Letters to the Editor: Dec. 12, 2025

Insurance a basic need

Democrats may have lost their fight to extend subsidies for purchasing health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, but their efforts have started a robust conversation about which subsidies, if any, are appropriate.

These subsidies allow people to get better health insurance at a cheaper price. Without the extension the Democrats wanted, the subsidies will expire at the end of the year, and many will see their premiums double, triple or go even higher.

Critics of the subsidies see “fraud, waste, and abuse” in the current system. Their proof: Many people who use the subsidies to purchase health insurance never use that insurance. They never even go to the doctor. This is an abuse, critics say, that wastes taxpayer dollars to enrich insurance companies.

This argument misses the point: We are talking about insurance, which is a hedge against a future we hope never comes.

No doubt many of these critics own cars and purchase insurance on them — insurance they hope they never have to use.

The same is true of insurance on residences and their contents. We want it, but hope we never have to use it.

But, the critics object, private auto and home insurance are not subsidized by taxpayer dollars, while private health insurance under Obamacare is.

This is certainly true, but we also pay taxes to support police and fire protection, and we most definitely hope we never have to use them.

Obamacare probably needs a lot of fixes, but denying insurance to people because they are healthy isn’t one of them.

Susan Watkins

McMinnville

[Editor’s note: A regular contributor for many years, Susan says this letter will be her last, as she has “moved to war-ravaged Portland,” where she can “only hope to find such an engaged and interesting community.”]

Tarnished pedigree

A recent letter to the editor (Brad Thompson, 11/26) thanked the News-Register for bringing a conservative voice to the paper.

Jonah Goldberg does have a conservative pedigree. But it’s evident that his pedigree has been tarnished by his obvious “never-Trump” attitude and connections to CNN and NPR.

His commentary, “Ours is a system of checks and balances,” demonstrates his contempt for Trump just in the way he commented on the presidential power to pardon. I’m not disputing his facts; he just doesn’t include all of them.

To put things in perspective, Joe Biden issued 4,245 pardons or clemencies from 2021 to 2025. Obama issued 1,927 from 2009 to 2017. Trump has issued 1,700 from 2017 to 2021, and 2025 to now. And those of us old enough to remember will recall some of the questionable pardons issued by Obama.

I’m of the opinion that this power has been abused by them all. But Goldberg’s suggestion that it needs to be fixed via constitutional convention is fraught with danger.

I agree with Goldberg that everyone should have learned this stuff in school. But it’s apparent these things aren’t taught anymore.

Getting back to the letter by Thompson, he goes on to say, “in fairness, though, a liberal columnist also ought to appear in this newspaper.” Forgive me, but the News-Register has no lack of liberal commentary and editorials.

Steve Sommerfeld

Sheridan

Worth more digging

Thank you for giving front page play to the 11/26 story on damage suffered by remnants of a walled canal dating back to pioneer days. It raises many more issues, however, than just how best to rebuild.

Do historic records tell why William Newby hired 300 Chinese laborers? Where did they come from and where did they stay?

Did he have to arrange for work visas or passports for them? Did he get any federal or state monies to make this wall and ditch? Are there any local streets named after any of these laborers?

I stumbled across this ditch years ago, when I was exploring land around my property at Hidden Hills. And I was stunned at the size and scale of this project.

I learned from a local surveyor that it was called “Chinamen’s Ditch.” Researching this might make for a good social, economic and historical project for a local high school.

Jim Parker

Newberg

Stand for freedom

Here’s a comment I didn’t get to share at Tuesday’s council meeting:

Our country is in a state of emergency due to the unlawful, unconstitutional usurpation of power by our president and his corrupt administration. No longer can one honestly observe the behavior of federal officials from one political viewpoint or another.

This is not a party issue, but a human rights issue. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under instruction of our president, is attacking Latino communities.

It would be convenient if these actions were limited to distant places. But no, freedom is being threatened in our community.

Once, this country boasted freedom as its chief priority — a land for the immigrant, the individualist, the bold and brash. I suggest we return to that ideology and put it in practice.

