Before House Members vote on H.Res. 867, regarding the U.N. Goldstone report on the Gaza conflict, there are a few questions worth asking.

First, why are we bringing this resolution to the floor without ever giving former South African Constitutional Court Justice Richard Goldstone a hearing to explain his findings? Have those who will vote on H.Res. 867 actually read the resolution? Have they read the Goldstone report? Are they aware that Justice Goldstone has issued a paragraph-by-paragraph response, available on my Web site at baird.house.gov, to H.Res. 867 pointing out that many of its assertions are factually inaccurate or deeply misleading?

Since scarcely a dozen House Members have actually been to Gaza , what actual firsthand knowledge do the rest of the Members of Congress possess on which to base their judgment of the merits of H.Res. 867 or the Goldstone report?

What will it say about this Congress and our country if we so readily seek to block “any further consideration” of a human rights investigation produced by one of the most respected jurists in the world today, a man who led the investigations of abuses in South Africa, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Kosovo, and worked to identify and prosecute Nazi war criminals as a member of the Panel of the Commission of Enquiry into the Activities of Nazism in Argentina?

As one of the first two American officials, along with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), to enter Gaza shortly after the conclusion of major bombing from “Operation Cast Lead,” then again several months later, I have seen firsthand the devastating destruction of hospitals, schools, homes, industries and infrastructure. Much of that devastation was wrought using U.S. manufactured and paid for weaponry. I have also spoken with health workers, average Gazans, nongovernmental organization relief workers and many others.

In addition, I have been to the Israeli town of Sderot , which has been the target of repeated rocket attacks, and to a number of Palestinian towns and Israeli settlements in the West Bank . Colleagues who have not been to the region may wish to view some of the images and interviews from these visits on my Web site.

With the information from these personal visits and on-the-ground knowledge, I read with care and interest the Goldstone report in its entirety, and my firm conclusion is that, although the findings may be unpleasant and troubling, they are, unfortunately, consistent with the facts and evidence. In my judgment, far from meriting the obstruction called for in H.Res. 867, the Goldstone report is without question worthy of further investigation.

I know this conclusion is not easily accepted, and I know it raises serious charges against entities and individuals on both sides of this conflict, Israel and Hamas. But if our own country is truly to stand for human rights and the rule of law, and if facts matter, how can we do other than insist that legitimate questions and evidence are followed by further investigation and, if necessary and warranted, appropriate consequences?

H.Res. 867 is very serious business. If, as Goldstone asserts and the evidence I have seen supports, there were in fact gross violations of international law and human rights on all sides, we cannot in good conscience support H.Res. 867.

This is about much more than just another imposed political litmus test that we are all too often asked to perform. This is about whether we as individuals and this Congress as an institution find it acceptable to drop white phosphorous on civilian targets, to rocket civilian communities, to destroy hospitals and schools, to use civilians as human shields, and to deliberately destroy nonmilitary factories, industries and basic water, electrical and sanitation infrastructure. This is about whether it is acceptable to restrict the movement, opportunities and hopes of more than a million people every single day.

At the end of the day, this is also about our own domestic security. If we are seen internationally as condoning violations of human rights and international law, if our money and our weaponry play a leading role in those violations, and if we reflexively obstruct the findings of someone with the credentials, history and integrity of Justice Goldstone, it can only diminish our international standing and our own security. - Rep. Brian Baird 

The communities found in the heart of the Idaho dairy industry (above, a photo of a local "Dairy Queen")are, amid falling milk prices, weathering the recession better than other rural regions of the state, a new University of Idaho study says.

The university released the findings of a two-year study, ‘‘Community Level Impacts of Idaho’s Changing Dairy Industry,’’ on Monday. The report shows jobless rates in Twin Falls, Jerome and Gooding counties ranged from 6.4 percent to 7.2 percent in August, compared with 8.9 percent statewide.

Idaho’s unemployment rate dropped slightly, to 8.8 percent, in September.

The dairy industry also appears to be fueling a dramatic increase in the region’s Hispanic population. In south-central Idaho, where the industry is concentrated, the Hispanic population increased 87 percent between 1997 and 2008.

‘‘The dairy industry is really driving population growth and diversification,’’ said Priscilla Salant, an agricultural economist and outreach coordinator for the University of Idaho. The research was funded by a $60,288 grant from the Idaho Dairymen’s Association and looked at the impact of the dairy industry on schools, churches, hospitals and legal systems in southern Idaho.

The study was conducted through public surveys, interviews and other data.

Salant called it the first comprehensive study of the social impacts of the dairy industry in Idaho, which is fourth in the country for milk production, after California, Wisconsin, and New York.

The study found that while the number of dairy farms has declined — from 1,404 in 1997 to 811 in 2007 — those that remain are bigger operations. At the same time, the average number of cows per farm increased from 189 to 661.

The dairy farms that, a decade ago, operated with about 2,100 workers employed about 6,100 last year. The workers tend to be young, Hispanic men who are both single and have families, spurring demographic changes in local schools from predominantly non-Hispanic to Hispanic, Salant said.

In Jerome, there has been an 80 percent increase in the enrollment of Hispanic students since 2000. In nearby Wendell, the increase is 70 percent and 40 percent in the tiny dairy town of Gooding.

‘‘That means schools need more staff to work with students who are English language learners,’’ Salant said.

There is also a need for an interpreter in the court systems, said J.D. Wulfhorst, a rural sociologist and director of the Social Science Research Unit at the University of Idaho.

‘‘Right now those municipalities are bearing that cost,’’ Wolfhurst said.

The study found no evidence migrant dairy workers are overburdening local hospitals and jails, Wolfhurst said.

‘‘Based on what we saw, the number of felonies among Hispanics is declining and it’s low enough not to be a substantial drain on the system,’’ Wolfhurst said. ‘‘Hospitals also said that Hispanics were not overburdening the system.’’

Researchers urged state, federal and dairy industry stakeholders to work toward immigration policy that gives employers and workers more security, encouraging this largely Hispanic work force to better integrate into their communities.

The industry should support a study to learn more about the workers; encourage dairy workers to claim the federal earned income tax credit; sponsor public forums for community discussions about immigration and the impacts associated with the dairy industry; and work with the university to hire a native Spanish speaker to serve as a liaison for community and labor outreach, the report says.

Hi Folks and Fans of music (and food)

Announcing a house concert by Dorian Michael, solo acoustic finger-style guitar. See his web site for more info: http://www.dorianmichael.com/media.html

Dorian Michael started playing guitar as a seven-year old in Los
Angeles and
has been a working guitarist for four decades and in that time has
played plenty of blues and folk, jazz and rock and roll. There has
always been a huge variety of playing experience from smokey
honky-tonks to theater orchestra pits. At some point along the way he
started playing a few solo fingerstyle instrumentals, made a cd and
decided he needed to hit the road and see if he could sell all those
cds he had. Three solo cds and four ensemble cds later Dorian is still
playing throughout the States and Canada. Dorian will be performing at the home of Diane Arney on Friday November 13th at 7:30 pm. Seating opens at 7-ish

Tickets are $10.00 suggested donation, refreshments are included! Pay at the door, come as you are, bring friends and family for a cozy evening of music and fun - Diane Arney

Consumer Reports' latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods tested contain measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA). The results are reported in the December 2009 issue and also available online. BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease (see comparative photos of rats above). I've reported on BPA over at Civil Eats here, here, and here.

Federal guidelines currently put the daily upper limit of safe exposure at 50 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight. But that level is based on a handful of experiments done in the 1980s rather than hundreds of more recent animal and laboratory studies indicating that serious health risks could result from much lower doses of BPA. Several animal studies show adverse effects, such as abnormal reproductive development, at exposures of 2.4 micrograms of BPA per kilogram of body weight per day, a dose that could be reached by a child eating one or a few servings daily or an adult daily diet that includes multiple servings of canned foods containing BPA levels comparable to some of the foods Consumer Reports tested.

In keeping with established practices that ensure an adequate margin of safety for human exposure, Consumer Reports' food-safety scientists recommend limiting daily exposure to BPA to one-thousandth of that level (standard safety limit setting practice), or 0.0024 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, significantly lower than FDA's current safety limit.

Consumer Reports tested three different samples of each canned item for BPA and found that the highest levels of BPA tests were found in some samples of canned green beans and canned soups. Canned Del Monte Fresh Cut Green Beans Blue Lake had the highest amount of BPA for a single sample, with levels ranging from 35.9 parts per billon (ppb) to 191 ppb. Progresso Vegetable Soup BPA levels ranged from 67 to 134 ppb. Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup had BPA levels ranging from 54.5 to 102 ppb.

