Paul Newman has died from cancer, aged 83.

BBC News
Paul Leonard Newman born on 26 Jan 1925 in the Shaker Heights suburb of Cleveland, Ohio died Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer at the age of 83.

He is survived by his wife, five children, two grandsons and his older brother Arthur.

rest in peace Paul

Remember Lane County Commissioner Bobby Green? We do!

Register Guard

Lane County Commissioner Bobby Green and challenger Rob Handy will be debating job growth and leadership for the first time Tuesday in the race for county commissioner.

All that I have to say is if you have any questions about Bobby Green, read the blue box on the left of this blog.

excerpt from Register Guard editorial dated April 6, 2007

"Ben Pooler is still upset. So upset he's leading an effort to recall Lane County Commissioner Bobby Green, one of three county board members who voted earlier this year to enact an income tax..."
[link to editorial]

Sirius satellite radio follows trend of AM radio by preempting regular programming for sports

Robin's Commentary

I am a subscriber to Sirius satellite radio because I was impressed with their channel lineup and programming variety… And for the sports enthusiasts, Sirius satellite radio offers about half a dozen channels for sports.

One of the major advantages about satellite radio is that you get the same programming and reception just about anywhere versus local radio, so you're pretty much guaranteed not to miss your favor show.

Last week Sirius started following a trend that is common in AM radio… When there's sports playing somewhere… AM suddenly becomes sports radio on all channels of the AM dial.

Now I realize that sports, especially football is a very popular game… However, not everybody wants to listen to sports all the time.

It is specially annoys me when I set aside time to tune into my favor talk show and it got preempted for some game. KUGN is especially famous for this.

So you can imagine how livid I was last Sunday when my radio classics program channel 118 was preempted for a football game. In fact, as I scanned the other channels, I discovered 11 other channels that were preempted for some football game.

I wrote satellite radio, and here's their response…

Dear Robin,

We appreciate the time you have taken to contact us regarding sports on RadioClassics Ch. 118. We are here to assist you.

Robin, we certainly understand your frustration as you do not enjoy listening to sports. SIRIUS remains dedicated to providing our subscribers with a wide variety of programming including music, news, entertainment, and sports.

By providing the entire NFL game schedule and over 1,000 NBA games per season, we offer the most comprehensive sports programming for fans to follow their hometown teams, from anywhere in the continental U.S. While most of these games are offered on our sports channels, it is necessary from time to time to share broadcast time with a few of our talk channels. We will re-air interrupted shows when possible

So my interpretation of this letter… Is that Sirius satellite radio is actually sports radio, and your shows don't matter.

I am not paying a monthly fee to listen to sports… But I like my talk radio (which was preempted) my Radio Classics show which includes old time mysteries such as Sherlock Holmes (which was preempted) and the comedy channels (which surprisingly was not preempted at this time)

Anyway, if you feel the same way that I do… Please e-mail customer service or call them at 1-888-539-SIRIUS (7474) and tell them that you do not appreciate them preempting channels that you are paying for because of sports.

If they feel that there are more games than channels, then they should either add more channels or prioritize the games that they wish to show on the available games channels.

SportsChannel line up
normal channel lineup

by the way, they just merged with their competitor, XM Radio, So the choices for satellite radio just became limited.

Update on fatal shooting in Springfield

Oregon live AP

Michael Wayne Wesley Jr., A suspect in the fatal shooting in Springfield is in critical condition after being shot by two police officers after he rammed his pickup into a patrol car, injuring one of the officers .

Wesley and 27 year old Ronald Joshua Smith, using a 45 caliber handgun and a shotgun fired at a man and woman on Wednesday morning, killing 35 year old Wendy Whitaker.

Smith was charged with murder and also faces theft, burglary and weapons charges.

Legendary country guitarist Jerry Reed dies

Grammy award winner Jerry Reed died on Monday (September 1) after he suffered complications arising from emphysema.

Reed appeared in 'Smokey and the Bandit' films as trucker Cledus 'Snowman' Snow along with Burt Reynolds and Sally field.

Reed was 71

Woman fatally shot in the Thurston area

Woman fatally shot in the Thurston area
KVAL

Wendy Jo Whitaker, 35 was fatally shot early this morning around 6:45 AM in the Springfield Thurston area around the 5100 block of E street.
Jerry hunter, who lives nearby, said he and his wife heard maybe five rapid shots just before 7:00 AM.

" Rick Harrison, Springfield police captain, said investigators have not ruled out the possibility of a drive by shooting."

(Photo courtesy of kval)

According to some of my sources, there's also some acts of vandalism in the immediate area that same morning resulting in multiple vehicles having their tires slashed.

The question that I have is how long is the public going to put up with the lack of protection.

Perhaps, if our public employees are unable to perform the job that they were hired to do, e.g. protect our citizens, then maybe it is time to start firing those employees.

For example, I'm not sure if Springfield has passed this ordinance yet, however both Eugene and lane county will not respond to a home alarm system. It is required that a security officer investigate the alarm before a police officer is dispatch.

So what is the point? The police claim that there are too many false alarms. I agree. That is the responsibility of the installer to ensure that an alarm system is reliable and the responsibility of the business or home owner to prevent false alarms.

However, it is like the little boy that cried wolf.

What really gets me about this is that it was published in the newspaper!

How does the above analogy relate?

The same way that it relates to the district attorney's office publicly announcing which crimes that they will not prosecute, that due to lack of jail space, when someone is arrested it is mostly a "catch and release" scenario similar to fishing. It invites criminals and criminal activity in the area because they know that there will be no consequences for their actions.

The solution…

Start enforcing the laws, open up more jails and also budget to staff them would be good for starters.

And on the issue funding… As I've always said, it is OUR tax money which is divvied up in to different budgets. However, it is still always "right pocket, left pocket, it is still the same pair of pants."

E.g. people need to decide which is more important. Protecting our citizens or more park's.

Forget the " exclusion zones" BS, as they are proposing in the city of Eugene. Get serious and start enforcing the damn laws.

United States sending millions of dollars to Mexico to help fight crime. What about us?

BBC News
Rallies were held in all of Mexico's 32 states, including 150,000 people gathering in Mexico's capital city, Zocalo square. Protesters were wearing mainly white clothing and marched in silence while holding candles to indicate that they had enough of the murders and kidnappings that were plaguing their country.

So far this year, at least 2700 people have been killed and three other people kidnapped mostly from drug related violence.

Last week as a result of the protest, the country's political and security leaders drew up an emergency 74-point plan to combat the ways of violence. Measures include firing corrupt police officers, new prisons and methods to combat drug trafficking.
Washington is also helping out with hundreds of millions of dollars.

I think that it is really great that the Mexican people are banding together to help improve their country. If those that snuck into United States illegally would return home to help, the Mexican people could take back their country and make it a better place to live.

Also, while it is very noble of Washington to help Mexico at in this area, I have to ask what about the crime in the United States?

Why is it that when it comes to helping other countries, we're always there with our pocketbook open, however, when it comes to helping people in our own country, like protecting our citizens for example, suddenly we do not have enough money.

Is it just me or is there something wrong with this picture?