Columns

The county fair is a walk through the culmination of thousands of hours of labor. It shows the time, money and love local youth spent on their animals. It is also a preview of the future faces…

Anyone who works the land should be wary of proposed legislation that applies federal Wild and Scenic River designations to 4,700 miles of Oregon rivers, streams, creeks, gulches, draws and un…

Unvaccinated Oregonians don’t trust Gov. Kate Brown’s advice. But new research shows they also lack faith in COVID-19 messaging from almost anyone else, whether talk radio, Fox News, MSNBC or …

At 75, Ken Palmrose, who was born and raised in Seaside, is the author of “Out of the Blue: A Young Man’s Journey from the Palms of Vietnam to the Pine Forest of the West.”

The Coquille and two tributaries, Beaver Creek and China Camp Creek, cross a huge flood plain or delta about 20 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean behind Coos Bay. To the common eye, it looks…

Oregon doesn’t have traffic crashes.

Over the last 40 years, our family has vacationed at the same place on the beach. While the buildings have been refurbished, the complex remains largely unchanged. The exception was last year …

State Rep. Suzanne Weber’s first legislative session was shaped by the coronavirus pandemic.

The far-reaching 2021 Legislature was the most expensive in Oregon history, approaching $30 billion in basic spending.

After 15 months, the black-and-yellow CORONAVIRUS banner under The Astorian’s front page masthead is gone.

Suzanne Weber recalls when the Oregon Capitol hallways were so crowded with lawmakers, lobbyists and other folks that she had to edge her way through sideways.

The 2021 session started with the hope that the state Legislature would honor our Vietnam veterans by passing a bill to establish a Vietnam War Memorial on the Oregon State Capitol grounds.

How do we come back? When? And what will it look like?

No more will Lawanda and James Manning carry the American and Oregon flags to start each day’s session of the Oregon Senate.

In a year of racial strife in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, many Americans would be surprised at the concept of an academic police officer.

Red velvet beet cake, hibiscus lemonade, strawberry cornbread cobbler. Each of these Juneteenth delights showcases an auspicious vibrancy symbolic of our nation’s history.

I have read that there is discussion at Astoria High School about whether the school mascot, the “Fishermen,” needs to be “updated” to be more gender friendly.

When will the Oregon Capitol reopen to the public?

Think of the hazards threatened by ransomware as akin to those caused by the Great Coastal Gale of 2007.

What really counts as “bad” behavior in the Oregon Capitol?

The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police ignited protests against racism and police brutality around the world.

It is a curse to live in an era you do not understand. It is a fair bet that many Oregonians, across the political spectrum, harbor that anxiety.

When Oregon made national news in late May, “it wasn’t because of riots in Portland, and it wasn’t because of other issues from our most populated city,” said state Rep. David Brock Smith, R-P…

Over the winter, as coronavirus cases surged, Clatsop County turned to the private sector for help with the vaccine rollout.

Every summer, thousands of commercial and sport fishermen, seafood processors and sport fishing guides — many of them Oregonians — migrate to western Alaska for the remarkable annual return of…

If social justice matters to our congressional delegation, which we believe it does, then it is long past time to restore federal recognition to the Chinook Indian Nation. The responsibility a…

With gusto, an employee of a Salem tire store tipped down the signs stating that face coverings were required. Up went new notices with a hot-off-the press exemption: Customers who are fully v…

Who hasn’t fantasized about getting to travel back in time, even if only for five minutes, to nudge the future in a different direction? For me, one that comes to mind is a quick trip to 1928 …

For the second year in a row, Memorial Day observances in communities, organizations and even within family groups will look very different later this month because of the COVID pandemic.

Who writes the laws in Oregon? The Legislature, the governor or state agencies?

Don Malarkey, who grew up in Astoria, found forgiveness late in life, then a measure of peace.

Well, that was anticlimactic. And strange, maybe even bizarre.

Twenty years ago, Democrats in the Oregon Legislature were publicly incensed about the redistricting plan created by then-Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. The plan arbitrarily benefitted Repu…

The dead are always with us. That is especially so in a town as old as Astoria. Our cemeteries are a walk through history, the human comedy and sorrow.

Oh, what to do if you’re ready to exit the Oregon Legislature? How about one of the cushiest jobs in state government.

Fish processors and wood products come to mind when thinking of manufacturing in Clatsop County. There’s also the one-of-a-kind airport tugs, grinders and forage bag manufacturers with histori…

Oregon high schoolers may soon have to learn about their government. So today, I offer a primer on what goes on behind the scenes … the stuff that might not show up in textbooks.

The Garden of Surging Waves tells the story of Chinese immigrants who helped build Astoria.

The Oregon Capitol remains closed to the public. But the supermajority Democrats say the 2021 legislative session is the most open, transparent and accessible on record, thanks to the use of t…

Many of us have mixed emotions about the pending resurgence of tourism. While some local institutions and businesses — notably museums and hotels — have suffered without tourist dollars, autom…

SEASIDE — Clatsop County has administered more than 17,350 vaccine doses against the coronavirus.

Bob Swenson has lived on Dow Lane in Youngs River for around 45 years. He’s been making peoples’ day for nearly as long.

Mark Simmons, a Republican former speaker of the Oregon House, was set to testify last week at the Idaho Legislature in favor of letting eastern and southern Oregon counties become part of Idaho.

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the often stark contrasts between Oregon counties.

Treaty Indian tribes in western Washington state strongly support proposed state legislation to place a statue of the late natural resources and civil rights champion Billy Frank Jr. to replac…

Should Oregon legislators still get paid if they don’t show up for work (i.e., the minority Republicans)?

David Carlson — who played the soundtrack of the North Coast theater world for over a decade — died on the night of March 4 after a long bout with cancer. He was 82.

If there was any question whether broadband was an essential service, COVID-19 made the answer painfully clear — there’s nothing optional about a fast, reliable internet connection.

The governors of Oregon and Washington state both say that science has guided their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a Seattle Times columnist thinks that Oregon “went more with its…

I have a box of index cards for a book that I never wrote. The working title was “Goodbye, Oregon: The Passing of a Place.” I gathered research material in the 1980s. The book’s premise was th…

The Oregon Senate began passing legislation last week. But it’s not yet time for Oregonians to worry. Or applaud.

Clatsop Community Action has an outsized role in the social services safety net on the North Coast.

Already robust levels of hiking, camping, boating and every other kind of outdoor recreation in our region has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic as many try to cure the effects of cabin fever.

If this were a normal year, Room 50 in the basement of the Oregon Capitol would have been packed for last week’s gun-control hearing. The overflow crowd also would have filled additional rooms…