Construction is well underway on The Jackstraw mixed-use development near the The Box Factory in Bend.  

Esteemed Bend City Council members, I am writing to ask you to give me a massive tax break, like you did for the Jackstraw project.

I am a retired broadcaster, and you probably know that industry is not particularly lucrative. I am also a U.S. Navy Vietnam veteran who served 4 years back in the 1970s.

I have family to support, and a nice big tax break would make my meager income go farther.

I also support a number of local businesses, and a tax break would make things better for them, through me.

I live frugally … my modest 1999 Toyota pickup has over 268,000 miles on it I am proud to say thanks to taking good care of it … but it won’t last forever.

So how about it, Council? If you can give away millions of dollars to a major developer who screwed up by starting Jackstraw, don’t you think some of us lesser, but still important players, deserve the same kind of tax relief?

I look forward to your answer and the details on how much relief I can expect from the city.

— Dave Stalker, Bend

These days of intense coverage of the former president and his mind set of demanding total loyalty from all those around him, the subject is analyzed from every angle. It is tiresome because of the absurdity of it. While demanding total devotion from those he perceives in his camp, DT does not hesitate to “throw them under the bus” at the slightest suspicion that anyone was less than adoring toward him.

His rallies become spectacles that defy the imagination — the candidate himself pushes his speeches beyond the limits and defies existing gag orders by calling his opponents all kinds of names, disparaging nicknames, denigrating all. Embracing the opposition’s expressed concern regarding the making of a dictator, not only did DT tried for size, speaking phrases only uttered until now by the most brutal “dictator” of the 20th century, Adolf himself. In fact, Marine General Kelly writes in his new book about DT complaining that “his” generals were not as loyal as those of the Chancellor of Germany during the Nazi period. Suffice to say that the majority of those so-called loyal Nazi officers were condemned to the gallows in trials such as Nuremberg. Many others were “so loyal” that they took cyanide to avoid their sentence, choosing suicide.

The Fuhrer cowardly shot himself while his wife, Eva Braun chose cyanide as the Allied forces marched above his bunker in Berlin.

Loyalty to what? To whom? No thank you. I choose democracy, loyalty to our Constitution and flag.

— Carlos “Charlie” Wysling, Bend

The Biden administration should be congratulated for its accomplishments in the energy sector. The infrastructure bill has funded more high speed electrical charging stations across the country, incentives to ramp-up electric car production, and a numerous other inducements to lower our nation’s carbon dioxide emissions in the future.

Biden energy policies have allowed the U.S. to produce a record 13.2 million barrels of oil per day during fall 2023 and eclipse the previous record for U.S. natural gas production as well. Dropping oil prices are forcing OPEC to consider additional production cuts and the Saudis may not want to cut production further, putting additional downward pressure on oil prices.

Lower oil prices mean less money flowing into the coffers of Iran and Russia that they can utilize to wage war on us and our allies. This has allowed us to export record amounts of methane as liquefied natural gas. The methane exports are mainly going to replace the coal Europe would be burning to heat and electrify homes due to the cutoff of Russian natural gas. Replacing coal with methane significantly lowers carbon dioxide emissions in 2 ways.

First, the thermal efficiency of the old European coal-fired power plants is much lower than the newer gas generating facilities. Second, a molecule of methane has only one carbon atom while coal is loaded with carbon. Thus, a great deal more carbon dioxide is produced burning coal than methane to generate electricity, especially in the older European coal fired generating facilities.

— Jeff Johnson, Redmond

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