Hope is a curious thing. It is often hard-won, sometimes late in arriving, and rarely linear.
Editorials
Primary would best serve us by returning Kotek, Drazan
There are no fewer than 27 candidates for the Oregon governorship out on the hustings so far this year — 10 Democrats and 14 Republicans seeking major party nominations, one unaffiliated candidate ...
Depleted highway coffers demand a new infusion
Property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes and most other governmental taxes have one crucial element in common. They are based on percentage rates applied to ever-rising dollar volumes. That serves to ...
Bee-friendly pollinator garden a cause we should all support
So many national and international threats hanging over the heard of humanity these days seem so complex and distant as to defy meaningful impact at the local level. Fortunately, though, there is at least ...
No time to change course on overdue downtown overhaul
By the turn of the 21st century, McMinnville realized its treasured downtown Third Street spine would need extensive below-ground renovation in the coming years. It also knew that would logically dictate ...
Bipartisanship has moment in most self-serving of ways
When newsroom e-mail boxes begin filling up with our-side congratulatory and their-side condemnatory press releases from Ashley Kuenzi, Jill Bakken, Mack Smith and Elizabeth Cronen, we never fail to offer ...
Oregon takes lead again on recycling/reuse front
Oregon broke new environmental ground 55 years ago with the bottle bill. It was the national pilot for a new generation of “extended producer responsibility” measures, designed to force producers ...
Short session shenanigans produce biggest stinker yet
One terrible bill being pushed through the 2026 Oregon Legislature would allow quorums of local government bodies to meet and discuss important public business in private. In opposing that bill, HB 4177, ...
Government budgets grow alongside limits on taxes
In this semiquincentennial birthday year for America, history reminds us that opposition to taxation measures — Stamp Act, Townshend Duties, Tea Act — helped light the fuse that sparked the ...
Let us all come together to bridge the gaps that divide
The nonprofit Unidos Bridging Community, prominently featured in a story in last Friday’s News-Register, has been providing support services to Yamhill County’s large and diverse Latino population ...
Those who covet power must first earn out trust
For the first 150 years of its statehood, Oregon limited regular legislative sessions to odd-numbered years. As governance turned increasingly complex and contentious, it became one of only a handful of ...
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: April 10, 2026
Out of ammo We’re about a month into the war with Iran. In that short time, we’ve started to run out of the interceptor missiles we and our allies rely on to defend against missile and drone ...
Letters to the Editor: April 3, 2026
Proceed with care Yes, McMinnville’s downtown needs major infrastructure work — and sooner rather than later. However, government and civic leaders need to understand the potential consequences ...
Letters to the Editor: March 27, 2026
All talk, no action I was reading about Mayor Morris’ new program, “We care about kids.” I hope it will be a program of action, not just words. Beyond the staged photo op with the mayor ...
Letters to the Editor: March 20, 2026
So much to say There’s so much to talk about. First, a rare commendation to the News-Register for a most excellent editorial, “Bipartisanship has moment in most self-serving of ways.” ...
Letters to the Editor: March 13, 2026
Fiscal ruin Trump’s policies are cruel, immoral and fiscally suicidal. Last year, his Big Bad Bill added $2.23 trillion to our national debt, bringing it to $38.86 trillion. Our debt now equals ...
Letters to the Editor: March 6, 2026
Simply wrong As an octogenarian, I’ve had a lifetime to learn the difference between right and wrong and live by that understanding. I don’t claim to have lived a perfect life, but I have ...
Letters to the Editor: Feb. 27, 2026
Where’s my refund? It’s always a good idea to read the fine print. Knowing exactly where you stand is important. By now, most people know that the foreign countries who send goods to the ...
Letters to the Editor: Feb. 20, 2026
Damaging leasing practices I am writing as a concerned community member about the growing impact of excessive rent increases and profit-driven practices by some landlords in downtown McMinnville. Small ...
Letters to the Editor: Feb. 13, 2026
Get a real Republican This moderate Republican has praised the News-Register many times and still thinks we are lucky to have a newspaper, left-leaning though it may be. I have a criticism, though. It ...
