Jeb Bladine: State hides behind attorney-client wall
Oregonians are not entitled to know which new laws are being proposed by state agencies — not until hand-picked insiders set the legislative agenda; not until attorneys draft the language to enact ...
Jeb Bladine: A local case for the Ghostbusters
If there ever is a Ghostbusters IV movie, perhaps producers could commandeer the Evergreen Museum campus and cast out any remaining spirits of mischief. For five years, the words “Evergreen” ...
Jeb Bladine: Thrift shops seeing surge of donations
MacHub is back in McMinnville, and the timing seems appropriate, based on a quick look at American culture and population characteristics. The nonprofit online thrift shop, located behind Staples, is ...
Jeb Bladine: McCain peels back some Trump Teflon
The media often disdained Ronald Reagan as the “Teflon President,” citing bad decisions and poor government performance that didn’t conform to his popular public persona. Similarly, President ...
Jeb Bladine: Ghost of the ‘Gut’ lures us downtown
The ghost of the Dragging the Gut Festival must have wandered onto Highway 18 Tuesday morning as some kind of eerie apparition, luring that hapless semi-tractor convoy off its route and into downtown McMinnville. Reportedly ...
Jeb Bladine: A growing threat to our democracy
Hundreds of American newspapers, including the News-Register, have joined The Boston Globe this week in a national rebuttal to President Donald Trump’s continuous attack on the American media. Here’s ...
Jeb Bladine: Nutritious walnuts go best with music
Combining music with walnuts? I suppose it makes sense, but only in McMinnville. Five years ago today, a small crowd attended the inaugural Walnut City Music Festival. Few of those people will forget ...
Jeb Bladine: Frustrating search for available house
A local family with five kids is trying anxiously to find housing. Members have a month to avoid becoming unwilling campers at a relative’s home. The parents still have faith something will surface, ...
Jeb Bladine: After street bond, right back to work
McMinnville transportation bond projects have and will create significant improvements in McMinnville traffic flow, but in just a few years, it could seem like an inadequate Band-Aid. It’s not for ...
Jeb Bladine: Multiple intents of new smoking law
In three weeks, smoking outdoors will be banned along Third Street in downtown McMinnville. The ban will extend from Adams to Johnson streets, plus 50 feet to the north and south. Enforcement should be ...
Jeb Bladine: Parking structure once a better place
McMinnville has proclaimed the beginning of a “new life” for its downtown parking structure: an end to camping and loitering; a full clean-up; continuing enforcement for a new code of conduct. Reactions ...
Jeb Bladine: Complex legal web separates families
Americans are trapped in webs of complex laws — laws interpreted by intricate court decisions, implemented through mazes of rules and frequently subject to political and personal whims of enforcement. It’s ...
Jeb Bladine: Medicare ‘A’ needs a sense of urgency
Human nature features some disruptive tendencies. One is a general inability to identify, acknowledge and act to prevent pending financial catastrophes. Two out of three just isn’t good enough. Oregonians, ...
Jeb Bladine: Memories from a half-century ago
Tuesday, it will have been exactly 50 years since Bobby Kennedy was assassinated at a presidential campaign appearance in California. I don’t remember where I was when I heard the news, but for me, ...
Jeb Bladine: SEC plea bargain back under wraps?
Confused by the latest Evergreen-related kerfuffle? Well, get in line. We have a stack of legal documents, along with access to multiple sources and numerous notes, but we don’t have the first clue ...
