I recently read a thoughtful Washington Post commentary by Utah governor Spenser Cox and Harvard philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin warning of “the consequences of America’s moral drift.” Their thesis is that many Americans, awash in consumerism and unprotected from corporations that target our psychological weaknesses, have fallen into lives of addiction and meaningless self-indulgence.
Editorials
Political storm rakes nation, but gives Northwest a pass
A political storm brought thunder and lightning raining down on America’s east and west coasts Tuesday, and vast swaths of the heartland lying between. Almost everywhere, the results were delivered ...
Expecting the unexpected and solving the unsolvable
So much of what local government entities do for their constituents is so mundane and routine it seldom gets any attention until things go wrong. Then a hue and cry arises. Everyone wonders why someone ...
Suicide prevention a cause we can all come to embrace
In the face of troubling social issues, our first instinct has traditionally been to simply keep them out of the public eye, thus avoiding the messy necessity of addressing them. When that fails, our fallback ...
Bond right-sized for Mac, deserves support at polls
We have but one issue before us on ballots mailed to us this week in connection with Oregon’s Nov. 4 general election. The question is: Can our community afford to spend $72.5 million on a new combination ...
Local government doesn't get the credit it actually deserves
If you limited your local government exposure in these parts to online forums and social media channels, you would find yourself subjected, in large measure, to a torrent of highly charged and sharply ...
Transportation bill serves as starting point on rough road
Until Sept. 29, Oregon hadn’t enacted a major new transportation funding package since 2017. In the world of politics and public policy, that’s a veritable eon ago. Over the course of the ...
City needs to remember it's not paying the piper
Big box shock? Pardon us, but we don’t find it shocking at all that national chain discounters, operating on a high-volume, low-margin basis, would be looking for McMinnville Landing building spaces ...
State faces big challenges; we need to step up locally
This isn’t your father’s Oregon anymore. And that isn’t a good thing, not by any stretch. During the last 25 years of the 20th century, plentiful stores of land and energy, a superior ...
Nothing's what it seems with edicts descending from D.C.
Sometimes it seems as though we’ve tumbled down Alice’s Wonderland rabbit hole and joined her at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, where nothing is as it seems. At least it has in the eight ...
Private and public failings leave toxic stench in Sheridan
Late last month, one of North America’s largest treated-wood producers pleaded guilty in Yamhill County Circuit Court to 10 misdemeanor counts of unlawful water pollution, based on a legacy of toxic ...
Letters
News-Register Letters Policy
The News-Register welcomes written opinions about issues of public interest and about the content of this newspaper. Letters from non-local writers are accepted only if they focus on local issues. This ...
Letters to the Editor: Nov. 7, 2025
No sense of mercy? I volunteer at the Soup Kitchen at St. Barnabas, and on the Tuesday evening of Oct. 28, we served 80 plates in the first 30 minutes. Are we people choosing to have a country without ...
Letters to the Editor: Oct. 31, 2025
Long tradition Citizens of McMinnville helped pay for public facilities long before I moved here in 1978. In fact, since McMinnville’s naming in 1856 and platting in 1876, its residents have most ...
Letters to the Editor: Oct. 24, 2025
Places to thrive Over the summer, I spotted something different happening around McMinnville. I began to see young people with fishing poles in their hands instead of phones. On an early fall paddle ...
Letters to the Editor: Oct. 17, 2025
Living within means This November’s ballot includes a $98.5 million bond for a new recreation facility, along with improvements to the library, senior center and park system. The bond will increase ...
Letters to the Editor: Oct. 10, 2025
Chance to be heard Attention Yamhill County citizens: Please attend upcoming hearings to let Commissioners Mary Starrett and Kit Johnston know they aren’t fooling anyone with their Oct. 2 attempt ...
Letters to the Editor: Oct. 3, 2025
Destroying democracy Thank you, Mayor Kim Morris, for putting a stop to the intellectual lynching of Sal Peralta. But sadly, this is not over. It didn’t take long for Season 2 of the Trump Show. ...
Letters to the Editor: Sept. 26, 2025
Just keeping pace I am not a landlord, but found it amusing reading the article about how rent prices have risen 54% from 2014 to 2024. The article stated the median apartment rent in 2014 was $847, ...
Letters to the Editor: Sept. 19, 2025
Parks for all Thank you for your July 25 editorial, “County takes first step in making parks a priority.” The Yamhill County Parks Advisory Board deeply appreciates your recognition of how ...
Letters to the Editor: Sept. 12, 2025
Oregon, not Ohio Thank you for highlighting in your Sept. 3 edition the quirk found in Dayton. When one sees these things every day, they can be taken for granted. Regarding the sign: When you Google ...
