Some people just can’t catch a break. That is the case with a 28-year-old mother of three from Turner in Marion County. One evening last winter, she took an Ambien sleeping pill and went to bed. Next thing she knew it was after 2 a.m. and she was sitting in the gravel next to her […]
Puerto Rico has narrowly voted to apply to become a U.S. state, a request that now will go to Congress for a decision. Judging by a report in The Week magazine, the majority was at least partially motivated by the prospect of more federal aid, not exactly a big surprise. But if we are going to […]
For two or three years now, the Oregon transportation department has been preparing for an environmental assessment of plans to widen Interstate 5 from Highway 20 in Albany to the Jefferson exit. The process is an example of how the agency, following its own and federal regulations on big projects, wastes both time and money. […]
For years the press described General Petraeus as a brilliant man. Now we find out that he traded emails with a lover who was not his wife. Not only that, but the lover turned out to be the kind of woman who threatens someone she believes may have her eye on the general as well. […]
As usual after decisive elections, the commentariat is writing off the losers as headed for the dustbin of history. Chances are the commentators are as wrong this time as they were a few election cycles ago, when they predicted the Republicans would be in charge as far as the eye could see. Now conservatives are […]
A local story illustrates why there is no hope of reforming our government and reversing the drive for more costly, federal  control. There would have been no hope for such reforms even if Obama had not been re-elected. Albany and surrounding towns are forming a metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for transportation planning. Whether they want to or […]
Albany’s CARA: In search of direction
Albany’s downtown urban renewal district is working once again to define what it wants to do from now on, and how. Earlier this year the city council, acting as the governing board of the Central Albany Revitalization Agency or CARA, put several pending projects on hold. In October, the CARA advisory board agreed that it […]
Tags: Albany urban renewal, CARA