Who are these naysayers? Where is the heart of this city. Bend is now a city.
Together We Can
Posted inOpinion
Rate Increase Doesn't Add Up
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I read about Pacific Power's proposed 20-percent rate hike. Cry because that's a heck of an increase for a lot of people already struggling with bills, and laugh because they will probably pull it off. Rebuilding a company's infrastructure by buying new equipment, for example, is usually transparent to a customer in any competitive business. Upgrades are performed to meet increasing customer demands (and revenues) and to find ways to reduce costs (since volume usually means lower cost). More times than not the result is a reduction, not an increase, in customer prices.
According to Pacific Power, the 20 percent increase equals $470 million that Oregon customers will have to cover for investments (wind farm, coal cleaners, and transmission towers). I'm guessing that a large part of that is for the wind farm (which includes the transmission towers) and I'm guessing that this new source of electricity is being considered because of additional demand, or to cut electricity generation costs. (Wind is far cheaper than nuclear and probably cheaper than hydroelectric).
Posted inNews
Latest LSA Announcement: Willie Nelson Coming to Bend
Here it is, the next installment of Guess Who’s Coming to the Les Schwab Amphitheater?
And in this edition, we’re announcing a familiar name to the LSA stage, Mr. Willie Nelson.
Posted inNews
Short Takes: Response Times, Bubbles and KOHD's Goodbye
A fire destroyed a home on Bend’s Westside Wednesday morning, and it took nine minutes for the fire trucks to arrive after the first 911 call came in.
Why? Because all the available firefighters were tied up handling a couple of other emergencies.
Posted inNews
The Mother Hips Coming to Bend
UPDATE (3/31) This show has been canceled. Yes, that’s a bummer.
Posted inNews
A Rough Welcome for the Professor
Lewis & Clark Law School professor James Huffman announced his candidacy for Ron Wyden’s US Senate seat yesterday, and the ink wasn’t even dry on his press release before the Democrats pounced on him.
The Oregon Democratic Party set up a one-page website titled “Meet Jim Huffman, Right Wing FreedomWorks Ideologue and Candidate for US Senator,” which rips into him for statements he’s made over the years.
Posted inNews
Putting the People Back in 'We the People'
When Abe Lincoln talked about “government of the people, by the people and for the people” at the Gettysburg battlefield in November 1863, it’s a pretty safe bet he wasn’t including corporations in his definition of “people.”
But in January 2010, a bitterly divided US Supreme Court decided that corporations have the same free-speech rights as people – meaning they can pour unlimited amounts of money into political campaigns.
Posted inNews
Video: Eric Tollefson and the World’s Greatest Lovers
Eric Tollefson and the World’s Greatest Lovers played the free Wednesday night show last night at McMenamins here in Bend, serving up a feast of blues rock jems before heading down to Hollywood for a show at the Whiskey A Go Go on Saturday.
I’ve got some video here, but sadly it is not of the show’s defining moment, which was when a youngish man in the crowd challenged Feverishly Dancing Bespectacled Woman (if you’ve been to a McMenamins show, you know who she is) to a dance off.
Posted inOpinion
She's No Superwoman!
My first thought was that, from the single mother mired in a Central Oregon recession to oncologist Dr. Linyee Chang, or one of the physicians at Fall Creek Medicine, from COCC's Rebecca Walker-Sands and Kathleen McCabe to Rachael Scdoris, all these candidates, all you can come up with is a bored housewi.