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 ...
McCracken: Will your kids remember you for protecting or posturing?
By LISA McCRACKEN Children are resilient, but they have very long memories. Ask yourself which childhood moments were imprinted on your own memory. It’s a good bet some of those long-ago events ...
Sherman: Are we all hawks now?
By ERIC SHIERMAN Of the Oregon Catalyst National security is a policy issue that tends to lack ideological grounding. It is highly partisan only because cold water is poured on the other party’s ...
Gibson: Geoengineering: Our best hope?
On June 28, the temperature in Portland peaked at 116 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than it has ever been in Houston, New Orleans or downtown Los Angeles. The only other major U.S. cities to have registered ...
Jeb Bladine: A continuing ride on COVID coaster
It seems unlikely that approaching autumn will soothe our summer of madness. Whatchamacolumn Jeb Bladine is president and publisher of the News-Register. > See his column That ...
Back and forth: Beneath a leafy cornice awaits rubus fruticosus
If you’re going to be in over your head with anything, you might consider blackberries. Blackberries in February are the best way to bring a bit of summer into winter. Of course, you have to either ...
How did a superpower fail so in Afghanistan?
By ARIE PERLIGER Of the University of Massachusetts The speed and efficiency with which Taliban forces were able to complete the occupation of most of Afghanistan, as well as the quick collapse of the ...
The Afghanistan debacle was always destined for failure
By MEL GURTOV Of Portland State University Over a nearly 20-year period, the war in Afghanistan is estimated to have cost about $2.2 trillion and resulted in more than 240,000 deaths, military and civilian, ...
Stapilus: What if there’s no frontrunner?
The contest for Oregon governor in the coming year has been described, often, as the most wide-open in a long time. And a riffle back through Oregon political history shows that’s true. Guest ...
