The scramble to succeed Ben Westlund as state treasurer is on, with four candidates entered in the competition by Tuesday’s filing deadline.
Bend’s Chris Telfer announced her interest almost as soon as the news of Westlund’s death broke. Telfer, a Republican state senator and the owner of an accounting firm, said in a press release that “if elected she will use the position to advocate for better fiscal management and financial oversight.”
A fire destroyed a home on Bend’s Westside Wednesday morning, and it took nine minutes for the fire trucks to arrive after the first 911 call came in.
Why? Because all the available firefighters were tied up handling a couple of other emergencies. Fire Chief Larry Huhn said his department is short on staff because it “hasn’t hired more firefighters to keep up with the growth in Bend,” according to the Bulletin story Thursday.
Lewis & Clark Law School professor James Huffman announced his candidacy for Ron Wyden’s US Senate seat yesterday, and the ink wasn’t even dry on his press release before the Democrats pounced on him.
The Oregon Democratic Party set up a one-page website titled “Meet Jim Huffman, Right Wing FreedomWorks Ideologue and Candidate for US Senator,” which rips into him for statements he’s made over the years.
Huffman used to write opinion pieces regulRead More...
When Abe Lincoln talked about “government of the people, by the people and for the people” at the Gettysburg battlefield in November 1863, it’s a pretty safe bet he wasn’t including corporations in his definition of “people.”
But in January 2010, a bitterly divided US Supreme Court decided that corporations have the same free-speech rights as people – meaning they can pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns.
The front page of the Local section of today’s Bulletin brought more proof (not that any was needed) that the bubble years are over for Central Oregon: Enrollment dropped in all of the region’s school districts over the past year.
Bend-LaPine enrollment this school year is down 0.9% from the 2008-09 figure. Other area districts saw shaper declines: Redmond 2.1%, Jefferson County 2.4%, Crook County 3%, Culver 5% and Sisters 11.4%
The conservation group Greenpeace has criticized Facebook for using coal-derived power at its planned Prineville data center instead of more Earth-friendly alternatives. This week The Bulletin fired back with a defense of Facebook, noting that Greenpeace’s power isn’t 100% green either.
“Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which provides energy to San Francisco, including Greenpeace’s office, gets the largest amount of its energy from natural gas, another nonrenewableRead More...
Bad news for anybody betting on a quick real estate rebound: The Commerce Department announced yesterday that new home sales fell to a 50-year low in January.
In news that surprised the so-called experts, purchases of new homes dropped 11.2% from December to January, to a pathetic seasonally adjusted annual rate of just 309,000.
One factor behind the dismal numbers, according to a Washington Post story, is the glut of homes already built: “Builders … continue to struggle with Read More...
The circus might be coming to town in John Day, and people in John Day don’t like it.
According to reports in the local weekly paper, the Blue Mountain Eagle, the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations group is looking to relocate from Athol in northern Idaho and has been scoping out John Day as a likely new home base. The self-described national director of the Aryans, Paul R. Mullet (honest, that’s his name) was in town last week “looking at property to buy for a new ‘nationaRead More...
One of the main tenets of journalistic ethics is that while a newspaper is free to express opinions on politics in its editorials, it shouldn’t let its political agenda drive its news coverage. There’s supposed to be a firm, clear line between the editorial page and the news columns.
At Bend’s Only Daily Newspaper, that line sometimes gets awfully blurry.
On Sunday, The Bulletin carried a story in the top position on the front page headlined: “Stiegler&rsRead More...
In between telecasts of the Winter Olympics, I spent much of the past week following the fascinating saga of Matt Wingard’s plagiarism.
Wingard, a Republican state representative from Wilsonville, rose to his feet in the House last Friday to deliver some remarks casting doubt on the reality of global warming. No problem with that.
The problem, as Kari Chisholm of Blue Oregon found out with a little digging, was that Wingard’s speech had been lifted virtually word for word fromRead More...
In between telecasts of the Winter Olympics, I spent much of the past week following the fascinating saga of Matt Wingard’s plagiarism.
Wingard, a Republican state representative from Wilsonville, rose to his feet in the House last Friday to deliver some remarks casting doubt on the reality of global warming. No problem with that.
The problem, as Kari Chisholm of Blue Oregon found out with a little digging, was that Wingard’s speech had been lifted virtually word for word from an ediRead More...
In between telecasts of the Winter Olympics, I spent much of the past week following the fascinating saga of Matt Wingard’s plagiarism.
Wingard, a Republican state representative from Wilsonville, rose to his feet in the House last Friday to deliver some remarks casting doubt on the reality of global warming. No problem with that.
The problem, as Kari Chisholm of Blue Oregon found out with a little digging, was that Wingard’s speech had been lifted virtually word forRead More...
The Federal Reserve has released a report that seems to show Bend home prices have moved more or less back in line with those in other Oregon cities.
The report, titled “Trends in Delinquencies and Foreclosures in Oregon,” includes a bunch of interesting graphs, including one that tracks the rise and (in Bend’s case) precipitous fall in home prices from 2000 through the end of 2009 in the cities of Portland, Salem, Medford and Bend.
In the poker game of life, young Brady Hardin drew a lousy hand.
Born in St. Charles Medical Center in Bend in 1963 1993, he suffered from a rare, complex medical syndrome that caused cerebral palsy and inadequate development of his lungs, bladder and kidneys. Doctors at Oregon Health Sciences University, where he was transferred shortly after birth, urged his parents to let them take him off life support because if he survived he was likely to be “a vegetable.”
This isn’t exactly a local item, but the irony is too delicious to pass up: The Mortgage Bankers Association has sold its national headquarters in Washington, DC for less than half what it paid for it.
“The Mortgage Bankers Association moved into the building in 2008 just as the real estate market was crashing, and ended up paying millions of dollars more when interest rates rose,” the Washington Post reported. “Moreover, the leasing market slowed considerably aRead More...
New York Times columnist Tim Egan has written a piece that should be read – no, memorized – by every city councilor and other public official in Bend.
Egan looks at Northern California’s San Joaquin Valley – a region he calls “Slumburbia” – and paints an ugly picture of the economic and human debris left behind by the receding tide of the real estate boom. Except for the part about gang graffiti, which we haven’t seen much of here yet, itRead More...
There aren’t many things that The Bulletin’s editorial board and I agree on, but the Oregon Liquor Control Commission is one of them.
In an editorial this morning, The Bulletin asks why the state’s legislators don’t take a long, hard look at reforming “the archaic and contradictory system” under which the OLCC both regulates the sale of booze and is in the business of selling it.
Why indeed?
Decades ago, when I lived in Pennsylvania, I Read More...
“Notices of default jump to surprisingly high level,” said the headline at the top of The Bulletin’s Business page on Wednesday. The story said 402 notices of default – the first step in foreclosure proceedings – were filed in Deschutes County last month, a 26% jump from December and the highest monthly total recorded since the real estate bubble popped three years ago.
Only the most determinedly delusional optimist could have been “surprised” Read More...
Four years ago, Money magazine ranked Colorado Springs one of the 10 best places to live in America, and Number One among large cities. Now the joke is that the last person to leave will have to turn out the lights.
Oops, never mind – the lights already have been turned out.
Facing a huge drop in sales tax revenue because of the Great Recession, the government of the city of about 370,000 asked the voters to approve a tripling of the property tax rate this fall. The votersRead More...
Republican Chris Dudley, the former Portland Trail Blazer who wants to be Oregon’s governor, is challenging Chicago Mayor Richard Daley to go one-on-one – but it’s not clear what game he wants to play.
Daley has gotten attention over the past week by predicting he’ll be able to lure businesses away from Oregon to Chicago after the passage of Measures 66 and 67. “It will help our economic development immediately,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times. &ldquoRead More...
Anonymous posters on websites, beware: You’re not as anonymous as you might think you are.
That’s the tough lesson learned by people who posted unflattering comments about Tami and Kevin Sawyer on the KTVZ site after the TV station turned over their IP addresses in response to a subpoena from the Sawyers.
