HinesSight

The Salem City Council accuses me of misinformation -- I call them out on this

It's late. I'm tired. But I have to defend myself against the untrue accusations Salem city councilor Brad Nanke, and other officials, made about me tonight.

Not long ago I got back from a fascinating Salem City Council meeting.

(Check out the KGW-TV story about this that was on the 5 pm news. I was interviewed, but, sob, I was identified as "Dan Atchison, City Attorney." As was the real Dan Atchison, who also was interviewed. My reputation is now ruined! I considered suing KGW, but I think that instead I'll ask them for an ounce of free weed. The news segment and associated AP story, by the way, support my view of the purpose of the city council meeting.

Update: a newer version of the KGW story omits my "Dan Aitchison" name. Damn, there goes my demand for an ounce of pot.)

It was great to see so many people come out and testify in favor of allowing early sales of recreational marijuana through medical marijuana dispensaries.

I'll write more about this tomorrow. For now, I just want to share the email that I've sent off to Nanke, his fellow city councilors, and other folks who get the city [email protected] messages.

It irritates me when City of Salem staff accuse me of firing people up with misinformation. Whenever this happens, I ask them "So, show me what I got wrong." So far they haven't been able to do this. I'm pretty damn confident they won't be able to do it this time.

Tonight, Councilor Brad Nanke went on a mini-rant about how I'd gotten things all wrong, because it was so obvious in the marijuana staff report that the City Council was planning to approve early sales. This isn't true.

Like I said in my first post on this subject, and said to the council in my testimony tonight, the City Attorney asked for guidance from the council on whether both "early" and "late" sales of recreational marijuana should be banned.

Nanke claimed that the staff report said otherwise. And that a story in today's Statesman Journal got it right, while I got it wrong.

Well, here's my email to him and other City officials, calling him out on that claim. I'll let you know how, or if, they respond.

---------------------------------

Councilor Nanke (and other city councilors who agree with him), 

Tonight I called you out on your erroneous statement that the City marijuana staff report indicated that City officials are planning to allow early sales of marijuana. Actually, as I said, it doesn’t. The staff report asks for guidance from the City Council on four questions, two of which concern banning the “early” and “late” (meaning, forever) sale of recreational marijuana in Salem.

 

You, Councilor Nanke, praised today’s Statesman Journal story, saying that it got things right. In contrast to me, who supposedly got things wrong. I was perplexed by your statement at the time, and am even more perplexed now that I’m home and am able to re-read the SJ story. 

 

I see no indication in the SJ story that the council is planning to allow the early sale of recreational marijuana. Rather, the story backs up my blog posts and Strange Up Salem postings about this subject. Namely, that the city council will be deciding at the August 31 meeting whether to allow early sales, and also whether to ban all sales.

 

If you, or any other council members, can show me where, either in the staff report or in the Statesman Journal story, there is a clear indication that the council was planning to approve the early sale of recreational marijuana at tonight’s meeting, please do so.

 

Otherwise, I’m going to call you out on this, Councilor Nanke (and anyone else who supported the erroneous contention that I got things wrong in my blog posts and Facebook postings). The facts show that I was right, and you were wrong, Councilor Nanke. If you can, prove that you were right and I was wrong. I’ve re-read the staff report and SJ story several times. I find no indication that supports your statement that people should have realized that the council was planning to approve early sales.

 

The FAQs sent out by City staff, as I noted in my testimony, support my point of view. One Q and A said:

Q. Will Council be voting to ban the early sale of recreational marijuana?

A. No. However, Council will be asked whether they want to ban the early sale of recreational marijuana by medical marijuana dispensaries which could otherwise begin October 1, 2015. If so, action would be taken at the next Council meeting. 

So again: the City of Salem was telling people that a ban on early sales could be put into motion at tonight’s council meeting. The “No” is nonsensical, since the ONLY way early sales can happen is through medical marijuana dispensaries.

 

Unless I hear from you by mid-afternoon tomorrow, I’ll assume that you’re unable to find anything in the staff report or SJ story that supports your position, Councilor Nanke, and undermines mine. I then will happily write another blog post about how you unfairly and wrongly accused me of spreading false information.

 

I’m so confident you won’t be able to do this, I will say here “I accept your apology.” Just be more sure of your facts next time you accuse me, or anyone else, of spreading misinformation.

 

Below are excerpts from the SJ story. I’ve boldfaced key parts. The full story can be found here:

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/08/30/city-council-ponder-early-marijuana-sales/71412828/

 

I’ve made a PDF file if somehow the story disappears: [not included, because the Statesman Journal doesn't  like people putting PDF files of their stories online]

 

The Salem City Council has two decisions to make about marijuana sales in the city, and members will begin the process Monday, Aug. 31.

The most immediate is whether the city is going to allow or prohibit the “early sales” period beginning on Oct. 1, of recreational marijuana from medical marijuana facilities. A decision that’s made somewhat complicated to both local city code and state law.

...City staff is asking the council for clarity and a decision on whether the city will allow or prohibit the “early sales” in the city.

If the council indicates a desire to not allow the “early sales” the staff will begin the process of drafting an ordinance for first reading at the council’s Sept. 14 meeting. Most ordinances take two city council meetings to resolve, and the next meeting after Sept. 14 is Sept. 28.

The next decision is although not as time sensitive is more far-reaching- whether the city council has a desire to prohibit the sales of recreational marijuana in Salem beginning on Jan. 4.

   — Brian Hines

Salem has a new City Manager -- Steve Powers

It looks like Salem, Oregon has a new City Manager, Steve Powers. He's currently the City Administrator of Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

So reports MLive (whatever that is) in "Ann Arbor city administrator accepts new job in Oregon."

City Administrator Steve Powers is planning to leave the city of Ann Arbor to pursue a new career opportunity in Oregon.

Powers, who has been Ann Arbor's top administrator since 2011, informed the City Council of his decision via email late Sunday afternoon.

He has been offered the city manager position in Salem, Oregon, and he has accepted pending the Salem City Council approving his contract on Sept. 14, he told council members.

...Salem, which had a population of 154,637 as of the 2010 census, is the capital of Oregon. It's located about an hour south of Portland.

Powers said the mayor and two council members from Salem will be visiting Ann Arbor this week to do a site visit and report back to their council colleagues.

"I don't anticipate any changes in my tentative agreement with Salem prior to the 14th," Powers wrote in his email, adding he will be submitting a resignation letter on Sept. 15. "The letter will serve as my 60-day notice required in my agreement with you."

Since Salem has a strong City Manager/ weak Mayor and City Council form of government, Powers is taking on an important position. I'm hoping, and pretty confident, that he'll be better than our previous City Manager, Linda Norris, who left a lot to be desired.

I say "pretty confident" because a bit of Googling didn't turn up any obvious dirt on Powers.

It doesn't look like any citizen activist bloggers akin to me in Ann Arbor have been ranting about his poor performance as City Manager, like I've done with Linda Norris.

The Ann Arbor News reported in 2011 that Steve Powers had been chosen as City Administrator. I found this part of the story encouraging:

Council Member Carsten Hohnke, D-5th Ward, said a few things about Powers stood out, including his success in collaborating with others.

"As we look forward, the challenges that Ann Arbor and many of the communities in the state have are to find ways to further collaborate with our regional neighbors — other municipalities, other elected officials — to find ways to share the delivery of services," Hohnke said. "He has a tremendous track record of working with elected peers in doing just that."

Hohnke also said Powers seems to enjoy receiving input from all the sources he can, and those who have known him cite his ability to be fair and consistent.

In December, 2014 Powers withdrew his name from consideration for an Ohio job. So he's been looking to leave Ann Arbor for a while. I scanned the comments on that story, and also the few comments that have been left on the recent story about him leaving for the Salem City Manager job.

They were all positive or neutral. Nothing along the lines of "Thank god, we're rid of him." So this also is good news. 

Welcome to Salem, Steve Powers. Your name sounds like a superhero. 

You'll need some extraordinary talents to bring together a town divided by how Salem's imperious previous City Manager, who I liked to call Empress Linda Norris, typically acted in a non-collaborative top-down manner, aided and abetted by a conservative Mayor and City Council majority who often were at odds with a liberal citizenry.

We need some fresh ideas and city management style in this town. Hopefully Powers will bring them with him.

Salem City Council might ban marijuana sales -- secretly

News flash: without any warning to Salem's citizens, the City Council might move to ban recreational marijuana sales at its Monday (August 31) meeting. 

Here's a PDF version of this flyer; feel free to share far and wide
Download Hey Salem PDF

I find this outrageous, like so much the Mayor and right-wing council majority is doing these days.

My outrage is as much about the disturbing lack of public notice and transparency going on here, as the absurd notion that recreational marijuana sales should be banned in a city whose citizens approved Measure 91 by 53% to 47% in a 2015 midterm election with low voter turnout.

Bottom line, if you read no further.  Email the Mayor and City Council ASAP, telling them to cease and desist from trying to overturn the will of the people and state law. 

[email protected]

Today I learned that a "special order of business" is on the Salem City Council agenda for August 31. It is innocuously titled "(b)  2015 Marijuana Legislation (Legal)."

An agenda item link leads to a staff report. The report lays out four questions that the Mayor and city councilors are supposed to answer at Monday's meeting.

Should City Council;

(1)  Prohibit "early sales" of recreational marijuana from Salem area medical marijuana facilities that may begin October 1, 2015?

(2)  Prohibit or regulate the sale of recreational marijuana after the "early sales" period ends December 31, 2015? [Wrong! The early sales period ends December 31, 2016]

(3)  Prohibit or regulate growing or processing of marijuana?

(4)  Repeal SRC Chapter 32 - Marijuana Sales Tax - and refer a new ordinance to City electors that is consistent with state law? 

Again, let's try to wrap our heads around the outrageousness of this.

