Your voice: Aug. 27, 2025

It’s no secret that Trump has an aversion to factual data that contradict his lies and dictatorial ambitions. He typically just declares that such data are a hoax, and then moves on with telling more lies. However, Trump is correct that terrible crimes are now underway in Washington, D.C. — crimes that affect our entire country and not just its capital. The crimes are taking place through threats, extortions, and illegal edicts issued from the White House. After all, Trump’s disdain for the rule of law, as applied to him, is just as strong as his disdain for factual truth.

Richard Iverson

Hood River

Editor’s Note: In the Aug. 20 edition of Columbia Gorge News, Iverson’s original spelling of “capital” was changed to “capitol.” We were incorrect in doing so; “capitol” refers to the building, and “capital” to the city. We apologize for the error.

Big and beautiful?

Thank you, Mr. Bentz, for offering your view on the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) (Columbia Gorge News, Aug. 6). According to your article, the bill reduces green energy tax credits, which harms our renewable energy sector. Currently, more than half of Oregon’s 95,000 jobs in the energy sector are green energy jobs (Clean Energy Institute, 2024). If these jobs are lost, how will that help District 2 families?

Rep. Bentz says some of the tax carve-outs are savings for Oregonians, like exemptions for overtime and tips, some auto loans, and a standard deduction for some seniors. These deductions will cost $350 billion over four years, according to the Tax Foundation. The Trump Account addition will offer a more limited benefit than the already existing 529 accounts (Tax Foundation, July 9, 2025). Overall, the tax bill will add $3 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Rep. Bentz points out the social service cuts in the OBBB, including Medicaid and the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). More than 200,000 Oregonians are projected to lose healthcare benefits because of the bill, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle, a nonprofit news service that reports on the state legislature. That will affect nearly one-fourth of your constituents. Two out of five are children (Georgetown University, 2023). Do we want to cut healthcare for kids?

The SNAP program cuts $186 billion in spending over 10 years (Oregon Capital Chronicle, July 9, 2025). Kids are 43% of SNAP recipients in Oregon (USA Facts, 2024). Do we want to make kids go hungry?

Rep. Bentz does not mention the way the bill will affect rural hospitals and clinics. About one third of patients at rural hospitals and clinics are Medicaid recipients (Oregon Hospital Association, 2025). If hospitals and clinics close, healthcare will become scarce for your rural constituents. How does this help rural families?

Rep. Bentz, think about the best interests of all your constituents, including the children of the 2nd District.

Katharine Goe

Mt. Hood-Parkdale

Contact reps

OMG! So this is what it’s like to have a nutter for a president. Equally parts hilarious, embarrassing and scary. I am so proud right now that I have never backed the Republican Party, just to watch them sit silently while their gift to America runs amok, taking over cities with his version of brown shirts, flailing frantically around to avoid releasing his old pal Jeffery Epstein’s file and doing anything and everything he can to draw the voting public’s attention away from this issue. Donald Trump gives me the creeps.

Please help me in contacting congressmen/women and legislators from all parties to demand that they do something about this whack-job. Good grief, enough is enough. And let’s do it before he gives Alaska to his other good buddy, Putin!

Kathleen Evinger

Hood River

Face to face town halls

What follows is a brief statement that I prepared for the visit of Congressman Bentz to The Dalles Rotary Club on Aug. 20:

Town halls can be beneficial to us, the constituents, and to you, the office holder. Representative democracy works best when there is strong, frequent , two-way communication. Elected officials need to hear the message and feel the depth of conviction. Calling your office means that only a condensed version of the intended message reaches you and no doubt all intensity has been left out. In our personal lives, multiple forms of communication are used, such as texting, emails, phoning and even personal face-to-face visits. The same should be true regarding political communication. We need and must have face-to-face, public town halls.

The very name TOWN HALL implies that the event is open to the community and is held in a hall, not over the phone. The face-to-face event offers numerous advantages versus a phone event.

