Guest commentary needed for section
In addition to letters to the editor, limited to 300 words, we are on the lookout for guest commentary submissions of 500 to 750 words. Those allow the writer to take a broader view and cover more points. We ...
Investigating The Bible: ‘You shall not wrong him’: the subject of slavery
Feb. 12 is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. In 1843, after Lincoln lost his bid to be in Congress a second term, he might have remained a successful country lawyer if Stephen Douglas, a Senator in 1850, had not proposed and passed a bill which allowed slavery in the new states of Nebraska and Kansas
Offbeat Oregon: Why legendary lawman Virgil Earp is buried in a S.W. Portland cemetery
Portland’s River View Cemetery is the state’s oldest nonprofit cemetery, founded in 1882 by three of Portland’s most prominent citizens: Henry Corbett, Henry Failing, and William S. Ladd.
All three of them are buried there — Ladd’s grave in particular was the target of a bizarre raid by a gang of grave robbers 15 years later, but that’s a story for another time.
Calendar of Quirk: Potcake and a potpourri of offbeat messaging, mobile as well as stationary
Mention was made two weeks ago of rock cairns on Amity Road; the reader who tipped me to them said only a few survived the snow and subsequent plowing. I did not spot them on a recent reconnoiter near ...
Bladine: You take your chances when applying political labels
Political labels are overused, misunderstood and often the bane of productive political debate. Related conversations quickly get complicated.BYU-Idaho Professor Hyrum Lewis wrote in 2022: “Our society ...
Calendar of Quirk: ‘Anno Lucis’ and other unusual sightings both heavy and light-hearted
Quirk ideas and other responses such as indicated in our first entry of this Calendar of Quirk are a big part of CQ; below is week four of our ongoing celebration of oddities around us. Before we get ...
Bladine: An unsettling decline in letters to the editor
January produced an abundance of comments from newspaper readers to us — no surprise given the change in newspaper size, delivery schedule and methods of publication. In that same month, however, ...
Rainey: Frankly, my dears, it seems we don’t give a gol durn anymore
About the writer: Barrett Rainey is an Air Force veteran, longtime pilot and former reporter for radio and TV stations from Cheyenne, Wyoming, to Washington, D.C. Now living in McMinnville, he writes regularly ...
Togneren: Intellectual humility is an asset, not a weakness
Mark Twain apocryphally said, “I’m in favor of progress; it’s change I don’t like.”
This quote pithily underscores the human tendency to desire growth while also harboring strong resistance to the hard work that comes with it. And I can certainly resonate with this sentiment.
Investigating the Bible: What is the one sin that’s unforgivable?
A Sunday school teacher asked his class of 6-year-old boys if any of them knew the difference between a mistake and a sin. One his students volunteered this: “I think if I hit my sister, it’s a mistake. But if I kick the dog, it’s a sin.”
Letter to Readers: Introducing the N-R Press Club
I am pleased to announce the launch of the News-Register Press Club, a premium addition option to your newspaper subscription. I’ve enjoyed numerous back-and-forths with readers over the last couple ...
Calendar of Quirk: Random at heart, and the obsolete, disused and repurposed landmarks around us
Calendar of Quirk, our weekly celebration of oddities around us, is a random thing at heart. That randomness is important in clarifying something about the “CQ”: More than one reader has wondered ...
Letter To Readers: N-R Press Club (almost) ready for launch
I am excited to announce the launch of the News-Register Press Club – almost. One of the discussions staff has had regarding the creation of a premium subscription service is to make sure to not ...
Stapilus: It may take legislative action to avert local park closures
If you take your dog for a walk from your home, walking some distance to a local park and then back, you’re engaging in recreation.
But does your recreation begin when you leave your house, en route to the park, or only after you actually get there? Or does it begin, at least in the eyes of the law, only when you reach some designated part of the park?
Bladine: Gentle waves of technology can turn into tsunami
American households with television sets: From 9 percent in 1950 to 86 percent in 1959 (Britannica.com). Number of fax machines: From 25,000 to 250,000 in the 1970s, with 500,000 installed in 1985 and ...
