Columns

The name Deep River conjures thoughts of complex mysteries drifting in eddies far below the water’s surface like monstrous old sturgeon. It makes an ideal title for a novel about a feisty cont…

The book “Deep River” by Karl Marlantes is the fictional story of a woman, Aino Koski, from her youth in Finland in the early 1900s through a series of harrowing events to her later years in t…

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to say on The Ship Report about the tragedy on the beach at Falcon Cove near Cannon Beach this weekend. A dad and his two small children were swept out to s…

Last May, the U.S. and Canada began negotiations to modernize the Columbia River Treaty — a 1964 agreement that defines the way both countries share the Northwest’s greatest waterway.

Four questions will determine the fate of the 2020 Oregon Legislature. Several days of legislative committee meetings this week will provide the first clues to the answers.

Many people want to be sheriff’s deputies to catch the bad guys and put them in jail.

I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions or annual predictions. Instead, in the interest of stirring the political pot, I offer five possibly provocative proposals for education in Oregon.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s draft report on the lower Snake River dams raises important questions about the future of our region’s salmon runs, energy and infrastructure. But one of the most …

“Ringing in the new year” with wild and pure noise is a folk favorite long predating the expensive and smelly ignition of fireworks. With mom’s Bell surname pumping deep in my veins, bell ring…

As the new year approaches, the No. 1 issue for Oregon voters is …

After a monthlong trial, after hearing more than 100 hours of testimony and reviewing hundreds of exhibits, some going back to the early 1900s, the Linn County jury deliberated for only a few …

State Rep. Caddy McKeown, D-Coos Bay, minced no words.

Thank you for reading this column.

What contributes to student success? Across Oregon, educators, parents, students and community members are gathering to discuss just that, and to determine how funds from the recently enacted …

Hailing from each of Oregon’s 36 counties, nearly 150,000 Oregonians served in the armed forces during World War II, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office.

The Port of Astoria burned through five executive directors since 2012.

It took a Linn County jury only a few hours to determine what timber communities have long known — state forests are being mismanaged.

Earlier this year, I was honored and delighted to be asked to serve as parliamentarian for the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners. This is a mysterious role to many people. Some wondered wh…

Despite the certainty that what we publish will never please all of our readers all of the time, at The Astorian we still continually strive to improve our content and timeliness.

The popular narrative around the Oregon Capitol and much of the Willamette Valley is that 11 Republican state senators shirked their constitutional responsibilities by twice walking out on the…

As someone who lives in or loves to visit Oregon’s North Coast, you’ve probably visited a park that has been protected or improved by the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

One of this newspaper’s great assets lives not in our building.

Oregon is assured of having a new member in Congress in 2021.

SEASIDE — Mark Hansen, a Vietnam War veteran, presented plans for a granite memorial to be installed in Seltzer Park in the Cove. The plaque will honor veterans who attended Seaside High School.

One of America’s defining adventures was reaching its crescendo 214 years ago just now within sight of Astoria.

On Nov. 11, 1969, Operation Fulton Square in the Quang Tri Province was in full force with the assistance of the 1st Marine Division, 101st Airborne Division and the 5th Infantry Division. Thi…

Last month, John Shepherd’s obituary was published in The Astorian. Perhaps I wouldn’t have noticed it if it weren’t for an email from my neighbor, Bill Shaw, that read, “I would like to sugge…

For years, folks in Clatsop County have talked about how to get more affordable housing. This term usually means private housing available to anybody on the open market and costs no more than …

The ability to vote is the single greatest representation of democracy in existence today.

With looming questions about our environment, economy and basic survival in a war-torn world, I am of the opinion that the most important thing we can teach our young people is what is truth a…

In Clatsop County, we are home to beautiful landscapes like beaches, state forests and mountains. We’re also home to one of the world’s deadliest bars — the Graveyard of the Pacific — the Colu…

Honolulu’s Moana Surfrider Hotel on Waikiki Beach made a picture-perfect setting for Jacques Cousteau’s speech in 1980. At an outdoor American Bar Association luncheon near the historic centur…

We Oregonians are in a time of transition.

Oregon’s outdated forest laws are failing our communities and our environment. They threaten our water and degrade our land, exacerbating both droughts and floods. They pollute our drinking wa…

Oregon’s commercial crabbing industry prides itself on sustainability.

It is a reader’s joy to discover a favorite author writing about a favorite person. That was my delight at finding Jimmy Breslin’s short biography of Branch Rickey. It is part of the Penguin L…

Historians love to quote William Faulkner about how the “past is never dead. It’s not even past.” Southerners know this in their bones. Northwesterners have yet to learn it.

Today’s wheels of civic progress turn so slowly at all levels of government. Often it feels like we’re stuck, or moving backwards. As Oregonians scrutinize problems in our nation’s capital, we…

State Rep. Tiffiny Mitchell is the target of a recall drive by #TimberUnity over her vote for cap and trade.

It may be what my grandmother Hilda Bell and her mom had in mind a century ago when they made a World War I scrapbook: capturing the mood of that explosive time for the benefit of an unknown g…

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum supported a resolution in the state Legislature that would have asked voters in November 2020 whether to change the state constitution and require unani…

Earlier this year, I spent a few days, all too short, with my mother. At the time, I didn’t know she was dying, or at least I didn’t want to acknowledge it. She was frail, yes, but she was als…

In June, the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 1013 that narrowed the definition of aggravated murder and drastically reduced the number of murderers in this state who are eligible for the…

In the past year, I’ve become a vocal opponent of House Bill 2020, the cap-and-trade program. As the president of the United Steelworkers Local 1097 at the Georgia-Pacific Wauna Mill in Westpo…

The human being beneath the veneer of an eminent politician is seldom very interesting.

As a board member for the #TimberUnity Association, a grassroots group, I recently attended the annual economic summit of coastal legislators in Florence. I wanted to hear firsthand lawmakers’…

I love watching football, something I credit to my grandmother and mother, both NFL superfans. I’ve watched pro and college games at all levels, and still buy tickets to Beaver football games,…

A small town like Astoria is at the mercy of who shows up. By that I mean it is new blood that has given the place new ideas, connections and cultural investment. Jo Robinson was one of those …

The beginning of the school year is a rejuvenating time for students and staff in the Astoria School District, and they are eager to work together for what should be a very successful year.

We are family representatives for the property proposed for a Grocery Outlet in Astoria.

Warrenton Mayor Henry Balensifer is not anti-development.

One thing about turning 87 is often thinking, “Here we go again.” A good example is the recent mass shootings that put gun control back into the public spotlight.

Perhaps the most unheralded local election is the one scheduled for Nov. 5 at the elementary and middle schools.

Every few years, sugar just might coalesce out of the kiln-baked soil in my grandparents’ plum thicket at their little retirement ranch in western Wyoming.