Whatchamacolumn: Commentary comes easily in a turbulent world

When it comes to commentary, we are living in a target-rich environment.

Let’s start local: If people contact authorities about a hybrid wolf pack prowling school playground areas and killing neighborhood pets, they expect to hear: “We are sending officers out immediately – can you meet them at the scene?”

If the response is, “We can take your message, but we no longer have an animal control program,” there is going to be a citizen uprising. There was, Tuesday night at McMinnville City Council.

City officials, who by then had cited the dogs’ owner, scrambled to assure upset citizens that they are working on a more satisfactory solution. As the late Paul Harvey always said, stay tuned for the rest of the story.

Jumping to global: If all nations apply 50 percent tariffs on goods exported by all other nations, what do you think will happen to prices? You are correct!

Side story on tariffs: The seemingly outrageous Canadian tariffs on American dairy products, cited to justify massive retaliation, apply on a sliding scale after rarely reached levels of tariff-free sales. The complex details are part of a 2018 agreement negotiated by … drum roll … then-President Donald Trump.

Speaking of prices, how about February’s downward tick in U.S. inflation, the first in six months? There was ambivalence toward that news from people who balance desires for low inflation with hopes that the current administration will fail — those people are talking about the stock markets.

Back home, I somehow can’t stop thinking about those dogs. Witnesses to the dog pack have testified about past problems, a profoundly dangerous current situation and the indescribable pain of losing their pets to that urban wildness. At least one area resident has begun carrying a gun on neighborhood walks.

If I were that dog owner, I would be making plans to either rid myself of those animals or move elsewhere with them, because the next time that pack goes on an animal killing spree, there will be a citizen rebellion making this latest incident seem like an episode of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.”

Meanwhile, in Salem (as usual), there are contradictions in approaches to lawmaking. One legislator supporting a move of mandatory legal notices from newspapers to websites has suggested that it may be time for the merciful euthanasia of newspapers; other legislators are proposing to tax Google and Meta (Facebook) for revenues to support traditional and nonprofit local news providers.

You can guess where we newspaper operators come down on those bills. The local news we produce has long been targeted by information-consolidation giants who have appropriated the marketplace that once supported local media. Removing legal notices from local newspapers could be a final piece in the local journalism version of Jenga.

Yes, there’s plenty of ammunition for commentary these days. Feel free to share some of yours with the community via our weekly Readers Forum — it is still, pending newspaper euthanasia, the best local collection of citizen opinions.

News-Register Publisher Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.