Recreational marijuana now is legal in Oregon to use, possess, and grow. Sales in stores, though, aren't expected to begin until late 2016.

So to combat the black market and start bringing in much-needed tax revenue, the legislature allowed medical marijuana dispensaries to start early sales on October 1, 2015 of some marijuana products to recreational buyers.

The early sales period ends December 31, 2016 -- not 2015 as the City Council staff report erroneously says. Here's an excerpt from a League of Oregon Cities document included in the same staff report:

When will early sales start?

Medical marijuana dispensaries may begin selling limited quantities of recreational marijuana on October I, 2015. Sales of recreational marijuana from medical dispensaries currently are set to end on December 31, 2016. At that time, recreational retail facilities likely will be operating and selling recreational marijuana. 

Thus it is bothersome that all the people who wrote, reviewed, and approved this report missed a blatant error that a senior citizen blogger in his pajamas (OK, shorts and t-shirt) noticed as soon as I started reading the report this morning.

What else are city staff getting wrong, if they missed this obvious error? The staff report comes from the City Attorney. Shouldn't Dan Atchison know the law?

Leaving that aside, it's the whole idea of banning early sales of marijuana, and even recreational sales entirely, that should cause Salem citizens to say "What the freaking hell is going on here?"

This is a big deal.

It deserves a heck of a lot more public comment and attention than a "secret" agenda item and staff report buried in a lengthy city council agenda released three days before the meeting at which the Salem City Council could initiate steps to prevent residents not only from being able to buy marijuana on October 1, but forever.

I put "secret" in quotation marks because the obscure agenda item and staff report technically narrowly comply with the letter of Oregon's open meetings law -- but certainly not with the spirit of it. 

The City of Salem Facebook page post about the August 31 meeting has no mention about a possible ban on both early and post-2016 recreational marijuana sales. Given the widespread public interest in marijuana, and Salem voters being in favor of legalizing recreational marijuana, a possible ban on sales deserves way more attention than a vague item in a city council agenda on a City web site that hardly anybody visits.

It seems pretty clear that folks at the League of Oregon Cities are working to spread anti-marijuana ordinances around the state. Two lengthy attachments from the League are part of the staff report.

The League's legal opinion, which was news to me, is that a city like Salem (where voters approved Measure 91) could ban recreational marijuana sales immediately all the way until the November 2016 general election by putting a measure on the ballot for consideration by voters.

In other words, even though Measure 91 requires a vote of the people to ban the sale of recreational marijuana (except in places where 55% or more of voters were against Measure 91) an ordinance calling for such a vote means that licensing of stores to sell recreational marijuana is put on hold until after the election.

So even though Salem voters almost certainly would turn down a ban on marijuana sales in November 2016, the conservative majority on the City Council could stop recreational marijuana stores in this town from being licensed until after the election.

All I can say is that if the Mayor or some city council members vote to ban either early or regular sales of recreational marijuana, those politicians deserve to be thrown out of office at the earliest opportunity.

People would be justifiably outraged if this happened -- both at the secretive way it was done with virtually no public notice or input, and at the "one finger salute" given to Salem voters who approved the sale of recreational marijuana by a healthy majority.

Email Salem's Mayor and City Council: [email protected]

Tell them, hands-off on banning marijuana sales in Salem, or putting additional restrictions on medical marijuana dispensaries and grow sites. 

There are some worthwhile recommendations in the staff report. But the option of banning recreational marijuana sales is absurd, the absurdity being magnified by the secretive way it is being considered. 

[Update: A commenter on this post said that when he emailed the City Council, he got back a FAQ document about the marijuana agenda item. I suspect this was rapidly whipped up after people started to email complaints about the possible ban on early (and late) marijuana sales. 
Download FAQ Marijuana Agenda Item

The FAQs don't make great sense. For example, this one is completely Orwellian, a No meaning Yes.

Q. Will Council be voting to ban the early sale of recreational marijuana?

A. No. However, Council will be asked whether they want to ban the early sale of recreational marijuana by medical marijuana dispensaries which could otherwise begin October 1, 2015. If so, action would be taken at the next Council meeting. 

Huh? That "No" is absolutely wrong. The only way early sales of recreational marijuana are going to happen under state law is through existing medical marijuana dispensaries. Repeat, the only way.

If the Salem City Council bans medical marijuana dispensaries from selling recreational marijuana, beginning on October 1, then this town won't have any early sales. It sure looks like nobody at the City of Salem understands what is going on legally. 

It also looks like somebody (Mayor? A few City Council members?) have a desire to ban early sales, or this staff report wouldn't have been requested.

Here's another error in the FAQs.

At the beginning of this post I quoted what the City Attorney is asking guidance on from the City Council. One question he asked is whether the Council wants to ban the sale of recreational marijuana after the early sale period ends on December 31, 2016.

Yet a FAQ says:

Q. Will Council be voting to ban the sale of recreational or medical marijuana?

A. No. However, as provided by recent legislation, Council could direct staff to prepare an ordinance to further regulate commercial marijuana activities. 

Well, the staff report discusses ways the Salem City Council could ban the sale of recreational marijuana here entirely -- which is a question the City Attorney wants answered at the August 31 council meeting. So actually the Council will be voting whether or not to ban the sale of recreational marijuana after the early sale period ends.]

What I like most about cycling at a Portland Sunday Parkways event

Yesterday I took part in my second Portland Sunday Parkways bike ride. After my first experience, I wrote "What Salem Sunday Streets can learn from Portland Sunday Parkways." 

Now that I've been to two Portland Sunday Parkways, I've got a better understanding of what I like about these open streets events, where 7-8 miles of streets in various parts of Portland are completely closed off to moving vehicles.

People cycle, scoot, skateboard, walk, or whatever along the route, which leads to several public parks where booths and activities abound.

After driving up from Salem, my Bike Friday folding bike ("Silkie," because it is the Silk model) tucked in the rear compartment of my Mini Cooper, my first stop was to fuel up at a pizza stand. Very Portland. Had to eat the slice with a fork, it was so thick and cheesy.

Then I headed out on the seven mile route. I've been told that Salem Sunday Streets has to restrict its route to a very short 12-block or so circle around the Capitol Building because it costs a lot to shut off streets. But somehow Portland Sunday Parkways manages to close seven or eight miles of streets with no problem, five times a year in different parts of the city.

There are Portland police officers at a few intersections where the route crosses a non-closed street. But most of the intersections are manned/womanned by volunteers. They hold a banner across the intersection to block cyclists, then raise it when the light changes to green and yell pleasantly, "Move, move, we've only got 15 seconds." 

There's a wonderful feeling of community that pervades Portland Sunday Parkways. This booth offered free bicycle repairs, with donations accepted. Somehow this event had a small town feel, even with thousands of participants, because of how relaxed and friendly people were. 

I'm not saying that Salemians aren't also relaxed and friendly -- just that there is a certain Portland vibe that is very appealing. Less uptight than Salem. The Portland Sunday Parkways routes mostly go through residential areas. Residents are out on their front lawns and porches, having mini block parties, singing, playing music, handing out free water and lemonade, waving to passers-by.

Quite a few cyclists dress up in various guises. The girl in pink loved honking her horn. If I'd had to listen to it for longer than a mile or so, the incessant sound might have gotten annoying. But it was cute... in moderation. 

Speaking of annoying, when I got close to the park along the route where I planned to leave my car, I had to drive across the closed-off streets a time or two. I was amazed at my reaction: mild annoyance. Hey, let the cars through! I want to get to the park so I can start riding my bike!, I thought impatiently, watching volunteers stop traffic at intersections without a light.

Bizarre.

In a little while I was going to be one of those cyclists who were enjoying vehicle-free streets that usually are filled with cars and trucks, shunting people who want to get around under their own power to the sidewalks, a bike lane, or pavement where a multi-ton piece of steel could bash into them with little or no warning.

This just shows how autocentric American culture has become. I'm so used to having cars dominate our public streets, which belong to everybody, that it felt sort of weird to be driving along and have to stop for a lengthy string of cyclists to cross on a closed-off road.

But when I got on my bike and joined them, it felt wonderful to be out and about with my fellow two-legged human beings, getting around under our own power. This was how I felt at the first Salem Sunday Streets, as I said in a post about my senior citizen longboarding at the event. 

What struck me was how different State Street seemed without any cars or trucks on it. The state Capitol area felt wonderfully calmer and more natural. As a bicyclist rolled by, I heard him say "This should happen every Sunday!"

Some of the southeast Portland streets were particularly beautiful, because of the large trees. The City of Salem has a habit of cutting down big, beautiful healthy trees for no good reason. Which is really sad, since they add so much to an urban landscape.

I'd noted that a Bollywood activity was scheduled at Laurelhurst Park at 2:30. I got to the park around that time. Hearing Bollywood music coming from a grassy area, I parked my orange Silkie by a tree to soak up some Bollywood dancing instruction. OK, as a viewer, not a participant. Here's the You Tube video I made:

 

It was great to see so many people having fun learning some Bollywood dance moves. This is the way an open streets event is supposed to be: getting people off their butts and doing stuff. At the moment, Salem Sunday Streets is unduly passive. There isn't much of a cycling route, and the event is focused too much on participants passively watching music and other performances.

The Voodoo Donuts food truck beckoned. I was powerless to resist a raspberry filled donut with powdered sugar. Messy, but tasty.

CItyBikes, a worker-owned cooperative bike store, lay along the route. They'd set up a water mister. It felt good on a hot day. 

The CityBikes store was appealingly funky. I love how Portland reminds me of Portlandia. Which, duh, isn't surprising.

There were many cool houses along the southeast Portland Sunday Parkways route. This one felt decidedly Portland'ish to me. Overstuffed chair on the porch. Fairly old Volvo station wagon in the driveway.

Often when I compare Portland and Salem, I get some blog post comments along the lines of, "Hey, if you love Portland so much, you should move there!"

