I completely agree with your second paragraph. The cell companies have taken away unlimited data plans because of people streaming movies/music and I think the cable companies/ISP's will do the same...especially since Netflix took away so many of their cable customers. When/If that happens, I will dump the streaming option, keep the DVD's by mail and will not re-subscribe to satellite/cable service. I loved satellite when I had it but found that ordering whatever I want from Netflix, to include tv shows, worked just as well if not better. It doesn't matter to me if I'm completely up-to-date on each episode every week or if I have to wait a season for them to be available on DVD. If DVD's become a thing of the past, I'm not sure what move I'll make for in-home entertainment but I'll cross that bridge when the time comes.

pianoman - If you re-read my comment, I think you will see that we agree.

Taxes are sometimes deferred on limited use property, too. I don't know if it's relevent to this situation but it would be interesting to know if he's paying a reduced tax rate for property that he's using to generate income.

Exactly. The real issue is that he knowingly purchased encumbered property, unless the easement was missed on the title report, but he chose to disregard the terms/restrictions of the easement. The assumption from the way the article reads is that the easement was disclosed up front.

I'm only addressing your assessment of Hoyte and not the current state of the Gorge. Hoyte is not a "small landowner" looking to "make a little extra"; he is a land developer. A few years ago, he came to my neighborhood wanting us to sign off on having him run an easement through our properties. He said he was part of a committee with the city and wanted to solve some of the drainage issues. It turns out there was no committee and he wanted to develop a large subdivision on the hill behind me but the city wouldn't let him because the run-off would have flooded my neighborhood. He lied to us in order to get what he wanted, but it didn't work. Because of the city's regulations and codes, I am not forced to wear hip-waders just to live in my home that was purchased long before he purchased the parcels on the hill behind me and I wasn't subjected to having a swath of my property destroyed to install his easement.

He also had his sights set on Waldport, OR. That didn't pan out, either. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/BIG+COAST+PROJECT+D...

I've never understood why the police/news release pictures of the filthy interiors of the houses they raid to the public. Does that help track down the people they're looking for? From the headline, I thought they were searching for the woman and her kids because of her nasty home...not because of drugs. The bulk of this story is about the activity that concerned the neighbors and the drugs they found in the house. However, instead of pictures of the weed and herion, they posted pictures of some holiday nog next to a plate of crusty quesadillas.

I don't get it.

How much radiation do these xray scans expose us to? My 10 year old daughter has to fly to visit her dad at Christmas. Is it worse to subject her to being seen more or less naked with radiation or a pat down? Neither option is palatable but I have no choice but to send her or she won't see her dad because he won't come here. She's aware of what the machines do because they talked about them at school and is scared to be seen more or less naked. I don't think she knows about the pat downs.