1. We could be loud and proud about Oregon’s sanctuary status. We could wear it like a badge.

2. We could reallocate unused funds of our police department, for unfilled positions, toward rapid response to ICE agents and financial relief for families affected by federal aggression. We could create a city task force to defend our own, or support efforts of local organizations like Unidos Bridging Communities.

3. We could establish lines of communication with other counties' other towns and cities to offer stronger resistance to armed federal thugs. This would provide a model for others counties and states on how to avoid licking the boot.

There is never a better time than the present to stand for human beings in opposition to fear and fascism. American consciousness has fallen so far, that we forget the virtues that put fire in our soul, direction in our steps and conviction in our words. If not this year, then in the coming years.

None of us can do it alone. It takes a community working together.

Joseph Polivka

McMinnville

Cheap trick

A political stunt was performed for all to see at the Dec. 4 Yamhill County Planning Commission hearing on the Yamheles Westsider Trail.

One of the trail opponents, Paul Kuehne, started his testimony not with comments about the trail, but with accusations against Marvin Bernards, who is trying to unseat current Board of Commissioners member Kit Johnston.

Mr. Kuehne stated that some years back, a local circuit court judge gave him a “permanent restraining order” against Marvin Bernards. That quickly led to planning commissioner Christy Cooke — who was not chairing the hearing — to order Mr. Bernards to leave because he was not allowed to be in the room with Mr. Kuehne.

This prompted a little digging on my part, because I know from my 38 pre-retirement years as an attorney that such a permanent restraining order would be highly unlikely.

A restraining order between two persons has to be in a civil lawsuit between the parties. I checked, and there no record of a past or present civil lawsuit by Mr. Kuehne against Mr. Bernards. In other words, there is not now, nor has there ever been a restraining order in favor of Mr. Kuehne against Mr. Bernards.

My thought while sitting and watching it play out was that it was cheap political theater by Kit Johnston supporters to embarrass the person running against him.

I have a request to the candidates and their supporters: Keep it clean and focus on the issues.

Jerry Hart

McMinnville

No mandate

The Trump administration is now complaining of a purported 100% increase in injuries to ICE officers. These are injuries supposedly caused by unarmed people in our communities, caught off guard while going through their daily routine.

The arrests are usually planned and coordinated by masked, armed individuals wearing body armor. We have seen the tactics they use — breaking car windows, physically extricating people from vehicles, using excessive force on the street and in the home or workplace.

Yet oddly, there is no comment from the administration addressing the deaths and serious injuries inflicted on the American public by these same ICE agents.

The apprehensions and arrests are reprehensible. U.S. citizens are being detained and arrested without counsel or communication with their families. Others, the majority of whom have no criminal records, are being bounced around federal facilities, basically disappearing.

Of course people are going to resist.

The people of the United States do not want this, especially from a president who barely won re-election by a 1.5% margin and now has an approval rating hovering in the 30's. There was no mandate then and there is definitely no mandate now.

While the administration is breaking up families and disrupting local economies, it is neglecting the real job that needs to be done — protecting the people of this country.

Stuart Gunness

Sheridan

Kicking the can

Who do we have to blame for the current masked ICE goon squads roaming our countryside? I place the blame squarely on Congress, which has for years kicked the can of immigration reform down the street.

In the absence of a timely and efficient system to review, approve and monitor foreign workers, and impose consistent consequences for folks that don’t want to follow such a system, we saw an uncontrolled flood of undocumented folks enter the country during Biden’s administration. Now we have the most horrific episode of authoritarian over-reach and abuse I’ve ever seen in this country in my lifetime.

Trump’s assurances that he would target migrants with “criminals records,” or the “worst of the worst,” were, at best, like most of what comes out of his mouth — truth adjacent. It’s time for Congress to do its job and create a viable immigration system that provides access to the country for hardworking migrants while excluding criminals.

Tom Canales

McMinnville

Red flag

As a person who resides in McMinnville School District 40, I am asking the school board to do the right thing and perform the search that it stated it would do at the conclusion of the previous superintendent’s term. If not, that will raise a very suspicious red flag in my mind and diminish board credibility.

