I first spotted the news a few days ago on Metroblogging Portland: Google in The Dalles. Then my wife read about it online this morning, and now it’s on Slashdot. Sounds interesting, but it seems like kind of a random place to plunk down a data center (if that’s what they intend to build). Well, it’s better than Medford or Umatilla, I guess.
I wonder if this means The Dalles will be the next technology nexus in Oregon?
…yeah, right.
According to this article in the Bulletin, a woman in Prineville gave birth to a 14 pound, 1 ounce baby. Holy c-section, Batman! Still, as big as that is, it doesn’t quite beat the 16.7 pound baby born last month. And then for some bogglers check out these Guinness World Record entries for heaviest births.
So there’s supposed to be a new Wal-Mart Supercenter coming to Bend. The Bend.com story is here. It’ll be located at the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 97 and Cooley Road, and is supposed to be a gargantuan 200,000 square feet in size.
I can’t say I’m thrilled. Why?
Now, I used to go to the Wal-Mart at the south end of town. It did the job, but I don’t get down there anymore. It served its purpose. But I really see no reason for a Supercenter to be built. None at all.
Speaking of the ice storm, what’s up with this story out of Portland? Woman dies after jumping out of taxi:
And a taxi passenger died Saturday after she jumped from the vehicle as it approached her home on Mount Scott.
The victim, Nancy Johnson, 61, was returning to her home on Southeast Johns Court from Portland International Airport when the Green Transportation Co. cab started sliding down the steep street.
She was pinned beneath the cab’s rear axle as it slid more than 100 feet. The cab driver called 9-1-1 to report the incident at 10:34 p.m.
Johnson “just flat panicked. I think she was worried that (the vehicle) would go out of control,” said Capt. Jamie Karn, Clackamas County Fire District 1 spokesman. “This was just a freak accident.”
I mean, who the hell jumps out of a moving car at all? Especially when it’s sliding out of control and you don’t know where it’s going? I’m sorry, but people need more common sense. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this show up as a Darwin Award.
Happy birthday to Bend! Today is the 100th anniversary of Bend, Oregon, marking the beginning of the year-long Bend Centennial celebration. Just a quick post while I’m thinking about it; I might have more to say later.
Also, check out Bend.com’s article from November.
Last night on News Channel 21‘s (gack, Z21 to us locals) “Hometown Forum” program, I was surprised to see none other than Bend.com‘s own Barney Lerten as the guest! Did anyone else catch it? It was about the year in news, I think, but I was also finishing up dishes and enthralled in an exciting game of Chutes and Ladders with the kids, so I wasn’t able to pay close attention.
Came off good, though. Go Barney! :)
I was disappointed to see both the Bend measures (establish a mass transportation district, more money for schools) fail, though not particulary surprised: you can pretty much guarantee that when a measure appears in Central Oregon that requires raising taxes, it will get shot down.
But hell, do kids have to be cannibalizing themselves in the schools before this town raises some money to help relieve the overcrowding and budget issues? And since the money was going to be raised by increasing property taxes, should only property owners be allowed to vote on these issues?
Personally, I think less than $100 per year is a small price to pay if it helps alleviate the Lord of the Flies problems my own kids will be facing within the next couple of years.
As to the mass transit issue, I’d love to see it here, and I supported it, but… Keep in mind this is the city that made national news when it proposed banning stinky people from riding the bus, so you’ll understand if I express skepticism about the whole affair.
And this is the best election day story I heard: Tuesday morning my friend Kerry asked if I had a number two pencil to fill out his ballot—he didn’t have any at home and that was what had hung him up on getting it mailed earlier (Oregon is entirely vote-by-mail, remember, but on the last day you can drop off your ballot at the designated locations since it’s too late to mail it). Later, when he went to drop the ballot off, a Z21 news team interviewed him on why he waited until the last minute to turn his ballot in. He gave the honest response: he couldn’t find a number two pencil! He said the guy running the camera was the new crazy weatherman (if you live in Central Oregon, you probably know who I mean) and the guy gave Kerry a big thumbs-up and shit-eating grin—my words, I’m paraphrasing :). I never did see if it made it on TV but we sure had a good laugh about that.
Did you vote yet? You can bet I did, mailed it in last week. (You gotta like the Oregon vote-by-mail system.) I’ve been spending the last hour and a half or so sitting here compulsively hitting refresh on the CNN and MSNBC sites to review the latest numbers, while catching up on Bloglines. It’s close but right now looks like Bush is going to win. What I find interesting is that while NBC has projected Ohio going to Bush, as of this moment CNN is considering it too close to call and hasn’t tallied those votes for him yet.
CNN has the better site for this, I think; not only can you drill-down from the national map to each state, but you can further drill-down into each state to see how each county is doing. And they’re on top of the numbers. Very interesting.
I’m very, very surprised this story isn’t being picked up nationally (or if it has, I haven’t seen it anywhere yet except locally): during Bush’s visit to Medford, three schoolteachers were removed from the rally for wearing offensive T-shirts. How offensive? They read, “Protect Our Civil Liberties.”
Via Jack Bog’s Blog, this post points to the relevant Bend.com article:
President Bush taught three Oregon schoolteachers a new lesson in irony – or tragedy – Thursday night when his campaign removed them from a Bush speech and threatened them with arrest simply for wearing t-shirts that said “Protect Our Civil Liberties,” the Democratic Party of Oregon reported.
The women were ticketed to the event, admitted into the event, and were then approached by event officials before the president’s speech. They were asked to leave and to turn over their tickets – two of the three tickets were seized, but the third was saved when one of the teachers put it underneath an article of clothing….
Three Medford school teachers were threatened with arrest and escorted from the event after they showed up wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Protect our civil liberties.” All three said they applied for and received valid tickets from Republican headquarters in Medford.
The women said they did not intend to protest. “I wanted to see if I would be able to make a statement that I feel is important, but not offensive, in a rally for my president,” said Janet Voorhies, 48, a teacher in training.
“We chose this phrase specifically because we didn’t think it would be offensive or degrading or obscene,” said Tania Tong, 34, a special education teacher.
So, they show up to a rally to support the President, wearing T-shirts that are about as politically innocuous as they can be, and they get booted?
Hmmmmmmm.
Of course, the notable news around here while we were away is that Mt. St. Helens started getting active again. Neat. What’s more interesting to me, though, is that at the same time, while we were in California, there were a series of earthquakes near Parkfield, one of which hit 6.0 on the Richter scale.
Connected?