The Sawyers were high flyers during Bend’s real estate boom, but they’ve been brought down to earth by a barrage of legal troubles including lawsuits byRead More...
The dust hadn’t even settled after the stunning victory of Measures 66 and 67 when the whining from Oregon conservatives started.
In fact, Larry Huss, writing on the Oregon Catalyst blog, started wailing “We wuz robbed!” before the ballots were even counted.
“This column is written before the election results on Measures 66 and 67 are known,” Huss wrote. “According to the polls it is a very tight race, so let me make a prediction as to the outRead More...
Well, that’s a relief: Oregonian Publisher N. Christian Anderson III is not a right-wing nut. He told us so himself.
The Oregonian has been taking a lot of flak lately from its readers over its editorial rejecting Measures 66 and 67 and its publication of a couple of large “spadea” ads against the measures wrapped around the front section and constructed in such a way as to perhaps give the impression that they were part of the news section. The heat got so intense thRead More...
Everybody is shouting hallelujahs and hosannas over Facebook’s decision to build its new “data center” in Prineville.
The Bulletin had a big bold banner headline on the front page this morning: “Enterprise zone lured Facebook to Prineville.” The story below it described how, thanks to the enterprise zone designation, Facebook will get out of paying as much as $2.8 million a year in local taxes.
To be fair, it should be noted that Facebook will stillRead More...
Oregon conservatives who oppose the tax increases under Measures 66 and 67 say that what this state really needs is a fundamental reform of its tax system. No argument here – but what reforms would Oregon conservatives support?
Well, certainly not doing away with Oregon’s archaic and ridiculous “kicker” law, which prevents the state from accumulating sufficient reserves to see it through tough times like the present Great Recession.
The Bulletin’s opposition to Measures 66 and 67 seems to have turned into an obsession. Bend’s Only Daily Newspaper has yet another lengthy tirade against the tax measures on its editorial page this morning – the fourth, according to my recollection, plus a column a couple of weeks ago by Editor John Costa, numerous “In My View” pieces and countless letters to the editor.
Today’s epic tries to make the point that Oregon’s tax system is already Read More...
Everybody is shouting hallelujahs and hosannas over Facebook’s decision to build its new “data center” in Prineville.
The Bulletin had a big bold banner headline on the front page this morning: “Enterprise zone lured Facebook to Prineville.” The story below it described how, thanks to the enterprise zone designation, Facebook will get out of paying as much as $2.8 million a year in local taxes.
To be fair, it should be noted that Facebook will Read More...
Oregon conservatives who oppose the tax increases under Measures 66 and 67 say that what this state really needs is a fundamental reform of its tax system. Hard to argue with that – but what reforms would the conservatives support?
Well, certainly not doing away with Oregon’s archaic and ridiculous “kicker” law, which prevents the state from accumulating sufficient reserves to see it through tough times like the present Great Recession.
The Bulletin’s opposition to Measures 66 and 67 seems to have turned into an obsession. Bend’s Only Daily Newspaper has yet another lengthy tirade against the tax measures on its editorial page this morning – the fourth, according to my recollection, plus a column a couple of weeks ago by Editor John Costa, numerous “In My View” pieces and countless letters to the editor.
Today’s epic tries to make the point that Oregon’s tax system is already Read More...
The Wall Street Journal published an editorial against Measures 66 and 67 that’s been widely circulated via e-mail and quoted approvingly on conservative websites such as The Oregon Catalyst. But Oregonian blogger Jeff Mapes caught the Journal with its factual pants down.
The editorial claims that “the Democratic controlled state legislature doled out a $259 million pay raise to the government work force, even as the state was facing a near $1 billion deficit.” Read More...
State Sen. Chris Telfer (R-Bend) continues to insist there are hidden billions that the state could tap into to erase its budget deficit without a tax increase – even though the state Department of Administrative Services says, in effect, that she’s full of it.
The anti-Measure 67 forces continue to have a real problem finding a bona fide small business in Oregon that actually would be hurt by it.
In early December they mass-mailed a “personal letter” from Tillamook dairy owner Carol Marie Leuthold expressing fear that M67 would “hurt our farm and the families it supports.” A little reporting revealed that the globe-trotting Leutholds would see only a $140 increase – from the present $10 minimum to $150 – iRead More...
The City of Bend is talking about creating a no-destination-resort buffer zone around the city, and the Central Oregon Association of Realtors doesn’t like that idea one bit.
Deschutes County is reviewing and revising its rules for where destination resorts can go, and city staff wants to prohibit them within five miles of the city’s Urban Growth Boundary. That looks like a reasonable – even generous – standard; under state law resorts have to be sited at least Read More...
At least one prominent Oregon Republican is going to vote for Measures 66 and 67: former Labor Commissioner Jack Roberts, who gave the tax measures his reluctant endorsement in an op-ed piece in The Oregonian Thursday.
It’s “misleading to label Measures 66 and 67 ‘job-killing tax increases,’” wrote Roberts, who was labor commissioner from 1995 to 2002 and now is executive director of the Lane Metro Partnership, an economic development agency.
Jason Evers, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission official who was removed from his Bend post for being overzealous, has been transferred to lovely Nyssa, a Malheur County town of 3,000 people that’s about as close to Siberia as you can get and still be in Oregon.
This is the second time in Evers’s OLCC career that he’s been “voluntarily” sent to Nyssa (nickname: “Thunder Egg Capital of the World,” and no, I didn’t make that up) aftRead More...
If you like to walk around naked, don’t try it in Ashland anymore: The city council there has enacted a ban on public nudity.
The council adopted the citywide ban Tuesday night by a 4-2 vote despite a warning from the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union that it violates the Oregon Constitution’s protection of free speech.
According to council members, the new ordinance prohibits nude political demonstrations like a “Buns Not Bombs” event hRead More...
As inevitable as death and taxes, and about as welcome, is The Bulletin’s Annual Pothole Story, which appeared on this morning’s front page.
Under the headline “What’s with all the potholes in Bend?” the story, accompanied by a neat little graphic, explained how potholes form and why Bend has so many of them.
The reason they form, basically, is that freezing and thawing creates cracks in asphalt and the weight of cars and trucks causes those cracks Read More...
USC won’t be in the Rose Bowl this year. Neither will UCLA, UC-Berkeley or Stanford. But California will be well represented when the University of Oregon Ducks take the field.
A Wall Street Journal story that appeared before this year’s Civil War game (under the somewhat unsporting headline “Football’s Carpetbagger Bowl”) noted that over the past five years, 93% of the players the U of O has signed have been from out of state – the highest percentagRead More...
Carla Axtman on the BlueOregon blog tears into state Sen. Chris Telfer for peddling some fuzzy numbers in her proposed “solution” to the state’s budget problems.
Telfer says the modest tax increases on corporations and high-income Oregonians that voters will be asked to approve or reject in January aren’t necessary and that the budget gap can be closed by dipping into reserve funds, reforming the Business Energy Tax Credit program and trimming pay and benefits fRead More...
It’s an ancient tradition among columnists (and their Internet Age descendants, the bloggers) to present joke “gifts” to public figures at Christmas. For instance, a heart for Dick Cheney, a brain for Sarah Palin and a pair of cojones for Barack Obama.
This year, in a twist on that tradition, I’d like to confer a special gift on the long-suffering citizens of Bend: the ability to express righteous indignation.
To get angry, in plain English. Outraged, even. And to dare to stanRead More...
If you wonder why some Central Oregonians think the word “developer” is a synonym for “parasite,” check out the news stories about Pronghorn that appeared Monday.
Seems the developers of the ritzy “resort” (I’m putting the word in quotation marks because it’s not really a resort but an ultra-high-end housing tract with a couple of golf courses) stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of plants – live ones and dead ones – Read More...
Bend led the nation in declining home prices in the third quarter of 2009, besting (if that’s the right word) even Las Vegas, according to the IHS Global Insight index.
