Columns

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I am grateful for many things. Here is a varied selection:

Forcing a fish-eating bird colony off East Sand Island near Chinook to protect migrating young salmon and steelhead has resulted in unintended consequences.

One of the surprises in the November election was the failure of a levy that pays for operations at the Warrenton Community Library.

We and our communities of Astoria, Seaside and Warrenton would be much poorer without the nonprofit sector. These charitable organizations are a discrete element of our economy — spanning heal…

I recently returned from a vacation at the Grand Canyon where we had booked a two-night stay, including dinners at a historic lodge perched on the edge of the canyon with breathtaking views an…

Gov.-elect Tina Kotek should consider Oregon’s county commissioners as her partners in government, not mere stakeholders.

Under the guise of “protecting” mature and old-growth forests, anti-forestry groups are pressuring the Biden administration to impose new regulations further restricting timber harvesting and …

Floating offshore wind is a very bad fit for the coast, and anyone forced to purchase the exorbitant high-priced offshore power.

Democrat Tina Kotek will be Oregon’s next governor.

Indigenous tribes existed for thousands of years before we heard the word “infrastructure.”

Astoria is opening a new chapter in its long history. It is becoming a more established, and, we may hope, a more prosperous town.

Once the ballots are counted in Tuesday’s Oregon gubernatorial election, this is the acceptance speech that I hope the winner — whoever she is — will give:

County clerks are not always suited for politics or the culture wars.

The lack of available child care in Clatsop County — and throughout the entire country — has been front and center for years, along with the lack of housing and workforce development.

As a workplace, the Oregon Capitol stinks.

A New York Times reporter contended that he was not hearing much introspection from Oregon Democrats. As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden had won the state with 60% of the vote in 2020 (act…

Now that Oregonians have witnessed — or endured — several debates among the three leading candidates for governor, I offer four questions for voters’ consideration.

It took 75 years, and any number of temporary locations, before Astoria constructed a permanent home for a public library. Now, 55 years later, it’s time to upgrade the building.

As the gubernatorial candidates’ debate came to an end last week in Bend, Democrat Tina Kotek accurately described the choice for Oregon voters: “Are we going to go to the right, or are we goi…

We’ve come to expect the unexpected in the last few years, but several announcements in the print media world in September have surprised us. More so, it will create impacts on The Astorian readers.

Every generation owes it to the next seven generations to protect the environment.

State Sen. Lee Beyer is not green enough to please environmentalists. And probably not sufficiently blue, either.

Astoria is in leadership transition.

Toll roads tempted me last week.

The surge in voter registration by young women is evidence of a powerful political reality, that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn Roe v. Wade has generated a backlash.

Years ago, when I taught classes about the history of roses, I told my students a poignant story about a gentleman in old Paris who had a small garden, all of white roses.

I won’t bury the lead.

Years from now, we may look back on 2022 as the year when the labor movement began its resurgence, ushering in a new era of shared prosperity. Let’s hope so.

Difficult days lie in wait for Oregon legislators and our new governor.

When our family moved to Astoria in 1987, I had the opportunity to spend 30 days getting to know a bevy of Astorians and many others in Clatsop and Pacific counties before becoming editor of T…

As we marked International Overdose Awareness Day on Wednesday and move into the monthlong celebration of Recovery Month this September, I wanted to acknowledge the tremendous community effort…

Oregon seemingly makes a mockery of serving indigent defendants. The agency responsible for providing those lawyers has just blown up.

Paying taxes is our civic duty. The government’s duty is to make it as easy and inexpensive as possible for us to pay our taxes. But for too long, Congress has failed to uphold this responsibi…

If you were building a state capitol, would you construct it on stilts?

Oregon agriculture continues to persevere amid historic drought conditions, worldwide supply chain issues, burdensome and unnecessary regulation and global food insecurity at a level not seen …

School districts in Oregon have flexibility in setting health and safety precautions against the coronavirus pandemic as the new school year begins.

Treaty tribes have been working for decades to get federal support for our essential wildlife programs.

The gold man atop the Oregon State Capitol has gone dark. A cavernous hole has arisen at the building basement; another is on its way. The governor, secretary of state and state treasurer have…

Two years after a major fire raged through the woods at Siouxon Creek, the mast-straight Douglas firs still look like their lower trunks were dipped into a bath of black tar.

Google and Facebook have enormous economic and political power in society — especially over the news industry. Many ask if they have played a role in the misinformation that erodes our free pr…

If what follows is going to make sense to you, it might help to know I’ve been a serious student of history since 1969 when a leprechaun-like dean put this 18-year-old country boy into a grad-…

I’m closing out July the same way I started, with a column about the late political columnist Ron Blankenbaker.

The centennial celebration of Republican U.S. Sen. Mark O. Hatfield’s birth provides a cautionary tale for Oregonians.

On first glance, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the case of a former Bremerton High School assistant football coach seems like a reasonable constitutional balancing act.

Five years after Astoria created a homelessness solutions task force, the city has made little progress.

George Custer is a new player in the struggle to keep Oregon news deserts from happening.

You probably didn’t notice what happened in state government overnight between June 30 and July 1.

The week before COVID-19 lockdowns were announced in 2020, The Astorian invited readers to a forum at the Astoria Library to ask what subscribers valued in their newspaper and what they though…

Dwight Caswell was a big man. Big in so many ways.