Plastic not only poses major challenges for permanent burial, but also for recycling for reuse. But The Plastic Project, affiliated with Zero Waste McMinnville, is making inroads on multiple fronts.
Editorials
McMinnville teachers, district agree on three-year contract
McMinnville School District and its teachers’ union, the McMinnville Education Association, have agreed on a new three-year contract, effective July 1, 2024, and running through June 30, ...
Rent to budget gap needs addressing
This year’s edition of “Oregon by the Numbers” has just been released, and we earned a top ranking among the state’s 36 counties in one category. Unfortunately, it was average ...
City must take lead on local after-school front
From all the kudos Kids on the Block and its successor after-school programs have garnered over the years in McMinnville, you could be forgiven for thinking we developed something wonderfully unique and ...
Maybe it's time our planners revived mobile home option
According to MHVillage, a national mobile home brokerage, a dozen mobile home parks were developed in McMinnville in the quarter century extending from 1972 to 1997. Together, they served to accommodate ...
Be a voter in November; better yet, be a candidate
Yamhill County’s Nov. 5 general election ballot will feature voting for America’s next president and congressional representative from District 6; for attorney general, secretary of state and ...
School supplies and resource help come to local families
As the marketing constantly reminds us these days, it’s “back to school” preparation time. A list of online jokes by parents making the rounds includes one submitted by Instagrammer “NotMyThirdRodeo.” “School ...
Dog control a necessity; given will, there's a way
The earliest recorded use of the expression, “It’s a dog’s life,” dates back to the 1500s when it meant short, brutish, subservient and miserable. But times have changed. These ...
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,” ...
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: Sept. 13, 2024
Rest of the story While the idea given in the mobile home editorial of last week sounds good, I would suggest that the writer investigate the current rents for mobile homes in the parks mentioned. I ...
Letters to the Editor: Sept. 6, 2024
No cause to celebrate As the screaming military planes flying over my backyard disrupted my weekend, I couldn’t help but remember that similar F-16 jets have spread death and destruction around ...
Letters to the Editor: Aug. 30, 2024
Tunnel vision I’m responding to Robert Long’s Aug. 23 post. People have not stopped being good, Mr. Long. They just want a life with a home, family, friends and food on the table. They don’t ...
Letters to the Editor: Aug. 23, 2024
Missing the prince When my News-Register arrived in last Friday’s mail, I quickly scanned the obituaries and didn’t find myself listed there. I next moved on to the stories and pictures from ...
Letters to the Editor: Aug. 18, 2024
Getting it done Having written so many letters asking that the city do something about what is generally called the homeless problem, I want to say thank you to the administration, council, police department, ...
Letters to the Editor: Aug. 9, 2024
Lack of commitment? Here we go again! This procedure of giving the loser in an election a chance to redeem himself or herself seems counter to democratic principles. But that’s what we are facing ...
Letters to the Editor: Aug. 2, 2024
Positive and constructive For decades, Starla Pointer has been writing features for the News-Register.Almost every issue of the paper carries at least one feature written by her. And all of them introduce ...
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 ...
Commentary
Jeri White: Fighting to keep plastic from fouling our planet
Plastic not only poses major challenges for permanent burial, but also for recycling for reuse. But The Plastic Project, affiliated with Zero Waste McMinnville, is making inroads on multiple fronts.
Whatchamacolumn: Newspaper viability messages in a new format
We’ve known for years that this time was coming. In the first quarter of the 20th century, automobiles and electric streetcars overtook a horse-drawn transportation system dating back to ancient ...
Investigating the Bible: Passing the smell test
Recently I was in line at a store as the man in front of me purchased three packs of cigarettes. The smell of tobacco was strong in his clothing. Oddly, for me that surfaced pleasant memories of my father, who smoked from age 14 to his death at 92. He acquired the habit in the post-World War II time when magazines carried advertisements for cigarettes like the one that showed a smiling surgeon general, with this caption: “I smoke them because they are pure and natural goodness.”
Marianne Janack: Retirement a challenge when our work comes to define us
Most discussions of retirement focus on the financial aspects of leaving the workforce: “How to save enough for retirement?” or “How do you know if you have enough money for retirement?”
