Rogue Valley Symphony tuba player Mike Knox is retiring this season after 55 years with the orchestra, a tenure that stretches back to the orchestra’s earliest days.
Ask Strider: Our canine correspondent shares his favorite ways to celebrate the festive season — his and everyone else’s, too! And there’s mail from someone who’s a bit of a Scrooge. Strider wonders if it’s only a joke, but just in case, he leaps to the defense of the village being impugned. Strider hopes no one is impugned at this festive season. Merry Everything from Strider the Dog!
About 60 Amigo Club members attended a Dec. 7 “Amigo Mingle” event to honor Betzabé “Mina” Turner and Kernan Turner for their years of extraordinary service promoting the sister-city relationship between Ashland and Guanajuato, Mexico.
Janai Mestrovich: That day, two drunk, homeless strangers became my unexpected protectors. In my heart, I still call them my “drunkles” (my drunk uncles) because in that shaky New York afternoon, they cared for me as gently as family.
Catty Corner: The holidays can be both festive and stressful for felines. Learn how to protect your cats — and also how to bring them the joys of the season. (Hint: good things come in all sizes of boxes.)
Poetry Corner: With winter approaching, nature goes into hibernation and we are left to listen to the music about to emerge.
Concert violinist Carla Ecker moves in a steady triangle between Phoenix, Arizona; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and the Rogue Valley — performing opera, symphony and chamber music.
Ask Strider: For Christmas, a reader would rather have pizza in her pajamas than Beef Wellington in her dressing up clothes, but family members feel differently. What to do? And another reader makes Strider wag his tail and think of pancakes.
Today, Dec. 2, is Giving Tuesday, a day when people across the country support the organizations that make their communities stronger. If Ashland.news has helped you stay prepared, connected, or informed, we hope you’ll consider making a gift today.
Pepper Trail: As we celebrate Thanksgiving, let us imagine the world we share with every living thing. Let us give thanks for this planet, this blue and green ball spinning in a lifeless void, holding us all and making possible our every heartbeat, our every breath.
The city fire marshal closed Ashland City Hall after a building code inspection found significant structural concerns. Staff will work remotely pending an engineer’s review.
The Southern Oregon Chinese Cultural Association will bring some of the countries and customs of Asia together for the Lunar New Year celebration. Residents will have the opportunity to learn more about those cultures while kicking off the Year of the Fire Horse throughout downtown Jacksonville.
Ashland Outdoor School Ashland teacher and local fiddle instructor Robin Bliss-Wagner, critically injured Monday, is in a coma in the intensive care unit of a hospital as of publication time Wednesday. Area residents are working to raise up to $45,000 for his care, as well as to help with ICU and other expenses for his wife, Ruth, and their three sons.
Widespread accumulations of snow are expected Wednesday night into Thursday morning in Jackson County, according to a Wednesday afternoon update from the Medford office of the National Weather Service on a winter storm warning and winter weather advisory due to expire at 10 a.m. Thursday.
On Sunday, Feb. 15, at approximately 3:30 p.m., Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) deputies responded to a report of a deceased adult male near the summit of the Wagner Butte Trail outside Talent, according to JCSO. The individual, identified as Michael “Mike” James Beagle, 63, of Central Point, was found at an elevation of approximately 7,000 feet in steep, mountainous terrain, JCSO said in the statement.
More than 260 bills were introduced when the five-week Oregon legislative session began in February. Now, past a key deadline to move measures out of committee, many proposals have quietly died, including Republican priorities and an ambitious school funding overhaul. Meanwhile, debates over tax refunds, election rules and transparency for lobbyists continue as lawmakers head toward the March 8 adjournment.
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