On Friday, June 12, the old fashioned way of watching TV, with rabbit ears and roof-top antennas, will become obsolete. 
On that date the federal government has mandated the complete transition from analog to digital TV, ushering in the biggest change in how television is broadcast into consumers' homes since the advent of color TV half a century ago. 
Digital broadcasting provides a clearer picture, more channels and will free up airwaves for use by emergency responders. 
If you are not ready, the only thing you will see when you turn on your TV on June 13 is a blank screen. . . .

The legislature must enact HB 2649 and HB 3405 to avoid further harming Oregonians, particularly the most vulnerable. The legislature will soon vote on bills that would raise taxes on the wealthiest Oregonians and corporations. If the votes fail, or if the measures are referred to the voters and fail there, middle- and low-income Oregonians — those hardest hit by the economic downturn — should brace for even greater pain than what's already on the way. . . .

The soldiers depicted in Hollywood movies about World War II have been almost exclusively White (Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna being a notable exception).  Photography is just one of many art forms – and museum exhibits of historic photographs just one of many cultural venues – that can tell the African American story.  That is why funding for art and culture is so important. Here's another example from closer to home. . .

Non-sworn personnel are criticizing a Portland Police Bureau proposal to eliminate a vital unit that serves the city's elderly residents, as well as victims of sexual assault and potential suicide victims. At the heart of the employees' dissatisfaction is the Police Bureau's plan to cut — as part of an overall "reorganization" — the Portland Police Information & Referral Unit. The five-member unit has handled nearly 200,000 calls in the last two years. . . .

... How do we protect consumers? In the real world, toothpaste is regulated as a product, and the government ensures a basic level of safety. But credit cards, mortgages, and other financial products are treated as contracts. When it comes to contracts, the government views its job as nothing more than enforcing the terms of the contract, regardless of the outcome. . . .

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission director Jon Wellinghoff recently stated that the U.S. may not need any new coal or nuclear power plants. Due to our tremendous renewable energy potential, the rising challenge of global warming, and the high cost of new conventional plants, I think he's right. The U.S. can meet future electricity demand by deploying efficiency and renewable energy. . . .

The Black love affair with President Barack Obama is stronger than with any figure in the post-civil rights era. According to a recent New York Times poll, President Obama enjoys a 96 percent approval rating among African Americans. As an African American myself, I too feel pride and joy in seeing one of us succeed and attain so much respect and acclaim in the United States, a country with such a strong and recent history of racist oppression and alienation. . . .

To many Blacks who grew up in the Deep South before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, last week's election of James Young as the first African American mayor of Philadelphia, Miss. was as monumental as the election of President Barack Obama. The Mississippi soil is soaked in the blood of civil rights activists. Three of the most famous – James Chaney, a 21-year old African American from Meridian, Miss.; Andrew Goodman, 20, a White Jewish student from New York and Michael Schwerner, 24, another White also from New York – were murdered 45 years ago near Philadelphia. Their story inspired the movie, "Mississippi Burning." Their lives were anything but a movie. . . .

Just when federal and state legislators are passing economic stimulus packages to get people working, House Bill 2204 in the Oregon State Legislature would end innovative programs that provide exactly the kind of stimulus that spurs people to continue working. Pieces of legislation are pending at both the state and the federal level for the addition of multiple public projects as part of economic stimulus packages. In contrast to the old "chicken in every pot" approach to poverty . . .

President Barack Obama is a more tolerant human being than I am. He braved critics at Notre Dame and disarmed many with a sanguine, balanced speech that did not sidestep the issue of abortion, but took on aspects of it. He called for mutual respect among folk who don't see things the same way, and asked for middle ground instead of the hard lines that we now find around the choice debate. . . .