While crossing the street on a recent visit to San Francisco, I looked up on one of that city’s steep iconic steep hills and saw a car heading straight for me with nobody at the wheel. I leaped back toward the curb, then started on across the street as the driverless car glided to a smooth stop and waited for me to use the crosswalk.
Editorials
Let’s be careful about cutting the public out of the process
There are few things this newspaper deplores more than the self-serving not-in-my-backyard nonsense that seems to surface every time public or private entities attempt to address a compelling community ...
It takes a village to fight a forest fire
Here we go again. After two weeks of scorching heat sent fire danger soaring, especially on Oregon’s dry east side, Gov. Tina Kotek declared a statewide wildfire emergency Monday, effective through ...
Sideline holdouts forfeit say about way game is played
In a June 19 letter to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, nine Senate Republicans proclaimed, “It is essential that we work together to find solutions that benefit all Oregonians,” ...
Don't look to the courts; we're in this on our own
In the end, the wait for Supreme Court clarification of the legality of outdoor camping by the homeless, via a case arising from the Southern Oregon community of Grants Pass, produced a lot more waiting ...
Multnomah poster child for failed drug policies
Oregon’s unsuccessful experiment with decriminalization of user-quantity possession of hard drugs was put out of its three years of abject misery last year via passage of HB 4002. At least it was ...
Summer festival season offers opportunities to get involved
If you missed McMinnville’s annual UFO Festival, a mid-May fixture in these parts since 1999, not to worry. The doings, which drew thousands of elaborately costumed space-alien look-a-likes to town, ...
Woes befalling Newberg should sound alarms here
Any time political and ideological purity become the coin of the realm in local school and city affairs, making qualifications, competence, character, experience and integrity all but irrelevant, disaster ...
The skies aren't falling but the trees sure are
We love our downtown trees. That is, we do as long as they don’t grow too tall, shed too many leaves, create too much mess, clog too many gutters, bust up too many sidewalks or threaten too many ...
No asset in the area offers more potential than airport
McMinnville Municipal Airport is nearing the mid-point of a two-year process designed to produce a new 20-year master plan to guide its future development. And as at least 20-year advocates of greater ...
Sober-minded moderation prevails at polls this time
There was a time when candidates like David “Bubba” King, flirting with an outright win in Tuesday’s three-way Yamhill County commission primary, fit the Republican Party mold like a ...
Letters
News-Register Letters Policy
The News-Register welcomes written opinions about issues of public interest and about the content of this newspaper. Letters from non-local writers are accepted only if they focus on local issues. Letters ...
Letters to the Editor: July 26, 2024
Wrongdoers should pay It’s a no-brainer. Dave Brown, Brian Shannon, Renee Powell and Trevor DeHart should pay $370,000 back to the Newberg School District for their illegal actions. It all began ...
Letters to the Editor: July 19, 2024
Noise and fumes I have a few comments ahead of this year’s Cruising McMinnville, coming up next month. We live in downtown McMinnville, and the noise and fumes make this fairly intrusive. The event ...
Letters to the Editor: July 12, 2024
Plea to farmers I own a 160-acre Century Farm in Polk County that has been in my family for four generations. It has provided health and happiness, not only for my own family, but the larger community. Although ...
Letters to the Editor: July 5, 2024
An awakening After the debate, there should not be any remaining doubt that we as a nation are in serious trouble. Joe Biden was a bumbling, stumbling incoherent, senile old man not fit to be president. ...
Letters to the Editor: June 28, 2024
Fewer screens My grandmother taught me years ago that friendships sustain us, and I wouldn’t trade mine for the world. The youth of McMinnville need to make the real lasting friendships that so ...
Letters To The Editor: June 14, 2024
Long live the trees I enjoyed the recent editorial titled, “The skies aren’t falling, but the trees sure are.” The editorial was informative and well-written.I’d like to add one ...
Letters To The Editor: June 7, 2024
A clear winner There was one clear winner in Yamhill County’s recent election: apathy. In a state where it could not be easier to vote, a turnout percentage in the 30s, as of June 1, is pathetically ...
Letters to the Editor: May 31, 2024
Safe and secure For the past 16 years, through five presidential elections now, I have served the office of the Yamhill County clerk in every position in the processing of ballots.Currently I am part ...
Letters to the Editor: May 24, 2024
Fix the streets I read the recent editorial regarding the stormwater funding proposals and found it very informative. I did not realize that action by the state of Oregon could be further in the future ...
Commentary
Whatchamacolumn: Discussion of inflation requires a few actual facts
Campaign sound bites often ignore inconvenient facts, and hyperbole dominates political debate. In a time when information searches are supercharged by artificial intelligence, it’s still too common ...
George and Simms: Repurposing Willamette dams would save money, aid salmon
About the writers: Kathleen George serves as an elected member of the Grand Ronde Tribal Council. She is a former director of the tribe’s philanthropic arm. Scott Simms heads the Public Power Council, ...
