50 YEARS AGO

from the Democrat-Herald

May 24, 1971

City manager Vern Jacobson at last night’s city council meeting said he will apply for a sewage treatment construction grant and at the same time, find out if Baker must be part of district 13 in order to receive it.

25 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

May 24, 1996

The Baker County Planning Commission on Thursday approved a resolution opposing an initiative that would affect livestock grazing along Oregon streams.

Supporters are trying to gather 73,261 signatures by July 5 to place on the November ballot the “Clean Streams” initiative, which would ban livestock along all streams that the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality considers “water quality limited.”

10 YEARS AGO

from the Baker City Herald

May 25, 2011

Lingering fears about a sometimes fatal horse virus that has been reported this month in several western states, including Oregon, have prompted officials to cancel a high school rodeo scheduled this weekend in Baker City.

The annual event would have brought an estimated 150 teenage competitors, and about 250 horses, to town.

ONE YEAR AGO

from the Baker City Herald

May 26, 2020

A week after Baker County Circuit Court Judge Matt Shirtcliff ruled that Oregon Gov. Kate Brown’s executive orders related to the pandemic exceeded her legal authority, the legal spotlight is cast again on Shirtcliff’s chambers.

Shirtcliff, the former longtime Baker County district attorney whom Brown appointed as Circuit Court judge effective Nov. 1, 2019, on May 18 granted a preliminary injunction to the plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Brown’s executive orders that have restricted businesses and other activities since mid March.

The governor’s attorneys appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, which later on May 18 issued a temporary stay that blocked Shirtcliff’s order and kept Brown’s executive orders in effect.

Last week, attorneys for the plaintiffs, which include Elkhorn Baptist Church in Baker City, and the governor submitted briefs to the Oregon Supreme Court in the matter of the preliminary injunction.

On Saturday the Supreme Court returned the issue to Shirtcliff.

The state’s highest court issued an alternative writ of mandamus, which asks Shirtcliff to either vacate his May 18 order for the preliminary injunction, or submit a written opinion for why the injunction should be reinstated.