Which makes as much sense to me as what I frequently heard in the late 1960s when I and many others protested the Vietnam War: "Love it or leave it!"

I can love a place and not want to leave it. I can want Salem to be more like Portland without wanting to move to Portland. Salem can learn a lot from how Portland has made cycling much easier and safer than it is in Salem. 

Portland Sunday Parkways is testimony to that.

Cycling in Salem got good news, but we're a long ways from being pedal-friendly

Way to go, Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates!

Without you pushing for Family Friendly Bikeways in this town, of which we currently have exactly none, there wouldn't have been this good news that you shared today on your Facebook page.

We have great news to share with you this morning. The City of Salem has been awarded an ODOT TGM grant to begin the planning stages of the Winter-Maple Family Friendly Bikeway! What does this mean? It means that Salem will receive $110,000 from ODOT along with a $30,000 match from the City to plan a safe and convenient route. 

TGM grants help "local communities plan for streets and land use in a way that leads to more livable, economically vital, and sustainable communities and that increases opportunities for transit, walking and bicycling" - a perfect description for what SBBA is trying to encourage in Salem.

A big THANK YOU to those employees at the City of Salem who worked hard to submit a grant winning application. 

http://www.oregon.gov/L…/TGM/docs/Grants/TGM-15%20Awards.pdf

It was only last February that I heard about what Angela Obery, the energetic woman who is out to make Salem safer for her children and all other bicycling beings, was up to with Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates. 

Since, she and her merry band of cyclists have been making presentations to neighborhood associations and talking up family friendly bikeways (a.k.a. neighborhood greenways) to the Mayor, City Council members, and city staff.

Must have worked.

It's doubtful that the normally autocentric City of Salem would have applied for funds to plan the Winter-Maple bikeway without the advocacy of Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates. So let's say yay! for that.

And also keep in mind how far Salem has to go before it becomes a truly bike-friendly town.

The Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog, a must-read for anyone concerned with alternative transportation and land use issues in Salem, does a great job of pointing out where we fall short in this regard. For example, in "Running stores lap the bike shops in retail growth and participation."

Here in town, we see the walking/running approach clearly in the relative successes of events like "On Your Feet Fridays," "Just Walk," "High Street Hustle," and "Salem Sunday Streets," each of which are essentially (or exclusively) oriented towards Salemites on foot, most of whom arrive and leave by car.

Bike events almost all remain oriented towards, speed, training, or distance.

Even something meant as a crossover event like Salem Sunday Streets has a much smaller route and set of street closures than the run/walk-only High Street Hustle. The idea of closing several miles of street for a free, wholly non-competitive and car-free event for longer walking or for biking hasn't got traction here yet. 

One important institutional driver of this is that nationwide the running stores are doing a lot better at general marketing and community advocacy than the bike shops!

Yes, good point about Salem Sunday Streets, an annual event that is coming up this year on August 30. After the first Sunday Streets three years ago, the length of the street closures have shrunk so it is barely recognizable as a car-free "open streets" event.

Breakfast on Bikes spoke about this in "Does Sunday Streets need a new name?"

As Salem Sunday Streets cranks up for its third year, it looks like it has de facto morphed into something other than a real Open Streets event.

...If folks are only "hoping" for active transportation, and that hoped-for transportation isn't on meaningful stretches of car-free streets, and the main goals themselves don't have anything to do with streets or transportation, and instead are community, downtown living, and the local economy, it's a street fair, isn't it?

l agree. Yes, it is basically a street fair.

Still, all hail to the Salem Sunday Streets organizers.

They're doing as good a job as they can in a town with political leaders at City Hall who are mostly stuck in a 1950's sprawl-based mentality of building more streets to accommodate more cars and trucks -- failing to recognize that the wave of the future is alternative transportation and denser close-in mixed use areas, which have a much smaller carbon footprint.

Let's not be content with our paltry current open streets event. Here's the maps of the August 30 Salem Sunday Streets event and tomorrow's Portland Sunday Parkways event (which I'm planning to go to),

In Salem cyclists can ride in about a 12-block circle. In Portland, hundreds of blocks, 7 miles. I really like how Portland's event is focused on people doing something active, while in Salem the focus is much more on passively watching entertainers and other activities.

(See the post I wrote after going to a July Portland Sunday Parkways event.)

It wouldn't take much to make Salem streets much more cycling-friendly. Our current freeway'ish three-lane one-way downtown streets would especially benefit from being reduced to two-lane, two-way streets with a dedicated bike lane.

In two minutes you can see how this can be done. 

Jeff Speck: Four Road Diets from Cupola Media on Vimeo.

A Salemian's joys and sorrows of seeing a show in Portland

Last night my wife and I journeyed up I-5 from Salem to Portland to see the musical Wicked. We loved the show. But that's not what I want to talk about. 

Rather, I was struck by how different an experience it was to see a top-notch musical in Portland, Wicked, compared to our seeing the Enlightened Theatrics performance of Hair in Salem a few weeks previous -- which also seemed to be Broadway-quality. 

I came away feeling that there is a lot to like -- a LOT -- about what Salem, typically viewed as Portland's much less cool sister city to the south, has to offer live theatre goers.

I'll start by describing our Portland/Wicked experience.

-- Buy tickets online. Wow, already almost sold out for a Wednesday night performance. Ah, here's two tickets in row G, seats 5 and 6, on the left side of Keller Auditorium. Price is...yikes! $100 a ticket, including "handling" fees. (Of course, nobody handled the tickets, as we printed out a PDF file emailed to us.)

-- Leave from our rural south Salem home at 5:40 pm for the 7:30 pm show. Worried about freeway traffic in Portland area, which can be horrible at almost any time of day now. But, sweet, we cruise along and arrive in downtown a bit before 7:00.

-- Pay $6 at the parking garage close to Keller Auditorium. Seems like a good price, especially compared to our $200 worth of Wicked tickets. Have to park on the 4th floor. Head-in. Leaving the car, I have a thought. "Maybe I should have backed in." Prescient thought, which I ignored.

-- We enter the Keller Auditorium. First impression: people! Many people. We aren't in Salem anymore! There are so many people. Breathe... it's OK... Portland is a big city... with lots of people... it's OK.

-- Plenty of time to buy something to drink. My caffeine-addicted mind screams: coffee! Must obey.  Hmmmmm. $3.50 for a cup of coffee. Seems steep, but I'm a captive coffee buyer. Who gets a cup that, maybe, at most, holds ten ounces. Still, it is coffee. And with a lid, legal to take into the auditorium.

-- 7:35. Wicked starts almost on time. Impressively fun first act. The woman seated next to me gets up about fifteen minutes before the first act ends, then soon returns to her seat. I wonder why. 

-- Intermission. I took the advice of the female usher volunteer and kept my paper coffee cup in pristine condition. "Free refills," she'd told me. Nice. Now I can get 20 ounces of coffee for a "mere" $3.50. Almost sounds reasonable.

-- Not so reasonable: the super-long lines for both the women's and men's restrooms. I think I understand why the woman next to me got up when she did. It's almost impossible for a woman to make it into the Keller restroom during intermission. The men's line, of course, moves fast. Moments like these make me so happy to be a man! My wife decides to wait until after the show is over.

-- 10:30 or thereabouts. Wicked ends to a standing ovation. Really enjoyable show. We exit the auditorium after a final restroom stop.

-- Where's our damn car? Everything looks different at night. Following my wife's overly confident "The parking garage is this way," we walk in exactly the wrong direction. My more direction-proficient male mind soon realizes this. I turn us around. We walk up the stairs to the 4th floor and find our Chevy Volt.

-- Then realize we aren't going anywhere. Not for a while. Parking garage gridlock. I might be able to take a stab at pulling out at some point if I'd backed in and was pointing forward. But I need to back up. There's no room to back up. Laurel brings out some containers of sliced nectarines she'd brought along. I figure these will keep us alive until sunrise, if we're still stuck in the parking garage by then.

-- Eventually the cars belonging to our fellow Wicked-goers start moving. Very slowly. A nice person lets me back out. After we wind our way to the 3rd floor I realize that I only have a vague idea of how to get to I-5 south from downtown Portland. I ask my wife to either plug our home address into the Volt's navigation system or fire up Google Maps on her iPhone.

-- Two more floors. We're about to exit the parking garage. Laurel still hasn't figured out either the navigation system or her iPhone. I'm getting testy.

-- I've got to turn left, ending up in the left hand lane of some street. Which is filled with traffic. And has a sign way on the right saying "To I-5 South." I'm forced to go straight. My wife is still fiddling with the navigation system and her iPhone, alternatively.

-- "You're not helping out!" I scream at her as we head down Barbur Boulevard. "I'm trying!" she screams back. Suddenly we've taken on the role of two wicked witches. But nobody is around to see our performance.

-- I whip out my iPhone. Should have done this long before, I think irritatedly. Takes me ten seconds to see that, as I remembered, the I-5 south entrance is five freaking miles down Barbur. 

-- Four freaking miles down Barbur, I glance to my left and see that it barely mattered that we weren't on the freeway, since I-5 traffic is moving at about the same speed we are. We get to the freeway entrance. Traffic is crawling. Nighttime construction work. Just one lane is open.

-- We entertain ourselves by trying to figure out the navigation system on our fairly-recently leased 2015 Volt almost all the way to Salem. In the process of trying to find the Address Book, which would let us put in our home address as "Home," I use voice activation to "Call Brian Hines" (me). The stupid Volt thinks I said a friend's name. He gets a cell phone call at 11:30 pm before we frantically push the "cancel" button.

-- Arrive home at midnight. Six-plus hours after leaving home. To see a three hour show. I'm exhausted. The dog gives us her best "I felt abandoned" look. We have a spoiled dog. Per usual, I tell her she's damn lucky she belongs to a retired couple who aren't off at work for ten hours almost every day. Then I feel guilty. I give her a chew stick and rub her stomach the way she likes, muttering "I'm sorry... we're such bad dog parents." Now it's 12:30 am.

