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 ...
Tom Henderson: Literally shooting the messenger
Trump not behind newspaper shooting, but killer certainly could take encouragement
Thomas Hellie: Liberal arts education never more valuable
These are the last days of my final year as president of Linfield College. I am about to retire. But I haven’t stopped thinking, and at times worrying, about the future of American higher education. ...
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 ...
James Van Nostrand: Coal and nuclear folly
By JAMES VAN NOSTRANDUniversity of West Virginia President Donald Trump recently ordered Energy Secretary Rick Perry to take “immediate steps” to stop the closure of coal and nuclear power ...
Michael Finlay: Reading is crucial to future academic success
As schools across our community prepare to head into what we all hope is a sunshine-filled summer, Start Making A Reader Today is celebrating the end of its 26th year fostering a love of books and reading ...
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 ...
Chad Marlow: Fate of net neutrality on the line
On June 11, net neutrality protections ceased to exist.
This means your internet service provider is now able to engage in content-based discrimination. Internet content it favors for political or financial reasons can be delivered at top speeds, while content it disfavors is slowed or locked.
Jeb Bladine: Life is a scam, or so it seems
Life is a scam. Overstatement? Perhaps. But today, on a massive scale, criminals continuously target human emotions and weaknesses in their efforts to steal from us. They use threats, exploit fears, ...
Emily Merchant: Citizenship question risks skewing census
By EMILY KLANCHER MERCHANTUniverity of California at DavisThe 2020 U.S. Census is still two years away, but demographers and civil rights activists are already expressing doubt about the validity of the ...
Catharine Wang: DNA testing carries hidden downside
Aggressive marketing techniques and the popularity of bestowing recreational ancestry tests as gifts have led more consumers than ever to the world of personal genetic testing. The recent arrest of a ...
Heather Richards: Alpine, Atticus just taste of things to come
On July 23, 2013, the McMinnville City Council adopted the city’s first urban renewal plan. After years of engagement, dialogue, visioning and evaluation, the plan was designed to guide public investment ...
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, ...
Jesse James Maxwell: Finding the light
I was born Jesse James Maxwell on July 31, 1984. The site of the hospital is now occupied by a Walgreens drug store. I was ushered into a low-income, single-parent household, and that presented extreme ...
