Posted inHome life

My wife’s shoulder surgery went fine: a 12 hour post-operation update

For those wondering how Laurel is doing after her rotator-cuff shoulder surgery this morning: the surgeon, Dr. Dan Sewell from Salem's Hope Orthopedics Center, told me fixing the detached tendon went beautifully. A torn biceps muscle couldn't be fixed, but a flap was cut off to stop it from...I don't know, flapping around, or something. I couldn't understand everything Sewell told me while Laurel was in the recovery area. The before and after images of her shoulder were mystifying to non-physician me. They all looked like black and white photos of the moon, albeit with different shadings. So the reassurance…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Marijuana legalization opponents make the case for legal pot

I'm feeling good about Oregon legalizing recreational marijuana in a few weeks. Measure 91 has been polling well. Donations on the "Yes" side have far exceeded those on the "No" side. And legalization opponents haven't been able to come up with any persuasive arguments against Measure 91.  They keep yammering about the risk to children, but this flimsy contention has been thoroughly demolished. See "Legalizing marijuana controls use by youth. Vote for Measure 91."  Here's a few more pro-Measure 91 blog posts.Pro-marijuana legalization clear winner in Salem City Club debateStrangest reason to legalize recreational marijuana in Oregon Most encouraging of…
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Posted inSalem

Trees to be saved in Salem’s Roth & McGilchrist buildings renovation

As our oh-so-valuable alternative paper, Salem Weekly, reports in the current issue, "A fresh spirit blows into town -- the McGilchrist Building."  Gayle Caldarazzo-Doty imagines an intriguing, gracious and vibrant downtown Salem, filled with enterprises and amenities that will draw people from all over.  “We can have our own little Pearl District right here,” she says. Caldarazzo-Doty and her husband, Douglas W. Doty have spent two years renovating and transforming two historic buildings, The McGilchrist and The Roth at Liberty and State streets, into an appealing cluster of shops, businesses and luxury residences. Coffee addict that I am, one of…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana Salem

Strangest reason to legalize recreational marijuana in Oregon

With Oregonians starting to vote by mail on Measure 91, which would legalize recreational marijuana in this state, naturally I had to make this the theme of my most recent Strange Up Salem column in our alternative paper, Salem Weekly. (Feel free to give Strange Up Salem a Facebook "like." Strange is good. This town is under a blah-curse, and every Like lifts it a bit.) I called the piece, A Strange Reason to Legalize Marijuana.  I like it a lot. After the new issue of Salem Weekly hit the streets a few days ago, I re-read the column while…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Why unaffiliated voters aren’t treated dismally in closed primaries

Today I got an email that further convinced me voting "No" on Measure 90, Oregon's open primary initiative, was a good decision.  Jack Holloway is a long-time citizen activist here in Salem. I enjoy sharing ideas with him. He was critical of my initial inclination to be in favor of Measure 90, explaining why in an email message. I responded with:  Jack, thanks for the cogent thoughts. As I said in another blog post, I’ve decided to vote No on Measure 90. It has some good aspects and some bad aspects. The bad seem to outweigh the good. It still…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

On Oregon’s “Open Primary” Measure 90, I’m now a No

It's been tough for me to decide how to vote on Measure 90, Oregon's "Open Primary" or "Top Two" initiative. I've gone back and forth between Yes and No. I'm now a No, having given Measure 90 more thought for a few days after writing Torn about the Open Primary measure in Oregon, I lean toward "Yes." It would open primary elections to all voters, including those unaffiliated with a political party, sending the top two candidates on to the general election. I like the idea of lessening the influence of the Democratic and Republican parties in Oregon. Why should…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Torn about the Open Primary measure in Oregon, I lean toward “Yes”

[Update: I've recanted, flip-flopped again, changed my mind. I'm now a No on Measure 90. Read why here.] I'm a flip-flopper when it comes to Measure 90, the initiative Oregonians are about to vote on that would create an open primary system. Meaning, everybody would be able to vote in the primary. It would be open to all registered voters, including the 650,000 unaffiliated citizens who now are shut out of primaries. This included me for several years prior to 2008, when I decided to no longer be a registered Democrat. Because I wanted to vote for Barack Obama in…
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Posted inSalem, Open Your Eyes

