Bend city councilors ousted

Voters in Bend took out their frustrations with a city that continually raises water and sewer rates while asking nothing more from developers who require the expansion of those services.

Plus, the city council's recent, tepid approval of the westside location for OSU-Cascades help cost Mark Capell and Scott Ramsay their seats.

And, good riddance. They were inept and shills for the real estate/development crowd.

Speaking of OSU-Cascades, the group Truth In Site, that opposes the westside location, officially filed an appeal with the state Land Use Board of Appeals. Hopefully, this ties up the issue long enough at the state level until the OSU "brain trust" reverses course and puts OSU-Cascades where it belongs at Juniper Ridge.

Also, the state knows Bend has big problems managing its growth by its repeated inability to satisfy state requirements in expanding its urban growth boundary.

Republican Knute Buehler, who easily won the state House seat for Bend, won't be much help because Democrats expanded their control of both chambers in the legislature.

Buehler, who is actually a RINO and easily turned away a voter suppression effort by Oregon Right to Life, will have to work with Democrats to accomplish anything. And, as we've seen before, those Republicans who compromise with Democrats will quickly find themselves voted out by their own party.

Buehler doesn't really care about serving in the legislature anyway. His goal is statewide office and he'll be preening himself for higher office over the next couple of years.

In other election news, voters in Sisters gave a rare rebuke to the school district as it sought $14.5 million to repair relatively new schools and buy computer tablets for students. The dismissal of the longtime manager of the bus system, just shy of her 30-year service to the district, rubbed many voters the wrong way.

The district  was hoping to use the bond money to keep class sizes down and maintain a full school year. Well, the school district will now have to shorten the school year to balance its books.

Lastly, two statewide measures were defeated: GMO labeling and an open primary.

It was surprising that the open-primary measure lost so badly, 68 percent to 32 percent, considering that similar measures passed in neighboring Washington and California.

While the GMO label measure is headed for defeat, it is clear that $20 million in negative advertising did its job, just as mega-millions from Monsanto and others did in Washington and California.

Of course, shoppers are taking matters in their hands and looking to buy more non-GMO items.

And, some growers, food producers and retailers are seeing the benefit in promoting non-GMO foods.

This country is losing business around the world by not reining in the pro-GMO entities. Much of the developed world wants no part of GMO foods and, increasingly, don't want GMO products from America.