BAT Needs To Do More Homework

Posted inOpinion

BAT Needs To Do More Homework

Mike Bookey

In a previous editorial I pointed out that fewer than four out of every 1,000 Bend residents ride the bus each day, and that number is declining on a yearly basis, even as oil prices increase. In fact, Bend Area Transit's numbers indicate that ridership is now down to one person per mile. Thus, even the claim that BAT is good for the environment is simply not credible. The problem is ridership on the current system. It's got to be increased, or this system as it currently exists just doesn't make any sense.
Here, I'd like to examine the costs of the transit system. We find that not only is the system very underutilized, it is also very expensive. The city and BAT have not properly laid the groundwork for a new tax district.

Posted inCulture

That’s Us!: Bend gets some face time in the new Warren Miller flick

Mike Bookey

Fellow Bendites, have you ever been watching a ski film as dudes bomb through powder or tear up a terrain park and found yourself at the edge of your seat saying to the buddy next to you, "Hey is that here?" only to have him or her reply, "Nope, that's Whistler."
"Wait, that's here, right?" Nope. Colorado.
"Dude, that's totally here." Not even close. Looks like Idaho.
But finally you can sit back in your seat when taking in the new Warren Miller film, Children of Winter, knowing full well that you're seeing Bend and Mt. Bachelor up on the screen. The newly released film will show four times this weekend at the Tower Theatre and includes a good eight-minute segment set in Bend and focused on local riders.

Posted inOutside

Wavin’ the Flag

Jim Anderson

In these election times, it's all too easy to wave Old Glory; we see a lot of well-meaning folks standing in front of the flag when delivering a political message, or hiding behind it when things go wrong.
Last week, I received an e-mail from my daughter, Kristin, who manages a medical clinic in North Carolina. Most of what that dear girl sends me is fun and games, but every once in a while she smacks me alongside the head with a dose of reality and something to think about. To whit:
Three startling photographs of the largest re-enlistment ceremony ever held on the 4th of July, 2008 at Al Faw Palace, Baghdad, Iraq, with General David Petraeus officiating. This outstanding event was – as far as I can find out – ash-canned by our main-stream media. Even Jim Lehrer (may have) missed it, and that's a surprise. Makes me wonder why… Is there someone "out there" censoring our news…?
I have two USAF sons who are F-16 drivers, and have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, one of them on the UN "peace-keeping" assignments in Bosnia. At present, my oldest son, a Colonel in the USAF, is serving in Turkey, and his brother is a USAF Reserve Group commander in Florida.

Posted inOutside

Scary Stuff: Politicians, bureaucrats and vampires

Pam Stevenson

Death By Meeting
Local Rick Wright with Ron WydenBack in my California windsurfing days, we would occasionally sneak out of the office on a blustery afternoon for a "Board Meeting" at Coyote Point in San Francisco Bay. That's my kind of meeting. I would much rather be out on a trail than sitting in a chair in a conference room. My butt is sore from too many meetings last week, but sometimes you've got to endure the chair to advocate the trail. I attended a meeting of the Deschutes County Committee on Recreation Assets with Senator Ron Wyden, as well as the Winter Recreation Advisory Group and Trail User Group meetings with the Forest Service.
The attendees at the meeting with Senator Wyden represented a "Who's Who" of outdoor recreation leaders in our community. Wyden appointed the ad hoc committee, co-chaired by longtime Bend La Pine School District official Peter Miller and Deschutes County Commissioner Tammy Melton, because "access to outdoor recreation enhances quality of life and attracts new businesses, creates jobs and stimulates the economy." Wyden also believes the benefits of outdoor recreation stretch beyond that to addressing our looming healthcare crisis.

Posted inCulture

More War Games

Shawn Wallbaum

Back to the Front!Well, it seems that we can't get enough World War II shooters on the shelves and sometimes it's a pain to pick the good from the bad. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is the exception and it's worth a look. This game is the third game in the Brothers in Arms series. Players assume the identity of Matt Baker, a staff sergeant during the late stages of WWII. Matt is a 101st Airborne squad leader who develops a close relationship with his men and feels great anguish when they die, so much so that he is haunted by visions of the deceased in different degrees throughout the game.
Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway is based on a real life WWII battle called Operation Market Garden, made famous in the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far. The offensive was put together by the British and featured three airborne divisions (two US and one British) who were supposed to land in the Netherlands behind enemy lines and secure bridges at three different points.

Posted inCulture

Girl Star Power: The Secret Life of Bees

Rachel Purcell

The Queen BeeCasting can be everything. A well-chosen cast can make the fairly unimaginative adaptation of a well-loved novel into something worth seeing. Writer/director Gina Prince Bythewood (Love and Basketball)did well by the characters from Sue Monk Kidd's best-selling novel The Secret Life of Bees, though at the expense of plot development.
A waif-ish and often disheveled Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds) plays the emotionally fragile and love-starved Lily Owens. At four years old Lily was responsible for her mother's death, "And that's all I know about myself," fourteen-year old Lily narrates in the opening scene. Accompanied by housekeeper Rosaleen (played by Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson of Dreamgirls), Lily runs away from her harsh and emotionally abusive father (Paul Bettany, sans British accent). The two travel to Tiburon, South Carolina where they are taken in by the beekeeping Boatwright sisters.
It is August Boatwright (Oscar winner Queen Laitfah, Chicago), the ubiquitous and wise head of the family that decides to take in Lily and Rosaleen against the wishes of her sister June (Alicia Keys, Smokin Aces).

Posted inCulture

Integrity First: Stone breaks out the kid gloves for W.

Mike Bookey

Over the falls in a barrelAt first I thought I was watching a trick movie. This is no scathing statement on the evils of the Bush administration, nor does it take a feel-good, pro-Bush stance. W. paints an unflattering yet surprisingly sympathetic picture of George W. Bush. This is perhaps even more surprising given the man at the helm of the film, Oliver Stone. Where's the conspiracy theory? Where's the self-righteous anger? I get the distinct impression he doesn't want to kick a dead horse when it's down.
Stone has said that while George W. Bush was completely unfit to be president, he also learned that he's not such a bad guy. And so it goes in this saga of W (Josh Brolin). We get to see the fraternity days and his penchant of calling everyone by nick names, his years of heavy drinking and carousing, his stammering courtship of Laura Bush (Elizabeth Banks), his relationship with his pastor (a big and beefy Stacy Keach) and his subsequent switch from booze to born again. But the main crux of the movie is his relationship with "Poppy," aka Bush senior (James Cromwell), and his inability to please him. It's the age-old Oedipal story. After dodging all responsibility. Bush still wants to please his dad, and finds God in the process. In essence, he spends the rest of the movie trying to please both of his fathers: the biological and the heavenly one.

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