Editor's note: As we usher in a new year and a new decade, we've decided to re-vamp our Upfront column. To our great surprise and delight the decision coincided with the re-emergence of Scoop Lewis, Ace Reporter ™, from self-imposed exile. He's back and ready to give the straight poop on the past week's events every Thursday in the Source.
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Local Avalanche Group Is More than Just a Website
In response to Laurel Brauns' Volume 14 Issue 52 article, “Do Your Homework,” first and foremost I applaud the Source for highlighting some of the intrinsic dangers associated with backcountry riding in avalanche terrain and the true necessity of becoming properly educated and practiced in hazard assessment, snowpack evaluation, and companion rescue if your winter recreation (whether on ski, board, snowmo, or snowshoe) takes you into avalanche terrain. However, I do feel there is further clarification necessary associated with the mentioned website, www.coavalanche.org.
Posted inOpinion
DogPAC Soft Peddles Trail Impacts
The December 23 issue had two letters saying what a small deal it is to have dogs allowed on the currently ungroomed cross country ski trails.
Here is the way it looks to many of us who like to ski.
Posted inOpinion
Goodbye, Wandering Eye
Sad to see the Wandering Eye wander off into the sunset…but I understand. Trying to stay engaged in the toxic environment of what passes for public discoursethese daysis certainly an exercise in frustration akin to beating one’s head against the proverbial wall.
Posted inOpinion
A Troubling Commentary
To The Wandering Eye,
I read your “resignation” column with great sadness. Being only marginally computer literate, it never occurred to me that online anonymous critics were harassing you. It is truly a sad statement of our times when a professional journalist with such well-thought-out opinions, humor, satire skills and integrity must resign. Having recently seen The Social Network, I am very concerned about America's future.
Posted inOpinion
The Wayward Party of Lincoln: The recent can-do Congress, trouble in St. Louis and Pat Robertson on pot
The author is reporting from a snowstorm – It's New Years, ya know?
The 111th Congress has ended “the most productive post-election period we've had in decades,” according to Beelzebub, aka President Barack Obama. Not since Johnson's “Great Society” have we seen such change.
Posted inOpinion
A Year (and Decade) That Won't Be Missed
The year 2010 gets The Source Weekly’s last BOOT of the year.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the …
Well, actually, no. Although the year 2010 probably wasn't the worst of times – for instance, it wasn't as bad as 1348, when the Black Death was ravaging Europe – there's no way to pretend it was the best of times, or even one of the almost-pretty-good times.
How did 2010 suck? Let us count the ways. Or at least some of the ways, because we don't have room for all of them.
Posted inOpinion
Land Deals Gone Awry, Deschutes Brewery Pub to Grow, Goodbye Internet and More
STATE KILLS THORNY OLD MILL LAND DEAL
Officials with the Department of State Lands confirmed publicly this week that they have nixed a deal for a roughly half-acre property along the bluffs in the Old Mill area. The deal was called into question earlier this year after The Bulletin reported that the owners of the property happened to be the parents of the official who oversees land purchases for the Department of State Lands (DSL), the agency that was mulling the acquisition. The sale was to be the first purchase under a new, yet mysteriously unannounced, program in which the DSL, which typically manages larger rural acres for the benefit of the Oregon school fund, would begin investing in Central Oregon, a move that state officials deemed – amazingly – to be a good bet. Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who sits on the state land board that oversees DSL, ordered the deal be put on hold in October after it was reported that the owners, Dennis Staines and his wife, Virginia, were the parents of DSL manager James Paul IV. It was Paul who put his parents in touch with one of his subordinates, none other than Bend's former urban renewal manager, John Russell, aka the man who “built” Juniper Ridge, about selling the property to the state before recusing himself from the deal. Russell later recommended purchasing the site, despite failing to secure an appraisal for the property.
Posted inOpinion
Stay Classy, Snow Sculptors
Frosty is rolling in his grave right now.
In a time-honored tradition, children and adults alike are known to venture out into the cold upon the first big snowfall of the year and make a snowman. The three bulbous balls of ice topped with a hat, coal for eyes and a carrot for a nose are as iconic a symbol of winter as anything else.
Posted inOpinion
Get on the Bus, Charles
Letter to the editor.
“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” Those opening words in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities comes to my mind when describing 2010, though not nearly so extreme.
Most people who know me for more than a short time are aware that I'm persistently advocating for Bend public transit.
2010 was not the “best of times” for enhancing Bend Area Transit (BAT) for at least two reasons: Bend still does not have fixed-route transit service on Sundays; and Bend has not promoted the use of BAT to alleviate the problem of downtown parking.