Truth Bomb #6: Salem’s citizens are too politically passive

After writing my previous Truth Bomb, "Salemians were excluded from police facility planning," that post got a marvelous comment about how people here put up with political crap that wouldn't be tolerated in Portland, Eugene, or Corvallis. The commenter was Geronimo Tagatac, a really interesting guy. This is from a 2010 profile of him in the Statesman Journal. Download Sunday_Profile_Geronimo_Tagatac Salem fiction writer Geronimo Tagatac draws from revelations as varied as a cubicle worker's stark humor, the flashbacks of U.S. Special Forces operations to the wisdom of immigrant Filipino farmworkers picking fruit in northern California. For Tagatac, 69, it's crafted…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana Salem

Rick Steves tells Salem why marijuana should be legal

Not being much of a traveller, I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I'd never heard of Rick Steves before learning he was touring Oregon to talk about "Travel As a Political Act: Ending Marijuana Prohibition in Oregon."  Steves wrote a book with that title, Travel As a Political Act. His interest in making marijuana legal comes partly from his co-sponsorship of Washington state's successful 2012 ballot legalization measure. Last night my wife and were part of a packed house, 300 people or so, in downtown Salem's Grand Theatre. This photo was taken before the event started. Eventually the balcony…
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Posted inSalem Salem, Open Your Eyes

Truth Bomb #5: Salemians were excluded from police facility planning

Here's a non-shocker: an elected official, in this case Salem Mayor Anna Peterson, not telling the truth. Fortunately, this town has a blogger superhero -- humble ME! --who is ready, willing, and able to stand up against City Hall truth-shaders with his Truth Bomb superpower. Today I wield it against a decidedly false statement by Peterson in a newspaper story about a blue ribbon panel charged with considering options for Civic Center renovations and construction of a new police facility. Download Panel reviews plans for new Salem police station To date, talk of spending millions of dollars to make the…
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Posted inUncategorized

Living in Salem, I have Portland envy

One of Salem's biggest problems is that it is so close to Portland. My home town would seem a lot more with-it if Salem was plunked down in the middle of Oklahoma, say.  Wow! Coffeehouses. Vegetarian food. Bicyclists. Environmental activism. Brewpubs. But since Portland is so much cooler than Salem in every way I can think of, Oregon's capital city to the south richly deserves its in-state nickname of So-Lame.  Here's an example that caused Portland envy in me as I watched last night's KGW 11 o'clock news. (Salem doesn't have any television stations of its own, nor a "real" airport…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Why everyone in Oregon should vote to legalize marijuana

Today the realization came to me -- why every voting Oregonian should check "Yes" on Measure 91, the initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. It was so clear, so evident, so marvelously apparent. Just six words, directed at the different slices of the political spectrum. Imagine, liberals...Governor Dennis Richardson. Senator Monica Wehby. Imagine, conservatives...Governor John Kitzhaber. Senator Jeff Merkley. Depressing, right? If either comes to pass, about half of voters are going to be seriously upset for the next four to six years. You're going to need something to cheer you up. Hey, no problem!  Because Oregonians had the smarts to pass…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Lake Oswego’s Wizer Block uproar has land use echoes in Salem

My wife and I recently discovered how cool downtown Lake Oswego is. We hadn't been there for a long time, so made a northward pilgrimage from Salem last Friday.  The Lake View Village development on the lakeshore impressed us. Here's a Google Images photo of sidewalk dining. This is what an urban core should look like. Walkable, bikable, people-centered, enticing retail shops on street level. Millennium Park is adjacent, with the lake just beyond. Here's a photo I took of the open area next to Lake View Village. Note that word: "village." This is the look and feel we enjoyed…
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Posted inSalem Salem, Open Your Eyes