Average amounts in tested products varied widely. In most items tested, such as canned corn, chili, tomato sauce, and corned beef, BPA levels ranged from trace amounts to about 32 ppb. (A microgram BPA /kg food is equivalent to a ppb level found in food, the only difference being that it's a microgram of BPA/kg of food tested versus the exposure or dose limits of microgram of BPA/kg of a person's body weight per day. So, in the example of the green beans, based on one serving of the average level from three cans tested, the average concentration is 123.5ppb of BPA in the can, the next conversion is to ug BPA per serving, 14.9 ug BPA / serving of green beans, so for a small child (22lbs or 10kg) that would calculate to 1.49 ug BPA/kg-bw and for an adult (example used in the magazine, 165lb, 75kg) .20 ug BPA/kg bw for a 75kg adult.)

The study also revealed that bypassing metal cans in favor of other packaging such as plastic containers or bags might lower but not eliminate exposure to BPA, but this wasn't true for all products tested. In addition, BPA was found in some products labeled as "organic" and some cans that claimed to be "BPA-free."

"The findings are noteworthy because they indicate the extent of potential exposure," said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of Technical Policy, at Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. "Children eating multiple servings per day of canned foods with BPA levels comparable to the ones we found in some tested products could get a dose of BPA near levels that have caused adverse effects in several animal studies. The lack of any safety margin between the levels that cause harm in animals and those that people could potentially ingest from canned foods has been inadequately addressed by the FDA to date."

Consumers Union has previously called on manufacturers and government agencies to act to eliminate the use of BPA in all materials that come in contact with food and beverages. An FDA special scientific advisory panel reported in late 2008 that the agency's basis for setting safety standards to protect consumers was inadequate and should be reevaluated. A congressional subcommittee determined in 2009 that the agency relied too heavily on studies sponsored by the American Plastics Council.

Given the new findings, Consumers Union sent a letter to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg reiterating its request that the agency act this year to ban the use of BPA in food- and beverage-contact materials. FDA is expected to announce the findings of its most recent reassessment of the safety of BPA by the end of this month. Bills are currently pending in Congress that would ban the use of BPA in all food and beverage containers. Industry has been waging a fight against new regulations, and California Assembly members recently voted not to ban BPA from feeding products for children under three.

Mount Bachelor Academy, an "alternative high school" near Prineville, was ordered to immediately suspend classes on Tuesday morning, following a state investigation that confirmed nine allegations of child abuse and neglect and more than a dozen violations of state rules.

In its report, the state Department of Human Services found abusive practices at the school — including sexualized role playing in front of other students, sleep deprivation and extended manual labor as punishment — that were first reported by The Bulletin in April and denied by school administrators at the time.

The violations by Mount Bachelor Academy “establishes that MBA poses a serious danger to public health or safety of children at MBA and that MBA should not be permitted to continue operating as a therapeutic boarding school for children,” the state order read.

Mount Bachelor Academy is a private school for troubled teens, located about 26 miles east of Prineville in a remote part of Crook County. As of March, the school was home to 88 students and employed more than 75 staff. Tuition at the time was $6,400 per month.

The state ordered an emergency license suspension, writing that “effective immediately you must stop providing all services, educational or therapeutic, to children until further order of DHS.”

It also cited the school’s executive director, Sharon Bitz, for failing to prevent the violations.

Neither Bitz nor Kristen Hayes, the communications director for MBA’s parent company, Aspen Education Group, returned calls seeking comment about the order. Aspen is owned by Cupertino, Calif.-based CRC Health Group, Inc.

In Central Oregon, the company owns New Leaf Academy, a boarding school for middle school girls; NorthStar Center, a treatment center for young adults age “17.6-24,” and SageWalk, a wilderness school for troubled teens based in Redmond. SageWalk activities are also the subject of a criminal investigation following the death of student in August.According to state investigators, the worst abuses occurred during student therapy workshops, called Lifesteps, which were “punitive, humiliating, degrading and traumatizing,” the report said. In the Lifesteps, and elsewhere, the MBA curriculum “included, but was not limited to, sexualized role play in front of staff and peers, requiring students to say derogatory phrases about themselves in front of staff and peers, requiring students to re-enact past physical abuse in front of staff and peers, permitting staff to engage in the usage of derogatory names, phrases and ridicule of students and deprivation of sleep.”

In March, a former MBA student told The Bulletin that she was made to dress up in a revealing French maid outfit and act out promiscuous behavior — including giving lap dances to male students, as part of one Lifestep. Many other former students, dating back more than a decade, recounted similar stories about role playing, sleep deprivation and stringent punishment.

Among the 18 total allegations in the state report, investigators said the school broke state rules by:

• Requiring students to engage in strenuous work projects and camping alone on an island in “inclement weather conditions” as punishment for bad behavior.

• Censoring phone calls to parents as a way to control behavior. Students weren’t allowed to tell parents about what went on in Lifesteps and other “emotional growth” curriculum.

• Using bans, where students weren’t allowed to talk, touch or look at others for a week or more, as punishment.

• Failing to develop individual treatment for students, depending on their mental health or substance abuse issues.

• Failing to provide trained therapeutic staff to meet the needs of students. The school had no staff member qualified to treat substance abuse or eating disorders, and only one staff member licensed as a mental health professional in Oregon. That staff member told investigators that he doesn’t meet with every student or regularly participate in the emotional growth curriculum.

As a result of the many violations, the state issued a complaint against Bitz, the executive director, personally. If the complaint is not overturned on appeal, that would disqualify her from leading other similar schools in Oregon.

“The Executive Director either knew of the abusive practices of the agency, or she should have known what was happening under her authority,” the complaint said.

In an interview with The Bulletin in April, Bitz denied many of the allegations, saying that former students had exaggerated or were untrustworthy sources.

In background material accompanying the state’s findings, a child psychiatric expert wrote that the methods at MBA risked “reinforcing self-blame and self-loathing attitudes already present in traumatized individuals. It is essentially retraumatizing.”

What’s next

Under the correction order, Mount Bachelor Academy could reopen if it meets a nine-page list of required changes to nearly every aspect of its program within 90 days. The required changes include overhauling the behavior management system based on recommendations by a panel of independent experts, admitting only students that staff are trained and licensed to treat, providing individual therapeutic services to students, creating an independent mediator where students and parents can voice concerns about the school without punishment and replace the executive director.

It also has the right to appeal both the correction order and the emergency license suspension.

Reaction

Despite the state’s findings, at least one parent of an MBA student said she doesn’t believe the school deserved to be closed.

Virginia Stauffer, a marketing professional in Dallas, Texas, said the school worked to correct problems with its curriculum after the investigation began. Correspondence between MBA and the state released in a public records request by The Bulletin confirmed that the school had tried to revamp its therapy practices over the past several months.

“They did everything in their power to change what they were told the issues were,” Stauffer said. “They were keeping the most meaningful part of the therapy or the transitional workshops without the role playing or the staying up (late).”

And Stauffer said the sudden closure could spell trouble for her 18-year-old son, Max, who had grappled with drug and alcohol issues before going to Mount Bachelor Academy. She said she doesn’t know where to send him next.

“I’ve exhausted every avenue,” Stauffer said. “My suspicion is he’ll go back to his alcohol and drug abuse.”

Mike Zielaskowski worked as academic director at Mount Bachelor from 2001 until 2007. Zielaskowski said the facts laid out in the state’s complaint, or what he’d seen of it, matched up with his experience at the school.

“Everything I’ve read is accurate,” Zielaskowski said.

Zielaskowski, who now works at Paulina Elementary School, said the nontraditional methods helped many of the kids who were at Mount Bachelor Academy as a last resort. But after the death of a student at SageWalk, the state may have been reluctant to let the school continue operating, given the possibility of harm.

“It helped a lot of kids,” Zielaskowski said. “At the same time, you’ve got some kids who it probably hurt.”

SageWalk has been shut down since mid-September following the death of 16-year-old Sergey Blashchishen, of Portland, on Aug. 28. Blashchishen collapsed while on a hiking trip in Lake County and then died on the scene.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into potential criminal mistreatment and reckless endangerment by the school. Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Pore said Monday afternoon that he doesn’t have a timeline for completing his investigation.

“There’s more investigating almost every day,” Pore said.

The last school to face closure by the state was Crater Lake School, also based in Bend. That school voluntarily closed for good in 2004, rather than try to meet the conditions for reopening, according to previous Bulletin reports.

In 1998, former employees at Mount Bachelor Academy told The Bulletin that students were “subjected to frequent obscenity-laced screaming sessions by staff members; students are deprived of sleep; a group of girls emerged from one group therapy session with bruising on their arms after they were ordered to clasp their hands in front of them and pound a mattress for an extended period; and another group of girls on a backwoods intervention outing (was) rousted from their sleeping bags at midnight and forced to remove rocks from a dirt road for two hours in the middle of a cold October night,” according to Bulletin reports at the time.

Sharon Ferguson was a parent of a student at the school at the time and corroborated the staff members’ allegations, but later that year, the Oregon DHS determined the school was a safe environment for children.

