Editorials

The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office audits tell us what we know but need to be reminded about: State government makes mistakes with money.

Farmers and ranchers learn to keep a sharp eye out for invasions. Not the military kind, the pest kind.

Oregon governments, from the governor’s office down to library boards, are supposed to be transparent. They are in a number of ways. But they don’t always put their heart into it. Sometimes th…

Oregon lawmakers made a good move toward greater transparency in government when they passed two bills connected to higher education.

In the end, it is a shame that a few Oregon lawmakers were forced to resort to a little-known, and hardly used, rule to get a bill that addresses criminal sexual contact off the ice and moving…

An Oregon initiative petition drive now gathering signatures seeks to end “unnecessary exemptions to laws governing animal abuse, animal neglect, and animal sexual assault.”

Oregon state Sen. Mike Dembrow, D-Portland, has been noisy about the need for the Oregon Health Authority to be transparent about the COVID-19 data it releases.

Today we’d like you to draft a multimillion dollar wish list and send it off to your Oregon state senator and state representative.

The state of Oregon’s plan to salvage the timber in a small part of the Santiam State Forest is a win-win both for the people who live and work there and for the people who own it — the taxpayers.

A prodigious amount of U.S. farmland continues to be converted to other uses. The American Farmland Trust estimates that between 2001 and 2016 more than 11 million acres were taken out of ag p…

The Oregon Legislature is poised to approve yet another gun mandate, and while the battle lines over such issues are clearly drawn, the real lesson for voters is they must remain involved and …

State Senate President Peter Courtney held a news conference before the 2021 legislative session to announce steps to keep the legislative process accessible to Oregonians.

In crafting his plan for the removal of the dams on the lower Snake River, Rep. Mike Simpson has managed to forge consensus between farm, shipping and environmental interests on his idea. They…

Rural Oregon is facing a difficult post-COVID economic recovery. The $1.9 trillion federal coronavirus relief package will undoubtedly help, but without addressing some long-standing barriers …

Policy disagreements, partisanship and the walkouts can give Oregonians a distorted picture of what their Oregon Legislature is like. Journalists — and certainly this editorial page — tend to …

The fight for more transparency is more important now than ever before, and one of our most important jobs as a newspaper is to consistently push to ensure the light of clarity shines into eve…

When the Blue Mountain Eagle and other newspapers request access to information from the government, it sometimes hits the “Wall of No.”

On occasion, we are reminded that the budget process used by the Oregon Legislature and state agencies is a bit curious.

“The U.S. can’t go it alone.” For many years policy wonks in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere have told Americans the U.S. shouldn’t take on major international issues by itself.

Frustration. Confusion. Fear. Anger.

Fulfilling a campaign promise, Joe Biden wants to boost the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The resignation of Oregon’s former public records advocate, Ginger McCall, still echoes with consequences.

Since May we have watched ever more stunning and audacious acts of violence committed in our great cities under the cover of “mostly peaceful” protests.

In its decision to phase out the pesticide chlorpyrifos, the folks at the Oregon Department of Agriculture appear to have forgotten someone: the farmers.

In today’s pop culture climate, politicians rarely receive much thanks, but the work of U.S. Rep. Greg Walden stands out as a classic example of what an elected leader should do once he or she…

Come with us on a virtual road trip. We’ll start in the Cascade Range near the Willamette Valley of Oregon and head south on Interstate 5. We’ll stop in towns with names like Detroit, Gates, B…

Last month a coalition of agricultural and environmental groups announced an historic alliance to recommend proposals to the Biden administration to address climate change.

Recounts and legal challenges notwithstanding, it appears Joe Biden will be president on Jan. 20, 2021.

The news of skyrocketing numbers of COVID-19 infections across the United States is reminding us of the original meaning of the phrase “going viral.”

The Blue Mountain Eagle will be printed on a different press going forward, but the same people will still be creating the same newspaper for our customers.

This year it is more important than ever to shop local.

Greg Walden is retiring, creating a race for an open seat for Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District. Cliff Bentz, a Republican, is the best person to fill it.

Drug abuse and addiction are huge problems in Oregon. Methamphetamine, opiates (heroin, fentanyl and oxycodone and others) and cocaine damage and kill thousands of people every year. Few of us…

The University of California Cooperative Extension has issued a timely study showing cattle grazing is an essential tool in reducing wildfire.

Grant County’s public records policy is problematic on several levels, and it certainly seems as if county officials are trying to make it more difficult for the public to see these public records.

Campaign finance reform seems like a no-brainer.

There are no adjectives that adequately describe the devastation that wildfires have brought to the West in the last month. At least 33 people are known to have died in the fires, and the dama…

Fires have ravaged the western part of our great state, displacing thousands, while smoke continues to linger in our county and elsewhere in Oregon.

The cost of health care has been growing faster than wages and faster than the state economy. Some Oregonians cannot get the health care coverage they want or worry they can’t afford going to …

Now is the time to start thinking of creative ways to solve our child care crisis, as we rebuild our economy that has been so damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic.

News consumption is growing exponentially, but for the past decade, the revenue to news publishers has been on a decline. This is, in large part, because of the unbalanced relationship between…

The idea of a travel bans, because of COVID-19, briefly floated across the state radar screen not long ago before it seemingly vanished, and that is probably a good thing.

With all due respect, our friends at Harvard University are wrong.

The state of Oregon and the federal courts have not been on the same page when it comes to signature gathering during the pandemic. The case has become a clash between the First Amendment and …

Environmental advocates are howling over the Trump administration’s proposed update of rules that govern the National Environmental Policy Act — the first since its implementation in 1978.

Feeding America is a tough job, but U.S. farmers, ranchers, orchardists, dairy operators and food processors rise to the occasion every day. Together, they produce plenty of affordable food fo…

Every month since early in 2018, the Oregon Department of Human Services has been publishing reports for Gov. Kate Brown showing its progress to rebuild and improve the state’s foster care system.

Cattle ranchers in Oregon’s wolf country face a dilemma when a calf or cow turns up dead: Report it to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and time the response with a calendar, or ignor…

It was 244 years ago, in 1776, that 13 British colonies in North America declared their independence.

The COVID-19 virus outbreak put unexpected pressure on an array of state and federal agencies, and in at least one case, the compression created leaks that sprouted into wide fissures.

Gov. Kate Brown used an apt metaphor recently regarding the COVID-19 virus and what may be in store for the state over the next month.