OK. This was the lengthy Go See Wicked in Downtown Portland chain of events. Here's how Seeing Hair in Downtown Salem went.

-- Buy tickets online. $20 each for reserved seats. So we pay $40 for a musical instead of $200.

-- We leave home at 6:45 pm for a 7:30 pm show. Have no problem finding a free onstreet parking spot a block away.

-- I buy a snack in the Grand Theatre lobby. Costs me $1 to get a bag of Meduri dried blueberries. Pre-show restroom stop involves just me and one guy who was leaving as I entered.

-- Hair is hugely enjoyable. I feel, and later blog, "The '60s are still real."

-- We drive home. On uncrowded streets. Takes us 25 minutes. At most.

So, yeah, there's a lot to like about seeing a show in Salem, especially if you live in this area. But even if you're from Portland, or somewhere else, Salem has a lot to offer, theatrics-wise.

Check out the Salem Theatre Network on Facebook.

History shows it's possible for Trump or Sanders to become president

Don't get too excited by the title of this blog post, fans of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. I'm not capable of arguing how it is that these guys could buck the odds and become President of the United States.

(As we'll see, nobody is.)

Rather, I want to share some passages from a chapter, "The Secret of Success," in historian Yuval Noah Harari's fascinating book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind, that remind us how unwise it is to think that anything is impossible in this wild and wacky chaotic world of ours.

I read the chapter this morning. Soon after, my daily Internet browsing led me to a story that would have blown my mind more, if Harari hadn't already prepared it to be blown. 

Over on the Washington Post web site, I marveled at "That new CNN poll is about Trump's lead solidifying, not growing. Yet."

If you compare Trump's favorability among groups in the two CNN polls, you can see two big changes. His net favorability (those who view him favorably minus those who don't) surged with Republicans, and dipped among independents. (The graphs below use registered voter responses.) For all of the discussion about Trump potentially losing ground among women -- there wasn't much ground to lose.

What's stunning, though, is how this compares to Jeb Bush. Donald Trump's net favorability among all voters is higher than Jeb Bush's. Margins of error, etc., but for Pete's sake. Tell someone in March that Donald Trump would be leading the Republican field by double digits and they'd roll their eyes. Tell them that Trump would be viewed as or more favorably than Bush and they'd have had you committed.

Pundits have kept on predicting that after this or that gaffe by Trump, his presidential ambitions are over. Finished. Gone. Flushed down the political toilet. 

And the pundits keep on being wrong. As they usually are. About everything. Just as almost everyone is who tries to predict the future.

Harari explains why in his usual clear style. Speaking of when Constantine chose Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire, he says:

In fact, the people who knew the period best -- those alive at the time -- were the most clueless of all. For the average Roman in Constantine's time, the future was a fog. It is an iron rule of history that what looks inevitable in hindsight was far from obvious at the time.

Today is no different.

Are we out of the global economic crisis, or is the worst still to come? Will China continue growing until it becomes the leading superpower? Will the United States lose its hegemony? Is the upsurge of monotheistic fundamentalism the wave of the future or a local whirlpool of little long-term significance? Are we headed toward ecological disaster or technological paradise?

There are good arguments to be made for all of these outcomes, but no way of knowing for sure. In a few decades, people will look back and think that the answers to all of these questions were obvious.

It is particularly important to stress that possibilities which seem very unlikely to contemporaries often get realised. When Constantine assumed the throne in 306, Christianity was little more than an esoteric Eastern sect. If you were to suggest then that it was about to become the Roman state religion, you'd have been laughed out of the room just as you would be today if you were to suggest that by the year 2050 Hare Krishna would be the state religion of the USA.

...Not that everything is possible. Geographical, biological, and economic forces create constraints. yet these constraints leave ample room for surprising developments, which do not seem bound by any deterministic laws. 

This conclusion disappoints many people, who prefer history to be deterministic. Determinism is appealing because it implies that our world and our beliefs are a natural and inevitable product of history. It is natural and inevitable that we live in nation states, organise our economy along capitalist principles, and fervently believe in human rights.

To acknowledge that history is not deterministic is to acknowledge that it is just a coincidence that most people today believe in nationalism, capitalism, and human rights.

History cannot be explained deterministically and it cannot be predicted because it is chaotic. So many forces are at work and their interactions are so complex that extremely small variations in the strength of the forces and the way they interact produce huge differences in outcomes. 

Not only that, but history is what is called a 'level two' chaotic system. Chaotic systems come in two shapes. Level one chaos is chaos that does not react to predictions about it. The weather, for example, is a level one chaotic system. Though it is influenced by myriad factors, we can build computer models that take more and more of them into consideration, and produce better and better weather forecasts.

Level two chaos is chaos that reacts to predictions about it, and therefore can never be predicted accurately. Markets, for example, are a level two chaotic system. What will happen if we develop a computer program that forecasts with 100 per cent accuracy the price of oil tomorrow? The price of oil will immediately react to the forecast, which would consequently fail to materialise.

...Politics, too, is a second-order chaotic system. Many people criticize Sovietologists for failing to predict the 1989 revolutions and castigate Middle East experts for not anticipating the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011. This is unfair. Revolutions are, by definition, unpredictable. A predictable revolution never happens.

...So why study history? Unlike physics or economics, history is not a means for making accurate predictions. We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable, and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we imagine.

Yikes! Like a Donald Trump GOP presidential nomination, and maybe even winning of the presidency. Or, of Bernie Sanders doing the same on the Democratic side. 

Hard to believe. But then, all of history is hard to believe until after it happens. Then it appears inevitable. Just like our own personal lives. 

The lesson is, it's fine to make plans for a certain sort of future. Just don't be surprised when things turn our very differently. Such is the way of the world.

Religious views have no place in fetal tissue debate

I don't believe in God. But I sure do believe in keeping God out of all social policy discussions, including the recent debates over fetal tissue research.

And not only God -- all supernatural notions based on unsupported faith, no matter how sincerely held they may be. 

Over on my Church of the Churchless blog I've been arguing that religion has no place in politics and policy-making since 2004. That year I wrote "Religious values have no place in politics." 

Consider abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage—three issues that are commonly considered to comprise the core of “values-based” voting in the last election. 

Opinions about each of these issues can, and should, be founded on objective facts derived from social science and medical science research. There are costs and benefits to various individuals and society as a whole from the presence or absence of abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage. These costs and benefits can be determined. They can be communicated. They can be discussed. They can be the basis for informed political decisions. 

But you can’t determine, communicate, discuss, or decide anything on a religious or what-God-wants basis. The moral tenets of every religion are unproven and unprovable, using Volokh’s words. However, the moral tenets that flow out of political decisions founded on accurate real-world information can be proven, because the real world is provable. 

For example, fetuses either feel pain or they don’t. If they do, then it should be possible to determine how much pain is experienced during an abortion. People could use this information to help decide when an abortion is justified and when it isn’t. Intelligent debates about the pros and cons of abortion could replace the frenzied moralistic “I’m right and you’re wrong!” screeching that now passes for political discourse in this country. 

You can’t debate with someone who doesn’t have a defensible reason for why they believe what they do. You can’t debate with someone who responds to a reasoned argument with “Because the Bible says so” or “Jesus condemns sinners.” 

Fantasy is a dangerous foundation for making societal decisions. A nation that forsakes reality isn’t going to prosper, because actions in the real world have real consequences. Blind faith is fine so long as it remains safely sequestered in a person’s psyche. But when it replaces the light of reason and science as a societal guide, there are going to be a lot of missteps, and even some falling over cliffs.

Since, I've become even more convinced that religious people need to leave their beliefs out of any and all discussions about social policy issues such as embryonic stem cell research. 

I don't care whether you are conservative, moderate, or liberal, there's no place for anything other than reasoned arguments and solid evidence when debates are taking place on any subject.

Our country's founders were clear on that point, as I talked about yesterday in a post on my churchless blog, "America's founders reasoned their way to a secular republic."

If we act in accord with Nature's Laws, this is the deist equivalent of obeying transcendent commandments handed down by a god. Revelation is useless for gaining understanding or knowledge, because it isn't founded on reason, evidence, observable reality.

So our Declaration of Independence speaks of the "pursuit of happiness."

Government exists to express the will of the people as to the best way to regulate human affairs so as to make this pursuit most fruitful. Again, it is a matter of learning, of experimentation, of trying things and seeing how they work, then changing direction on the basis of new knowledge.

It's ridiculous when people try to argue against abortion or stem cell research by spouting supernatural myths such as "the soul enters the embryo at conception," or "life is sacred from the moment of conception."

If you want to believe in religious fantasies, fine. Just keep those beliefs out of social policy debates that affect everybody in this country, not just Christian fundamentalists.

Imagine that a devout Christian is sitting around a table with a bunch of atheists (as an atheist, I've experienced the reverse situation many times). The subject being discussed is the morality of embryonic stem cell research.

The Christian says, "This is immoral because the tissue may come from aborted fetuses, and abortion is a sin, since the soul enters the baby at conception." That argument will have, and should have, zero relevance to the other people at the table. Zero.

Instead, the Christian should use his or her brain to come up with reasoned, evidence-based arguments in favor of banning embryonic stem cell research. Which is tough to do, given that the life-saving benefits of advances in medical research are so strong.

Like I said in my 2004 post, it is impossible to argue with a religious believer who relies on faith-based supernaturalism. Once religious fundamentalism enters a discussion, rational consideration of a problem hits a roadblock. 

Which is a main reason why politics in the United States is marked by so much gridlock. The fault lies mainly with right-wing religious zealots, but the left has its own share of them. 

