office said.
Moon and Yoon’s spat over
the dogs sparked criticism on-
line, with users lamenting that
the animals were being treated
only as properties.
Staking his single presiden-
tial term on inter-Korean rap-
prochement, Moon met Kim
three times in 2018 and lob-
bied hard to help set up Kim’s
meetings with former U.S.
President Donald Trump. But
the diplomacy never recovered
from the collapse of the second
Kim-Trump meeting in 2019
weather
| Go to AccuWeather.com
in Vietnam, where the Amer-
icans rejected North Korea’s
demands for major sanctions
relief in exchange for disman-
tling an aging nuclear facility,
which would have amounted to
a partial surrender of its nuclear
capabilities.
Kim has since vowed to
bolster his nuclear deterrent
to counter “gangster-like”
U.S. pressure and sped up his
weapons development despite
limited resources and pan-
demic-related difficulties. The
North has fired dozens of mis-
siles this year, using the distrac-
tion created by Russia’s war on
Ukraine to increase arms devel-
opment and ramp up pressure
on the United States and its re-
gional allies.
Turtles in demand as pets,
leading to a spike in poaching
PROVIDENCE, R.I. —
Swimming in two plastic bins
inside a brightly lit and sterile
quarantine room at a Rhode Is-
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
38/48
Kennewick
36/47
St. Helens
36/47
33/41
32/39
38/47
36/47
Condon
FRI
SAT
SUN
MON
Clear and cold
Sunshine,
breezy and cold
Clearing and
cold
Some brighten-
ing and cold
Cold with some
sun
34 16
37 17
37 12
Eugene
0
1
0
35/51
36 19
39 21
35 18
1
1
1
La Grande
19 35 24
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
0
1
0
16 34 23
Comfort Index™
2
37 20
34 18
2
2
2
1
ALMANAC
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
High: 91°
Low: -10°
Wettest: 1.84”
42°
22°
45°
28°
47°
26°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Tuesday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
0.00
0.55
0.19
6.26
7.67
0.00
2.74
0.50
13.67
14.08
0.02
5.13
0.67
25.52
19.70
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
40%
S at 10 to 20 mph
4.0
0.06
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
1% of capacity
26% of capacity
9% of capacity
29% of capacity
7% of capacity
4% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
1480 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
2 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
14 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
151 cfs
Minam River at Minam
115 cfs
Powder River near Richland
14 cfs
McAllen, Texas
Cut Bank, Mont.
Auburn, Calif.
OREGON
High: 54°
Low: 20°
Wettest: 0.07”
Salem
Lakeview
Klamath Falls
40/54
A powerful storm produced a state record
low barometer reading of 28.54 inches in
Spencer, Iowa, on Nov. 10, 1998. Albert
Lea, Minn., had a record low reading of
28.43 inches.
SUN & MOON
THU.
FRI.
6:44 a.m. 6:45 a.m.
4:28 p.m. 4:27 p.m.
5:43 p.m. 6:26 p.m.
9:16 a.m. 10:18 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Last
Nov 16
New
Nov 23
First
Nov 30
14/33
Beaver Marsh
13/40
Roseburg
Powers
Brothers
34/53
Coos Bay
37/51
Full
Dec 7
Burns
Jordan Valley
9/34
Paisley
11/38
Frenchglen
9/34
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
48/39/r
40/21/pc
36/20/s
53/43/r
32/16/pc
53/44/r
50/39/r
30/16/s
35/25/s
51/41/r
38/26/pc
41/33/pc
41/28/s
35/20/pc
34/22/s
37/27/pc
39/24/c
38/19/pc
Hi/Lo/W
50/36/pc
34/18/sn
36/20/pc
51/41/sh
34/10/sn
52/38/c
50/32/c
34/17/pc
37/24/pc
49/32/c
41/23/c
44/31/pc
43/30/pc
36/18/pc
36/20/pc
42/24/pc
40/17/pc
36/17/sn
Diamond
Grand View
Arock
8/33
17/36
11/34
11/34
Klamath Falls
13/39
Lakeview
8/38
McDermitt
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
SAT.
Boise
14/36
Fields
32/52
FRI.
11/32
Silver Lake
14/42
Medford
Brookings
Juntura
6/32
35/56
41/53
Ontario
16/33
13/37
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Huntington
6/32
19/40
Oakridge
10/30
16/33
Seneca
7/35
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
12/35
Bend
Elkton
Council
11/33
John Day
20/41
Sisters
Florence
TUESDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
9/31
19/41
40/53
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.
12/32
Baker City
Redmond
40/50
42/51
Halfway
Granite
34/50
Newport
38/53
36 21
22/38
33/49
36/49
Corvallis
Enterprise
16/34
19/35
Monument
26/39
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
0
Elgin
19/35
La Grande
24/34
Maupin
11 33 20
26/36
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
24/38
Hood River
24/35
TIllamook
Comfort Index™
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
23/37
Vancouver
35/47
38/48
Baker City
in 2017 and musk turtles from
8,254 in 1999 to more than
281,000 in 2016.
In their CITES proposal to
ban or limit the commercial
trade in more than 20 mud tur-
tles species, the United States
and several Latin American
countries cited data from Mex-
ico that found nearly 20,000
were confiscated, mostly at the
Mexico City airport, from 2010
to 2022.
Among the world’s most traf-
ficked animals, freshwater tur-
tles are targeted by criminal net-
works that connect with buyers
on the internet then transport
the reptiles to black markets in
Hong Kong and other Asian
cities. From there, they are sold
as pets, to collectors and for
commercial breeding, food and
traditional medicine. In many
countries, trade is poorly regu-
lated or not regulated at all.
The lucrative business —
some turtle species coveted for
their colorful shells or strange
appearance can fetch thou-
sand of dollars in Asia — adds
to threats turtles already face.
Those include climate change,
habitat destruction, road mor-
tality and predators eating their
eggs.
Poachers are particularly
problematic, experts say, be-
cause they target rare species
and adult breeding females.
Many turtle species, which can
live for several decades, don’t
reach reproductive maturity for
a decade or more.
“The loss of large numbers of
adults, especially females, can
send turtles into a spiraling de-
cline from which they cannot
recover,” said Dave Collins, di-
rector of North American tur-
tle conservation for the Turtle
Survival Alliance. “Turtles have
extremely low reproduction lev-
els, producing a few eggs every
year.”
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
38/27/s
47/33/c
35/20/s
52/39/r
50/43/sh
46/28/c
33/23/s
37/26/pc
35/25/pc
47/36/c
54/43/sh
41/23/pc
51/41/r
49/38/r
34/21/pc
39/33/pc
36/20/pc
36/26/pc
Hi/Lo/W
41/29/pc
48/34/pc
35/18/pc
50/36/c
48/39/c
46/31/pc
37/20/pc
42/24/pc
39/24/c
48/33/pc
53/38/c
35/18/sn
51/38/c
48/33/pc
35/20/s
44/29/pc
35/20/c
38/27/pc
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Partial sunshine
Cold with some sun
25
12
31
16
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Mostly sunny; cold
Mostly sunny; cold
29
21
38
22
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Sunny, but cold
Mostly sunny; cold
24
12
33
20
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Sunny, but cold
Cold with some sun
34
22
36
23
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Cold
Sunshine and cold
33
20
35
24