Ferguson, who lives in San Diego, said she’s glad the school faces consequences this time.

“I can’t tell you how good I feel about this,” Ferguson said. “I had just thought this is going to be like the last time, and they’re going to get away with it again.”  According to 10 students, two separate parents, and a current part-time employee interviewed by TIME - some of whom are involved in the state inquiry - Mount Bachelor Academy regularly uses intensely humiliating tactics as treatment. For instance, in required seminars that the school calls Lifesteps, students say staff members of the residential program have instructed girls, some of whom say they have been victims of rape or sexual abuse in the past, to dress in provocative clothing - fishnet stockings, high heels and miniskirts - and perform lap dances for male students, as therapy.

The school, naturally, denies the charges. One 18-year-old former student and victim of rape wept while recounting what happened to her during a Lifestep seminar. Jane, who asked not to be identified with her real name, left the school in March. "They had me dress up as a French maid," she said, describing an outfit that included fishnet stockings and a short skirt. "I had to sit on guys' laps and give them lap dances," while sexually suggestive songs, such as "Milkshake" by Kelis, played at high volume.

"They told me I was dirty and I had to put mud on myself for being raped," she said, in reference to a separate Lifestep session. "They basically blamed me for getting raped."

Unfortunately, slut-shaming for the enjoyment of the male students is hardly a new therapeutic technique at Mount Bachelor.

[Melissa] Maisa attended Mount Bachelor between 1992 and 1994 under largely the same management that runs the school today, and graduated the school with honors. She was sent there in part because of promiscuous behavior as a teen, which Maisa associates with being a victim of child sexual abuse and date rape. "Mount Bachelor made me feel even more dirty and more shameful than either one of those experiences ever did. I just want to make sure the things I suffered through there never happen again," Maisa says.

She describes a Lifestep in which she says she was required to perform an exercise called "the holidays." "I had to stand up in the sluttiest way possible and strut over to every male in the room," including the counselors, Maisa says. She was instructed to sit on the floor before each man, place her left foot on his right knee and say, "This foot is Christmas." She then placed her right foot on his left knee and said, "This foot is New Year's. Do you want to meet me between the holidays?"

Control/Chaos

The controlled aspects in music have increased the past years and the trance inducing qualities inherent in music have suffered. Getting things tight and sewn up are not inherently bad and perhaps the need for patterns and control is necessary in this unsafe topsy turvey world, but it shuts down an openness and liberating feeling that the language of music can provide.

Chaos provides balance. It can wipe the slate clean. Sometimes when you want the music to tighten up, and your body is tightening instead, you can throw a little randomness into the mix. Let go of the control and the need to sound good, tight or impressive. “Hey it doesn’t matter that I am just flopping around right now, because I have no expectations (or abilities) anyway.”

And then you can return to your originally scheduled program without having to carry all that unnecessary baggage.

Control is ultimately a myth.

Note: This is a weekly column by long time Corvallis resident and jazz drummer Dave Storrs.

Sideways Portal will be playing Sunnyside. 4-6 pm. This is part of a series we hope to continue. If we can get interested listeners then it probably will ... So come on down and support live improvised music. -Dave

Alleged elder abuser Betty Schaak appeared before Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge Sheryl Bachart on Tuesday and entered an Alford plea to Criminal Mistreatment II, a misdemeanor, with diversion.

Although Schaak was originally assigned a court-appointed attorney, Schaak said that a friend of hers paid to have well-respected trial attorney Steve Lovejoy represent her instead.

Lovejoy explained that an Alford plea is essentially the same as saying, “‘I am innocent, but I am taking this deal because it’s a good one.”

He added, “We agreed that if we went to trial, the evidence could result in a verdict of guilty. We weren’t saying it definitely would, but trials are iffy.”

During a 180-day diversion period, Schaak cannot care for elderly people or young children. After those six months are up, however, her record will be clean, and she can apply for another license if she wants to, Lovejoy said.

“I think the case was defensible, but at what price?” Lovejoy said. “For someone her age, it’s a heck of an ordeal to go through.

“I think this was a fair settlement submitted by (prosecutor) Mr. Gardner, who is every bit a gentleman. It was the right thing to do.”

The 75-year-old Schaak was arrested at her Lincoln City home on Dec. 10, 2008 on the misdemeanor charge, as well as a felony charge of first degree criminal mistreatment, for alleged abuse of an elderly resident at her adult foster care facility, Betty’s Quality Home Care.

Oregon Department of Human Services suspended Schaak’s adult foster care license in November 2007 after three elderly residents were removed from her Lincoln City home amid two charges of severe physical abuse.

After investigating the allegations, DHS revoked Schaak’s license in March 2008. Schaak appealed, and the case was heard before the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings.

That court concluded that Schaak “abused and neglected residents in her adult foster care home; failed to provide accurate incident reports; and failed to seek medical care for one resident, while failing to ensure the health and safety of others.”

Dude, where’s my tree?

If you’re Aaron Parecki, formerly of Eugene, it was mostly on the ground when he arrived in town from Portland on Saturday, Halloween of all days, and witnessed the homeowner horror story he’d dealt with for two hours by phone on Friday.

“I was completely astounded,” said Parecki, a 2009 University of Oregon graduate who moved to Portland in September and rented out the house he owns with his father at 1910 Charnelton St. to six college students. “I was totally in shock.”

Most branches of the towering incense cedar tree in front of the house, at West 19th Avenue and Charnelton, were gone. Hacked off with machetes. By unidentified strangers.

“It was bizarre,” neighbor Will Shortt said. “They scalped that thing.”

The incident has turned a robust, much-admired tree that dates from the 1920s into a freakish skeleton that is likely to die within a year.

Shortt, who lives across the street on West 19th, said he was riding his bicycle home from work about 5:30 p.m. Friday when he saw the destruction. One man, Shortt said, was “way up the tree. He seemed to be in charge.” Shortt asked the man, who said his name was Jorge Diaz, if he had a city permit to cut the tree. The man, who did not speak English well, said he didn’t, but that he had permission from the residents to trim it for boughs to make holiday wreaths.

That’s when Shortt called Parecki to find out what was going on. Parecki had no idea.

This led to a series of angry phone conversations with the tenants, neighbors, police, and the man trimming the tree and his girlfriend, Parecki said.

Apparently, someone, possibly Diaz, came by the house earlier in the week and asked if he could trim the tree. One of the roommates said it would be OK, according to Sam Mowry, a Lane Community College student who lives at the house. Then on Friday, Diaz and others came and started cutting away at the limbs about 11 a.m. and worked until it was almost dark, Mowry said. “They looked like they knew what they were doing, and we assumed the owner had asked (them to cut it),” Mowry said.

Per Parecki’s instructions, Shortt told the men to stop cutting the tree and put Diaz on the phone with Parecki.

“I don’t think they thought they were doing anything wrong because they stuck around (for 60 to 90 minutes)” after that, Shortt said.

Shortt called Nathaniel Sperry of Eugene-based Sperry Tree Care, who came over to assess the damage. Shortt also called the police. And he asked Diaz and the others for identification, but they said they had none. Parecki said he got a phone number and a Eugene address from Diaz and arranged to meet him at the house on Saturday, but Diaz never showed up. When Parecki called the number Saturday, the person who answered said they did not know anyone named Jorge Diaz. Parecki could not find the address he was given on a map.

How to Win the Online Mcgraw Hill Business Strategy Game
A History of the Canadian Dominion, William McGillivray and the Canadian Clique
History of Russians in the Pacific Northwest
The Basics of Making Cheese
Lyman Beecher and the Second Great Awakening
Bus Schedules
The Tulsa Race Riots
An Inquisition Torture Session
History of Mathematics in India
Corvallis dogs and Jack London's Call of the Wild
Corvallis Serial Killers
Thomas Egarton Hogg and Corvallis
The Modoc Indian War in Oregon
The fur trade in the Northwest
Imprisonment of OSU students 1942
The History of Astoria and Washington Irving's Trip to Oregon

Continuing the trend toward mediocrity in administration at Oregon State University since President Gilfillan in 1942, OSU's President Ray has proposed dumping another 15,000 residents in Corvallis, without any concern for housing, traffic impact, or sustainability issues. Local developers have been elated, with landlord Susan Prock stating that she was happy "because I can raise my rents". Other Corvallis citizens are less impressed, an some have been so irate that there are plans afoot to mount a campaign discouraging any funding, private or public for the university. "If Ray has extra money he expects to be coming in, why isn't he lowering costs for the students already attending OSU?" asked one.
  There has been much discussion within OSU and the Corvallis community regarding OSU President Ed Ray's vision for 2025 since his annual State of the University address to Faculty Senate members on Oct. 8.