Mr. Bentz, you are the only member of the Oregon delegation who refuses to participate in town halls. I know the reasons you give to avoid town halls, but it is time to resume a long-held Oregon tradition.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Robert Haechrel

The Dalles

I see yellow!

As I drive throughout the Gorge, I am seeing more and more yellow “ We are Immigrants/Somos Inmigrantes” signs. I spot them in Hood River, White Salmon, and so many other Gorge neighborhoods — including the giant billboard in The Dalles. Seeing yellow signs brings me a sense of comfort, knowing that other others care about our immigrant neighbors. And, just when I think I have seen all of the Somos signs, another one appears. I am so proud of our community for showing their support! I encourage you to expand this campaign by putting a sign in your yard so I can continue to be surprised as I drive around town. Contact the Riverside Church at office@ riversideucc.com for yard sign, business sign, or a car flag. And, I hear there’s a selfie campaign. You can take a picture with a sign, posted it on your social media and add #WeAreImmigrantsGorge.

Pamela Riedl

Hood River

Support cat groups

Congratulations Kat Tabor on your internship with the Columbia Gorge News. And thank you for your excellent story in the Aug. 13 edition about the heroic cat rescue of more than 40 cats from an airless camping trailer.

It is appalling that there are so few resources on either side of the river to help rescue, shelter and find homes for cats. And this heartbreaking and often thankless work is left up to volunteers and groups like Pawsitivity Cat Rescue.

The overwhelming number of homeless cats and kittens is often due not to intentional cruelty but simply because the cost to spay and neuter a pet has become cost- prohibitive. This is partially due to a growing consolidation of local clinics under the ownership of larger corporations.

We need to support volunteer groups like Pawsitivity, check it out on Pawsitvity.info, and we desperately need a low-cost spay and neuter clinic, more so than a shelter. It is only when we care for our animals that we can become a more compassionate community.

Rebecca Sonniksen

White Salmon

Sheriff’s funding

Regarding “Hood River County Sheriff’s Office faces budget shortfalls,” Columbia Gorge News, July 29: A media release by the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office reports on funding sources for the sheriff’s department that have been cut off. I appreciate the sheriff’s factual and non-partisan reporting about lost funding and the department’s services affected by those cut off funds. We are lucky to have a sheriff’s department that makes community policing a priority. Thank you!

My “beef” is with the Republican-led Congress that has refused to fund programs and the Trump administration that has withheld grants. In the past, these programs and grants have supported a full-time deputy assigned to the marine program, in-house mental health counseling and wellness activities to address trauma endured by first responders, Hood River County’s heavy search and rescue call volume, and emergency management services that handle mitigation of and response to major incidents and disasters like wildfires.

Now, these dollars finance tax breaks for billionaires. On top of that, the Trump administration has the temerity to cite Oregon’s prohibition against using state resources to do the work of federal immigration authorities as the reason to withhold grants. The Republican Congress just gave an additional $75 BILLION of taxpayer money to those federal authorities! Stand up for Oregon’s right to allocate our law enforcement resources as we decide. Say “No” to the Trump administration’s meddling in our state’s rights.

Vollie Scott

Hood River

Playground bully

If a playground bully takes your lunch and throws back the crackers he crushed when he grabbed your lunch sack, you could not have swapped lunches no matter how many crumbs he tosses your way. Similarly, Trump, in his current guise as a peace negotiator, is not offering Ukraine a land swap.

Putin, in an unprovoked war, unlawfully seized Ukrainian land — not unlike the bully who steals lunches. Handing back part of the seized land and “trading” the returned land for the land Putin wants to keep is not a land swap.

It is a land swindle.

Mary-Ethel Foley

Hood River

How to submit a letter to the edtior

Visit columbiagorgenews.com/opinion; click the “Submit a Letter to the Editor” hotlink.

Email news@gorgenews.com; subject: Your Voice.

Letters deadline is Thursday at noon for the upcoming week’s edition, and run as space allows.

For more information, contact Managing Editor Trisha Walker, 541-386-1234 ext. 109, or Publisher / Owner Chelsea Marr, 541-386-1234 ext. 100.