I'm writing in response to the recent 'Boot' we received for the 'welfare for builders' proposal, as you describe it. You raise some legitimate concerns, which I will attempt to address below.
SDC Deferral Isn’t a Handout
Posted inOpinion
Get Down or Get Out
Kudos to those responsible for the great music line up in Central Oregon this year. For those of us who love to dance it's been hot, but confusing.
Posted inNews
Parks Opens His Money Bag Again
Loren Parks, the eccentric octogenarian multimillionaire from Nevada, continues to be the main money man behind right-wing causes in Oregon, contributing more than half of the total raised to put initiatives on the state's November ballot.
Posted inNews
Context? Who Cares About Context?
The Gordon Smith campaign is out with another TV spot ripping Jeff Merkley as a tax-and-spend liberal. In this one, we actually see Merkley saying: "I advocate for tax hikes every night in living rooms across Oregon."
Posted inNews
Walking the Walk
How easy or hard is it to get around your neighborhood without a car? The Eye spotted a handy little tool on the Web that tells you.
Posted inNews
4 Peaks Cuts Ticket Prices! New 2009 Location!
Next weekend just got a bit more affordable for music fans as the folks at the helm of next weekend’s 4 Peaks Music Festival announced today that they’ll be cutting the ticket prices for the second annual gathering in Tumalo. Organizers also announced that the festival will move from it’s Rockin’ A Ranch location in 2009.
Posted inNews
Poll Shock: Merkley Leads Smith
In a development that has to make Republicans everywhere a little jittery, Rasmussen Reports has just released a poll showing that Jeff Merkley has narrowly pulled ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Gordon Smith.
Posted inNews
All That’s Missing Is Snow White
Hallelujah — Bend has made another of those "Top 10" lists. This time it's NorthWest Crossing being hailed as one of the "Top 10 Cottage Neighborhoods" in America by Cottage Living magazine.
Posted inCulture
You Have Died of Dysentry: Five friends from Bend make a Flugtag flyer
Prepare to be Fluged.Imagine careening off a 30-foot deck into the Willamette River wearing nothing but a Speedo, life jacket and helmet in a covered wagon made out of aluminum, two-by-fours and children's bicycle tires while hopped-up on Red Bull (and probably trace quantities of alcohol). If you're Christopher Rosch, Kyle Dover, Robby Marshall, Kevin Mozingo or Pat Tyvand of Team Oregon Or Bust, this is exactly how you will be spending the first Saturday in August.
This group of five friends, all of whom grew up on the Eastside of Bend and attended Mt. View High School, decided that spending their summer floating the river with friends wouldn't be enough excitement this year.
"We saw the commercials [on TV] and every time we heard the music we would just get stoked," says Tyvand, who is currently housing the work-in-progress in his garage, "We just decided 'we have to do this.'"
Posted inOutside
That Ain’t No Hummingbird: Life among the sphinx moths
HEy Baby!"No, maam, 'baby hummingbirds' do not have antenna, multicolored wings and three body parts; those are the sphinx moths," I told the woman over the phone. Sure, sphinx moths hover like hummingbirds, poke their long "tongue" into flowers and slurp up nectar like hummingbirds, but they are insects, not birds.
Every summer about this time, phone calls and e-mails flood my home from people wondering about strange looking "baby hummingbirds" feeding in flowers, especially at night. As far as I know, there are no hummingbirds around here, or anywhere else, that feed at night. But "hummingbird 'moths'" do.
Moreover, we have a wonderful selection of these moths to watch and enjoy. The largest is the white-lined moth, and as I recently learned on a butterfly census at Big Summit Prairie in the Ochocos, the smallest may be Clark's Sphinx Moth.