Jeb Bladine: There’s a scam for every season
Songwriter Pete Seeger, referring to Solomon’s Book of Ecclesiastes, made this phrase famous: “To everything there is a season … ”Unfortunately, for every season there is a scam. ...
Jeb Bladine: Listen to the experts; ‘get thee to the path’
Solar eclipse fever is rising. When the dusk settles on Aug. 21, will your experience live up to the hype? Here is some important eclipse-watching information, but first, a few statistics from the exact ...
Jeb Bladine: Baby Boomer Band just plays on and on
America’s population bulge is moving through the chart of U.S. census statistics with relentless impacts on many areas of our lives. It’s one thing to recount the raw numbers of Baby Boomers ...
Jeb Bladine: Health care debate on a whimsical ride
America — albeit through backroom deliberations by a single political party — is struggling to design an efficient, humane and affordable health care system. As that national controversy continues ...
Jeb Bladine: ‘Maintaining a safe, livable environment’
There are many roles in solving the problems of a growing homeless population — local and state government, social service agencies, religious and humanitarian institutions, and volunteer citizens, ...
Jeb Bladine: Story had lesson about cycles of life
Our Tuesday story about Cal and Debbie Kearns touched many readers with its calm, composed yet emotional telling of a human condition that too often is hidden from view. Debbie, assisted by Reporter Starla ...
Jeb Bladine: Traditions provide community strength
Currently, city leaders and others throughout the community find their attention increasingly focused on a complex mixture of homelessness and vagrancy challenges requiring strong consensus for responsive ...
Jeb Bladine: Time to move the sidewalk bedroom
McMinnville is experiencing some fallout from political correctness. Uncomfortable with offensive labels, we have created a homogeneous concept known as “The Homeless.” Compassion for human ...
Jeb Bladine: Americans in dark on health care law
Our national attention suffers from a scattershot effect that features one high-profile news cycle after another. We leap from travel ban appeals to climate change treaties; from Russian hacking to deadly ...
Jeb Bladine: Former FBI chief takes center stage
I’m all in with this week’s testimony by former FBI Director James Comey. It’s 7 a.m. Thursday; Comey just started his Senate testimony; and my column deadline is in two hours. The stage ...
Jeb Bladine: Beware risks of muscle memory
Drivers in downtown McMinnville need to leave their muscle memory behind and pay close attention to new traffic patterns and controls. Citywide transportation bond projects became reality this week with ...
Jeb Bladine: Memories emerge from vintage photos
Margaret Carriker Assmussen told me we must continue printing the weekly Vintage News-Register photos, saying she regularly mails them to a family member who enjoys the nostalgia triggered by images from ...
Jeb Bladine: The great gift of a second chance
Second chances are great to get, but even more important to give. Our newspaper received a second chance from a long-time reader who had let her subscription lapse due to negative reporting and commentary ...
Jeb Bladine: Reckless moments can devastate lives
Last month, nine months following his graduation from McMinnville High School, a young man walked out of WinCo Foods with $3 worth of stolen candy bars. When confronted by the loss prevention officer and ...
Jeb Bladine: "Obamacare' is a toxic label for American health care policy
We know that labels can be shorthand instruments of racism, sexism, idiologisms of all kinds. Labels created to be cleverly descriptive can become verbal sledgehammers that penetrate our psyches and threaten ...
