BREAST CANCER ACTION IN OREGON NEEDED
The Oregon Legislature needs to hear from you, For more than 20 years, Breast Health has ensured that uninsured, low-income women are able to access early detection services for breast and cervical cancer. However, Oregon is one of only five states that invest $0 in state general funds for its Breast and Cervical Cancer Program. As a result, the program can serve only 5,500 of the 77,000 women in need.

Senate Bill 362, filed at the request of Susan G. Komen Oregon and SW Washington, would provide state funding to the Breast and Cervical Cancer Program. The legislation has strong bipartisan and statewide support, and passed unanimously out of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. It now sits in the Joint Committee on Ways and Means for consideration for funding.

This bill comes amid exciting news for breast health: On June 13th, Governor John Kitzhaber signed legislation to promote the early detection of breast cancer by requiring doctors to notify patients of dense breast tissue indicated by a mammogram. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that companies cannot patent isolated human genes that are naturally occurring; the decision already is leading to cheaper testing options for women to determine whether they’re at risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers.
Laura Terrill Patten
Oregon Planned Parenthood
 

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NORTHWEST'S MCDERMOTT ASKS "WHY"
The Northwest's Jim McDermott questioned why Tea Party spokesmen think the rest of the public should support them. He apparently has never met any right wing activists before. They all expect others to carry their tax load for them. And these guys (yes guys) think they should qualify as  groups defined in the tax code as devoted mostly to social welfare, not political, even though they all give almost nothing to social welfare. Unless you mean they want welfare, and they're host social events on summer nights.
It shouldn't surprise anyone after watching Texas governor Perry beg for public assistance after a crime ridden plant blew up in Texas, when he's opposed every form of public assistance for others.
SENATOR MERKELY WANTS SOME HELP
For those who aren't aware of it, the right wing corporate Cato Institute is pushing Congress to entirely eliminate OSHA. And you can count on rural, uneducated workers backing them. Meantime, Oregon Senator Merkely writes of the Rupublicans' attempt to eliminate another protection for those who work for a living.

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This is tough for me to say. Because of endless Republican obstruction in the U.S. Senate, our government may have trouble protecting your rights at work.

The National Labor Relations Board is responsible for enforcing laws that protect workers who are disciplined or fired for trying to improve their working conditions.

Here’s the problem: There are several vacancies on the board. Although President Obama has nominated qualified people to fill these vacancies, they all run into the same buzz saw: Republican-led holds and silent filibusters that grind everything to a halt. And without these vacancies filled, the NLRB struggles to enforce worker-protection laws.

Here’s the good news: If voters like you demand change, we can fix the Senate rules and make sure all five NLRB members get an up-or-down vote on confirmation.

Take action with me. Demand change: Sign the petition to urge the Senate take the necessary steps to fill all five seats on the NLRB.

The Senate had a chance to reform the rules earlier this year, and it didn’t get done. As a result, leadership posts at key federal agencies are vacant. Judicial seats are unfilled. Bills with overwhelming support never come up for debate and a vote.

It’s shameful. It’s bad government. And it’s bad for our democracy.

What we need is real filibuster reform, to get rid of the procedural tricks that prevent crucial positions in government from being filled.

I’m doing everything I can to persuade my colleagues that we can’t wait any longer to make the Senate work. And your voice, right now, can make a huge difference and help protect your rights at work.

Let the Senate know that we won’t give up until all five members of the NLRB get an up-or-down-vote. Sign the petition today.

It’s time to stop the games and get to work.
WHEAT PRICES ALREADY DOWN AFTER MONSANTO ROGUE WHEAT DISCOVERY
UPDATE: A Kansas farmer has already initiated a lawsuit against Monsanto for damages due to illegal GM found on an Oregon wheat farm. The estimated cost to Oregon farmers from a 1 day 2.2% drop is $10 million.
The desperate efforts of OSU's agriculture department to cover for Monsanto's rogue frankenwheat hasn't panned out. Wheat prices ("futures") have already fallen by 2,2%, which is a dramatic hit for Oregon wheat growers. Japan and South Korea have both banned the import of wheat. And SOMEONE is liable for the monetary losses to farmers in Oregon. Whether that someone is Monsanto or OSU or some 3rd party has yet to be determined. Prices stabilized as financiers who had bet on the price falling sold. That leaves another set of suspects to be investigated.

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CORPORATE GIVEAWAY IN LEGISLATURE
YEA!!! We’re getting attention, FINALLY, to the crazy INDUSTRIAL LAND READINESS LEGISLATION, SB 246A.The amended bill is worse than we realized, because it now includes paying for not just 50%, but 100% of the costs of getting land ready for “traded-sector” companies—those that do business out of state. Of course these companies will pay almost no state income taxes themselves, because they are only taxed on what they sell in Oregon.
It wasn’t until this week that your emails and our many conversations with legislators, staff and lobbyists started taking hold. Decent amendments are in the works.Don’t think that because your legislators are Democrats you don’t need to sign on. Because in fact, it is the Republicans who understand this is nonsense, and Democrats who are calling it the best thing since sliced cheese. The bill’s main advocates are Democrats—Senator Lee Beyer and Representative Tobias Read.
It helps that the bill is now in the Ways and Means Sub-Committee on Transportation and Economic Development. The Co-Chairs of this committee, Senator Betsy Johnson and Representative Bob Jenson have critical minds. Senator Johnson is asking hers questions from the rehab facility where she is recovering from an auto accident—but it didn’t slow her mind down.- Jodi Wismer

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SENATOR MERKELY SPEAKS OF THE DREAM
The American Dream. It fuels so many in our nation to work hard so we can put food on the table for our families, own the roof we put over our heads, and provide opportunity for our children.

