Posted inSalem

Black walnut deaths point to more Salem tree dysfunction

Salem, Oregon is steadily strengthening its reputation as the city where public officials are either incompetent or uncaring when it comes to our trees.  Today I talked with an anonymous reputable source (love that term! makes me sound like an investigative blogger!) who told me some disturbing tales about the black walnut trees being cut down on the State Hospital campus.  A black walnut tree Here's an excerpt from a recent Statesman Journal story by Tracy Loew, "Historic Salem trees felled due to new disease." Six century-old black walnut trees on the Oregon State Hospital campus are being felled this week due to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

I scream at the TV during the Republican presidential debate

Well, I've got to give credit to the GOP and the Fox Business Network for this: last night they got this proud progressive involved in Republican presidential politics. OK, briefly involved -- for as long as the debate went on. And my involvement consisted of me loudly yelling at our television when I heard one of the candidates say something especially stupid or wrong. Which was frequent. PolitiFact has put together a partial truthfulness scorecard of what was said by Trump, Carson, Rubio, et. al. They didn't fare well on the truth scale. Nobody got better than a "Half True." Florina…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

My advice to Cherriots bus system: be true to Salem’s values

Tomorrow is the one week anniversary of last Tuesday's disappointing defeat of the small (.21%) payroll tax that would have paid for much-needed improvements to Salem's behind-the-times Cherriots bus system -- which lacks late evening and weekend service. Cherriots faces some tough choices now. As do others in this town who care, or claim to care, about creating viable, appealing, modern mass transit options in Salem.  Two recent letters to the editor in the Statesman Journal did a good job of summing up the situation. Defeat of transit tax ruined Salem's chance to shine What a sad day for Salem.…
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Posted inSalem

Statesman Journal asks how to improve Salem. Newspaper should start with itself.

Today Dick Hughes, the editorial page editor of Salem's daily newspaper, used half a page in the Statesman Journal for his "My Top 10 list for helping, improving the community."  Here's a suggestion that you missed, Dick: Start close to home. Improve the increasingly worthless Gannett Corporation paper that you work for.  I've been, and will continue to be, a relentless critic of the Statesman Journal -- a paper that I've subscribed to and read every day of the 38 years I've lived in the Salem area. It's gone so far downhill, I'm not sure if there's much journalistic ground remaining for…
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Posted inSalem

Statesman Journal staff are wrong: readers ARE interested in ethics complaints

Yesterday I decided to investigate whether the powers-that-be at our local daily newspaper, the Gannett owned Salem Statesman Journal, were correct when they told me that readers wouldn't be interested in the complaint I filed with the IRS against Salem Health, the parent company of Salem Hospital.  Below is the post I put up on my Strange Up Salem Facebook page, followed by the comments I've received in just one day. (Some of the comments were made on the post that I shared on my personal Facebook feed.)Statesman Journal staff were wrong. Lots of people here in Salem DO want…
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Posted inEntertainment Home life

I love our new Apple TV, even without Amazon Prime

Today our Apple TV arrived. (For those who don't obsessively follow all things Apple'ish, this isn't an actual TV, but a little box that hooks up to your TV and streams content to it via wi-fi). We've used the previous incarnation of Apple TV, along with a Roku. We also got a "smart" Samsung TV a few months ago that has apps for streaming services like Netflix and Hulu built-in to the television.  But all of these devices have been quite difficult to use. Playing a movie or TV show has been pretty easy, but finding what you're looking for…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Daylight savings time should be permanent — no more “fall back” time change

Ah, this is the horrible day Daylight Savings Time ends. Time for another speaking of truth to the few people in this country who think it's a good idea to have the sun set an hour earlier in the already depressingly-early-sunset seasons of fall and winter. Last spring I shared the reasons for making Daylight Savings Time full-time in "Let's make daylight savings time permanent." Excerpt: In my extensive personal research regarding this issue, which includes (well, totally encompasses) brief conversations with friends and asking a plumber who is working in our house right now how he feels about daylight…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Salem faces an existential moment: vote on mass transit payroll tax

Recently I was talking with someone about the November 3 ballot measure vote on a small (1/5 of a percent) payroll tax to support much-needed improvements to Salem's underfunded Cherriots bus system. Including evening and weekend service. I said, "This is an existential election." Followed by, "Well, maybe existential isn't the right word." And then, "No, I can't think of a better word -- existential it is." Though back in college I used to be an admirer of Sartre -- I loved "Being and Nothingness" -- I don't really mean that Salem voters should be wearing a beret, drinking expresso…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

More evidence that Salem Health violated IRS rules on political donations

Last Thursday I filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against Salem Health, the parent company of Salem Hospital. You can read all about it in "Salem Health hit with IRS complaint for $50,000 anti-payroll tax PAC donation."  Also, in a piece recently published by The Lund Report: "Salem Health Hit with IRS Complaint Over Political Gift Giving." I've heard from a few people who question whether Salem Health really did anything wrong when this tax-exempt organization gave $50,000 to the Create Jobs PAC set up by the Salem Chamber of Commerce.  My answer is, only the IRS…
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Posted inHome life

Firing up a big burn pile reminds me: life is ablaze, yet ends in embers

I'm no Thoreau, that's for sure. But like him, I find meaning in doing simple chores. Our rural ten acres offers plenty of opportunity for engaging in some philosophizing as I deal with what needs to be done. Which, last Saturday, was firing up a burn pile. It's been growing steadily larger since spring. We've removed quite a bit of excess vegetation in our yard over the past six months or so, including a lot of heather that stealthily grew and grew until my wife and I realized, the damn stuff is taking over! Our non-easy care yard has lots…
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Posted inSalem

