Readers interested in rail transportation — and who isn’t? — will naturally be eager to review the draft of the 2014 Oregon State Rail Plan just published by the Oregon Department of Transportation. At 161 pages, not to mention the 100-page technical report, it takes patience to get through. But it includes some troubling facts, […]
If you doubt that state authorities were wrong in fining the Albany city manager for a press release about last fall’s city bond election, read the state’s own legal brief and your doubts will vanish. The state’s brief claims that Wes Hare violated the election law by making an impartial statement, but the facts and […]
The Oregon Voters’ Pamphlet for the May 20 primary has arrived. It is a source of lots of helpful information, even though the material submitted by candidates often raises more questions than it answers. The secretary of state prints the candidate statements exactly as they are submitted except for fixing the spelling in cases where […]
Albany’s marijuana discussions may now be over for a while. At least that’s my hope after the city council Wednesday voted to allow two existing medical marijuana businesses to stay in existence. Councilors did so on a 3-3 tie, as expected, with Mayor Sharon Konopa casting the deciding vote.
It’s early yet, but Albany has the first announced challenger this year for a seat on the city council, and it looks as though voters can look forward to a spirited campaign of actual substance. Kevin Manske, co-owner with his wife of CNS Firearms and a firearms training business, announced his candidacy this week. He’s […]
If you wanted to know the implications for the rest of the Albany area of a Millersburg electric power takeover, it would help to have an advanced degree in electrical engineering. Lacking such a degree, most of us will be interested in what the engineering staff of Pacific Power says based on a preliminary analysis the […]
The limits of automation
If it weren’t for all the money swooshing down the drain, you could find a silver lining in all the news about Oregon’s failed ventures in high technology. The failures remind us that not everything can or should be automated, and even if it can, it might not be a good idea.
Tags: Cover Oregon, failures of automation, IT projects, Oregon Benefits Online, The Oregonian