It's as if the best and worst traits of early America were on display, just a short distance apart. In colonial Jamestown, Virginia, the first gathering of a representative assembly took place within a few weeks of the arrival of the first shipload of African slaves. It all happened in the year that is the title of James Horn's book: 1619 . The work explores how the first permanent colony of Europeans managed to exalt democracy and bondage at the same time.

We talk about a fair amount of history, but it's SOULA that really makes "Underground History" possible. SOULA is the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology , our partner organization for our monthly chats about archaeology. SOULA celebrates 20 years of existence this year. Underground History regulars Chelsea Rose and Mark Tveskov return to talk about their work.

"Walter Cronkite is Dead" is certainly a catchy title for a play. But it could also have been called "Presila Quinby is Leaving." Quinby is a longtime resident of Ashland and a veteran of many a theater production. But her membership in the Actor's Equity union has made it increasingly harder to land roles in community theater. And that issue aside, Quinby may well move out of the country next year. So Ashland Contemporary Theatre found a potential farewall vehicle for her, the Cronkite play.

Maybe you're not up on the online dating terminology, like the "swipe right/swipe left" polarity. Mark E. Gibson, a certified life coach, understands the terminology and more. He figured out to find love for himself, and now offers advice to others in a book called How to Find Love Through Online Dating . How different is online dating from the older kind, if at all?

If you read much about the federal budget, a trillion and a half dollars may not phase you. But that's not the federal debt, it's the total student debt held by millions of current and former college students in the country. $1.5 Trillion dollars. A new report from The Roosevelt Institute notices some problems beyond the dollar figure: more education does not mean more earning power, student debt is a huge individual as well as collective burden, and the burden falls more heavily on people of

Ernest Hemingway is an American icon. He left behind many photographs. He left behind many other artifacts. Michael Katakis is an author. He's collected photos, letters and images that tell Hemingway's life. His book, Ernest Hemingway: Artifacts from a Life , answers a question. Did Hemingway's short, clipped sentences really come from the Kansas City Star's stylebook?

Farmers are known to be a self-reliant bunch; able to plow a field as well as fix the equipment that does the plowing. Unless it's not allowed. That statement requires some explanation: John Deere, the big tractor maker, wants to make sure its dealers perform the repairs on Deere equipment, and has the backing of some major groups and legislators. On the other side is the Right to Repair group, which wants farmers to be able to perform their own repairs.

The importance of the world's oceans cannot be overstated. So much life depends upon the life cycles of the ocean, even creatures that never get near the water. So it should come as no surprise that the annual State of the Coast conference in Coos Bay usually gets more requests for attendance than seats to hold the people. Everything from current marine science to ocean policy by governments gets an airing.

It's a simple fact of life that we release treated wastewater into streams. And even if the treatment plants comply with the law and get most of the contaminants out, the water can still be a bit warmer than the stream temperature. And that's not a good thing for cold-water fish like salmon. So the City of Ashland reached an agreement with The Freshwater Trust to plant trees to help shade and cool the streams where Ashland's wastewater is released. It follows a similar agreement between TFT and

A major focus of the debate over hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" to get oil and gas out of the ground is the stuff put IN the ground to get it out. The specifics of what's in the fracking fluid are not always communicated or required. Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk found a long history of fracking and a long list of items put into the ground, which he reported in his book Slick Water from 2015.