"Whatchamacolumn" by Jeb Bladine
The News-Register publisher writes about the community; people; local, state and national affairs; and sometimes whimsey.
Jeb Bladine: Challenges in a new chapter of city government
McMinnville, now embarked on a new chapter in city government, has challenges galore in areas of finance, operations, special projects and community trust. It begins with planning for a new budget year, ...
Jeb Bladine: Minneapolis could become a flashback of history
Time will tell if the 2026 shootings of ICE protesters in Minneapolis will be a turning point for America. Public response to the killings was deeper and more far-reaching than reactions to other Trump ...
Jeb Bladine: It's a target-rich environment for commentary
Every day, timely commentary becomes more difficult as new issues and events multiply at unprecedented rates. This week helps prove that point. Consider a few local meetings on Thursday — all past ...
Bladine: Immigration enforcement war needs a solution
Tracking national news these days is an exhausting mental labor. This week alone, among others, we’ve been confronted with high-octane controversies related to Venezuela, Iran, Greenland, Mark Kelly, ...
Jeb Bladine: Rise of AI deep fake imagery has many victims
Here’s a new acronym for 2026 that deserves to become a clarion call against new combinations of human deviance and artificial intelligence run amok: NCSI. No, it’s not another spin-off of ...
Jeb Bladine: Before year in review, it’s still season of hope
Come New Years, media will look back at the most prominent stories of 2025, many of them disturbing reminders of sad news, bad weather, tragic events, and conflicts with local, state, national and international ...
Jeb Bladine: Does search continue, or superintendent found?
McMinnville School Board meets Monday to answer this question: Do they continue the search, or have they already found their next District 40 school superintendent? The board reportedly is almost evenly ...
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, ...
Jeb Bladine: Shutdown crisis reports spawn more questions
Every crisis-related news report about our 9-day-old federal government shutdown seems to raise as many questions as it answers. Warnings of air transportation gridlock cite understaffing because so many ...
Chamber honors business leaders
The McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce presented a lifetime achievement award to the News-Register’s Jeb Bladine at Friday’s annual Chamber awards gala. Bladine, publisher of the family-owned ...
Jeb Bladine: AI takes a dive into ambulance service finances
Readers — here and far beyond — will continue and expand their engagement with artificial intelligence, which has become the quintessential research tool of our age. Each time, readers should ...
Jeb Bladine: Reducing abuse of Oregon foster care children
Oregonians had a glimpse into the world of child foster care, but transparency is fleeting. From a report in The Oregonian: “Disability Rights Oregon and national advocacy group A Better Childhood ...
Jeb Bladine: Walking a mile, or two, in the other guy’s shoes
We’re often reminded that many news articles can’t capture the full human story behind the reported facts, especially when those facts involve the activities of law enforcement and the judicial ...
Jeb Bladine: McMinnville's founder left an interesting will
We newspaper people tend to be packrats of history. It shows in our weekly “Memory Lane” articles, “Vintage N-R” photographs and backroom stacks of newspapers dating into the 1800s. ...