The population of Corvallis is currently 54,890, about 40 percent of which are students. By 2025, Ray announced OSU should expand its current enrollment from 21,000 to as many as 35,000 students with an increase of around 700 faculty members to coincide. This is a large jump not only in OSU's population but also for the surrounding community.

Some community members are overly supportive of Ray's vision of growth while others have second thoughts.

Curtis Wright, a civic leader in the Corvallis community, is fully supportive of Ray's vision for OSU.

"I am most appreciative of all that OSU is to, and does for, the people and businesses and community service organizations of Corvallis. I think it is exciting and well worth achieving. It is not without its challenges. But then again, isn't that the case with anything that's worth doing?"

Wright said that OSU provides a significant boost to Corvallis' collective well being. It's estimated that OSU-related visitors spend $25.2 million each year on everything from sales to lodging, boosting the local economy.

"Kids are the future," Wright said. "We're fortunate to have so many good-intentioned, soon-to-be well-educated [ones] coming to Corvallis. You'll find students participating in United Way's Annual Day of Caring and volunteering day in and day out at the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis."

Kirk Nevin, a 65-year-old retired organic farmer who has lived in the Corvallis community for the past five years, shares a different and disappointed view on Ray's outlook for OSU.

"To grow the university to the size Ray wants seems unfeasible," Nevin said.

Nevin believes Ray should hold his word on a previous commitment to the American College & University Presidents' Climate Commitment he signed in 2007. According to presidentsclimatecommitment.org, the commitment is a high-visibility effort to address global warming by neutralizing greenhouse gas emissions and to accelerate the research and educational efforts of high education to equip society to re-stabilize the earth's climate.

Dear Savage

I'm a straight female in her early 20s, currently engaged to a handsome man three years older. We're very happy and we have a strong, healthy relationship, but lately I've been worried about one question: Considering my limited previous sexual experience (before him, it was oral only), is it still possible to have a long, enjoyable sex life with him? I've gotten some (well-intentioned, I'm sure) advice that suggests that we are both making mistakes. I can't have a satisfying sex life without being able to compare him to anyone else, I'm told, and he's making a huge mistake by pairing up with a less experienced partner. I hope that the individuals telling me this are wrong.

I have absolutely zero interest in opening up this relationship, and I do my best to be GGG. He says I'm a great lover and a lot more confident in bed now compared to when we first made love, but I want to improve. Still, I don't want to find out down the road that we made a mistake.

-Negligible Experience With Boning

Are you happy? Is he happy? That's all that matters. Just keep those lines of communication open, NEWB, while you continue to explore your sexualities together. And remind yourself every once in a while that even the less experienced partner in a relationship is allowed to have likes and dislikes, offer constructive criticisms, and make suggestions—and sometimes demands. And anyone who is being GGG for her partner has every right to expect GGG from her partner.

Finally, tell the "friends" who're offering you such unhelpful advice—tell those underminers—to go fuck themselves. Some people need to sleep around a bit before they realize what they like and whom they want. That's not the case for everyone. And there are plenty of men and women out there in miserable, sexually dysfunctional marriages who met after both had plenty of experience.
 
- Dan Savage

Hi, kids!  This week we are bringing in COCO BEFORE CHANEL with Audrey Tautou.

We will be holding over THE BURNING PLAIN, with Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger. There will be limited showings of THE COVE, TRUCKER, and THE HURT LOCKER. And, of course DEPARTURES is held over.

Special Notice: We are looking into getting the movie LORD, SAVE US FROM YOUR FOLLOWERS. This is a movie that will have to be promoted by word-of-mouth since there is not a lot of national press about it. It will be of primary interest to religious and spiritual groups which is not the main demographic in attendance at the Darkside Cinema. Let me know what you think.


Be sure to check the schedule at darksidecinema.com before you come down.

Coming soon
BOYS ARE BACK, AN EDUCATION, THE DAMNED UNITED, BROKEN EMBRACES
Playing Friday, November 6 thru Thursday, November 12 (click a link to jump to the section).
COCO BEFORE CHANEL
THE BURNING PLAIN
TRUCKER
THE COVE
THE HURT LOCKER
DEPARTURES
OTHER STUFF: Magical Chop Sticks
COCO BEFORE CHANEL --PG-13
Excerpted from a review by Roger Ebert

COCO BEFORE CHANEL imageWe talk about people "inventing themselves." That assumes they know who they want to invent. COCO BEFORE CHANEL begins with an abandoned orphan girl named Gabrielle, watches her grow into a music hall chanteuse, who then sidesteps prostitution by becoming a mistress. All the while from behind the clouds of her cigarettes she regards the world with unforgiving realism and stubborn ambition. She doesn't set out to become the most influential fashion icon of the 20th century. She begins by designing a hat, making a little money and striving to better herself. She wants money and independence. One suspects she would have been similarly driven if she had invented a better mousetrap and founded a home-appliance empire.

The naturalism of Anne Fontaine's film would be at home in a novel by Dreiser. Her star, Audrey Tautou, who could make lovability into a career, avoids any effort to make Coco Chanel nice, soft or particularly sympathetic. Her fashions may have liberated women from the hideous excesses of the late 19th century, but she creates them not out of idealism but because they directly reflect her inalterable personality. She didn't put women in sailor shirts out of conviction. She liked to wear them.

Perhaps because of its unsentimental approach to Chanel's life, COCO BEFORE CHANEL strikes me as less of a biopic, more of a drama. It's not about rags to riches but about survival of the fittest. Is Coco, young and poor, used by the rich playboy Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde)? Perhaps he thought so early in their relationship, but she uses him as well. She likes him, but she signed aboard for money, status and entry, not merely sex and romance. She sees their affair as a reasonable transaction. She isn't a brazen temptress but a capitalist, who collects on her investment.

Through Balsan, she meets the bold actress Emilienne (Emmanuelle Devos) and Boy Capel (Alessandro Nivola), an Englishman. It's clear that to Chanel, love with a man or a woman is pretty much the same, but Boy truly does love her, and this is a unique experience for Coco. Things might have proceeded quite differently in her life if that relationship had survived. Baron Balsan, not blinded by love, sees Boy as exactly what he is-something Coco, for once, hasn't done.

Tautou isn't stereotypically beautiful but more uniquely fetching. It's her spirit as much as her face, and the tilt of her upper lip more than her curves. She is above all a disciplinarian of herself; at the film's end, we learn Chanel died in 1971-"on a Sunday," at work, just as she worked every day of her life. She had an original vision of fashion, yes, but we get the feeling she didn't depend on it for her success. She worked hard, dealt with people realistically, drove hard bargains and saw fashion as a job, not a career or a vocation.

By underlining that, the movie becomes more absorbing. We've seen enough films about heroines carried along by the momentum of their blessed fates. That's not how it works. To the winner belongs the spoils, even if in life, you started pretty far back from the starting line.
THE BURNING PLAIN --R
Review by Roger Ebert

THE BURNING PLAIN imageTHE BURNING PLAIN is a romantic mystery about a woman on the edge who takes an emotional journey back to the defining moment of her life.

In his debut feature as director, Guillermo Arriaga builds on the multithreaded approach to storytelling he brought to his previous scripts (AMORES PERROS, 21 GRAMS, BABEL, and THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA) to create an engrossing, interconnected study of guilt and consequences across three generations. Shuttling back and forth through time and space, from oppressive, steel-gray Oregon skies to sweeping New Mexico terrain, the film allows its audience to judge each narrative strand as it emerges and develops, before quietly weaving the stories together.

Three compelling performances carry THE BURNING PLAIN forward, backward, and sideways (as is the norm for an Arriaga script). Charlize Theron, Kim Basinger, and teenager Jennifer Lawrence each command the emotional center of their respective worlds. Oscar-winner Charlize Theron plays Sylvia, a beautiful restaurant manager whose cool, professional demeanor masks the sexually charged storm within. When a stranger from Mexico confronts her with her mysterious past, Sylvia is launched into a journey through space and time that inextricably connects her to these disparate characters, all of whom are grappling with their own romantic destinies.

In Mexico, a young motherless girl, Maria (Tessa Ia), lives happily with her father and his best friend until a tragic accident changes it all. In the New Mexico border town of Las Cruces, two teenagers, Mariana (Jennifer Lawrence) and Santiago (JD Pardo), find love in the aftermath of their parents' sudden deaths. In an abandoned trailer, a housewife, Gina (Oscar-winner Kim Basinger), embarks on a passionate affair that will put Sylvia and the others on a collision course with the explosive power of forbidden love.

THE BURNING PLAIN is an affecting and subtle examination of love, guilt, and family. Lush cinematography from veterans Robert Elswit and John Toll, along with standout performances, contribute to an already-accomplished writer's powerful first feature.
TRUCKER --R
Review by Roger Ebert

TRUCKER imageMichelle Monaghan plays Diane Ford, a trucker who just paid off her own rig. She's 30-ish, cold, hard-drinking, promiscuous, a loner. Jimmy Bennett plays her son, Peter. She left him with his father Len (Benjamin Bratt) soon after his birth, has stayed away, doesn't like kids -- or men, either, although she uses them. One man (Nathan Fillion) has been her best friend for four years, but that involves getting drunk together and never having sex.

