H. Bruce Miller

One of the knocks on Jeff Merkley during the Democratic senatorial primary campaign was that he was too bland and mild-mannered to run the kind of tough campaign needed to knock off an incumbent. Now Merkley seems determined to refute that charge.

Wayne Kinney, a Democratic convention superdelegate who lives in Bend, announced today that he's supporting Barack Obama for the party's presidential nomination.

It's always fun to see how people from The Great Outside perceive little old Bend, Ory-gun, so The Eye decided to pass on some observations made by blogger Jim Tankersley of the Baltimore Sun, who was here to cover Barack Obama's appearance on May 10:

The Oregonian’s editorial board handed some praise to Crook County citizens this morning for voting to put the brakes on more destination resorts.

There they go again: USA Today has published another Chamber-of-Commerce-style puff piece on Bend, touting it as "the new Boulder."

On Wednesday morning, Republican state treasurer candidate Allen Alley challenged Democratic nominee Ben Westlund to a series of five debates. On Wednesday afternoon, Westlund called Alley's bet and raised him by five.

It's not clear what the legal effect of Crook County's overwhelming vote against destination resorts will be, but it might make public officials all over Central Oregon want to hesitate before throwing open the gates for more of them.

Republican business executive Allen Alley threw down the gauntlet to Ben Westlund today, challenging his rival for the state treasurer's job to a series of debates.

Barack Obama's decisive 16-percentage-point victory in the Oregon primary gave him a majority of the pledged delegates at the upcoming Democratic convention, but its big significance might have been in showing that he can appeal to white working-class voters.

There's a bombshell of a story in this morning's Oregonian describing the spectacular crash-and-burn of one of the Central Oregon real estate boom's high rollers who the paper reports is now under investigation by the FBI and the IRS.