Good morning!
HAVE A COMMENT? SUGGESTION?
I’ll be candid.
I find the news these days upsetting and, in some cases, grim. Events across the country and in national politics are straining us all. The political divides here in Oregon seem to be deepening.
At Salem Reporter, we have a duty to tell you what’s happening in the community. That’s not always good news.
But then there are occasions when we find some joy in the community. The popularity of two of our stories seems to suggest you enjoy learning about something positive in Salem.
First, there was the story about Cindy Flores.
She’s a first-year music teacher in the Salem-Keizer School District. As Managing Editor Rachel Alexander reported, Flores has stirred student interest in music, particularly mariachi. As the story says, “She’s putting on a mariachi festival at McKay on Saturday, Feb. 7, running all day from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.”
Then there was our story by reporter Hailey Cook about a long-time Salem institution – the Salem Public Market. This shouldn’t be confused with the seasonal Salem Saturday Market you see in a downtown parking lot. The public market traces its history to World War II and Hailey provides a delightful tour by word and photo of a market worth your visit.
We made news of our own this week.
Salem Reporter – and the people of Salem – will benefit from our participation in prestigious national programs. These efforts bring resources and talent to our team to help us deepen and improve our reporting in Salem.
I hope you share my pride in these developments. They are possible because people like you read and support Salem Reporter.
In another development, we canceled plans for a debate in the Salem mayor’s race. The incumbent, Julie Hoy, didn’t respond to my invitation my the deadlne or ask for more time to consider it. I’ll share more about this in an Editor’s Note in the next day or so.
Here’s what else we covered in recent days you might have missed.
In local government reporting:
•The Salem City Council is poised to give tax money back to downtown businesses. It’s not often the government takes and then returns money.
•The city continues to prepare for the worst with a Detroit Lake drawdown. Part of the plan includes relying on the city of Keizer for potable water if the need arises.
•A new team is taking to the streets in Salem to take some of the load off firefighters and police, handling those in crisis. City and county officials held a press event to spotlight the new effort.
In community reporting:
•Church at the Park is seeing its resources continue to dwindle, but the local organization intends to still care for unhoused people.
•Salem Health and Santiam Hospital & Clinics fleshed out a bit more about plans to merge. Care for people will eventually expand, officials say.
•Photographer Laura Tesler caught the atmosphere at the recent Day Without An Immigrant event in Salem.
•Columnist Harry Fuller explores the presence of hummingbirds in Salem, noting one changing pattern.
In public safety reporting:
•In another installment of our new feature “Whatever Happened,” reporter Madeleine Moore doubles back on major crimes and prosecutions to bring you up to date.
•Our new reporting intern from Willamette University, Skeet Starr, reports on a deadly crash just outside Salem.
And finally:
•Rachel Alexander takes you behind the scenes to share what reporting was needed for the extraordinary account we published recently about public safety teams on the frontlines of the homeless challenges in Salem. If you missed it, take a moment to catch up with this revealing report by reporters Madeleine Moore and Abbey McDonald.
Have thoughts about our reporting? A story we should do? A person we should profile? Or do you have questions about how we do our work? You’re welcome to send me an email – I read every one of them.
Email: [email protected]
–Les Zaitz, Editor and owner
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