John Darling
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Past articles by John:
Talent apartment managers praised for actions during fire
While businesses burned madly on three sides, Ross Munro, assistant manager of Talent’s 181-unit Anjou Apartment Club, and his wife, Lisa Joss, fought encroaching flames through the night, fetching water from the swimming pool in five-gallon containers and driving them to hot spots around the perimeter, putting them out by hand. “Afraid? No, I wasn’t afraid. I had way too much adrenalin pumping… → Read More
Rent help is available for people in Jackson County
If you’re behind on your rent and aren’t sure you can pay it when the eviction ban ends there’s help available — $60 million allocated by the state Legislature a few months ago — so it’s important you apply for it ASAP, because there’s big demand and you’ll want to avoid any paperwork jam. The funding is intended to keep people in their homes or commercial spaces by directly paying landlords so… → Read More
Ashland photographer Susan Caperna Lloyd honored by Library of Congress
For the past 35 years, Ashland photographer and writer Susan Caperna Lloyd has captured the passions, rituals and political strivings of common folk around the world, and she is now being honored by the sale of her life’s work to the Library of Congress. → Read More
Pandemic spurs new avenues for giving for Ashland restaurants
The pandemic has not only triggered layoffs and pushed the economy into recession. It has also pushed area schools and restaurants to fight food insecurity on a broad front, for everyone in need. It’s not just the virus, says Principal Tiffany Burns of Walker Elementary in Ashland. The demographic is changing, homelessness is increasing, and “you may think of Ashland as an affluent town, but… → Read More
Weekend Juneteenth celebration of black voices planned
Juneteenth, a holiday marking the end of slavery two months after the Civil War, will be celebrated Friday in Ashland with Jamaican food, live music, rap, spoken word poets, art, promotion of black-owned businesses and rousing speeches appropriate for this time of anti-racism protest. The goal is “a family fun day ... to spread love and positivity in a time of adversity as well as educate people… → Read More
Former SOU prez Saigo off to rescue another college
Former Southern Oregon University President Roy Saigo, who pulled off an intensive triage and repair of SOU following two retrenchments in 2014-2016, is off to Massachusetts for a year to wrestle with similar problems at Westfield State University. The appointment comes at a time when WSU’s president has received a vote of “no confidence,” the same action that brought about Saigo’s appointment… → Read More
Jackson County parks start to reopen Friday
Camping in Jackson County parks will resume Friday, but because of persistent risks from COVID-19, the parks will have many restrictions, including the continued closure of day-use areas such as playgrounds, picnic shelters and water parks that attract crowds. The Emigrant Lake waterslide will remain closed for the entire summer, said Steve Lambert, parks program manager, because of the cost and… → Read More
Medford eye doctors restore eyesight to 100 people a day in Africa
Eye surgeon Matt Oliva of Medford says he loves to restore vision for blind people in Africa, which he does 100 times a day with a 10-minute cataract operation that costs $50 in materials and leaves patients bandaged overnight. In the morning comes the big, life-changing moment, a seeming miracle as bandages are taken off, with hoots and dances of joy, hugging and elders looking on the faces of… → Read More
Ashland celebrates MLK with film, music, sobering speeches
People of color still face much bigotry, even at the highest levels of our society, but the resounding message at Ashland’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Celebration is that laws don’t change minds — personal action does and it’s more urgent now than ever. The always-moving celebration, in its 32nd year, opened with the Bishop Mayfield blues band, and a joyful movie, “Mighty Times,” about the… → Read More
Former Oregon Gov. Pierce's granddaughter dies in Ashland
Lorrayne Whitten, a longtime social worker, volunteer and supporter of local theater, music and arts — and the granddaughter of Oregon Governor and Congressman Walter M. Pierce — died recently at her home in Ashland, where she lived alone. She was 83. Born and raised in Portland, Whitten loved world travel, arts and French cuisine, and she became a masterful cook and seamstress, always dressing… → Read More
