The Wandering Eye

From Kari Chisholm on the BlueOregon blog comes word that KGW-TV in Portland has launched a nightly half-hour program called "Decision 2008" that's entirely devoted to this year's election contests.

Although details are sketchy, Willamette Week is reporting that Gordon Smith's frozen food plant near Pendleton has been employing illegal immigrants for years.

Oregonian blogger Jeff Mapes had an interesting encounter at the Republican National Convention last week with Rick Berman, the Washington lobbyist behind those TV ads accusing Oregon Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley of wanting to take away workers' right to a secret ballot.

Gordon Smith skipped the Republican National Convention in St. Paul this week, saying he needed to hit the campaign trail in Oregon. But he seems to have spent most of the week holed up at home in Pendleton.

The Central Oregon real estate market passed a milestone in August, but it's not one to brag about: Notices of default (NODs) surpassed home sales in Deschutes County.

Republican state treasurer candidate Allen Alley has found another "scandal" to attack his opponent Ben Westlund with, but this one looks even less credible than the 11-year-old "sex scandal" Alley tried to revive in late July.

The Oregonian's Jeff Mapes, blogging from the Republican National Convention, writes that it was déj vu all over again when Oregon GOP Vice Chairman Russ Walker ripped into environmentalists yesterday.

Chalk up another casualty of the Central Oregon real estate bust and the Bush recession: A grandiose water park planned for Redmond has been put on hold.

After watching the conclusion of the Democratic National Convention and about a half-hour of the talking heads on CNN last night, The Eye wandered off to bed for some well-earned shuteye when …

In the modern world everybody's supposed to be entitled to 15 minutes of fame, but Jeff Merkley only got three minutes at the Democratic National Convention.