About the writers: Mark Olalde covers environmental issues in the American Southwest for ProPublica. He previously held staff posts with The Desert Sun, Arizona Republic and Center for Public Integrity ...
Editorials
State housing intervention doing us no favors locally
When McMinnville completed its richly detailed and documented City Center Housing Strategy in March 2020, it assured us it knew exactly where it was going and how it intended to get there, in terms of ...
Cybersecurity threat rising with no relief now in sight
Willie Sutton, one of the most prolific and incorrigible bank robbers in American history, boosted more than $2 million from more than 100 banks during his colorful criminal career. Though it may well ...
Flurry of initiatives indicates course ahead at air museum ahead
In Act 2, Scene 2 of his play Romeo and Juliet, celebrated English bard William Shakespeare observes, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet.” That ...
What lies beyond the public disapproval of data centers?
Oregonians — ninth among states with about 900 megawatts of commercial colocation data-center capacity — are taking action to slow the growth of massive data campuses. However, as demand for ...
Food, music and fun fare show promise downtown
What do fine art, wine and dining, street-vendor craft and food fare, vintage garage-sale finds, live local music, brewpub and taproom beer, custom street rods and local field and orchard bounty have in ...
Trio of new bills goes too far in greenlighting new projects
When the Oregon Legislature established the groundwork for Oregon’s restrictive, contentious and litigious land use system in 1973, it made major construction projects significantly more costly and ...
Wine is an economic driver that we can't afford to ignore
The wine industry seems to have lost some of its luster in the last few years — regionally, nationally and even internationally. That’s bad news for the community long heralded as the hub of ...
Commissioners miss chance to better serve public at large
County Commissioners Mary Starrett and Kit Johnston missed a sterling opportunity last week to opt for competence over cronyism in filling one of the three lay seats on the county’s six-member budget ...
Prosperity Council delivers workable roadmap for state
Gov. Tina Kotek’s 15-member Oregon Prosperity Council released its 452-page prescription for Oregon’s ailing economy to great fanfare last week. Cutting through the report’s massive scope ...
State's school funding formula in desperate need of overhaul
Oregon’s school funding formula — last reconfigured in 1991, some 35 years ago — fails to provide more than 100,000 poverty-afflicted students with the extra help they desperately need ...
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: Aug. 28, 2026
Drain the swamp The MAGA/Make America Great Again movement has been nothing more than a marketing scam. It was a scheme to create a political base by pandering to a disaffected portion of our population, ...
Letters to the Editor: Aug. 21, 2026
Trampling on rights McMinnville, we feel your pain In sleepy little Monmouth, your neighbor 26 miles south, more than 150 people appeared before our city council in April to voice disapproval of plans ...
Letters to the editor: Aug. 14, 2026
Affordable housing If McMinnville would like to stand out and create a self-sustainable model, it wouldn’t settle for apartment complexes owned by out-of-town corporations. Population growth has ...
Letters to the Editor, Aug. 7, 2026
Deja vu I was glad to see the McMinnville Historic Landmarks Committee was willing to work to restore the historic brick wall in City Park. Unfortunately, eight months after the first accident, another ...
Letters to the Editor: July 31, 2026
A cheaper way Are you cringing when you fill up your car or truck? My small SUV costs me less than 2 cents a mile for fuel. How? I own an all-electric car — not a hybrid, as they still burn gasoline. My ...
Letters to the Editor: July 24, 2026
Every vote counts So, you think your vote doesn’t count or make a difference. Well, you are wrong. I recently read a short article, taken from the book, “This is the Plan,” by Ben Wikler. Wikler ...
Letters to the Editor: July 17, 2026
GOP restraint? Jonah Goldberg’s “Right and Left Need to Confront Their Own Radicals” has a central false assumption. Namely that there is still a moderate right/Republican faction willing ...
Letters to the Editor: July 10, 2026
Showing his colors Another great News-Register, except for the always annoying and deceptive column by Jonah Goldberg, who exposes his MAGA leanings with every one. There are enough lies, fabrications ...
Letters to the Editor: July 2, 2026
Hate is learned Dear Commissioner Starrett: Several years ago, I discovered a disturbing drawing on the sidewalk at Jay Pearson Park here in McMinnville. It depicted a person being lynched and was accompanied ...
Commentary
Jeb Bladine: Snippets of useful news at the end of summer
Here’s another occasional episode of “News You Can Use” (NYCU) – snippets of information sprinkled with small bits of gratuitous comment, offered during this annual transition time ...
Free District of Columbia from military occupation
On Aug. 11 of 2025, Donald Trump ordered the secretary of defense to mobilize the D.C. National Guard to combat what he claimed was “an epidemic of crime in our nation’s capital,” even though earlier that year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office had announced crime there had fallen to a 30-year low. In fact, according to the Metropolitan Police Department, violent crime had declined 26% the previous year alone.
Mark Olalde and Jimmy Tobias: Public land grazing overhaul brushes public interest aside
About the writers: Mark Olalde covers environmental issues in the American Southwest for ProPublica. He previously held staff posts with The Desert Sun, Arizona Republic and Center for Public Integrity ...
Jonah Goldberg: Beware the moral panic on AI centers
Don’t look now, but we seem to have a moral panic on our hands.
Investigating the Bible: Words count
Johnny Cash nicknamed his drummer, W.S. Holland, “Fluke”; all his successes seemed to come by luck. However, Fluke’s luck nearly ran dry in San Francisco. With Johnny Cash and his wife, ...
Quirk of the Week: McMinnville rocks
A collection of strange sights this week from around McMinnville: call them streetside distractions, starting with a rich collection of items seen in southeast McMinnville (and, full disclosure, in the ...
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
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" 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 ...
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 ...