I still don’t understand the reason for the last superintendent’s firing when her report card was consistently good. The reason has never materialized.

As an outside observer, all I saw was a majority of board members voting to fire her for no reason other than they didn’t get along with her on something that comes down to be equally their fault.

If the members who voted the last superintendent out are the same ones who vote the interim superintendent in without a search, that should concern any thinking person. For even better transparency, or at least perception, the members who voted the last superintendent out should not serve on the search committee for her replacement either.

I will not be forgiving on a flip flop of reasons for abandoning an extensive search.

Affirmation of Dr. Ferrua is perfectly acceptable after a full search in which she chooses to be a candidate. Risk of losing Dr. Ferrua to some other school district is not a good enough argument for cutting corners on a process to choose the next superintendent.

Doing the right thing is usually harder and most expensive. If saving the expense of a full search is a board member concern now, it should have also been a concern when hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent to release the last superintendent without cause.

Todd Neuschwanger

McMinnville

[Editor's note: This letter was submitted before the McMinnville School Board's Monday decision to offer the position to Kourtney Ferrua permanently.]

Rabbits banished

I read Nathan Ecker’s Dec. 5 article about the Linfield experience with interest, especially his reflections on the campus bunnies.

This was close to my heart as I, my family and other regular walkers of the campus had developed a relationship with the bunnies. Students and staff also seemed to enjoy their presence.

In the article, Nathan wondered what happened to the Linfield bunnies. He also asked how they fared in the winter.

Here’s what I know:

They survived on campus for several years, until the grounds supervisor decided to remove them this past August.

We contacted him to ask if he would give them to us instead. He said he would, but did not follow through.

Rumor has it they were taken to a farm outside Amity.

We asked the associate vice president for facilities administration about them, hoping to learn their location so we could see about adopting them. We were essentially told we had no standing in the school’s decisions concerning private arrangements.

There is much more to this story, but not for this venue.

Not a day goes by that I wonder about their plight. Anyone who has ever lost a pet knows full well the feeling of loss and worry about their well-being.

Albert Endres

McMinnville

A cautionary tale

During the Adams Street protest on Nov. 22, a man wearing a Vietnam vet hat walked the Eastern sidewalk with a partner tugging gently at his elbow. The vet was quite hostile, yelling, “You’re communists. This is not what I fought for,” and variations of that, as he made his way to where I was on Second Street.

He was highly incensed with the sign displayed by the protestor next to me, and started to get both verbally and physically threatening, clenching his hands and reaching for it. Fortunately, we have monitors who intervene for everyone’s safety, and they were able to de-escalate things and redirect the vet away from the scene.

My thoughts:

First of all, thank you and all other vets for a time of service that includes an oath to a Constitution allowing us to meet on Adams Street and voice our displeasure.

Coincidentally, I also have the distinction of being a Vietnam vet, so I respect and understand your confliction and sense of outrage. But I don’t “know” it because we haven’t talked.

As for the protestor you threatened to harm, did you cow him into silence or just strengthen his resolve? And how would you know when you didn’t listen?

All of the current cultural chaos will have to include people talking more about what they have in common and less about what divides them. So please, everyone, take a breath and remain curious, creative and active. The more responsive we are, the less reactive we’ll be. Violence solves nothing.

I want to offer this opinion as an invitation to any readers who share the sentiments of the vet: Come and talk to us.

Timark Hamilton

McMinnville

Inside job

The Yamhill County Planning Commission’s Dec. 4 hearing on the Yamhelas Westsider Trail was a waste of time. It quickly became obvious these “public servants” had already made up their minds to get rid of this treasured public asset.

Asked if he’d ever served as petitioner to LUBA on the trail, Commissioner Mark Gaibler said he didn’t know. But a quick Google search showed: “Mark Gaibler has served as a petitioner in multiple cases before the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals concerning the Yamhelas Westsider Trail. He was one of several property owners and farmers along the proposed trail who filed appeals against Yamhill County’s actions related to the trail’s development.”