Oregonian real estate blogger Ryan Frank writes that IHS’s latest “House Prices in America” report shows home prices in Bend dropping 5.6% from the second quarter to the third. Vegas was down 5%.
“Much of the nation is starting to emerge from the depths of the housing recession,&rdquRead More...
An Oregon State University economist has come out with a report pretty much demolishing the conservative propaganda that Oregon is Tax Hell and two measures on the January ballot will make it much worse.
William Jaeger compared tax rates in Oregon with those of other states over a period of 17 years and found that, as a percentage of personal income, the nationwide average state tax rate has remained a fairly steady 6.4% while Oregon’s has averaged 6% -- and it’s been trendRead More...
After several weeks of non-suspense, former Portland Trail Blazer Chris Dudley dropped the other sneaker this morning and announced that he’s seeking the Republican nomination for governor.
Dudley made the announcement in an auditorium at Self Enhancement Inc., a charitable organization that works with low-income youths. According to The Oregonian’s Jeff Mapes, he “pledged to slow the growth of the state budget and the high cost of the Public Employees Retirement SystRead More...
After several weeks of non-suspense, former Portland Trail Blazer Chris Dudley dropped the other sneaker this morning and announced that he’s seeking the Republican nomination for governor.
Dudley made the announcement in an auditorium at Self Enhancement Inc., a charitable organization that works with low-income youths. According to The Oregonian’s Jeff Mapes, he “pledged to slow the growth of the state budget and the high cost of the Public Employees Retirement SystRead More...
Could earthquakes in Switzerland throw a geothermal energy project in Central Oregon’s Newberry Crater area off the rails?
About a month ago AltaRock Energy got a $25 million grant (on top of an earlier $36 million) from the US Department of Energy toward development of a plant that will produce power by tapping natural heat deep beneath the Earth’s surface.
AltaRock’s process, called “enhanced geothermal,” involves drilling wells up to 10,000 Read More...
Senate Democrats are hopeful they have a filibuster-proof majority in favor of a health care reform package that would offer Medicare to people as young as 55 – but Jeff Merkley could throw a monkey wrench into the works.
Oregon’s junior senator told Huffington Post blogger Sam Stein that the bill in its present form would worsen Oregon’s health care problems because doctors in the state are woefully underpaid for Medicare patients and are increasingly unwilling to treat them.
The Wandering Eye is as liberal as the next guy – probably more so – but when liberals get on their self-righteous political correctness kick, they frankly give me a pain in the ass.
Down in Ashland, also known as the Berkeley of Southern Oregon, a fracas erupted this holiday season over whether an evergreen tree (actually, a fake evergreen tree) in a public school was a Christmas tree or a “giving tree.”
According to the Ashland Daily Tidings, Michelle Zundell, principal of BRead More...
Props to Kari Chisholm of Blue Oregon for making a point that progressives should make a lot more often: Contrary to conservative dogma, money the government takes in from taxes does not vanish from the economy and disappear into some black hole.
“Let's be absolutely clear about this: Every single dollar that the state ‘sucks out’ of the private economy will be pumped right back into the private economy,” Chisholm writes. “Every single dollar the state recRead More...
Oregonians are weird. And the longer I live here (almost 25 years now) the weirder they seem.
Take the story on the front page of today’s Bulletin about “platypus couples” – married folks who find themselves on opposite sides of tonight’s epic “Civil War” clash between the U of O Ducks and the OSU Beavers.
The story tells the tale of Cheyenne Edgerly (a Beaver) and her husband Brett (a Duck), whose marriage apparently almost didn’tRead More...
It looks like the opponents of Measures 66 and 67 have found their Dorothy English. Her name is Carol Marie Leuthold, and she and her husband Dan have a dairy farm in Tillamook.
Dorothy English, as you may remember, is the sweet little old lady who wanted to develop her farmland outside Portland but was prevented by Oregon’s land use laws. She became the poster child for Measure 37, which gutted those laws. (Fortunately Oregon voters saw the light and later passed another measureRead More...
Black Friday 2009 has come and gone. Thankfully, there were no fatalities this year.
There were, however, two brawls at Wal-Mart stores in Southern California, according to Portland Examiner blogger Christina Gregoire: “In Upland, a manager had to call in police because two customers were fighting inside the store. Also, the Rancho Cucamonga Wal-Mart had to call for help when two customers were knocking each other around in the electronics section. There were no seriouRead More...
Appropriately enough for the week of Turkey Day, political activist-cum-racketeer Bill Sizemore has announced he’s going to seek the Republican nomination for governor.
In a statement released to the far-right-wing NW Republican blog, Sizemore said he was running to “break the stranglehold the public employee unions have on the state of Oregon” because “he is the only one willing to challenge that behemoth head on.”
The mysterious proprietor of the BendBubble2 blog – I Hate to Burst Your Bubble, alias Homer, alias Butter, alias Paul-Doh – announced Sunday that after almost three years he’s hanging it up.
We have to give Homeboy props for being one of the first, if not THE first, to declare publicly that the emperors of Bend real estate were absolutely buck naked and our boom was a creation of smoke and mirrors as phony as the tourist industry’s claims of 300 days of sunshinRead More...
Bend has always touted its beauty, its charm, its “healthy outdoor lifestyle” and its mythical “300 days of sunshine a year.” But we may be on our way to inadvertently becoming famous as something else: the real estate fraud capital of the United States.
Today a federal grand jury in Eugene handed up indictments against 13 people in connection with the Desert Sun Development company. The indictments charge that fraudulent activities by DSD’s principals &ndRead More...
Last month Greg Walden caught the H1H1 (“swine”) flu, and he wasn’t happy about it. He also isn’t happy about the way the government handled the swine flu epidemic.
Yesterday the 2nd District Republican grilled federal officials in front of a House committee on why there’s a shortage of swine flu vaccine after the government earlier said there’d be plenty.
“We had testimony Sept. 15 from [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Kathleen] SRead More...
In Jewish folklore there is a town called Chelm in which all the inhabitants are complete idiots.
Over the years many jokes have been told about the foolishness of the people of Chelm. For example:
Two men of Chelm are digging a foundation for a house. One says to the other, “We have a problem. What are we going to do with all this dirt we’re digging out for the foundation?”
“Not to worry,” the other man says. “We’ll dig another hRead More...
The anticipated big showdown Friday over Congressman Greg Walden’s vote on health care reform turned out to be a bit of a fizzle: Instead of encountering each other at Walden’s office, the Walden supporters stood on one corner of Greenwood and Wall and the opponents stood on the opposite corner, holding signs, shouting slogans and getting honks and waves from passing cars.
Walden was the only member of Oregon’s five-member congressional delegation to cast a vote againRead More...
Happy days are here again in the local real estate market, if you go by the headline in yesterday’s Bulletin.
“Housing inventory plummets in Bend,” the headline said.
“Plummets,” no less. Not merely “drops” or “falls” or “declines,” but “plummets.”
The proof of the plummet, according to a report by the local Bratton Appraisal Group, is that in mid-November of 2008 there were 1,365 single-family Read More...
There could be a showdown between liberals and the tea party faction tomorrow at Rep. Greg Walden’s Bend office – or maybe not.
Last week Walden cast a vote in the House against the Democrats’ health care reform bill, which includes a form of the “public option” – government-supported health insurance that people could choose instead of a private insurance policy. He also voted for the Stupka-Pitts amendment, which prohibits any federal money from going to any insurance plan, public oRead More...
Chris Dudley, who some around here may remember for playing two six seasons at center for the Portland Trailblazers, is putting out feelers about a run for governor on the Republican ticket next year.
The 6’11” Dudley had a not particularly distinguished NBA career, knocking around among six different teams and amassing a career average of 3.9 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. He retired from pro ball in 1998, after which he founded the Chris Dudley Foundation to help Read More...
Things are not looking good for Mount Bachelor Academy, one of those special boarding schools for rich kids with problems. The state Department of Human Services has suspended the Prineville school’s license and told parents to take their kids away.
And this morning’s Bulletin reports that the Crook County Sheriff’s Office is looking at a possible criminal investigation.
