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Posts published in “Day: October 3, 2007”

Once, they’d have burned it

October 3, 2007

And we keep wondering how many affronts to our dignity as citizens we'll continue to put up with in the interest of fake "security" . . . against, for example, the bra-the-could-be-a-weapon.

The Spokane Spokesman Review is reporting on an incident at the Coeur d'Alene federal courthouse, when a wire in a woman's bra set off a metal detector at the front door. The Bonners Ferry resident said, "When I walked through, the gentleman said, "'Do you have an underwire bra on?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'You have to remove it.' "

So she did, then and there, "while her husband tried to shield her from view of others in the crowded lobby by holding up his coat."

And we can all feel so much safer now.

Measure 37’s reach

October 3, 2007
Measure 37 Yamhill

Measure 37 claims in Yamhill County

We'll be getting more into Measure 37/Measure 49 before long, but for the moment thought we'd point out a series of maps on the pro-49 group's website, part of one of which you can see above. (Oregon's Measure 37, speaking roughly, allows land owners to develop their property under the state of land use law and rules in effect when they or their family bought it.)

There's a collection of these maps on the Yes on 49 site, showing where and how large (in terms of land size) the claims are. They should come with an asterisk, in that what the land might prospectively be used for could vary a lot, and many claims would never, even if fully exercised, not reshape the landscape in a big way.

Still, the number of claims and their effect - however you look at it - is substantial.

Westlund’s entry

October 3, 2007
Ben Westlund at the treasurer announcement

Ben Westlund at the treasurer announcement

Overdue, in a way, since candidates for the other partisan Oregon statewides of '08 - secretary of state and attorney general - already are in the field. Maybe it's an argument that Ben Westlund's decision to run for state treasurer (expected for a while, announced this afternoon), leaving behind the legislature where he's been for a decade, really wasn't automatic.

Treasurer, most of the time in most places, is a relatively ministerial job. Most times, most places, if you don't hear about what your state treasurer is up to, that's good news; if you do hear, the news is apt to be bad. For some political people of a technical bent, that's good enough. It would seem not for Westlund, who has been among the most productive legislators (not only in Oregon, but in the Northwest) in recent years, on subjects as disparate as health care, environmental protection, support for the arts and renewable energy. His energies, skills and dispositions would seem to fit more nearly something like governor or member of Congress - not so much because they're "bigger" offices but because their scope is larger and more varied, and they're more involved with creative policymaking.

But sometimes, the scope is what you make it.

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