Dino Venti and I have a tasty conversation about Salem goings-on

Today I was having lunch in the Court Street Venti's restaurant when Dino Venti, the owner, came over to my table and said he'd like to talk with me. After a conversation that was as tasty as the food I ate, I said "Let's have someone take a photo of us. I'll use it in a blog post and Strange Up Salem posting."  Dino had some gripes regarding some things I've written about him. But that wasn't the most important thing we talked about. Which was... Our agreement that people in Salem -- which naturally includes Dino and me --…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Salem Health hit with IRS complaint for $50,000 anti-payroll tax PAC donation

Hey, filing a complaint against Salem Health with the Internal Revenue Service isn't my favorite thing to do. But I was pleased to spend several hours this afternoon working on Form 13909, Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint (Referral) Form. I did this after some other citizen activists laid the groundwork for the complaint. They discovered that Salem Health, the parent company of Salem Hospital, seemed to violate IRS rules when $50,000 to defeat the mass transit payroll tax ballot measure was donated to the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce's Create Jobs PAC (political action committee).The Create Jobs PAC was organized as a…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Statesman Journal vs. Willamette Week — investigative reporting pissing contest

On Sunday, October 11, the Salem Statesman Journal finally engaged in some serious investigative reporting. Problem is, the theme of the stories that took up five full pages in the front page section was... Criticism of Willamette Week's investigative reporting on the Kitzhaber email scandal.  I found this bizarre, given that the Statesman Journal -- the newspaper in Oregon's capital city -- had done essentially zero original investigative reporting of its own during all the uproar in late 2014 and early 2015 that led to Governor Kitzhaber's resignation. Plus, under executive editor Michael Davis, the Statesman Journal has been asleep…
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Posted inSalem

R.I.P. (I can only hope) — “This is Salem, not Portland”

Please, Salemians, let's all vow to never again say these words: "This is Salem, not Portland." Or the variant, "This is Salem, not Portland or Eugene."  My minor gripe about those sayings is that they're obvious. Of course, Salem isn't Portland or Eugene. In the same fashion, I'm not you; a cat is not a dog; coffee is not tea. Things that are different aren't the same. Simply as a matter of logic, I'm sure we can agree on that. My major gripe is more important. It concerns the usual underlying message of someone saying This is Salem, not Portland…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Family

Conrad Hilton’s godson urges you to vote “YES” on Salem business payroll tax

Yeah, I admit it. The title of this post arguably is citizen activism clickbait. I want to grab the attention of voters here in Salem, because it is really important that the issue on the November 2015 ballot -- whether to pass a small payroll tax to fund much-needed improvements to this town's Cherriots bus system -- PASS.  Hopefully I'm using my godfather's name not in vain. Here's my baptism certificate, for anyone who doubts my Catholic pedigree. If some people decide to vote "Yes" on the payroll tax as a result of this endorsement from Conrad Hilton's godson, it's…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Hateful Obama protesters didn’t represent Roseburg

l've been bothered by the photos and stories of right-wing Obama-hating wackos protesting our President's visit to Roseburg. President Obama came to speak with the families of those killed in the horrific Umpqua Community College shootings.He didn't politicize the event, though he certainly would have been within his rights to call for steps to prevent gun massacres like this from ever happening again. I was reassured to come across this message from a Roseburg resident on a local radio web site. Addressing the national media, Peggy Long says a large percentage of the Obama protesters came from out of town. They don't represent…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

My bold (and probably wrong) 2016 President/VP matchups

With the first Democratic presidential debate coming up next week, and two Republican debates already done and gone, it seems like it's time for me to go out on a limb and predict who will be each party's nominees for President and Vice-President. Naturally I'm doing this for bragging rights in case -- wonder of wonders -- I actually turn out to be right. In case I'm wrong, which is much more likely, I'll either do my best to forget that I ever wrote this post, or take solace in the possible fact that I got one or two of…
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Posted inNeighborhood

A plea to dysfunctional HOA’s: trust, relax, loosen up

For twenty-three freaking years, yes, 23, I've been the secretary of our homeowner's association here in rural south Salem, Oregon.  A few days ago, I resigned. You'll learn why in a bit. I was asked to run for the board of directors soon after my wife and I moved here in 1990. A few years later, in 1992, I agreed to be board secretary. The rest is history, an almost quarter-century of it. Being a writer/author/blogger, I was comfortable taking notes and writing minutes. Plus, doing all the other stuff that came with the position. I kept being re-elected every…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Some thoughts are like a rainbow, but others are more grounded

After about three months, I'm continuing to enjoy my daily morning Headspace guided meditations. (I've blogged about Headspace before, here, here, and here.) Today I heard Andy Puddicombe -- the Headspace founder who does the guiding -- talk about how thoughts are like a rainbow. Meaning, they are insubstantial, coming and going, while the "blue sky" of the mind is the ever-present backdrop to thoughts and feelings. In We Are Not What We Do, Puddicombe says: Sure, we have responsibility as to whether we choose to engage the thought and take it to the level of speech or action, but…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

More guns, more people killed by guns. It’s obvious!

Another day, another mass shooting. This time, right here in Oregon.  Time to face facts. And get political. Not later. Now! Obama got it exactly right today. I've boldfaced parts of what he said that I especially liked. And, of course, what's also routine is that somebody, somewhere will comment and say, Obama politicized this issue.  Well, this is something we should politicize.  It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic.  I would ask news organizations — because I won't put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who've been killed through…
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