There's nothing more important to me than restoring that American Dream, which has slipped further out of reach for so many people. It used to be that if you worked hard, and played by the rules, you could—as my dad told me growing up—do or be almost anything.

Recently, I spoke before the City Club of Portland, laying out where we got off track, and what we can do as a nation to make the American Dream real for a new generation of Americans.We need to put a whole lot less money into foreign wars and foreign bases, and reinvest that money back into America through education and infrastructure. We need to stop the hedge fund style gambling in our traditional banks so they can loan to small businesses. And we need to look at strategies to bring back manufacturing, because if we don't build things here in America, we won't have a middle class here in America.

The bottom line is that we need to get back to policies that focus on creating opportunity for middle class Americans and build for the future.
TUITION HIKE IN WORKS AGAIN
The Oregon State Board of Higher Education will vote tomorrow on whether to raise tuition by 5% next year. But, tuition is already too high. If the Oregon University System approves this hike, tuition at the University of Oregon next fall will be DOUBLE what it was just 10 years ago.

Oregon students are deep in debt, and some are being priced out of education altogether. This is too steep a price to pay for Oregon's future. That's why Oregon Working Families is working on a game-changing debt-free higher education bill --but legislators need to hear from you in order to pass it.

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LEGISLATURE'S #1 CLOWN BECOMES MODEL IN TEXAS MASS ATTACKS TODAY
Clownish Brian Boquist, a Republican legislature from Polk County who has had more than his share of ridicule in the press, thought he was being cute by proposing a "knife control" bill in the legislature. Today, a Texas nut took Boquist seriously, it seems, and went on a slashing, stabbing attack at a Texas college. Boquist seems to have missed the point about the specially lethal habit of allowing machine guns to be in the hands of morons. Not one person died in the stabbings of more than a dozen today.
 

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USUAL GANGSTERS SHOW FOR WALMART
The standard set of gangsters showed at the opening of Walmart in Corvallis - the mayor, the Chamber of Commerce, the gazette's usual corporate stooge, and the American Legion. Walmart's traditional assault on the wages and living standards as well as local businesses went unmentioned as the store responsible for 30% of the nation's trade deficit opened. The swapping of living wage jobs at - one example - Albertson's, for minimum wage jobs at Walmart, where employees make an estimated 31% less than their competitors, and cost the public in California alone an estimated $86 million a year in public assistance. $2.6 billion a year go from the federal government to subsidize Walmart's "rush to the bottom". $225 million of that alone comes from free or reduced prices for the lunches of kids whose parents are paid so poorly. These are not new jobs. They take the place of family wage jobs at Walmart's competitors.

 Yet, no one should be surprised to see the city's mayor, the American Legion or the Chamber of Commerce celebrating the loss of wages and jobs. The Chamber has bitterly fought for lower wages (they opposed child labor laws and continue to oppose minimum wage laws), the American Legion has historically been anti worker and last century functioned as the armed wing of the Ku Klux Klan. The Tulsa race riot and its murders were largely the A.L.'s work

To see the mayor in the mix is not shocking for anyone surprising with the history of Corvallis, where the city has done almost nothing for the working population, or for a majority of tenants dependent upon living wage jobs for tuition and loan payments.

As for the 2 Los Angeles runaways who were quoted in the gazette as saying "I feel like we’re a real town now", go back and subsidize Walmart in L.A. instead. You're neither wanted nor contributing here. Leave now. The reason this town is not L.A. is because a majority fought for a community free of LA's crimes and accompanying lifestyles. You are simply parasites, eating the fruits planted and nurtured by others. Go Back.

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AN OPEN LETTER TO GEORGE BUSH, DICK CHENEY FROM A DYING VET
To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young
I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

I write this letter on behalf of husbands and wives who have lost spouses, on behalf of children who have lost a parent, on behalf of the fathers and mothers who have lost sons and daughters and on behalf of those who care for the many thousands of my fellow veterans who have brain injuries. I write this letter on behalf of those veterans whose trauma and self-revulsion for what they have witnessed, endured and done in Iraq have led to suicide and on behalf of the active-duty soldiers and Marines who commit, on average, a suicide a day. I write this letter on behalf of the some 1 million Iraqi dead and on behalf of the countless Iraqi wounded. I write this letter on behalf of us all—the human detritus your war has left behind, those who will spend their lives in unending pain and grief.

I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney. I write not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole.

Your positions of authority, your millions of dollars of personal wealth, your public relations consultants, your privilege and your power cannot mask the hollowness of your character. You sent us to fight and die in Iraq after you, Mr. Cheney, dodged the draft in Vietnam, and you, Mr. Bush, went AWOL from your National Guard unit. Your cowardice and selfishness were established decades ago. You were not willing to risk yourselves for our nation but you sent hundreds of thousands of young men and women to be sacrificed in a senseless war with no more thought than it takes to put out the garbage.

I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues. Instead, this war has cost the United States over $3 trillion. I especially did not join the Army to carry out pre-emptive war. Pre-emptive war is illegal under international law. And as a soldier in Iraq I was, I now know, abetting your idiocy and your crimes. The Iraq War is the largest strategic blunder in U.S. history. It obliterated the balance of power in the Middle East. It installed a corrupt and brutal pro-Iranian government in Baghdad, one cemented in power through the use of torture, death squads and terror. And it has left Iran as the dominant force in the region. On every level—moral, strategic, military and economic—Iraq was a failure. And it was you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, who started this war. It is you who should pay the consequences.

I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.

