
Ashland to join regional fire study to boost collaboration, emergency response
Ashland is moving forward with a regional fire service study aimed at boosting collaboration and emergency response across multiple fire districts.

Ashland is moving forward with a regional fire service study aimed at boosting collaboration and emergency response across multiple fire districts.

Southern Oregon University’s Board of Trustees is set to hold a virtual meeting on Thursday, Sept. 18, to vote on proposed cuts to the university budget.

Ashland police officers arrested a 62-year-old man on Sunday, Sept. 14, at a downtown restaurant after he allegedly punched a staffer in the face who had cut him off from being served alcohol.

The Ashland Community Food Bank doubled its volume in August, reflecting a troubling trend fueled by inflation, job loss and tightening access to food assistance programs. Executive Director Amy Broeker warns the level of need could soon become the norm as food bank faces shortfalls in funding and more competition for scarce local grants. Broeker and other leaders are calling on the community to step in.

The long and winding road to Grand Terrace — a 210-unit apartment complex proposed for the northwest end of Ashland — leads to another Ashland City Council hearing Tuesday, Sept. 16.

Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara said no suspects are in custody, but multiple persons of interest have been identified in the early Sunday, Sept. 7, fatal shooting of Matthew Mark Vandersande in Ashland’s Railroad District.

Gov. Tina Kotek on Thursday said she’s trying her best to ensure affordable access to the COVID-19 vaccine for Oregonians, pushing back on criticism that other Democrat-led states across the nation have been more efficient at providing quick inoculations and support for providers before an expected annual spike in respiratory illnesses.

A metal sunflower now stands in front of the Oregon Cheese Cave in downtown Phoenix as a tribute to the community’s resilience five years after the devastating Almeda Fire. Cheese cave owner Mélodie Picard, who spurred the idea, said the metal sunflower is a “sign of hope” that the town has made it five years since the Labor Day blaze.

The former president of the consulting firm ECOnorthwest said a survey of the state’s current condition is “sobering.” Five critical issues were most troubling — housing, education, wildfires, taxation, and attitudes toward growth, including land use laws and permitting processes.

Local artists talked about their work, what peace means — through sculpture, painting, and poetry at the Langford Art Gallery in Phoenix, during “VISIONARY: Art from the Heart,” part of the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission’s 10th anniversary and observance of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace.
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Ask Strider: A worried older brother asks our advice columnist’s advice. And a dog’s guardian wants to know if there is any hope getting their hat-hating dog to calm down. As always, Strider tries to give words that help!
After a successful production of “The Vagina Monologues” and raising more than $2,000 for Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, Ashland actor and director Lia Dugal intends for “The Climate Monologues” to premiere in Oregon in late 2025 or early 2026 at the Bellview Grange in Ashland.
It’s complicated.
Herbert Rothschild: Whether visualization and intention by themselves can effect broad social change is impossible to determine, but the question merits sustained consideration.
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