Editorials

Farmers have been poring over the details of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s interim rules governing the production of hemp. They haven’t liked a lot of what they see.

With the holiday shopping season upon us, we would like to urge residents to shop local, and here’s why.

When people spend other people’s money, they can be less than finicky. And so it seems with workers at the state of Oregon.

For years we’ve advocated for legislation that would give agricultural producers and processors easier access to affordable, legal foreign workers they need to make up for the lack of domestic…

Oregon Republicans most likely understood at the end of the last session that the controversial carbon emission issue wasn’t going to go away.

Oregon may not know it yet, but in 2021, it is going to lose a tremendous amount of influence in Washington, D.C.

You can be savoring an IPA along the John Day River after a long day of adventuring in Oregon’s forests and honestly wonder if things couldn’t get much better. But sometimes those charged with…

Ginger McCall, Oregon’s first public records advocate, left office Oct. 11 with some suggestions for her successor, the Public Records Advisory Council she headed and lawmakers and other offic…

With all due respect to Sonny Perdue, there’s more to farming than size.

Farm groups are lauding a new agricultural trade deal the administration has reached with Japan.

Oregonians may be asked next year to approve a ballot measure that would decriminalize the possession of illegal drugs. That in itself is a bad idea. Worse is the way the measure would finance…

Gov. Kate Brown missed an excellent opportunity when she declined last week to call for a special session of the Legislature to amend Senate Bill 1013, a new law that revises the crime of aggr…

Gov. Kate Brown’s decision to hire Oregon’s first public records advocate in January 2018 was a promising step toward addressing deficiencies with how agencies, at both the state and local lev…

The efforts to put a recall of Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on the ballot is a visible sign of the rural-urban divide.

We remember when we found out that our favorite chocolate chip cookies weren’t made by elves in a hollow tree. Had we not been 8 at the time we might have hired a lawyer and taken the folks at…

Occasionally it is prudent to remind voters in Oregon of a few, fundamental elements regarding our access to government.

A time-honored tradition that hearkens back to a simpler time, a county fair typically serves as a demarcation line between the end of summer and the start of school. The fair is sort of that …

A Clackamas County judge has opened a gaping loophole in Oregon’s Public Records Law, and the state Court of Appeals needs to slam it shut, posthaste.

By now most area voters know about the two efforts to recall Gov. Kate Brown and as the effort gains steam lawmakers on both sides of the aisle should take notice.

Democracy shouldn’t be a spectator sport.

Recent thunderstorms sparking multiple small fires across the forest should be a reminder that fire season is here.

Progress, our new special section inside this week’s edition, is a testament to what can be accomplished when people work together with the shared goal of improving their communities.

The United States and Mexico reached a last-minute deal June 7 that prevented the imposition of new tariffs threatened by the Trump administration.

Last week the nation and Europe marked the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

There is great irony in a legislative proposal to embrace the National Popular Vote, which would change how Oregon helps elect our nation’s president.

Many local people have spent countless hours on projects to better our communities, and we believe that focusing on these achievements will inspire more while bringing people together.

Oregon voters watched Monday as political drama took center stage in Salem when Republican members of the Senate returned after a week-long walk out.

The good news is Gov. Kate Brown finally has a plan for putting PERS on solid financial footing. The bad news is that it includes pushing SAIF off that solid ground, as well as taking most of …

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the Democrat majority in the Legislature want to make sure that no one in the state, least of all farmers and ranchers, receive any benefits from regulatory relief f…

Former Secretary of State Norma Paulus was a product of rural Oregon. She exemplified what individuals can do when given a chance — conquering poverty, polio and the lack of a college degree t…

Dennis Richardson was a courageous man.

A racial slur being used against one of our local student-athletes at a high school basketball game is appalling, and as a community, we must stand together in declaring bigotry will not be to…

Every child in Oregon deserves an excellent education — regardless of where the student lives or attends school, regardless of whether the student comes from a well-to-do family or an impoveri…

As a society, we have made such progress against once-common illnesses that we forget they are still around and still potentially life-threatening. The measles outbreak in Southeast Washington…

As the Oregon Legislature prepared to start work this week, its leaders were saying all the right things about working together, respecting rural Oregon and doing what was best for the state a…

A federal judge has dismissed a third lawsuit filed by an environmental group to stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from shooting barred owls in an experimental attempt to boost numbers o…

A new legislative report underscores that PERS could be headed for more trouble.

After possible procedural errors in its adoption were pointed out, Grant County officials made the wise decision to look further into the marijuana tax ordinance passed recently.

There was a time when Americans could expect their federal government to offer service that was both even-handed and helpful. Even timely.

Unlike much of the U.S., last month’s mid-term election was ho-hum in Oregon — as in, few election snafus.

Good deeds don’t happen by accident.