Reading advocates want Oregon literacy funds directed to teacher training and “most neglected” schools

April 1, 2025

By ALEX BAUMHARDT/Oregon Capital Chronicle SALEM — More than 250 Oregon schools since 2023 have gotten some portion of the state’s Early Literacy Success Initiative grants, a pot of $90 million meant to pay for new elementary reading curriculum, reading tutors and after-school reading programs, and to train teachers in reading instruction backed by scientific study and review. As Gov.

Samaritan drops “urgent care” from name of its walk-in clinics

April 1, 2025

NEWPORT – What’s in a name change? Not much, apparently. Samaritan Health Services on Tuesday officially dropped “Urgent Care” from its walk-in clinics in Newport, Lincoln City and across its three-county operation. They are now called Samaritan Walk-In Clinics – but nothing is changing but the name, the hospital system said. “The decision to rename our clinics is part of

Local Democrats elect new officers for two-year terms

April 1, 2025

The Lincoln County Democratic party has elected a slate of four new officers to serve two-year terms. New officers are Mary Infante as chair, Kelly Greer as vice chair, Christine Berg as secretary and Marta West as treasurer. The two-year terms will involve providing leadership to the Lincoln County Democratic Party, communicating with elected officials, promoting voter registration, supporting registered

Stand with me Saturday, April 5 in protest outside Newport city hall

April 1, 2025

To the editor: Do you oppose the recent layoffs of thousands of federal employees working in Oregon? Do you oppose the dismantling of the Department of Education, and threats to diminish, eliminate, or privatize Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, FEMA, and the U.S. Postal Service? Are you baffled by all the lies? Do you oppose indiscriminate cutting of grants that fund

Beautification volunteers and rock shop owner combine to create unusual, tiny park in downtown Yachats

April 1, 2025

By CHERYL ROMANO/Lincoln Chronicle YACHATS — What’s the story with the big pink rock and the new benches at the corner of U.S. Highway 101 and West Fourth Street? The answer becomes official at 2 p.m. Saturday when volunteers stage a ribbon-cutting for the new, tiny park now being dubbed “Crystal Corner.” Called Keeping Yachats Beautiful, the group has

How Oregon’s laws on forcing mental health treatment could change with new bills in 2025 Legislature

April 1, 2025

By DIRK VANDERHART/Oregon Public Broadcasting SALEM — It has become a heartbreaking ritual in Oregon’s Capitol. Every year or two, family members of people with severe mental illness come before lawmakers hoping for a turning point. They have watched loved ones disappear into their disease, and they’ve been helpless to convince Oregon’s rigid mental health system to force treatment. “It’s

5 Questions and a Secret: Say hello to Jim Matts when you see him picking litter along Highway 20

April 1, 2025

By KATHLEEN O’CONNOR/Lincoln Chronicle Jim Matts is a 73-year-old with the energy of a 25-year-old and can be seen almost every day picking up bottles, cans and trash along U.S. Highway 20 between Newport and Toledo. Matts has lived in Toledo for nearly all his life – born there at the former Lincoln Hospital, which was the first hospital