Columnists

When my wife, Edel, a teacher, developed a cough after working with a woman who came to the elementary school slightly sick, we assumed it was just that, a cough.

I just read an excellent article titled “Staying sane at home during COVID-19” in the East Oregonian and it got me thinking of all you kids out there that are bummed because school is canceled…

In the time of coronavirus, I headed to Southern Utah’s remote canyon country to do some extreme social distancing.

It is urgent and imperative to provide for Oregon students’ educational needs while protecting their health and that of their teachers and communities. Let’s use a 21st century tool to avoid a…

Old habits die hard … or when faced with a global pandemic. In recent years, the idea that humans won’t change their behavior spurred a whole field of economics developed to “nudge” people to …

How often to do you see a senior citizen wearing a Vietnam veteran hat at the bank, the grocery store or at a community gathering? It is common today, but there was a time our Vietnam veterans…

A little more than a year ago, winter returned to Pendleton with a vengeance late in the season. Snow piled up with surprising amounts of the white stuff. Some days it was light and dry, easy …

These are uncertain times and the ability to collect the right kind of information is crucial. That need will only grow as our great nation continues to battle the COVID-19 virus outbreak.

From here to anywhere, I named this column. Because stories can do that — take us from wherever we are to anywhere else. Of course, we have to be careful, because the places they take us can b…

One of my first jobs in public health was to manage 25 emergency treatment centers during a cholera epidemic in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Have you ever wondered what the large ”soccer ball on the hill” is on Interstate 84 near the airport in Pendleton?

The threat of the coronavirus of 2020 and its protocols — school closures, event cancellations, “social distancing” — have unsettled many Pendleton residents. In times of uncertainty, it can b…

The last few weeks will always standout as the most interesting, and challenging, of my journalism career.

For those of you who missed the 1960s, the I-Ching, or Book of Changes, is an Asian set of guiding principles that one consults to get a better understanding of problems or circumstances and b…

Citizens of democracies can scarcely fathom the extreme, but effective, social controls China has imposed in response to the coronavirus outbreak. But now we are seeing variations on China’s l…

Letters to the editor are one of my favorite features of a newspaper.

The EPA report from 1990-2018 on U.S. emissions shows an overall increase of 3.7%, but since 2005 a decline by 12.3%. Oregon fares well because our vast agricultural and forest lands need carb…

I like coaching my son’s baseball team, a lot. When I started the goal was to spend time with my son watching him do something we both love. It’s still the main goal, but now I’ve developed so…

I wasn’t sure what we’d signed ourselves up for at the beginning of basketball season this year, but isn’t that how we all feel at the beginning of anything new?

In my youth, I was a wanderer, working in outdoors wherever I went. That’s included ranching in Australia, farming in Israel, working in fishing and forestry in Norway, and forest and wildlife…

I love hunting elk near Mt. Emily. We had a spot where, for several years in a row, we were able to find spike elk on the open ridgetops. We had figured out how the elk were using this area, a…

Election security is a big discussion topic for the 2020 elections where misinformation is the biggest threat to elections. The 2016 election saw the use of misinformation in connection with e…

The city of Pendleton and its employees took immediate action, and then burned the midnight oil during relief efforts for its residents affected by recent flood events. They continue to work t…

There is a housing crisis in America, and its symptoms touch nearly every aspect of our society.

Small things do matter.

Bernie Sanders’ sweeping win in the Nevada Democratic caucus will surely prompt the Russians to pop Champagne. They’ve been reportedly boosting Bernie behind the scenes, having calculated that…

I’m an old liberal Democrat, and why is that? Family politics are often genetic, so I should explain how my father became a liberal Democrat.

In 1980, Oregon outlawed the dumping of radioactive waste. Just last year, Oregon enacted a five-year ban on fossil fuel fracking. Even so, a nationwide epidemic of illegal dumping of radioact…

Recently, I’ve run into a former student of mine randomly at a coffee shop or the movies, but also in a joint experience rehearsing for the College Community Theatre production of “The Sound o…

I want to start this column by commending the tremendous work done by the members of Pendleton’s public works, public safety, Parks and Rec, facilities, the Convention Center, and many other d…

I have a favorite cousin who resides in Northwest Oregon in an area that is still predominantly rural, though the urban sprawl of the Portland Metro area is just over the hill from the farm he…

For those of us who are strong advocates for climate change reform in our state, the inconvenient truths surrounding the latest climate change legislation — Senate Bill 1530 — before the Orego…

Susan Collins was absolutely right about this much: President Donald Trump has learned his lesson. And he’s learned it by heart.

The national Democratic Party is in full panic now, its leaders in a headlong flight like something from a 1950s sci-fi flick where terrorized townspeople flee a 10-story-tall monster crushing…

Some of the biggest corporations in the United States are brawling over the future of the law that allows free speech and innovation to thrive online. Under the guise of getting rid of lies an…

As the past week has shown, communities in our watershed are good at figuring out how to meet the needs of us people living here. We may be especially good at crises. In day-to-day matters, it…

There is the old adage that you don’t know how resilient a person is until you see them face a serious challenge and overcome it.

What to do about climate change has become a contentious issue in Oregon. But this week brought what felt to me like good news.

Yogi Berra has a timely warning for the fractured Democratic party. The baseball legend and accidental oracle is reputed to have said, “It gets late early out here.”

When future historians look for the last, documented instance of Republican political courage in the Trump imperium, they’ll look to one man: Sen. Mitt Romney.

SALEM — At 5:30 a.m. Thursday, the Oregon Capitol was eerily quiet.

Several of you recently viewed a social media post of what appeared to be a homeless man openly injecting drugs on the side of the road. In fact, it was on a corner where this man can be seen …

To my dear gun-toting friends on the Trumpian right — relax. Take a step back, do some deep breathing exercises, and hear this — no one is “coming to take your guns.” I hate to admit it but it…

“It was early Sunday morning. I was playing bass in a bar band, so by the time we got all of our gear back in the van and I drove an hour home, it was a good three or four in the morning.

A triumphant but low-key President Trump took to center stage Tuesday night at the U.S. Capitol to deliver his third State of the Union address.

One sunny early spring day a few years ago, my wife, Kathy, and I broke our cabin fever by hopping on our mountain bikes and riding out into the desert of southeastern Oregon. I remember takin…

It’s no secret that my Democratic colleagues in the state Senate want to pass a cap-and-trade bill this year (SB 1530). They tried last year with HB 2020, but were unsuccessful. They’ve been w…

What a dire scenario: A corrupt Republican president soaked in scandal wins re-election in part because dimwitted Democrats decide to nominate a small-state senator who’s way too left-wing for…

I’ve always admired people who are willing to run for local councils and boards. It takes a unique blend of self-confidence and self-sacrifice to do the job well, and it truly takes all kinds.

It’s the start of February and we’re nowhere close to being done with calving. The weather has been mild this winter, which has been a gift in itself, but even with the sunny days and warmer t…

I will spare you the full joke, but the punch line is, “If you can’t govern, you had better entertain!”

In what has become an annual display of businesses’ addiction to cheap labor, commerce leaders are lobbying the acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Chad Wolf, to increase the H-2…

Welcome to 2020. You may be aware we have a major election coming up this year.

There’s always a twinkle in her eye when she talks about what fills her life these days. Rae is someone I’ve gotten to know after she retired from the workplace she started at when she was 17.