Premature delisting severely threatens continued existence of the northern Rockies gray wolf. WASHINGTON - Today the Bush administration finalized its controversial decision to remove the northern Rockies gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The delisting will take effect 30 days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) publishes the final rule in the Federal Register next week. The removal of federal protections for the gray wolf puts ... [full story]

Letter to the Editor: If gasoline prices hit $4 per gallon as many economists predict, an estimated 65 percent of American car owners say they will dramatically change their driving behavior, according to a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation for our association.  According to the survey, 91 percent of drivers are driving less and 75 percent are maintaining their vehicle better because of rising gas prices.  Other specific behavioral changes were carpooling (31 percent), ... [full story]

Mr. Abernathey,Given your recent actions regarding the refusal to name a bridge after LCpl Randy Newman and your refusal to let those who wished to speak on his behalf do so, I felt the need to attempt to contact you and express my disgust at what you have done.  I have attempted to contact members of the city concil but you sir have a special place in my heart.You recently silenced to those who attempted ... [full story]

We live in Lane County, Oregon. The landlord was shooting a shotgun at our house. You could hear the pellets hitting the side and raining down on us. We called 911, the deputy sheriff went to talk to the landlord. We could hear them laughing. Nothing was done. The landlord said, through his attorney by e-mail, that he was trying to scare off wild turkeys. We checked with the Department of Wildlife. He (the landlord) ... [full story]

April is National Car Care Month, the time of year to for you to focus on taking better care of your second largest investment.  Especially now, with record high gas prices, you may not be able to control the price of gas at the pump, but you can take control of your vehicle’s unnecessary fuel consumption.  Performing simple and inexpensive vehicle maintenance does not only save gas money, perhaps as much as $1,200 per year, ... [full story]

Bill Berkowitz’s “The mouth that roars” (Jan. 26) is another very good and informative article!  I believe Bill showed nicely the nexus of the war propaganda machine being active both foreign and domestic. Do (sic) in great part to efforts of folks such as he at getting the truth in print, the naive and foolish people which have been duped by this war propaganda for the past many years are finally coming around to seeing ... [full story]

“State board increases Oregon’s HS graduation requirements” – (Jan. 19) This phrase sounds strikingly familiar. We here in Michigan recently legislated "tougher" graduation requirements. The same cast of characters (Achieve, Inc., Matt Gandal, Clifford Adelman) made claims based on shoddy research, or misrepresented research to pull an end run around parents to put into place the agenda of the Business Roundtable. Visit my blog and read the article "In Michigan It's All Business, As Usual" ... [full story]

For the everyday individual, companies like Wal-Mart have been a source of great deals, where goods can be purchased at a relatively inexpensive sum. These companies preach never-ending low costs for the benefit of the consumer. Most of us have taken that as face value, resulting in hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue annually. Wal-Mart in particular has been one of the major beneficiaries of your hard earned dollar. They promote themselves as being ... [full story]

My initial response to reading about the new fixed-route public transportation system  for Bend was “It’s about time.”  Upon further thought, I believe the system as planned is not adequate by any means, but certainly an improvement over the old Dial-A-Ride System. I think, and others I’ve talked with agree, that the coverage area is sadly inadequate.  It doesn’t service the entire city and doesn’t begin to address the real need of public transportation to ... [full story]

Bush is digging us further into Iraq; we need Senator Smith’s promise to vote against funding for war, occupation Bush is digging us further into Iraq and the people rejected that idea last November.  Further polls show Oregonians oppose this war and occupation at about the same rate as Iraqis--between 65-75 percent. After more than four years of avidly supporting this war (his first vote in favor was Oct 11, 2002), our Senator Gordon Smith gave an ... [full story]

I'm writing about: "La Pine man busted for marijuana growing operation" (5-17-07).I'm sure many marijuana growers and sellers are thankful to the detectives of the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team for this latest marijuana bust and others like it.Without operations like this, marijuana would be worth what other easy-to-grow weeds are worth -- very little.Thanks to the Drug Enforcement Administration and other so-called "drug warriors," the easy-to-grow weed is worth more than pure gold -- ... [full story]

Dear Editor,I am truly disappointed in the City of Bend and the City Manager, specifically.  In all my years living in Bend, never have I seen such a deplorable and dangerous condition caused by the fact that the majority of roads and streets have not been plowed during the past several days.I was involved in one fender bender, and witnessed four more during a short and necessary foray through our fine city on Saturday.  I ... [full story]

The recently passed law requiring Oregon residents to get a prescription to buy cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine is asinine.  Why must I be penalized for the actions of a few whacked-out tweakers?  Even the sheriff's office said we haven't had any meth labs in our area this year, and only one the previous year. I don't have insurance, I have to pay full price for prescriptions, and now on top of that I will have the ... [full story]