Letters to the Editor: June 1, 2018

Opposition ignored on trail

By now, the county staff should have completed work on minutes creating a bogus paper trail, aimed at providing express misrepresentation of county employee Sadlo’s “farm findings” as being supported, when they were actually rejected twice — by  the planning commission May 3 and board of commissioners May 15.

After more then 10 years, the project still lacks a budget and master plan. Worse, the applicant refuses to list, let alone mitigate, farm impacts associated with the proposed rezoning of the land for recreation.

After it swallows its pride in obedience to law, the county will have to indicate how it plans to remedy those impacts. In the dump lawsuit, still being litigated, the county’s attorney said the county could just reimburse farmers for damages. Will the same be the case with the trail?

By the time you read this, the county apparently plans to pull a few more stunts. It plans to rubber stamp its own farm study, with no mention of the significant opposition from citizens in the Yamhill-Carlton area and the local and state Farm Bureaus.

There is a serious issue as to whether the county owns the right of way, which is even more fundamental.

Then there’s the question of why Mr. Olson decided to change his vote to reject the study. What was he told behind closed doors to persuade him to thwart process and protocol ethics?

He was courageous when he stood up to his subordinates, the county employees and staff that serve him, to declare the legal process must be respected. Was he threatened in response? If not, what kind of backroom deal was struck?

Public meeting laws apply to anything that arose to change his mind.

Bryan Schmidt

Carlton

 
Criticism of voting record

A recently published story about the successful write-in campaign in House District 24 contained misinformation that Ken Moore “attacked” the incumbent in his response to the reporter’s requests for a statement.

Mr. Moore’s full statement was not printed and the reporter took the liberty to imply that the statement contained untrue and inflammatory statements about the incumbent. This is simply false.

Mr. Moore pointed out the voting record of the incumbent, which has not been reflective of Democrats’ values and only reflective of his own party. Please make an attempt to adhere to journalistic integrity, as our community deserves the full, factual stories from our local new sources.

Stephanie Findley

Chair, Yamhill County Democrats

No support for values

Please, News-Register, show us some real integrity and take the time to give us all the factual information we deserve. Regarding your recent article about Ken Moore receiving the “Demo nod” for state representative in District 24, against Republican Ron Noble, let me note the true facts you neglected to report.

First, a write-in campaign began well before Democrats received mailers from Representative Noble. But, sadly, many Democrats who voted early did not realize this effort was being made.

Just after the ballots were mailed, Moore was asked how he would feel about a write-in campaign. He responded, “I would be honored.”

Second, you state that Moore renewed attacks he had launched against Noble during the 2016 campaign. How can this be when the statement Ken Moore gave you is based on the representative’s voting record, not issues from before he took office?

Let me correct you once again. Mr. Moore merely wished to clarify Representative Noble’s support of anti-Democratic values, particularly his sponsorship of anti-abortion bills HB 3017 and HB 4101 and his votes against House Joint Resolution 203, which would have referred an affordable health care plan to the voters, and gun safety bill HB 4145, which addressed taking guns out of the hands of convicted stalkers and domestic abusers.

Moore’s statement to you is hardly an “attack,” as you clearly cited. It simply points out that Noble does not represent the values held dear to the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, the News-Register could have shown real veracity if it had added Moore’s affirmation, “I am grateful that this write-in win gives me the chance to champion the Democratic values of opportunity, equity and justice for ‘We, the People.’”

Liz Marlia-Stein

McMinnville

Discouraged with paper

I read your article regarding Ken Moore’s successful write-in campaign in Tuesday’s paper with a great deal of disappointment. It leaves me discouraged about the paper’s commitment to honesty, journalistic transparency and duty to inform our community in an unbiased way.

Parts of the reporting surrounding Mr. Moore’s statement to the paper were suggestively written and edited, resulting in an insinuation that Mr. Moore was untruthful, dredging up old salacious allegations somehow offensive to Rep. Ron Noble. But you left out most of his statement, a statement that had a positive tone, but a (rightful) criticism of the Republican representative’s attempt to take away the uncontested Democratic nomination.

He did not, as you reported “go on to repeat several of the attacks he launched against Noble during the 2016 campaign, including attacks that the News-Register found lacked any basis in fact.” His statement said no such thing.

What he did say, and what you did not publish, was a sample recounting of Rep. Noble’s voting record in office. He suggested that voting record did not entitle Mr. Noble to the Democratic nomination, and the actual Democrats who wrote Mr. Moore’s name in on the ballot agree.

You have to do better. We need you to do better for our community. We have to be able to trust what you print, especially in our current politically charged climate.

Lynette Shaw

Carlton

Duty to be accurate

I was disappointed to read the article in Tuesday’s paper regarding the write-in campaign in which Ken Moore garnered more votes for the Democratic Party nomination than Republican incumbent Ron Noble.

I have championed the News-Register in the last two years as the only source of local political news, which is so necessary to a functioning democracy. As the only source, however, this paper has a duty to be accurate in the news it publishes. For that reason, I would like to request that the paper publish Ken Moore’s statement in full, so that your readership can observe that nothing in the statement ‘repeated several of the attacks launched against Noble during the 2016 campaign,” and none of it included attacks “found to lack any basis in fact,” as your Tuesday article suggested.

Moore said, “I would like to thank the Yamhill County Democrats and Progressive Yamhill County for organizing a last-minute campaign and winning the write-in tally so that our district’s Democratic values can be represented on the November ballot. This last-minute effort was in response to the Republican incumbent spending thousands of dollars to send a mailer to Democrats in House District 24 where he did not identify himself as a Republican and asked Democratic voters to write in his name on their primary ballot as the Democratic candidate.

“This mailer also failed to mention his support of anti-Democratic values, including sponsorship of anti-abortion bills, voting against access to affordable health care and voting against taking guns out of the hands of convicted stalkers and domestic abusers. I am grateful that this write-in win gives me the chance to champion the Democratic values of opportunity, equity and justice for “We, the People.”

Megan Corvus

Gaston

 
Prepared to take up arms

Regarding the guest column by Fredric Lemieux and letter to the editor from Aaron Van Beurden in the May 25 edition:

I don’t care that most statistics Lemineux uses were long ago proven false and misleading. I don’t care if Mr. Van Beurden is ignorant or well intentioned but misinformed.

It really makes no difference to me, because no matter how silly their arguments, I believe in the Constitution. So, if necessary, I would exercise my Second Amendment right and defend their First Amendment right to help ensure their freedom of speech.

You’re welcome, boys. Please, try to avoid the temptation to view me as some special hero, though, as any true American would do exactly the same.

Dale Lux

Willamina

Treatment not respectful

On May 19, I sat with my wife in front of Fred Meyer handing out free poppies to remember those soldiers who gave their lives for our country. I would say about a third of the people coming by waved us off, saying no thanks, or shunned us like we had the plague.

I was embarrassed we were getting the same treatment we got almost 50 years ago as returning combat veterans. It reminded me of being bused to Fort Lewis for my 1970 homecoming.

At the gate, a large group of protesters called us “baby killers,” among other nasty names, and threw a red substance on our bus to represent blood. We were told to wear our uniforms to get our boarding pass to go home, then change into civilian clothes. I did, but some didn’t, and a large group surrounded one soldier. They called him names and spit in his face before security came.

Robert Griffin

Newberg