Len gets sick. Colon cancer. He's been living for years with Jenny (Joey Lauren Adams), who now needs time to care for him. It's up to Diane to look after the kid. She doesn't want anything to do with him. "Just for a few weeks," Jenny pleads. Just until Len gets better. Sure.

You are anticipating, as I did, that "Trucker" would turn into one of those predictable movies where the mother and son grow to love each other. It doesn't end with mutual hate and abandonment, but it damn near does. The kid is as tough as his mom. "Answer me!" she says. "I don't talk to bitches!" he says. Len and Jenny seem nice enough. Where did he learn to talk like that? Little pitchers have big ears.

I concede the story arc is fairly predictable, assuming neither one murders the other. But Mottern and his actors take no hostages. Diane is hard and tough, and stays that way. Her son is angry and bitter, and stays that way. Does they need to love and be loved? Sure. We know that, but they don't. By the end of the film, she hasn't called him "Peter" and he hasn't called her "Mom." He's "kid" or "dude," and she's "you." They have to be together whether they like it or not, and they know it.

That said, Monaghan makes Diane more sad than off-putting. She isn't a caricature. She works hard, values her independence, is making payments on her small suburban home on an unpaved street, is living up to her bargain with herself. The movie spares us any scenes where she's "one of the guys." It opens after a one-night stand with a guy who tries to be nice, but she doesn't need a nice guy in her life. Nor does she need to be nice with Peter, but one thing she does do: She's always honest with him and speaks with him directly, and I think he knows that. Her performance clearly deserves an Oscar nomination.
THE COVE--PG-13
by Roger Ebert

THE COVE imageFlipper was smiling on the outside but crying on the inside. That's what Richard O'Barry thinks. He's the man who trained five dolphins for use on the "Flipper" TV show, and then began to question the way dolphins were used in captivity. In the years since, he has become an activist in the defense of captive dolphins exploited in places like Sea World.
The dolphins who are captured are luckier than the thousands harpooned to death. In a hidden cove near the Japanese coastal village of Taiji, sonar is used to confuse dolphins and lead them into a cul-de-sac where they're trapped and killed. Since their flesh has such a high concentration of mercury that it's dangerous to eat, why slaughter them? To mislabel them as whale meat, that's why. Having long ignored global attempts to protect whales from being fished to extinction, the Japanese have found dolphins easier to find. But who would eat the meat?

Japanese children, whose school lunches incredibly include mislabeled dolphin. Is it necessary to mention that dolphins are not fish, but mammals? Indeed, they're among the most intelligent of mammals and seem naturally friendly toward man. They're even tool users, employing sponges to protect their snouts in some situations, and teaching that learned behavior to their offspring.

THE COVE, a heartbreaking documentary, describes how Richard O'Barry, director Louie Psihoyos and a team of adventurers penetrated the tight security around the Taiji cove and obtained forbidden footage of the mass slaughter of dolphins. Divers were used to sneak cameras into the secret area; the cameras, designed by Industrial Light and Magic, were hidden inside fake rocks that blended with the landscape.

The logistics of their operation, captured by night-vision cameras at times, has the danger and ingenuity of a caper film. The stakes are high: perhaps a year in prison. The footage will temper the enjoyment of your next visit to see performing dolphins.

It is an accident of evolution that dolphins seem to be smiling, the film informs us. They just happen to look that way. Their hearing is incredibly more acute than a human's, and the sounds of loudspeakers and recorded music, rebounding off the walls of their enclosures, can cause them anxiety and pain. O'Barry believes one of the dolphins he trained for "Flipper" literally died of depression in his arms.

There are many documentaries angry about the human destruction of the planetary peace. This is one of the very best - a certain Oscar nominee. But when all of the facts have been marshaled and the cases made, one element of the film stands out above all, and that is the remorse of Richard O'Barry. He became rich and famous because of the TV series, which popularized and sanitized the image of captive dolphins. He has been trying for 25 years to make amends.
THE HURT LOCKER --R
Review by Paul Turner

THE HURT LOCKER image THE HURT LOCKER, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, holds up well to the criteria for a guy film. Stuff blows up, men get drunk and stupid together, stuff blows up, there's macho banter, and stuff blows up.

THE HURT LOCKER tells the story of a group of explosives technicians in Iraq whose job it is to defuse or detonate ordnance left out and about for people to stumble upon. These techs who choose to don the explosion-resistant suit and walk toward deadly explosives are not exactly the poster children for military recruitment. Yeah, it seems testosterone-laden "cool." But this is a skill, and the learning curve for the military bomb squad is very shallow, no matter how smart you are. The skill set is only a part of this job. The rest is all about how you are built; what your character is made of. So the idea of learning specific skills that stand a good chance of killing you-and have little value outside a war zone-isn't likely to generate a line around the block at the recruiter's office.

The thing that makes THE HURT LOCKER work is not the brotherhood of soldiers. Granted, that is a huge part of the film and it is done well. But THE HURT LOCKER has a more introspective core. This film is really about addiction. The men who do this work are subjecting themselves to perhaps one of the most adrenalin-producing activities available anywhere: rendering deadly devices inoperative.

When Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) takes over the team, he is immediately recognized as a real cowboy who has little time for safety protocols and respecting the rest of his team. As he reveals his humanity, this first impression isn't necessarily disproven. He is addicted to The Game and its zero tolerance for error and sudden consequences. The rest of the squad is just as enamored with the drug. They long for the day when they can flood their system with the same juice. They watch James' utter disconnection from the consequences of his actions as he tries yet one more thing to defuse the bomb-refusing to run away when a sane person would be back at the hotel with tea and a newspaper. When he walks away with the guts of a neutered bomb in his hand the rush radiates out from him into the other technicians. Nothing will ever feel like that-except cutting it even closer next time.

With addiction, you either resign yourself to letting the need for a higher high kill you, or you accept life as it is and find your peace. It is easier to hide your demons with escalating distractions-but those distractions need to become greater as tolerance builds. Remember the movie THE GYPSY MOTHS (1969; Gene Hickman, Bert Lancaster), about a barnstorming troop of skydiving daredevils? The skydivers are driven to open their chutes closer and closer to the ground. There is only one way to die if you are a true daredevil. Kathryn Bigelow also directed POINT BREAK (1991; Keanu Reeves, Patrick Swayze) which may have been unremarkable on many fronts, but the parachuting sequences were very remarkable-and perhaps a little far out, but damn fun to watch. She understands waiting to pull that rip-cord at the last moment. Standing over a mound of C4 about to be detonated is really a lot easier than looking inward at the reasons you need to be there. There will always be a difference between balls and courage. The trick to not getting killed is to have the courage to walk away.

THE HURT LOCKER is receiving 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and features cameos from Guy Pierce, Ralph Fiennes, and David Morse. But don't come see it for that. See it for the way it looks at people who put themselves in situations that release the same chemicals others have to spike a vein to feel. We will always need the kind of men and women who ran into the falling Twin Towers to save anyone they could. In these situations, we do not care if that person standing over us extending the leather-gloved hand is strung out on adrenalin. Whether that crater was caused by a 747 or an IED, those who put themselves between us and danger are not all cut from the same cloth.
DEPARTURES --PG-13
(Subtitled Japanese)
Review by Paul Turner

DEPARTURES image

Most movie reviews I write for films playing at the Darkside are not written to sell the film. If we're playing it, once the lights go down and the projector rolls it usually sells itself. The object of these reviews is to convince you that you need to see it here-to motivate you into coming through our door, up to the counter, and into an auditorium. Oftentimes the motivators can be that the movie may never be on DVD, or that the film must be seen on a big screen and experienced with other people, or that you can rent 50 FIRST DATES anytime (God knows why) and it is time to get the heck outta the house and take a chance with something that features neither Adam Sandler or Drew Barrymore.

When it comes to the movie DEPARTURES, there is little chance this film will not be in a single-digit position on your list of the top 20 films of the year. This Japanese feature won the Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2008. This doesn't always mean it's a great film, but it presents a pretty solid indication that the film is worth a look.

Daigo is a young man whose life as a musician in the big city falls apart. He is forced to relocate to his dilapidated childhood home in the country. This is a big step down for him and his wife. Soon after they arrive in his hometown he begins pounding the streets looking for a job and finds himself accidentally working with the dead.

