Freeway Lakes southeast of Albany may not be the south of France, but it’s still a nice place for an hour or two on the water. And it’s close, just about the only lake within 15 minutes’ drive of Albany. Bigger lakes are an hour or more away. On a Sunday afternoon, you’ll see a few people […]
Riding through Linn County farmland the other day, I stopped at an old house. From the looks of what was left of it, IÂ guessed it was at least a century old, maybe more. The roof was mostly holes, except where somebody had nailed up some sheet metal a long time ago. The front door […]
Lots of stuff going on, all of it bad for personal freedom and autonomy: The Supreme Court says that if the police arrest you for a serious crime, they have the right under the Constitution to sample your DNA as well. The government gets a look at cell phone records handed over by Verizon. Meanwhile, […]
The raccoon bill has apparently died in the legislature. This is Senate Bill 474, which would add raccoons to those wild animals — bears, cougars, coyotes and wolves — it is illegal to feed lest they become habituated to humans. The worry behind the bill is that feeding raccoons attracts them and concentrates their number, […]
Just as I expected a few weeks ago, the cougar hunting bill has died in the legislature even after the House had approved it by a strong vote of 40-19 on April 23. When the bill got to the Senate, it was assigned to the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, headed by Portland Democrat […]
At the urging of local members of Health Care for All-Oregon, the Albany City Council has let itself be pushed into backing a Democratic proposal before the legislature on health care. The council Wednesday passed a resolution backing HB 3260. It would require the Oregon Health Authority to conduct a study of different health care […]
In Albany, customers of the city wastewater system face projected rate jumps for sewer service totaling some 57 percent over the next five years. That’s way above inflation. What’s going on here? What accounts for this huge jump in the price of a very basic public service? Several things, actually. For one thing, parts of […]
