A small drama unfolded the other day in a series of comments on a post in a popular local Facebook group. Actually, it only started as a drama. It played out as a timely and necessary conversation. And ...
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Editorials
Please put the fireworks on hold this fire season
By many measures in many states, last year’s wildfire season was the worst on record. By just about any measure anywhere, it left a frightening swath of death and destruction in its wake. Factors ...
Never underestimate ability of youth to weather hardship
High school graduation is one of the largest broadly shared transitions in American society, if not the largest. And it can test the coming generation’s capacity to cope and adjust even under the ...
Dear commissioners: Please leave the legislating to others
Lindsay Berschauer and Mary Starrett Yamhill County Courthouse 535 N.E. Fifth St., McMinnville, OR Dear Commissioners: To quote a line first made famous by Ronald Reagan, patriarch of the conservative ...
Call for police reform musters rare degree of common cause
Newt Gingrich introduced polarization to American politics with unprecedented success during his term as House speaker in the latter half of the 1990s. He coerced Republicans to bloc-vote his Contract ...
Welcome rays of sunshine penetrate the doom, gloom
Yes, COVID is still ravaging India, Brazil and much of the Third World. Wars, rebellions and uprisings are being fought in all the usual places, and some not so usual. Mass shootings are continuing with ...
Honor the Constitution by exercising your right to vote
Since pioneering vote-by-mail in the late 1990s, Oregon has developed an election system so free, fair and inclusive it has become the global gold standard. Voter registration has been automated and integrated ...
Vera, Warmbier best combo for local school board seats
Five candidates are vying for a pair of seats on the McMinnville School Board in Oregon’s May 18 special district election. That’s good news, as board seats have been contested only twice ...
Time running short to calm the roiling waters at Linfield
It’s not the fault of Linfield’s leadership that rising costs, declining enrollment, decreasing appeal abroad, inadequate endowment, a raging pandemic and burgeoning competition have jeopardized ...
New challenges hamper campaign against COVID
COVID-19 is a fearsome menace to our way of life, and has lingered far, far longer than any of us might have imagined when it began early last year. Along the way, it has killed more than half a million ...
With local effort, state resolve, homelessness not intractable
Houston, we have a problem. We have more people than we can manage to reliably feed and house, and the ones falling out the bottom are spilling into the streets because they have nowhere else to go. These ...
Letters
Letters to the editor: June 11, 2021
Putting lives at risk The recent comments of Commissioner Mary Starrett, defending her comparison of vaccine passports to Jim Crow segregation and the genocide by the Nazi regime, are telling. As Anne ...
Letters to the editor: June 4, 2021
Cans to Freddy’s Brad Thompson’s guest commentary about the lack of sufficient bottle and can return locations missed a great local option — the BottleDrop redemption center next to ...
Letters to the editor: May 28, 2021
Restoring professionalism By sponsoring HB 3130, Rep. Ron Noble has again shown his concern for constituents. He has helped lead the way toward restoration of professionalism, including the opportunity ...
Letters to the editor: May 21, 2021
Hands to yourself Do not touch me without my consent. Basic respect for my personal space should not be a big ask. “Born huggers” do not have the right to touch other people’s bodies ...
Letters to the editor: May 14, 2021
Basic responsibility When I read about the library waiving fees for overdue books, it disappointed me. It amounts to teaching our citizens, both youth and adult, that they do not need to be responsible ...
Letters to the editor: May 7, 2021
Risky business The incident in the Albertsons parking lot where some idiot fired a gun into the air should not be casually dismissed. A bullet from a typical handgun fired into the air will return to ...
Letters to the editor: April 30, 2021
Support the nurses Have you ever been in the hospital? How about your child, parent or grandparent? Nurses are the ones who give them the medications they need, monitor them for changes that need intervention, ...
Letters to the editor: April 23, 2021
Balance and truth I am constantly embarrassed at the editorial pages of my local newspaper. The editors’ distinct bias against and barely hidden hatred of more than half of Yamhill County’s ...
Letters to the editor: April 16, 2021
Threat to democracy I was happy to hear that Major League Baseball is pulling its All-Star Game out of Georgia in retaliation for that state’s new and very restrictive voting law. When laws like ...
Letters to the editor: April 2, 2021
County comes through I have been very critical of the COVID vaccine rollout in Yamhill County, but now I want to retract. While I think the county got off to a slow start, it has caught up. The difference ...