Daigo answers an ad for a job in "departures." Figuring it has to be in the travel industry, he applies and happily shows up for his first day of work. This is when he finds out he is helping with the ceremonial "encoffination" of the "departed" prior to cremation. We know what's coming: the first day on the job exposes Daigo to the most odious and odiferous aspects of the job. It's not too much of a surprise that he doesn't tell his wife what he really is doing. Daigo finds that the work-and his avuncular boss, Sasaki-grow on him. But when Daigo's wife Mika stumbles across what he's been doing to pay the bills, she isn't too keen on her husband being one who handles the dead for a living.

DEPARTURES lets you into a different world and reality through the story of Daigo, his wife, his boss, and his return to the community he was raised in. But the movie uses the beauty and pomp of the preparation for cremation to address wider issues about death. It does so without bludgeoning us with sappy sentimentality. Okay, maybe a little. Daigo has developed a deep understanding that the ceremonial dressing, washing, and honoring of the departed is more for the benefit of the living than the dead. The subtlety and ease with which they dress the dead without compromising modesty in the presence of the mourners seems like a magic trick-at the same time intones reverence for the mystery of death. There is flamboyance and grace in the way Daigo and his boss do what they do. It's a bit of a show for the loved ones, who see that the care and ritual afforded the shell of those passed is a way of celebrating the life that has ended. And the lives of those yet to depart.

The magic of DEPARTURES is how quickly the viewer becomes familiar with the culture and landscape of the story. One is drawn into that life and away from one's own, which is the gift of cinema done well.

DEPARTURES is subtitled Japanese and is rated PG-13.
OTHER STUFF: Magical Chops Sticks!

A normal day eats our attention like the deer eat Lainie's tulips. We move from one thing to the next without things really changing much. Just a lot of moving. Even on holidays, there is the business of doing holiday stuff during the holidays. Sometimes it is the most sub of sub-minutiae that trips the release and sucks us back into a moment outside of ourselves. It is the subtle words or the unnoticed rituals. The minor derailments or the self-induced derailments seem to force the issue that some days are really different than the others. For instance:

a. The dead leaves dragged along the sidewalk and sounded like someone was coming up behind me. The steady, polite breeze skittered them along like reluctant children being pushed toward the school bus. With my eyes closed it is hard to tell the difference between footsteps and dried leaves. With a gust of wind, it sounded like it could be several people swarming around me like a stampede around a cactus. When I opened my eyes I felt a bit like an idiot standing on the sidewalk with my eyes closed. Across the street someone was in an Elvis costume walking as if at any moment he will break into, "Thank you. Thank you very much." Suddenly it struck me: why on earth should I feel like an idiot?

b. I was hoping Reed would be in his shop. My favorite Halloween joke was not kid-friendly and Reed and I have stretched the boundaries of good taste past the breaking point. Reed knows humor and I have to work hard to find a joke he won't figure out before I get to the punch line. I had one and he wasn't there.

c. I guess that wasn't a Tylenol. The first hint was the sudden energy I was feeling, which is a neon-red indicator that my system has been introduced to an opiate. Then came the good mood and the desire to chat...endlessly...with anyone...even with the ice machine. Costumes took on an exaggerated hilarity-even when they weren't costumes. The headache was still there-though it didn't concern me as much now. Besides, I was telling a joke to the ice machine.

d. The streets were uninhabited by anyone-so empty it seemed to suck up the silence. The next show would start soon and I wasn't sure I should let my wife drag me away to a wine bar. Once there I found a wooden puzzle under the table. Pieces were missing so I assembled and disassembled it to make different patterns. (When you hear the word "disassemble" do you, also, think of Number Nine in the movie SHORT CIRCUIT?) A couple of friends in costumes passed by the window, spotted us, and came into the wine bar. They were like a thready pulse; the night could go either way. The night was young and as it got older it would get louder.

e. He was drunk and didn't seem to care that I knew it-after all, he was leaving. He'd obviously been drinking while watching the show. Something about him wouldn't let my anger rise. Maybe it was because he was dressed so oddly his attire could have been a costume. Not unlike someone who has really been in a car accident or mugged, walking among a herd of people in zombie costumes. Who could tell? What are the telltale signs that someone with blood on them is not a zombie on Halloween night? He wasn't bleeding and there were no signs this guy was a troublesome drunk. Or a zombie.

f. The chicken wrap was calling my name. The youngster behind the counter was dressed as a hippie and the two other workers were dressed as Mario and Luigi-characters from a video game from a time before they were born. When the young hippie handed me my change, the coins filtered through my fingers into the tip jar. I almost told her that her costume made her look like a conservative Christian Republican. If she didn't get it and said something like, "No I'm a hippy" others might laugh at her-an unkindness that I would have started. More likely my comment would have been geeky/stupid enough that she would give me one of those okay-you're-weird-get-the-hell-away-from-me looks. So I just said thanks. Huddled in a booth, I ate my wrap and did the Eugene Weekly crossword, an exercise that frequently helps me feel totally out of touch with pop culture-am I, in fact, cool enough to complete their crossword? How am I supposed to know who won what on American Idol? I just learned what a Rick Roll is.

g. When the electric window in the car wouldn't roll up, I was not a happy man. I was in a hurry and didn't want the contents of my car exposed to the elements or the candy wrappers (and other party favors) that might get tossed into the inviting open window. The window motor made no noise in the up direction, though it went downward with gusto. Every time I tested it, it went down a little more. It had to be the switch. One should never take something apart when feeling angry and hurried. I got the window up. It would have been better if I had just rolled it down all the way and let a typhoon of empty beer bottles and candy wrappers blow through.

h. He made his own horror film and we played it twice on Halloween night. We didn't play DEPARTURES so that the auditorium could be used to play FISHHEAD. The DVD died at 44 minutes into a 55-minute show. There are six different DVD players in the projection booth so we started swapping them out one at a time until we found one that would play the flawed disc. We were off the screen for only 8 minutes to do this, thanks in part to Jeff being there to help. He knows the character of that booth as well as I do, and can swap out DVD players with the best of them. He's been working around my eccentrics for years, and yet, I was forced recently to cut his wages and hours back. In a near comical acknowledgment of that, I've put out a tip jar for the first time since I've had a theater in this town. Everyone is cutting back-especially at the movies. Everyone has to work for less until more comes in. it's no one's fault and it isn't personal. It was slow at first, but then people tipped more when I made a funny sign for the jar. Adding a little humor helps lessen the tension of everyone's hard times. It's actually a vase. A tip vase.

i. The moon was almost full. There wasn't much to see, mostly. The clouds were lunarly opaque. Sometimes the moon is a bright cotton ball in the fluff of clouds. Sometimes it peeks out. Mostly it hides. It seemed like this was a night when something should be howling at it.

j. Hell, I thought it was an animal, but it was a smashed pumpkin on the road. Almost immediately, there was another, deader Jack-O-Lantern just down the road. Do we really need two of these within a hundred feet from each other on Hwy 99? Gourdocide should be practiced only at home, where the remains can be committed to the earth and the seeds of the gourd can be roasted in the oven on a cookie sheet, with a little salt.

k. There are a lot of dark porches seen from the car. People who do not want to give out candy turn off their outdoor lighting. I dragged my kids around for years door-to-door on Halloween. At the same time you brought your kids to my doorstep. There is something about doing it downtown that makes it better-the concentration of creative costumes as a parade rather than a door-to-door serial performance. You'd have to be a cynic's cynic not to love seeing the littler kids and remembering how we loved this particular day-especially since the night now seems reserved for older kids and their shenanigans. These years our porch light is off because we are downtown running the shows. It might be a good thing I'm not answering the door on Halloween night. (I would be asking myself things like: how many kids would come to the door if I put up one of those signs like the kind in front of sex offenders homes? Would the neighbors ever believe it wasn't a joke? Even years later? Best not to find out.) I would give out something more creative. I would hit the dollar store and find packages of a dozen chopsticks. You know you are too old to be trick-or-treating if you cannot be convinced that dollar store chopsticks are Magical Chopsticks. Magical Chopsticks! Twice the power of a single magic wand!

l. The day after Halloween was a workday. When I arrived at the theater the car window rolled up flawlessly. When I stepped out and locked the car there was a swirl of neon pink feathers moving about the parking lot. They reminded me of a Halloween spent in San Francisco. The accidentally induced "Tylenol" hangover making me cranky that afternoon was a wimpy shadow compared to the hangover after my Castro Street Halloween. I walked past the feathers, trying not to disturb them.

These were the moments that made up my day. It was only remarkable for the fact that these moments were stolen from the sprints and stops. For many, Halloween has become nothing more than the Jack-O-Lantern Google start page. But subconsciously, we hack out pieces of our day-sometimes just seconds of it-to have a little moment.
As always, thanks for your continued support!