I have, like many other disabled veterans, suffered from the inadequate and often inept care provided by the Veterans Administration. I have, like many other disabled veterans, come to realize that our mental and physical wounds are of no interest to you, perhaps of no interest to any politician. We were used. We were betrayed. And we have been abandoned. You, Mr. Bush, make much pretense of being a Christian. But isn’t lying a sin? Isn’t murder a sin? Aren’t theft and selfish ambition sins? I am not a Christian. But I believe in the Christian ideal. I believe that what you do to the least of your brothers you finally do to yourself, to your own soul.

My day of reckoning is upon me. Yours will come. I hope you will be put on trial. But mostly I hope, for your sakes, that you find the moral courage to face what you have done to me and to many, many others who deserved to live. I hope that before your time on earth ends, as mine is now ending, you will find the strength of character to stand before the American public and the world, and in particular the Iraqi people, and beg for forgiveness.

—Tomas Young

UPDATE: Legislation is now making its way through the California legislature—with the support of consumer groups, unions and, interestingly, physicians—that would levy a fine of up to $6,000 on employers like Wal-Mart for every full-time employee that ends up on the state’s Medi-Cal program—the California incarnation of Medicaid.

The amount of the fine is no coincidence.

A report released last week by the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, estimates that the cost of Wal-Mart’s failure to adequately pay its employees could total about $5,815 per employee each and every year of employment.
 

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For the first time in the company's 50-year history, Walmart workers are striking to protest their notoriously exploitative working conditions — and management's retaliation against workers who have spoken out. Stand with workers at Walmart: tell the Walmart Board and Chair Rob Walton to meet with workers and take immediate steps to improve working conditions.

Here's the letter we'll send to Walmart's Board of Directors, including Board Chair Rob Walton. You can add a personal comment using the box to the right.

Dear Rob Walton and Walmart Board of Directors,

I urge you to meet with Walmart workers to discuss wages, scheduling, benefits, safety and basic respect in the workplace, and to immediately stop any retaliation, intimidation or discrimination against those workers who chose to speak up about workplace conditions.

For over a year, workers at Walmart stores, warehouses and factories nationwide have been asking you to meet with them to discuss improving working conditions. Many workers have come together to form the group Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). As you know, this worker-led organization has planned hundreds of strikes to occur on Black Friday — the most important day of the year for retailers — if management does not come to the table. I urge Walmart, as a global industry leader, to take this opportunity to proactively implement basic employee protections, which can set the standard for your competitors and ensure that every worker receives adequate respect and compensation.

Black people comprise nearly 20% of Walmart’s domestic workforce, and in the past Walmart has supported many causes close to the hearts of Black Americans, including the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC. I would hope that you would also show support, respect and dignity for Black workers, the cause that Dr. King was fighting for when he was killed.

Please put an end to the harsh and unfair treatment of workers who have chosen to speak up, and instead meet them at the table to discuss how to improve the daily lives of all Walmart workers.

Thanks and Peace,

--Rashad, Matt, Arisha, Kim, Johnny and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
Thanks and Peace,  Rashad, Gabriel, Dani, Matt, Natasha, Kim and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team

DEAR SAVAGE,
I'm a 27-year-old bisexual chick who just moved in with my girlfriend of 10 months. I love her very much, and this is a great relationship—hot sex, laughs, good conversation. Here's the thing: I like to smoke pot, and pot makes her very uncomfortable. We've talked about it a lot—you know how dykes are—and I've been up front with her from the beginning. I'm responsible and successful, and I don't smoke that often. But I don't like feeling guilty. I'm afraid we're reaching an impasse on this issue. I've considered banishing pot from my life, but I know that some part of me would always resent her for not letting me be who I am. To her credit, she doesn't want me to stop smoking, but she gets angry and blames herself for the whole problem. I feel like I'm asking her to change a pretty fundamental belief and I don't know how fair that is. Basically, I need some perspective. Am I being an asshole?

-Distraught Kentucky Dyke

What is it about lesbianism—even in cases of lesbian-identified bi chicks—that renders a person incapable of taking yes for an answer? (Or maybe it's cunnilingus? Does Michael Douglas have the same problem?) Your girlfriend isn't asking you to stop smoking pot, she recognizes that she's the one in this relationship with a drug problem, and over time (it's only been 10 months!) she'll probably get over these OMFG-my-girlfriend-smokes-pot panic attacks. She's giving you a great big yes, DKD, and I think you should take it. But if you insist on viewing this as a problem that must be solved—if you insist on being a couple of cliché lesbians who feel they have to operate their relationship on the consensus model or someone is being oppressed—then this issue will be an endless source of anxiety and drama. Better to agree to disagree, smoke when the girlfriend isn't around, and remember to return the favor when the time comes, i.e., agree to let her enjoy something that you don't without pitching fits about it.
- Dan Savage

DEAR MEXICAN: I live in Philadelphia, where there are three Spanish-language stations on regular broadcast television. None of them offer English subtitles. I bet plenty of people of all heritages would like to check them out—for the news from Central America or whatever. I called one of the stations, Univisión, about it, but I was told there are no plans to offer subtitles. Channel 35 here in Philly has Chinese, Korean, German, Russian, Polish and Italian programming, all with subtitles. Your thoughts?
Broad Street Broad

DEAR GABACHA: Your letter has been in my ¡Ask a Mexican! archives for so long that your question is no longer needed—but I'll todavia answer it because it allows me to raise a great point. Last year, Univisión announced it was going to offer English-language captions for most of its telenovelas and even some news programs, although it didn't necessarily have gabachos in mind. Rather, the move was prompted by Univisión's realization that assimilation is inevitable in this country, and if it didn't acknowledge that English is the ultimate destiny for every Mexican in el Norte, it would become as relevant to the Mexican experience as canned tortillas. It's not a new tale—the ethnic press has long had a vibrant place in American letters (the first Spanish-language newspaper published in los Estados Unidos goes back to the early 19th century), but the only ones that survive more than a couple of generations are those that understand they're only temporary phenomena, that their days are numbered. That's why this infernal column also has a shelf life: When the Reconquista is finally complete, I will turn the burro over to my gabacho intern so he can explain America's largest and whiniest minority to the ruling Mexi class.
'- Gustavo Arellano