Alex Baumhardt: Hydro deauthorization delay stirring concerns in Oregon
Inexplicable delays to a federal report on ending hydropower generation in the Willamette River Basin, aimed at saving threatened salmon, are creating frustration and concern for Oregon’s tribal and conservation leaders.
Investigating the Bible: Finding mercy for those who do us wrong
Harry Truman’s Vice President, Alben Barkley, enjoyed telling the story of a preacher who asked his congregation if anyone had conquered the sin of hate. One person stood up, a 104-year old man. The parson asked, “You don’t hate anyone, Uncle Bo? That’s wonderful! Tell us how you did it.” Uncle Bo replied, “Well, all of those skunks who done me dirt, all of them blankety-blanks I hated — they’re all dead.”
Randy Stapilus: State help may be best hope for community newspapers
About the writer: Randy Stapilus is a former reporter and editor who has turned to writing and publishing books from Carlton. He has devoted his career to covering poli tics and government in Oregon, Washington ...
Calendar of Quirk: Placidly through the noise and haste, special notes from around town
From a peacock figure to streetside “Desiderata,” this week provides a particularly unusual combination of Quirk: July 17 Homeowners on Brooks Street near Macy Street have a sign with the ...
Autoimmune breakthrough holds phenomenol promise
In my 40 years of practicing medicine, I’ve been privileged to have a front-row seat to therapeutic advances surpassed only by the medical revolutions of vaccines, anesthesia and antibiotics.
Goldschmidt ‘what if’ almost 40 years later
I am a little torn about what to do with one of the mugs at my desk. Not the A&W float glass or the Linfield University one. Those I keep. This is a thrift shop purchase, a faded item dating to the ...
Whatchamacolumn: Dangerous curves on Highway 130 need guard rails
Direct to the point: The sharp curves at Upton Falls along Little Nestucca River Road — Oregon 130 — should have protective guardrails installed to prevent driver deaths. I’ve thought ...
Calendar of Quirk: Short glimpses of northeast McMinnville with its unlikely neighbors, mazes and quiet spaces
The “Compass” of Quirk turns northeast of McMinnville, after some recent southside McMinnville entries. The area just northeast of town beyond city limits is an area of Quirk strata, as highways ...
Whatchamacolumn: Surrounding the Fourth of July with political debate
This week’s column, written and published via e-edition on July 3, goes into a newspaper issue dated July 5 for mailed delivery in print on Friday. We thus are surrounding the 4th of July after experiencing ...
Calendar of Quirk: Quirk list at its midpoint is scratching the surface of unusual yard art
Calendar of Quirk reaches its midpoint with a look back, and a look around at … … Quirk that had come and gone before we could list it, such as the double-sided U.S./Oregon flag that flew ...
Mark Davis: Cut the gasoline, then the asphalt and driver
While crossing the street on a recent visit to San Francisco, I looked up on one of that city’s steep iconic steep hills and saw a car heading straight for me with nobody at the wheel. I leaped back toward the curb, then started on across the street as the driverless car glided to a smooth stop and waited for me to use the crosswalk.
Archibald-Pannone: Elder fraud soaring to epidemic proportions
By LAURIE ARCHBALD-PANNONEOf the University of Virginia Medical School Americans 60 and older lost more than $3 billion to scammers in 2023, according to the FBI. As a geriatrician — a doctor who ...
Investigating the Bible: Picturing a humble nation on the Fourth
There’s a fable of an elephant and a flea who walked together across an old wooden bridge. When they reached the other side, the flea said to the elephant, “Boy, did we shake that thing!” Human tendency is toward pride, neglecting the contributions of others. One powerful king of Israel humbly recognized his need for God and lived by that truth.
Investigating the Bible: Tests, temptations, and evil for eternity
A religious man faced some strong temptation. The enticement was winning, since he prayed, “Please Lord, give me strength to resist this temptation, but not now!” On any drive to a local store, there can be something lurking to wedge into our weaknesses: Breaking the speed limit, alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy foods, gambling, road rage, and much more. And we may face painful difficulties or illness. Jesus gave his followers a prayer that responds to the challenge of temptations and troubles.
Conkling & McCormick: Changing student needs demand funding change
Large Oregon school districts are cutting millions of dollars from their budgets, which translates into significant cuts in personnel and thus larger class sizes, as state funding has failed to keep pace with rising inflation and expanding expectations.
Higgins and Bernard: Boost your immune system with age-old hack: vacccines
There are a dizzying number of tips, hacks and recommendations on how to stay healthy, from dietary supplements to what color of clothes promotes optimal wellness. Some are based on good evidence, thus helpful, while others are not.
Whatchamacolumn: Ticketmaster and the ravages of cybercrime
Good things, said ancient Greek philosophers and Chinese numerologists, come in threes, and millennia of folklore added “bad things” to belief in that pattern. It has a name – apophenia ...
Calendar of Quirk: Graceful cedars, stained glass and ‘zines reflect the randomness of Quirk
We try to wrangle Quirk into geographical or topical connections, but the fact is that many are random elements — things we see around us unconnected to anything else. June 26 Imprinted in concrete ...