Lainie and Paul Turner


Darkside Cinema
215 SW 4th
Corvallis, OR 97333
darksidecinema.com
541·752·4161

Week of November 3rd, 2009

BLOCK 15 RESTAURANT AND BREWERY
300 W JEFFERSON AVE (758-2077)
www.block15.com
Chalkboard Table Art Contest
We have seen some pretty amazing art drawn on our tables through the
year. Now is your chance to have your art permanently hung in our
chalkboard Table art Gallery. Through the month of December we will
be taking digital pictures of art drawn on the tables. Our staff will
then vote for the top three favorites.
1st Place: $100 gift Card
2nd Place: $50 Gift Card
3rd Place: Block 15 T-Shirt or glass
All entries will be framed and hung in our new art gallery in the
hallway between the game room and restrooms. Ask your server about
the details!
November 11th, 7:30 pm
Rough Jazz
November 13th, 10:30
The Bush Pilots

BOMBS AWAY CAFE
2527 NW MONROE AVE (757-7221)
www.bombsawaycafe.com
Wednesday, November 4th, FREE, 7:30 pm
Melanie Reid
Local Singer Songwriter
Thursday, November 5th, $3, 9:00
XENAT-RA with Monks Hood
The XENAT-RA Starting Line Up: Dave Trenkel- Ape with a syntesizer… Matt Calkins- Knuckle drag master of electric wind… Monk Metz- Rebel monkey with a rap technique… J.D. Monroe- Beast with a drum to beat… Mark France- Maniac wit an axe to weald
The Monk’s Hood Starting Line-Up: Ben Scharf: has a jazz studies degree in music from The University of Oregon. Ben is also a full time member of the popular Eugene based funk act Disco Organica and one of the West Coast best Nu-Jazz ensembles Eleven Eyes. When not on tour with Disco Organica or Eleven Eyes Ben is busy writing new material and playing with Monks Hood.
Jesse Ogle: has a music degree from the University of Oregon. Jesse can be seen playing around the Western States with several different groups such as Ala nar, Disco Organica, Macaco Velhu as well as numerous pick up jazz, funk, show, pop and rock gigs in and around Durango, CO. Jesse co-owned his own music school in Eugene called the Harmony Roadhouse Music School. After leaving Eugene for a more peacfull quality of life he found Durango, CO. There he co-directs The Stillwater Foundation, an after school non-profit music program for adults and kids.
Friday, November 6th, $5, 10:00
Norman
Norman is a collaboration of musicians from throughout Oregon’s Willamette Valley, uniting musical souls from all tastes in a pleasing blend of interest-peaking forms. Formed initially as a solo act by singer Eric Nordby, Norman has grown into a full band; featured on their self-titled album as up to seven different members. The benefit of having a diverse method by which to perform is one of Norman’s strongest assets; their ability to adapt to the needs of a particular venue, concert billing, or stylistic sensitivity has made their music very marketable and accessible to all tastes.
Saturday, November 7th, FREE, 9:00
The Svens
The Svens’ sound draws heavily from the surf bands of the early 1960’s and ranges from rambunctious to romantic; the cowboy poetry, recited by Viking, is delivered at intervals with just a hint of his Texan cadence. There’s really no group quite like The Svens.

CALAPOOPIA BREWING CO.
140 HILL ST. ALBANY, OR
www.calapooiabrewing.com
Thursday, November 5th, 8:00 pm
Rusty Hinges
Stringband trio
Friday, November 6th, 8:00 pm
Parish Gap
Parish Gap offers a broad variety of pop-rock musical sounds, including many original compositions collected over a thirty-year performing career. Parish Gap has toured extensively in the US and Canada, playing the very best and most popular listening and dancing cover tunes collected along the way. Its eclectic and ever-changing blend of styles, ranging from rock ‘n’ roll to easy listening, jazzy to folk, and blues to country, takes the listeners on a delightful journey through song.
Saturday, November 7th, 8:00 pm
Dana Reed
Rhythm and blues keyboardist creates multi-layered original tunes and completely reinterprets classic blues.
Sunday, November 8th, 4:00
Blues Jam

CLOUD 9 & THE DOWNWARD DOG
126 & 130 SW 1ST St. (541-753-9900)
www.dinecloud9.com & www.drinkthedog.com
At Cloud 9
Wednesday, November 4th, 9:00 pm
Improv Comedy Theater
Ideas fly around the room as seven men and women burst into song and
scamper in all directions, bouncing off verbal and non-verbal cues as
if they somehow have access to each other’s thoughts.
Thursday, November 5th, 10:00 pm
Crash Course 101 – an electro hip hop disaster!
Featuring Dj Landforce & Dj dirtyclean; An interesting, energetic and fun blend of electro, hip hop and the right people. Brought to you by enfuse entertainment – www.enfuseent.com
Friday, November 6th, 9:00 pm
Sideways Portal
What began as a series of jam sessions at Dave Storr’s (Drums/Percussion) Califas studio with Rob Birdwell (Trumpet/Flugelhorn), John Bliss (Guitar) and Page Hundemer (Bass), evolved into recording sessions and eventual live performances that showcased the group’s sound and approach to making music. Although no single style defines the Sideways Portal sound, improvisation, groove, intention, and forgiveness provide the foundation for each of the Portal’s spontaneous compositions. Active in the Corvallis, Oregon area (and beyond), Sideways Portal performs and records regularly, sharing their craft, creative process, and unique sound for all who choose to enter the Portal.
Saturday, November 7th, 9:00
Walk the Plank
Genre-blurring electric jazz!
At Downward Dog
Thursday, November 5th, 8:00 pm
Oakshire Brewery Bingo Night – Every first Thursday
This is not your grandparents typical bingo night! Bingo Starts @ 8PM-10PM
Everyone in da house gets a Bingo card so ya’ll have equal chances of
winning totally rad prizes! After y’all get your bingo on we’ll give away the grand night’s prize!!!
Friday, November 6th, 11:00 pm
Dj Sierra
Hot, sultry, deep-house beats that make you wanna get down and boogie!

CROWBAR
214 SW 2ND ST. (753-7373)
Behind the Downtown American Dream Pizza
www.adpizza.com


FIREWORKS
RESTAURANT AND BAR
On Hwy 99 in South Corvallis (754-6958)
www.SouthtownSounds.com
Thursday, November 5, 7pm
Noteworthy Duo, Classical Guitar and Flute
As an Altus Flute Artist, Lisa has established herself as a first-rate performer and teacher. She has performed in master class for flute legend Sir James Galway and at the National Flute Association’s Conventions. As an accomplished guitar soloist and teacher, Michael has played concerts and given master classes at many esteemed colleges. http://noteworthyduo.com
Friday, November 6, 7pm
Gabriel Surley, Atmospheric Guitar & Vocals
Singer, songwriter, and multi instrumentalist. His sound and songs come from a dedication to mastering his craft and portraying what it means to be human. If you want the true counterpoint one feels in life during the triumphs and struggles, then look no further. http://MySpace.com/gabrielsurley
Saturday, November 7, 8pm
Mamadou with Daaray Bay-Fall African Dance Party!
Traditional music of Guinea and Senegal West Africa featuring Ibrahima Sylla from Guinea, Mamadou and Abdoulaye Thoiub from Senegal.
Sunday, November 8, 7pm
Tony Noble, Delta Blues Slide Guitar
Long time Open Mic favorite Tony Noble gigs at FireWorks showcasing his exceptional slide guitar technique. Tony’s musical influences include Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, R.L. Burnside, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Bob Marley, and John Lee Hooker among others. http://MySpace.com/NobleBlues
Monday, November 9, 8pm (21+ after 10pm)
Southtown Open Mic Talent Search, with CASH PRIZE for Top 3 Acts!
FireWorks hosts this weekly showcase of local talent – acoustic, vocals, percussion, blues, freestyle, spoken word, humorists – who knows what performance surprises the evening will hold? The show starts with a non-competitive Open Mic warmup round, then performers have a chance to compete in the Talent Search for the cash!

PEACOCK BAR AND GRILL
125 SW 2ND ST (754-8522)
www.myspace.com/peacockbargrill
SUNDAYS: On the Main Floor: Karaoke with Sqwig-e-okie (No Cover!)
$5 All-U-Can-Eat Spaghetti dinner 6pm to Midnight
MONDAYS: On the Main Floor: Karaoke with Sqwig-e-okie
On The Top: DJ Mike; Margarita Mondays! (No Cover)
Monday Night Football: 2 MINUTE DRILL PROGRAM with 50 cent Tacos!
TUESDAYS: On the Main Floor: Karaoke with Sqwig-e-okie
On The Top: DJ Alex; Techno Tuesday (No Cover)
$5 Any Burger, All Day, All Night!
WEDNESDAYS: On the Main Stage: JONNY DARK and THE WONDERTONES
On The Top: DJ Rooster (No Cover)
THURSDAYS: On the Main Stage: Karaoke with Sqwig-e-okie
On The Top: DJ Mike
FRIDAYS: On the Main Stage: Karaoke with Sqwig-e-okie
On The Top: DJ Rooster
Prime Rib Dinner Special!
SATURDAYS: On The Top: DJ Alex
Nov 7: OSU @ California TBA
Nov 14: Dad’s Weekend: OSU vs Washington TBA – FATE 55 on the Main Stage

People will need to turn vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.