Commentary
Cyrus Javadi: Assault on vote by mail has no grounding in fact
Not long after I announced for state representative in 2022, I found myself at Arnie’s, on Main Street in Warrenton, making my case to the Clatsop County Republican Party faithful.
Russell Mark: Hope is the healer that means the most
Hope is a curious thing. It is often hard-won, sometimes late in arriving, and rarely linear.
Jonah Goldberg: Trump creates new enemies at every turn
It is among the most familiar patterns of the Trump era.
Jeb Bladine: 'Ten pounds of confusion in a five-pound box'
Kudos to the city of McMinnville and McMinnville Industrial Promotions (MIP) for their Wednesday night performance of a civics lesson that cut tortuously close to what’s wrong with government in ...
Investigating the Bible: Keys to success
Comedian Carol Burnett should like the Willamette Valley. Throughout her long career, she believed rain always brought her success. Starting in grammar school, whenever she took a test and it was raining, ...
Quirk of the Week: Been there, Dundee that
Last week’s news story about folks in Dundee protesting a certain fast-food chain development in town came down to this: what qualities give Dundee its character? What makes it unique? And, yes, ...
Quirk of the Week: All about eaves
Porches and carports are two underappreciated domestic spaces. A carport is not just a poor man’s garage, and a porch can be more than a covered entry. Both can do much to project a home’s ...
Jeb Bladine: 2026 is showtime for Westsider Trail supporters
In 2026 — 14 years later — it’s showtime for Yamhelas Westsider Trail supporters. County voters could face three trail-related ballot measures in November, and those issues will weigh ...
Jonah Goldberg: News flash: He never had any real plan
When President Trump spoke at the Saudi Future Investment Initiative last Friday, he offered a pristine example of what he calls “the weave.” What detractors take for incontinent verbal rambling is, in his own telling, genius-level embroidery of a rhetorical mosaic.
Investigating the Bible: The foundation of joy
Author Lucie Winborne, in her column “Strange But True,” wrote about Margaret Dixon, a Scottish criminal hanged in 1753. Amazingly, just a few hours later she climbed out of her coffin quite ...
Monica Duffy Toft: Overconfidence is how today's wars are lost
Wars are rarely lost first on the battlefield. They are most commonly lost in the instigators’ minds — when they misread what they and their adversaries can do, when they substitute confidence for comprehension, when they mistake the last war for the next one.
Jonah Goldberg: Team Trump had to start war to learn how economy works
Early Monday morning, financial markets surged when President Donald Trump claimed there had been productive talks with Iran about ending the war. Therefore, he backed off a vow to bomb Iranian power plants if the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t reopened by Monday evening.
Jeb Bladine: Partisan bombast threatens need for U.S. unity
Iran seems content to take more military blows, randomly hurl its remaining missiles at surrounding nations, maintain a stranglehold on oil shipment through the Strait of Hormuz, and monitor the deterioration ...
Investigating the Bible: There’s nothing like success
On Feb. 19, the U.S. women’s hockey team defeated Canada to win the gold medal. Three days later, the U.S. men’s hockey team defeated Canada in overtime. Jack Hughes, his mouth missing ...
Phil Forve: What next for democracy: obituary or reeaffirmation
America appears to be at an inflection point in its great experiment with self-governance — a system of, by, and for the people.
Jeb Bladine: Downtown project paying the high cost of delay
Somehow, a half-century ago, McMinnville crafted and launched an extensive downtown development plan in what today would be considered record time. City leaders approved the investment while declining ...
Jonah Goldberg: Pessimism so pervasive that it defies even death
Biologist and author Paul Ehrlich, the most influential Chicken Little of the last century, died at the age of 93 this week.
Quirk of the Week: Sense of place seen in the out-of-place
Long balls and other baseball delights are back, so Quirk this week also will “Go yard.” Here we have a quintet of interesting, yet out of place, landscape adornments seen gracing four front ...
Investigating the Bible: With one mind, through prayer and fellowship
D.L. Moody is considered one the most influential evangelistic laymen America has produced. In the 1800s, before electricity powered public address systems, he preached to over 100 million people; Moody ...
