The Boot

Doesn’t share, gets booted. There could be as many as 6,671 Deschutes County citizens walking around legally with concealed handguns. Or maybe there are only 6,156. We have no way of knowing, because the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office gave us the first number and the Oregon State Police gave the second.

We also have no way of knowing who those 6,671, or 6,156, people are because Sheriff Larry Blanton won't release the county's list of holders of concealed-carry permits, even though that information is a public record.

Newspapers in other parts of the state, including The Oregonian, have gotten such lists from other sheriffs. But when we asked Blanton for the Deschutes County list he politely but firmly told us no, claiming such information is exempt from disclosure under the state's public records law.

Why do we want to know? Well, in the first place, that question is beside the point - the point is that we have a right to know, which is clearly spelled out in the law. And that right belongs not just to reporters, but to everybody. As the law states: "Every person has a right to inspect any public record of a public body in this state, except as otherwise expressly provided" under the statute.

When you and I look at today's gas prices, we see empty checking accounts and impending financial ruin. When Big Oil looks at them, it sees a golden opportunity.
 
Oil companies have been trying for decades, without success, to get Congress to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for exploration and possible development and lift the federal ban on further offshore drilling. Now, with prices at the pump well above $4 a gallon and headed north, the industry believes it has the political lever it needs to pry all that oil and gas loose.
A group with the catchy name of American Solutions for Winning the Future, fronted by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is pushing a catchy slogan: "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less." Its website is collecting signatures on a petition calling on Congress "to act immediately to lower gasoline prices … by authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries." It's collected more than 1.3 million signatures already.

Just needs a little stimulus.As the housing slump widens and deepens, builders all over the country are in a world of hurt. Builders in Central Oregon are hurting too. But the builders here have come up with an idea to ease their pain: Interest-free loans from the taxpayers.
The loans would take the form of a break on SDCs - Systems Development Charges. These are fees builders pay to help cover the cost of new roads, sewers, water mains and other stuff made necessary by new construction. In the City of Bend, SDCs can run upwards of $13,000 on a new house.
As things stand, builders have to pay the SDCs up front, before they can get their building permits. But under the bright idea the Central Oregon Builders Association has put forward - an idea that, incredibly, has the support of the city's Community Development Department - SDC payments would be deferred for nine months, interest-free.
At the end of nine months, supposedly, the builder will have sold the house and be able to pay off the city. Or if he isn't, the city will have a lien on the house as security.

Some district attorneys crusade against meth. Some crusade against child pornography. But Deschutes County District Attorney Mike Dugan has found a crusade all his own: He's cracking down on mothers who sleep with their babies.
 
Last Sunday, Dugan announced that if a parent sleeps with a baby and the baby dies, he's going to drag the parent in front of a grand jury. "Almost everybody who has a baby is aware that, if you sleep with the baby and you roll over on top of it, you could kill it," Dugan was quoted in Bend's daily paper. "So you are aware of that risk, and you consciously disregard that risk when you take your baby to bed, and now you are talking about manslaughter. … The law is the law is the law, and you bet I would take that case to the grand jury. And if the grand jury found negligence or recklessness, then criminal charges would be filed."
The law may be the law may be the law, but DA Dugan's interpretation of it in this area is pretty bizarre. Clatsop County District Attorney Josh Marquis, who has a reputation as one of the more hard-ass DAs in Oregon, said he wouldn't prosecute unless there was other evidence of negligence - for example, if the parent had been using alcohol or drugs before sleeping with the baby.

Big Oil, He’s here for you. Greg Walden is a truly compassionate man.

Hitting is wrong, mike.An estimated 3 million American women are physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends every year. On average, between three and four women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends every day.
We don't see anything funny in those numbers. But apparently Mike Daly does. During a recent discussion about whether to add another probation officer to handle domestic violence offenders, Commissioner Daly delivered some philosophical musings on the general subject. Drawing on his experience as a state police officer many years ago, he speculated that maybe it wasn't a good idea to arrest the battering spouse or boyfriend on the first offense, as the law now requires.
"I know there's probably some very minor cases of domestic violence," he added, "but if there's a mandatory arrest on every occasion, I question that."
Then, having stuck one foot in his mouth up to the ankle, Daly performed the astonishing acrobatic feat of inserting the other one up to the knee. "Did anybody ever think that he or she might have had it coming?" he asked.
Daly's fellow commissioner, Tammy Melton, was flabbergasted. "I think just the sheer fact that we're talking about the beating of spouses as okay really makes my stomach turn," she said.

Dogs - you can love 'em, you can hate 'em or you can be indifferent to 'em, but whatever your feelings about Canis lupus familiaris, you have to admit that sometimes dogs and human activities don't mix.
 
The Bend Metro Park and Recreation District, hoping to make Bend a more "dog-friendly" place, wants to create two more dog parks - fenced areas where dog owners can let their animal companions run around off the leash - by this summer. (Currently there's only one Park & Rec-sanctioned off-leash area, at Big Sky Park on the eastside.)