If you haven’t driven through Stanfield lately, I’m here to provide you with a public service announcement — road construction is taking place on Highway 395 and it wasn’t very well marked when I drove through town recently. However, a nice Oregon State Police trooper pointed it out to me.
We all have busy lives filled with activities from the moment we wake up until our head hits the bed. Yet quite often, at some point in the day, you might hear “I’m bored” or “I don’t have any…
The first chapter in the Echo-Stanfield Girls Soccer journey has been quite incredible.
In recent days, I have been hearing a lot about “the Oregon Way.” I still do not know the etymology of the phrase, or even what would make the Oregon Way different from the Washington Way; the…
Over and over again, the people of our area remind me they are amazing helpers. The kindness I have seen lately has been so great, I hardly know where to start.
Gov. Kate Brown, in a recent op-ed, made the case for urgent action to help salmon and steelhead in defense of her decision to have Oregon litigate over the future of salmon and hydropower and…
In a park early this morning, I had a thought about the joy I have been experiencing lately. The feelings I experienced following this initial thought started with guilt but then morphed into …
It’s back-to-school time. After this last year, our children experienced many futuristic forms of back to school. Very few were what we would consider normal with the pandemic happening around…
While John and I don’t have children, we consider our pets as our canine kids. And this time of year is special in our house.
Over the many years I have engaged with stakeholders and tribal partners about a path forward in the Columbia Basin, one thing is clear: The status quo isn’t working. Iconic salmon and steelhe…
The man yelled before reaching the dam on the Umatilla River — “Pelican! Pelican!”
County fair season has arrived in Oregon. This month, generations will come together to celebrate the hard work of those involved in programs like 4-H and FFA.
I remember Camp Pine Valley because it was the site of my first kiss, delivered by a sweet nerdy guy named Frank.
Oregon, like the rest of the West, is staring down a dry summer. In an executive order, Gov. Kate Brown instructed state agencies to trim water use in preparation for what can only be called a…
We’ve added a new feature to our websites across the six eastside newspapers of EO Media Group that I think is needed and, unfortunately, necessary.
Is anyone else disturbed that one of the fastest-growing sports isn’t even played on a field or court and doesn’t require being in good physical shape? I’m talking about esports.
They’re dubbed “news deserts” and denote a community that lacks any type of independent news sources such as a daily or weekly newspaper.
Practice is key to mastery, and this is for sure true when it comes to young readers. Students who read during the summer have often maintained or even improved their reading skills. It also h…
It was 102 degrees in Medford on June 1, 2021. Let me say that again just in case it didn’t fully sink in: Medford suffered temperatures as high as 102 degrees in spring, making it harder for …
Al Davis, the manager of the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center deserves a lot of praise for his actions last week. As temperatures climbed, he made the decision to open the facility so peo…
Education is a marathon, not a sprint. And most of the students, families and educators in the Hermiston School District at some point in the past 15 months experienced hitting the metaphorical wall.
As I prepare to leave Hermiston, I have been thinking about what last bit of parting advice I might give the community.
Next week’s Hermiston Herald, on June 30, will be my last as editor.
One harsh reality of the pandemic often goes unnoticed: the continued need for foster parents.
With dog ownership, there’s a learning curve.
Every week as I write up highlights from the week’s police activity for the Hermiston Herald’s police log, the same phrase pops up over and over.
It’s hard to believe school is out for the summer or soon will be. There was no in-person schooling all year in some places, and others had all different modes of learning happening.
A year ago this week, the front page of the Hermiston Herald featured the headline “Hermiston’s Black Lives Matter protests continue.”
On May 8 the Umatilla Museum reopened its doors to the public, Thursday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., each day.
Dear graduating seniors,
Understanding the world around us is the goal we want all our children to achieve. We want them to understand and explain what they see, hear, and read.
Northeast Oregon is home to some of the most rich and fertile farmland in the state, producing products like potatoes, onion, carrots, peas and numerous other variety of crops for consumption …
Remember at the beginning of quarantine, when we used to talk about what we would do when “this is all over,” as if one day we would be in complete lockdown and the next we would be throwing a…
There wasn’t any fanfare, no balloons and no banging of cymbals — much like when I left EO Media Group a little more than a year ago.
In 2020, so many more people died in the United States than would be expected in a typical year that the average life expectancy here declined by more than a year. While it was an unusually la…
Recently about 200 volunteers spread out over Hermiston to cheerfully weed flower beds, sweep sidewalks, wash cars and do other chores. The activity was one of many “I Love My City” events hos…
Some of you may have seen a picture that made the rounds online recently, of a sign at a restaurant asking people to be patient with how short-staffed they were, sadly proclaiming that “No one…
Election season is upon us once again, this time for local taxing districts.
In the past year, the Hermiston School District has had a singular focus: providing the best possible educational and extracurricular opportunities to our students in the face of unprecedented…
During the 2010 Super Bowl, Snickers aired the first of its iconic “You’re not you when you’re hungry” advertisements, featuring Betty White standing in as a football player who simply needed …
Four hours, 3 minutes and 39 seconds — that’s how long I was on the phone recently with the State of Oregon Employment Department.
Testing has become quite controversial in education. We often hear about students’ test scores or teachers reporting test results. Then in social groups, you might experience people discussing…
In early January, I wrote a column explaining the reasons I planned to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as I was able.
When the word “environment” comes up in mixed company (and in this case, I mean Republicans and Democrats), it generally doesn’t take long for the conversation to devolve into an argument abou…
When I was in middle school, I thought Mulan was the coolest Disney princess, but I related most to Belle. I felt a kinship with the woman more delighted by a castle’s giant library than its w…
In 1962, our community took on the courageous challenge of opening one of the first community colleges in Oregon. In the nearly 60 years since Blue Mountain Community College first opened its …
Over the last several months, we have witnessed history happening in our country that has not happened since the Civil War. It is United States history in the making.
Rural Oregon is facing a difficult post-COVID economic recovery. The $1.9 trillion federal coronavirus relief package will undoubtedly help, but without addressing some long-standing barriers …
Years ago, when my brother was a young Cub Scout, members of his troop each came home from an activity with their very own goldfish, to the surprise of their parents.
In America’s culture wars, words are the weapons of choice.
In a year like this, we have learned to celebrate the small milestones.
As I interviewed Hermiston School District’s band and choir teachers last week about the challenges of teaching such an interactive subject virtually, I asked what it had been like to have suc…
Four new paws have been padding around our house recently. Biko, an almost 6-month-old German shepherd/Siberian husky mix, made the Malgesini pack whole again this past weekend.
A few days ago, I wrote about what I believe is the foreseeable and inevitable insolvency of Blue Mountain Community College under the present model of operations and funding.
One of the annual events I enjoy covering for the newspaper is the Hermiston Chamber of Commerce’s Distinguished Citizens Awards.