The only way to resolve social policy questions in a democratic and open manner is to play the discussion game fairly. Meaning, every person has an equal right to lay their reasoned arguments and supporting evidence on the policy examination table, where others can critique the validity of those arguments and evidence.

When blind faith enters the game, it screws everything up. It's much like a basketball game being played on a real court, with a real ball. It'd be absurd if a player entered the game and said "I just scored a slam dunk" without touching the ball.

"Huh?" would be the appropriate response from the other players. "You didn't do that. What are you talking about?" 

"You didn't see me, because I made myself invisible, and used an invisible ball. So give two points to my team and let's keep on playing." 

This sounds crazy, right? How could anyone believe in invisibility?

But this is closely akin to how religious believers want us to accept that they "scored" on a social policy argument when they invoke notions of God, soul, and so forth that are completely invisible. 

If someone can't make naturalistic, rational, fact-based arguments against abortion or embryonic stem cell research, they need to get out of the social policy debate game. Otherwise, they're playing unfairly. 

Unfortunately, this won't happen anytime soon. Religion won't get out of politics and social policy discussions until many more Americans wake up from the dream of believing in a God who shows no sign of existing.

May that day come sooner rather than later, or this country will continue to find it difficult to overcome the faith-based irrationality that is preventing us from solving our many pressing problems. 

My brush with death from a feral chicken attack at Minto Brown Park

Life feels sweet after narrowly escaping three dangerous genetic relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex, a.k.a. "chickens" in modern parlance, at Salem's Minto Brown Island Park today.

I'll share some photos of the attack, but these only reflect the objective state of the photons that made it into my iPhone's camera lens. My intuitive life-loving emotional mind saw these vicious animals differently.

As miniature Velociraptors.

After all, I had no idea if they'd gone completely feral, returning to the primitive instincts of their dinosaur ancestry. 

In case other people who use the rural'ish Minto Brown trails come across these monsters, I'll describe the birds' method of attack. 

I was riding my yellow Streetstrider outdoor elliptical bike along the paved trail that parallels Homestead Road. I'm pretty sure the chickens' plan was to hide in the brush on the right side of the trail, then jump (or fly?) out, surprising their human prey.

But at least one of them jumped the gun, and I was able to see the chickens before they had a chance to flutter up around my head and peck my eyeballs out.

Or whatever... I'm not an expert in chicken attacks, having only this single horrifying experience to inform my knowledge of how they go about their life-destroying business.

As you can see from the photo above, the chickens feigned innocence once I stopped my bike to figure out how I was going to live another day. Yes, they looked tame enough, but this is exactly how I would expect small feral killing machines to have adapted to existence in the wild. 

Lull their intended victim into complacency -- Hey, we're just tame chickens who have wandered off from the roost, nothing to worry about here, bend down and give us a pat -- so they can peck their prey's freaking eyes out! 

I wasn't about to fall for that ruse.

Especially after I saw one of them heading directly for my leg, undoubtedly planning to slice my achilles tendon in half with its beak, forestalling an escape on my bike, while the other two started walking around to my blind side in a classic maneuver I've seen wild wolf packs perform on National Geographic animal shows.

I decided it was best to keep my focus on the two chickens who seemed to pose the greatest threat. Remembering the advice of signs put up at Minto Brown when a cougar has been sighted in the area, I stood as tall as possible, tried to look confident, and raised my arms (easy, since they were holding my iPhone).

In the end, as should be obvious, since I'm alive to write this blog post, I survived.

I was able to pedal off -- well, my bike doesn't have pedals, so I ellipticaled my way off -- grateful as the fearsome clucking noises the beasts had been making receded into the distance. 

Once I got what seemed to be a safe distance away, I realized that my mouth was dry from fear and trembling. I paused to eat some blackberries. Maybe it was the wind blowing a creaking tree branch, but I was sure I heard a nearby chicken screech. 

Had they followed me? Was the feral chicken pack planning another attack? I can't be sure. All I know is that those blackberries tasted marvelously sweet.

A brush with death will do that -- make life seem much more vibrant.

Rural Oregon bans marijuana shops, then wonders why its economy sucks

Oregon has a well-deserved national reputation for being progressive/liberal. But everybody who lives here knows that this only reflects the vibe in western Oregon, the eastern part of the state (except Bend) being way behind the times.

Thus even though arch-conservative Glenn Beck recently named Portland the worst city in America -- which means it actually is one of the best -- he could go to most places in rural Oregon and feel right at home.

Case in point: Oregonians legalized recreational marijuana last November by a comfortable margin, passing Measure 91 56% to 44%. But in its wisdom (ironically speaking) the 2015 state legislature decided to allow local governments to ban recreational marijuana sales if Measure 91 got 55% or more "no" votes in that jurisdiction.

Deschutes is the latest Oregon county to consider “opting out” of marijuana businesses.

This spring, state lawmakers passed a bill that gives cities and counties the option to ban pot grows, processors, wholesalers and retailers under certain conditions.

Local governments can only pass a permanent ban if 55 percent or more residents voted against legalizing recreational marijuana. In Deschutes County, Measure 91 passed by 52 percent, so restrictions on pot businesses would go on the November 2016 ballot.

If counties do not opt out, commercial marijuana grows will be regulated like any other farm crop.

So far, four Oregon counties and eight cities have enacted bans. Several are in eastern Oregon, where Measure 91 — the measure to legalize recreational pot — failed by a large percentage.

Even if a county or city decides to opt out, people will still be able to grow and use their own marijuana. They just might not be able to buy it, or farm pot for commercial sale within county limits.

One of the rural areas that has banned marijuana sales is Umatilla County. Today the local newspaper, East Oregonian, castigated the foolishness of this move.

A kick in the pants to Umatilla County Commissioners for continuing their ban on medical and recreational marijuana in the county.

It was clear from the beginning that their marijuana committee was created in bad faith, originally comprised of members who had all been outspoken in their opposition to the drug. (It was only after public pressure that a pro-marijuana committee member was named, though no one representing a marijuana business or even a medical marijuana patient was party to the discussion and the board remained far from balanced.) 

So the stacked committee told commissioners what they wanted to hear. And commissioners were glad to institute their recommendation.

The only thing that recommendation will do, however, is force Umatilla County to miss out on tax revenue — possibly north of $100,000 this fiscal year, according to estimates from the state.

TopShelf, a nationwide marijuana delivery service, is already operating openly in Pendleton, giving away pot for a $25 “donation.” And you can bet they aren’t checking IDs like a state-sanctioned store would. And they sure as heck aren’t paying any taxes. The black market is alive and well in Umatilla County thanks to head-in-the-sand county leadership.

Commissioner George Murdock even wrote out an argument for continuing the ban, derisively labeling marijuana as “weird” and not in line with Eastern Oregon values.

It’s disappointing that none of the people who use medical marijuana to lighten their heavy medical ailments stood before commissioners and told their story. Although with the attitude of the three men, it’s understandable why those people were unwilling to come forward.

The lack of compassion the commissioners have for those who benefit from marijuana is something we just can’t comprehend. What is gained from banning medical dispensaries?

Still, we don’t think the ban will last long. Everything else the prohibitionists have said about marijuana has failed to come to fruition so far, and we imagine this one will soon be overturned too. Until then, it will cost the county dearly, as we fall behind on a growing industry while others forge ahead. But then again, that’s nothing new around here.

No, it isn't. 

Rural Oregon, which is mostly Republican, likes to complain about how it is falling behind the rest of the state economically. It wants Democrats, who control the governorship and both chambers of the state legislature, to do more for rural economic development.

Well, I'd feel more sorry for rural areas of Oregon if they didn't keep on shooting themselves in the foot, then scream "Why am I bleeding? Why can't I move as fast as Portland?"

When rural counties and cities ban the sale of medical and recreational marijuana, an herb which is vastly superior to alcohol in every way -- safety, psychoactive effect, health benefits -- it makes them look  backward, behind the times, uncool, moralistic, uncaring about their citizens' quality of life.

Why would individuals or businesses with enough financial moxie to be able to relocate wherever they want choose to move to a rural Oregon county or city that is so stuck in the past, it has banned marijuana sales?

And why would cash-strapped governments pass up the 3% (I think it is) local tax on marijuana sales just to be able to feel all Jesus'y because they have kept stores that sell the Devil Weed out of their area? 

Stupid. It's just stupid. 

Rural Oregon is going to continue to economically lag behind Portland, Eugene, Corvallis and more with-it parts of this state so long as it proclaims "We're proudly redneck and want to keep on living as if it were 1955 instead of 2015." 

OK.

Just keep in mind that most people want to live in the present, not the past. They favor same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, equal rights, immigration reform, and other progressive policies. Rural Oregon is free to party like the 21st century never happened. 

It also is free to remain in economic doldrums because nobody in their right mind wants to live or work in Backward Land.

Thank you, Roseburg, for being an exception: 

The Roseburg City Council meeting Monday night included more anxiety and hand-wringing than usual. For the second consecutive meeting, councilors discussed whether to adopt a citywide ordinance that would prevent medical marijuana dispensaries from selling recreational marijuana at the beginning of October.

...However, supporters argued that marijuana was approved statewide and that the economy in Douglas County could use marijuana as a cash crop. John Sajo, executive director of the local advocacy group Umpqua Cannabis Association, said that to try to further restrict marijuana and deny consumers would only drive money elsewhere.

... In the end, Eggers, Fazio, Hawks, John McDonald and Steve Kaser voted against the restriction and won the majority...Sales of recreational marijuana will begin at medical marijuana dispensaries in Roseburg on Oct. 1.

Medical marijuana and opioids in Oregon: a tangled web of confusion

Yesterday the Bend Bulletin's magazine insert, "High Desert Pulse," included a fascinating cover story: When pot means no prescription for pain -- Doctor/patient divide over marijuana.
Download When pot means no prescription for pain; Doctor:patient divide over marijuana PDF

Countless patients suffering from debilitating conditions such as MS, arthritis and post-traumatic stress disorder have made extraordinary claims about how using marijuana reversed the course of their medical conditions and turned their lives around for the better. Many report marijuana relieves physical pain better than powerful prescription opiates and even allowed them to stop taking the medications. 

