Columns

Charitable organizations enrich our lives on the North Coast.

Being isolated from the coronavirus pandemic gave lots of time to reminisce about remarkable changes that have transformed the world and reshaped our lives since the 1930s. They’re changes mos…

Between us, my wife and I have five great-great-grandfathers who fought in the Civil War to end slavery and preserve the Union. One died during the war. Two others died later from chronic ailm…

I never imagined that the incidents leading up to and following the killing of George Floyd by law enforcement officers in Minnesota would incite such volatile demonstrations and fuel discussi…

Mum is dead.

The message might not fit neatly on a protest sign, but Ron Louie, a former Astoria police chief, believes mandatory accreditation has the potential to make the biggest difference in law enforcement.

Over the past week and a half, hundreds of Astorians gathered on our streets in demonstrations to condemn the racism that persists in too many corners of our society, both hidden, and in the o…

Jo Rae Perkins’ victory in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in May announces that the Oregon Republican Party is running out of gas.

In 1956 — my father still tells the story today — a team of baseball players from his hometown in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, won the regional championship.

En 1956 —mi padre aún sigue contando la historia — el equipo de béisbol de su pueblo natal en Cananea, Sonora, México ganó el campeonato regional.

Small, family-owned businesses are the economic and cultural heartbeat of small towns.

If you are a newspaper subscriber or you pick up a copy at a local retailer, you pay for the news and information you receive in your paper’s print edition or digital outlets.

Though the state budget hole grabbed the most headlines, there were other important takeaways from the state’s latest economic and revenue forecasts.

Roughly 30 years ago, I was in my shop attempting to bore a hole through a piece of steel plate when my next-door neighbor, Doug Bracher, wandered in. “You need to put a little oil on that,” he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been unlike anything Clatsop County Public Health Department staff has ever experienced.

Turning the page on Clatsop County’s complicated history with native peoples, on May 5 the North Coast Land Conservancy transferred ownership of the historic site of Neacoxie village to the Cl…

Our region is rich with authors. Four of them visited with me about how the coronavirus pandemic has affected their literary world.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Columbia Pacific Coordinated Care Organization is keenly aware of the additional burdens and challenges for everyone.

Clatsop County’s robust performing arts sector is rare in a rural county. Like restaurants and other consumer-driven enterprises, theaters have been dealt a big setback by the coronavirus shutdown.

As a community, we’ve gone through a lot together to do our part in flattening the coronavirus infection curve.

Restaurants are a major economic sector of Astoria and Clatsop and Pacific counties. The seven restaurants represented in this conversation employ collectively 186 — a workforce the size of a …

The brutal coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that we live in an interconnected world. When things go haywire in some small place, its repercussions can soon be felt on the other side of th…

The most remarkable element about EO Media Group’s climate series was the timing.

Uncertainty about when and how the COVID-19 health and economic crises will end is nearly as distressful for many as the crises themselves.

Residents of the Pacific Northwest have a special connection with two of the world’s greatest river systems.

History is all about perspective. Each new layer of events give meaning to those that preceded them. As we deal with the radical change in our lives that the coronavirus has brought, it is use…

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our world in many ways.

Andy Davis is the chairman of the Clatsop County Democratic Central Committee.

In 2009, I was working on a disaster recovery project for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. I had a General Services Administration contract and my little company set up information te…

Merle Chessman ran this newspaper during tumultuous times.

Of the lessons learned in my years working in the Pacific Northwest timber industry, the most significant has been the importance of taking the long view.

Astorians have always been tough, resilient and compassionate. They demonstrated this by quickly rebuilding after a 1922 fire obliterated 32 blocks of businesses, workplaces and homes, and by …

Unlike tsunami preparedness, we don’t have a go-bag for this coronavirus.

The antidote to Oregon’s vitriolic 2020 legislative session came in a phone call from a woman who had a basic question for me: “How am I supposed to survive?”

The Astoria City Council is looking to take steps to prohibit more large chain-type restaurants and lodging in town.

Oregon’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic got off to a rocky start.

The field is set for the local 2020 elections. Tuesday was the filing deadline for candidates running in Oregon’s May 19 primary election.

‘The Twilight Zone,” also known as the 2020 Oregon Legislature, has gone off the air.

Astorians have legitimate concerns and are asking good questions about what preparations are being made locally to deal with what experts say is the inevitable appearance of COVID-19.

Thirty years ago, tribes and conservation organizations had to submit petitions listing Snake River salmon under the Endangered Species Act because the federal agencies would not take action t…

#TimberUnity is a misnomer. Climate deniers are attempting to claim the timber industry is unified in opposing cap-and-trade legislation. This is a lie.

Twenty years ago, West Coast groundfish stocks such as sole and rockfish were in serious trouble. Decades of overfishing had brought their populations to the cliff edge of collapse. In 2000, f…

Now in his early 70s, Daniel Koller should want to be known to us as a veterinarian who dedicated his life to relieving the pain of animals and to contributing to their fitness and well-being.

I was deeply saddened to read the editorial published by The Astorian in support of the cap-and-trade bill being considered by state lawmakers. Not only did the content ignore some very basic …

I started out picking strawberries for our neighbors at 6 years old, and graduated to picking black caps at 10. From then, I moved to hauling hay and working on a dairy.

Secrecy is the enemy of public health. That truism has been reconfirmed in China, where the totalitarian government kept news of the coronavirus from key decision-makers and the Chinese public…

The fleeting shelf life of fame is nowhere better illustrated than in politics. A typical mayor or state legislator has no greater chance of being remembered beyond their term in office than d…

Drive through the picturesque town of Yamhill at the foot of the hills of the Willamette Valley and you’ll see a high school, gas station, red blinking traffic light, city hall and a few shops.