There's a lot of longing for "good old days" in America, the time when many people could graduate from high school and step into a well-paid manufacturing job--and send their kids to college. The economic boom that followed World War II was long and impressive... and quite possibly, an anomaly. Marc Levinson explains in his book An Extraordinary Time: The End of the Postwar Boom and the Return of the Ordinary Economy . It shows the factors and forces that made so many people so much money from

Sudden Oak Death is becoming a big enough concern that even Congress is paying attention. Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley recently joined with a state legislator, Rep. David Brock Smith, to create a task force on the tree disease. So far, it is contained to Curry County on Oregon's South Coast, but it has killed large numbers of oak trees in coastal California as well, and defoliated conifers, too.

Salmon runs into the region's rivers fluctuate quite a bit from year to year. But the forecast for the chinook salmon run returning to the Klamath River this year is just plain awful. If the forecast proves true, it will be the smallest chinook run in recorded history. Which presents the Pacific Fishery Management Council with few options, none of them attractive for people who want to catch the fish.

Do you look around before you speak your mind? Are you concerned by what other people will think about what YOU think? You're not alone in a country as politically divided as ours is. Oregon's own Sharon Schuman pushes for something she calls "dialogic freedom" -- freedom to say what you think, within certain guidelines. She goes back in history for examples, in her book Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World . It's a helpful reminder that today's polarization is not new.

You CAN own the beach in California, unlike in Oregon. But an array of groups and government agencies exist to make sure that members of the public get maximum beach access, and minimum abuse to the coastline. The California State Coastal Conservancy is a part of that array. The conservancy is unusual for its lack of regulatory powers.

There are still plenty of people in Oregon who remember when state law made the ocean beaches public property. And there's a big anniversary coming up: the 50th birthday of the law. Brent Walth is on the journalism faculty at UO. He is the author of Fire at Eden's Gate: Tom McCall and the Oregon Story .

Shakespeare scholars and fans are already debating whether "Edward III" is a Shakespeare play. Did he write all of it? Part of it? None? The point is moot at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which commissioned a modern-language version of the play as part of its "Play On!" series. Octavio Solis got the task of rewriting the play, to be presented Monday (March 27th) by the Ashland New Plays Festival .

You're familiar with the role of a midwife: assist mothers-to-be with bringing their children into the world. But the ancient role of midwife has been given a twist: now you can be a DEATH midwife, helping people OUT of the world. Kate Riley is certified as a death midwife, dedicated to making dying people and their loved ones comfortable with the process of dying. She is the author of a book about her mother's death, Launching Vee's Chariot: An End-of-Life Tale .

Well, that didn't take long: if a new report is accurate, more than 12,000 people work in the cannabis business in Oregon. And this is just a couple of years after pot became legal for personal use in the state. The Oregon House of Representatives asked for the report to get a handle on the economic impact of cannabis in Oregon.

The name Klebold should ring a bell, but not a happy one. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were the two Columbine High School students who shot and killed 13 people at the school in 1999; they wounded 24 others before killing themselves. The crime itself is incomprehensible to most of us, perhaps more so for Sue Klebold, Dylan's mother. She wrote a book about her journey before and after Columbine, A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy . The book is now out in paperback, with all