Back, and Forth: What is old is sometimes what is new
The record store and the thrift shop were the only places to lure me off campus during the 1977-78 school year, my first at Linfield. Frequently, I would cut across Storey Park and walk three blocks up ...
An unflinching report from the front lines
By DR. MATT BLIVEN Of Willamette Valley Medical Center As I drove through downtown McMinnville on a recent weekend, it struck me that we are living two separate realities. There are those of us who ...
Space telescope for the ages set for launch in December
By MARCIA RIEKE Of the University of Arizona The James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to head into space on Dec. 18. With it, astronomers hope to find the first galaxies to form in the universe, ...
Rutledge: You think science warnings are grim?
By Steve Rutledge Historians always need to consider a wide array of phenomena in assessing how and why historical events occur. Climate is at times an important part of that assessment, and plays a far ...
Bladine: Tell people it's time for vaccine
The rant below has a target audience, but all readers should feel free to eavesdrop on preliminary observations about current realities of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, McMinnville expected to see ...
Wilder: Doubling Pell is best bet to keep college accessible
By BRENT WILDER The Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges and Universities urges Congress to double the amount provided for Pell Grants to income-qualified students. Doubling Pell is not only the most ...
Wallace: Correctional officers driving the pandemic in our prisons
By DANIELLE WALLACE Of Arizona State University Prisons and jails have hosted some of the largest COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S., with some facilities approaching 4,000 cases. In the U.S., which has ...
Hardy: Finding ways to do better – together
Once upon a time, I wrote a column for The News-Register called “Raising the Hardy Boys.” It always published with the caveat that it was most certainly not a “how to” parent situation. ...
09/11: Letter to Readers
In those shocked, bewildering days after the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, people did what they could -- attending a vigil, honoring the flag, laying a wreath or donating blood. Adding flowers to a ...
Jeb Bladine: Breakthrough cases add confusion
Easily, the most confusing COVID-19 stories lately are reports on “breakthrough infections” contracted by fully vaccinated people. Breakthrough statistics have been inconsistent and suspect ...
Back and Forth: Remembering Richie, the Morning Thunder man
“We were never more here, expanse getting broader …” — “The Dire Wolf,” by The Tragically Hip The first time I ran across Richie Chavez, he looked up at me, waved ...
Efforts to ban mask mandates mirror resistance to integration
By DUSTIN HORNBECK Of the University of Texas When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision, which struck down segregated public schooling, white Southern politicians ...
Rusty Rae: 9/11 20 years later: Letter to Readers
For me, 9/11 is perhaps the most surreal day of my life. I woke, like many of you, to images of commercial jetliners crashing into the Twin Towers. These were images that simply did not compute. We later ...
Meador: After 9/11 attacks, disaster united us
‘Look, that building’s on fire,” my wife said, waking me. “They think an airplane hit it.” That last bit got my groggy attention. It was before 6 a.m. on a bright September ...
Bladine: Mixing wars with humanitarian aid
Leaders of USAID don’t know what to say about Afghanistan. The agency’s last statement was a June 4 announcement of another $266 million in humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan: “This ...