Editorial

Jeez, Sorry for Partying
If you're in a college fraternity, there are a few activities in which you will almost certainly find yourself involved. You will consume beer by placing the keg tap directly in your mouth as your “bros” hold your feet up in the air. You will clothe yourself exclusively in T-shirts celebrating parties you and your “bros” have previously facilitated. And, if you're really, really lucky, you and/or your “bros” will douse a couch in lighter fluid and light it aflame as you stand awestruck in its glow with a smile on your face and a Busch Light in your hand.

The Heat of Autumn
It's officially fall, as of last week. It's the time of year when the leaves change color, the days get cooler and football dominates most casual conversation. Well, except for this year, that is. Well, people are still talking about football, but the weather on the West Coast has been anything like fall like. Temperatures have been weirdly warm here in Central Oregon, staying in the low 80s all week, but down in Los Angeles it got straight up scary hot… as in the hottest day ever.

Thirty Full Minutes
Six months after pairing down its staff and trimming nightly newscasts from a full half- hour down to less than 10 minutes, KOHD has brought back its full weekday newscasts at both 6pm and 11pm. Previously, the newscast was a fast-paced data distribution of local news stories and weather, but we can now expect the newscast – which hit the air in 2007 – to return to something more similar to their original format.

Freedom!
The United Organization of Angry Rural Old People, also known as the “Tea Party,” gathered in Redmond last weekend for something called the American Freedom Festival. The event featured music from the ironically named band One Hot Mess and “patriotic speeches” about how America as a whole needs to hop in the DeLorean with Doc Brown and head back to the founding of our great nation when everything was perfect because, you know, people followed the Constitution… and had wooden teeth and slaves. The event drew what appeared to be about 100 people, or using the Glenn Beck Scale of Crowd Estimation, roughly 28,000 people.

You Can't Toke That Here
Oregon's growing legions of medical marijuana users (numbering 36,380 souls as of July 1) are no doubt accustomed to having their right to legally toke challenged by employers and society – not to mention the federal government. But Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) patients all of whom have been prescribed the drug by physicians should be on alert to steer clear of the Jackson County jail where Sheriff Mike Winters has taken a hard line on inmates blazing up behind bars.