The problems at the academy have been known since last April, when a number of students andRead More...
The pronouncements of Dr. Randall Podenza, an economist associated with the right-wing Cascade Policy Institute, usually leave me scratching my head. But his latest one had me wanting to ram it into a wall.
Podenza’s thesis boils down to this: More driving = more prosperity. As reported on the Oregon Catalyst blog, Podenza’s study “finds that ‘VMT [Vehicle Miles Traveled] is a large and statistically significant driver of GDP [Gross Domestic Product]’ and Read More...
I love football -- have for decades. I know it’s politically incorrect (my goodness, so much violence!) but I freely admit it and make no apologies for it.
I have a U of O flag on my car and watch every game. I don’t root for the closest thing we have to a “local” NFL team because the pathetic Seattle Seahawks are just too depressing to watch. But I catch the New York Giants on TV every chance I get.
Recently, though, there’s been a flood of news stRead More...
Kari Chisholm of the BlueOregon blog says there’s been speculation about whether Bill Bradbury’s multiple sclerosis will make people question whether he’s capable of handling the demands of the governorship.
“Over the last year, many people have wondered aloud - here on BlueOregon, and in hushed tones in person - whether Bill Bradbury's health will be an insurmountable obstacle to his gubernatorial ambitions,” Chisholm writes. “In response, I've alwaRead More...
A minor oversight could turn out to be a major problem for the forces trying to repeal the tax increases passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature last session.
The legislature’s tax measures include an increase in the corporate minimum tax (currently a ridiculous $10, unchanged since 1931) and in the top income tax rates for affluent Oregonians (individuals making over $125,000 a year or households making over $250,000).
But the Democrats also slipped in a feature thaRead More...
If you find an e-mail in your in-box today claiming to be from Bend Broadband and instructing you to send your username, password and phone number “to enable us carryout [sic] an urgent maintenance in your e-mail account” – don’t.
“BendBroadband wishes to inform you that there is a congestion [sic] in your Chesapeake.Net e-mail account,” the e-mail says. “This is due to the spam activities going on in the Internet. You have been contacted persoRead More...
Last week, like all Deschutes County property owners, I received the most depressing piece of mail of the year: my annual tax bill.
This morning The Bulletin had more depressing news. “Bend residents may face new taxes,” the big black headline said.
It’s the familiar story: Now that the real estate bubble has popped, the city isn’t taking in enough tax dollars to pay for essential services. The city staff is projecting a shortfall of up to $12 million in Read More...
Last week, like all Deschutes County property owners, I received the most depressing piece of mail of the year: my annual tax bill.
This morning The Bulletin had more depressing news. “Bend residents may face new taxes,” the big black headline said.
It’s the familiar story: Now that the real estate bubble has popped, the city isn’t taking in enough tax dollars to pay for essential services. The city staff is projecting a shortfall of up to $12 million in Read More...
In the early 19th Century, after Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccine came into wide use, the first anti-vaccination movement sprung up. Its adherents’ warnings ranged from the legitimate (vaccination could, as they claimed, lead to serious infections, due to the unsanitary conditions under which it was performed) to the downright nutty (the vaccine, which was derived from cowpox, would cause patients to sprout cow-like appendages).
Today the swine flu vaccination campaigRead More...
The conservative group Common Sense for Oregon is preening itself over a major victory: It’s gotten free soda pop taken away from Oregon prison inmates.
Common Sense jumped on the issue when it found out that prisoners were allowed to have free soda pop with their meals. “In May, Common Sense handed the Department of Corrections a Golden Fleece award when it was discovered that approximately $773,000 of the department’s budget was allocated for free soda pop at meal tRead More...
Got an e-mail “Action Alert” yesterday afternoon from Oregon Republican Chairman Bob Tiernan urging me to bombard the state’s Democratic congresspersons with phone calls opposing the “Obama-style health care reform” package that just cleared the Senate Finance Committee.
Tiernan waxes positively apoplectic over the finance committee bill – which in fact is a weak-kneed, limp-wristed, half-assed, token measure that fails to include any feature that woRead More...
Oh, happy day – the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 10,000 yesterday for the first time in over a year.
Meanwhile, however, we witnessed another milestone that probably means more to the typical Central Oregonian: The median sales price for single-family homes in Bend dropped below $200,000 in September.
According to the monthly report put out by the Bratton Appraisal Group, the median price was $199,000. The last time the median here fell below $200,000 was more tRead More...
The swine flu situation in Deschutes County is more serious than the local news media so far have reported, judging by an e-mail County Communicable Disease Manager Shannon Dames sent to health care professionals today.
Under the subject line “H1N1 Cases are way up!” Dames’s e-mail states:
“I am sure this is not news to you, given what you are seeing in your own clinics, but to be sure we are all in the loop:
Schools are seeing higher absentee ratesRead More...
Can Jeff Merkley solve America’s health care problems? The verdict on that is still out, but he’s a pretty slick operator with a Rubik’s Cube.
A new video shows Oregon’s junior senator fiddling with a cube as he explains: “Just as this cube is all mixed up, so is our health care system messed up.”
Health care reform needs to achieve three main objectives, Merkley continues: “Make insurance work better for those who have it, extend healthRead More...
Moderate tax increases will help Oregon climb out of the recession more than holding down revenues and cutting state services, according to a group of more than three dozen Oregon economists.
Initiatives to repeal two legislative measures that would raise corporate income taxes from the current minimum of $10 a year and hike personal income taxes for the most affluent 3% of Oregonians apparently have qualified for the January ballot.
But contrary to conventional conservative wisRead More...
Today The Eye turns from inconsequential matters like health care reform, the state budget deficit and real estate fraud and focuses on an issue of more intimate concern to our readers: the shrinking size of the toilet paper in public restrooms.
I’ve been noticing this trend for the past couple of years, but I was pushed over the brink of outrage when I went into the men’s room in Café Yumm in the Old Mill District the other day and saw a roll of toilet paper that apRead More...
The conventional local wisdom blames the Bend real estate bubble and bust on greedy people (mostly from California) buying homes they couldn’t afford and borrowing against their equity to buy boats and Hummers and fancy vacations.
But according to real estate fraud expert Richard Hagar, there was a different culprit: Crooks. Specifically, corrupt mortgage brokers and appraisers who conspired to inflate the paper value of homes far beyond their real worth.
The conventional local wisdom blames the Bend real estate bubble and bust on greedy people (mostly from California) buying homes they couldn’t afford and borrowing against their equity to buy boats and Hummers and fancy vacations.
But according to real estate fraud expert Richard Hagar, there was a different culprit: Crooks. Specifically, corrupt mortgage brokers and appraisers who conspired to inflate the paper value of homes far beyond their real worth.
With the swine flu inflicting its second fatality in Bend, according to this morning’s Bulletin, worries about getting vaccinated in time will ratchet up another notch. But the swine flu vaccine hasn’t arrived here yet, and meanwhile vaccine for the “regular” seasonal flu may be hard to find.
When I called Bend Memorial Clinic yesterday to find out when I could get a flu shot, I was told BMC was out of flu vaccine aRead More...
Workers at an Ashland brewery and restaurant who agree to do some of their commuting by bike get a nice incentive – a free bike.
Writing for Greener World Media, Stephen Linaweaver reports that on a Labor Day weekend trip to Ashland he learned that in late August the Standing Stone Brewery started offering a bike to every employee who agrees to make at least 45 commutes per year by pedal power.
Sen. Ron Wyden – whose support of the public option for health care reform had been considered somewhat iffy – finally came down in favor of it, voting yes today on two amendments in the Senate Finance Committee.
Unfortunately most committee members saw things the insurance industry way and the amendments went down to defeat – the first, by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) on a vote of 15-8, and the second, by Sen. CharRead More...
John Kitzhaber, The Man Who Would Be Governor Again, had some right-on-the-money things to say about health care reform last week at the Columbia Forum in Astoria. The gist of his message: We need to create a new and better system, not just prop up the failed old one.
