About the writer: A former Yamhill County commissioner, Casey Kulla lives on Grand Island with his extended farm family. He is known for stubbornly insisting that trails, bikes and kids are all awesome. The ...
Editorials
Hoping we can restore the luster to police work
Facing a $3 million shortfall in McMinnville’s fiscal 2025-26 budget, city staff recommended cutting 11.6 positions, six of them in the police department. On Wednesday night, the budget committee ...
Region faces power crisis demanding concerted action
Oregon has joined Washington in pledging to put its electric utilities on a carbon-neutral footing by 2040. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek noted the two states had been “leading the way for years on courageous ...
Time county got serious with dog control function
Dog control has remained an orphan function of Yamhill County government for decades, starved for even a welcoming embrace from the powers that be, let alone extension of meaningful financial support. ...
Chemeketa and Sheridan bonds deserve our votes of confidence
There are 45 school, fire and park district seats up in Yamhill County in the looming May 20 election, but only 12 are being contested. One seat drew no candidates, and 32 seats drew just one. If you ...
New stormwater fee justifiable only as replacement, not add-on
Three years ago, McMinnville began assessing the need to follow the path of most cities its size and larger in establishing a separate stormwater utility operation with its own fee structure. To that end, ...
Board got parting right, needs to get hiring right
In response to the naming of Debbie Brockett as school superintendent in the spring of 2021, we opened our editorial this way: “When Maryalice Russell was named superintendent of schools here in ...
Reliable local transit a linchpin for many
We live in times marked by something akin to a crisis a day, if not an even more frantic crisis of the hour or minute. It’s so dizzying, it can numb us into a state of near paralysis. So one of ...
City's elected leaders facing times sure to try their souls
The hopes and dreams of passionate advocates have a bad habit of crashing into the realities of limited means, competing priorities and opposing views. Never has that seemed more evident, we must say, ...
Open, top-two primary would be good for what ails Oregon
Advocates of a top-two form of open primary, resembling those long serving to good effect in neighboring California to the south and Washington to the north, are taking a major run at it in the Oregon ...
Vollmer may overreach, but so does the sanction
Stories raising issues about when it may be appropriate for public officials to engage in the public process outside their core duties — and when that may seem disruptive, political, intimidating ...
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: May 23, 2025
Do the right thing In 2021, my husband and I made the decision to leave Los Angeles and relocate to Oregon. Yes, we’re those people. We knew we wanted to settle in a small town, so we turned to ...
Letters to the Editor: May 16, 2025
Retain period look As a downtown McMinnville resident, co-owner of a Third Street business and former historic restorationist, I would like to express my concerns about the latest plans for the Third ...
Letters to the Editor: May 9, 2025
Passionate and committed As someone who was raised in McMinnville, as a proud graduate of our public schools, and as a parent whose children have also come through the system, I care deeply about the ...
Letters to the Editor: May 2, 2025
Skills and commitment Based on my 23 years of experience working for the McMinnville School District, including 10 years as an elementary school principal, and now as an active volunteer, I want to encourage ...
Letters to the Editor: April 25, 2025
Communication breakdown After being gone for several weeks, I was stunned and upset when I returned home to discover Superintendent Debbie Brockett was being terminated. It was my impression that she ...
Letters to the editor: April 18, 2024
Hispanic community issues I am a concerned school district parent serving as vice president of the Hispanic PTA of McMinnville. I would like to share some of my concerns and frustrations with you. One ...
Letters to the Editor: April 11, 2025
Bread lines Historians now agree that it was not Marie Antoinette who uttered the famous line, “Let them eat cake.” It was actually Donald Trump. Stuart Gunness Sheridan Your help needed After ...
Letters to the Editor: April 4, 2025
Keep it natural As a resident of McMinnville living near Quarry Park, I am appalled the city is considering destroying a beautiful natural area by turning it into a BMX pump track. I notice other writers ...
Letters to the Editor: March 28, 2025
Healthy and wholesome As an educator, parent and youth bike coach, I’ve been saddened to read recent letters in opposition to bike trails at Quarry Park. The park is within walking and biking distance ...
Commentary
Rusty Rae: Hardy entrepreneurs honor Oregon newspaper heritage
What does it take to publish a community newspaper these days? It may seem a strange question to ask here, but these days, running a newspaper is fraught with challenges no ordinary person would take, even on a dare.
Jeb Bladine: Financial uncertainty of downtown development
Plans for major renovation of downtown McMinnville infrastructure have been studied, debated, expanded, delayed, amended and delayed again to the point of great financial uncertainty. The long-promised ...
