Before holiday break, a student at Ashland High School posted a message on Facebook that she had been sexually assaulted, and alleged that there were other “multiple” cases and a “rape culture” at the high school. The message set off a tense debate about the extent of sexual assault within

The standard joke about poor employment opportunities is that a person will end up as a fry cook at a fast food joint. Bizarrely, with the acumen of a “Saturday Night Live” skit, that joke became a potential national paradigm as president-elect Donald Trump selected Andy Pudzer as his potential

The Messenger was pleased to host its inaugural Giving Tuesday event on November 29 at the Holly Theatre. We had a packed house and hosted 12 wonderful organizations from the region: RCC Foundation Collaborative Theatre Project Holly Theatre Rogue Farm Corps Maslow Music Matrix Grants Pass Pregnancy Care Center Hearts with

Hope, to borrow a word from a previous election, has not been in grand supply after this recent election. Yes, at the presidential level, but also at the regional level in southern Oregon. Perhaps foremost the most discouraging and daunting results were the solid thumping taken by a proposed property

As we push through and past the elections, it is perhaps important to recognize that most of us have suffered some low-level stress over the past several months. Seriously! This election cycle has been more punishing than promising than any presidential campaign in recent memory, with threats of refusal to

For nearly two years in my late 20s, I worked as an attorney in the juvenile courts for the State of California. It was heartbreaking work. Most of the work was helping set policies and looking into ways that the courts could be help teenagers, but one day each week,

Although most political attention is tuned to the ongoing presidential scrum between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, President Barack Obama is hardly sitting idly on the sidelines waiting out his final three months in the White House. Nope, he is busy—and hopefully that agenda will include expanding the Cascade–Siskiyou National

In his insightful book What’s The Matter with Kansas, New York Times writer Frank Rich detailed the paradox that voters in that Midwest state often vote against their own financial interest. Why? The simple answer is that those voters favored more general and proscriptive moral issues, like anti-abortion, over personal

Here we go:  Stepping into a hornet’s nest. In our last issue, we teamed up with Medford Public Library to bring attention to the upcoming Banned Book Week, September 22 – October 1 (see Letters) What a coincidence. About the very same time, 12 miles to the south, there was

Sad Passings Since our last publication, the Rogue Valley has lost two important public figures—Alan Bates, a long-time State Senator, and Judith-Marie Bergan, a 16-year member of Oregon Shakespeare Festival. “Judith-Marie was one of our most accomplished and beloved long-term company members,” said OSF artistic director Bill Rauch in a