A kick in the pants to the closure of Aspen Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Hermiston.

According to Lifeways, the community mental health provider running Aspen Springs, the hospital was closed because Lifeways could not find enough qualified professionals, particularly psychiatrists, to staff the facility.

The nationwide psychiatrist shortage isn’t Lifeways’ fault, and it is an issue the mental health profession, universities and government leaders should be putting their heads together to address. However, the timeline here does bring up some questions about the level of due diligence that went into the decision to build the hospital.

Lifeways took four years to build the facility instead of the expected one year, which leadership at the time attributed to it being more difficult than expected to meet all of the state requirements for that level of secure facility. Now, after just under seven months, it is closing as a psychiatric hospital, with leadership citing more difficulties than expected recruiting staff.

Umatilla County Commissioner John Shafer is questioning why Lifeways abruptly closed the facility with five months still to go on a one-year waiver given by the state, giving the county less than a day’s notice, rather than going public with the problem first and giving some time for government leaders and outside organizations to work on possible solutions. We have the same questions, and we hope that the sorely needed facility may once again welcome patients in the future.

A kick in the pants to people threatening Republican state legislators for showing up to work.

Sen. Bill Hansell was one of a handful of Republican legislators who declined to do another walkout, this time on a bill that would ban firearms in state buildings. Hansell opposed the bill, but ultimately decided that it was better to spend hours pointing out flaws in the bill and working to convince Democrats to amend it, rather than taking himself out of the conversation altogether.

In return, Hansell said, he has received emails threatening to shoot him.

That kind of behavior is unacceptable. Nobody who sends a sitting legislator death threats for showing up to work can call themselves a patriot, or a rational person. And on this particular bill, such a reaction makes the exact opposite point Hansell was trying to make on the Senate floor — that the public can be trusted to carry firearms responsibly.