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 ...

 

Quirk of the Week: The Gs stand alone

Initial reaction is that these genius fonts are a G force Ah … Gs. Lotta G-eography in this week’s atlas of Quirk. Places such as Geraldi’s, Grieving Ink and George Fox. In McMinnville, ...

Jeb Bladine: Strong words indict short session Legislature

This week a respected, nonpartisan political observer called the Oregon Legislature a “corrupt organization,” with specific reference to the Democratic leadership. If intended to mean unethical, ...

 

Kirby Neumann-Rea: An insider's guide to plying Wine Country's back roads

Avidity first.

Such a sentiment is never wrong. However, in this case, Avidity is a winery just east of Newberg.

Michael Klein: War injects uncertainty into a weakening U.S. economy

The “fog of war” refers to confusion and uncertainty on the battlefield and the attendant possibility of fatal error. This principle has a parallel when it comes to the economic consequences of wars, especially when they explode in a region accounting for one-fifth of the world’s oil and one-third of its natural gas.

 

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 ...

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: 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 ...