“If you listen to the health care debate, it's not really been a debate about how to create a system that talks about how to improve the health of Americans, it's been Read More...
The weather might not show it, but the birds know it: Autumn is here, and they’re heading south along the Pacific Flyway, the main migratory route along the West Coast.
The Pacific Flyway runs right over Central Oregon, and the autumn and spring migrations bring entertaining and colorful tourists to my bird feeders – white-crowned sparrows, red-eyed towhees, evening grosbeaks, rufous hummingbirds and more.
The Wall Street Journal has published a first-rate piece on Bend’s economic debacle, using it as a microcosm for what’s going on nationally.
The story (pretty long, but well worth reading) begins by describing anecdotally how the collapse of Bend’s economy has created “slack” – a gap between the economy’s productive capacity and what’s actually being used:
“A year and a half of recession has left local manufactureRead More...
Our local daily newspaper offers a great editorial rant this morning about an impending socialist menace, warning ominously of “the specter of a vast and sprawling federal bureaucracy [that] is too horrible to contemplate.”
Is the editorial attacking liberal health care reform ideas like single-payer or the “public option”? Nope – it’s attacking federal aid to education, and it came from the paper’s archives of 1961.
A freshman senator is expected to defer to his seniors, make no waves, and rise to address the chamber only on such controversial topics as the virtues of motherhood and the flag.
But not Oregon’s Jeff Merkley, who came across as a bit of a Milquetoast during his campaigns but has become one of the Senate’s firebrands on the subject of health care reform.
Merkley’s determined stand in support of a public option foRead More...
Barring something totally unexpected, it looks more and more like John Kitzhaber will be the once and future governor of Oregon.
At a press conference yesterday the former two-term Democratic governor announced he’s picked up a slew of endorsements from prominent state Democrats, including Treasury Secretary Ben Westlund, Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo and Attorney General John Kroger as well as 17 of the 54 Democratic state legislators, including Bend’Read More...
So the local daily rag reports this morning that, for the first time in 22 years, overall enrollment in Bend-LaPine schools is expected not to grow this year, and in some schools it will actually drop.
A couple of school principals were quoted as saying they’re not really sure, but they suspect the decline might be related to economic factors – i.e., people leaving because they can’t find jobs.
Les Schwab, born poor in Bend, used borrowed money to buy a dilapidated shack of a tire store in Prineville in 1952 and gradually built his business into the biggest independent tire dealership in America – in the process making himself one of the richest men in the country.
Schwab did it by offering quality, value and excellent customer service. He also did it by appreciating the worth of hiRead More...
Ordinarily we like to keep The Eye focused on local or state matters, but today – the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist massacre – our local daily newspaper carried a column by Charles Krauthammer that made me so pig-biting mad (to borrow a phrase from the great Ed Anger of the Weekly World News) that if I didn’t respond my head would explode.
Krauthammer wrote about the case of Van Jones, the White House aide who was Read More...
Scanning our local daily newspaper this week, The Eye noticed that an Eastsider named Lisa Burley is trying to get the city to do something about the train horns that wake her and her neighbors up in the middle of the night.
While I admire your guts, Lisa, I can tell that you haven’t been around here very long and you don’t understand how things work in our little Paradise-on-the-Deschutes.
The long-awaited (well, since last week) BBC piece on Bend’s big boom and bust appeared Friday, and The Eye reluctantly must conclude it was a bit of a bust itself.
Rehashing the same story that has been told many times (and often better) by American media, the BBC covers the familiar theme – there was a big housing boom here, then it went poof, now everybody’s broke – and interviews the typical sources: a couple of gRead More...
The big dog finally got up and came down off the porch. Now we’ll see how many of the other dogs are willing to run with him.
Yesterday John Kitzhaber announced he’ll try to become the first Oregon governor to serve three terms. He’s already had two – from 1995 to 2003 – and the state constitution forbids him from serving three in a row, but there’s nothing against him serving as many terms as he wants non-cRead More...
The big dog finally got up and came down off the porch. Now we’ll see how many of the other dogs are willing to run with him.
Yesterday John Kitzhaber announced he’ll try to become the first Oregon governor to serve three terms. He’s already had two – from 1995 to 2003 – and the state constitution forbids him from serving three in a row, but there’s nothing against him serving as many terms as he wants non-consecutively.
It doesn’t have a major ski area. It doesn’t have dramatic mountain views. It doesn’t have a river running through it. (The best it can boast is a creek). It doesn’t have a “fabulous outdoor lifestyle.” It doesn’t have a Wal-Mart or a Trader Joe’s or a Costco.
And yet somehow, by design or accident, Ashland seems to have found a way to become something Bend never was, is not now and probably neveRead More...
Bend’s notoriety as Bubble Capital of the US is about to go global: The Eye has learned from an unimpeachable source that the BBC is working on a major story about the collapse of our real estate-based economy.
According to the source, a BBC crew will arrive in Bend Monday to conduct interviews with locals who have been affected by the bubble and bust, including unemployed workers, social services types and public officials.
Sen. Jeff Merkley got kicked around like a soccer ball (metaphorically) by hostile right-wingers at his town hall meeting in Madras last month, so he’s decided on a format for future events evidently aimed at holding the hecklers in check.
According to an e-mail from the Deschutes Democratic Party, Merkley will hold a town hall meeting next Tuesday, Sept. 1, at 7 pm at Summit High School in Bend and another the following day at 11:30 aRead More...
Swine flu, which faded from the news while the virus took a summer vacation, is getting headlines again – and they’re damn scary.
On Monday a White House advisory panel issued a warning that the virus is likely to re-erupt this fall as kids return to school and college, and that it could end up infecting half of the US population, hospitalizing almost 2 million and killing 90,000.
Faithful readers of this blog know that The Eye doesn’t hand out praise to Republicans very often, but it looks like the ones in Salem have come up with a good idea: closing (or at least slowing down) the revolving door between the state legislature and lucrative state government jobs.
Under present Oregon law, a legislator must wait until after the end of the following legislative session to take a position as a lobbyist. The RepublicanRead More...
There’s a lot of fearful talk these days about the prospect of “government bureaucrats making health care decisions for you” if health care reform goes through.
Maybe you’re one of those fortunate people who have never had a significant illness or injury and have no dealings with your insurance company except to send in your premium check every month. If so, I’d like to explain from personal experience what it&rsqRead More...
Labor unions say they’re drawing a line in the sand over support for a public health care option, and Ron Wyden might find himself on the wrong side of it.
Oregon’s senior senator has refused to take a stand in support of a government-backed insurance plan, instead pushing his own “Healthy Americans Act,” which would, among other things, require private insurance companies to offer coverage to everyone and tax some emplRead More...
Right-wing radio host and blogger Bill Post of Salem has uncovered a horrendous political scandal: Jim Bernau, CEO of Willamette Valley Vineyards, appears to be a closet liberal.
Post was able to break this blockbuster of a story, according to his blog, because an alert listener tipped him “that there was a bus at the McMinnville David Wu Town Hall meeting Monday night that was, as the listener described, ‘filled with Obama Health Care suppoRead More...
Richard Esterman says he isn’t a teabagger, a birther, a deather, a left-winger, a right-winger, a Republican or a Democrat – just a guy who wants politicians to listen to the people. And he wants at least 1,000 people to come to the Deschutes County Fairgrounds on Aug. 23 to help send the message.
Esterman’s idea is to stage a giant “patriotic photo shoot” with 1,000 (or more) people holding up home-made siRead More...
A lot of congressmen are taking heat from constituents at town hall meetings this month, but not Greg Walden. He’s gettin’ outta town – FAR out.
The 2nd District Republican is off on a two-week tour that, according to this morning’s Bulletin, is covering Switzerland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and Canada.
The Oregonian quoted Walden spokesman Andrew Whelan as saying Walden and five otRead More...
A lot of congressmen are taking heat from constituents at town hall meetings this month, but not Greg Walden. He’s gettin’ outta town – FAR out.
