Miscellaneous News

One of the few good things coming out of the bailout legislation is southern Oregon finally gets a four-year extension on timber payments.

I wonder if this will have an effect on Jackson County's library system, which was outsourced to private interests.
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Once investigators can piece together the remnants of Steve Fossett's plane, they can determine what caused the plane to crash in the Mammoth Lakes, California, area over a year ago.
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Jackson County's Libraries

finally opened after being closed due to Congress sitting on its collective ass and doing basically nothing about it except a short term bandaid solution, but that's only because services were outsourced to a private outfit, thus saving money on labor costs.

The contractor has half the budget of the old, and hours are reduced.

This is a shitty way to resolve a problem.

As the World Turns.

Well, maybe that was the goal all the time in the Jackson County library closures, and that's to outsource operations to some private outfit.

Note workers will NOT receive retirement benefits from the Public Employees Retirement System, which means they will get shit benefits.
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Don't People Who Support

frills like libraries know that everything can be looked up on the internet or can be downloaded as ebooks at home?

Who needs something stupid like libraries?

Unfortunately, proposals in Congress to funnel money to Oregon's counties are being attached to other bills, bills that our dictator would likely shoot down.

I hate this shit because libraries are SO essential to communities. No private collection can match what public libraries have to offer.

Idiots

in Jackson County, Oregon, are turning down the library levy to reopen the county system.

What dumb shits. Do they hate libraries that much?

You Know Things

are pretty shittin' bad when the area near my hometown of Medford, Oregon, makes the NYT.

This article is about the decline of timber receipts and the closing of Jackson County libraries.

Now the question is whether May 15 will be another turning point. With the timber industry in steep decline because of environmental challenges and market changes and with prospects uncertain that Congress will bail out timber counties, as it has before, Jackson County voters will decide that day whether to increase taxes to pay for the libraries.

Some other counties in southern Oregon are in equally dire straits. In Josephine County, voters will decide on May 15 whether to tax themselves an average of $300 more a year to keep basic law enforcement services running. Curry County, which also has a ballot measure, has said it could go bankrupt on July 1.

In Jackson County, voting yes on the library measure would raise property taxes about $9 a month for an average homeowner, enough to finance the $8 million annual budget of the library system. Experts expect the vote to be close.

As the World Turns.

What do those who want the libraries in Jackson County, Oregon, to reopen do next?
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Dipshit wants compromise on education, and I hope state Democrats tell him to shove it on "empowerment schools."

They are a farce, another scam perpetrated by privatizers.
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Manatee deaths are rising, yet the assholes in our government want to take protection away from them.

It makes sense to me.
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B.C. cartoonist Johnny Hart, 76, has died. He suffered a stroke yesterday while at his storyboard.
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Thanks to the Federal Government

not doing jack shit, libraries in Jackson County, Oregon, where I grew up, have closed.

This is the largest library closure in American history. I hope the national media will report this and create shame on Congress, the Oregon legislature, and Jackson County officials.

It is an outrage.

The County Where I Spent

the first twenty-nine years of my life, Jackson County, Oregon, is about to earn a dubious distinction: If funding doesn't come soon from the federal government, it will close down its entire library system.

This is no mean feat, for this is largest such closure in the United States.

Congress needs to get off its collective ass and push through the funding.

Despite the convenience of the internet, it is no substitute whatsoever for libraries and other traditional avenues of obtaining information:

Kniffel, the American Libraries magazine editor, said most people feel the same way, and despite the advent of electronic information, library visits nationwide increased 61 percent between 1994 and 2004.

"Say you search something online and get 550,000 hits. How do you know which one is the right one?" he said. "You need a knowledgeable navigator to help you."

Incidentally, Talent doesn't have a population of 20,000; it's only about 5,000 or 6,000, if that. Nearby Ashland is about that large.