Truth Bomb #4: City of Salem charges me $117 to get a one page email

Long-time observers of what goes on in Salem, Oregon's city government tell me that the current crop of officials at City Hall are the most secretive, closed-door'ish, and dismissive of citizen involvement they've ever seen. I believe them.  I could give lots of reasons from my own experience. Here's a single shocking story that recently happened to me. After I made a public records request for documents City officials are required to share with the public, I was charged $117 for one brief email message that came close to what I had requested, but wasn't really what I was looking…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Oregon marijuana legalization opponents fear the truth

Josh Marquis is the Clatsop County District Attorney. Law-abiding guy that (one would think) he is, Marquis shouldn't have a problem with someone making public record requests to see whether he broke the law against using taxpayer dollars for a political purpose.  But Marquis is freaking out over marijuana activist Russ Belville's efforts to learn whether officials in Clatsop County, Marion County, and other places in Oregon illegally used federal funds to plan an inaccurately named "Oregon Marijuana Education Tour" -- which actually is an effort against Measure 91, Oregon's marijuana legalization effort. Head over to The Weed Blog to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Patti Milne was a terrible county commissioner. Vote for Courtney.

Democrat Peter Courtney has been an excellent state senator in the Oregon legislature. His opponent is Republican Patti Milne, someone my wife and I, along with others in our rural south Salem neighborhood, know quite well as an elected official.  Here's my well-founded advice to voters of all political persuasions in Courtney's district: Vote for him! Milne was a disaster as a county commissioner. There's no way she deserves to be a state senator. This dismal opinion of Milne was shared by virtually everybody in my neighborhood, conservatives and liberals alike, during our five-year fight against a subdivision proposed to be…
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Posted inSalem Salem, Open Your Eyes

Truth Bomb #3: City of Salem kills trees for no good reason

Here's a dirty (or let's say, sawdusty) open secret: the City of Salem doesn't really care much about trees. It allows beautiful healthy trees to be cut down when they don't need to, bowing to special interests rather than the broad public interest, often ignoring expert arborist advice in favor of making "political" tree removal decisions. Yeah, this is Oregon. Tree country. Green Land. Environmentally proud. So the gang at City Hall -- Mayor Anna Peterson, City Manager LInda Norris, Public Works Director Peter Fernandez, Urban Forester Jan Staszewski -- try to fool this town's many fervent tree lovers into…
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Posted inSalem

Some downtown Salem restaurants may try to keep out food carts

Today a Facebook post clued me in to a worrisome possibility: some restaurants in downtown Salem might attempt to keep food carts from establishing a long-term "pod" in the area. Or maybe even ban temporarily positioned carts. Here's the post from Rob Drinkenstein, a.k.a. Rob the Bartender, a.k.a. Rob Melton. Rob is part of the Table Five08 team, which recently opened this cool restaurant on State and High in downtown Salem. So let me get this straight. A group of "downtown core" restaurants are getting together to "discuss" food trucks in downtown Salem. It appears some are worried about the impact…
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Posted inSalem Salem, Open Your Eyes

Truth Bomb #2: Why I don’t trust City Hall and the Statesman Journal

A few days ago I Truth Bombed about how our community newspaper, the Statesman Journal is failing us. This is part of my new blogging passion, "Salem, open your eyes." It's tough to clearly see what's going on in Salem when your local paper won't report news that puts City officials or Chamber of Commerce types who are our town's "1%" in a bad light. It's also tough when important decisions at City Hall are made behind closed doors to hide special interest dealmaking that overrides the general public interest. At the end of my first Truth Bomb I shared…
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Posted inSalem Salem, Open Your Eyes

Am I the best investigative reporter in Salem?

Just got a nice compliment from James M. Schultz, who left this Facebook comment about my blog post Truth Bomb: "The Statesman Journal newspaper is failing Salem." A number of years back, I decided never to buy another StatesmanJournal newspaper as long as Dick Hughes was there. I have my reasons, and many of them parallel Mr. Hines' reasons here; I just tend to view him as arrogant and self-righteous. As for the SJ's investigative reporters, I don't know if they just aren't up to the job or if they are good reporters whose work the editors quash -- whether to…
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