Good morning and thanks for spending a little time with me.
Hang on, Salem.
Election Day is now less than a month away.
Voting, of course, is important. Be sure you are registered to vote. If you’ve moved, be sure to check your registration.
And when you get that ballot in the mail, use it.
In the coming days, the Salem Reporter team will deliver useful reports on some of the key local races. Our reporters will give you more than name-rank-serial number coverage. They are pressing candidates for specifics, not slogans.
Reporter Madeleine Moore detoured from candidate interviews to talk to the people behind League of Women Voters of Marion and Polk County. This nonpartisan group has been helping voters since 1947, and leaders had interesting observations about today’s political climate. It’s a story worth your time and another example of how local people are working to improve Salem.
Speaking of slogans, one thing to anticipate with some sense of relief or maybe even joy is the end of campaigning.
No more political mailers filling your mailbox.
The candidate ads crowding your social media channels will disappear.
And the campaign promotions on every television channel at every hour will be gone too.
While we’ve been zeroing in on election coverage, there has been no shortage of other news around Salem.
On the lighter side, reporter Joe Siess wrote about a city contest underway – naming a new street sweeper. Sure, this isn’t a major story but readers enjoyed a little dose of levity.
People are still talking about reporter Abbey McDonald’s fine piece capturing the current state of downtown Salem. She distilled her reporting into five takeaways, but you’ll also find the link to her original report if you missed it.
One of our jobs for you is to keep an eye on how government spends local money. Joe Siess worked weeks to double back on city and county governments to see what they did with millions in extra federal cash. He presents an easy-to-read account of where the money went. This is the kind of reporting no one else delivers in Salem.
Sticking with local government for just a moment more, reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian explains an unusual court ruling in Polk County. The result is a county treasurer who has been sidelined gets to do his job.
On the public safety front, police made an arrest in a shooting three months ago in east Salem and a local couple who ran an auto repair business are accused of stealing customers’ vehicles.
One of our most popular stories in recent days was the profile of the founder of LifeSource. Managing editor Rachel Alexander traces the evolution of the Salem store – and of its owner.
Big education news developed this week as state officials released testing scores for every school in the state. The news generally wasn’t good. Rachel Alexander pulled together a first look at numbers for Salem-Keizer students, but expect to read much more in coming weeks. (We also published her story in Spanish – please share.)
We also reported on the opening of a special new center for school children needing extra help to manage in schools. Read how a cow has figured in.
With good fall weather hanging on, you have good reason to get out and about in Salem. We’re here to help. We have our monthly listing of exhibits and shows at Salem galleries and museums to get you started. And local harvest festivals are always a delight, especially if you have kids who need pumpkins. Get the details on who is hosting festivals in the coming weeks.
GIVE US SOME ADVICE….
Our team has been busy just reporting and delivering the news. Now, we’re pondering how we can or should make better use of our Facebook page. We want to take our Instagram page off life support and put it back on its feet. We’re not sure about TikTok.
I’m really interested in hearing from readers about this. But we are particularly interested in younger readers. Should we beef up our channels? Should we skip TikTok or dive in? Send me your thoughts, advice and even referrals: [email protected].
I thank you for reading, subscribing and sharing our work. Please reach out to me anytime at [email protected] if you have story ideas, questions or suggestions for our team.
– Les Zaitz, co-founder and editor, Salem Reporter
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