The three inevitabilities of life in Bend are death, taxes, and having a hard time finding a parking space downtown. Nobody can do much about the first two, but the city and the Downtown Bend Business Association are taking some practical steps toward dealing with the third.

Having a parking situation that’s a little bit tight isn’t totally a bad thing; it definitely beats having a downtown full of empty parking spaces. But if people have to circle the area five or six times to find a space half a mile away from where they want to shop, some just go home – or never come in the first place.

The U.S. Army’s proud boast is that it never leaves an injured comrade behind on the field. But it looks as if it’s been leaving many of its comrades in the Oregon National Guard behind when they need medical care.

Members of the Oregon Guard’s 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team have complained to Oregon’s congressional delegation about the shabby treatment they were given at the Madigan Army Medical Center in Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, WA, before and after deployment to Iraq.

The closing weekend at Mount Bachelor has become a pleasant Bend tradition – two days of fun, games and high spirits to celebrate the end of another ski/snowboard season and the beginning of another summer.

As always, though, there are some idiots who let their spirits get too high and screw it up for everybody else.

Last year, according to Mount Bachelor spokesman Alex Kaufman, there was “a brawl of sorts” on the closing weekend in the parking lot by Skyliner Lodge. Things got so out of hand that the cops had to be called.

“Exclusion zone” – it sounds like such a great idea. Define certain people as “undesirables,” draw a line around the area where you don’t want them to go, and tell them that if they’re caught in that area they’ll be charged with trespassing.

In practice, though, exclusion zones often don’t work as well as they do on paper. And they can lead cities that adopt them into a dense thicket of civil liberties issues.

For years, downtown Bend merchants and businesses like the non-profit Arts Central have been annoyed and frustrated by people hanging out in the plaza off Brooks Alley and the breezeway between the alley and Wall Street. They smoke, they sometimes drink, they occasionally panhandle, they sometimes behave obnoxiously toward passersby. There have been more serious reports of drug use, drug sales and vandalism. This situation, some people very reasonably conclude, is not good for business.

For critics of the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, Jason Evers – well, we suppose we should call him “John Doe” now – is the gift that keeps on giving.

Evers/Doe is the former Bend regional manager of the OLCC who was exiled to Nyssa, a tiny town near the Idaho border, after behaving like a tinpot dictator toward bar and restaurant proprietors here. His career then continued its downward trajectory. At this writing, he’s sitting in a jail cell in Idaho.

It appears that TMWCHJE (The Man Who Called Himself Jason Evers) adopted the identity of a 3-year-old Ohio boy who was murdered 28 years ago. The fraud came to light when the U.S. State Department checked statements he made on a passport application against Ohio state records.