WTF

By now everyone has heard the story of the Northwest Airlines flight that overshot Upfront's hometown by 150 miles. The flight reportedly turned around only after a stewardess alerted pilots that they appeared to have missed their approach to Minneapolis and by that point they were probably closer to Milwaukee than MSP. This week the FAA announced that is was suspending the license of the two pilots, one of whom was from Salem, pending an investigation into the mishap. While people initially speculated that the pair had dozed off at the controls, a new explanation surfaced this week. The pair was reportedly working on a laptop – multitasking if you will.

A story in a recent edition of the Bend Bulletin detailed the circumstances surrounding the death of Sergey Blashchishen, the 16-year-old Portland boy who collapsed on a day-long hike with one of the area's increasingly infamous “hoods in the woods” intervention programs. Perhaps the only thing more disturbing than his final hours in which he reportedly faltered, vomited, collapsed and died while his councilors looked but did little to intervene was the circumstances around his “admission” to Redmond-based SageWalk Wilderness Schools. According to an official affidavit quoted in the piece, Blashchishen was unknowingly enrolled in the school for, among other teen ailments, being “uninterested in studying or thinking about his future.” The school contracted with a pair of “transporters” to yank the teen from his bedroom while he slept. After being dragged blindfolded across the state with no information as to where he was headed, he was sent out with little to eat, but a 40-lb pack on his back, for a grueling hike from which he would never return. It's not an isolated case. Another “student” died at a now-defunct Bend wilderness school in 2000 after being pinned to the ground by a staff member.

Here's a clue, because you obviously missed all the other ones. If you look down and see small horizontal lines across the pavement, if everyone around you is on foot, if you see store fronts on one side and cars on the other, you may be on a sidewalk.

Imagine a world where the only network television news came via FOX, or the New York Post was the only national newspaper. Kind of frightening.

Another key issue and another key concession from Obama. No we're not talking about the backpedaling on gay marriage or universal health care.