Commentary
Jeb Bladine: Lesson-learning campaign, bad timing: Regroup!
The election math spells likely defeat for McMinnville’s $98.5 million recreation bond proposal — more on those numbers below. Historically, McMinnville voters rarely rejected any bond measure ...
Dennis Goecks: The death of democracy being greatly exaggerated
Over the last month I have seen much regarding the No King rallies, specifically the pictures and information in the News-Register. I asked myself how I would explain all this to a civics class.
Scott Gibson: Society's sense of morality forged through interaction
I recently read a thoughtful Washington Post commentary by Utah governor Spenser Cox and Harvard philosopher Ian Marcus Corbin warning of “the consequences of America’s moral drift.” Their thesis is that many Americans, awash in consumerism and unprotected from corporations that target our psychological weaknesses, have fallen into lives of addiction and meaningless self-indulgence.
Jonah Goldberg: Trump is not a dictator, but may be set on worse
Julius Caesar still casts a long shadow. We have a 12-month calendar — and leap year — thanks to Julius. July is named after him (though the salad isn’t). The words czar and kaiser, now mostly out of use, simply meant “Caesar.”
Investigating the Bible: Extraordinary compassion
Nov. 11, 1918, Armistice Day was established to honor the soldiers of World War I. Veterans Day now honors the men and women of our armed services for their willingness to serve and sacrifice for our country. During New Testament times, Roman soldiers ruled the world. One soldier in the Bible was extraordinary.
Quirk of the Week: Celebrating unique holiday scares, smiles
Call it a Quirk-tet. Four scenes in this post-Halloween week are worth observing. They may well all be gone by publication time, but they livened the scene while they were here. We start with a unique, ...
Jeb Bladine: No Republicans or Democrats – only swimmers
Today brings an admittedly odd combination of topics: 1) Launch of a new politically conservative column in our Viewpoints section; 2) McMinnville’s proposed $98.5 million bond to build a new aquatic/community ...
New Viewpoints feature debuts
New Viewpoints feature debuts Times are tough in the newspaper business, as Brier Dudley’s piece in today's N-R amply illustrates. Never tougher, for that matter, nor do they show promise of ...
Jonah Goldberg: Trump serves to unify both Democrats and Republicans
The only thing the parties can agree on is that Donald Trump is the central issue of our time.
Brier Dudley: News deserts grow as more local papers close
As proposals to help save local journalism gathered dust in Congress and mostly fizzled in state legislatures over the last year, 136 more newspapers closed, according to a new report.
Investigating the Bible: Who can be trusted?
A recent headline ran, “Religious leaders arrested on charges of running a forced labor camp and money laundering.” David E. Taylor, who calls himself an apostle, and Michelle Brannon were arrested on charges of money laundering and forced labor.
Quirk of the Week: Garden-variety oddities
Good things often come in threes, such as water, soil and light — the basics for garden growth. And three is the exact number of garden examples of Quirk to observe this week. Starting just outside ...
Kirby Neumann-Rea: Obsolete optimism
A retrospective on those slippery Escheresque stairs of 2019 and early 2020
Investigating the Bible: Do what we can
Lyndon Baines Johnson and Richard Nixon were longtime enemies. The late Senator Bob Dole wrote that before Watergate LBJ made an astonishing prediction. He compared his old foe to a Spanish horse “… who runs faster than anyone for his first nine lengths and then turns around and runs backward.
Jeb Bladine: Dontcha just love our messy U.S. democracy?
Last time I checked, our American experiment still was a democracy. And “the people” still were in charge, despite their occasional lapses in holding their government both responsible and accountable. Reportedly, ...
Erik Lukens: Business climate rankings give Oregon falling scores
Every summer, CNBC releases a widely followed business-climate ranking. America’s Top States for Business, as it’s known, gives each state an overall ranking as well as rankings in 10 categories, ...
Jeb Bladine: Legal notices augmented by online databases
First, a quick survey: Do you read “legal notices” in the newspaper (you should)? Do you know what a legal notice is (many people don’t)? When a legal notice relates to real property ...
Investigating the Bible: The value of discipline
By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR In the Reader’s Digest, Robert Moore described a grueling day of boot camp for his son, a ten-mile hike and a challenging obstacle course. As his son lay exhausted ...
Jennifer Green: Health of a community starts with connection
By JENNIFER GREEN As a pediatrician, I spend my days sitting with families who are doing their best to raise healthy, happy children. When they reach the age of 3, I begin asking parents about their ...
Offbeat Oregon: The world’s steepest street is in Oregon City − it runs straight up
The cities of San Francisco and Pittsburgh are currently in a battle for bragging rights: Which town is home to the world’s steepest street? Is it Canton Avenue in Pittsburgh, a 21-foot stretch of ...
