H. Bruce Miller

For a politician, going to a party's national convention is like a football fan going to the Super Bowl. So why (as politickeror.com reports) is Gordon Smith probably not going to attend the Republican National Convention in September?

What a difference the popping of a bubble makes. Two years ago, Bend made the Top 10 on Money magazine's list of the 100 Best Places to Live in America. This year we didn't make the Top 10.

A bank has begun foreclosure proceedings against the developers of The Shire, the Tolkien-inspired project off Parrell Road that became a sort of emblem of the excesses of the Bend real estate boom.

 
WTF is up with this?? FundRace 2008 reports that Democrat Barack Obama beat Republican John McCain by a ratio of almost 2 to 1 in contributions from Bend residents in the second quarter of this year.

Loren Parks, the eccentric octogenarian multimillionaire from Nevada, continues to be the main money man behind right-wing causes in Oregon, contributing more than half of the total raised to put initiatives on the state's November ballot.

The Gordon Smith campaign is out with another TV spot ripping Jeff Merkley as a tax-and-spend liberal. In this one, we actually see Merkley saying: "I advocate for tax hikes every night in living rooms across Oregon."

How easy or hard is it to get around your neighborhood without a car? The Eye spotted a handy little tool on the Web that tells you.

In a development that has to make Republicans everywhere a little jittery, Rasmussen Reports has just released a poll showing that Jeff Merkley has narrowly pulled ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith.

Hallelujah — Bend has made another of those "Top 10" lists. This time it's NorthWest Crossing being hailed as one of the "Top 10 Cottage Neighborhoods" in America by Cottage Living magazine.

You've probably seen the TV ad accusing Jeff Merkley, Gordon Smith's Democratic rival for the US Senate, of voting for $2 billion worth of new taxes as a member of the Oregon House. Smith has been repeating the same charge as he stumps around the state.