Commentary
By Diane Reynolds

Substance use disorder is a serious, yet treatable, health problem that can be exacerbated by a variety of external circumstances, including stress.

Given the many causes of stress in today’s world, it’s more important than ever to address them and find positive outlets for them.

Whatchama Column
By Jeb Bladine

It’s easy to say that McMinnville’s football story created a national media feeding-frenzy during a slow news week. Actually, just like the medical story itself, there was a “perfect storm” of circumstances to launch the story nationwide.

For starters, it had key ingredients of news: human interest, mystery, rarity and its own form of prominence. The prominence didn’t belong to McMinnville High School and its football program, but to athletics in general. It also featured an ongoing media focus on villains and victims.

The bad news just keeps on coming.

Oregon’s revised revenue forecast this week predicted another drop of $373 million in state revenue. Added to previous downward adjustments, it means that expected tax revenue has fallen $1.2 billion since the 2009-2011 budget was passed.

John Kroger, Oregon’s attorney general, is not one to let things be simple because they seem to be going fairly well. Thus his office has spent considerable time this year in preparing to overhaul the state’s open records law as a part of his pledge to make government open and transparent.

Whatchama Column
By Jeb Bladine

Change is stressful. Sometimes, resisting change just adds to the stress.

Thirty-five years ago I wrote stories on an antique Underwood typewriter, developed film in the office darkroom and rested after finishing each issue of the newspaper. There were no computers, fax machines, digital cameras or cell phones; we communicated by phone and letters.

Commentary
By Brian Steffel

My wife, Susie, and I took the plunge two years ago. We agreed to host foreign exchange students. We knew the risks — it could go very well or very badly. Having already raised our own children, we knew our discretionary time would no longer be ours alone. Our students’ activities would also shape our schedules. We agreed that the costs were outweighed by the need to treat our “empty nest syndrome.” Besides, we had two empty bedrooms upstairs, and it would give me a good excuse to bring junk food into the house.

Years of street deterioration on the east side of McMinnville’s core was unbecoming of a healthy, bustling city, not to mention a constant irritant to residents of the area. That eyesore is being eliminated this year and, simultaneously, there is a promising project that could help rejuvenate the far-eastern edges of that “old town” area.

To save Oregon from a dire economic future, its populace must accept surgical cuts in all areas of government services. And its governing bodies must have the will — and the backbone — to do the job.

The Great Recession of 2009 sapped Oregon’s jobs. Unemployment, which once soared to 12.2 percent, still hovers around 9.5 percent, more than twice what it was in 2007. Layoffs occurred in all segments of the economy, most notably in the private sector.

Oregon is supposed to get $270 million from the federal government under the $26.1 billion emergency spending bill that cleared the U.S. House on Aug. 11, and the added spending, we are told, is supposed to be not borrowed but paid for.

The question is: Paid for how, and by whom?

Oregonians have many reasons to be angry these days, but the University of Oregon’s John E. Jaqua Center for Student Athletes isn’t one of them.

Nonetheless, the 37,000-square-foot academic center has been generating resentment since it opened in January. Much of the facility is open only to athletes. The structure itself is, well, ostentatious. And building the thing, as The Oregonian reported Aug. 6, consumed a staggering amount of money. Including fees, permits, design, furniture, equipment and so on, the Jaqua Center cost nearly $42 million, or roughly $1,100 per square foot.