Jeb Bladine: If city council can’t consider safety, who can?
The last time I testified before McMinnville City Council related to a proposed hotel project that would have replaced three Third Street buildings, including two owned by our family. The project included ...
Kirby Neumann-Rea: Pesto memories
Savoring the early days of Nick’s, a Willamette Valley culinary capital newly closed
Investigating the Bible: Success hidden in failure
In August 1976, Ronald Reagan needed 1,140 votes to win the Republican presidential nomination. At the end of the night, he lost to Gerald Ford, the incumbent, who won by a small margin. As their campaign ...
Jonah Goldberg: Everyone's touting affordability that they can't deliver
Remember the “affordability” mania of 2025?
A young, charismatic democratic socialist candidate for New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, became a viral sensation that year. His secret? “Affordability.”
Quirk of the Week: The Grand Tour
This week we honor Grand Island, a land close by but set apart, a place full of Quirk to go with its quiet dignity and bucolic abundance. Two brief, recent mentions are all we’ve had from this area ...
Nathan Weyand: What does America deserve?
I have made an exercise of asking people I meet what they think America deserves. The answers range.
Erma Vasquez: Have we lost our way? Let's honor our values
About the writer: After many years as a teacher and social worker, Erma Vasquez capped her career serving as director of the Oregon Youth Authority. She makes her home in McMinnville with her husband, ...
Jonah Goldberg: Try voting on basis of character
I often am asked for my advice on how to vote. I’m the first to concede these requests come from a very niche slice of the electorate — that tiny remnant of people who know who I am, value my opinion and share my exasperation with both parties.
Jeb Bladine: New systems identify and track moving vehicles
Thirty-year-old technology designed to help police identify license plates has evolved into controversy over allegations that vast, warrantless databases of vehicle movements amount to continuous surveillance ...
Investigating the Bible: All that is grand
The title is recognized as the longest word in the English language. It became a popular song in the 1964 film, “Mary Poppins.” The word, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, ...
What in the Yamhill: Courthouse Park, but no courthouse
Dayton has a park called Courthouse Square, but no courthouse was ever built in the town. The block was donated by the town’s founder, Joel Palmer, in hopes the city would become the county seat. ...
Investigating the Bible: The foundation of faith
After glowing introductions, President Lyndon Baines Johnson began his speeches with a touch of humility. “I wish my mother and father might have been here to hear that introduction. My father would ...
Jeb Bladine: City council gets to make final housing decision
One of democracy’s most memorable quotes – too often ignored – came from American abolitionist Wendell Phillips in 1852: “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever ...
We need policies to ensure our news is fair and factual
By JERI LYNN PAULLOne of the biggest differences between the year 2026 and the years when I was growing up, the 1960s and ’70s, is information and technology. In the ’70s and ’80s, news ...
Tim Nesbitt: Are we letting Oregon's initiative process become a playground for political weirdness
By TIM NESBITT When Initiative Petition 28 failed to qualify for Oregon’s November ballot last week, my first reaction was relief. IP 28 would have banned all hunting and fishing and most ranching ...