But the medical research thus far has not reached the same level of enthusiasm. In many cases, no study or doctor can support or explain the often outlandish anecdotes about how marijuana cured patients’ cancer or restored their vision, for example. 

Even for its more common applications, marijuana has shown only modest results. A recent scientific review of 79 studies found only moderate evidence it helps with chronic pain and the muscle spasms that are a hallmark of MS.

And yet, the claims keep coming. 

That puts doctors — who are scientists, heavily reliant on data — in a difficult position. Do they trust the anecdotal evidence of countless people who say marijuana saved them, or do they go by what the scientific literature says? 

The answer for most has been to avoid the subject entirely, especially because the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency still considers marijuana a Schedule I controlled substance. Even in states such as Oregon that have legalized medical and recreational marijuana, doctors still face the threat of losing their licenses or prescribing privileges if they’re found to have recommended marijuana to patients.

A major point of contention among doctors, medical marijuana users and advocates is doctors’ refusal to prescribe opiate pain medications to patients who use marijuana. Many doctors feel that since both marijuana and opiates are sedatives, their combined effects could produce severe impairment. Prescribing the drugs to marijuana users also could expose doctors to legal liability if the patients are injured as a result. Patients argue that using marijuana eventually allows them to get off most or all of their opiates, but that it can be a gradual transition.

Kudos to reporter Tara Bannow for clearly explaining this debate over how medical marijuana and narcotic painkillers should be used to help people. As noted in the passage above, the Federal government's absurd classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug (along with heroin) is one of the confusing factors here.

The article helped me understand something that has perplexed me: why do most medical marijuana patients in Oregon get their application approved by a doctor who specializes in this area, rather than their regular doctors? 

Apparently because most doctors are reluctant to sign off on a medical marijuana card because they're afraid of running afoul of the federal prohibition on using marijuana -- even though both medical and recreational marijuana are legal in Oregon.

For one, because so many primary care physicians refuse to sign patients’ approval documents for Oregon’s medical marijuana program, patients are forced to see doctors who specialize in medical marijuana approvals. That means relatively few doctors in Oregon sign hundreds of approvals for the medical marijuana program, and they tend to work out of what Le calls “signature mills.”

Newspaper stories often make it sound like this is a scam. But the truth is more that patients wanting to try medical marijuana to relieve pain, or for other legal reasons, have no other place to go than to clinics organized by medical marijuana dispensaries. 

What struck me the most about this story was a glaring contradiction.

How is it possible that doctors quoted in the piece could simultaneously say (1) Medical marijuana shouldn't be used by patients with chronic pain because it isn't effective, and (2) Medical marijuana shouldn't be used along with opioids because it has the same effects as narcotic painkillers?

Huh? If marijuana isn't effective, then what's the harm in taking it along with a prescription painkiller? And if it is effective, then why not encourage patients to use cannabis for pain relief rather than much more dangerous prescription drugs?

This chart tells the tale:

Prescription painkillers caused 16,917 deaths in 2011. Marijuana, 0. None. Zilch. Nada. Yet doctors continue to punish patients who want to use a safe herb for pain relief, pushing them toward dangerous drugs like Oxycontin.

Bogoger, whose doctors were unavailable for comment, said marijuana relieves his pain, gives him an appetite (something the pain meds took away) and puts him in a better mood. But since he’s been using it, doctors have refused to prescribe him pain medication. He said doctors look at his records, which show years of pain medications and — more recently — marijuana use, and assume he’s a drug addict trying to get high, Bogoger said.

This is crazy. Research shows that states with medical marijuana laws have fewer opioid overdose deaths. So obviously marijuana is beneficial to patients seeking pain relief, not a danger.

US states with laws that establish access to medical cannabis have lower rates of mortality due to opioid overdoses, according to a new study.

This finding suggests that some patients who used to get their pain relief from prescription opioid analgesics may be switching to medical marijuana now that it's available legally, and this transition may be associated with lower rates of mortality related to opioid overdose.

"I have treated lot of patients who have pain," said lead study author Marcus Bachhuber, MD, a primary care physician and clinical scholar, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program, Pennsylvania. "Some would tell me that they tried prescription painkillers, that those didn't work, and that marijuana was the only thing that worked for their pain."

Sadly, the vision of Salem's Sustainable Fairview has been much diluted

Back in January 2003 I wrote my first blog post about Sustainable Fairview, 275 acres in Salem, Oregon that previously was the site of the Fairview Training Center -- a facility for people with developmental disabilities.

In that post I included a document that summarized the vision for Sustainable Fairview. Here's an excerpt:
Download Fairview summary

For almost 100 years Fairview functioned as a self-sustaining community, as the State of Oregon's primary facility for developmentally disabled children. It provided housing and services and produced its own food and energy. Including the careful restoration of historic buildings and the integration of appropriately scaled, sited, and designed new buildings within the village center, Fairview is being created as an imaginative community embracing new urbanism, smart growth and green building systems.

With more than 700,000 square feet of buildings to rehabilitate, or thoughtfully deconstruct, enough land for 2,000 residential units, and an extensive network of linked parks, open space and protected natural resources, Fairview will be an ideal place to live, work and play.

There will be wonderful places to visit - places that are active and places that allow for passive enjoyment and reflection. Homes will be within walking distance of the Village Center with small shops and services to provide a hub of activity. Civic opportunities will engage the community socially and culturally with schools, libraries and parks. Recreation will be a part of every life. Public spaces and gathering places will always be near by. Generations will share all these places.

This vision appealed to me then. It appeals to me now. But for quite a while it's been obvious that the master plan has been so diluted, not much of the original vision remains.

Yesterday the always-interesting Salem Breakfast on Bikes blog (which really has nothing to do with breakfast, and often not even with bikes) put up a post about plans for the City of Salem to buy 29 acres of the Fairview property for a park, which includes preserving historic Le Breton Hall.

OK, a park sounds great. Preserving Le Breton Hall sounds great.

But I remember the three-plus years (2003-2006) when my wife and I owned shares in Sustainable Fairview Associates, LLC. We went to many meetings where the master plan for the 275 acres was being discussed. There was an overall integrated vision for the property, the goal being to create a world-class sustainable development that would draw people from far and wide.

In April 2006 I wrote "We check out of Sustainable Fairview." (Both literally and figuratively.)

Since, I've followed goings-on at the property pretty much as an outside observer -- though my wife and I do have a deposit on two lots at Fairview Addition, as described in "Fairview Addition is Salem's best 'New Urbanism' development."

Sustainable Fairview was my first, and probably last, dive into the complex world of large-scale property development. It isn't for the faint of heart, that much I know for sure.

I don't know if there are any grand conclusions for Salem to be drawn from the history of Sustainable Fairview. The property does bear some resemblance to the North Campus of the State Hospital, which, like Fairview, is state-owned land slated for renovation/reuse into a private development.

My main feeling is that it would have been much better if Sustainable Fairview had been able to find a deep-pocketed developer who could have taken on the job of building out the entire 275 acres in accord with the original master plan, or something akin to it.

I wrote about this back in 2004 in "275 urban ac.; 700,000 sq. ft.; get. vu.; Salem; $13 mil/offer"

Let’s just say that there still are plenty of opportunities for a well-heeled developer, investor, philanthropist, environmentalist, or plain person to get involved with an exceedingly rare opportunity: 275 acres within Salem’s urban growth boundary that contain 700,000 square feet of existing buildings and some of the best Cascades/Valley views imaginable. Plans are afoot to sell several parcels, yet most of the property is still available for purchase from SFA.

...What Sustainable Fairview lacks, most of all, is someone with Guts and Vision and Money who wants to do something that has never been done on such a scale before. Cautious small thinking has been stifling this project, along with a lack of $$$. So, come on, all you multi-millionaires out there who are looking to support a legacy that will live on after you’re gone, and who want to put their money to use in a fashion that promises both a high return on investment and a high return for the planet.

Well, my blog ad didn't lure any buyers.

So bit by bit, the 275 acre Fairview property has been balkanized. Pringle Creek Community bought part. Simpson Hills, LLC bought part. Olsen Design & Development bought part. Now the City of Salem likely will buy a part. And Sustainable Fairview Associates still owns a part.

Thus one sustainable vision has turned into five visions of... this and that. Pringle Creek Community has upheld the original vision, so far as I know. The other buyers, not so much (and in the case of Simpson Hills, that might be an overstatement). 

As the saying goes, it is what it is.

In 2004, back when my wife and I were members of Sustainable Fairview Associates, I wrote "Seriously seeking special setting."

I'll share it below in its entirety because I still feel that it gets at one of the most frustrating things about living in Salem: too often, people are overly cautious and uncreative, failing to dream big and follow through on that unique vision.

Before I leave my Sustainable Fairview subject for a while (see posting below), I want to share some P.S.’s. Yesterday I heard from a fellow SFA investor who sympathized with my frustrations, but said that he still hoped to live at Fairview one day and form a community with like-minded people. Well, that’s great. I hope that his dream comes true. 

However, special settings that attract special people require a special mindset for their creation. The soul of Walt Disney still is felt in Disneyland. The soul of John Bogle still is felt in Vanguard. The soul of Conrad Hilton still is felt in Hilton hotels. By contrast, conventional people create conventional settings that attract other conventional people. When I say “conventional” I don’t mean untalented or unsuccessful. I mean something that is hard to put into words, but is apparent to anyone who visits a special place. 

In downtown Salem, less than a block separates a Starbucks from the Coffee House café. The former is conventional; the latter is special. I don’t go to Starbucks unless I’m dying for a latte and there are no other options. I love to go to the Coffee House café and sit for an hour talking with friends, enjoying the unconventional atmosphere.