In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.

Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.

He predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”

Lord Stern, a former chief economist of the World Bank and now I. G. Patel Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics, warned that British taxpayers would need to contribute about £3 billion a year by 2015 to help poor countries to cope with the inevitable impact of climate change.

He also issued a clear message to President Obama that he must attend the meeting in Copenhagen in person in order for an effective deal to be reached. US leadership, he said, was “desperately needed” to secure a deal.

He said that he was deeply concerned that popular opinion had so far failed to grasp the scale of the changes needed to address climate change, or of the importance of the UN meeting in Copenhagen from December 7 to December 18. “I am not sure that people fully understand what we are talking about or the kind of changes that will be necessary,” he added.

Up to 20,000 delegates from 192 countries are due to attend the UN conference in the Danish capital. Its aim is to forge a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to prevent an increase in global temperatures of more than 2 degrees centigrade. Any increase above this level is expected to trigger runaway climate change, threatening the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

Lord Stern said that Copenhagen presented a unique opportunity for the world to break free from its catastrophic current trajectory. He said that the world needed to agree to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to 25 gigatonnes a year from the current level of 50 gigatonnes.

UN figures suggest that meat production is responsible for about 18 per cent of global carbon emissions, including the destruction of forest land for cattle ranching and the production of animal feeds such as soy.

Lord Stern, who said that he was not a strict vegetarian himself, was speaking on the eve of an all-parliamentary debate on climate change. His remarks provoked anger from the meat industry.

Jonathan Scurlock, of the National Farmers Union, said: “Going vegetarian is not a worldwide solution. It’s not a view shared by the NFU. Farmers in this country are interested in evidence-based policymaking. We don’t have a methane-free cow or pig available to us.”

On average, a British person eats 50g of protein derived from meat each day — the equivalent of a chicken breast or a lamb chop. This is a relatively low level for a wealthy country but between 25 per cent and 50 per cent higher than the amount recommended by the World Health Organisation.

Su Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Vegetarian Society, welcomed Lord Stern’s remarks. “What we choose to eat is one of the biggest factors in our personal impact on the environment,” she said. “Meat uses up a lot of resources and a vegetarian diet consumes a lot less land and water. One of the best things you can do about climate change is reduce the amount of meat in your diet.”

The UN has warned that meat consumption is on course to double by the middle of the century.


Goodbye for now until next time…

 Campaigning in 2008, Multnomah County Sheriff Bob Skipper promised he’d make “major personnel changes” in an agency that had been slammed by a special grand jury for entrenched leadership and failed management.

Skipper replaced Sheriff Bernie Giusto in July 2008 after Giusto resigned under investigation for lying to the public. And Skipper ended up winning a landslide victory a few months later to finish the last two years of Giusto’s term.

But a year after that November 2008 election, it’s Skipper who must step down Nov. 5 for twice failing an open-book test to gain his state police certification at age 70. He leaves at the same time that prosecutors are wrapping up a criminal investigation reaching up to the highest levels of Skipper’s command staff.

There’s also the fact that Skipper leaves with nearly all his top managers still dug in to the same spots. That’s especially troubling in an agency with the critical task of running jails that have long suffered from mismanagement. The 2007 grand jury report concluded top commanders “grew up in the current jail system and are hesitant to change it.”

True, Skipper had already switched the heads of his two jails before the election. He’s shuffled other jail personnel and reassigned or pushed out 12 lieutenants. But for top management, the agency’s organizational chart looks almost identical to the way it did the day he was elected.

Skipper’s scorecard on other fronts is mixed. He failed to implement performance evaluations this year as he promised a grand jury, though his office blames the county for the delay. Skipper did, however, cut rampant abuse of sick leave and overtime.

“I think I did enough to get the job done without having people feel like I’ve hit them with a hammer,” Skipper says.

In a twist, it’s one of the few top-level moves Skipper did make that promises to cause headaches for the interim sheriff, Lt. Dan Staton. As Skipper rides away, he leaves accusations of a criminal coverup Staton will be left to clear up.

Those allegations have been whispered among sheriff’s deputies for much of this year and are now the subject of a criminal investigation by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. But they have never before been made public.

While Skipper has been credited for improving morale, the allegations that he retaliated against a captain in order to cover up for a senior officer threatens to stain his legacy.

Skipper denies any wrongdoing and insists he’s leaving the agency much improved after Giusto’s days.

“There was really only one way to go, and that was up,” Skipper says. “I feel really good about that.”

The current allegations date back to Giusto’s scandal-ridden reign. And just as Skipper himself must quit after failing tests to regain his state police certification after 13 years of retirement, the alleged coverup involves another top cop’s efforts to get certified.

In 2006, Giusto shuffled assignments to put his former head of corrections, Chief Deputy Tim Moore, in charge of law enforcement. That meant Moore had to return to the police academy and spend several weeks in field training back at the sheriff’s office.

Moore finished the academy in October 2006. But according to a complaint filed with the state Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, Moore never completed his field training. The complaint says Moore asked Capt. Monte Reiser to fill in his training manual without Moore actually completing the requirements.

Moore and Reiser both declined to comment due to the ongoing investigation.

Word of the allegations spread through the sheriff’s office. In February of this year, Capt. Brett Elliott filed a complaint with Skipper. Skipper says he responded by putting a gag order on Elliott and sending the complaint to the DA’s office for investigation.

In June, an anonymous complaint to DPSST alleged Moore, Reiser and Skipper committed a raft of felonies, misdemeanors and administrative violations in connection with Moore’s certification, including forgery, conspiracy and tampering with records. DPSST Deputy Director Eriks Gabliks says his agency will review the case after the DA’s office completes its investigation.

The complaint also alleges Skipper retaliated against Elliott in April by taking him out of his old job as patrol captain and putting him in charge of courthouse security—which, if true, may have been a violation of the state whistle-blower protection law.

Skipper denies the move was retaliation.

“I did not move him for discipline. I moved him for the good of the department,” Skipper says. “I felt that Capt. Elliott was spending more time running around talking about the [training] book than he was doing his job.”

Elliott declined comment, saying he’s still under Skipper’s gag order.

Rep. Michele Bachmann is having a big day tomorrow. She has invited all of her tea-party cohorts to come to DC to rally

against health care reform. And she is using the event to raise big bucks for her campaign.

This is Bachmann's big chance to cement her role as the new leader of the Republican Party. It could be the best day of her career.

Or, you and I could ruin it.

Here's how. If we can show Michele Bachmann that we are committed to defeating her and her right-wing cohorts, if we can show that her actions motivate us as much as her supporters, we will send the strongest possible message that we are going to beat her in 2010.

So Stand Up America PAC is setting a big goal: raising $10,000 over the next two days. Let's work together to make sure Michele Bachmann's big party in DC is absolutely ruined.
ust last week, Bachmann was at it again with the craziness. She went on Fox News and told Sean Hannity that health care reform was "unconstitutional." Take a look -- we've got the video. I guess in Michele Bachmann's head, the government can't do anything that actually improves people's lives.

Tomorrow, she's gathering in Washington, DC with as many supporters as she can find to do their very best to kill health care reform. She wants to make sure that Americans keep getting denied coverage, keep going bankrupt, and keep dying from a lack of quality, affordable medical care.

She wants to send a message? Let's send her one back. Let's stand up and say "No more" to Michele Bachmann and all of the right-wing loonies who want to stop progress.

We're setting a big goal: $10,000 in two days. Stand Up America PAC is a small organization, and we're depending entirely on people like you -- people who want to stand up to Michele Bachmann -- to make this goal. Click here to help us hit our goal: $10,000 in two days to beat Bachmann and her radical pals. Any amount you can give -- $10, $25, $50, even $100 or more, will send a strong message to Michele Bachmann.

And if we hit our $10,000 goal, Michele Bachmann will know that we are a force that she is going to have to reckon with come Election Day 2010.

Any contribution you make today will help us reach that goal. Contribute $10, $25, $50, $100, or whatever you can give to ruin Michele Bachmann's big day.

I know with your help we can make this goal. Let's work together and win!

Thank you,
Jesse Berney
Stand Up America PAC
P.S. Just a few hours into our campaign to ruin Michele Bachmann's big day, we are a quarter of the way toward our goal! Thank you to everyone who has donated so far.
We are going to be a force in this campaign: ads, voter outreach, direct mail, online activism, and more all geared to beating Michele Bachmann and her right-wing allies in Congress. But we can't do it without you!I just received an email that Michele Bachmann's chief of staff resigned today. Let's keep the bad news train for Bachmann rolling. - jesse