The 2nd District Republican is off on a two-week tour that, according to this morning’s Bulletin, is covering Switzerland, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and Canada.
The Oregonian quoted Walden spokesman Andrew Whelan as saying Walden and five other lawmakers – four RepubliRead More...
Looks like another company that supposedly was going to be a major player in Bend’s supposedly burgeoning aviation industry has gone down in flames: Epic Air, a manufacturer of composite kit planes that once promised to employ 4,000 workers, has had its company offices seized by the landlord.
According to The Bulletin this morning, Epic’s building at the Bend Municipal Airport was closed Friday and a sign on the door said the landlRead More...
Oregonian blogger Jeff Mapes reports [blog.oregonlive.com] that Democratic Rep. David Wu may be the next target of the Teabagger Brigade when he holds a town hall in McMinnville on Monday.
Neal Lockhart, who heads a group called Conservative Friends of Yamhill County that’s part of the Teabag Party movement, says he expects to turn out more than 300 people for the event.
Gubernatorial hopeful Allen Alley is off on his epic walk across Oregon, and the folks at Blue Oregon [www.blueoregon.com] being Democrats, couldnt resist poking a little fun at him.
Sen. Jeff Merkley apparently got teabagged uh, sandbagged by right-wingers at his town hall meeting in Madras Sunday, as reported by Carla Axtman of Blue Oregon. [www.blueoregon.com]
Sen. Jeff Merkley apparently got teabagged - uh, sandbagged - by right-wingers at his town hall meeting in Madras Sunday, as reported by Carla Axtman of Blue Oregon.
"I spoke on Monday with Melissa Shapiro, a resident of Madras who attended the town hall," Axtman writes. "Melissa said that the turnout to the event was huge, much larger than anything she'd seen in previous Madras political meetings. Melissa said at first the questions were run of the mill, but quicRead More...
What next locusts? Already beset by catastrophic rates of unemployment, foreclosures and plummeting real estate prices, Bend has been visited by a new plague this summer: mosquitoes.
What next - locusts? Already beset by catastrophic rates of unemployment, foreclosures and plummeting real estate prices, Bend has been visited by a new plague this summer: mosquitoes.
According to a story in this morning's Bulletin, the buzzing bloodsuckers have been turning up in more places and hanging around longer this year than usual.
The Eye can vouch for that claim personally: It seems like every time we spend more than 15 minutes outside we come back with a dozeRead More...
It looks harmless enough: Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon has stuck an amendment into the health care reform bill that would let Medicare reimburse doctors for giving patients counseling about end-of-life care.
It looks harmless enough: Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon has stuck an amendment into the health care reform bill that would let Medicare reimburse doctors for giving patients counseling about end-of-life care.
To hear Republicans in Congress tell it, though, the Blumenauer amendment means the black helicopters will soon be swooping down on the lawn to carry Granny off to the crematorium.
As quoted by Media Matters for America, Ohio Rep. John Boehner, the House minority leader (nRead More...
Happy days are here again! Well, perhaps not "here," but somewhere. Maybe.
The lead story of this morning's New York Times trumpeted the news that the Case-Shiller Index of home prices has stopped falling for the first time in three years. The composite index of prices in 20 major urban areas showed an uptick in eight cities. Overall, the index showed prices nationally were flat.
"We've found the bottom," proclaimed Mark Fleming, chief economist fRead More...
As you approach the end of your final term in office, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, I would like to urge you to take an action that will make future generations bless your memory and secure your legacy as one of the great governors of Oregon history:
As you approach the end of your final term in office, Gov. Ted Kulongoski, I would like to urge you to take an action that will make future generations bless your memory and secure your legacy as one of the great governors of Oregon history:
Fire the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Fire the whole damn agency. Fire every single one of 'em, from the commissioners themselves down to the guys who clean the lavatories. And replace them with people who, collectively, have an IQ apprRead More...
When Ava Worthington was born, she was an apparently healthy, good-sized baby girl, weighing 10 pounds putting her in the top 95% of weight for newborns. When she died 15 months later, she weighed only 16 pounds in the bottom 5% for children her age.
When Ava Worthington was born, she was an apparently healthy, good-sized baby girl, weighing 10 pounds - putting her in the top 95% of weight for newborns. When she died 15 months later, she weighed only 16 pounds - in the bottom 5% for children her age.
If Ava Worthington had not had the misfortune to be the child of two members of a bizarre religious cult called the "Followers of Christ," she very likely would be alive today. Instead, she died of a series of treaRead More...
Judging from the tone of the front-page story in yesterdays Bulletin, youd assume St. Charles and local physicians have come up with the magic cure for what ails our local health care system.
Judging from the tone of the front-page story in yesterday's Bulletin, you'd assume St. Charles and local physicians have come up with the magic cure for what ails our local health care system.
The doctors and St. Chuck's have joined forces "to adopt a shared vision for improving health care in Central Oregon," the story reads. "The group of physicians, known informally as the Physician Alliance, and the board of directors of Cascade Healthcare Community, Read More...
While sadly pondering Bend's economic troubles yesterday, as I often do, I hit upon an inspiration: What this town needs is a poet laureate.
The immediate source of the idea was a poem by William McGonagall that had been e-mailed to me. Some years ago I discovered the work of McGonagall, a Scot of the Victorian era who in his lifetime was widely considered The Worst Poet on Earth and is a leading contender for the title of Worst Poet of All Time. I was so impressed by McGonagallRead More...
Remember how a few months ago our downtown merchants were in a dither about the horrible panhandler problem? [www.tsweekly.com] task=view id=4174 Itemid=153) That worry seems to have faded, but now theyve got a new one: young people creating a disturbance.
Remember how a few months ago our downtown merchants were in a dither about the horrible panhandler problem? That worry seems to have faded, but now they've got a new one: young people creating a "disturbance."
Chuck Arnold of the Downtown Bend Business Association and several downtown merchants and landlords spoke about this ominous menace at Wednesday night's city council meeting.
It wasn't exactly clear what they wanted the city to do. One idea was to leRead More...
Kathie Eckman might have jeopardized her standing in the Bend Good Old Boys and Girls Club yesterday: She cast the deciding vote to repeal the meal exemption from the citys room tax.
Kathie Eckman might have jeopardized her standing in the Bend Good Old Boys and Girls Club yesterday: She cast the deciding vote to repeal the meal exemption from the city's room tax.
Until a few weeks ago only a few hotel operators apparently knew about, and took advantage of, the exemption. It lets hotel owners deduct $10 per room when calculating the amount of room tax they owe the city if they provide a complimentary breakfast for guests.
Once upon a time 36 years ago, to be exact, when Gov. Tom McCall signed a bill making Oregon the first state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot our state was a forerunner in the fight for sensible marijuana policies. Since then weve fallen behind, but we may have a chance to play catch-up next year.
Once upon a time - 36 years ago, to be exact, when Gov. Tom McCall signed a bill making Oregon the first state to decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot - our state was a forerunner in the fight for sensible marijuana policies. Since then we've fallen behind, but we may have a chance to play catch-up next year.
As reported in Willamette Week, a group of pot activists is hoping to put an initiative called the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act on the ballot in 2010. If it Read More...
The Eye wandered downtown yesterday to take in the Bend Summer Festival. There was a huge crowd of exhibitors, that is, who seemed to outnumber the festival-goers.
The Eye wandered downtown yesterday to take in the Bend Summer Festival. There was a huge crowd - of exhibitors, that is, who seemed to outnumber the festival-goers.
I don't have the official numbers yet but attendance at this year's event seemed to be the thinnest I've seen in years, in spite of perfect weather and lots of attractions, including a wide variety of musical entertainment.
If our eyeball estimate was right, it doesn't bode well for a successRead More...
Oregonian blogger Jeff Mapes [blog.oregonlive.com] has noticed some strange bumper stickers showing up in Portland this summer. Their message: One Less Prius.
Oregonian blogger Jeff Mapes has noticed some strange bumper stickers showing up in Portland this summer. Their message: "One Less Prius."