Brady Shields: Mayor not in charge of taxes
By BRADY SHIELDSMcMinnville resident With the upcoming mayoral election in McMinnville, there will be rhetoric pushed by both sides. But one particular piece of rhetoric from the Kim Morris campaign caught ...
Eric Shuck: No vet should be shaming the service of a fellow vet
About the writer: Eric Schuck holds a captaincy in the U.S. Navy Reserve as well as a professorship in economics at Linfield University. But he speaks for himself here, within the limits of his legal and ...
Whatchamacolumn: Presidential win predicted; but focus on local
Labor Day weekend led us directly and deeply into election season, with high stakes votes coming on local, regional, statewide and national candidates and issues. Look for spirited campaigns for city ...
Investigating the Bible: Reading the Bible can be made easier
By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR It’s been said the Bible is the world’s least read bestseller. A Christian friend, new in his faith, said: “The Bible is so hard to read. All those weird names ...
Calendar of Quirk: Baby bear bench is just the beginning of this blend of new and obsolete
This week’s bittersweet blend of Quirk puts a slant on disturbances, bisections and disruptions. Sept. 4 A Tice Park triad: At the trailhead: a directional sign reading “Pond Loop/North Loop/Theater.” ...
Dr. Kristina Petsas: Pencil and paper not only back-to-school necessities
It’s that time of year when families are busy checking off those back-to-school lists to make sure their children have the right pencils, notebooks and backpacks. But even more important than school supplies may be the way they are feeling emotionally and mentally as they start a new school year
Lindsey Butler: County looking at new way to help parents of newborns
Yamhill County is introducing a new voluntary visiting home nurse program for families welcoming newborns.
Whatchamacolumn: Making sure trust is tempered with wariness
The older I get, the more cautious I become about financial transactions with anyone I don’t personally know and trust. Sometimes, even that isn’t enough protection from fraud. Take Ruben ...
Letter to readers: Jillian Boenisch/ Caterpillars, cursive, and growing up with Dundee Elementary
As the doors to the old Dundee Elementary School close, new ones open. A new era of the school begins this fall with the school district’s newly-constructed building. But first, a farewell to all ...
Investigating the Bible: The Bible’s most beautiful chapter
The Bible contains many wonderful chapters offering inspiration and truth: Genesis 1 details God’s creative power; In Psalm 23, God is our loving shepherd; Psalm 103 recognizes all the benefits from the Lord; Isaiah 64 foretells God’s role of mercy and forgiveness; Jesus preached his great Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5; John 1 has the miraculous statement, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (verse 14) ; Colossians 1 expands the full divinity of Jesus. Many would consider I Corinthians 13 as one of the best and most beautiful.
Casey Kulla: We’re not helpless in the face of fire
Nine years ago this week, I was out in our fields crying as I harvested our vegetables.
I was singing the farewell song from Holden Village, the remote, wooded community where I spent my formative years, as it seemed destined to burn to the ground in the face of a wildfire. It goes, “Give us good courage, not knowing where we go; to know that your hand is leading us, wherever we might go.”
Simon Haeder: Negotiated prescription drug prices to save billions
The Biden administration has announced reduced prices negotiated with pharmaceutical companies for the first 10 drugs on its target list.
Whatchamacolumn: System development charges replace tax increases
Tax increase proposals, always controversial, can be defeated by voters. Local government tax increases for infrastructure development, also controversial, are being avoided with significant increases ...
Calendar of Quirk: Scattering Quirk, from downtown McMinnville north to Carlton and Yamhill
We begin this week with three quaint images that seem uniformly cut from some post-Depression encyclopedia: road signs, all of them yellow. While not unique to McMinnville, the signs sweetly remind us ...
Ken Dollinger: A cabin in the woods opens windows on life
It was Thanksgiving 1997, and we just lost our minds. Two kids raised in the treeless West Texas Panhandle had just purchased a forest! Linda and I started out on a simple search for a small, private ...
Whatchamacolumn: Meeting comments on the record in Carlton, statewide
I did a double-take on our story about Monday’s Planning Commission meeting in Carlton. Concerned citizens attended to raise concerns about possible development of a gas station near a floodplain ...