See archives from preceding weeks here

Russell Randen Knight

Mr. Knight was discovered, cops say, rifling through a car and stealing. Mr. Knight is NOT from Linn County, it seems. He was busted in Idaho in April for rifling through cars in April. OK, Idaho is like a HUGE Linn County, but technically, just saying... Idaho is where they have privatized prisons and usually the private prisons don't let people out, but in Idaho, the private prisons were caught falsifying timecards and maybe they're also secretly letting people slip away, off the records, so they can collect without paying for feeding and housing them.

Private prisons are in the news this week for earlier offenses. The judge who literally sold 4,000 children to them in exchange for $1 million in Pennsylvania was finally sentenced.

But the worst of the worst this week is in Texas, where a group of women inmates is suing the state for running a Rape Camp, literally. "Beginning sometime in 2007 to at least August of 2010 the Live Oak County Sheriff’s office ran a ‘rape camp’ known as the Live Oak County Jail,” according to the lawsuit. “In this facility, numerous jailers, all employed by the Live Oak County Sheriff’s Office, repeatedly raped and humiliated female inmates over an extended period of time.”

“These forced acts of lasciviousness included, but are not limited to, forcing female inmates to repeatedly perform oral sex on male guards, forcing female inmates to repeatedly masturbate the male guards, the male guards masturbating in view of the female inmates, male guards forcing digital penetrative sex acts in the female inmates’, forcing female inmates to engage in sexual sex acts with other female inmates, including but not limited to forcing female inmates to have oral sex with each other, among other things.”

The complaint continued: “In addition to the repeated sexual assaults, numerous female inmates were sexually harassed. Certain male guards would strip the female inmates of their clothing and provide only shaving cream to conceal their genitalia. Certain male guards would sometimes force the female inmates to shower in front of them while instructing them to shave their vaginas. In other instances, while detailing their degenerate sexual fantasies, the jailers would pin the girls against a wall, grope their persons, verbally berate them, digitally rape their vagina and/or anus, then force them to perform oral sex.”

The court document alleged that the guards would “facilitate their carnal impulses” by withholding food and water, physically abusing the women, threatening them and taking away privileges".

In Mississippi, a lawsuit over a private, for-profit prison lists "appalling conditions: no working toilets, no working lights, prisoners underfed, prisoners pushed to suicide or setting fires in order to receive medical attention. Inmates sustained gruesome injuries: one was rendered legally blind by the refusal of the facility to provide for his glaucoma medication; another developed gangrene and had his finger amputated after being stabbed."

The Atlantic detailed this week as "one of the darkest periods on record. In four states, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, the systemic abuse and neglect of inmates, and especially mentally ill inmates, has been investigated, chronicled and disclosed in grim detail to the world by lawyers, government investigators and one federal judge. The conclusions are inescapable: In our zeal to dehumanize criminals we have allowed our prisons to become medieval places of unspeakable cruelty so far beyond constitutional norms that they are barely recognizable." This is the predicted outcome of Republican policies of privatization.

Left: Eric Pham

The "collateral damage" from the failed War on Drugs continues to climb. A massive undercover operation by Corvallis and Benton County cops nabbed 4 OSU students were busted for ecstasy, "shrooms" and pharmaceuticals. Mr. Pham says he was asked 3 times by the informant, via a friend, for ecstasy. He is was a pharmacy major. Cops searched through his house and found only a half ounce of marijuana. His supplier, cops say, is a civil engineering major.3 other students were busted too, from the civil engineering and communications departments. It must be a slow year for crime busting careerists.
Not just in Corvallis, either. In Georgia, where Angela Garmley  reported an assault, a judge ordered her to "Come back on Wednesday with a dress and no panties so we can have sex". And when she refused, the judge, 2 deputies and a court maintenance worker planted meth on her. The FBI has charged all 4 and 3 other women have come forward with similar experiences.

Right: Christopher Brian Reid

Cops have charged Mr. Reid with 5 counts of sex abuse and other sex charges. It must be a week for such things. Remember that Republican Larry Klayman, who was always suing Bill Clinton? And how Klayman’s ex-wife said during a custody battle over their kids, that Litigious Larry had maybe touched his children inappropriately in their swimsuit areas?  And how the magistrate in the original hearing said that although there was no evidence of sexual abuse, he believed that Klayman had behaved in “a grossly inappropriate manner” with the children? And then he took away Klayman’s visitation rights and made Larry pay his ex-wife a boatload of money? And then Larry appealed, and the judge who heard the appeal slapped him down, and the Ohio Supreme Court refused to order those lower courts to reverse their decisions, and one would think that was the end of the road. After all, Litigious Larry is a busy guy, what with all the other lawsuits he is always filing and losing and the citizens’ grand juries he is always empaneling to indict Obama for doing something or other.But not our hero, Litigious Larry, who will never stop fighting until everyone knows just how much of an asshole he truly is. While waiting for the Ohio Supreme Court to smack him around, he sued every news organization under the sun for reporting on the original sexual abuse allegations. A couple of weeks ago the news organizations responded by filing a motion to dismiss saying, in essence, that the one statement that Larry was upset about with his original suit is an accurate summation of the findings of both the magistrate and the appeals court that upheld his original decision. So how is Litigious Larry responding to this outrageous truth-based defense? By suing for defamation the magistrate who ruled against him in the first place.

