It’s official; filming of Twilight : Eclipse in Vancouver is coming to a close. On Tuesday, the movie’s director, David Slade tweeted, “Just one week and a few days to go to complete principle photography, the finish line seems still so far.” It probably can’t come soon enough for Rob Pattinson and Kristen Stewart who get stalked daily by fans and paparazzi. A higher up at Summit (the film’s production company) told E!, “Civilians are flying in all over the world to hunt down whoever they can find. It’s bad. Literally [Rob and Kristen] have no choice but to stay inside.”

Its rumored they’ll be filming the Eclipse graduation scene today at CMPP studios in Burnaby, B.C. We’ve also heard there will be a big wrap party for the cast and crew this weekend somewhere in Vancouver. Sadly, it may also be the last chance for vampire stalking in Vancouver since Breaking Dawn, the fourth and final installment of the Twilight Saga, will most likely be filmed in Oregon.

via (jaunted.com)

Springfield, Virginia resident Eric Williamson was arrested and charged with indecent exposure yesterday for failing to put on any clothes after getting up at 5:30 am to make some coffee. A woman and her 7-year-old daughter had cut across Williamson’s front yard and saw him through his kitchen window.

If convicted, Williamson could be fined $2,000 and spend a year in jail.

via (reason.com)

The Willamette Week blogs about an OSPRIG report about “free checking” in Oregon.

Here are two alarming facts the consumer protection group discovered in a survey of 10 banks and eight credit unions offering “low cost” checking accounts in Portland, Eugene and Ashland:

An overdraft of $20 paid back in two weeks amounts to a loan with an Annual Percentage Rate of 3889%, more than 7 times higher than what was common in the payday lending industry before Oregon established effective regulations in that market.

and

A typical customer who incurs a modest number of the different fees outlined above could pay an average of $166.24 in fees every year simply to maintain a regular checking account. This ranged from an average of $132.95/year for the credit unions surveyed to an average of $184.24/year for the banks surveyed.

The suspect in the robbery of a Chase bank inside a Beaverton Fred Meyer store has been arrest. Robert Kuch was arrested in Seattle while preparing to board an Amtrak train to Portland.

Beaverton detectives received information on Kuch’s whereabouts and coordinated with other agencies to facilitate the arrest. A Beaverton police spokesperson would like to thank the Seattle Police, U.S. Marshals, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Amtrak Police for their assistance with the investigation and apprehension.

My grandfather built several barns around Eastern Washington. All his barns are gone now, except for this one, fires got most of the others, but this still stands near Palouse, Washington. Granddad built this sometime between 1930 and 1940. It’s a source of controversy in the family, with siblings remembering different times.

I drive past it once in a while, as I head up to Spokane to see my mother. I was worried that the snow last year would have done it in, but, as you see from this picture, it’s still standing.

A sex abuse case against Delaware’s Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and a former priest will be delayed after the diocese filed for federal bankruptcy protection on the eve of trial, AP reports.

In a separate development, the Catholic hierarchy, religious, priests and laity in Ireland are braced for the publication of a report on Friday into sex abuse by priests in the Dublin archdiocese.  Going bankrupt is not yet an option that has been considered in Ireland.

A national study out this week (pdf) reports that Oregon had the second-highest number of students per teacher in the nation for the 2007-08 school year.

If we can just under-fund education for a few more years, I’m sure we can knock the current champion (Utah) out of the #1 spot.  It’s interesting to note: the former poster child for poor education – Mississippi – has a student/teacher ratio over 20% BETTER then oregons (fewer children per teacher).

Darius Miles hits milestone with Grizzlies, digging into Blazers’ pockets – ESPN

It came and went without fanfare — and presumably fear of retribution.

Just more than a week had passed since the Portland Trail Blazers threatened their 29 fellow NBA teams with a lawsuit if someone signed Darius Miles.

Miles had already played in two regular-season games for the Grizzlies under a 10-day contract and six preseason games. Two more games from the small forward this season would cause a breach to the Blazers’ salary cap, costing them $18 million in salary plus luxury taxes.

But Friday night, there he was, making his second appearance under his latest 10-day contract and fourth of the season for the Memphis Grizzlies, scoring 10 points with seven rebounds in 14 minutes of a 101-91 loss to the visiting Utah Jazz.

10 points – 7 rebounds. It seems he can still play some. Thats better then Oden does most nights!

So. I’m sitting in my living room, waiting for the laundry to finish, and playing with the new iPhone. I found a cool application … A wordpress app. That right – I’m posting from the phone.

It’s very hard to restrain myself from text-speak. (like l8r &lol).

It’s nice to have when you just have to blog while stuck in traffic … But not a greatblogging tool. No cut &paste!!!  (how can you blog without pasting links)?

Stolen robot pulled from Beaverton Lake

Washington County Sheriff’s OfficeShown here in better days, this “Propeller Quadrover” robot, weighing 90 pounds and about two-and-a-half feet long, was stolen last Monday and recovered Sunday from Commonweath Lake.
Washington County Sheriff’s deputies made a strange discovery Sunday in Beaverton’s Commonwealth Lake — a stolen robot poking out of the water.

Severely damaged, the robot was traced back to a car prowl last Monday in Aloha. Sometime that night, thieves broke into a car belonging to Portland State University professor Erik Sanchez and made off with the $5,000, 90-pound robot he planned on using in his classes.