Basic planning and preparation make big difference in a crisis
Recognition of September as Emergency Preparedness Month this year is met with myriad scenes of destruction, caused primarily by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Though the storms struck the other side of ...
Congress now last resort for nation’s Dreamers
Former President Barack Obama was the architect of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, designed to grant a safe haven to children who didn’t enter the U.S. of their own volition and ...
Lack of compromise on all sides fueling increased wildfire activity
The Gorge ablaze might be the defining image of this year’s fire season, at least in our neck of the woods. We’re experiencing yet another devastating batch of forest fires this season, and ...
Lodging tax for roads worth a look, if legal
No prudent office-holder plunges blindly forward with a new tax proposal. But Yamhill County Commissioners Stan Primozich and Rick Olson seem well justified in their desire to place a transient lodging ...
Crusade for local immigration enforcement is self-defeating
The next time there is a community theater production of “Les Misérables,” state Rep. Mike Nearman would make a splendid Inspector Javert. Nearman, like Javert, is fixated on the letter ...
Contention, compromise led to Mac sign ordinance
In McMinnville, aesthetics matter. We hold dearly the imagery of rolling vineyard hills, a tree-lined downtown historic district, the iconic Spruce Goose looking down from a gleaming glass facade, and ...
McMinnville’s can-do attitude paying big dividends these days
Like virtually every other place on the planet, McMinnville has experienced plenty of boom and bust cycles over the years. But to the community’s credit, it has never been content to ease back and ...
Cloud of concern continues to envelop air and space museum
Last summer, we applauded the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum’s emergence from a morass of high-risk corporate bankruptcies with its campus and exhibits largely intact. We closed our paean ...
Infusing $5 billion into PERS might be just treading water
Gov. Kate Brown has asked a committee to address “uncomfortable” options that would cut the Public Employees Retirement System’s unfunded liability by $5 billion. The state is currently ...
Answers don’t come easily in torrent of child sex cases
Gut-churning acts of child sexual abuse seem to have become all too common. Our files are chock full of examples, even though we reserve fuller accounts for the worst of the lot. Christopher Lewis, who ...
Successes can keep piling up with full-time fair manager
If you’re in need of an uplifting story of government in action — especially one steeped in rural Americana — peruse recent archives of the Yamhill County Fair. It turned a corner with ...
Homeless issues not just the government’s problem
People sometimes enter McMinnville City Council chambers as it were the grand hall of the Great and Powerful Oz, seeking solutions they hope can be magically bestowed. Unfortunately, councils cannot be ...
Bills improve public records, but fix needed to move ahead
Public records bills recently passed allows Oregonians to believe their elected officials are serious about systematically improving their constituents’ access to government information. Unfortunately, ...
Oregon wise to warn Big Brother not to spy
A house somewhere in the area may or may not have been burglarized recently, but the Neighborhood Watch commander has a plan to keep everyone safe nevertheless. He wants all the neighbors to provide him ...
Odds grow longer against Riverbend expansion plan
When the 87-acre Riverbend Landfill embarked on an expansion bid almost 10 years ago, its Texas overseers had no idea what they were getting into. We did. That led us to contend, “You’re too ...