Left: Darrell Gene Caldwell

Mr. Calldwell has been busted, cops say, on domestic assault charges and for attempted kidnapping.

Right: Darrell Issa

Mr. Issa, the guy Republicans put in charge of investigating government wrongdoing was himself indicted for stealing a car, accused of stealing at least one other car, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and twice suspected of insurance fraud – and once extensively investigated by authorities for arson, because his former business associates accused him, on the record, of burning down a building to collect the insurance payout.

Left: Donald Martell Logan

Mr. Logan has been busted again, this time for burglary. He was last busted in February on a parole violation. There is a myspace page for a Donald Martell Logan, identifying himself as Logan and sporting dreads. Like most burglars and parole violators, it lists his favorite book as the Bible, and his hero as Jesus. His address is listed as the correctional institute in Salem. His occupation is listed as "artist". That probably launched him on a life of crime. Either the art thing or the Jesus thing.

Right: Denise Elisabeth Decker

Ms Decker claimed to be from Alsea, and every man should know her. She took, say the cops, the wallet, cellphone and auto of some guy. She was charged in December with ID theft and UUV (car theft). Her latest bust is for not appearing in court on a car theft charge.

Left: Katelyn Susanne Potter

Ms Potter has been busted one more time on what the cops have said all along is a raging meth addiction. She was last busted in the bowling alley parking lot after people reported a drug deal being made. This time around it was theft and more meth and tampering with evidence.

It's evident that local cops have WAAYYY too much time on their hands, setting up a trap with Albany and Benton County cops to put an ad for hookers out so they could bust people. 3 of the victims were of Middle Eastern extraction, 1 was Asian, 1 was Latino, and 2 were rural. The last was a hugely fat Corvallis guy. While they were at the policing business this week, the cops also managed to bust a few on pot charges. Maybe the cops put an ad on craigslist advertising pot for sale, too. With all the Linn County residents wandering around free in Corvallis, you'd think the cops could put their time to better use.

It seems to be a trend. The feds are even worse. They have so much time on their hands and such a misplaced set of priorities that they're busting witnesses to crimes rather than criminals. Julian Assuange and Bradley Manning, the soldier who gave up evidence of massacres of civilians have been joined by Edward Snowden, who let Americans know that their own government is doing what corporations like Facebook and Google have been doing to people all along - tracking their every move without a hint that they've done anything criminal. Ron Paul supporter Mr.Snowden has disappeared and we are expecting a phone call soon from some burly guys saying, "We've got your pal, pal". Here's hoping Snowden has a tiny yellow life raft with a little blue plastic oar. He’s going to need them if he hopes to make it to Sweden.

Right: Garth Risland

Mr.Risland is 1/3 of the trio known as the Risland twins (none of the 3 is entirely "there", otherwise they'd be the triplets) for whom the Dusty Risland Rehab Clinic is named (see below). He was busted this week for parole/ probation violation on a theft and a burglary charge, and for littering. Mr. Risland has trouble walking and stealing gum at the same time.

Have we ever turned you on to George Bush's planned appointee to the Supreme Court, Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones? We mean, have you ever really listened to her, man? She’s a trip. Such big hits like “Scream At Fellow Judges During Oral Arguments,” the evocative “Supreme Court is the Source of Moral Decay,” the ear-worm “If You’re Not Actually Raped No Way is it Sexual Harassment,” and her biggest number to date: “It’s Cool if Your Attorney Sleeps Through Your Trial Because Fuck You.” All of these really pale in comparison to her latest work, though, which we’re calling “Blacks and Hispanics, You So Criminal!”
A group of civil rights organizations and legal ethicists filed a complaint of misconduct against her today.The complaint, against Judge Edith H. Jones of Houston, who sits on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, asserts that at a speech at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in February she said that blacks and Hispanics were more prone than others to commit violent crimes and that a death sentence was a service to defendants because it allowed them to make peace with God.

Right: Jodi White

Ms White was busted for resisting arrest at 3300 Crest Dr., a pretty upscale neighborhood for someone who has a series of arrests. On the same day Ms White was arrested, the sheriff's log lists 4 arrests. Besides Ms White they were Chad Hall, on a warrant from Albany, Demecio Cardenas on a warrant from Linn County, and James Neal on a warrant from Albany. 3 out of 4 were from Linn County and if Linn County law enforcement were doing their work instead of expecting Benton County to do it - and pay for it, the number of local officers necessary would have been cut by 75%. That would leave Benton County officers time to do things important to Benton County besides rounding up Linn County residents criminals. 

Kiel Avery Pearson

In New York City, Avery Pearson just ended a successful run of a play produced with kickstarter money. In Corvallis, a lesser Kiel Avery Pearson was busted for the lame and unimaginative assault, menacing, trespass, burglary, harassment and strangulation. There were no details but in Corvallis that usually means some chump assaults a woman who has told him she can't stand to be near him anymore because he's so lame and unimaginative. In this case, cops say that's part of the story but the rest concerns a stabbing, baseball bats and a group of drunken oafs.

Ronald E. Sabo

Mr. Sabo has been sentenced for violating probation/ parole on a sodomy charge.
The name seems damned. There is an entirely different man, same name, who is a registered sex offender in Ohio.

Right: Dusty Risland, busted 11 15 16 times since November.