In 2020, the George family of hazelnut fame donated large sums to elect anti-trail activist Lindsay Berschauer county commissioner. In turn, Berschauer and fellow anti-trail commissioners Mary Starrett and Kit Johnston appointed Christy (George) Cooke to the planning commission. Rather than recuse herself at the hearing, George claimed her family’s donations to anti-trail commissioners and subsequent appointment by them would not influence her vote.

Commissioners Steven Belt and Lee Schrepel, owners of land adjacent to the trail, did recuse themselves. But they did not follow standard protocol of leaving the hearing. They not only remained seated, but offered comments throughout.

Commissioner Brett Veatch, a real estate agent specializing in agricultural land, reclined in his chair, closed his eyes and looked to be napping. Maybe he was dreaming of some land coming up for sale soon?

It was no surprise then when every participating commissioner voted to get rid of the trail.

Sadly, Mary and Kit will arrange the sale of this treasured public asset to people who already have so much and now will have more. It’s a classic case of the greedy catering to the rich at the expense of the poor.

Janice Allen

Newberg

Rising to the occasion

We so often look at today’s youth as apathetic and disengaged.

They are, to be sure, different than we were; their priorities aren’t the same.

I’m still amazed when a teen shrugs about getting a driver’s license. I cried on the DMV floor like a toddler when I couldn’t take the test on my actual 16th birthday.

But their world isn’t ours. These kids have active shooter drills. Five-year-olds know what to do if a gunman walks into their school. With that kind of daily stress, it’s not hard to understand why some might escape into video games or apps.

But several hundred Mac High students recently proved us wrong.

When ICE agents detained a fellow student, they kicked a hornet’s nest. Those students put down their phones and picked up posterboard and markers.

I went to the protest to bear witness and show support. What I saw was genuinely uplifting. It felt like a hands-on civics lesson.

The handmade signs and chants were clear and confident, and passersby responded with a surprising amount of supportive horn honking — especially considering the vile rhetoric some of their elders were spewing online about both the incident with ICE and the protest itself.

Honestly, many adults in this community should be embarrassed by their own lack of civic engagement. Instead of cheering on young people for showing up in an era defined by social isolation, they sit behind their keyboards insisting the kids were just avoiding class or following “virtue-signaling” adults.

What I witnessed was a master class in grassroots activism and the exercise of First Amendment rights. This is what our republic was founded on.

Whether or not you agree with their premise, you have to applaud their decision to rally and speak up. The kids are all right, McMinnville.

Mandee Tatum

McMinnville

Low-hanging fruit

I spent half of my business career in operational excellence and quality. One approach I found to consistently work was going after the low-hanging fruit certain to improve the safety and effectiveness of the workforce.

Address the pain points and you can build on that success. The workers know where the pain points are, and frequently know how they can be fixed.

As a resident of Oregon for just under six years, my biggest pain point is that our state taxes for residents are too high and our return on those taxes in terms of government services and quality of life are too low. We are out of balance.

Having moved here from Minnesota, I was used to living in a high tax state. But every day there, it seemed I could expect to feel the benefits from well-maintained roads, clean and convenient parks, nearby recreation, strong school performance and rich community services.

I agree with the News-Register opinion that short-term lodging tax is a painless way for Yamhill County to increase revenue without taxing residents. That’s low-hanging fruit.

I also believe that we should have a sales tax for non-resident purchases made in Oregon. We are currently subsidizing our tourists and day shoppers. Why?

I have heard that the Costco near PDX is one of the busiest in the country.

That’s because Washington residents know a good deal when they see it. Why should they get away with paying no income tax working in their state and no sales tax shopping in ours?

Increasing Oregon revenue without increasing taxes on Oregon residents is truly low-hanging fruit. Let’s quickly capture those easy revenue streams, while ensuring state government becomes much more friendly to businesses of all sizes and much more focused on the efficiency and effectiveness of the services it provides to Oregonians.

Phil Forve

McMinnville