"I figured it had to be from [a] V-8 pickup-loving, red-meat conservative scoffing at smug urban liberals," Mapes writes. "Nope. It's from an L.A. bicycle activist who says it's not good enough to just shift to a hybrid."
The bike activist, who calls himself simply "Matt," blogs that "buying a PriuRead More...
Is Ted Kulongoski turning Oregon into a banana republic? If you believe a new Republican radio ad, he is.
The ad rips into the governor because he has not yet signed two bills that would increase corporate income taxes and personal income taxes on high-income Oregonians. The Republicans claim Kulongoksi's intentionally stalling so that opponents of what they call the "job-killing" bills won't have time to collect enough signatures by Sept. 25 to get repeal measures on Read More...
Since the opinions expressed in this blog are those of The Wandering Eye and not of the Source, The Eye feels free to express the following opinion of the guest commentary [www.tsweekly.com] task=blogcategory id=46 Itemid=121) by Bryce Ward, Ed Whitelaw and Andrew Kenny that appears in this weeks issue:
Since the opinions expressed in this blog are those of The Wandering Eye and not of the Source, The Eye feels free to express the following opinion of the guest commentary by Bryce Ward, Ed Whitelaw and Andrew Kenny that appears in this week's issue:
It's crap.
Not, I hasten to add, the part about the wisdom of protecting the Metolius Basin; I couldn't agree more with that.
The crap comes in when these three economists try to explain how Central Oregon's Read More...
The Eye wandered into Starbucks yesterday morning for my usual cup of coffee and copy of the New York Times. Ahead of me in line was a well-dressed, middle-aged man mid-30s to early 40s, Id guess. For some reason he looked like a lawyer.
In general, The Eye has looked kindly on Ron Wyden during his years in the Senate. So its with regret that we feel obligated to rip into him for his health care reform idea.
Economist Randall J. Podenza from the conservative Cascade Policy Institute [www.cascadepolicy.org] some interesting (although totally predictable) predictions about the effects of HB 3405, which raises corporate tax rates in Oregon.
In a dramatic reversal of fortune, the bill to protect the Metolius Basin from potentially destructive destination resort development passed the Oregon House today by a vote of 31-28.
In The Eyes past trips to Hawaii, when other tourists asked us where we were from and we replied, Bend, Oregon, the response would be something along the lines of: Oh, I hear thats a real nice place.
When a 39-year-old man dies suddenly of a heart attack, its shocking. When the man is a former professional bike racer and top-ranked endurance athlete, the shock is almost overwhelming. This kind of thing just shouldn't happen, we think.
The Eye wandered back to Bend from Hawaii yesterday and was surprised to find the vegetation looking more lush and tropical in our backyard than it did on Maui, thanks to Junes record-busting rainfall.
The most important piece of legislation around the Metolius Basin went down earlier this afternoon according to Blue Oregon Blogger Carla Axtman who blogged [www.blueoregon.com] about the vote as it unfolded on the House Floor. Officially HB 3298 failed on 30-29 vote. The bill would have designated the Metolius as state Area of Critical Concern and effectively derailed a pair of destination resorts that Jefferson County has courted. According to Axtman, a parliamentary move will likely allow the bill's sponsor, Rep. Brian Clem to bring the bill back perhaps as early as this week for reconsideration. In the meantime, Dems will be working to scratch up the necessary final vote to ensure passage. Five Dems, including speaker of the House, Dave Hunt broke rank with the rest of the party with No votes.
CNN Money has come out with yet another list [realestate.yahoo.com] of the nation's most overvalued housing markets. And yes, Bend is again smack dab in the middle of it.
We're just wondering how many times business reporters can float this lame pitch to their editors and still get a thumbs up.
Is it penance for all the fawning stories about the housing boom that were uncritically published even as the foundation was collapsing under the house of cards.
Either way, thanks for another Top 10 CNN. We'll see you back here in five years when you're crowing about the amazing recovery, miles of singletrack, powder that's measured in feet and world class fishing off our collective backporch.
Just don't let the screendoor hit you in the ass.
According to People Magazine [www.people.com] local celebrity Thomas Beatie has given birth to a second child. Beatie grabbed international headlines when he, after sharing his story in an obscure magazine, he appeared on Oprah to announce that he was pregnant after living a good chunk of his adult life as a man following a sex change.
This time around Beatie kept a lower profile and the birth story was limited to a few brief paragraphs on People's website.
As predictably as thunderstorms appear when the weather gets hot, conservatives call for cutting (or eliminating) the minimum wage when the economy gets cold.
And now, for a change of pace from politics and economic gloom, a scandal of a different stripe: Fans of American Idol runner-up Adam Lambert are charging that the final outcome was rigged by AT&T.
Wed like to bring you some good news about the Central Oregon economy really, we would but there just isnt any out there. If it wasnt for bad news wed have no news at all.
Having a hard time understanding the Republican position on Oregons economic problems? Its easy once you grasp the basic principles of Republicanomics.
Is waterboarding torture? One right-wing radio host in Chicago insisted it isnt, and was willing to back up his stand by getting waterboarded himself with hilarious results.
When a young, physically fit, apparently healthy guy dies suddenly, leaving behind a wife and five children, the question everybody asks is, Why did this have to happen?
Feeling stressed by the Great Recession? Youve got reason to be. According to a new map [hosted.ap.org] together by The Associated Press, Central Oregon is one of the most stressed-out places in the country.
Oregon still has the second-highest unemployment rate in the US, but some see a silver lining in the fact that at least the rate didnt rise in April it stayed at 12% [www.oregonlive.com] the same as in March.
Over at the right-wing blog NW Republican, [nwrepublican.blogspot.com] (Ted Piccolo) and convicted racketeer Bill Sizemore [www.oregonlive.com] are advising conservatives NOT to fight a Democrat-backed state income tax increase at the ballot box.
One day long, long ago, shortly after The Eye moved to Bend, our boss came up to us beaming, shook our hand and offered his congratulations. Our big achievement: Wed just bought a Jeep Cherokee from a local dealer.
Bend, the Bubble-and-Bust Capital of America, is about to get some really big-time recognition: The Eye has it on excellent authority that the New York Times is working on a story about our current economic calamity.
At the end of last month, the folks in Bend (well, those of them who hadnt been paying attention) were stunned by the news [www.tsweekly.com] task=view id=4215 Itemid=153) that Cessna was closing its manufacturing plant here and laying off its last 200 workers.
The current issue of Business Week has a fascinating story [www.businessweek.com] headlined, Once booming, Bend, Oregon tumbles. It runs through the all-too-familiar litany of woes: home sales and prices tumbling, unemployment soaring, businesses closing.
Oregons freshman senator, Jeff Merkley, has carved a couple of new orifices in Republican pollster and strategist Frank Luntz over Luntzs plan for derailing health care reform.
Why does winter linger in Central Oregon like a particularly stubborn case of toenail fungus? Meteorologist Adam Clark of KOHD has the answer [kohd.com] sort of.
Adopted in 1927, our official state song, Oregon, My Oregon, is getting a little creaky, with lyrics [www.lyricsondemand.com] Oregon being conquered and held by free men and blest by the blood of martyrs.
The tough times that have battered newspapers across the country have hit home in Bend: Staffers at The Bulletin and its parent company, Western Communications Inc., were told yesterday that theyll be taking pay cuts of up to 10%.
Another one bites the dust: Cessna announced yesterday that its laying off the last 200 workers at its Bend manufacturing plant and closing the operation for good.
In a rather curious editorial this morning, The Bulletin seemed to concede it has lost the fight to bring destination resorts to the Metolius Basin but it wasnt about to let the issue drop without one last parting whine.
The printed newspaper already looks like its headed the way of the brontosaurus. Now a liberal blogger and a couple of state legislators want to condemn the printed phone book to the same fate.
File under Just When You Thought They Couldnt Get Any Nuttier: Some Republican state party leaders are putting pressure on the Republican National Committee to officially label the Democrats a socialist party.