About the Risland Rehab Clinic
Dusty Risland, for whom the Risland Rehab Clinic (see above) is named, is back in jail. Mr. Risland was recently busted for criminal trespassing, criminal possession of a forged instrument (counterfeit $20), felon in possession of a weapon and meth. The Dusty Risland Clinic mentioned in this column is strictly online, consisting of repetitive viewing of the video below, until the technique is mastered. The assumption of the Clinic is that there is a small subset labeled criminals who actually just do not know how to change their adult diapers when they full and are showing up, bewildered, seeking police assistance. That is the only possible explanation a rational person could come to. NOBODY could POSSIBLY be so stupid and inept, as criminals, as people like Mr. Risland pretend to be.

Note: there are several sleazy websites across the country posting mugshots, utilizing photos owned by the public, in the public domain, all run by Portlander Kyle Ritter, which will remove your mugshot for $39 or such from their sites. This is not one of them. Do not send in cash trying to have a mugshot removed. It would just be a waste of your time and your money. Instead, put your time into turning your life around. And your money into your kids.

It's simple: politics has no place in a woman's personal health care decisions. Politicians like Rep. Franks have no right to stand between women and their doctors. And Congress has no business taking deeply personal medical decisions out of a woman's hands to pursue a blatantly unconstitutional agenda.


The nationwide 20-week abortion ban just moved one step closer to becoming law.

Tell Congress to stay out of women's personal medical decisions and reject this unconstitutional ban.


TAKE ACTION

Dear Roy,

Lawmakers keep finding new and more outrageous ways to undermine women's health and rights.

That's exactly what we're seeing in the House of Representatives, where a bill to ban abortion after 20 weeks nationwide just moved one step closer to becoming law. Politicians don't belong in the deeply personal and often complex decisions women make about abortion — tell Congress to stop intruding on women's private medical decisions.

Arizona Rep. Trent Franks is determined to deny women access to safe and legal abortion — even if it endangers their health, even if the majority of Americans disagree, and even though a federal appeals court just overturned a similar ban in his home state.

Now, it's up to House leadership, especially Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, to stop playing along with Rep. Franks' relentless attacks. It's up to every member of Congress to reject this unconstitutional ban. And it's up to us — you, me, and Planned Parenthood supporters nationwide — to make sure they do.
I'm part of the 70 percent of America that opposes overturning Roe v. Wade, and I won't let these out-of-touch politicians get away with their hostile efforts to overturn this critical protection for women.

Women's rights shouldn't be different from state to state. Access to health care shouldn't be determined by your zip code, and medical decisions shouldn't be left up to statehouse politicians. These deeply personal decisions should be between a woman and her doctor — in every state, every county, every town in America.

Cecile Richards

Friday, June 14, through Thursday June 20.

HELD OVER for June 14th.

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES: A motorcycle stunt rider turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.

"Ryan Gosling delivers his most assured performance yet, in an ambitious, near-operatic drama-thriller that boldly unfolds across two distinctly different hours.

THE SAPPHIRES: Inspired by a true story, THE SAPPHIRES follows four vivacious, young and talented Australian Aboriginal girls from a remote mission as they learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertains the U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968. 93% on RT!

"It's pure joy!"
FRANCES HA: A story that follows a New York woman (who doesn't really have an apartment), apprentices for a dance company (though she's not really a dancer), and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possible reality dwindles. Noah Baumbach directs.

NEW FILMS for June 14th.

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED: Pierce Brosnan isn't the only reason to see LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED. He's merely the best reason to seek out Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier's entertaining romantic comedy.
THE SILENCE: "THE SILENCE" is framed as a multi-character police procedural, but like "Mystic River" and "Zodiac," its inquiries probe deeper and darker.

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED --R

All you need is love, everybody

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED is directed by Golden Globe and Oscar winning filmmaker Susanne Bier, written by Bier and Anders Thomas Jensen and starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm.

Philip (Brosnan), an Englishman living in Denmark, is a lonely, middle-aged widower and estranged single father. Ida (Dyrholm) is a Danish hairdresser, recuperating from a long bout of illness, who's just been left by her husband for a younger woman, Thilde. The fates of these two bruised souls are about to intertwine, as they embark for a trip to Italy to attend the wedding of Patrick and Astrid, Philip's son and Ida's daughter. With warmth, affection and confidence, Susanne Bier has shaken a cocktail of love, loss, absurdity, humor, and delicately drawn characters that will leave only the hardest heart untouched. It is a film about the simple yet profound pains and joys of moving on - and forward - with your life.



Trailer





THE SILENCE --R (Subtitled German)

shush

THE SILENCE begins 23 years ago on a hot summer day, when a young girl named Pia is brutally murdered in a field of wheat by Peer (Ulrich Thomsen-In a Better World, Fear Me Not), as his helpless friend Timo (Wotan Wilke Moehring-Soul Kitchen) watches. Now, in the present day, on the exact same date, 13-year-old Sinikka is missing, her bicycle abandoned in the same spot, leading police to suspect the same killer may be at work again. Recently widowed detective David (Sebastian Blombeg-The Baader Meinhof Complex) and his colleague Janna (Jule Boewe) struggle to solve the mystery of these parallel crimes with the help of Krischan (Burghart Klaussner-The White Ribbon, The Edukators), the retired investigator of the unresolved case. While Sinikka's distraught parents are trapped in an agonizing period of waiting and uncertainty, their daughter's fate rips open unhealed wounds in the heart of Pia's mother (Katrin Sass, Goodbye Lenin) and sends Timo in search of Peer and their own old desires.



Trailer




FRANCES HA--R

ha ha

By Steven Rea, Inquirer Movie Critic



Ringed by a band of scrutinizing Wall Street yuppies at a dinner party where she doesn't belong, Frances (Greta Gerwig) is asked the inevitable "What do you do?" question.

"It's kind of hard to explain," she responds, warily.

"Because what you do is complicated?" wonders her inquistor.