MLK Day events in Medford, Ashland focus on 1964 Freedom Summer, youth advocacy
“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but they must take it because their conscience tells them it is right. ”— Martin Luther King Jr. , 1968Spanning more than half a century, words from a civil rights icon strike the note for two celebrations of Martin Luther King Day, with speeches, music and dance Sunday in Medford and Monday in… → Read More
Retired SOU professor will read from his mother’s just-published memoir of the Holocaust
He won’t touch the politics of Nazism in today’s world, but when retired Southern Oregon University math professor Irving Lubliner does readings from his mother’s just-published memoir of the Holocaust, it’s about how “the spark of life cannot be extinguished, even in the darkest of times. ”Both of Lubliner’s parents, Felicia and Abram, were imprisoned during World War II in Polish ghettos and… → Read More
Rogue To Go thinks outside the box with new takeout containers in Ashland
With a $9,700 grant from the state Department of Environmental Quality and a lot of research and planning by local eateries and the city, five Ashland restaurants will now put your leftovers in a durable, reusable plastic takeout container that you can bring back to any participating restaurant and exchange for a clean one, using it again and again, with no waste. The pilot program, called Rogue… → Read More
Ashland culptor creates works for cyber giants Google and Facebook
Ashland sculptor Matthew Picton creates vast, complex works for corporate headquarters, galleries and hotels, not with a chisel, but with an X-Acto knife, painstakingly cutting and meshing paper images from medieval art, Google Earth and modern media to create impact. Right now, Picton is focusing on two works to adorn cyber-headquarters — one for Google in Sunnyvale, California, and the other… → Read More
Ashland company makes insulated window covers for vans
When Ashlanders Ian and Hally Gillespie bought a Mercedes Sprinter van and toured the country with their children all the way to Maine, the family loved the freedom of the road, beautiful sights, cooking and camping, but one thing was missing: window covers so they could sleep comfortably in the privacy of their rolling home. They got a sewing machine and made a foldable set with insulating foam… → Read More
An 18-acre, forested piece of land near Ashland to be used for ‘green burials’
The first “natural burial ground” in Oregon will open soon in the mountains east of Ashland, allowing people to be buried unembalmed, encased only in a cloth shroud, cardboard casket or natural wood coffin, in order to have the least impact on the environment. → Read More
The Ashland Independent Film Festival will move into a new space
Long cramped in its 700-square-foot space on A Street, a long way from any theater, the Ashland Independent Film Festival has announced a major move to the main drag, near Ashland Art Center, where it can serve as a year-round hub for screenings, workshops, talks, receptions and relaxation-entertainment for sponsors, volunteers and members of AIFF. “It’s kind of miraculous. We’ve been looking… → Read More
Ashland firefighters fork up good cheer for seniors
For the 11th year in a row, firefighters baked yummy turkey, ham, green beans, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie, and served it to seniors in Ashland, along with generous dollops of gratitude and community-building holiday cheer. It’s a much-anticipated fest at the Ashland Senior Center — and Monday evening it drew a record 80 people, some of whom, like 91-year old Dorothy Parsons, have made it to… → Read More
WWII bomber jacket tells a story of service
As Douglas Naversen of Jacksonville pulls on his father’s bomber jacket, he says, “It fits me like a glove. ” Naverson adds that a son and daughter loved to wear it to middle and high schools in Medford — when leather bomber jackets were trendy. But one family member, Army Air Force Lieutenant Enoch Naversen, loved it best, wearing it as navigator on 30 harrowing World War II missions, bombing… → Read More
Ashland geologist's discovery under poor town changes everything
All his adult life, geologist Larry Buchanan of Ashland has loved to be out in the wilds looking for large mineral deposits, especially silver. In 1995, Buchanan, a former professor with the Colorado School of Mines, was prospecting in the treeless barrens of Bolivia at 14,000 feet when he spotted the telltale flaky white mineral that looked like silver sulfide. An assay showed it was that… → Read More