Dog shot in La Pine • C1
At COCC, a study of video game culture B1 •
APRIL 21, 2012
SATURDAY 75¢
Serving Central Oregon since 1903 www.bendbulletin.com
Walden’s cash lead immense By Andrew Clevenger The Bulletin
WASHINGTON — With Oregon’s primary less than a month away, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, maintains a huge fundraising lead over his Democratic challengers in the 2nd Congressional District. According to financial disclosures filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, Walden raised almost $309,000
during the first three months of 2012. This leaves the seventerm incumbent with more than $1.66 million in cash on hand. Over the same period, Joyce Segers, one of two Democrats hoping to unseat Walden, raised just over $9,000, including a $5,000 in-kind contribution of electronic files and voter databases from the Democratic Party of Oregon. See Campaign / A6
Walden
Watchdog is challenging Bridge Creek water plan By Nick Grube The Bulletin
Segers
A Bend-based nonprofit is challenging the city’s Bridge Creek water project to the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals. Central Oregon Landwatch has long criticized the $70 million project for its expense
and potential effects on Tumalo Creek. Now Paul Dewey, the group’s executive director, says the city hasn’t followed state planning rules. “It’s complicated because the normal course of things under the land use laws is that a plan is adopted, and then a project is later
adopted that is consistent with that plan,” he said. “Here, the city has done it backwards. They’ve been making decisions incrementally on this project without there being a plan for it and now they’re finally coming up with a plan.” See Bridge Creek / A6
Boozell gets OK for petition to relax pot enforcement
SPRINGING INTO ACTION
By Nick Grube The Bulletin
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Eric Staley, Turner Waskom, Fred Anderson and Tim Marquess play beach volleyball at the sand courts in the Old Mill on Friday. Bend was abuzz with outdoor activity Friday thanks to warm weather, which is expected to continue through the weekend. For a five-day forecast, see Page C8.
TOP NEWS TRAYVON MARTIN CASE: Zimmerman apologizes to family, A3 PAKISTAN: Airliner crash kills all 127 aboard, A6 TODAY’S WEATHER Sunny and mild High 73, Low 42 Page C8
DNA has a new man-made rival: XNA By Eryn Brown Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — DNA and RNA molecules are the basis for all life on Earth, but they don’t necessarily have to be the basis for all life everywhere, scientists have shown. Researchers at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, England, demonstrated that six synthetic
molecules that are similar to — but not exactly like — DNA and RNA have the potential to exhibit “hallmarks of life” such as storing genetic information, passing it along and undergoing evolution. The man-made molecules are called “XNAs.” “DNA and RNA aren’t the only answers,” said Vitor Pinheiro, the postdoctoral
researcher who led the study, which was published this week in the journal Science. Manipulating XNAs to behave like DNA and RNA could help scientists design better drugs, Pinheiro said. It could also shed light on how life emerged on Earth, and on what living things might look like if they exist beyond our planet.
“Everyone wants to know what aliens would use for DNA,” said Steven Benner, a biochemist at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Fla., who has synthesized artificial DNA but was not involved in the new study. “Lab experiments tell you about the possibilities in the universe.” See XNA / A4
Ronald “Rondo” Boozell has gotten the OK to gather signatures for a ballot measure that would prohibit the city of Bend from spending its money to combat marijuana Boozell possession. Boozell, who has announced his intention to run for Tom Greene’s seat on the City Council, submitted the required paperwork to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office on Friday to launch his campaign to relax marijuana enforcement in the city. Coincidentally — or perhaps not — the numerical representation of Friday’s date, 4/20, is significant in pot culture. According to Internet sources, the number 420, originally used by San Rafael (Calif.) High School students to indicate when they would meet to smoke pot, evolved into a code for marijuana itself. To qualify his initiative for a ballot, Boozell must collect signatures from at least 15 percent of Bend’s registered voters. That means he needs 6,615 valid signatures, City Recorder Robyn Christie said. Boozell did not respond to a call and an email seeking comment Friday. While he has not specified when his measure would appear on a ballot, he must have enough signatures collected at least 90 days before a regularly scheduled election. His campaign, the Community Cost Reduction Act, aims to amend the city’s charter to prohibit city resources “to restrict or punish any person for the possession of cannabis in any form or quantity.” Boozell ran for City Council in 2010, losing to incumbent Mark Capell. He also served on a city charter review committee that studied whether Bend should have an elected mayor. — Reporter: 541-633-2160, ngrube@bendbulletin.com
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The Bulletin An Independent Newspaper Vol. 109, No. 112, 72 pages, 7 sections
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Writer Arthur Longworth leads a basic Spanish class for other inmates at the Monroe Correctional Complex library in Seattle. Ken Lambert Seattle Times
Inmate’s writings draw attention from beyond prison walls By Jonathan Martin The Seattle Times
MONROE, Wash. — The inmate hasn’t spoken in months, or had anyone to speak to. Except for the ants. A line of red ants crawls out of the cell wall. They snatch a bread crumb the inmate left for them, and disappear. The inmate smiles. Around him are rants of insane inmates, the sound of batons smacking against flesh, the
“It feels like a victory in some ways, because I’m not supposed to be able to do this.” — Arthur Longworth, author and inmate
stench of feces. He admires the ants’ focus, that they are “able to survive regardless of circumstance.”
The inmate in “Walla Walla IMU,” a short story about an inmate losing his will to live in an isolation cell, is unnamed. But the writer, Arthur Longworth, DOC .299180, has spent what has amounted to years in “The Hole.” Convicted of aggravated murder, Longworth was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole — “broke off,” in prison lingo — at age 21. Near the age of 40, he finally decided
how to make use of his time. He began to write. And write. And write. His first work — a 57,000-word day-in-the-life novel titled “Day 3,652” — exists only as a dog-eared manuscript and is secretly passed among inmates. Now 47, he has won two national literary awards for his work, including a 2010 prize for the best prison memoir, from the PEN Center in New York. See Inmate / A6