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I do not know Ben Westlund, nor have I ever met him, but for the past four days The Bulletin has been crying out "Crucify him, Crucify him, Crucify him." These words have a Biblical ring to them and have now taken on a more contemporary rendition.
I am opposed to the Bend Municipal Airport Urban Renewal Plan, especially with the downturn in the economy. Now is not the time to pursue a $10 million plan at the expense of the taxpayers.
Thank you for your editorial about State Senator Ben Westlund, Democratic Candidate for State Treasurer. I want to commend you for providing a balance to The Bulletin's tired and, as usual, biased coverage.
So far in my experience, I have concluded that the Universe runs on Love. Who knows how many people would say that they have had that same experience? However, I feel that many people would say that the thought of the Universe running on Love makes them feel good.
Letter of the Week
With all the talk of a coming out party at the Beijing Games, China has a miserable record on human rights and the IOC has done little to pressure China into meaningful reforms. The week's LOW asks that the viewers make a statement by choosing to tune out the Beijing Games.
They don't call this "the high desert" for nothing. Scant rainfall (about the same as Los Angeles gets) means Central Oregon depends on winter snowpack for most of its water.
Oregon’s Megaphone. Loren Parks is a man of many interests. The 81-year-old multimillionaire made his bundle from Parks Medical Products in Aloha, OR.
Before moving to Nevada in 2002, Parks gave more than $6 million to Oregon politicians and ballot initiative campaigns, most of them conservative. After he left the state, the money kept pouring in - some $600,000 to support ballot measures in 2006, plus another $900,000 for Republican Kevin Mannix's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign that year.
And the Parks money stream is still gushing this election season. According to a recent report by the progressive group Democracy Reform Oregon, Parks contributed more than half of the amount given in support of the eight initiatives that qualified for this year's ballot - a total of $839,606.
Parks also gave more than $550,000 this year in support of initiatives that didn't make it to the ballot. And on top of that, he gave $175,000 to Mannix to help retire his campaign debts. Add it all up and it comes to well over $1.5 million.
Crash, what crash?
Some folks continue to look for a silver lining, or at least a light at the end of the tunnel, for the local residential real estate market. Witness the industry folks who say prices are holding steady even as sales volume has plummeted. (And even that is up for debate as one broker told Upfront, pointing out that the median sales price is down 13 percent for the first six months of 2008 versus the same period last year.) And despite the industry's loud proclamations that Bend's market is unique and unlike any other place in the country, immune to the storms that have nearly sunk the industry, the reality is that Bend and Central Oregon's real estate is tied to the health of larger markets - particularly Southern California as well as Seattle and Portland. And the prognosis for those markets isn't good. More importantly the overall economic picture for the nation has yet to brighten. According to the New York Times unemployment is at four year high and the manufacturing sector, particularly the automobile industry continues to tank with GM posting the worst year in the history of the automobile industry - the entire industry - with losses of $38.7 billion.
On the housing front, industry insiders are predicting that the mortgage crisis will only worsen as the collapse in the subprime market spreads to prime loans and near prime loans. According to the Times, evidence of the looming crises is already amassing. Delinquencies in alternative prime loans, which usually include a mix of adjustable rates and interest only components, quadrupled between April 2007 and April 2008. Meanwhile defaults for prime loans doubled during that same period as buyers struggled to keep pace with the mortgage payments amidst the softening economy and tightening credit market that has prevented homeowners from refinancing to more favorable terms.
Note to Shelby Harwood: I hate to break it to ya, kid, but "Lynyrd Skynyrd" effectively died in a plane crash in 1977! No offense, but I suspect you hadn't even arrived on the planet yet. I was a mere 16 when I saw them at the Long Beach Arena (in Long Beach, CA) earlier that year and I happened to have been walking down by the Deschutes river this evening.
In late 1994 when I had my home built a septic tank was installed on the property by Mike Daly Construction. Just this past Monday I learned that it’s a steel tank although all my paperwork and county documents state it’s concrete.
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