"Because I don't really do it," Frances explains.

Frances Ha, a collaboration between Gerwig (actress and cowriter) and Noah Baumbach (director and cowriter), achieves a kind of pivotal moment of awkward wisdom, and revelation a few minutes later at that same dinner table. Frances - a 27-year-old dancer whose hopes and dreams are dashed with the regularity of changing traffic lights - blurts out a philosophy that startles and stupefies the other guests.

Her honesty is beautiful.

So too is Frances Ha, a black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment, tracking a spirited stumblebum as she navigates (or fails to navigate) the post-college New York world of roommates, boyfriends, jobs, and money woes.

At first, all seems blissfully, slackerfully right with Frances. She shares an apartment (in Brooklyn, of course) with Sophie (Mickey Sumner), her best friend from their Vassar days. They share their most intimate thoughts. They cuddle and clown. They are, as Frances quips, like "an old lesbian couple that doesn't have sex anymore."

But inevitably, Sophie and Frances begin to drift apart - although Frances is in denial about it. Sophie has a serious boyfriend, and serious plans, and a serious place in Tribeca. And so Frances moves in and out of a succession of apartments, on the run - from herself, and who she wants to be. For a while, she settles in with Lev (Adam Driver) and Benji (Michael Zegen), a pair of chirpy hipsters. She promises to pay her fair share of the rent when her dancing career picks up.

It doesn't pick up.

Baumbach ( The Squid and the Whale) first cast Gerwig in Greenberg, opposite Ben Stiller. She's the gofer/dog walker/nanny who upends the house-sitting, sourpuss Greenberg's life, and she's great. The actress - who had been writing and starring in low-budget, low-expectation "mumblecore" projects - is funny in ways that are completely unforced, uncompromised.

In Frances Ha, she is funny, too, but she's also like the weather in Ireland: four seasons in one day. Sad, silly, clumsy, graceful, inappropriate, perfect.


Trailer

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES --R

further fir



The problem with making a three-part movie is it's very tough to keep things equal.



In the case of "The Place Beyond the Pines," a sprawling tale of dangerous, dysfunctional fathers and sons, the first section of the film is so good that the two that follow can't quite keep up. The film never veers anywhere near being bad; it's just that it starts out looking great and then doesn't quite follow through.

Blame Ryan Gosling, the hyper-magnetic actor who anchors that first section. Gosling plays Luke, a motorcycle daredevil covered in tattoos, dripping cool and aching to be brighter and better than he is. When the carnival he works for makes a stop in upstate New York, he learns he fathered a child last time he was there with Romina (Eva Mendes).



Romina has a boyfriend, but Luke quits the carnival anyway, deciding he wants to get to know his child. To gather cash, he turns to bank-robbing.

This is how the film gets to its second part, involving a hero cop named Avery (Bradley Cooper) who eventually exposes police corruption in his department, launching a political career. He, too, has a young son, and Avery and Luke's boys make up the third section.



It's an ambitious piece of storytelling, much bigger in scope than writer-director Derek Cianfrance's last work, the intimate "Blue Valentine," which also featured Gosling. But it contains the same attention to human detail - Luke vomits after his first bank robbery - as that film.



The only problem - and it's a problem most films would love to have - is that Gosling is a hard act to follow. The goofy sunglasses he wears, the hysteria in his voice as a robbery goes out of control, the love-struck looks he gives his kid - it's all so juicy and right.

"Pines" is hardy stuff, but it's at its toughest when Gosling's on screen.


Trailer
THE SAPPHIRES --PG-13

SAPPHIRES

Inspired by a true story, THE SAPPHIRES follows four vivacious, young and talented Australian Aboriginal girls from a remote mission as they learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertains the U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1968. Cynthia (Tapsell), Gail (Mailman), Julie (Mauboy) and Kay (Sebbens) are discovered by Dave (O'Dowd), a good-humored talent scout with a kind heart, very little rhythm but a great knowledge of soul music. As their manager, Dave books the sisters their first true gig giving them their first taste of stardom, and travels them to Vietnam to sing for the American troops.

"A surefire crowdpleaser with all the ingredients for the type of little-movie-that-could sleeper success that Harvey Weinstein has nurtured in years and award seasons past."

Hits on the site last month were 443549,including those from 611 soldiers. with 22 countries accounting for more than half the traffic abroad: Canada , Australia , United States , United Kingdom , Mexico , India , France , Italy , Belgium , Netherlands , Germany , Russian Federation , Ukraine , Poland , Brazil , Argentina , Greece , Czech Republic , Switzerland , Turkey , Thailand , Finland , Hungary , Romania
Pages most widely viewed:
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

Yr. Teen Kolumnist needs to inform you of the terror of the digital gulfstream: piracy! Specifically, internetz piracy! These brigands of the information super-highway seek to wantonly rob innocent millionaire producers of their overpriced treasure! And worst of all, these dogs have no honor, nor basic respect for the tenets of capitalism as we know it! In fact, they are even corrupting our precious, precious children, as teenz are responsible for an enormous percentage — which I won’t bother looking up, but it’s huge — of those perpetrating this crime! It is so severe that no punctuation short of an exclamation point is adequate! Yarr!

