Columns

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…

When Gretchen Bakke was growing up, Bumble Bee Seafoods’ cannery was closing, the spotted owl was delivering a possible death knell to the timber industry and Astoria was gritty. The lights al…

With the Oregon Legislature running at half-speed last week due to the ice storm, we’ll start by talking a bit about what is, or isn’t, happening at the Capitol. Then we’ll catch up on other t…

Clatsop County’s elected leaders have an unprecedented opportunity to model responsibility and civic sacrifice with the vaccine rollout.

Like a gale that rips off the roofs in a small town, the lingering trauma of Jan. 6 has exposed basic truths about American life. Some of these are intellectual, as they pertain to the U.S. Co…

There’s a long-standing joke among Salem residents that state offices shut down the moment a snowflake is spotted.

Since the start of the pandemic, official reports to child protection agencies have declined across the United States by 20% to 70%, and the Clatsop CASA program is concerned.

During several evenings of testimony and discussion last week, a bipartisan committee voted that state Rep. Diego Hernandez, D-Portland, violated legislative rules against sexual harassment an…

2021 is starting badly as far as transparency in state government.

Mark Kujala knows there might be some skepticism when he grades Clatsop County’s response to the coronavirus pandemic so far as an A.

A third political party has joined the Oregon Legislature. State Sen. Brian Boquist, of Dallas, switched from Republican to being a registered voter with the Independent Party of Oregon.

North Coast Progressive Action crowdsourced these ideas to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Contagious not just to people, COVID-19 is devastating captive mink populations across the world.

‘The difference between the Senate and the House,” Lyndon Johnson famously said, “is the difference between chicken salad and chicken shit.”

I need to find new descriptions for life in Salem and at the Oregon Capitol. “Weird” is both redundant and insufficient.

On the North Coast, we are surrounded by water.

My wish for Oregon in 2021 boils down to four words: clarity, trust and good health.

Every business has a 2020 story.

In the season of peace, in the city of peace, last week the Oregon State Capitol was awash in both amity and animosity.

Arline LaMear has learned the gears of government often turn slowly.

On Dec. 17, The Astorian ran an editorial that invites readers “to come with us on a virtual road trip” which purports to illustrate that the tragic fires that damaged towns throughout Oregon …

How good is your legislator?

Now we know why Gov. Kate Brown has been harping on Congress to send billions more in coronavirus-relief money to states. She is counting on that money to balance our state budget for the next…

Astoria’s downtown streetscapes are visibly brighter these days.

The Oregon Coast is iconic for its craggy cliffs and rugged beaches.

This is the year of “for better or worse.”

One of the unfortunate aspects of this year’s elections was the younger political leaders on the North Coast who chose to step aside.

Thanksgiving is all about making time to reflect on the many things in life for which we are grateful.

As Gov. Kate Brown announced her latest COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and social gatherings, one of the state’s top doctors offered this advice: Learn how to cook your grandmother’s stuf…

One of America’s great adventures attained its goal this month when Lewis and Clark’s canoes came down the Columbia River, arriving at a fateful location on what is now Washington’s southern b…

The Oregon Hunters Association, a group of conservation-minded sportsmen, urges the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to develop and implement a policy to enhance and conserve migratory h…

Oregon voters have passed a new state motto: “Keep Oregon politics weird.”

This fall marks the 50th anniversary of an event that sparked the landmark ruling by federal Judge George Boldt in U.S. v. Washington that upheld our treaty-reserved rights to hunt, fish and gather.

This Veterans Day across the nation, for the first time since the holiday was conceived in November 1919, there were no large ceremonies in big cities and small towns in observance to properly…