Charles House: City, state, college helped blaze trails in electronics
About the writer: Charles House, then HP’s corporate engineering director, first visited McMinnville in 1983. He was drawn by contributions of the HP McMinnville Division team, successor to FEMCOR, ...
Jeb Bladine: Constitutional ideals gain holiday importance
President Donald Trump in January ordered a suspension of asylum access at the southern U.S. border. On Wednesday, July 2, a U.S. District Court judge from Washington, D.C., declared Trump’s January ...
Kirby Neumann-Rea: Should we not ask if fascism could, indeed, happen here?
About the writer: Longtime Oregon journalist Kirby Neumann-Rea retired earlier this year as managing editor of the News-Register. But he keeps his fingers nimble on the keyboard, his mind nimble at the ...
Investigating the Bible: Freedom neglected
Alice Day wrote in the Reader’s Digest about her state trooper husband who stopped a motorist for speeding. The man quickly admitted he had exceeded the posted speed limit, but still insisted on a court hearing. On his day in court, the state trooper was present and watched as the man pled guilty and then happily paid his fine.
Billy J. Stratton: Danger lies not in AI robots, but in human programmers
In 2014, Stephen Hawking voiced grave warnings about the threat of artificial intelligence.
Investigating the Bible: Life in heaven
A little boy walked along a path with his mother one early evening near their home in the country. He looked intently at tall trees, flowers, and nearby homes. When they stopped to rest, he gazed up into the sky.
Jeb Bladine: Politics deals defeat to news-sustaining plan
Initially slim hopes of sustaining Oregon newsrooms with “big tech” dollars sprouted with 2025 evolution of SB 686 in the Oregon Legislature. Tuesday, those hopes were dashed after a flurry ...
Quirk of the Week: Taking a sidelong glance at odd sights, some fortunately fleeting
Quirk has always been about some things gone sideways, in good ways. Yet, at a year-and-a-half into the chronicling of Quirk in this publication, this is a good time to examine sideways as … not ...
Gary Conkling: Tariffs won't reshore jobs because they never left
About the writer: Gary Conkling started writing stories as a child and publishing them on his own hand-cranked printing press. Little did he know digital technology would make it possible to repeat the ...
Jeb Bladine: Oregon likely to change tourism funding split
Chaos and angst are among this week’s catchwords in Salem as the Oregon Legislature approaches mandatory adjournment by June 29 amid rumors that legislators may leave town by early next week. One ...
Investigating the Bible: Mistakes in judgment
When Mike Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas, his 12-year-old son decided to bake a cake. The rest of the family left on a shopping trip and when they returned he proudly showed his father the cake, which looked delicious. Huckabee bit into a forkful of the dessert and quickly spit it out.
Quirk of the Week: Winging it this week
Pardon the pun, but bird forms are aviary-where. This week’s Quirk concerns the multitude of our fine feathered friends. We find a veritable flock of sculptures, yard art and images of eagles, poultry, ...
Ken Dollinger: Approaching aging with an adventurous attitude
By KEN DOLLINGER As I enter my eighth decade circling the sun, now the oldest male in my family going back three generations, I find myself being nagged by an increasing amount of introspection. I guess ...
Offbeat Oregon: Second-largest city, Camp Adair, built in six months
By early 1941, the U.S. Army knew it was about to get sucked into at least one of the wars that were already raging around the world. The Selective Service and Training Act had passed the previous fall, ...
Jeb Bladine: Maintaining connectivity among local leaders
McMinnville’s history includes eras with long-serving leaders integrated throughout what admittedly was a smaller, more cohesive community in less complex times. That history wasn’t without ...
