Free Thinkers Ball
thursday 23
Take a break from election season and eat, drink, dance and enjoy music from El Dante with KPOV and "Political Follies" from Around the Bend players. Go to kpov.
Measure 54: Yes
Amends Constitution: Does away with a non-enforceable law that requires voters to be 21 years of age to vote in a school board election.
Measure 55: Yes
Amends Constitution: Changes operative date of redistricting plans by allowing affected legislators to finish their terms in their original district.
For Deschutes County Commission: Alan Unger
Alan UngerThere's a running joke about Deschutes County Commissioner Mike Daly and the punch line is essentially: Mike Daly.
Anyone who has followed his career to any degree can't help but marvel at the two-term commissioner's resiliency. He somehow manages to survive despite his gaffes and extreme provincialism. Daly is famous for viewing every county issue, no matter how nuanced, from his own life experience as a state trooper and Redmond excavation contractor.
He practices his homespun approach to governance at a time when our community, in this case the county, is growing larger, more complex and more diverse. To the best of our reckoning, Daly has survived on a mix of personal connections and political affiliations. He's survived some legitimate challenges, but perhaps none as serious as this year's campaign by fellow Redmond area politician Alan Unger, who is finishing out his term as Redmond mayor while he campaigns against Daly.
Back in the dying days of the Central Oregon timber economy, mills were closing, unemployment was in double digits and downtown storefronts were sitting vacant. Things weren't a whole lot better at the national level in the early 80s with the country mired in a deep recession.
Out of this economic morass came a proposal to pump up Oregon's tourism economy by easing the state's land use laws for resorts that would draw tourists from around the country to our state where they would spend money, creating jobs and injecting cash into our local economies. With its proximity to the mountains and disproportionate amount of sunshine, Central Oregon was a natural choice for developers. Fueled by a national real estate boom and easy credit, real estate and resort developers converged on Deschutes and Crook counties over the past few years floating one proposal after another for increasingly massive resorts.
The latest news on the BendFilm Festival plays almost like a rerun of
last year. The local film festival that's earning an increasingly
strong buzz within the film industry is again saddled with a vacancy at
the top of the non-profit organization. But this time around, there's
more changes written into the BendFilm script, with slumping ticket
sales and a board of directors saying they are looking at an
organizational restructuring.
In fall of 2007, Erik Jambor stepped
down as executive director after less than a year at the helm of
BendFilm and within days the organization's board had named former film
industry powerhouse Sandy Henderson to the vacated spot. But now,
Henderson has announced her resignation from a position she once called
her "dream job" just a little more than a week after the 2008 edition
of BendFilm wrapped up.
Jim Bailey, the president of BendFilm's board of directors says that Sandy's resignation wasn't necessarily a surprise.
What a stunner - The Bulletin endorsed John McCain this morning.
This morning, the Blender caught wind that Mt. Bachelor (read about their off-season changes in this week's feature article) had released a video celebrating it's 50th anniversary so we clicked on over to YouTube and thought we'd share it with you.
Behind mountain biking and pushing babies around in thousand-dollar
jogging strollers, bitching about Mt. Bachelor is one of Bend's most
beloved pastimes. Bendites complain about ticket prices, parking,
grooming or staffing issues just like people in larger, more urban
cities bitch about the coaching decisions of their local sports teams.
While
this is certainly a storied pastime, last season the bitching went from
nit-picking static to fever pitched shouting as winter began with hiked
lift ticket prices and ended with reports of potentially dangerous
chair lift maintenance practices and an earlier than usual closing date.
As a regular reader I find your advice and opinions on our surrounding area quite to the point and very sound. For this reason I come to you with a simple story of basic acceptance.
I've been asked by the Left Field department to share my views on
fantasy football and I'm glad to do it because fantasy football is
eating up sports fans and turning them into soulless statistic chomping
geeks.
Last Sunday, I was jumping up and down in my sweatpants,
spilling PBR Light (I'm watching my figure) all over the place as
Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan sent a 26-yard bomb spiraling
into the hands of receiver Michael Jenkins, who stepped out of bounds
with one second left.
Wake up seven days a week with the Cascades Reader. Get local news, event information, podcasts, discounts and more. Sign up now!
Get the best of The Source - Bend, Oregon directly in your email inbox.
Sending to:
