Fewer Lincoln County residents and Oregonians voted in November’s general election compared with 2020

January 2, 2025

By BRYCE DOYLE/Oregon Public Broadcasting and YachatsNews Fewer Lincoln County residents and Oregonians overall voted in this presidential election compared to the last one. About 75 percent of registered Oregon voters returned their ballots during this year’s general election. In all, 2,308,256 Oregonians returned their ballots this year, which was 105,634 fewer voters than 2020, or a 5 percent

Philomath mill finds a growing niche by specializing in hardwoods that others don’t want to deal with

January 2, 2025

By BRAD FUQUA/Philomath News Brad Mehl and Terry Haddix walk the grounds of Patrick Lumber just west of Philomath to check on the construction progress of a new hardwood sawmill. The sun shining overhead seemed appropriate for this longtime player in Oregon’s logging industry — almost symbolic of what appears to be a bright future for the company. Last

Theatre West offering 2003 version of “Dial M for Murder” as part of 50th anniversary

January 1, 2025

By Oregon Coast TODAY Dial T for Theatre West’s next production, “Dial M for Murder,” opening Thursday, Jan. 9 in Lincoln City. Set in London in 1952, the play centers around former tennis player Tony Wendice, who is plotting to have his unfaithful wife, Margot, murdered so he can inherit her money. He hires a former acquaintance to kill

Patty Gewalt, Yachats

January 1, 2025

Patty Gewalt March 27, 1934 – Dec. 4, 2024 Patricia Mae Cobb was born on March 27, 1934, to Thomas and Beatrice Cobb and raised in the small mill town of Westfir, Ore. where the beautiful North Fork of the Willamette River flows and a historic covered bridge connects it to the mill. Patty went to grade school in

From safer buses to phone fixes: A rundown of new Oregon laws for 2025

January 1, 2025

By DIRK VANDERHART/Oregon Public Broadcasting New year, new rules. As Oregonians ring in 2025, nearly two dozen bills passed by lawmakers early last year will quietly take effect. From stricter penalties for drug use on transit, to an easier path to fixing your broken device, to nabbing drivers who don’t yield to school buses, these new statutes cover a lot

Oregon’s homeless population is 8th largest in the nation, 2024 federal count shows

January 1, 2025

By ANTHONY EFFINGER/Willamette Week Oregon finds itself near the top of another tragic list as the year ended. Oregon had the eighth-largest population of homeless people on a given night in January 2024, according to a “point-in-time” count released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week. HUD counted 22,875 people experiencing homelessness in Oregon in January, up 13.6% from

Efforts to ban books in Oregon libraries on the rise; library patrons and supporters are pushing back

January 1, 2025

By AMANDA WALDROUPE/Oregon ArtsWatch In December the Grants Pass School District approved removing two books from the Grants Pass High School Library: All Boys Aren’t Blue – George M. Johnson’s memoir about the author’s black and queer identity, which is among the most frequently challenged and banned books in the country – and Lucky, Alice Sebold’s 1999 memoir about being sexually assaulted. The residents

New report projects number of Oregon high school graduates will decline almost 20% by 2041

January 1, 2025

By ELIZABETH MILLER/Oregon Public Broadcasting The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education has published an edition of “Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates,” every four years since 1979. The 2024 edition of the report brings a bit of good news: Almost four million students will graduate from high school in 2025, the highest number recorded “since data have