Don’t settle for filling seat in May
Yamhill County voters approved seismic shifts in the way county board of commissioner seats are filled, first in 1996, when they opted to limit holders to three four-year terms, and then in 2000, when ...
Now is not the time for another gun bill
Anyone who thinks Oregon is a blue state should scan the outrage expressed over a timid gun law proposal introduced as House Bill 4005. The testimony served as a reminder that Oregon is a liberal state ...
Don’t blame planners for doing their job
McMinnville Planning Director Heather Richards, like all public officials, chooses to work in a free-fire zone. Criticism comes with the job, as it should. No one empowered to make decisions on behalf ...
Restoring native savanna a cause worthy of support
Susan Watkins and Arnie Hollander are paying a steep price for helping reverse the 150-year decline of Oregon white oak in the Yamhill Valley. Instead, we should be finding them harmless, if not dangling ...
Short session short on what was promised
Imagine the whole thing as a boxing match. Fighters come out from their corners swinging on odd-numbered years, having at each other for a full 12 rounds. Then, just for the heck of it, they get together ...
When it comes to land use, where's the common ground?
Here we go again. Or as Yogi Berra once said in his famously fractured English, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” Or is it? McMinnville established its first and only ...
Truly putting people first would be welcome change
A time-worn saying has it, “No good deed goes unpunished.” And it was once again proven true over the Christmas holiday, this time by US Bank. Here’s the backstory, which should deliver ...
Bitter harvest threatens wine industry
If politics were wine, this would be a strange year for Republicans, producing a vintage that leaves an unsettling aftertaste. But Oregon’s wine industry may find it more than unsettling. It could ...
Patronizing local vendors only way to deter chains
No one seems to want a Dollar General next door, down the street or on the main drag. Everyone, or almost everyone, seems to want one within easy driving distance, though. The chain’s no-frills, ...
Homeless help group dies of disinterest
How much do McMinnville citizens care about people spending cold winter nights shivering under tarps and blankets without the basic necessity of shelter? Perhaps one indication is that the city’s ...
Is there a doctor in the house?
An institution as large and important as a hospital will always be the target of stories circulating about unsatisfied customers. But there seems to be an increase in discontent recently when it comes ...
Mac’s on right track on campaign finance front
Setting public policy through free, fair and open elections is the cornerstone of democracy. The intent is to allow the public to choose its own representatives, shape the policies they pursue and recall ...
Praise for comments fills space with plans
Year-end holiday periods are a challenge to newspapers when abbreviated weeks, staff vacations and a shortage of news cause a scramble to “fill the space.” Sometimes — as with this commentary ...
Local police shouldn’t try to operate in silence
McMinnville police are joining the ranks of law enforcement agencies throughout the country who use encrypted radio signals to keep their communications quiet from the public. MPD presented arguments ...
Group fights the stream of waste, not neighbors
Zero Waste McMinnville could choose to be a group of contentious environmentalists, content with railing about the ravages of climate change and thus ultimately making as many enemies as allies, if not ...
