The Baker boys basketball team, with eight of 12 members who have played together since they were little boys, qualified for the 2023 and 2022 Oregon Class 4A state tournaments but returned from both events disappointed after losing their first two games.

The Bulldogs had precisely the opposite experience in 2024.

Baker rolled over three straight opponents — Philomath, Cascade and Junction City — to claim the school’s third boys state hoops title, joining the 2007 and 1938 squads.

https://www.bakercityherald.com/sports/baker-boys-basketball-bulldogs-win-state-title-over-junction-city-75-58/article_49462840-de6b-11ee-a2f5-affed504b703.html

https://www.bakercityherald.com/sports/the-baker-boys-eight-bulldog-basketball-players-have-been-teammates-for-almost-a-decade/article_ccc911dc-db0a-11ee-8f7c-a3acc5248f45.html

It was a rough weekend on Interstate 84, the main thoroughfare through Northeastern Oregon, but the difficulties had nothing to do with weather.

The freeway was closed for most of Wednesday, March 13 after a truck hauling a 59-foot-long section of a wind turbine tower crashed into the center divider near the Ash Grove Cement plant, about 28 miles southeast of Baker City.

A much briefer closure happened Thursday evening, March 14, when a commercial truck caught fire near the Baker City Airport.

No one was hurt in either incident.

https://www.bakercityherald.com/news/local/truck-hauling-wind-tower-crashes-blocking-i-84-for-most-of-a-day/article_f12c73b7-ebf0-5ef9-a2a1-e54cde2e4f85.html

https://www.bakercityherald.com/news/local/freeway-was-closed-briefly-near-baker-city-after-commercial-truck-caught-fire-thursday-evening/article_f4f109a6-e2e1-11ee-942a-1b6a8c3f54a1.html

The reward has risen to $4,500 for information leading to the arrest of the person who illegally shot and killed and bighorn sheep ram in eastern Baker County in November 2023, took the head and horns and left the meat to rot.

https://www.bakercityherald.com/outdoors/reward-rises-to-4-500-in-poaching-of-bighorn-ram-in-baker-county/article_bd0ad7ed-1b01-58d4-bbc6-784715f32f65.html