The daily flood of press releases that pours into my inbox can be more than a little overwhelming at times. The majority of it, frankly, is irrelevant to what we do here at the Blue Mountain Eagle, and I delete most of the messages I receive after a quick glance at the subject line tells me they have nothing to do with Grant County or Eastern Oregon.

Every now and then, though, you find a diamond in the rough. Here’s one that came my way last week: “Oregon State Highway Patrol Uniform Voted 29th ‘Sexiest’ in America, Reveals Survey.”

Now, who could resist a pitch like that? 

According to the good folks at Wealth of Geeks, “America boasts an array of police uniforms, each with its own charm and charisma, turning the men and women who serve into icons of style and substance.” Based on a survey of 3,000 people, the press release claims, the Texas Department of Public Safety has the country’s sexiest unis, with shirts “in a crisp, authoritative dark tan” topped off by a cowboy hat “worn with the swagger of a rodeo champion and the solemn duty of a ranger.”

Well, yee-haw!

Sadly, the Oregon State Police (which Wealth of Geeks inexplicably refers to as the Oregon State Highway Patrol) finished in the middle of the pack at No. 29 overall. Still, the home team gets a pretty flattering writeup.

“The Oregon State Highway Patrol uniform features a distinctive pairing of French blue shirts with navy blue pants, a combination that projects both the authority and approachability essential to modern law enforcement,” the description reads. 

The press release helpfully provides renderings (possibly AI-generated) of each state’s signature police fashion statement. The illustration of Oregon’s 29th-place uniform appears with this newsletter so you can judge for yourself. 

What do you think? Meh? Or hubba-hubba?

Coming up in this week’s edition of the Eagle, look for a story on Ranchers Feeding Kids, a program that puts locally raised beef on school lunch menus through donations by generous livestock producers. We’ll also have stories on a local hero, some Grant County mathletes, the Small Business Development Center network and more.

In case you missed it, last week’s paper featured stories about plans to fill the vacant John Day mayor’s seat, the arraignment of a Forest Service burn boss, new candidate filings in a couple of county races and the postseason heroics of the Prairie City boys and girls basketball teams. 

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— Bennett Hall, Editor