As everyone knows from freaking annoying helpful and necessary warnings at the beginnings of movies, piracy is a crime equal to theft, or to murder and helmet defecation (you DID watch the video, didn’t you? It’s from a copyrighted British television programme). However, those heartless criminals seem to ignore the pain and suffering of those poor superstars. However, a lot of teenz I know make an interesting point: it’s only theft in the sense that you have a product without paying. However, the original copy remains completely intact. It’s like if instead of stealing a car, you could make an exact copy of a car and drive away in it and then crash the copy of the car because you’ve only had a week of driver’s ed. So, basically, it’s just getting something that you wouldn’t have paid for anyway. More often than not, companies actually lose no money from this because more people are exposed to their products. Most teenz I know actually do end up paying for the stuff they like, eventually. Except for Game of Thrones. It’s more of a free trial than theft, in their eyes. But they only pay if 1) they like the product and want the maker to have their money and 2) they actually can get some money out of their cheap/broke parents before they can waste their kids’ college funds on alcohol and collectible pony toys. Some families may be different, I wouldn’t KNOW.

There are some exceptions to this rule: first of all, “limited transfer policies.” The reason that most teenz (I mean teenz who are not me because I would never never do something so evil) download music off of the internet is iTunes’ stupid policy. They only allow you to transfer your songs to five computers, and for people who might need to use their devices to, say, share a song with a teacher, this is extremely inconvenient. Therefore, the simple solution is to download the exact same file for free off YouTube, and be able to transfer it anywhere else. EA’s gaming policy is shitty, too — “sucks” doesn’t begin to describe it. Gamers often update their computers, as is necessary for all these new-fangled graphicky sin-ulators. However, EA’s “Origin” system will only allow you to transfer them to five computers, and this is the entire reason that Steam has what could be generously called a monopoly on mainstream (and indie) PC games.

The second is pure overpricing. Seriously, when you tell someone that they have two options: buy an entire album for $20 to get a single goddam song, or download it, chances are that, unless they REALLY love the band, most people will go with downloading. The third motive is pure hatred of an artist/developer, except when they’ve made one or two good things. It’s no secret in the gaming world that EA is hated. However, they make some good games, Mass Effect 3 and Syndicate being on top of the list. Therefore I know a lot of people who, not wanting EA to get ANY of their money, pirate each game, even when they COULD pay. The same could be said of Nickelback’s “Rockstar,” the only tolerable song the band has ever done.

So what would stop piracy? Well, the apocalypse has the best shot. Tougher file encryption lasts about long enough for hackers to pop open a Red Bull and tear themselves away from 4chan. Making stuff cheaper and easier to get helps, but it won’t stop all binary banditry. I do have some ideas about what definitely doesn’t work, and why, and I’ll tell you all about that next week, assuming I catch up on Game of Thrones.

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Over the past five months, I have been heartened to see the memory of my son galvanizing such a powerful movement for change. I can tell you, it's what Aaron would have wanted.

It has been your efforts that have led some lawmakers to pursue an investigation of Aaron's vindictive, cruel and disproportionate prosecution. When the Justice Department appeared before the Judiciary Committee to discuss Aaron's case, Senators Patrick Leahy, John Cornyn, and Al Franken all pushed for answers. And for that they deserve thanks. At the request of these senators, the Department of Justice recently briefed Senate Judiciary Committee staffers on their prosecution of Aaron -- but more questions remain.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: my son was destroyed by a system and prosecutors that still don’t understand the nature of what they did.

They destroyed my son by their callousness and inflexibility.The work of changing that system -- of getting answers to our unanswered questions about Aaron's prosectution -- remains before us.

For now, it's important that those lawmakers who've already joined our cause know that we are thankful, and that we will continue to stand with them as they use their power to hold the DOJ to account and seek justice for Aaron.Thank you,

Bob Swartz

HJM 6 has a work session scheduled for tomorrow afternoon in the House Rules Committee! This is very good news! We expect that Representative Dembrow, who has been the champion to get a decent memorial out of the Oregon legislature, wouldn’t have asked for a work session unless he has the votes. If you can, come on down and pack the room. That’s Wednesday the 12th at 3:00 in Hearing Room E. At work sessions there is no chance to speak, but just being there is good.

The measure calls on Congress to pass a constitutional amendment making clear that unlimited campaign spending is not free speech and that corporations are not people with constitutional rights.

In light of U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings in Citizens United v. FEC and other cases, it is imperative that we re-assert the right of the people and our democratically elected Congress and state legislatures to govern. We don’t have to let mega-corporations drown out the voices of real people in our democracy. As valuable as corporations can be, we can and should limit the powers we have granted them to their intended purposes. And we can and should place reasonable limits on political contributions and expenditures in the interest of maintaining a healthy democracy.

A dozen other state legislatures have sent similar messages to their congressional delegations. So too have many local Oregon communities—through city council resolutions and ballot initiatives—including Ashland, Baker City, Coos Bay, Corvallis, Eugene, Lincoln County, Newport, Portland, Port Orford, Silverton, West Linn, Yachats.

We are deeply concerned about the unprecedented flow of money in politics and how this is affecting our elections and the political process. Your support to this important measure is working! Jody Wiser
 

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Forty years ago, wolves were on the brink of being hunted to extinction. They were saved by the Endangered Species Act, which allowed them to begin to flourish again in the mountains and forests of the United States, in places like Yellowstone National Park and the northern woods of Michigan.If the federal government goes ahead with its plans, wolf management will be turned over to the states. This has already happened in the Northern Rockies and it's been a disaster – over 1,700 wolves have been ruthlessly hunted down and killed in just the last two years. If wolves are stripped of their protections, we could see this happen in parts of the United States where their comeback is still in its early, fragile stages.

The recovery of gray wolves is one of the great conservation victories of the last 50 years, but the job isn't done. To abandon wolves now would be an enormous tragedy for wolves and for their forest habitats -- and for us. Don’t let the Obama administration abandon wolves -- send a message today.

Thank you for everything you do for our wild America,

Michael Brune
Sierra Club Executive Director

P.S. Let's flood the Department of the Interior with comments for wolves.

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