For the second time this year, The Bulletin has carried a story that seems aimed at dispelling persistent speculation that people are moving away from Bend in droves.
Remember how a couple of years ago our city leaders got themselves in a lather over graffiti? Now it seems the big menace to our peace and prosperity is panhandling.
The Crooks and Liars website [crooksandliars.com] somehow has gotten its hands on what appear to be the scripts for five ads being produced by the Oregon Republican Party, and The Eye couldnt believe our eyes when we read them.
Downtown merchant and blogger Duncan McGeary compared Wednesays Tax Day Tea Party with Saturdays Earth Day Procession of the Species and decided the latter came up short.
This truly was a momentous week in history: On Wednesday, The Wandering Eye attended a right-wing political rally, and today we find ourselves agreeing with Lars Larson.
The Wandering Eye had a nice, steaming dish of crow to eat for breakfast today. We predicted that the Tax Day Tea Party in Bend would fizzle, but we have to admit the tea partiers put on a pretty impressive show.
Kick us when were down, why dontcha? As if the situation (economy-wise and weather-wise) wasnt dismal enough in Bend already, the Seattle Times takes a brutal shot [seattletimes.nwsource.com] at us on todays front page.
Oregonian blogger Jeff Mapes [blog.oregonlive.com] predicts, no doubt correctly, that public employee salaries and benefits are likely to come under attack again in these tough times.
Right-wingers all over America including little old Bend, Oregon are gearing up for their big Tax Day Tea Party next week, and the rhetoric is getting pretty hot.
Oregon State Universitys Cascades Campus [www.osucascades.edu)] in Bend might be near its last gasp, if our local state representatives are reading the signals in Salem right.
The American economy is in a miserable state, and Oregon is the most miserable state in the entire country at least if you go by MainStreet.coms calculations. [www.mainstreet.com]
The Bulletin took off this morning on one of its editorial rampages, attacking Gov. Ted Kulongoski for backing legislation that would make it tougher to site destination resorts in Central Oregon and touting the supposed benefits of such developments. The result was a hash of sophistry and contorted logic.
While spending a few days on the Oregon coast, The Wandering Eyes eye happened to light upon a brochure left in our hotel room. Since the weather was too windy and rainy to venture forth to the beach and we had gotten bored with the book wed brought along, we flipped through it and came across this passage:
Bend cops have busted the owners of a Galveston Avenue restaurant for selling meth, and neighbors are shocked shocked! that such a thing could have happened on the Westside.
Portland made the front page of the New York Times [www.nytimes.com] scp=2 sq=Portland%20Oregon st=cse) today, but Oregons metropolis probably would just as soon have passed up the honor.
Bend has picked up another one of those Best Of honors: This time, its being touted as Americas Top Mountain Biking Town in Mountain Bike Action magazine. [www.mbaction.com]
Talking to Greta Van Sustern on Fox News [www.youtube.com] the other day, Rep. Greg Walden said he thinks Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner should resign because of the AIG bonus mess.
Oregons own Sen. Ron Wyden is at the center of the hurricane of populist outrage over the millions in bonuses raked off by executives of bailed-out AIG.
When The Wandering Eye got his first job as a cub reporter, everybody was saying newspapers were becoming extinct. Forty years later, it looks like they were right.
Wrongdude
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Fox CX
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Central Oregon Athlete
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Diary of 1
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The Grand Adventure
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Until All have Heard
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Trying to live the raw food life in Bend, Oregon
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to knit in peace
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The Lone Cowgirl
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Bend OR Bust
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My Back Pages
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High Desert Diva
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Oh No She Didn't!
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Run Bitches Run
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Scott Louis Brown
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White-House-On-An-Acre
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Dating Is Weird
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Wanderlust Wanderings
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there once was a girl
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Be Well with Qigong
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Pressing On
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Go Light. Go Fast.
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Create and Relate
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Diner Life
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Chubby Mommy Running Club
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Color Conversations with Cristina
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Escape to Books
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WAVE Journey.com
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Harold's Blog
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Community Learning Instructor
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Blooming Eventually
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Wonder Worman
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How the Real Mother Hen Sees the World
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Liana's Lifetime
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Foot Zone Blog
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The Grumpy Forester
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Show & Tell
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Red Carpets, Saw Dust & DC Insiders
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Seeking Grant Money Today
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My Scrap Home
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Don's Sunnyside Blog
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Ginger's Kitchenware
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Grizzly Mountain Arts
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The Way....to Oregon
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Brysons of Bend
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Leave it to Barney
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Jack and Mrs. Elliott Move to Bend
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DT from da FP
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Dudley's BookShop Cafe
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Tom's Book Publishing Blog
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Stroller Strides - Bend, OR
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View From The Cliff
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Damian Fagan
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Wannabe Hipster Mom
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Ad HOC : Words + Ideas
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Juniper Seahorses
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End Times
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CS Distributors and Creative Smocking
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Standup Paddle Flatwater
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Nitro Sister- Christina
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Fleet Feet Sports Bend Blog
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Things that go great with coffee, friends and waffles
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Pomegranate Seeds
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Bankermom
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Pastor Mike's Faith Journey Adventure
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Bend Sux
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Arabella's Garden
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Women's Hunting Journal
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Buzz By Annie's
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Moving On
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The Wagger
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An Eskimo bakes
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It Was Written
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The Biggest Winner
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Central Oregon Food
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Camalli Book Company
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Amerine.net
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BendNights Dot Blog
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Barker Bass Blog
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Nugget Newspaper Blog
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parla (speak)
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coldframed tomatoes
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Dwyer Williams Potter, Attorneys, LLP
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Bend Oregon Real Estate News
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PPP (Pole Pedal Paddle)
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Bend Mothers Acting Up
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Isabella Acosta Barna
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WebCyclery Blog
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Tyler Roemer Photography Blog
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life is weird (and so am i)
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BendBubble Phase Three
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Bend Morons
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An Angry Bend Bitch
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Madras Matters
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Good Fitness, Great Life
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bent and beat
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Greener By Design
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Good Dirt Jewelry
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Bronco Billy In Sisters Oregon
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IronHorse
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The Huni Family (Almost) Daily Diatribe
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It's the little things in life...
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Bend, Oregon, Daily Photo
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Central Oregon Critic
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Rob Umphress
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Pondering Philosopher
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backstage pass
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NitroSister Christina : Artwork
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THE JC PEOPLE
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The Debut Effect
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Friday's Food Fancy
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Stride Steady
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Victoria's Secrets Told
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Learning Conversations
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disturbing the comfortable
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XC Oregon
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The Pure Ingredients
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Parking Lot Mamas
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Parenting A Complex Special Needs Child
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Ania Designs
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Dusty Tales
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Into the Wild Oregon
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Katie
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The Beeb, the Beagle & My Bestfriend
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Garage Improvement
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NeighborImpact Food Bank News
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Bend Oregon Photos
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Bend Gazette
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Journey in Bend
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Karen Duvall
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Sagewind Voices
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Latitudes and Lassitudes
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Our journey to Paige
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Rachor Photography
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Pensees
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Postcards from the Edge
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Bend Oregon ... and a little beyond!
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Birdies 4 Babies Golf Charity
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Bivwak Outdoors
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What's New in Allyson's Kitchen
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My Tangerine Dreams
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Scam Protectors
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bikebuzz
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yarrow
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Gregg Zivney
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Music and Musings
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The Adventures of Rich Jandt
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True North
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The Christensons
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Peebo the Bike Commuter
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Kitchen Weech
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Juniper Ridge Info
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Lighthouse Parents
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Not So Sex and the City
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Laura @ Curl Up & Dye
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Media Review
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just a little thought
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Poetic License Photo Blog
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Talking the Walk
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Jesus is Close
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Gather at the Table
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Political Pop Culture
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BNI Bend
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nook & cranny
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Mike in Bend
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Pimpin' All Over The World
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Mom2Mom Bend, Oregon
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Steph's Simple Solutions
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A Predicated Life
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