Sunday, 8-27-06: In local news, Grant County deputies raided a marijuana "plantation" on a cattle ranch near Kimberly, Oregon. The cut down 3302 plants. "They were mature and ready to harvest," said Sheriff Palmer. A couple living in a rented mobile home nearby are being sought. Two weeks ago, these same deputies raided a 6767-plant marijuana patch along China Creek on BLM land about five miles from the current devastation. 3 people were arrested in that raid. Will the persecution never end?... Monday, 8-28-06: The man who was shot the other day by the state trooper on Interstate 5 has died. Crews have boarded and righted a ship loaded with 5000 new cars and SUVs that keeled over onto its side a month ago in the northern Pacific. The Cougar Ace will be towed to Portland. The crew was trying to adjust the ballast water when she listed. The cars sustained "minimal damage." The 3 Mexican castaways who were adrift for nine months in a 29-foot boat were hailed as heroes when they came home. They went shark fishing and lost their tackle, and then ran out of fuel trying to find it. Winds pushed them out to sea, and currents carried them 5000 miles. They ate raw fish and seabirds, and collected rainwater. They fashioned hooks out of engine parts. One of them earned the nickname "the Cat" for his ability to catch seabirds. They sang, danced, pretended to play guitar and the Bible aloud to pass the time. The worst time was in January when there were lots of storms, and they couldn't catch many fish. Tuesday, 8-29-06: The oldest person in world was buried yesterday in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Maria Esther de Capovilla was 116 when she died of pneumonia. She was born the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, 1889. The next oldest is Elizabeth Bolden of Memphis, Tennessee. She's also 116. The Austrian teenager who spent more than 8 years in an underground cell said in a statement that she didn't miss out on much, and that she was spared some of the torments of adolescence, such as drinking and smoking and bad friends. She said her captor was good to her at times, and sometimes treated her badly. She described him as a part of her life, adding "that's why I also mourn for him in a certain way." A suicide bomber targeting a former police chief blew himself up yesterday in a busy market in Lashker Gah, Afghanistan. Boy, that brings the war right home, doesn't it? My family lived for years in Lashker Gah, and I spent the summer there when I was 17. Then it was a quiet little town on the banks of the Helmand River.... In local news, 1400 marijuana plants were dug on by county and federal agents on BLM land about 17 miles east of Beaver. The plants would have reached prime picking in about a money. Oh, the tragedy.... Wednesday, 8-30-06: Clean-up crews along the Lebanese coast have recoverd about 100 tons of oil that spilled into the Mediterranean after Israel bombed a power plant south of Beirut. But Greenpeace has released video that shows large amounts of the oil congealed and sank, blanketing the sea floor. How unspeakably horrible.... The ozone layer will recover about 2065, it's now estimated. This is due to one of the few successful environmental treaties, the Montreal Protocol of 1989. Funny, that's the one I thought would destroy the Earth. No, it turns out I was wrong. Global warming will destroy the Earth.... The largest city in Peru's Amazon rain forest is besieged by vultures. Hundreds of them forced the shutdown of Iquito's airport. The airport authority blames the city officials for putting the garbage dump next to the runways. Peru's minister of tourism described the situation as "surreal." Researchers at the University of Washington have built a microscopic cooling device to go on microchips. It creates a cooling air jet. The emitter has a diameter 1/300th of a human hair. This tip creates air ions, which are drawn to a collector, creating an air current that flows across the surface of the chip, taking heat with it. Thursday, 8-31-06: Israel said yesterday it won't lift the air and sea blockade or withdraw the rest of its troops until the 2 soldiers whose kidnapping triggered the war are returned. And Israel wants the border between Lebanon and Syria to be policed by UN troops (rather than Lebanese troops) to stop the flow of weapons to Hezbollah. Syria will regard that as an act of war. In the last six years, the amount of nicotine in the average cigarette has risen 10%. In the three brands that are most popular with teen-agers, the amount has risen 20%. In the brand most favored by black people (Kool menthol lights) nicotine increased 30%. Paris Hilton's album "Paris" has sold 75,000 copies in its first week out. It's projected to move about 30,000 copies its second week. For comparison, the #1 album (Christina Aguilera's "Back to Basics") sold 320,000 copies. My heart weeps for her.... Saturday, 9-2-06: There was an amazing letter to the editor in the paper today. It said, "What creates terrorism? Military invasions and occupations of other countries to install the invader's form of government. Within the past 30 years, we've seen what followed after the former Soviet Union's invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 1979: the creation of the Mujahadin led by Osama bin Laden that ultimately became an al-Quaida stronghold under the Taliban; Israel's invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon, which created Hezbollah; and the 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq, which has only created new terrorist organisations. You can't defeat what you help create." John Scherner, Tigard The Pentagon released a report yesterday on the Iraq war. It says preventing civil war is now the most urgent mission for US troops. Oops. 2000 Iraqis are dying each month from sectarian violence, 90% from executions. In the past 4 months there's been a 51% rise in casualties. The report defines the core conflict in Iraq as a struggle between Sunnis and Shiites, both using death squads and terrorists. Revenge killings are spreading outside the capital into the far reaches of the country. Paris Hilton was seen attending a Los Angeles club with Lance Armstrong. Jay Leno's comment was, "I guess Lance wants to ride through Paris one last time...." In Philadelphia, a man named Kevin White told an 18-year-old woman at a bustop he wanted money. She told him she had none. He pulled out a gun and raped her, telling her he was going to shoot her when he was done. She broke free and ran toward 2 people walking by, a man and his girlfriend. They all ran, and were shot at. The rape victim was shot in the arm but got away. The other two were killed. Two policemen showed up and chased Kevin down and arrested him. In local news, a state trooper was indicted on coercion and harrassment charges for behavior during 2 traffic stops involving women motorists. Larry Purdy has been on paid leave since March 31st, when the allegations came to light. In more local news, there was a fire at an apartment building last Thursday evening. A woman named Ola Turner found herself trapped on her third-floor balcony with her 9-year-old daughter and her 6-year-old son. A group of neighbors waited below with a taut blanket. Her daugher "is a practical girl, and she just jumped." But "No, Mommy, no!" her son screamed, as she dropped him. The group below successfully caught both children and then Ola herself, all before the fire department arrived. Wow!... In more local news, Portland has a smoky sky because of wildfires that aren't even in our state. East winds are funnelling smoke down the Columbia Gorge from a 79,000 acre fire in Washington. And a thermal trough is pulling smoke here from a fire in NE California. In local news, a woman was riding on the freeway as a passenger in the front seat of a van, and a projectile of some kind came through her open window and broke her collarbone. Here's the mystery. The police can't find the projectile or any fragments of it, nor any evidence of where it came from....