Starla Pointer: Commencement etiquette
Graduation should be a happy occasion during which students are honored and their years of achievement celebrated. It’s a formal event. It should be treated that way — for the benefit of all ...
Jeb Bladine: Be sure about plan for transfer station
Riverbend Landfill has generated so much angst and protest over so many years it’s surprising to see almost no public interest generated by plans for a new solid waste facility in McMinnville. Whatchamacolumn Jeb ...
Traveling with benevolence
My wife, Caye, and I like to travel, mainly to less developed countries where we encounter memorable situations: * We saw a Maasai herdsman with his cattle on grassland in Tanzania “Ah! Timeless ...
Jeb Bladine: Maslow would like Precinct 18 voters
McMinnville voters must be feeling pretty good about their lives — that was especially true this week in McMinnville’s Precinct 18 on the northwest side of town. I’m reminded of the ...
David Bates: Other manifestations
The 17th Annual UFO Festival is upon us, which for UFO enthusiasts means alien costumes, games, lectures, films and live music. It seems an ideal occasion to place the topic of UFOs in the context ...
Jeb Bladine: A great time to find 1,284 more planets
The timing couldn’t be more appropriate for this week’s announcement that the Kepler telescope mission has discovered 1,284 more exoplanets. As that news was sinking in, McMinnville was gearing ...
No complications living with NF
My name is Barry Lilly. I have lived in McMinnville since 1973. I taught school in Dayton and McMinnville for a total of 35 years. And, I have neurofibromatosis. Don’t worry about remembering the ...
Jeb Bladine: Hobson's choice for presidential voters
Barring a come-from-behind victory by Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will win their party nominations, and one will become the next president of the United States. Americans soon will ...
Jeb Bladine: Where was outcry against BOLI rules?
Why didn’t the Oregon business community show up this week to oppose one of the most ludicrous regulatory suggestions in memory? Does their balance mean people simply accept the nonsense proposed ...
Paige Benner: The rise of slacktivism
If only a “like” on Facebook triggered a gallon of clean drinking water to be delivered to an impoverished community; a retweet meant a safe home for a starving dog; or, a comment on Instagram ...
Jeb Bladine: If only the two sides talked to each other
Let’s break from discussing Evergreen-related legal entanglements long enough to take a peek behind the curtain. We see well-intentioned people trying to stabilize an important nonprofit institution; ...
Scott Gibson: Making every baby wanted
In an age when political positions are staked out with razor wire, it is unusual to find solutions to social problems that can bridge political divides. We may, however, be on the cusp of a radical change ...
Jeb Bladine: Americans have short memories
I thought I knew a lot about the 2007-09 recession — housing costs driven up by fraudulent loans, Wall Street greed and a financial crash triggered by reckless derivatives of mortgage-backed bonds. Then, ...
Tom Henderson: We the media
Wolf Blitzer never showed up. Neither did Anderson Cooper. One would think Sean Hannity or Megyn Kelly would drop by, if only to interrupt the speakers. Nope. Even the Portland television boys couldn’t ...
Jeb Bladine: GOP has history of convention dramas
For all the spectacle and angst of the 2016 Republican presidential primary campaign, we may be headed to an even more gripping turn of political events: a brokered GOP convention July 18-21 in Cleveland, ...