Sustainable Fairview Associates had an opportunity to create a world-class sustainable community here in Salem that would have been a truly special place. It would have drawn people from all over the country, and even the world, who wanted to live and work at Fairview. Some places people seek out. Other places—Aspen, Sedona, Carmel, Ashland—draw people like a magnet. And they are interesting people, unconventional people, special people. Whenever we go to visit friends in Ashland I realize that there are more artistic and creative souls in this southern Oregon home of the Shakespeare festival than there are in Salem, which has five times more people.

So, some sort of sustainable community probably will evolve at Fairview. But likely it will be a local or regional draw for potential residents and businesses, as evidenced by the early concern of SFA to have a marketing study conducted that analyzed the demand for housing in the Salem area. This was so short-sighted and uncreative, I couldn’t believe it. To start off by limiting your vision to a local market is like Walt Disney beginning by thinking, “What kind of an amusement park will attract people from Los Angeles?” 

Thinking big, thinking “outside the box,” thinking creatively—the lack of such thinking is what frustrates Laurel and me as investors in Sustainable Fairview Associates. If we had wanted to invest in something conventional we would have left our money in index mutual funds. Instead, we were seriously seeking to help create a special setting that both we and the world could enjoy. Maybe it still will come to be. I doubt it, unless some special people with a special vision take over the management of SFA, and create a development that matches their sensibilities. 

"We Need Brain" -- GOP prez debate songified in 4 minutes

Damn.

If I'd known this highly creative songified summary of the first GOP presidential debate was coming, I could have saved two-plus hours of valuable remaining-life time and just watched a four minute video.

 

A New York Times piece provides background on the video. I read:

The Gregory Brothers are a music video production group made up of Andrew, Michael, Evan and Sarah Gregory.

How they put the video together so fast is mind-boggling. 

On a related note, I loved this post-debate Trumpanalysis by Ezra Klein. Trump is growing on me, in a decidedly weird way. His saying that he'd support himself and not run as a third party candidate if he gets the GOP nomination fits with Klein's take on Trump's marvelous self-referentialness.

You cannot embarrass Donald Trump. You cannot back him down with questions that make other candidates buckle. And the crowd loves him for it. They love him because he does not back down. The fact that Trump doesn't back down is the core of Trump-ism. It is the answer to how he will negotiate with the Democrats, with China, with Mexico. He will get what he wants because he doesn't back down.

Is it lunacy? Sure. But it's an appealing kind of lunacy. It's the ultimate Green Lantern Theory of the American Presidency. Candidates always promise that by virtue of their force of character, they will be able to do what their predecessors couldn't, while making fewer compromises than their predecessors made. It's what the people want to hear.

But Trump goes further. There is no border or boundary to his self-confidence. He doesn't just tell you he won't back down. He stands up and shows he won't back down. He is a mathematical proof for himself.

Enlightened Theatrics' Hair production made me feel "the 60's are still real"

I've never enjoyed live theatre more than Enlightened Theatrics' production of Hair my wife and I saw last night at Salem's Grand Theatre. 

And that isn't the cannabis talking.

Well, let's make that it isn't just the cannabis talking. Hey, it seemed oh-so-appropriate to celebrate a paean to 60's hippiedom with some of Oregon's newly-legal recreational marijuana.

Which, in a non-roundabout way, brings me to the Numero Uno reason I felt so good during and after this marvelous production of Hair:

The talented directors and performers made me realize The '60s are still real. 

Meaning, it isn't only that the hippies of the '60s laid the foundation for important social changes that are manifest today, which I've always felt was true. What this interpretation of Hair showed me was something more: the spirit of the '60s itself is alive and well at this very moment.

I wasn't aware of this realization until I woke up in the middle of the night after going to sleep while recollecting the show I'd seen a few hours before. Almost instantly that The '60s are still real intuition popped into my semi-awake brain.

After every other production of Hair that I've seen, and I've seen a lot, I'd think "Ah, those were the days." Last night, though, the feeling was "Ah, these are the days." 

Hair is set in 1968. I was 20 years old then, a student at San Jose State College in the Bay Area, a fairly short stone's throw (as well as stoned drive) from San Francisco and Berkeley. So the vibe of Hair is part of my mental DNA.

We hippies of the '60s thought Flower Power was going to change the world. The Revolution wasn't going to stop with us; it would continue through the efforts of other young people.

I remember thinking after graduating in 1971, "I always want to live around a college, so I can stay in touch with the radical youth movement, never becoming part of straight society that's content with how things are." Well, that didn't come to pass.

Marriage. Child. Job. House in Salem. It wasn't long before I had become the person I'd vowed I wouldn't be. I stopped using alcohol and drugs. Became a vegetarian. Meditated for an hour or two each day. 

Yes, I was still trying to change myself and the world. But the energy, the spirit, the intensity of the '60s faded away. I figured that those Hair-era years were a marvelous one-time occurrence in the history of the cosmos.

Watching Hair last night dispelled that misconception. 

What I saw, thanks to the hugely talented performers and directors, was a production which felt very 2015, not 1968. I was struck the most by fluid gender roles that spoke to the great changes in attitudes, and the law, regarding same-sex relationships. 

My memory of the '60s (keeping in mind the adage "if you can remember anything about the sixties, you weren't really there") is that we hippies were liberated in many ways -- drugs, sex, music, politics -- but not really in our attitudes toward homosexuality, much less other non-traditional varieties of human sexual orientation.

My recollection of previous Hair performances I've seen bears this out. Yes, there was some guy-guy, gal-gal dancing and other interactions, but not nearly to the pleasingly gender-bending extent of Enlightened Theatrics' Hair production.

After the show began I'd think, "That woman is a great dancer." A few minutes later I'd change the thought to, "No, wait, that's a man... probably." By intermission I was into a more fluid mind-blown state of "That person is a great dancer." 

For me, this gave Hair a very different feel.

The comparative sexual rigidity, so to speak, of other productions I'd seen gave way to a much more free-flowing vibe. Guys getting it on with guys, gals with gals, guys with gals, gals with guys. It's all one, dude... As noted before, this was somewhat in evidence back in my hippie days, but this was way before the gay rights movement had really taken hold.

Today same-sex marriage is legal everywhere in the United States. Archaic attitudes toward the LGBT community are still very much in evidence, sadly. Happily, this is temporary. Young people are much more accepting of diversity in sexual orientation. Hidebound old folks are dying off.

So as I watched the youthful energy of the Hair performers, I felt really good about the future. Of the world. Of this country. Of Salem. 

The '60s weren't about a particular generation, my cadre of baby boomers. That marvelous decade was just one manifestation of a steady trend in human culture toward more acceptance of diversity, increasing creativity, fuller support of individual freedom.

Yes, there are rises and falls along this generally upward trend line. I sort of alluded to that when I saw the Producing Artistic Director of this Hair production, Vincenzo Meduri, standing in front of the stage during intermission.

I couldn't resist going up to him to say how much I was enjoying the show. Which led to more enthusiastic blabbing on my part about how I felt he and the other Enlightened Theatrics folks were changing Salem for the better, energizing downtown and bringing new life to Oregon's overly staid capital city.

"I've lived here for 38 years," I told Meduri.

"So many times I've been hopeful that Salem, and particularly downtown, were turning the corner on becoming the diverse, creative, energetic city we have the potential to be, yet we never seem to get there. You guys are giving me new hope. I think you're going to be a really positive force for creative change in Salem."

Meduri reached out to give me a hug after I'd said my piece. That felt good. 

As did the hand extended by a cast member in the finale of Hair, where some audience members go up on stage to dance. I'd been sitting in my Row D aisle seat, watching other people in the audience join the cast, torn between a desire to jump up myself and ridiculous thoughts like Maybe there already are too many people on stage; it can't fit any more.

It just took that outstretched hand to change my mind to Yes, Yes, Yes, the message of one of my Strange Up Salem columns that I obviously don't take to heart as much as I should. A small gesture. A happy result. 

Because I enjoyed swaying back and forth with the cast member and dancing in my own old-guy fashion with others on stage. A female performer said "thank you" to me. I can't remember if I said "I'm the thankful one, for all of you Enlightened Theatrics folks," but I sure felt that way.

Bottom line: go see Hair while you can.

I highly recommended the show to someone today, saying "It will change your life." That isn't an exaggeration. I've run out of words, so won't dwell on how marvelous the acting, dancing, and music is. Believe me, it's like having a Broadway show manifest in Salem, but without the sky-high ticket price.

Read a couple of stories in the current issue of Salem Weekly if you have any doubts about seeing Hair. Here's an excerpt from "Hair in Salem; it's different this time."

Enlightened Theatrics mission includes its support of both local and national talent, which meant the team accepted video audition submissions from all over the country. “For three or four of them,” Meduri says, “this is their first show, and they’re really rising to the occasion.  You can’t tell them from the seasoned pros.”

Of the final cast of 21 people, 15 came from out of state; four are from Salem and two from Portland.

The energetic newcomers are joining Wockenfuss, in Salem for the first time herself.  “It’s refreshing how open it is here,” she says.  “Everyone I’ve met in town is so enthusiastic about this project and I’m excited to be here for the biggest production Enlightened Theatrics has done to date.”

And here's part of a review, "Enlightened's Hair brings down the house."

The current production of HAIR at Enlightened Theatrics is one of the best musicals I have seen, my favorite piece at Enlightened so far, and a gem in Salem’s theatrical scene. It is simply excellent theatre across the board. Expertly directed by Vincenzo Meduri and choreographed by Jessica Wockenfuss, the staging is fast, smooth, energetic, and visually stimulating.