Commentary
Jeb Bladine: In need of a COVID crystal ball
It’s all so confusing … especially the unwavering commitment to that magic 70 percent vaccination target. Gov. Kate Brown says when 70 percent of Oregonians age 18 or older have received ...
McCRACKEN: Support claim evaporates in the face of simple math
By LISA McCRACKEN Quick. What was Chandler Bing’s job in the TV series “Friends”? This fun little nugget of trivia is too often glossed over. Chandler worked in statistical analysis ...
DesJARDINE & BANSAL: Engine No. 1 gives Big Oil a resounding wakeup call
By MARK DesJARDINE of Pennsylvania State University and TIMA BANSAL of Western University, Canada One of the most expensive Wall Street shareholder battles on record could signal a big ...
O’Connor: A RECESSION – AND A RECOVERY – LIKE NO OTHER
There hasn’t been very much normal with the economy in 2020 and 2021, and that’s certainly the case in Yamhill County. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a recession quite different from any ...
Jeb Bladine: Sharing responsibility to end the pandemic
Oregon Health Authority’s May 18 guidance on wearing masks — based on Gov. Kate Brown’s executive order — produced widespread backlash, with debate centering on a “Morton’s ...
Trails, sidetracks and looking up old address
The Storey Street section near the Linfield campus is home territory these days. It’s a leafy, quiet part of town. As I’ve re-settled into McMinnville this spring, I’ve enjoyed making ...
Gelvin: Israelis having their own confrontation with racism
By JAMES GELVIN University of California at Los Angeles The images and reports coming from Israel, Jerusalem and Gaza in recent days were shocking. They were also surprising to those who thought the ...
Meador: MORE LISTENING, LESS TALKING
A small drama unfolded the other day in a series of comments on a post in a popular local Facebook group. Actually, it only started as a drama. It played out as a timely and necessary conversation. And ...
Bladine: Predicting the end of COVID limits
Trying to understand the numbers and rules of COVID-19 is not for the faint of mind, and making COVID-related predictions is not for the faint of heart. Willing to accept that challenge, however, I’m ...
Hennes: Nothing local approaches the horrors of Jim Crow
By TIFFANY HENNESS Freelance writer, designer & marketer Mary Turner was eight months pregnant when her husband was murdered. He was slain in retaliation for a crime he did not commit. Mary ...
Depew: Dollar General posing threat to rural America
By BRIAN DEPEW Center for Rural Affairs Dollar General has become a ubiquitous feature of America’s small towns. The discount retailer already has more than 16,000 stores spread across the country ...
Thompson: Grocery stores are blocking bottle returns on their own
By BRAD THOMPSON Retired journalism professor My effort to redeem six months’ worth of accumulated cans and bottles was thwarted recently. If you have tried to cash in your bottles, you’ll ...
Mark holiday by asking, listening
I am fortunate to have interviewed and learned from many local veterans over the years. They’ve become friends and role models. To name just a few: Stan deStwolinski, founder of the local Band of ...
Time to embrace new ways at Linfield
By NAOMI PITCOCK Associate Professor, School of Nursing; spouse of President Miles K. Davis My first three years in Oregon have not been without challenges. We moved here when Linfield College — ...
Back and forth: The past can drive us as we drive past
Viewed from space, the park is a teardrop triangle; viewed from the street, a bit of a mystery. Numerous times since arriving in McMinnville, I’ve driven past the green space where Adams and Baker ...
Jeb Bladine: Transparency lacking in rec center planning
Imagine overlaying the adjacent photo with new McMinnville community and aquatic centers overlooking the Yamhill River, connected at the hip to sprawling Joe Dancer Park in the background. Whatchamacolumn Jeb ...
Schuck: Teaching through a most turbulent time
By Guest Writer Eric Schuck March 2020 was flat-out weird. I remember standing in the doorway of my Linfield office, scanning it one last time before I shut the door. My backpack — the big, ...
Jeb Bladine: Restrictions hang on vaccine levels
If numbers make your head spin, you’re at the wrong place; if not, read on for facts and speculation on Yamhill County’s chances for early reduction of COVID-19 restrictions. Whatchamacolumn Jeb ...
Corporate America growing disillusioned with the GOP
By M.K. CHIN Indiana University There’s a growing rift between corporate America and the GOP — two groups that have long been bedfellows. The latest incident involves a restrictive voting ...