Investigating the Bible: Good gossip
Here’s a word for Scrabble: quidnunc. It’s Latin for what now? Webster’s Dictionary says this a person who is “…avidly curious and given to speculating, especially about ephemeral or petty things.” A quidnunc is a gossip and it is little surprise how the Bible treats this behavior.
Quirk of the Week: McMinnville’s marquee figures
Quirk of May 14, with its UFO Fest focus, once again spotlighted a distinctive odd trend that had also been celebrated in 2024: the family of mannequins in downtown McMinnville. There’s more to ...
Kirby Neumann-Rea: Starting over on a new fork in the road of life
I came to the News-Register four years ago a novice, not knowing the people or the landscape, literally and figuratively.
Phil Forve: Put country before party
In August 1974, Americans were shocked as they heard a recording of President Richard Nixon in which he admitted his complicity in the cover-up of the Watergate scandal — a bungled burglary of the Democratic National Headquarters office at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.. during the 1972 Presidential election cycle that had been under investigation by Congress.
Investigating the Bible: Paperless honesty
An older gentleman at the desk checked a woman into a hotel. She learned from staff that he was 98 years old! She later asked him how he could still be so active at his advanced age? The old fellow scratched his head.
Jeb Bladine: Taking a deep dive into the city budget pool
Statewide, citizens are taking deep dives this month into proposed municipal budgets for 2025-26; in McMinnville, the 14-member Budget Committee may scrape a few knees on the bottom of the pool. Their ...
Quirk of the Week: Space oddities abound in Mac
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.” – Carl Sagan The words of the late great astronomer stand on a board in the window of Oregon Stationers, one of many businesses again ...
Casey Kulla: Prioritize local roads and bridges over expressways
About the writer: A former Yamhill County commissioner, Casey Kulla lives on Grand Island with his extended farm family. He is known for stubbornly insisting that trails, bikes and kids are all awesome. The ...
Jeb Bladine: City council faces tough decisions on expenditures
McMinnville City Council — acting as governing body for both the city and its Urban Renewal Agency (URA) — faces some serious financial challenges in a series of upcoming meetings. Years of ...
Investigating the Bible: A day to honor mothers and mothers-in-law
May 11 this year we honor mothers. However, mothers-in-law often get bad press. Marjorie Manson Telford wrote in the Reader’s Digest about a visit to her parents with her new husband, who was a frogman in the Navy. During their visit, her husband took her aside and said, “I don’t think your mother likes me. I explained to her that I can’t wear my wedding ring when I dive in the ocean because barracudas are attracted to shiny things and might bite off my finger. Your mother said, ‘Well, can’t you wear it on a chain around your neck?’” In the Bible, one mother-in-law was a woman of great love.
Kirby Neumann-Rea: Embrace of sports gambling puts NBA on a perilous path
So, sports fans, what’s the role of the NBA in this era of codified sports gambling?
Jeb Bladine: Take blindfolds off RB Rubber project planning
Let’s acknowledge up front that community development under Oregon’s urban renewal law is complex and confusing. But that doesn’t justify the city of McMinnville’s long-delayed ...
Investigating the Bible: Victory after death
Author Peggy Noonan wrote about a child of missionaries in Russia, whose parents enrolled her in a Soviet public school. The young girl shared her beliefs with classmates and was surprised they knew much about Jesus, nodding in agreement as she told them of his life. When she mentioned the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, they all shook their heads: “No, no, no,” the students said.
Quirk of the Week: Hub and stone mark history and community in county’s SE corner
Tucked in the far southeast corner of Yamhill County are two different landmarks, both with firm foundations rooted in history and tradition. And, for fun, Quirk this week examines one stick-in-mud thing ...
Jeb Bladine: Linfield goes full-public with private finances
Governmental and institutional budgets are going under the knife. And while federal government cuts have drawn maximum attention, public interest is turning to local financial emergencies. It’s ...
Jeb Bladine: Americans tortuously trying to ‘follow the money’
Americans are stunned by the explosion of controversial statements, policies, executive orders and vengeful actions radiating from the White House. So much so — intentionally? — as to distract ...
Karleen Booth: Our students deserve better
About the writer: Guest writer Karleen Booth taught K-5 English Language Learner students in the McMinnville School District for a number of years. Prior to that, she spent 12 years in Monmouth’s ...
Investigating the Bible: Overcoming Discrimination
In the late 1800s American women were fighting for the right to vote. Those opposed had bizarre reasons.
