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 why there was a need for a parliamentarian when the county already had legal counsel. Others wondered …
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.
When Heidi Wright called me June 3 to suggest that our company should take a look at bidding on Bend’s daily newspaper, The Bulletin, I was at once startled, skeptical and intrigued.
When the Eagles broke up in 1980, Don Henley famously remarked that the band would play together again “when hell freezes over.” They ended up reuniting years later.
Nine people shot dead in Dayton, 13 hours after 22 shot dead in El Paso, six days after three shot dead in Gilroy. And tears and disbelief and funeral preparations, candlelight vigils and a se…
It’s been almost three months since The Daily Astorian became The Astorian, delivered three days a week by mail.
In much the same way that it’s a good idea to assume anyone you talk to here may be related to nearly anyone else you might mention, it’s also fairly safe to assume they have some connection w…
One of the strangest episodes in Oregon legislative history continues to unfold, now that Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, must give 12 hours notice before entering the Oregon Capitol so security…
If we can go back where we came from, guess what? So can you.
Outdoor clothing and gear manufacturer Patagonia recently released “Artifishal,” a misguided documentary full of misinformation about the role hatcheries play in salmon recovery.
I was 11 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. We all figured by now plenty of people would be living there in pressurized trailer parks, taking giant leaps for mankind.
Seeking some positives, I found them on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula, where I have lived 21 years.
Gov. Kate Brown announced last week that she would issue executive decrees, if necessary, to curb greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon.
We have a dangerous new problem raging in our school buildings and campuses in Clatsop County.
Gustafson Logging Co. recently celebrated 45 years of being in business. Over that time, we’ve seen a lot of things in the logging industry change and evolve. Not the least of these is Oregon’…
The 4th of July is one of the best holidays in America. Picnics, barbecues, patriotic music; family and friends getting together to celebrate. Children, and many adults, impatiently wait all d…
You remember the day when you learn a certain lesson.
Have you ever cut out a newspaper article to clip to your refrigerator with a magnet?
PRO: China needs reminding — America is also an Asian power. CON: Deliberately sailing into areas China considers as territorial waters is not a good idea.
As an organization invested in the health of every person in our communities, we were extremely disappointed to hear that the Oregon Legislature abandoned House Bill 3063, which would have eli…
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