As in previous Enlightened Theatrics productions, director/producer Meduri has assembled a team of professional talent from around the country. The vocal talent is outstanding; the rendition of the title song brought down the house. It is difficult to single-out any one performer from this fine cast, but I will say that male leads Drew Shafranek (Claude) and Jake Bivens (Berger) are charismatic, powerful, and beautiful enough that I could I can easily see them as leaders of a real-life commune (or a cult). 

Tell DirecTV, "2015 is the year to carry the Pac-12 Networks!"

With August having rolled around, it's time for me to start getting irritated again at DirecTV for not having reached a deal to carry the Pac-12 Networks. 

(This is my 2014 rant, which includes links to my previous rants.)

There's more hope this year than in the past.

The president of the Pac-12 Networks said that he is hopeful a deal can be worked out with DirecTV, now that it has been bought by AT&T. And a statement on the Pac-12 Networks web site raised my football spirits a bit:

We know that DirecTV subscribers have been frustrated not having access to Pac-12 Networks. Our biggest partner, AT&T, recently acquired DirecTV and we are working hard on strengthening and expanding our partnership to include carriage of Pac-12 Networks on DirecTV. With football season quickly approaching, we want to make sure Pac-12 Networks are available to fans on DirecTV in time for our opening games on September 3. While we have proven to be the most reliable link between our teams and our fans, we will not be satisfied until we have complete distribution for our fans.

OK. But I still wanted to send a message to DirecTV. If you're a DirecTV subscriber who wants to be able to get the Pac-12 Networks for a few cents a day, I encourage you to email DirecTV also. 

Here's my message:

So, in September 2015 am I going to again curse the day I signed up for DirecTV, as I have the previous years when football season starts and I can't watch all of the Oregon Ducks and OSU Beavers games?

I'm hoping that since you're now part of AT&T, the senseless corporate "pissing match" you've been engaged in with the Pac-12 Networks will come to an end.

You're losing more satisfied customers the longer football fans aren't able to watch ALL of the Pac-12 games. I realize that DirecTV says to its subscribers, "You'll be able to watch the important games, since they'll be shown on ESPN, Fox, etc."

Well, with the Oregon Ducks in position to vie for a national championship again, ALL of the team's games are important. I don't appreciate DirecTV telling me which Oregon games I should want to watch.

Yes, that includes Eastern Washington on September 5 -- less than a month away. If you don't reach a deal with the Pac-12 Networks this year, I'll be cursing you again, big time!

Clinton-Warren 2016! (and my other brilliant political ideas)

I'm a political junkie. I like talking politics because, unlike science, it is one of those fields where I can honestly say to myself, "Brian, your ideas are so freaking right-on, it's unbelievable!" 

Of course, everybody else in the political arena feels the same way. That's the nature of political discourse: everybody can be correct, because it's pretty much all about feeling, not facts. 

So this is some of what I'm feeling at the moment, from my obviously correct personal progressive point of view.

(1) Don't do it, Joe Biden. Yikes. The idea of you running for president fills me with a mixture of fear and boredom. Listen to your friends. You'd never beat Hillary, and the effort would tarnish your legacy.

(2) Look upon Bernie Sanders' campaign as an entertaining interlude before Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, fellow Dems. Don't take him seriously. He never could become president, and he probably wouldn't be a very good president if somehow a miracle happened. Give him applause for trying; save your campaign donations for Clinton.

(3) Clinton-Warren 2016! I like the sound of this. Not an original idea, I readily admit. It could work. There have been lots of male-male President-VP tickets. Why not a female-female? This would assuage the sadness of super-liberal Sanders supporters. And Warren would bring some fire to the campaign. I loved her recent "War on Women" Senate speech. 

(4) Donald Trump is looking less and less like a joke to me. He actually can make some sense when he wants to. I can understand why he's leading the GOP field at the moment. He's a bit (OK, maybe just a little bit) like a conservative Bernie Sanders. He says what he thinks and doesn't give a crap how you think about what he thinks.

(5) Please, Donald, run as a third party candidate if you don't get the Republican nomination. A poll showed that a third of likely Republican voters would back Trump if he was a third party candidate. Seems like an excellent plan to me. As I'm sure it does to the Clinton campaign.

(6) Regardless of what Trump does, Republicans seem determined to give Dems another four years in the White House. They're trashing women's health care, insulting immigrants, pushing a war with Iran, vowing to take health insurance away from 16 million Americans, and denying the reality of global warming during the hottest year on record. Keep it up, GOP. Your idiocy appeals to liberals like me.

(7) Forcing a government shutdown this fall, an increasingly likely proposition, will be icing on the 2016 Democratic Presidential Win cake. Part of me thinks, "Congressional Republicans wouldn't be that stupid, would they?" But the larger part of me responds with "Sure they would." Which puts a smile on my progressive face.

(8) Jeb Bush is my main worry. He's the only GOP guy who seems to have a decent chance of beating Clinton. Yeah, he's bland and unexciting. But those are pluses compared to the crazies who are also vying for the Republican presidential nomination. Bush is the only one who looks presidential to me. Hopefully a crazy will win out in the GOP primaries.

(9) I'm sure Bush is trying to leave himself enough wiggle room to do what Republican presidential candidates always do: run to the middle after they get the nomination. He'd be smart to make that lots of room. If Bush came out for immigration reform, preserving Obamacare, restoring voter's rights, doing something about climate change, and legalizing marijuana -- while remaining conservative on fiscal and foreign policy issues -- he'd be an impressive candidate against whoever the Democrats nominate.

(10) Who hopefully will be: Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. Womyn Power!

Planned Parenthood fetal tissue controversy is pure B.S.

Planned Parenthood is a great organization. Thankfully, a ridiculous attempt to defund it failed in the Senate today. 

Senate Republicans’ latest ploy to choke off all federal funding to Planned Parenthood failed, as expected, on Monday afternoon in a 53-46 procedural vote. The measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to move it forward.

It shouldn’t have been anywhere near that close.

But the perennial conservative effort to cripple the nation’s largest family-planning organization got a boost last month from a string of grainy, edited undercover videos released by an anti-abortion group, and purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the illegal sale of fetal tissue.

Of course, despite the group’s efforts to misrepresent the executives’ comments, the complete videos in fact show that there is neither illegality nor profit in what Planned Parenthood does. As one representative explained on tape repeatedly (and as at least two state investigations have confirmed), the organization follows federal law in allowing women to donate fetal tissue for research, and in charging small amounts to cover the costs of storage and shipment.

For decades, fetal tissue has been a critical tool for university and government scientists studying diseases including diabetes, muscular dystrophy and H.I.V. The National Institutes of Health give out $76 million in grant money annually for such research.

It's infuriating when conservatives lie, lie, lie.

Planned Parenthood hasn't broken any laws. It is providing valuable health services to women. What's immoral are the right-to-life and GOP liars who knowingly spout falsehoods about the organization.

This video does a good job of explaining what the much-ado-about-nothing Planned Parenthood controversy is all about. (It's worth sitting through the 30 second ad at the beginning.)

 

 

Enlightened Theatrics block party rocks downtown Salem (I've got photos!)

The folks who bought the Grand Theatre are bringing new energy and creativity to downtown Salem.

Thank you, members of the Meduri family! I thoroughly enjoyed the Enlightened Theatrics block party you put on today, using a closed-off block of High Street in front of the theatre.

Ah, these barricades were a beautiful sight. I hope we see more of them.

Downtown Salem would benefit from more two-way, two-lane streets instead of the one-way, three-lane streets that make it difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to enjoy the Historic Area. 

Closing off streets for special events like this one shows residents the benefits of using them more for people rather than cars. Please make this a regular happening, Enlightened Theatrics/Grand Theatre.

I liked the looks of the theatre's new sign, a replica of one that graced the Grand back in the 20's and 30s. Leaving at 7 pm, I didn't get to see the sign lit up, boo-hoo. 

However, I was able to drink a Gilgamesh Brewing Mamba beer and enjoy food from local downtown eateries. Wild Pear, Ventis, Kitchen on Court Street, and Rafns all had booths. Kudos to the restaurant staff who served block party'ers from 2 to 7 on an unusually hot Salem day.

These ladies were right in style for the block party, since Enlightened Theatrics currently is putting on a production of Hair, the musical. My wife and I have tickets for next Wednesday.

Having gone to college in the San Francisco Bay Area from 1966 to 1971 (OK, it was San Jose State, not Berkeley), I'm looking forward to having some Age of Aquarius flashbacks stimulated in my brain. Guess I'll learn how long the half-life of psychedelic "radiation" is. 

Trixy and the Nasties, a Portland band, entertained the crowd from 5:30 to 7:00. Their style: "A collective influence of Motown, Stax, Proto-funk, Soul, and Jazz wrapped up into a deliciously nasty sound." 

Well, even though I don't know what Stax or Proto-funk means, I liked the sound! 

After playing for an hour or so in the heat, Trixy begged for some cold beers for the band. These women came to their rescue. Salemians are compassionate. 

This group of dancers got their Stax and Proto-funk on in a conga-line fashion near the end of the show. I think most of them were associated with Enlightened Theatrics. They looked theatrical. Enlightened too? Sure. 

Inspired, Laurel and I danced during the last Trixy and the Nasties song. I'm mildly get-up-and-dance phobic in situations like this, being used to partner ballroom dancing rather than free style solo dancing. But, hey, I survived. Even had fun.

Admittedly, that was partly the beer talking.

I enjoyed seeing the lawn in front of the Marion County Courthouse being used for something other than a place to walk past. 

I've been to the Courthouse many times. Until today I've never seen anyone sitting on the grass and enjoying the shade under the trees. Like so many supposedly "public" spaces in downtown Salem, members of the public usually aren't much in evidence.

Events like this one show that downtown Salem, which already is a great place to visit, has a lot of untapped potential. Much creativity, energy, and enthusiasm waits to be released.

Again, many thanks to Enlightened Theatrics for putting on the block party and showing us what is possible.