Intern

Open letter to Alex Dawson, Fish Creek Films:
Dear Alex,
It is with great sadness that I viewed the trailer for your movie, Wild Horse, Wild Ride, which is set to play at our local theatre November 17. While it looks like a lovely film, there is a side of the BLM roundups that is dangerous, ugly and very sad for the horses that are in holding pens for years and are never adopted. The romancing of the mustang adoptions only lends credence to the brutal tactics of the BLM roundups and therefore misleads the moviegoers as to the negative fallout of this practice.
Would you be willing to do a film that documents the death, injury and incarceration of tens of thousands of formerly wild horses that were helicopter stampeded into submission? Foals and pregnant mares are part of these stampedes and their deaths and injuries are the result. Proud stallions, leaders of their family group, are gelded and removed from the group.

I recently read with interest your article about the City of Bend's proposed Surface Water Improvement Project (SWIP.) On one level it is commendable that officials are acting to maintain clean water by avoidance of potential cryptosporidium (Crypto) contamination, as required under applicable EPA regulations. But other aspects of SWIP, combined with the City's sudden rush to approve the project, are very troubling.
For one, it appears the City has taken a project needed to address Crypto contamination and expanded it to encompass a comprehensive revamp of the entire water delivery system. In so doing, the City is exposing ratepayers to potentially skyrocketing water bills with little apparent benefit beyond the need to mitigate Crypto contamination. This alone would be enough to cause concern, but SWIP also presents a substantial environmental risk in the form of thermal pollution in the middle Deschutes watershed downstream of Bend.

Presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan is brilliant, except a decimal point should be inserted in the proper place – 99.9 percent tax on only multimillionaires and our 1,000 ruling class.

Regarding the “Down the Drain” article… well done Source!!
We have a prophet on the council. He is a critic as well and at times he has criticized in an unprofessional manner… I am a witness as an attendee of city council meetings where he is a council member and in favor of the water project.
We have Bill Smith, the entrepreneur with “lots” at stake, who opposes the water project as is. We have a project manager with reams of consultant studies (dating back how far?) in favor of the project. The pressure must be continuous.
We have an attorney with a personal interest and we have attorney for Landwatch, both opposed, along with [Bruce] Aylward who maintains the city hired a company that will make millions on the project. It's looking like a movie, suspense variety.

I think that the Bend City Council is against a Bend mayoral election. I think that if the Bend City Council wanted a Bend mayoral election then they would put it on the ballot and let the people of Bend decide if they want a Bend mayoral election.

After two weeks living in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement, I have set up camp in the Occupy Bend Village. While the larger cities of our bioregion appear to have more steam out of the gate, I was pleased to see the numbers present in Bend, considering the per capita involvement. Occupy Bend is off to a good start, but many people have confusion, judgments and expectations of what these occupations are about. Occupy Bend needs more inquiries and more participation.
We are people from all walks of life. People of all ages, races, religions, political thoughts, backgrounds and experiences and we are coming together and learning a new language. This new language is one that embraces disagreement and encourages discussion about very serious issues that plague our neighborhoods, our towns, our counties, our states, our nation and our global community. In a globalized world, we must recognize each of these communities in the decisions that we make. At the end of the day, we must not only reach consensus about our smaller issues, but someday about the larger issues of society. This movement is the beginning of the consensus process and interpersonal growth that very well may achieve that.

Many of us in Bend wish to see a return of gray wolves to their ancestral Oregon habitat. With shock and incredulity we now learn that our Department of Fish and Wildlife, caving into pressure from the cattle industry, has announced its intention to, essentially, destroy what remains of the Imnaha wolf pack.