MAURER TOWN HALL - A Town Hall meeting will be held Friday, March 30 from noon to 1 p.m. by Rep. Ron Maurer (R-Grants Pass). The “brown bag lunch” get-together will be held in Cave Junction City Hall. His topics will be health-care reform, senior citizen and disability issues, and healthy children. “I look forward to talking with my constituents about legislation pending before the legislative assembly,” said Mauer.

PARTY HEARTY - A benefit for the Illinois Valley High School Class of 2007 grad night party is set for Sunday, April 1. The event will be held at Taylor’s Country Store in Downtown Cave Junction from 1 to 5 p.m. There will be live music by “Jefferson!” and a dessert auction.

GRAD NIGHT RITE - June 5 is set for the IVHS Class of 2007 commencement, and the 16th annual drug-and-alcohol-free party is planned. Monetary donations or gift certificates are sought by the Grad Night Committee. The annual safe gathering includes activities, prizes, music and dancing. Last year, 98 percent of grads attended, with most staying the whole night. There have been no graduation night student accidents or injuries due to drinking and driving since the program began. To donate, phone Sara Ball at 592-3691 or Mary Paul at 592-2116.

TROOP SUPPORTERS - Rep. Ron Mauer (R-Grants Pass) and Rep. Dennis Richardson (R-Central Point) voted last week against House Joint Memorial 9 urging the president not to increase the number of troops in Iraq. The memorial also seeks to withdraw troops from Iraq and redeploy them no later than Oct. 1. Both representatives, who have military service, said that the troops deserve support and a boost to their morale; “not a message that the country does not fully support their efforts on our behalf.”

NOTEPAD - Family Night at Evergreen Elementary School, including a meal, will be held Friday, March 30 from 6 to 9 p.m. … The Blue Star Memorial Marker honoring World War II veterans, that was located at the former Siskiyou Summit Rest Area, will be rededicated Saturday, March 31 at 11 a.m. at Medford’s Veterans Park at Stewart Avenue and S. Pacific Hwy. … Seven “Stop” signs in the city of Cave Junction were taken down during the past weekend by some of the
village idiots … Poppy Days will be observed in the city of CJ from May 23 through 27, said Glenn Morrison Unit 70 American Legion Auxiliary. The red poppy is a symbol of the lives lost in all wars … Marquee: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana. Bumper stickers: *I brake for … wait … Aah! No brakes!! *Help starve a feeding bureaucrat. *Energizer Bunny arrested, charged with battery. *Life is too complicated in the morning.

LAST WORDS - *A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril. (Sir Winston Churchill) *Our civilization is decadent and our language -- so the argument runs -- must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. (George Orwell)

---