Honest, it's law enforcement, not revenue enhancement!

Registerguard
The Springfield City Council was split over whether or not to approve $114,000 project to install "tattletale" lights on the back of traffic lights. The lights which can be seen from safe distance allow officers to determine the state of the traffic light as the driver passes through the intersection.

“They allow law enforcement to more accurately, more objectively enforce the laws,” said Pishioneri, who is a Lane County Sheriff’s deputy. “Many traffic stops do not result in a ticket, but a conversation of safety. It’s not a ‘gotcha’ — it’s a ‘hello.’ ”

Photo courtesy of Lane Controls

The "tattletale" light is designed to indicate the red phase of the signal. It is attached normally to the back of the traffic light itself so that officers can see the status of the light from a safe distance.

“I don’t want officers sitting at the five or six intersections where we’re going to have tattletale lights,” Ralston said. “I’m all for public safety and making our roads safer. But some people might consider this revenue generation.”

Leiken along with Councilors Christine Lundberg, John Woodrow and Dave Ralston voted against the combined projects, stating that the city needs to be "very prudent right now."

“To me, these are almost luxury lights, for lack of a better word,” he said. These lights will be a good thing in the future ... but as we’re going through these budget issues right now, I don’t think its a prudent time to delve into this.” said Leiken

once again the city a Springfield makes me proud. While I will agree that this can be considered "revenue enhancement", at the majority of intersections, I would think this would be unnecessary. At most four way intersections, the traffic light in the opposite direction is normally synced together.
Photo courtesy of Lane Controls

Ted "tax and gouge me" Kulongoski just does not get it… Were broke!

the Oregonian


Robins Commentary

Well, the great governor of Oregon is at it again! It is bad enough that Oregon is suffering from massive layoffs, and until recently the high cost of fuel [which we're still recovering from], and the housing crisis, just to name a few, that sleepy Ted would actually have the nerve to suggest a tax increase.

The "excuse" for the increases is the one billion dollar road, bridge and rail project. The governor indicated that this project would create 2100 jobs a year for the first five years. The governor feels that since it worked for President Roosevelt during the great depression, that it would work in the 21st century for Oregon.

Oh yes, and there that the little issue that the Oregon falls $1.3 billion short of maintaining state highways according to state estimates.

Now for the nitty gritty… How to pay for such a project. The governor has suggested the following…

a 2¢ per gallon gas tax hike, which would increase the 24¢ per gallon tax to 26¢. The gas tax itself has not been raised since 1993. (there's a reason for that)

More than doubling the annual fees for car title and registration from $27.00 to $81.00 a year. "Oregon has among the lowest registration fees in the nation, [and their is something wrong with that?] and the increased fees would be the plans largest source of money."

Title fees would double to $110 dollars a year.

Increase in the tobacco tax by 2 1/2¢, and take $16,000,000 in lottery money.

[why not… We're all wealthy]

And the one that we should fight big time, one of the governor's pet project is putting a GPS tracking system in your car solely for the purpose of collecting taxes, based on the time and the miles that you drive. The tax would be collected at the pump during fill up. And if you think taxes are hard to get rid of now… Just wait until this variable tax becomes a reality.

In my opinion, now's the time to start cutting taxes, not raising them.

Springfield uses a cam to track traffic in roundabout

KVAL

The city of Springfield a while back purchased a "handy-cam" to track traffic
for the city's new roundabout at the intersection of Harlow and Pioneer Parkway to record traffic patterns. [you'll notice a sign at the intersection stating such]

"So what we will do is we'll use the video to record the traffic and then in the office we will count the traffic usually just one person forward and back forward and back," says Brian Barnett with the city."

The camera according to Barnett, will save the city money by reducing the number of people required to count cars.

I hope that they will also count the number of finder benders, near misses and people like me that avoid that intersection at all costs because it feels like your taking your life in your hands just to get across the street.

And what about the EmX, is it going to add to the confusing at this intersection when the $40 million gateway project is completed?{funding}

Yes, I know that roundabouts work well in other countries, however when I talk to my friends that are from England where roundabouts are common, they tell me that they are much larger with much more room to maneuver and they even feel that this roundabout is dangerious.

Barack Obama: illegal immigration hits home

Robin's commentary:

Admittedly I have not been following all of the presidential election items as closely as I would've liked to, however, one thing that I have noticed listening to CNBC and other news services, including talk shows is the "hands-off" approach regarding immigration.

As you will recall, McCain along with Senator Kennedy years back tried to put into place an "amnesty bill", otherwise known as the immigration Reform Act of 2007 ( S. 1033) [Library of Congress]

April 3, 2006, Obama presented a statement to the Senate floor on endorsing a bill that would increase strong enforcement of our immigration laws. Citing as an example of his personal experience on immigration, he stated that fact that his father was from Kenya. Barack included in his statement on the Senate floor...

The American people are a welcoming and generous people. But those who enter our country illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of law. And because we live in an age where terrorists are challenging our borders, we simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, and unchecked. Americans are right to demand better border security and better enforcement of the immigration laws. [Barack Obama.senate.gov]

The issue of immigration hits home for Barack Obama with the announcement last night that Obama's aunt Zeituni Onyango is in the country illegally from Kenya, and was also denied a request for asylum four years ago after a judge ordered her deportation. [AP news]

Obama denies any knowledge of his aunt's immigration status. [ABC news] The interesting thing that if Barack Obama had been aware of his aunt's immigration status, Obama could be guilty of harboring an illegal alien. By definition,

Harboring -- Subsection 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) makes it an offense for any person who -- knowing or in reckless disregard of the fact that an alien has come to, entered, or remains in the United States in violation of law, conceals harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, such alien in any place, including any building or any means of transportation. [ US Department of Justice]

In either case, Barack's belief in abiding by the laws of the United States regarding immigration will be challenged. e.g. it is easy to make a statement regarding enforcing a law when it involves a stranger. However, that could be a different matter when it's family or personal.

In the wake of the announcement days before the presidential election[which I agree with], an unusual nationwide directive within the immigrations and customs enforcement (ICE) stated that any deportations prior to Tuesday's elections would be approved at the regional directors level.[Fox news]

While I am not advocating for or against voting for Obama, I think that you'll have to agree that things are going to be very interesting as the story unfolds.

It's all in a day's work

KATU

It is 7:20 AM.

Oregon State police trooper Steve Thrapp finds himself in pursuit of a suspect who was weaving back and forth across the road and who failed to yield to his lights and siren on highway 58 east of Eugene.

In a attempt to stop the suspect, a roadblock was set up 11 miles east of Eugene.

As the suspect approaches the roadblock, he attempts to drive around a patrol car where he is tackled by trooper Casey Codding and arrested for disorderly conduct, failing to obey police officer and resisting arrest.


The suspect is tackled by a trooper while driving a car???

Not exactly!

The suspect was Robert James Frank, 39, of Eugene who led the state trooper on a 5 mph chase on a bicycle after a report of a bicyclist riding without lights and wearing dark clothing on highway 58.

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