2007 GRAMMY Nominees CD Features 49th Annual Grammy Awards Nominees The Recording Academy teamed up with Sony BMG Music Entertainment to release the 2007 Grammy Nominees CD, which celebrates many of the year's Grammy-nominated artists and songs. Scanning at more than 77,000 units this week -- this year's compilation has started off very strong with a #1 debut on the Billboard Top Compilation Albums and a #4 debut on the Billboard Top 200 Albums ... [full story]

Governor also awards seven housing projects for Oregonians with mental illness in five counties Salem, Oregon – Governor Ted Kulongoski this week announced more than $500,000 in grants to assist the development of seven community housing centers for Oregonians with serious mental illnesses. The announcement was made at a mental health rally with the National Alliance on Mental Illness on the steps of the state capitol.   “Providing quality, community-based services for people with mental illness is ... [full story]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, the seventh and final book in the best-selling series, has been scheduled for release at 12:01 a.m. on July 21, 2007, it was announced Thursday by Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company. In making the announcement, Lisa Holton, President of Scholastic Children's Books said, "We are thrilled to announce the publication date of the seventh installment in this remarkable series. We join J.K. Rowling's ... [full story]

The board of directors of Central Oregon Community College agreed at their Jan.  29 meeting to sell five acres of land near the top of Awbrey Butte to Glassow Ventures LLC for $1.85 million, according to Ron Paradis, the college’s director of College Relations.  The vote was six to one in favor of the sale.  Paradis said the buyer now has about a month to look over the parcel and its title before presenting a ... [full story]

INDEPENDENCE, Calif. - It will touch deep into your soul, tangle with your conscience and, most certainly, break your heart. At least that's what it did to me. Manzanar National Historic Site - a 1-square-mile plot of desolate, windblown desertscape on the eastern edge of California's Owens Valley - was established by Congress in 1992 to tell the stories of nearly 120,000 Japanese-Americans forced from their homes during World War II and confined at relocation ... [full story]

NASCAR preseason testing continued this week, not at Daytona, where the teams will begin gearing up for Speedweeks in just a few days, but at Las Vegas. This track is a very important venue for a couple of reasons. First, it has been reconfigured since last year's race and second, Vegas is much more of a driver's track than Daytona. Early indications are that the track, which has more banking than the old configuration, is ... [full story]

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How does our military assign people to recruiting duty? To what level of personnel is this sensitive responsibility assigned? Perhaps we should be looking for answers. Stretched thin in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army reportedly redoubled efforts to gain re-enlistments among discharged officers. The campaign included a December mailing to more than 5,100 ex-officers. And if reports are accurate, the returns have exposed some incredible oversights in military management - blunders that can only have ... [full story]

This one would grow to nearly 1,000 staffers, of whom no more than a half-dozen Americans are bilingually qualified to converse with the citizenry in the Arabic tongue. (Our typical embassy staff in a nation the size of Iraq numbers 30 to 40.) Chandrasekaran's account of the system for choosing personnel in the new embassy - as sensitive a foreign post as can be imagined - tells about all we need to know about the ... [full story]

Police officers searched for, located, and arrested a Bend man accused of armed robbery at the Super 8 motel early this morning, authorities reported. Shortly before 3 a.m. February 1, officers responded to the motel at 1275 SE Third Street to a report of an armed robbery that had just occurred, Sgt. Kurt Koester said.   Marc C. Manners (inset – DCJ photo) is accused in the armed robbery of the Super 8 motel in Bend early Thursday ... [full story]